Today is the anniversary, and Paul inwardly winces at the thought of spending even a few minutes of it rehashing the obvious with Nikita: "You still don't understand what you are dealing with here, do you? You think you are a lonely beacon of decency in a insane world or something like that. Isn't that true? The section isn't me or Madeline or Michael. It's bigger, deeper, smarter then any of us."
Paul ignores the disbelief in her reply: "You make it sound like it's alive."
"Oh, yes," he asserts, "and we all walk a narrow path to keep it that way."
She is petulant: "A path without feeling, compassion, or hope."
He is unyielding: "Yes."
She is petulant: "We die so the section can live."
He is unyielding: "Yes."
She is petulant: "I can't accept that."
He is unyielding: "You have no choice, Nikita. No one does, especially me. Do you understand?" Of course, she doesn't. Around and around they go.
"Move on," urges the piece of Madeline within him. "Confronting authority is simply one of Nikita's coping mechanisms. Don't let her get to you. It's the anniversary."
Yes, the Madeline in his head acknowleges anniversaries; the real Madeline in her office thinks it too dangerous to do so.....
"No, we can't get away with it," said a younger Madeline to a younger Paul six months into their secret marriage. A licence can be hidden, and rings can be rememberances from other people, but they're definitely going to notice a dog. A dog means we're distracted. If we're distracted, we're liabilities. If we're liabilities, death will part us quite effeciently. It has to go."
Paul marveled at his wife's ability to say this while the lttle Chocolate Labrador Retriever puppy licked her face. He was petulant: "No, they're not going to know."
She was unyielding: "Yes, they are."
He was petulant: "We'll hide him."
She was disbelieving: "Where, Paul? It's going to grow to be a great deal larger than our marriage licence."
He was decided: "HIS name is Domino, and I'll work it out."
Fifteen years later, it is the anniversary of the day that Paul worked it out. Domino sired two litters out of Godiva: Rex, Audrey, Eliza, and Henry all became police dogs. Burton and Taylor stayed on the farm where he had sold Domino as a stud. Taylor is an exellent hunting dog, and Burton predicts the daughter's seizures. Lucy and Mina patrol Customs at JFK and O'hare respectively. Bogart is a Search and Rescue dog.
George and Adrian never knew about their dog. He had been their dog, no matter what Madeline had said. If he were not their dog, Madeline would not have put an orchid under the blanket that Domino was wrapped in on the day that Paul brought him to the farm -- the farm where their dog sired some real beacons of decency.
Disclaimer: La Femme Nikita and all characters therein are the property of Fireworks Entertainment, Warner Brothers, and USA productions.