Just to give some background:
Main character is Natalya Gerard, age 22. I can’t divulge any more for risk of spoiling everything lol.
Currently, the story is set in 2010, but I plan to do some time traveling much the same as in our beloved episodes of POI. I’ll be sure to make it clear where we are.
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My hands shook as I made my way up the stairs towards the office of Agent Mark Snow; still lacking a complete understanding as to why this meeting was even taking place. After exhausting nearly every painful memory from my time in the military, I had determined that none of my dealings overseas could possibly be the reason for this encounter. I had witnessed some terrible things, and under orders from my superiors had been an instigator of still more; but none of them were inappropriate enough to warrant the interest of the CIA.

So why was this man interested in me? Besides my time in the Army I had led a pretty meaningless existence. I wracked my brain for anything from my life prior to enlisting after high school; but came up with nothing. I had spent the better part of 18 years doing exactly what a well brought up girl should do; going to school, completing assignments on time, and having the usual make up and break up sessions with both friends and significant others. As for being raised by a single mom, in today’s culture there was nothing unusual or interesting about that. At least, nothing interesting enough to spark the curiosity of a trained federal agent.

I sighed inwardly as I reached the top of the stairs; still at a loss for any insight into why I was here. I had no idea what was so important that this man had to pull me out of my brief time on leave for this meeting; and I groaned silently at the thought of losing what little time I had left in the States before going overseas once more. Having military ideals embedded into my being for the past four years protested at my selfish thinking, however; and I chastised myself for complaining about my current state. I would just have to trust that whatever happened as a result of this encounter would fall into place on its own; without me worrying about it.

“Easier said than done” I muttered to no one in particular as I raised a still shaking hand to knock on the door at the end of the hallway. When a male voice bade me to enter, I opened the door and stepped in; taking a deep breath. Little did I know that what I was walking into would change my life forever.
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“Ms. Gerard. It’s so good to finally put a face to the name” the man sitting at the desk in front of me said, getting up and moving around to the front of it to shake my hand. Being as nervous and confused as I was, I could only muster a short nod and the hint of a smile before he gestured to the seat in front of the desk; and moving back to sit in his own.

I sat slowly, taking in the room around me and the man within it. Besides the desk and a few chairs, there was hardly anything to mark this place as a personal space. I supposed the lack of personal items could be because of the nature of his job; but even in my own brief stints in offices with the military, I tried to keep the area a bit more homey with pictures or something else personalized. What caught my attention more than the room, though, was the man himself.

He was slightly taller than I was; with black hair that was thinning out at the top of his head. Thick set eyebrows rested above keen and watchful eyes; which would have given me a reason to be apprehensive if it wasn’t for the smile he gave me as I took my seat across from him. He wore a well-fitted black suit with a white dress shirt underneath; and I could tell even from the way he was seated that professionalism and order were ingrained just as heavily in him as they were in me.

I was jolted from my analysis of my interviewer when he spoke in a soft, yet commanding voice.

“Ms. Gerard, I understand you have a rather decorated background with our military. From your personnel file, I see that you have carried out all orders willingly and to the fullest extent of your ability. That is precisely what I want in a recruit.” He stopped speaking then to look at me; the look in his eyes clearly signifying that he wanted a response.

I swallowed quickly, trying to shake the qualms I felt over this stranger having access to everything I had been a part of since enlisting. I tried to come up with a suitable and intelligent reply; but all I could manage was:

“A recruit? For what?”

“For the CIA, Ms. Gerard. What else?” he responded, a smirk tugging up the corner of his mouth as he took in my obvious nervousness. “You follow orders, you clean up rather nicely after missions, and you are extraordinarily good in the field of hand-to-hand combat; if what I read here is any indication.”

“I thought the recruits you picked were always older?” I asked, my curiosity piqued, despite the internal sensor that was screaming for me to back up and ask more intelligent questions like “how did you even hear about me” and “what exactly will I be doing for you?”

“You’re correct, generally we do take on older individuals for our various positions” he replied, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the desk, hands clasped in front of him. “But we have reason to believe that your skillset will be of particular worth in our current predicament.”

“And what, pray tell, would that predicament be?” I asked him, leaning forward in my own chair; unable to avoid the pull of my curiosity. Whatever this was, and however shady it seemed that this man contacted me out of the blue for a job offer; I couldn’t deny the small surge of pride accompanying the knowledge that I was apparently worthy of enough consideration for the CIA to seek me out personally. Being an agent of some sort for the government had always been in the forefront of my mind since high school; but I had wanted to get a name established for myself with the military first before branching out to higher government agencies. It would seem, however, that I had already given myself a name; hence why I was here with Agent Snow.

“I have reason to believe that your particular skillset will be of great advantage to us in our efforts to seek out not only an item of great importance to national security; but also in seeking out and bringing down a former agent gone rogue in his own attempt to locate this item.” He said this while bringing out a manila folder from a drawer in his desk; sliding it across to me.

As I gazed down at the folder and tried to shake my confused brain into action, Agent Snow stood up suddenly, locking eyes with another agent who had just come into the room unbeknownst to me; wordless communication passing between them before he offered the other man a brief nod and continued to address me:

“Unfortunately, this is what I have to leave you with; as I have another meeting to attend. Take the file, read it over, and let me know what you think? I’ll call you in the morning.”

I grabbed the folder, looking up at him in the process; shocked at the appearance of the other agent and the surprisingly short conclusion to our meeting. “Shouldn’t we set up a time to discuss more?” I asked him, trying in vain not to let my confusion show through my voice. “You still barely know me. How can you be so sure I am the kind of candidate you are looking for?”

“I’ve known for quite some time, Ms. Gerard. You see, being in the position I am gives you the power to watch whoever you want whenever you want. I’ve watched you for quite a while now, and I like what I see. Oh, and you’ll learn something; should you decide to take on this position. With the CIA, less is always more.”

With that, he got up and opened the door for me as I walked out. I was rendered too speechless to do anything but give him one more handshake and a nod of thanks before I moved past the other man, and down the stairs in a daze.

Once outside, I hurried to the subway station to return to my tiny hotel room on the outskirts of town; my mind buzzing with questions and theories. There was a part of me that knew something was inherently wrong with this picture; that I had been taken in far too quickly for this to have been a normal recruitment procedure. That part was unfortunately ruled out by my desire to learn more about the mysterious man I had just spoken to. Everything about him had intrigued me from his apparent interest in acquiring me as a new hire to his quiet and yet commanding personality.

Rushing to put the key in the lock at my room, I let myself inside; wanting nothing more than to pour over the contents of the manila folder tucked safely in my grasp, eager to learn what or who it was I would be tracking. My decision was made. For better or worse, Mark Snow had sold me an offer and I bought it hook, line, and sinker. All I had to do now was read up on my task and await his call.

I looked over the file given to me by Agent Snow for what must have been hours that night; and woke again the following morning, putting a pot of coffee on and curling up in the chair by the window to continue my commitment of the documents to memory. Apparently the CIA was searching for a device that could predict acts of terror; in addition to other nefarious deeds that may warrant government intervention. To me, however, this device; for all its mystery and intrigue into the world of intelligence and spyware, paled in comparison to the man we were to hunt along with it.

Apparently an agent by the name of John Reese had previously been trusted with this assignment prior to it coming to me; but all of the information in the folder suggested that he had gone off the grid, killing a fellow agent and attempting to run off with the device himself. He had been unsuccessful in the latter, but it appeared that his intentions of murdering his partner, Cara Stanton, had gone off without a hitch. Since then, he had disappeared; and had been presumed dead until quite recently. Rumor had it that a man matching his description had been sighted, reigniting the search for the fugitive; which was where I came in.

