Full Blood Worm Moon L Rami Ammoun

She was the professional, everyone else was just playing at it. Tremble before her competence, intelligence and confidence!

- And we pulled that stupid prank on you. - Wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut. - Yeah, we thought we were so clever. Eva von Braun, right? But you– you just set it aside, and you put your head down and got to work.

FOR ALL MANKIND 1.02 He Built the Saturn V || 3.03 All In

Sergei Nikulov & Margo Madison For All Mankind 3.03 (2019-)

Very clever. This will work for us.

Margo Madison vs the longest day of her life

FOR ALL MANKIND | 2.06 "Best Laid Plans"

Sergei lounged comfortably in his living room. He was seated in a comfy armchair, the fabric of which he idly stroked with his hand.

The warm light from the floor to ceiling windows gave the room a welcoming glow. To bathe in sunlight after so long in the cold–it was a balm to his soul.

Beyond the windows, the backyard stretched out of sight, the lush grass and sprawling oaks swayed with a gentle breeze. Head tilted back, he listened to a lively piece played from a new album bought at a recent trip to Neptune's.

Wrapped in sunlight, music, and safety, Sergei felt at peace.

“Sergei!” He heard Margo call from the kitchen, “Did your mother call about dinner this evening?” She moved into the living room to stand before him.

He smiled, his eyes drifting open to soak in the sweetest light in his life. Margo wore a red dress that hugged her figure and set off the red of her hair. She was a vision.

“Yes, Margo, we are expected at seven,” he replied. He grasped her hand, squeezing her delicate fingers, before raising them to his mouth for a gentle kiss. Margo smiled softly at him and bent forward to replace her hand with her lips.

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“You cannot go back there, Margo.”

Margo shifted on her feet. The life raft she had built to survive eight long years in the Soviet Union was quickly revealing itself to be not quite seaworthy.

Each revelation surged a wave that threatened to overwhelm her raft–the disdain of the people at NASA, the reveal of Irina’s mechanizations throughout both their lives, Sergei’s presence in Houston, and damn him, the care he offered her in his steadfast gaze.

This raft she built of necessity was based only on the work–her love of space and engineering. Now in Houston with Sergei standing in front of her it was laughable to think she could survive based only upon it. But then, back in the Soviet Union, that’s all she had. For eight years she subsisted on dreams of space alone, and finally, things began to change and she got to realize her dream only for it to all crash– Margo began to waver on her feet as she made new calculations about her life.

“Margo,” Sergei exhaled as he started forward, his hands outstretched to grasp her arms and steady her. Disheartened, she let him comfort her. She felt distinct and utterly unsalvageable ruptures form in her raft.

Margo wanted to break eye contact with him, to look anywhere else but she was as starved for him as she was for the rest of it. She tried to steady her breathing and recenter herself to work her newest and thorniest of problems.

She was as yet torn between wanting to cry, puke or laugh at what she had misunderstood yet again. Breaking through her racing thoughts were Sergei’s warm hands rubbing reassuringly on her forearms. She sighed and he released some breath of his own. She nodded and his hands drifted down to hold her hands. His eyes darkened from concern to a deeper longing.

“Please, Margo, come sit with me.” Sergei gestured with a jut of his head toward his car.

She nodded quickly and briefly tightened her own hold on him as he ushered her to the passenger seat. When he shut the car door to round the car and slide into the driver’s seat, Margo let her head drop into her hands.

“What now, Sergei?” Margo asked despondently.

“Now we find our way out,” Sergei responded firmly.

He looked her over closely; observed her gray hair, her wrist bandage, and her firmly buttoned-up presentation. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and never let her go again. God, he had missed her. He had mourned her and now here she was in his car inches away, as beautiful as ever.

Margo released another sigh and straightened, offering an exhausted default,“Sure, let’s work the problem.”

She turned slightly towards him to take a closer look at the man she had desperately tried to save. The last eight years had agreed with him and he looked as handsome as ever. Her scrutiny did not go unnoticed and he smiled warmly at her. Margo extended a hand to brush his cheek and touch his smile.

"I missed that smile,” she whispered as he turned in her grasp and kissed her palm.

Her heart thudded in her chest as he brought her hand down to intertwine with his over the console between them.

“And I missed you. Margo…” Sergei broke off, and what further he wanted to say died in his throat as they simply stared at each other.

Margo broke eye contact and pulled her hands away, trying to reign in her emotions and run-away thoughts. Without her raft, she was in danger of saying and doing things she knew she couldn't afford to embrace.

“I'm here to help capture an asteroid and usher in a new age for life on Earth,” she said with growing determination. “We will succeed. Nothing can jeopardize that.”

