If they hadn’t figured out that way of working together successfully, Nikolai wasn’t sure how much longer they honestly would have been working the detail with each other. Even though he had known she was damn good at her job, and could begrudgingly admit that, he did contemplate getting her dropped from case every damn day, and he was absolutely certain that she probably thought about quitting on numerous occasions. Considering that he didn’t think the case would have ended nearly as smoothly without the both of them involved, Nikolai was glad that they’d figured out that … way of problem solving. The Belikovskys were good people, and Merlin only knew that wouldn’t be alive today if Persephone hadn’t been on that case with him. Or at least, they probably wouldn’t; he had always preferred working alone back then, so it wasn’t like he ever would have admitted that. If he recalled correctly, he had given her some manner of recognition for that, regardless of the risk of it going to her damn head—which he was sure it had.

Nikolai would never admit that he barely even remembered being in the hospital, even the times that he was conscious. He supposed that could be blamed on those ridiculous Muggle drugs, and he wondered what the hell benefit those had. It seemed to him that the entire healthcare process in the Muggle world was just about useless—they used seemingly meaningless drugs and equipment, but he knew they had to figure out a way to get by without magic. Since he was alive, he figured it went all right, but that was only because he knew that he was far too hard to kill. Scoffing slightly, Nikolai took a gulp of the vodka, waiting to set it down again before replying. He had just been about to say he wasn’t in pain at the hospital, which he knew actually was a lie, annoyingly enough. Muggle weapons were a bitch, apparently, further proven by the twinges of pain he still felt from the wounds. Not that he would ever admit that. “If I had just noticed him coming up behind me…” He muttered to himself, shaking his head. No one ever got an advantage over him, and he still didn’t know how the hell that had happened. One second, he was doing the damn perimeter check, the next, he was being stabbed. He hadn’t even felt pain, per say, which was apparently damn shock not that he listened to much of what the Muggle doctors blathered on about. Mostly, he just felt guilty that Persephone had had to find him, and that everyone had been that worried about him. “Good, though I’m not convinced he knows a damn thing either,” he replied. Who would willingly learn the Muggles’ insane healing techniques? Someone who was also insane, obviously.

It hadn’t been too hard to change her mind—actually, it had been pretty damn easy. Nikolai didn’t think much of it, because it’s not like she had been wanting to hold back because of his ‘heart condition.’ Well, to an extent, he was sure she did ‘to keep him from dying’ or something, but there was no way that it had been all that easy to just decide that. Besides, he was sure that she was finally starting to realize that this heart condition was made up to begin with, because who could refute his logic, really? Even Muggles weren’t crazy enough to put a foreign object into someone’s body to keep them from dying, apparently. They would have to know that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. His grip tightened on her as she moved on top of him, vaguely wondering if maybe they should head to a more… normal location than the docks where any one of her family members could appear at any time. But it was a random enough time that the concept seemed unlikely, sort of, and not worth that much extra thought. Smirking at her words and the thought of this being successful, Nikolai’s hands moved from her sides long enough to pull his shirt over his head before returning his lips roughly to hers. It was about damn time that she calmed down about his injuries anyhow.

This had to have been difficult on her husband. No, she knew it was difficult on him. He had built up such a reputable business that he had to let go of, and couldn’t even go back to working in law enforcement unless it was behind a desk, and those positions were already filled. She knew he had always stayed just as busy as she had as it seemed like that was one strong trait they shared. Their careers were their life outside of each other. She could tell that had taken a major toll on him to have to give it all up to sit behind a desk everyday and to move to a different country without knowing anyone but her. Her husband wasn’t one to complain, so when he started grumbling about his new job she could tell that it really did bother him and she wondered briefly if she should just encourage the healer to okay him for more strenuous work.

She had heard him mutter about being caught off guard . She decided it would be best not to comment on it. He was bloody human like everyone else that made mistakes every now and then. There was no way he could have really known what was going to happen even with his well developed senses. She rolled her eyes at her husband as he spoke again about the healer. It’s better than having to go see a muggle healer. Just try to be grateful we found a healer that knows how to deal with muggle medicine.” She said shaking her head.