As I looked at his photo; I had to admit, he looked like the type of man who could very easily overpower another agent and disappear wherever he liked. His personnel file from other assignments backed this opinion up, and I saw that he had been a part of enough projects gone bad for there to be a reason for his roguish behavior. I knew enough of the distasteful things that could occur when in the line of duty for one’s country that a small part of me almost pitied him for what he must have been through…almost. But a larger part of me knew that along with those sometimes horrific occurrences came the knowledge and responsibility that you should conduct yourself in a manner befitting of the uniform; or in his case the suit you wore.

A knock at my hotel room door startled me out of my thoughts; and I got up from the chair I had occupied, stretching as I moved to answer the door. I jumped back in surprise when I saw who stood outside.

“Morning sunshine” Agent Snow said, eyeing me with appreciation as he took in my rumpled and “just out of bed” appearance. “I was going to call; but I figured we’d both do better with another face to face meeting.”

I stepped back from the doorway, wondering how in hell he had figured out where I was staying, and blushing at being caught by a federal agent while still in my pajamas. I allowed him to come into the room, attempting to hide my surprise as I shut the door behind him. Trying to regain my ability to speak, I turned to the center of the room to face him; but was spared the trouble of initiating a conversation when he said:

“So, did you get a chance to look over the file I gave you?” he asked, while perusing the small room I was dwelling in as if to try and glean as much as possible about its inhabitant from the contents alone.

“I did, sir” I responded, running a hand through my tangled hair as I drifted over to the coffee pot. “Would you like anything?” I continued as I poured myself a cup.

“No, thank you Ms. Gerard. And you may call me Mark. I find all the ‘sirs’ can be somewhat…tiring” he said, turning to face me and smiling with seeming warmth before continuing. “Have you come to a decision regarding my offer?”

I took a swig of the coffee to calm my rattled nerves before answering:

“Yes I have. But I’m curious how you think I can help you acquire both the device and the man. The device itself may be simple enough to find, but it seems as though Reese is very adept at making sure he stays hidden. What makes you think I would be able to locate him over anyone else that you could recruit?”

Mark laughed, sitting down on the edge of my unmade bed before answering:

“I suspected you would ask me that. I have it on very good authority that you were quite skilled at navigation and flushing out suspected terrorists in your time overseas. I have no doubts that your skills will be of similar value in this task.”

I gazed at him from my place by the coffee pot, trying to figure out whether I was honored that he had this much faith in my abilities; or scared that he appeared to know so much about my time overseas without even broaching the subject in our conversations. I decided to go with honored; and gave him a smile of my own before setting my empty cup down and returning to my seat in the chair by the window; bringing my knees up so I could rest my chin on them. I brought up a hand to push an unruly strand of hair behind my ear before addressing him:

“So, if I did take this job; when would I start? I would need to get word to my Commanding Officer that I wouldn’t be returning to active duty when expected…”

Mark held up a hand to silence me, saying:

“We will cover communication with your CO as soon as we get your acceptance of the offer. As for when you would start; the job begins as soon as you agree to take it. We need to move quickly if we hope to catch up to Reese in time.” He looked me over again as he continued:

“How do you feel about going to China?”

I fought to keep my facial expression neutral as I swallowed this change in gears. “China. You suspect that Reese is still there?”

“We have reason to believe that he may still be lurking around; yes. At any rate, even if he isn’t there; we can try and trace where he may be headed to next by asking around. I trust you’re trained in interrogation techniques as well?”

“Oh, I have some rudimentary skill I suppose” I said, giving him a smirk as I internally gaped at myself for my odd behavior. What in God’s name was I doing sounding for all the world as if I was flirting with him? He was a federal agent, for Christ’s sake; and I barely knew him! I attributed my unusual behavior to my loneliness both physically and emotionally; but even so, I knew better than to throw myself at someone, especially as this particular someone was about to become my boss. I tried to remind myself that he was only here to offer me a job; nothing more, but upon seeing him looking at me once more with that strange glint in his eye, all hope of that fell through the cracks. Mark Snow was an enigma to me; and unfortunately for my romantic history, I had fallen for “enigmas” all too frequently. I shook my head slightly, attempting to ward off such musings when he jolted me once more from my thoughts as he said:

“I have no doubt that you possess many skills, Ms. Gerard; all of which I intend to explore thoroughly.” He smirked at me as he stood once more, and took a piece of paper (a plane ticket, I discovered, upon seeing it close up) out of his coat pocket before saying:

“Meet me in the parking lot here at 6am tomorrow. This is your ticket for our flight to China. Oh, and Ms. Gerard? Be sure to wear something…appropriate. We’ll be going in as a wealthy businessman and his mistress; so be sure to look the part.” He handed me the ticket and, with one last look at me, he was gone.

Great. Just bloody perfect; I thought to myself as I slowly shut the door. Here I was, seemingly without very much in the way of consideration; about to go across the world with a perfect stranger under the pretense of being his mistress. To make matters worse, I found myself (much to my chagrin), all too interested in my new “boss”; and the get-up that we were to assume was not likely to dissuade that interest any time soon. I could, of course, hope that his interest in me would remain only professional; and thus relieve me of my fear that things would soon get complicated between us. However, if his looks at me throughout our meeting were any indication; he felt at least a small interest in me as well; and I knew all too well what that may lead to.

I sighed, walking into the tiny bathroom of my hotel room and turning on the faucet in the shower. Perhaps if I cleaned up and spent the rest of the day touring the city; I could distract myself from my current predicament.

If only I could be so lucky.

My alarm beeped maliciously at 4:30 the following morning; and I was obliged to get up with a groan, rolling across the bed to slap at the clock before trudging into the bathroom to shower. As I stood there with the warm water washing over my body; the irritation at having to be up at this hour was quickly replaced by my excitement over the day’s agenda.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a towel, my heart rate accelerating even further as I saw the shopping bag that housed the admittedly superfluous purchase I made the previous day during my tour of the city. I knew that I had perhaps taken Mark’s statement of “looking the part” a bit too seriously when buying the strappy black sundress and matching heeled sandals; but I just couldn’t help but want to make at least an attempt at flabbergasting him as much as he had me.

Slipping into the dress and donning the heels, I made my way back into the bathroom to fix my hair and makeup into some semblance of order; sipping at a cup of coffee that had been brewing while I was cleaning up. Once I was satisfied with my ability to pass as a wealthy businessman’s mistress, I strode back to the room to zip up my travel bag. A sharp knock at the door halted me in my actions; and I froze only momentarily before setting the bag back down on the bed. Throwing back the last swig of coffee in the cup, I moved to answer; opening the door and stepping back with a much more composed smile than I had managed at our previous meetings, as Agent Snow appeared on the other side.

“Well, you clean up nice” he said, smiling and looking me over before standing back from the doorway and motioning for me to exit. “The cab is waiting; we have to move quickly if we want to make the earlier flight.”

I nodded at him, taking one last look around my tiny room before picking up my duffel and heading out. I had no idea where this job was taking me; but I knew it had to be better than living day to day in a hotel room with no one but the spiders for company. And I knew it was a whole lot better than returning to the Middle East and the combat that was rampant there.

Or so I thought.
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A few days into our quest to track Reese; I had discovered that he was just much of a mystery as my new boss. He was always one step ahead of our efforts to locate him; and I was beginning to feel that perhaps the CIA could have chosen a better person to aid them in tracking the rogue. Just as I was about to suggest this thought to Mark, however, we received a well-deserved change of fortune.

