Beginnings

“Then maybe I don’t need a Handler at all.” Tara had been listening to the lecture from the more senior agents. She had been called in because yet another of the teammates they had sent to watch her had requested a shift in assignment. It was the third this year.

 

She wasn’t that hard to get on with, just shut up, stay out of her way and let her do her job; that was all she asked. How difficult was it to not be underfoot like some sort of pet? Or worse, they wanted to bond, Tara did not bond. The redhead steadfastly insisted that anything between herself and any other agent be strictly kept in the bounds of business; she was earning a reputation and fast.

 

The last agent had lasted a full three weeks but apparently ditching him at a Starbucks was not as helpful to him as it had been to her. He slowed her down, what was she supposed to do? But that was what brought her here today and yet another reassignment.

 

”You do need a Handler, and since you’ve run through so many you got someone’s attention.”

 Tara looked up sharply at that, they couldn’t mean…

”The old man himself thought this would be a good idea, so this time you’re stuck with it. You make this work or you’re out. “

Clearly the agent had some reservation about this, he was shaking his head even as he laid the file to the desk top. He thumbed the intercom and spoke. ”Send him in.” He looked back to Tara who was shifting from foot to foot now wondering what was going on.

 

"I have no idea why he thinks this is good but Agent Romanova….meet your new handler, Agent Shale Sitwell."

 

Her eyes went wide when the thin bespectacled man walked into the room. “Sitwell? No…you can’t…this isn’t…” She looked back at Shale and fell silent.

”We can, and this is, so my suggestion is that you agents find a way to make this work. You’re dismissed.”

Tara frowned and walked away from the desk; she paused shoulder to shoulder with Sitwell and grumbled. “I’ll get you my file so we can get you up to speed.”