Present Day

My muscles were screaming as we pried open yet another door. I wanted to shout at Kuryakin to make up his mind, but he seemed as disoriented as I was by the corridors of doors. They all looked the same to me and him too, I was guessing. That really seemed to bother him and made him mutter to himself, in Russian, I guess. It was some language I didn't know.

The door shifted and then suddenly slipped aside and I caught myself just in time from doing a face plant. Kuryakin's face went from being hopeful to being annoyed.

"How could I have forgotten this was here? Well, at least we found the canteen," he said as he entered and looked around.

"The what?"

"Our cafeteria. It was open twenty four, seven, as they like to say today. They served food from around the world to reflect our makeup of our organization." His expression grew misty or it could just have been condensation or even dust on his glasses. "We spent many hours here, commiserating, recuperating, planning and everything else in between."

I let my flashlight's beam play across the walls. "Except eating. No one can tell me that avocado green and tangerine orange was conducive to good digestion." Kuryakin laughed. He'd seemed to have relaxed once we left Waverly's office. Whatever demons haunted him up there hadn't followed him.

"You said recuperating?"

"Yes, when I think of what we went through in the name of UNCLE, it makes me wonder about our sanity."

"You mean like being shot and stuff?"

"Shot, stabbed, poisoned, brainwashed, tortured, knocked unconscious, you name it, it happened. I don't know how any of us survived. Many didn't. Even afterwards, the damage was done." He picked up a metal napkin holder and turned it over in his hand.

"You mean aches and pains?"

"The standard procedure was to mentally erase much of the information we carried. That made us lesser targets on the outside. It also took away everything we lived for, as well as the ability to defend ourselves. Suicide rates were very high among former Section Two agents."

"But not you?"

"There wasn't time." He dropped the holder and the noise reverberated through the room. "I once thought the worst thing in the world would be to be deprogrammed. Now I know better. Now the ghosts follow me everywhere and every day. To be free of that seems Paradise now."

I purposefully stifled a shiver at that point. I'd been hearing… things, since we'd left that floor. Some I could chalk up to animals, but other noises, whispering, hissing, that sort of thing, were just creepy. Maybe Kuryakin couldn't hear them or was determined to ignore everything. I mean, there's no such thing as ghosts, is there?

I took a deep breath and that garnered me a look from Kuryakin. "What is wrong?"

"Just seeing if I could smell anything."

"I suspect anything edible is long gone." He shifted his pack around and dropped on a table. While he poked around inside it, I continued to explore.

Going behind the food service line, I let the light play on the floor and walls. There was a swinging door and through that was a large industrial kitchen, its stainless steel dull with dust. A metal door caught my eye.

"You must be the freezer," I said and popped open the door. And for the second time that day, I let go with a little girl squeal of terror. An emaciated body tumbling out and landed at my feet… on my feet, actually. I very nearly wet my pants in my haste to get away.

Instantly, Kuryakin was there. "What's wrong? What's happ…? Oh." He saw the body and patted my shoulder. "It looks as if we weren't the first to explore HQ."

"Do you know who he is? Was?" I asked as Kuryakin knelt to examine the body. He grimaced as he struggled to manipulate the body into another position in order to check his pockets. He pulled out a thin wallet. Holding his flashlight close to it, he flipped it open and made a sound.

"THRUSH. They just couldn't let go. They honestly thought we'd leave anything behind of value. The fools." He dropped the card back onto the body and stood. "He must have thought there was something of value in the freezer. He didn't prop open the door and it closed behind him and latched. Or…"

"Or?" I asked. I'd gone to the other end or the kitchen to avoid looking at that wizened corpse. "I don't much like the sound of that."

"THRUSH is not known for its charitable acts." He brushed his hands together, then walked up to me, holding something out.

"What's that?" I took an energy bar from him and felt my stomach lurch.

"I thought you might be hungry." He unwrapped one and bit into it.

"That was then, this is now, AB."

"AB?" he mumbled around his mouthful.

"After Body."

Kuryakin smiled at that and turned. "What we seek is not here." He checked his watch and made a noise. "It is getting late. We must hurry."

I didn't ask about the time constraint. I didn't want to get stuck in here, so if he said hop to it, that's what I'd do.

Another three doors later, he stepped into the room and sighed. "Finally. We have arrived."

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The room was small, crowded by two desks, chairs, a couch and a file cabinet whose drawers and contents were all over the floor. On the wall was the most frightening piece of pop art I'd ever seen.

"Good God," I muttered and heard Kuryakin chuckle.

"Napoleon has many wonderful traits. The ability to pick good art is one he still struggles with."

"How long have the two of you been together?"

"Longer than you have been alive." Kuryakin was pushing his way through stacks of papers around one of the desks, his movements bordering just on frantic. Then he made a strange sound and pulled something out.

I flashed my light and was amazed to see… a teddy bear? It took me a full minute to regain my power of speech. "You dragged me through all of this for a stuffed toy? All this for that?"

"This isn't just a teddy bear. This is Sergei." Almost tenderly, Kuryakin brushed the dust of decades from him. The toy was so small it nearly disappeared in his hands. "It's been a long time, my friend."

"You know I'm going to ask," I said and he nodded.

"He was a gift to Napoleon, given to him upon what would prove to be the last affair. He is a promise kept. However, when the orders came down, there was so much to do that he was lost in our haste. There are a world of memories in here." He gave the toy a squeeze and there was an odd crackling sound, like it was stuffed with paper or something. He smiled at that.