I had managed to catch on to the fact that the current trail we were following was actually a well laid ruse; and Snow was quite pleased at my easy detection of what would have amounted to a wild goose chase. Reese had made it seem as though his trail was inward; into the heart of China when in fact he had already left just this morning for the States. I had been all for departing immediately to follow him; but Mark had other ideas, claiming with a smirk that we had not done a very decent job of acting the part of the businessman and his mistress during our stay.

“After all” he had said, grinning at me, “we can always catch a flight bright and early tomorrow. I doubt our friend will have gotten very far by then.”

So it was that I found myself donning a glittering dark blue dress that Mark had nabbed from a local fashion emporium nearby our hotel; and I was adjusting the straps and inspecting my appearance in the mirror on the closet door, when Mark himself appeared behind me dressed as always in that impeccable black dress suit. He strode up so that he was just inches from my exposed back; and I shivered as the fabric of his suit jacket brushed against my skin (the dress had a rather unfortunate knack to plunge down to my waist, revealing quite a bit of my shoulders and lower back…which I was almost positive was his intent when he purchased it).

“Ready to wow all of the diplomats at the gala?” he asked, resting his chin on my shoulder as he snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me into his chest.

As I took in the almost predatory gleam in his eyes, I stiffened automatically, unsure how to take this newest development; all the while fighting the part of me that was rejoicing at this intimate contact. I had to be kidding myself if I actually thought he was doing anything more than playing along with our assigned roles.

Repeating this thought to myself as though it were my new mantra, I smiled at him in the mirror as I played his game; leaning back against him, and taking extra care to brush my hips against his before stepping around him and moving towards the door.

I reveled in his dazed expression as I walked away, picking up my purse that had been sitting on the edge of the bed; and turning to face him as I said

“Coming, Agent Snow?”

He shook himself minutely, generating barely enough movement for it to be noticeable; before joining me and snaking an arm around my waste once more. A shiver went down my spine as he planted a light kiss against my neck; before saying:

“Absolutely.”

We walked out of the hotel room together, and made our way to the gala; acting for all the world as though we were indeed who we pretended to be. Although I was loath to admit this; I enjoyed every deceptive minute of it.

(December 2011)

I woke up to the high pitched ringing of a cell phone on the coffee table in a downtown New York City hotel room; and extricated myself from the sheets to answer it, throwing a hand over my eyes as I flipped on the lamp above the bed and adjusted to the sudden brightness in the room.

“Gerard” I croaked out upon reaching the phone; swallowing to try and rid my voice of its hoarseness as the person on the other line spoke.

“Natalya, this is Joss Carter. Listen, I know where Reese is going to be. He’s headed to a parking garage outside the hospital to finish up a job. You guys can catch him there.”

Upon hearing her words, I found myself fully awake; anxious and excited at the news that we had waited nearly a year for. We had him. After all this time playing cat and mouse, getting just close enough to grab him, only to have him slip through our fingers like smoke; he was finally out in the open again. The elation I felt at this new breakthrough sent waves of excitement rolling off of me; and I found myself itching to get out of the hotel room to fulfill the task that I had been called here to do.

“Hang on a second Carter, I have to tell Mark” I told the detective, while simultaneously climbing back onto the bed to nudge at the agent who had been sleeping beside me.

“You go ahead and do that Agent Gerard; I have to go take care of something else, okay? We’ll talk later.” And with that, she hung up.

I briefly considered how eager she seemed to end the call before returning to my task at hand; nudging Mark again as he slowly stirred to life.

He eyed me blearily, stretching before saying with a smirk

“You ready for more, sunshine?”

I rolled my eyes, blowing off his reference to our, for lack of a better term, “arrangement”. Ever since that night at the gala (when I had admittedly imbibed a bit too much on champagne); we had taken to enjoying each other’s company in a more intimate fashion. Whether we did this because there were some feelings for each other buried somewhere underneath the surface; or merely to relieve the inherent loneliness and lack of physical contact that stemmed from our job, I’ll never know. I really couldn’t even justify why I allowed myself to get in this particular position in the first place; what with all of the moral teachings and military training from my past casting a significant amount of guilt on our trysts. At any rate, I thought to myself, it was what it was; and I supposed that I would answer to God later if there was issue with my conduct.

Mark propped himself up on an elbow and reached out a hand, placing it possessively on my knee and startling me out of my musings as he asked

“What is it?”

“Carter said she found where Reese is. He’s going to a parking structure near the hospital; so we’d better get moving if we want to catch him.” I replied, stifling a yelp of surprise as he threw himself on top of me; grinning from ear to ear and planting a solid kiss on my lips before jumping out of bed to get dressed. I fought back my quick pang of longing as I found myself wishing he would look that genuinely happy about something other than the job; something I knew for a fact would never happen.

Sighing as I watched him get dressed, I repeated my new mantra of the past few months: it wouldn’t do to start getting all emotional now, not when I knew exactly what I had gotten myself into from the very beginning.

Stretching slowly, I got out of bed and began rummaging around for some comfortable clothes for the task at hand. After dressing in some loose black slacks and a blue T-shirt, and strapping my gun to my waist; I paused in front of the mirror to tie my unruly locks into a loose bun before grabbing the keys and following Mark (once again in a suit) out the door.

By the time we reached the car, my melancholy thoughts were a thing of the past; and I found myself once again taut with excitement at what we were about to accomplish.
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Soon after leaving the hotel, we stopped by the police station to grab Carter; and then the three of us skidded off on our way to the hospital. Video feed of the parking structure that had been secured by one of Mark’s goons indicated that Reese was still within; and I felt my anxiety edge up with every passing mile that brought us closer to our destination. I could sense Mark’s excitement as well; the eagerness at catching up to our fugitive radiating off him in waves.

Carter was the only one who seemed a little unsure; but I chalked that up to her relatively recent connection with the man. Reese had, for some reason, saved her life a week or so prior; and I had to admit that if I were in her shoes, I would be feeling a certain amount of trepidation as well.

My emotions were not nearly so tied up with our fugitive as the detective’s though; as I had only heard stories of the brutal murders he was capable of since his departure from the CIA. Given my habit of forming attachments to people I really shouldn’t be involved with (hence my current entanglement with Mark); I suppose this was probably a good thing.

By the time we had pulled up to the top level of the structure and sighted Reese walking towards a car on the other side; my nerves were tight as a drum, and it was with extreme effort that I was able to get out of the car slowly, to move around to the front alongside Mark.

The tall man (also in a suit…is that all these ops knew how to wear?) turned slowly to face our direction; and I was immediately floored by the depth of emotion spanning his face within the millisecond before Mark spoke to him. Surprise at seeing us, anger at Carter, curiosity tinged with a bit of a haunted look at my appearance, and resentment towards Mark all boiled to the surface before his face was, once again, a stoic mask of indifference.
Even his reply to Mark’s hello was calm and collected; with only a hint of the surprise he surely must have felt.

I wondered silently at his ability to remain calm in a situation such as this; but I figured if you were a seasoned killer, then not much out there would faze you. I was all too ready to accept that as the reason for his seeming calm; but something in the tone of Mark’s next statement “glad to see you’re still alive” alerted me to something that I hadn’t picked up on before. There was a bit more than pleasure at finally catching a fugitive in his voice; something that sounded more akin to a primal desire for revenge. I looked over at Mark, trying to gage where his tone may be coming from; and the look I saw in his eyes as he gazed at the ex-op horrified me. It was a look that I could only describe as the look one gets when they are hunting down an animal purely for sport. There was no gratification in his eyes, signifying knowledge of justice served; only a look of pure glee at the other man’s impending misfortune.

