Not Breaking The Walls

Thank you, Vicky, for your help.

The door closed with a squeaky noise which made David shiver. He hated sounds like these, they reminded him of too many unpleasant events. An early meeting in the House of Parliament required him to escort the Home Secretary Julia Montague to the building and make sure she arrived in one piece. If his boss could, she would task him to protect Julia from any kind of wind. It was emphasized many times that he would have to do a great job or he would be assigned to guard the toilets in the town center.

Julia Montague was the person of the hour, most talked about, even the Twitter hashtag #RIPA18 made her visible on all the social platforms. She gained many supporters after doing the interview on BBC the other day but she also added few more people on the list of enemies. Day after day Julia fought all her enemies. With the thoughts of creating as much safe future as she could she woke up every morning. This morning was as usual as any other mornings except the moment when the elevator stopped and it for sure wasn't its time to stop.

" is it, PS Budd?" she asked her PPO, clearing her throat. Her voice was raspy since she didn't speak to many people this morning. It was still early and she liked to be prepared. Calling the guarding squad and asking for an early transfer was on her agenda every time she had something big to get ready for. Locking herself in her office and going through a pile of papers always made her feel better before she had to speak in front of people. Not that she didn't have enough confidence, she was just simply a perfectionist. Knowing all the important data was fundamental for her job and for defending her steps.

"I don't know," David answered honestly, his Scottish accent audible. Their eyes met briefly and there was a hint for him to do something in the way she looked at him. David's task was to check out if there was something he could do to get them out of the situation. He stepped closer to the control pannel and looked at the buttons. None of them seemed off. His fingers lingered over the edges in case he could get under it and open the cover to see what went wrong inside. No luck.

"Well?" Julia raised her left eyebrow and leaned against the wall.

"I am not sure, ma'am. It's not like we are stuck or something, but..." David tried to change the mood, to make the situation a little bit lighter.

"Of course we are not. How could we be? This is a government building, everything should work as well as it's supposed to."

"I am not responsible for the elevator maintenance, ma'am. I wouldn't know if there was a glitch." David tried to defend himself, he felt Julia's eyes on his back while he was checking the control panel again.

"Do you know what people do when they are stuck in an elevator?" Julia said getting David's full attention. He expected everything from the Home Secretary but this was too much for him right now. He didn't know what to say, what to do. David hadn't known her long enough to be able to react accordingly. He didn't know what he could say so as to not piss her off. Her behavior gave him an image of her character. She wasn't too keen on jokes. He decided to act as if he was ignoring everything else except the controling panel with the buttons. Standing bent down and his backside facing Julia he gave her the true sign he wasn't interested in whatever she was about to say. He was trying to get them out of this mess anyway.

"They usually panic," he whispered feeling grateful Julia wasn't an 'easily goes into panic' person.

"They simply sit down on the floor and wait for someone to get them out," Julia smiled and slid down using the wall as support. She ignored the fact that her clothes, her suit, was freshly washed and prepared exactly for this occasion. David looked at Julia over his shoulder, not even trying to turn around to face her.

"Oooh," he breathed out not breaking the eye contact with his principal person, a wavy tone in his voice, almost playful.

"I thought you would be panicking. I am glad you aren't. Makes my work easier. It's not like that we are in the middle of nowhere. My colleagues were expecting us to be down few minutes ago. They will figure out something went wrong." David kept the conversation going as long as he felt like Julia was interested in talking. His right hand slided into his pocket to take out the phone and made a call. It didn't take long and David ended the call, soft smile on his lips.

"We are saved, ma'am. Kim, ehm well PS Knowles, has already contacted the elevator service. They are gonna be here in a minute," David informed Julia about their situation.

"I am going to be late for the meeting. For fuck sake!" Julia relieved herself. It wasn't her style coming late for the meetings, especially the ones with the prime minister.

"I guess you cannot pick a day to get stuck in the elevator," David answered, feeling a bit more confident about what he could say or do in the presence of the politician.

"Imagine what an excuse it's going to be!" Julia laughed desperately at the image in her mind.

"I better be sure that next time I make a better decision. I will never get into any elevator before an important event!" Julia seemed to start loosing it. David took a few steps to close the distance between them and he knelt down to be on the same eye level as Julia.

"Are you ok, ma'am?" he asked looking into the woman's eyes.

"And how convenient that it is just me and you here, right?" Suddenly the calm and unbothered Julia was gone and another personality of hers appeared.

"Focus on your breath, ma'am. It's not gonna be long and we will be outta here," David said calmly, placing his hand on Julia's shoulder. Their eyes met again then Julia looked at David's hand on her shoulder and then back into his eyes. It never happened to her before to have her PPO touching her. It felt somewhat ok. "Ehm.." clearing her throat Julia sent David back to the reality. He was way too deep in his own thoughts. "Sorry, ma'am," David apologized and withdrew his hand. He only wanted to help her. Nothing else. But he had to admit that being so close to this woman did something to him. He began to see her in a different light than just a politician who approved too many missions to the middle east. During the first few days when he started working for the Home Secretary he wasn't far away from aiming the gun at her and pulling the trigger. She was one of the people who he saw as responsible for the state of his mind, for his family situation. But now, he didn't know what he felt. His feelings changed but he couldn't say if it was for the better or worse. Should he hate her even more for being who she is or open up to the possibility to see her as a woman, as a human being who is just doing her job? Too many thoughts, too many emotions in such a small space, in such a limited time frame, too close to the person who started it all...

Julia was lost in David's eyes for a little bit longer than she anticipated. Longer than she wanted but she couldn't help herself. Deep, blue orbs. He was a strong man, very masculine, wide shoulders, firm hands. When he was assigned to her protection team she saw him as just another man who was there to protect her. Oh, how wrong she was. There was more to him than he let on. But she will figure him out just like she does with other people. David was the officer who prevented the rail attact in October so he was certainly very capable and experienced. She had nothing to worry about when he was around and yet he made her feel intimidated. She felt his eyes seeing through her, deeper than she wanted to let him. She felt exposed in a way. There was a tension between them. Surely. Yet she couldn't say if it was just because they didn't grow onto each other. Then they should mind their own businesses and interfere with one another as little as they could. Or maybe there was something more, something deeper forming between them. Some form of sympathy.

"David?"

No response.

"David?" Julia had to raise her voice to bring David's attention back to Earth.

"Yes, ma'am?" he answered abruptly realizing he was out of his mind for a moment. What felt like an hour was actually just a second in the real time.

"We moved!" Julia screamed excitedly. David stood up and went back to the control panel and then looked at the door waiting for them to open. He wanted to get out as much as Julia wanted to get to the meeting. He wasn't sure for how long he would be able to stay calm inside the elevator.

Not wanting to actually admit it to one selves, they both had enough of the confined space and the smell of the air in the elevator. They both had enough. As if there was a chance they could break through each other's protection walls they built around themselves. Stepping out of the elevator they both thanked God that people can't read each other's minds.

The End