"No one thought it weird that two UNCLE agents would have a teddy bear in their office. I am assuming this was your office?"

"We were licensed to kill. My hands were considered deadly weapons in many countries and I had a habit of making things, including bodies, disappear. Would you want to take that chance with a smart aleck remark?"

"No, I guess not. So you found him. Can we go now?"

"Yes." He tucked the teddy bear into his backpack. "We have nearly fulfilled our mission."

"Nearly?"

"There is one more task after we leave this place."

"Good. The sooner we can get out of here, the better." To be honest, I'd had my fill.

"The noises have unsettled you that much? Excellent." We headed back towards the door. At least they all had stayed open, so we wouldn't be facing that task again.

"You hear them, too?"

He made an indication with his head and led me to yet another floor. There was a glassed-in wall of computers. There were old reel-to-reel machines and I shook my head at their sheer size. My home computer fit on the corner of my desk.

"Believe it or not, this was cutting edge back then." Kuryakin barely slowed, then pointed. "The source of your voices."

This was the hardest door of them all to open, but once accomplished, it revealed a tiny room and a machine, its lights blinking steadily.

"We set that up to keep any casual explorers out. I routed it through the city's power grid. They don't know why there's a slight energy drain on this block, but it's so small, they never bother to check." He reached out and touched a button and I was suddenly aware of complete and total silence. He touched it again and the whispers were back.

"Wow, that's -"

"Ingenious?"

"I was going for devious, but ingenious works."

QQQQ

The trip out wasn't too bad and we made pretty good time. I didn't even hesitate when Kuryakin pulled the blindfold out and when my hand touched the warm metal of a car hood, I nearly cheered. This whole, I grinned to myself, affair had been bizarre.

"Ready to go home?" I asked climbing into the passenger's seat.

"Not quite. I must deliver Sergei first. I will just be a moment."

We drove to one of the many hospitals that we have in the city and Kuryakin parked in a doctor's spot. Whatever you could say about the guy, he had balls.

I climbed out as he did and he looked at me strangely.

"Just part of the package," I said. The truth of the matter was that Kuryakin looked like he needed a friend right then and there and, lacking that, I was the best he had.

He nodded and we walked into the hospital. God how I hated these places. The memories of my various stays weren't pleasant ones. We rode up to the fourth floor, the cardiac wing, and got out.

He walked down the corridor like he knew where he was headed and paused outside a door, just as a doctor was coming out.

"How is he?"

"Resting comfortably. He woke and asked for you. As you instructed, I told him you were looking up an old friend. That seemed to settle him down."

"Thank you, Doctor, for everything."

"Don't be too long. He needs to rest."

Kuryakin looked back at me and gestured me forward. I'd been trying to give him some space, but apparently it wasn't what he wanted.

I got to the door as he was approaching the bed. The old guy in it looked wan.

"Napoleon?" He placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

A hand hooked up to an IV moved to cover Kuryakin's hand with his own. "Partner mine." The head shifted and a there was a smile that I recognized from the photo. So this was Napoleon.

Even as a murmur, I could hear the love in those words and knew my previous guess had been on the money.

"I brought a friend." He dug the teddy bear out of the sack and handed it to Napoleon.

"Sergei!" He hugged the little bear. "Where did you…? You went home? Alone?"

That's when Kuryakin gestured me forward. "No, Mr. Dawson was my guide. He was very helpful and has proven to be an ally. Our secret is safe with him."

"Or you'll track me down like a dog and beat me," I grumbled and Napoleon gave a short laugh, then winced.

"It's good to meet you, Mr. Dawson." He reached out a hand and I shook it carefully. It was warm and strong. "Thank you for keeping my partner safe. Trouble often follows him."

"My pleasure, sir."

"Sir? My god, Illya, when did I become a sir?" This was directed to Kuryakin, who smiled and stroked Napoleon's cheek. It should have felt weird seeing two men like this, but it wasn't. It felt… right, somehow.

"About the time bell bottoms and love beads went out of fashion, I'm afraid."

"So, how was home?"

Kuryakin lifted Napoleon's hand to his lips and kissed it tenderly. "Home is here wherever you are. Surely you know that by now."

"Just checking." The smile was back.

They might have said other stuff, but I eased out of the room at that point. They needed to be alone, to reaffirm the feelings in the moment. I was excess baggage. Never in all my years on the planet had I connected with someone the way those two did.

About a week later, I got an envelope with a sizable check and a handwritten note. Thank you was all it said.

"No, thank you, Mr. Kuryakin. Thank you for keeping us safe. Thanks for your sacrifices and thanks for trusting me." I looked over at the little teddy bear sitting on my desk and smiled. I'd gone the more traditional route and picked a brown one.

"Hey, JD…" Sharon walked in and stopped. Smiling she pointed. "Who's your friend, JD?"

"Sharon, I'd like you to meet Illya." I held him out to her. "Illya, this is my very good friend, Sharon. She's a demon at office managing, but don't leave any M&Ms lying around."

She laughed and shook its little paw. "Hello, Illya. Welcome. I just wanted to remind you that we need to review our insurance policy with Joe tomorrow."

"Okay. Thanks." She turned to leave. "Hey, Sharon?"

"Yes?"

"Are you busy tonight?" It was time for me and my little bear to start making some memories of our own.