To add to my growing discomfort with the current situation; it seemed as though Reese was trying desperately to communicate with either myself or Detective Carter, because he was looking for all the world like a man pleading for a second chance as his gaze swiveled around and locked with mine. As Mark continued to talk to him, and he continued to respond; his eyes never left my face, locking us in a wordless stream of communication that rendered me, for the first time since accepting it, unsure of my task.

I had seen the pleading looks cast my way on the faces of men I had helped track for the military as we closed in on them; but those looks were filled more with desperation and fear at finally being held responsible for their crimes. Reese’s eyes held another story entirely. He wasn’t so much pleading to be spared any punishment; as he was pleading to get a chance to explain himself.

Something in me knew, at that moment, that we did not know his whole story; and that we were about to punish someone a bit more than they deserved as a result. I looked back over at Mark, intending to mention that we should perhaps take the man somewhere more private for questioning so that we could shed more light on what he had really been through. The night was turning colder; and I figured it may help to make Reese more comfortable (if that were even possible given the situation) if we were sitting at a table to talk, rather than ganging up on him in the street like a band of thugs.

As I opened my mouth to speak, however, Mark cut me off; once again addressing Reese as he said:

“It’s time to come home John. The slate’s been wiped clean.”

Reese gave me one last, heart-wrenching look as I was attempting to process the meaning of Mark’s statement before he said

“You know that’ll never happen.”

As if on cue from his defiance; a single shot rang out from somewhere up above and behind me; and I dove back behind the SUV as more gunshots followed. By the time I had recovered from my surprise enough to make it back out in front of the vehicle with my gun at the ready, both headlights had been shot out and Reese was nowhere to be found. Carter had disappeared too, and this did nothing to strengthen my growing doubts about why I was here.

If we had come to take Reese in so that he could serve time for all of the things he was accused of; why on earth had Mark looked so damn predatory? And where in hell had that gunshot come from? I realized, belatedly, that had I been standing one step closer to Reese it would have hit me; and my horror only increased as I heard Mark yelling into his earpiece at the hidden gunman. He had never intended to take Reese in alive; and the fact that he knew I was standing in the line of fire and had done nothing spoke volumes to me in that moment.

I backed away from the SUV slowly, the events of the past few minutes and their implications beginning to sink in. Mark turned, then, to see me moving away; and he strode around the vehicle, reaching a hand out as he continued to walk towards me.

“Come on Natalya, let’s go. We still have a chance to catch him.”

I knew the look on his face was supposed to show empathy; but perhaps it was the knowledge that he would have let me be killed if it meant he got what he wanted that finally snapped my tenuous illusion of him as the knight in shining armor. I continued backing away, gasping for air as I realized I was choking out sobs.

“You stay away from me!” I cried out, instinctively drawing my gun once more and aiming it at his chest as I continued to back away from him. A surge of bravado that I didn’t know I had bubbled up as I kept moving backwards, as I addressed him in a more confident manner.

“Tell me, Mark” I said, forcing as much venom into my words as possible, “how long were you going to wait before you offed me too? Before you decided I needed to have a slate or two of my own cleaned?”

“Listen, Natalya it wasn’t like that with you. You saw John’s file; he’s done some…terrible things” he said, trying to calm me down; the look on his face clearly showing that he was not expecting this sudden turn in my allegiance.

As he continued approaching me, I noticed his hand go reflexively to his gun; and that was all I needed to move me to action. If I had learned nothing else from my time with Snow, it was that with the agency; it was either kill or be killed.

Squeezing my finger over the trigger of my gun; I fired one shot, not bothering to check if I had hit my target or not as I ran off into the night.

After that night on the rooftop of the parking garage, I spent the better part of two weeks jumping from hotel room to hotel room; searching for any indication that the man I had hunted for Snow was still alive. I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that he was still among the living, even though I could not find a single trace of evidence to confirm my suspicions. It didn’t help that I had to keep dodging Snow and his cronies whenever I went out; and the continued delays in my search as a result of always looking over my shoulder had me almost convinced that I should just pack up my things and leave New York for good.

I had to laugh at my stubborn desire to remain in town despite all that had happened; especially because I had no idea what I would do if I actually did turn up proof that Reese was still alive. A part of me wanted to go to him and beg forgiveness for my stupidity in trusting Snow and being a part of the team meant to take him out; while another part of my mind strongly suspected that I may be walking into my own death trap if I sought him out. He had no reason at all to trust me after what I had been a part of; and I had to be kidding myself if I believed otherwise.

Still, that look he had given me before being shot down disturbed me on a shockingly deep level. From his wordless communication with me right up until the shots rang out, I could tell that we were on the wrong track when we assumed he was rogue. With that knowledge, came many questions that I doubted I would ever get the answers too. What were the reasons behind him supposedly going rogue in the first place? Had he really killed his partner, or was he simply being framed for it? Why had Mark been so willing to shoot first and ask questions later? Never before had I seen an enforcer of the law act in that manner, and Mark’s actions served to further cement my belief that there was more to John Reese than a cold-blooded killer. He had done some terrible things since leaving the CIA, but from the events that I had witnessed that night; I now had every reason to believe that there was more to his story than I had been given at the start of my dealings with Mark.

Shaking my head at the relentless thoughts bombarding my brain when all I wanted to do was sleep; I rolled out of the bed in my most recent hotel room, stretching slowly before shuffling over to my bag that was full of clothes and other necessities I had purchased the morning after the rooftop incident. I hadn’t been able to get back to the hotel room I shared with Snow, as I wasn’t entirely certain whether he would return there himself or not; so I had instead taken the rather sizeable chunk of cash that I kept on me in case of emergency and bought an entirely new set of clothes and other assorted items. I had no idea what I would do when my food supply and spare cash ran out, as I was fairly certain that Snow and company were watching my accounts in an effort to trace where I was and what I was up to. I’d just have to deal with that little problem when I came to it.

Donning a faded pair of blue jeans and a light purple sweater, I moved to peer out my window to make sure I hadn’t been located. Seeing nothing suspicious, I put on my tennis shoes and walked out the door, locking it securely behind me.

I slowly began to relax as the cool night air washed over me, and I decided maybe a late night snack would aid me in achieving sleep. I had always been odd in that way; able to sleep immediately after eating as opposed to feeling more awake. That was something that had caused my family quite a bit of amusement; and I smiled to myself as the old memories resurfaced, a pleasant change when compared to my more recent thoughts.

Moving down the street and towards a bar where they served excellent onion rings; I was distracted by the site of a young woman being trailed by a particularly seedy looking gentleman on the opposite side of the street. Having seen a similar leer in Snow’s eyes whenever he looked at me, it was fairly obvious what the man wanted, and much to my chagrin; the woman was unaware of her impending predicament, as she walked on down the street listening to headphones.

I stood there on my side of the street, trying to think of what to do next. Of course, there was always the option of simply walking on and letting her handle this herself; but I laughed at the thought, knowing that I couldn’t live with myself if I knowingly let yet another innocent person fall prey to harm. That left two options: attack the man before he got his hands on his victim, or approach her and hope that he gave up the chase at that point. I didn’t particularly want to start a fight with the man; especially since I wasn’t altogether certain that I could successfully take on his bulk without hurting myself in the process. Approaching the woman, pretending to be an acquaintance, and hoping the man would lose interest once she was no longer alone had a slightly lower risk of coming to harm myself; but the downside to that was if she perceived me as a threat, she would obviously fight; and I didn’t want to cause her undue harm as a result.

