Adderly ficlet

This is a little tiny piece of a scene from "Run to Darkness" that always impressed me. It has been referred to as the watershed episode in the relationship between Mona and Adderly, which skirted the idea of romance but never actually landed there. If anything, it overshot it. They were remarkably good friends. I like the reversal of roles that was going on in this part.

The Rock Fractured

The man who lately would not let her so much as straighten his necktie now lay sprawled across the hotel room bed, prone and exhausted, with his head in her lap. He was her rock, her hero, her dear friend. She was not so naïve as to think he hadn’t visited the beds of a good many women. But she herself was not numbered among them. Neither she nor Adderly would allow it.

Mona stiffened involuntarily against the unexpected intimacy of his weight across her thighs. Then his irrepressible humor cut through her dismay.

“Mone.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t let me take advantage of you.”

She relaxed into a slouch and smiled down on him. Stroking the thick, blond locks that covered the back of his head, she answered, “I’ll wake you if it gets interesting.”

Women had loved him, governments had feared him, enemy agents had pursued him and sometimes tortured him. But none had gained his trust and confidence that caused him to drop his guard and lay himself bare. None, but the unassuming secretary from Miscellaneous Affairs.

“Sweet dreams,” she murmured, resting her hand against his temple. She clutched his shoulder a little tighter and shivered at the enormity of the role he had given her. It was a sweet burden that she mentally vowed never to abandon. Today, she was the rock.