Sincerity

Title: Sincerity
Author: Ever1
Fandom: Mission Impossible O.o.
Length: 500 or so word One-shot
Genre: General/Angst
Pairing: Extremely mild, insinuated Musgrave/Ethan. Because it’s love.
Warnings: Slash, obviously, except again – very mild. (Sadly) Oh. And some subtle Julia-bashing (whine, whine as she is).

“Ethan, look at me. At least do me the courtesy of looking at me when I’m talking to you.”

Musgrave bites his lip as he speaks, expression choir-boy serious. His eyes are bright as he glances down at where Ethan lies before looking away quickly. The disappointment is frighteningly genuine. Brassles, Ethan could handle. But this?

Musgrave’s lips are moving but Ethan can’t hear a sound.

“I have the rabbit’s foot.”

“You okay?”

Even shaken and panicky and determined as he is, Ethan takes a moment to pause over that.

“Ethan. Julia is still alive. Davian wanted to kill you both but I convinced him otherwise.”

For a moment, Ethan is sure he’s hallucinating. What is Musgrave doing here? But his mind has been trained to understand even if his heart can’t, and pieces begin to slot into place. Musgrave. Cold but concerned, quiet but desperate, saintly but all-too-prepared-to-break-the-rules-for-his-sake Musgrave.

“What was in Lindsay’s message?”

The lachrymose edge his voice usually has is suddenly gone, replaced with a calm, frightening kind of collectedness. Ethan isn’t sure why, but Musgrave in control in this way is a notion that bloody scares him. He speaks slowly, enunciating clearly, hands that are usually busy worrying an official looking document or a sleeve button oddly still.

“Ethan! Ethan!” Musgrave snaps his fingers, bringing attention back to himself. There’s no subtlety to his manipulation, only concise aptitude. He draws Ethan back in slowly, voice still pitched to be calm and low, even if his impatience is showing around the edges. “What was in Lindsay’s message? Did she buy that Brassles set her up? Did she buy that? Could my position at IMF be compromised?”

Unable to help himself, Ethan stops listening after the first question, even though he recognizes the technique Musgrave is using with his rapid-fire, reasonably spoken questions. He drifts out. Drifts in. Musgrave is talking again.

“I thought you could get her back.”

Ethan’s past questioning if this is a lie.

“I just want to hear her voice. Know she’s alive.”

“Of course.”

Musgrave is so quiet, understated. Honest, sincere, pale-faced and reasonable as he murmurs important things in an undertone.

He is reverent as he rises; head bowed in sympathy, as if this is a hard thing that nonetheless must be done. He reaches out and gingerly holds the phone to Ethan’s ear. It is almost like he is afraid to hurt him. The screen feels cold against Ethan’s bruised and tearstained face. Musgrave’s fingers feel colder.

“You did that?”

Julia sobs into his shoulder, trembling, and Ethan clutches her against his chest with one arm. The other one is still outstretched, rigid, brandishing the gun. He is too shaken to actually shake, but Julia’s convulsions as she cries against him mimics the reaction closely enough. Meters away, sprawled on the floor, lies Musgrave. There is a gun in his limp hand – a fact Ethan’s brain is too ready to ignore, jumping ahead instead to inspect the man’s clothes. Beautiful clothes. Musgrave looks perfect, apart from the fact that he is dead.

Silently, Ethan stares at Musgrave as Julia cries in his arms; feeling betrayed that after all of that, he did not even get to kill him.

A/N: I do realize that “I thought you could get her back.” is said before Musgrave starts ranting on about Lindsay’s message. It’s meant to be all over the place, time-wise.

A/N 2: As per usual – flames about the insinuated pairing will be ignored/deleted/laughed at. I have no patience with them. If you don’t like it, don’t goddamn read it. Are we clear?