After realizing that they were almost out of my line of sight while I stood there pondering my options, I ran across the street to catch up with them; deciding that I would pretend to know the woman, and go with taking on the man if he still didn’t give up the chase after that.
“Hey!” I called out as I neared their position. My shout was lost on the woman, most likely due to her headphones; but the man took notice of my approach and held back slightly. Presuming he was perhaps considering going off in another direction, I closed the distance between myself and the woman, lightly tapping her shoulder as I slowed to a walk beside her.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked, shock at my sudden appearance showing in her features. I saw that she had made a move to her purse, likely to pull out Mace or a gun, so I hurriedly began explaining my presence:

“There’s a man who’s been following you for the past couple of minutes. You need to pretend like you know who I am, alright? I’m hoping he’ll give up once he realizes you aren’t alone.” I whispered quickly, attempting to convey to her through my words and my eyes that she needed to trust me.

A brief look of confusion flashed across her face before she said “Oh Madeline, how are you! I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first!”

Pleased that she had caught on so quickly, I turned to stand beside her, letting her loop a shaking arm through mine as we moved to walk forward. We were stopped in our tracks however, when the man who had been following her appeared in front of us, blocking our path.

“You know, I’ve always wanted to try a threesome” he said, moving towards us slowly and drawing out something that flashed dimly in the lights of the street. A knife.
I slowly maneuvered the woman so that she stood behind me before speaking to the man with all the contempt I could muster.

“You must be dreaming if you think either of us would ever get in bed with a sleazebag like you” I spat out, hoping to garner all his attention for myself so that the girl could get away.

My words had the effect I had desired, and I saw the anger flash across his face as he brought his knife up so it was level with my chest as he started to walk towards us again. I continued to back up, pushing the girl behind me; all the while analyzing my options. I had, unfortunately, left my gun back in the hotel room; so my only choice was to attempt to knock the knife out of his hands or deflect it back on him.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to make my move when a blurry form knocked our would-be assailant into the alley beside us. Recovering quickly from my shock at the appearance of this rescuer, I turned back to the girl, and said with all the urgency I could muster:

“Run.”

She wasted no time in following my instructions, and that left me to ponder what my own next move should be. The alley had gone silent, and I cast aside all thoughts of making my way back to the hotel, as I cautiously moved forward to see if the man who had helped us was alright. As I moved deeper into the alley and my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I made out a dark figure crouched in the corner and speaking to what appeared to be thin air.

“Wishing bullet wounds healed a bit faster right about now” the figure, a male judging by his voice, said.

As I approached him, I saw that he was hunched over, breathing heavily and clutching at his side. I began to open my mouth to ask if he needed any help when he looked up at me; and the words I intended on speaking slithered back down my throat to land with a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The man looking up at me from the alley floor…the man who had potentially just saved my life was none other than John Reese.

I opened and closed my mouth several times as I stared at Reese before turning away, walking as quickly as I could back towards the main street. I couldn’t be here, not with the man I had almost killed; however indirectly. The overpowering sense of guilt I felt as he watched me without showing the slightest bit of apprehension at being alone in a deserted alley with a part of the team that hunted him was too much for me to bear. I felt as though, if I stood there with him watching me as though I was someone he could actually trust for much longer, I would lose the little bit of sanity I had left. By rights, he should have made his move to take me out by now; and I was certain that despite his recent injuries, he was more than up to the task. So why was he just standing there as though we were about to engage in a normal conversation?

As I continued walking out of the alley, I fought to remain in the present instead of getting lost in my regrets. It wouldn’t do to be distracted in case Reese suddenly changed his mind and did attempt to exact his revenge. I didn’t want to hurt him again, but it wasn’t as though I could go down without a fight. Not that I would stand much of a chance against him; if his dealing with the other man who meant to assault the young woman earlier was any indication.

I was almost to the street when he grabbed my arm; not roughly, but with just enough strength to cause me to stop and turn back to face him. He opened his mouth to speak to me, but I cut him off before he could say anything.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you again, but if you try to kill me I won’t really have much of a choice.” I looked up at him as I spoke, hoping to show him that I was being truthful and not just pretending to care about his safety to save my own skin; and I was shocked to see that his eyes didn’t hold the menace and anger I had expected. Rather, they held a look of understanding, as though he knew, on some level, that I had never intended to kill him that night at the parking garage; despite my involvement with the man who wanted him dead.

He continued to look at me for a moment with a curious expression on his face before saying:

“What makes you think I want to kill you?”

I paused for a minute before answering, trying to figure out if his confused tone was genuine, or just a ruse to get me to let my guard down. After deeming that he didn’t appear to be toying with me, I responded:

“Why wouldn’t you? I almost did the same to you.”

“Mark Snow has a way of…persuading people to do things that they wouldn’t under normal circumstances” he told me, and I noticed his mouth twitch up into what could only be described as a self-mocking grin as he released his hold on my arm and stepped back slightly.

“I still should have been able to sense something was off long before we even came close to catching you, though” I protested. For some indescribable reason, I didn’t want him to let me off the hook this easily. I had formed an alliance with Snow of my own volition, and I could not deny that I had pushed off my mind’s alarms at several “signs” that had cropped up throughout our time together. In my mind, that could never be excused, no matter how much the man in the alley with me seemed bent on ignoring it.

“I’m going to hazard a guess that he fed you some line about you being a perfect candidate for the job; and how your skillset would be a great asset to his enterprise?” he asked me, that same look of self-mocking still etched in his features.

I fought back the surge of shock that coursed through me as I heard the words leave his mouth. I couldn’t help but remember Snow saying those things to me, almost verbatim; and I wondered at how this man who knew nothing about me could have nailed this particular part of my life so exactly. Swallowing my trepidation at yet another person having knowledge of my life before I even met them, I asked him:

“Did he give you the same story when you joined? Is that why you eventually left?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes” he said, his eyes going flat as he shifted his gaze to meet mine and continued to speak “Only I did far more for him before I realized just how bad he really was. Hence why I have no desire to kill you. I know just how cunning he can be; and I can’t deal out justice to you when I’ve done far worse.”

I blinked a couple of times as I reasoned through his explanation. I now had a seemingly logical answer to why he didn’t want me dead; but I found several other questions crowding my thoughts to take that one’s place. I opened my mouth to throw another one at him, but he spoke first, saying:

“I’m all for continuing this conversation Miss…” he paused, looking at me and waiting for me to give him my name.

“Gerard. Natalya Gerard” I supplied after a moment’s hesitation, figuring that if I didn’t give him my real name, he’d just find it some other way.

“Well, Miss Gerard, as I was saying; I’m all for continuing this conversation, but I think we should find someplace a bit more…enclosed than our current location. How would you feel about grabbing a coffee?”

I stared at him, unsure of how to proceed. I wanted to learn more about him, that was certain, but I still couldn’t get behind the fact that he seemed as if he trusted me already. What made matters even more confusing was the fact that I found myself similarly trusting him; even though my past experiences were thrusting evidence at me that I shouldn’t lest I find myself dealing with another Snow. I shrugged that feeling aside, deciding that if I had come through the debacle with Mark unscathed, I could afford to risk entering another situation with someone that was, at least for now, less threatening. Besides, we shared something through our mutual experience with Snow; something that made me believe that Reese wouldn’t yank my chain deliberately, and in the end it was this knowledge that persuaded me to agree to his proposal.

“Sure, I could go for a coffee. It’s not like I’m sleeping tonight anyway” I told him, earning a slight smile from him before he gestured for me to exit the alley.