This plan was starting to backfire. Why she thought giving Nikolai the green light to go back to what was their ‘normal’ way of shagging was beyond her. She had known the man, and had been having relations with him long enough to know what it was like to have him all over her. Hell, that was the thing that brought them together initially. She hadn’t had much time to look over his chest before his lips moved roughly back to hers. She had noticed the fading scar on his chest but she also got an eyeful of his chest in general. For a moment she felt the urge to just give in, but knew that would mean her point would never be proven. She moved her hands down his arms with her nails running down his skin before urging his arms to loosen as she attempted to get his hands down to her arse. When they had finally loosened enough she quickly took his right arm, in one smooth motion she slipped off of his lap, locking his arm out before pushing him to the ground face down and shoving a knee into the center of his back to keep him in place. Hoping she had caught him off guard enough that he wouldn’t be able to get away from her.

When they had moved to England, he had been certain that he’d be able to switch departments into something more interesting within the first month or so. Normally, he wouldn’t have even allowed himself to be constrained by any healer telling him when he could or could not do something that he wanted to do; but irritatingly enough, the Russian Ministry had contacted this one in regards to his injury. He had to be cleared apparently, of course by that ridiculous healer, before he could do anything other than deskwork. And according to said healer, that day might never come. Which further proved that the man didn’t know what he was talking about, obviously. They needed a new healer, or they needed to forgo one altogether, that much he was certain about.

Never once in his work once getting out of deep cover had he encountered an experience that would ever make him think he’d had anything to worry about. They’d done a hell of a job of extracting him and making it look like he’d died, and he was never in any areas that the gang frequented—not on purpose, but simply because he hadn’t needed to be. That night absolutely shouldn’t have happened the way that it did, and he still found himself incredibly irritated that he’d managed to get caught off guard in such an extreme way. It was second to how much he hated putting Persephone in a position to find him like that, but now he simply had to resolve the situation, and he would. Either Persephone had no idea what he was planning, or she did and was trying to convince herself that he wasn’t that stupid. Otherwise, he was sure that he would never be hearing the end of it, so there was no way she actually thought he was going to do anything. “Well that would be an easy situation to solve—if I had to go to a Muggle doctor, we simply wouldn’t go at all,” he replied, shrugging. He absolutely had no plans to ever go to a Muggle doctor again, unless he was asking the hospital in Russia to admit there was nothing in his damn heart. Then he could go back to Persephone and tell her that, and she could relax because apparently she actually thought there was something keeping him from dying, or something ridiculous. Luckily, he was determining it to not be an important topic to currently focus on.

In retrospect, he supposed he should have known better than to think that it would be that easy to convince Persephone that he was fine to go back to their normal, more aggressive way of having sex—after all, she had been the one that had made the determination that they needed to tone it down, so clearly her mind had been changed too damn quick in their brief conversation. Really, with all of his background in law enforcement, he should know when someone was up to something, but no sooner than he had begun to move his hands down her body, he was realizing apparently too late that she’d had something else up her sleeve. He would have to blame this on being caught off guard, obviously, since there was no other reason that she’d be able to get him to the ground that easily. Nikolai couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath as she pushed a knee into his back, groaning slightly. Was her knee just exceptionally bony? Because that didn’t feel good in the damn slightest, he mused, though obviously he had to get his revenge for this little display. He couldn’t have her thinking that she’d just one-upped him, and he knew that he’d be able to turn the tables pretty damn quickly. “Point proven,” he grumbled, knowing that very quickly this moment would be presenting itself since he’d caught what was happening just in time to ensure his hips were not in fact both pressed into the dock, leaving him open to twist out of her hold. Once he had done so, he hooked a leg around hers and brought her down onto the dock. “But I’m not that out of practice,” Nikolai commented, grinning.