Sergei turned in his seat to face her straight on. Nonplussed, he replied, “And when you have achieved this, what do you think will happen then?”

Margo opened her mouth to argue that Irina had promised her the outer solar system–hell, the deeper cosmos–but nothing came out.

“Your usefulness is only ever an illusion, Margo, as brilliant as you are,” Sergei continued more gently. “A trick, and a brutal one.”

Margo closed her eyes, squeezing them shut lest a tear escape. “Take me back to the hotel, please,” she asked softly.

Sergei broached contact once more, reaching forward to caress and gently turn her face to his. Margo relented and opened her eyes to be met with a face full of concern for her.

“We can navigate this, Margo, it will be treacherous but we will find a way. For both of us.” Sergei squeezed her hand before turning on his car.

Soft jazz filled the car as he pulled out of Franks and headed towards her hotel. Sensing how overwhelmed she was, he kept silent as he drove across Houston. It wasn't to be a long trip, so he took her hand with his and held it until he parked a discrete distance away from her hotel.

Silence returned to the car when he shut it off. The air was heavy, like the rains were shortly returning. A handy cover for her to sneak into the hotel, but a heavier portent for the future.

Margo couldn't as yet see any way forward other than work the asteroid. Her track record on manoeuvring escapes was dreadful and left only wreckage behind.

“I will be here for you, Margo, and I have a plan to get us out,” Sergei began, interrupting her thoughts.

Margo cut him off with a sharp look and a quick exhale.

“Thank you, Sergei, for… coming to see me. It is good to see you,” the words painfully exited her chest, “we can work together on the asteroid; I know I will need your help, but…” Margo wasn't quite sure how to tell him that there was no possible future for them, that his optimism and hope were a brutal illusion of their own.

Sergei interrupted her ramble and cradled her head with both hands. Pulling her gently towards him, he rested his head against hers. “You appeared. Out of nowhere. A dream so impossible. Let me-let us-dream the impossible. My grief for you left me with an empty heart, and yet it disappears with the reality of you. I am no longer numb or in wonder at my desolation. I have outlasted the storm and so have you.”

Margo exhaled slowly and closed the last distance between them. Pressing her lips to his, she kissed him softly. Breaking the kiss she rested her head gently against his.

“They called me Margaret Reynolds,” she whispered with a strained mirth.

“Sergei Bezuko,” he whispered back encouragingly.

At that shared absurdity the car was briefly filled with giggles. Sobriety returned along with the rain as it splattered the car. They both moved to embrace the other tightly.

“We can do both, Margo,” Sergei tried to reassure her.

“We will talk more about that,” Margo said, forestalling further talk of the future beyond the asteroid capture, “But, I need to get back. I'll message you through Aleida.”

Margo loosened her hold on Sergei, and he resisted the end of their embrace only briefly. He held her hands as he gazed at her, trying to memorize her in this moment.

“I will be here for you,” he said and pressed a kiss to her hands.

Margo nodded and with one last squeeze of his hands, she opened her car door and disappeared into the rain.

--

Notes! Mwhaha. I just want them to touch more. 😉 Also, I bastardized Pushkin there at the end there.

I am SO Excited for this!

JASON MANTZOUKAS in Series 19 of "Taskmaster"

The book Sergei is reading in S2E7

Have we noticed that the book Sergei is reading while packing up in his office to return to the Soviet Union is Henry Miller's The Tropic of Cancer? A book so sexually explicit that it was actually banned in multiple countries. No wonder he quickly hides it under a pile of documents when Margo steps in to tell him about the O ring issue.

It's on now

Pulled this off my bookshelf (image from Amazon). It is impossible for me to try something new and not deep dive into the subject before dropping it completely and then moving on...

You should see the hobbies left behind me.

I had at one time five discarded upright pianos. I tore apart three, learned to play on another (like cat's screwing!), rebuilt one and turned another into a garden planter.

I have several terrible half finished quilts.

I have lots of woodworking tools.

Master of none, dabbler with passable works in some.

So, I will try to be nice to the English language and anyone who reads my dabbles. I don't expect perfection, but I would like to be kind to the written word.

And to those of you experienced, I'd love feedback or advice for a novice. Feel free to message me.

I'll give this new obsession a month. 🤣

Sergei doesn't get a lot of screentime (but all that time with those shithead Stevens brothers?!), but we do get a few diamonds in that short time. Smug Sergei is a definite gem that I love.

Lovingly adoring Margo in an Elevator (3x03)

Drunk Sergei (2x06)

Smug Sergei (2x06, 3x06)

Feisty Sergei (2x07, 2x10)

EVERYTHING ELSE

Sergei + being a smug bastard (complimentary)