We moved together into the flow of human traffic on the sidewalk, and he placed a hand lightly at the small of my back to guide me towards our destination; his other hand never quite leaving the back of his suit jacket, where I assumed a gun was hidden. As we made our way down the street in silence, I risked a few glances up at him; and wasn’t surprised to see his eyes scanning around the street, on high alert for any hint of a threat to either one of us. For reasons unknown to me, I couldn’t be bothered to do the same; despite all my training that would indicate that I should be mimicking his actions. I felt…safe with this man, even though I was at a loss to explain why. Even with the knowledge that Snow had gained my trust just about as quickly as Reese did, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this scenario was different somehow. I could only hope that I was right; that Reese could be trusted, and that I wasn’t headed down yet another path based on lies and deceit.

I kept moving, blind to the world while deep in my thoughts until I realized that I could no longer sense Reese by my side. I came to a stop, turning around quickly, when I saw him standing next to a door of what I noticed was a late night diner; attempting to suppress a smile as he observed me.

“I wondered when you were going to stop walking. You really should be more observant, you know” he said with a small laugh, holding the door open for me as I made my way back to him and entered the diner. My face flushed a bit as I followed him to a booth in the back corner of the room.

“I’m sorry, I just…I got lost in thought” I said, taking the seat in the booth opposite him, and crossing my arms in front of me on the table. I didn’t know why it mattered to me, all of a sudden, what kind of impression I made on him. I just knew that it stung like hell that he may, through my own actions, be led to believe that I was just some gullible damsel in distress who would fall for any line she was given, and that couldn’t even maintain awareness of her surroundings in case she needed to defend herself.

He jolted me out of my thoughts once more as he said “I understand. You’ve had to take a lot in within the last few minutes.” The understanding (and, did I see kindness?) that was evident in his eyes as he looked at me quelled any fear of his disapproval; and I prepared to jump back into our previous conversation with new-found confidence. I found myself stopped short, however, when he brought up a hand to silence me as a waitress approached our table.

“What can I get the two of you?” the young girl asked us, eyeing Reese with uncovered appreciation. I suppressed a laugh at her open flirtation as he responded to her question.

“I’ll just take a coffee, black please” he told her, turning then to look at me.

“I’ll do the same” I told her, watching as she moved away before turning to John and making to pull out my wallet from my back pocket as I said “I can cover this.”

“No need” he said, smiling at me before continuing “We’re already covered. A friend of mine has a running tab here that he’s given me free reign to.”

“What kind of friend?” I asked, my curiosity ignited once again as I leaned forward on the table to get closer to him.

He chuckled at my question before turning the tables on me.

“If we’re going to play the game “twenty questions”, I think you should at least give me a fair chance to ask some of my own.” he said, smiling at me as I huffed at his evasive technique.

Begrudgingly, I admitted to myself that he had told me something about himself last before our journey here, and I figured that acquiescing to his desire for information on me would hold more possibility of cementing his trust than shutting him down. Besides, he would probably research my background on his own if I failed to come forward with it first.

I took the cup of coffee the waitress handed me upon her return to our table, taking a sip before setting the cup down and shifting in my seat to get more comfortable.

“Where would you like to begin, Mr. Reese? This has the potential to be a quite detailed story”

I found myself staring in disbelief at Reese from across the table, surprised at the intent gaze he was leveling in my direction as he sipped his coffee and waited for me to answer his question. No one had ever taken this much of an interest in me besides my own mother, so his curiosity was stunning to me to say the least. Despite every plausible reason I could think of to not be so forthcoming with him, however, I found that I couldn’t help but want…no, need to tell him everything he wanted to know; from how I started up with the military, to how Snow had recruited me, and what I had done while in the entourage of the CIA.

Laughing internally at my own almost involuntary openness with essentially a complete stranger, I responded to his question of how I had come into contact with Mark in the first place.

“After our last mission went south in Iraq, my CO sent me home on leave. He claimed I needed some time to recuperate after the heavy losses we sustained; and while I couldn’t agree more, I lacked even the faintest desire to return home. While with the military, I felt that I had finally gained what could be called true friends, so I was reluctant to leave them and return home to nothing; despite my weariness of the battlefield. In the end, I did come back to the States; and I ambled about aimlessly for a time, enjoying the comforts of home to some degree even though I had no one to catch up with. I had never really connected with anyone before departing for the service, so when I returned I was just as lonely as before I left. All of my friends were still over there; and I was home, doing nothing. I’m sure you can imagine how that felt. ”

I paused to take another sip of coffee, and to gage John’s reaction to my story. As I swallowed the now luke-warm beverage, I thought I saw a trace of sadness in his eyes as he continued looking at me intently from across the table. Of course he would know what it was like; feeling the bond you shared with your fellow soldiers after seeing and doing everything together for the time you were deployed. After all, according to his file, he had been a part of just as many team-oriented missions as I had, if not more; so he must know what it felt like to leave your brethren behind, whether it was to go home or to depart on a different task entirely.

I found myself jolted out of my recollections as he spoke once again:

“And then, Snow found you?” he asked, the sadness leaving his eyes to be replaced with tension and a bit of anger.

I nodded as I took one more swig from my cup before setting it down on the table.

“Only a few days into my leave, I get this call saying there is something very important that an Agent Snow needs to discuss with me; and that I should return the call to set up an appointment immediately” I said, watching the man in front of me with caution. I could sense that any mention of Snow was a sore spot for him; and I didn’t want to cause him any more agitation than I likely already had. Upon seeing that Reese was waiting for me to continue, though, I couldn’t help but comply.

“Long story short, I meet with him and he hands me your file” I said, watching Reese as he raised his eyebrows minutely at the mention of me reading his dossier before I continued “And he offers me the chance to help him hunt you down. Before I know it, I’m on a plane to China; masquerading as his mistress. I honestly have no idea what made me agree to it, because it’s not as though he had to do that much talking to get my interest up. I think I may have just been tired of all the conflict overseas regardless of how many friends I had left behind; and so I was looking for any excuse to not have to go back to that, you know? I figured hunting one man was going to be much easier than hunting several; and with much less carnage besides. At least, that was what I thought before I figured out what Mark really intended to do to you that night.”

I stopped speaking then, because I noticed that Reese’s hand that was resting on the table in between us had clenched into a fist; and as I looked up I saw a muscle in his jaw jumping sporadically as he fought to maintain control over whatever emotions he must have been feeling as a result of my narrative. Mistaking his anger as being directed at me; I shrank back in the seat I occupied, my voice quivering as I said:

“I’m sorry; really I am. I had no idea what he was going to do until it was too late.” After a few minutes of seeing no change in his stance, I made to get up out of the booth.

“Maybe I should just…go” I whispered as I sidled out of the seat; guilt washing over me in waves not only over what I had almost done to this man, but also at the fact that I was making him relive it. Freeing myself from the booth in an attempt to rid him of my obviously troubling presence; I made to leave him, only to find that his hand was now gripping my own as I made my way past him. The sudden contact caused me to look down at him, and I fought back tears as I saw the way he looked at me imploringly as he spoke.

“Please, stay” he said softly. “I’m not angry at you, trust me. I’m just…angry at the situation.”

I stood there for a moment, searching for any sign of duplicity in his expression before returning to my seat, my hand still being held tightly in his as though I was a life raft keeping him moored to the present instead of allowing him to drown in the ghosts of his past. Whatever Snow had done to me, he had done ten times worse to Reese; and I watched him from my seat on the opposite side of the booth, waiting for him to speak. I didn’t want to continue my story unless he was willing to hear it.

After a few more minutes of the two of us sitting in silence, my hand still held tightly in his, he spoke again, saying:

“Listen, we should probably find you some place to stay for the evening.”