Persephone shook her head at her husband. He was so frustrating at times though she knew she wasn’t much better and caused him quite some hell during their time knowing each other. She was pretty unconventional in her work. She had been quite extreme on occasion, putting herself at great risk in very dangerous situations against Nikolai’s orders. Granted each time it worked greatly to their advantage. Women weren’t looked at as nearly as dangerous as men which made it a great deal easier for her to be ‘out in the open’ opposed to Nikolai. He was the epitome of threatening where an English woman going up against any male in Russia would seem laughable. No one expected her to be an actual threat so it was easy to catch others off guard. There were quite a few times he’d been pretty pissed at her, but her methods worked.

If she were to be honest she didn’t want to bring her husband back to one of those damned muggle hospitals. She didn’t trust their methods of healing, but she did trust the healer they had found. It had taken some serious research to find him and they were damn lucky to have found him. She was sure there were times he thought she was just being a nag, but he was her husband and she only wanted the best for him.

This was going to be too easy. One of the very few ways she could get him distracted was when it came to shagging, which made sense. His attention would be elsewhere instead of thinking about anything she could have up her sleeve understandably. She smirked against his lips as she felt him oblige her by running his large hands down her body as he had hundreds of times before. Within the blink of an eye she had him on the ground, a look of triumph on her face as she heard him groan and grumble under his breath. Just as she was preparing to gloat she felt him turning in her grip, her back hitting the dock as he pinned her down. She narrowed her eyes at him, irritated that he had turned the tables on her. She couldn’t stay angry very long laughing lightly as she was sure anyone that had seen what happened would probably be confused by the display. ”I guess you aren’t. I still got you pinned down.” She said with a shake of her head before a thought crossed her mind. ”The offer it still on the table… if you’re still interested.” She said mischievously. His little display had convinced her that she could probably lift that one restriction on him. They both deserved to let go for a bit.

His injury was setting him back, but he knew that his trip to Russia would help to get him back on track. Yes, it was revenge in every definition of the word, but he was sure that doing what he planned would help him to be able to stop thinking about it and move on from his life in Russia. He supposed it had been surprising that his work undercover had never come back to bite him in the осел, but he hadn’t normally frequented the areas where he had habited when he had been with the gang. He did on occasion, because even he had his moments of recklessness… a fair few of them, obviously, but this ridiculous situation was the first time anything had come of it. Nikolai wouldn’t trade his years undercover for anything, since it had given him a hell of a lot of experience and an edge that a lot of other aurors and members of law enforcement didn’t have, but he was still pissed off about the outcome. Sorting it out would help alleviate that, obviously.

He wasn’t sure that he had met anyone in his life more stubborn than Persephone. If it wasn’t for her insistence, he certainly wouldn’t be going to any more doctors, feeling as though the situation was clearly over and no more professional assistance was required. Nikolai knew if he were to say that, she would probably shoot him a look of damn death; and she was the only person that he’d actually acquiesce to going to this ridiculous healer, even if he continued to complain about it. She knew as well as he did that he’d keep going, however much he hated it. He supposed that also had a lot to do with feeling guilty that she had found him near death, allegedly, to begin with, wanting to ease her mind that he wasn’t about to drop dead by continuing to go to these appointments. Hopefully, she would eventually see how unnecessary they were, but it didn’t seem like that would be happening anytime soon. Luckily, he would take whatever small concessions he could get, particularly this one, and then he’d deal with the rest later.

It was all making a hell of a lot more sense why she had suddenly decided to agree with him attempting to get her to calm down about his injuries as far as their sex life was concerned. But now that she had just attempted to take him down, and was even momentarily successful, though he had certainly proven to her that he was not at all as out of practice as she seemed to think he was. “For half a damn second,” he grumbled, a smirk forming on his lips. Nikolai had been distracted as well, quite clearly, since his wife always did play dirty, but he was just glad that he’d gotten the upper hand—obviously. The fact didn’t surprise him, really, as all she really had on him was speed, which could only help so much in this situation. His smirk widened at her words, though if she was really being serious about this particular offer, they should probably go back inside, since this pond was frequented by everyone in her family. “Good,” Nikolai replied, bringing his lips roughly to hers for a moment before moving away and getting to his feet and pulling her along with him.

-END OF THREAD-