I found myself fighting disappointment that he wanted to call it quits so soon; but I also recognized that, despite the coffee, I was starting to feel exhaustion creeping its way back into my body. Glancing at my watch, I realized with a jolt that it was already 1:00 am, and I found myself barely stifling a yawn as I looked back up at Reese.

He appeared to have recovered from the strain he was under just minutes ago, and was currently doing his best to control a smile at my failed attempt at pretending not to be tired. He got out of the booth with ease, gesturing to me to do the same as he continued:

“Don’t worry, Natalya; we’ll continue our little chat tomorrow. For now, though, we both should get some rest.”

Nodding at him, I got up out of the booth and followed him to the door of the diner; sending a smile of thanks to our waitress before we exited into the night. The streets had calmed down some since we had arrived, and I turned to head in the direction we had come from; but was stopped short by his hand once again reaching out to grab my arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, dragging me gently back towards him.

“Um…back to my hotel room?” I said as I gestured with a thumb in the direction of my pajamas and bed, unsure of why he was so confused.

He laughed at me briefly, before saying

“When I said we needed to get you someplace to stay for the night, I meant that I’d find you a new place. You probably shouldn’t be staying in the same location for too long anyway given that Snow is probably still tracking the both of us as we speak.”

I couldn’t deny that he was probably right, but I didn’t really want to lose yet another set of clothes; especially since I had just purchased these ones. I also didn’t relish being indebted to the man I had almost killed, no matter how much he claimed to have forgiven me; so I planted my feet firmly in the ground and protested:

“Really, John, I’ll be fine in the hotel I’m at. Besides, my clothes are there, and my gun”

I left out the part where I probably couldn’t afford to buy yet another new wardrobe without emptying more funds from an account that was likely being watched; not wanting him to feel obligated to go shopping for me in addition to finding me a place to stay.

A curious smile crossed his face before he said

“Relax. I have an acquaintance that can take care of securing your things for you by tomorrow morning. Besides, I’ll rest easier knowing you’re close by now that we both seem to have a price on our heads.”

Yet again, I found myself floored by this man’s uncanny ability to want to take care of me; despite all that had happened to him in part by my own hand. I could do nothing but nod in agreement, falling easily into step beside him as we walked in the opposite direction; away from my hotel and towards some new location that only he knew about.

We had been walking for some time in easy silence when a beeping sound interrupted our thoughts, and he reached a hand up to his ear (he must have had an earwig or something) and said:

“Finch. Funny you should call right now. I have a request for you.”

I listened quietly as we continued moving down the street, deciding that I would take over the task of surveillance while he was otherwise occupied with whoever “Finch” was. I felt a small surge of uneasiness as I heard him assuring his mystery friend that there was no reason not to let me stay in the hotel room next to his; and that his help in acquiring the necessary room would be appreciated. After several more exchanges, it seemed that this person had, albeit reluctantly, agreed to make the arrangements for my lodgings, and I looked sheepishly up at John as he hung up the call; saying

“I never meant to get you in trouble with your friend. If it’s easier I can just…”

John looked down at me, smiling and rolling his eyes as he responded

“You aren’t going back to that flea-bag motel tonight, and that’s final. Besides, it’s sort of in my job description to annoy my boss. Call it a perk of the job.”

“Oh, he’s your boss? And your friend? Who exactly is he?” I asked, unable to restrain my curiosity. It seemed only fair that, after the one-sided grilling I had received at the diner that he answer some of my questions as well.

I was met with another smile and a small laugh as he motioned for me to move ahead of him so we could maneuver through a throng of people standing in front of what looked to be a late night movie theater. He kept his hands firmly on my shoulders, as though afraid that someone would snatch me away from him, until we reached the other side of the group. We were well away from them before I got my answer.

“Those are questions that will have to wait for another time. We’re here” he said, gesturing up at the ritzy hotel that we had just reached.

I fought to keep my jaw from dropping to the ground as we entered the main lobby and approached the receptionist. Never in my life had I seen the inside of such a magnificent building, and I was rendered too speechless to even protest his aversion of my question. I just stood there, watching as he charmed the woman at the desk into giving him a room adjoining his own for his “little friend here”. As we walked away from the still-stunned receptionist; I looked up at him, asking:

“You’re sure this is okay? I mean, this place has to be ridiculously expensive and…”

He cut me off once again, and we entered the elevator; allowing the doors to close before he continued with a smirk:

“As I said before, I have a friend with a tab that I can basically do what I please with.”

I let the mention of this mysterious “friend” go for the time being; not wanting to pester him with my mundane questions when he was probably as tired as I was, if not more so. We reached our floor and left the elevator, walking down the hall in silence. He came to a stop next to a room labeled 314; and handed me a key for the one next door.

“I’ll be right next door if you need anything, okay? Sleep well” he said, giving me one last smile before turning to unlock his door.

I nodded at him, trying to return the smile before entering my own room; my fatigue finally overpowering me. I shuffled over to the bed, not even bothering to explore the fancy room or turn back the covers of the bed before flopping down on top of the sheets and promptly falling asleep.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
The next morning, I stretched out on the bed, stifling a yelp as my fingers brushed against a piece of paper that had been left beside me. Sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I ran a hand through my hair as I reached the other one down to pick up the sheet. It said:

N~
Had to go to work early, but I left my cell number by the light in case you needed me. I’ll be back to talk later.
Stay put.
JR

So he had come into my room while I was sleeping to scribble the note. I found myself caught somewhere between feeling touched that he wanted to let me know where he was, and freaked out that he had seen me while asleep. Stretching once more, I set the note back down on the bed; as I began to ponder how strictly he was about the phrase “stay put.” I figured that he meant to stay within the boundaries of the hotel itself, but did he expect me to remain confined to the room? I really wanted to explore the hotel during the day; as I had been too tired last night to get much appreciation for the splendor I was now surrounded by.

Deciding that I would interpret his words loosely, I hurriedly brushed my fingers through my hair, straightening my blouse and donning shoes as I made to leave the room. I could at least go down to the desk to see if his “friend” had retrieved my belongings yet; and if he had, I could bring them back up here and take a much needed shower. If not, I would just continue exploring the place, and hope that no one took too much notice of the fact that I looked like I had fallen asleep in my clothes.

Humming softly to myself, I made my way down the stairwell at the end of our hallway; squinting my eyes as I adjusted to the light that bombarded me upon entering the main lobby once again. I walked over to the receptionist; a male this time, and smiled up at him as I said:

“Excuse me, but did anyone leave a bag of belongings here earlier this morning for a Natalya Gerard?”

The young man looked at me curiously for a moment before heading to the room located behind the desk; and remaining there for quite some time. I found myself becoming impatient, as I wasn’t entirely sure why it was taking so long to find a single bag in a room that looked, at least from my position, to be fairly clean. Before I could do anything about my impatience, however, the man had returned.

“I’m terribly sorry miss, but we don’t have anything yet. I am aware of someone that has been looking for you though. In fact, I just called to let him know you were here.”

“I don’t understand; who’s looking for me?” I asked him, utterly confused at his statement. My mind raced as I attempted to figure out who this “person” might be. It couldn’t have been Reese, since he knew very well where I was. Perhaps it was his mysterious friend?

As I continued pondering who exactly was inquiring as to my whereabouts, a glare of sunlight splashed across my face as the front door of the building opened. The man behind the desk gestured towards the door, saying:

“Him, miss. He just arrived.”

I squinted yet again as I tried to make out who had just entered; my heart dropping to the floor as the man standing by the door came into focus behind the glare of the sun.

“Hello, sunshine. I was wondering where we’d find you” Mark said, smirking as he and the other agent with him began to move slowly towards me.

I cursed inwardly as I began backing away from him; sending a glare to the receptionist before turning quickly and running as fast as I could in the other direction. I had no idea how I was going to lose the two agents that I now heard running after me; but I knew for a fact that I would try like hell to do just that. I hadn’t spent time with the military for nothing; and hopefully some of that training would help me now when I needed it the most.

So I was on the run, again. I laughed at my foolish belief that maybe, just maybe, I could have finally settled into some sort of normalcy under Reese’s wing, as I ran with all I had towards the back door of the hotel; trying to evade Snow and company. A small part of me asked myself, what was the point of running? I had no reasonable escape route planned; and I could only bank on not being shot down in front of a crowd of people for so long before Mark lost patience and threw caution and appearances to the wind. But the deeper, more instinctual being inside me shoved that thought aside with all the vehemence it could muster; wanting, no, demanding that I get the hell out of there now.

As I ran past the hallway leading to the swimming pool, a sudden thought popped into my head. Acting on the impulse, and praying that it actually worked; I turned tail quickly, dashing down the hallway towards the pool area instead of continuing along my original path towards the back door. I quickly allowed a family of four to maneuver around me through the door from the pool back into the hotel; and smiled to myself as I continued running to the door that led outside onto a deck area as I heard the frustrated grunts of Mark and the other agent as they attempted to squeeze through the door against the flow of the other family’s movement.

Taking advantage of my momentary head start, I burst through the door and into the cool morning air; making a quick left to run towards the gate on the opposite side of the veranda. Seeing that it was locked, likely to keep guests from meandering into the alley behind it, I took a few steps back, simultaneously gauging exactly how I would have to run and jump to clear it. I began to run at it, preparing myself for the jump that, if done incorrectly, would very likely end in injury and of course, capture. As I ran up closer to the gate, I leapt out, placing a foot on the bottom and using my arms and the movement of my other leg up and over to propel myself into the alley.

As I dropped to the ground, rolling lightly and landing back on my feet, I heard Mark shout something to the other agent; before I heard the thud signifying that he too was in the alley with me. Pushing myself faster, I took the first right turn into yet another back alley behind a seafood restaurant and a Laundromat; and soon took a left turn onto the main street, hoping that I could lose him somehow in the crowd.

I continued running as fast as I could through the crowded street, all the while wondering how on earth Snow had found me so quickly. Had he really been lucky enough to happen upon that hotel by chance? Or had someone tipped him off? I fought back the brief thought flashing through my head that Reese could have done such a thing. It was impossible. I didn’t know him that well, obviously, but I doubted he had any motive for turning me in. And even if he had given Snow information as to my whereabouts, he could never have done so without the other agent also learning his own location; which is something that I knew without a doubt he would never risk.

As I kept running, I risked a glance back to see if I was still being followed; realizing with a curse that Snow was still running after me a few feet away. Pushing aside my growing fatigue, and ignoring the protest of my feet and legs; I ducked into another alley to my left, hoping that if this were to devolve into a shootout that I could at least avert harm coming to anyone else besides myself. I kept running, although I slowed slightly once I realized that I had ducked into an alley that was a dead-end.

Coming to a stop, I turned slowly, preparing myself to face Snow and whatever misery he had planned. I could have seen the predatory gleam in his eyes from a mile away; and I edged backwards towards the brick wall at the end of the alley, putting my hands up in front of me instinctively.

I expected him to shoot me. Or to back me into the wall and take advantage of our seclusion. I expected all number of things to happen to me in this alley as my luck ran out in front of my eyes. What I did not expect was the motorcycle to come shooting towards me from the previously unseen road on my left that led back out to the main street; skidding to a halt in front of me as the man riding it shot out a hand to grab me and yank me over to him. I had no choice but to clamber onto the bike, and hold on for dear life as he made a jackknife turn and shot back out of the alley and onto the street.

It only took me a minute to realize who it was that had saved me: Reese. I could tell that it was him from the hard set of his jaw and the patch of silver-grey hair just barely visible under the helmet. I wanted to say “thank you”, “hello”… anything that would give him the impression that I knew who he was and appreciated what he had done; but I found myself so overwhelmed with delayed fear at having almost been caught by Mark that I was only able to tighten my arms around his waist as I continued to ride in silence, my face buried in between his shoulder blades, and my nose squished against his leather jacket.

We came to a stop a few minutes later, and I peeked out from behind Reese’s shoulders to see that we were parked in front of a building that was obviously abandoned. Registering that he was waiting for me to get off the bike, I did so, stumbling backwards as my legs attempted to get used to standing still once more.

“Where exactly are we?” I managed to ask him, looking up at the building in front of me and wondering why exactly he had brought me here.

I was shocked when I turned around to face him, my curiosity at his lack of response turning to a twinge of fear as I saw the look of cold menace etched into his normally cool and expressionless features. I shrank back from him as he spoke in a tone that could have frightened the daylights out of even the most dangerous serial killer, saying:

“What, exactly, were you thinking when you practically offered yourself up to Snow on a silver platter, Natalya?”

I backed further away from him, hurriedly trying to organize my thoughts into some sort of logical explanation. Eyeing him cautiously as he continued pacing towards me like some sort of jungle cat, I began to speak.

“Look, I know your letter said to stay put. I figured that meant stay within the hotel; not necessarily just within the room.” As I saw his expression darken even more, if that were possible, I hurriedly continued

“I wanted to see if my things had been brought up from the other hotel, so I asked at the desk. In retrospect, I know I shouldn’t have mentioned my name; because that’s what tipped the receptionist to call Snow. But I have no idea how he happened to zone in on our hotel when there are so many others in this city.”

I paused in my explanation to gauge Reese’s reception of my answer. Seeing that he looked a little less like he wanted to throttle me, I inched a bit closer to him and risked laying a hand on his arm as I said

“I’m sorry you had to risk your own life to save mine. But I really had no way of knowing that Snow could find me that easily, did I?”

“That’s why I wanted you to stay put, Natalya. You have no way of knowing exactly how capable anyone in the CIA is of tracking people. How could you? You were recruited basically on a whim; and I’m assuming you weren’t even fully trained before Snow started having you work for him.”

He paused to look at me, obviously waiting for me to confirm my lack of official training. Despite the fact that what he said was true, I couldn’t help but bristle a bit at the insinuation that I didn’t know what I was doing. Fighting back the impulse to tell him that, despite my lack of official training, I had still managed to track him down; I instead gave him a curt nod and turned to move past him and back out on the street. I needed to go somewhere, preferably as far away from him as possible; so I could lick my metaphorical wounds after having disappointed him yet again. It bothered me that I was so sensitive to his opinion; and I had no logical explanation for why this was the case. I had barely made it past him, however, before he swooped into action once again; grabbing my arm and asking:

“What are you doing, Natalya?”

“Leaving, what does it look like?” I bit back, with a bit more venom than originally intended. I made a half-hearted attempt to shrug off his grip as I continued

“It’s obvious that my association with you can only lead you back into the hands of the CIA; which is the furthest thing from what I want. I think it would be easiest for the both of us if I just left now and we forget we ever met. That way you don’t have to keep running after me to save me; and I don’t have to keep worrying that I’m putting you in danger.”

His grip on my arm tightened to the point where it was bordering on actually being painful as he pulled me closer to him, saying:

“You aren’t going anywhere. I’ve been where you are right now, Natalya; and I know what you’re feeling.”

I made an attempt to cut him off and dispute his claim, but he continued on; preventing me from getting a word in.

“You don’t just come back from what the CIA can do to you on your own. I tried; and it didn’t work that well. You can’t expect me to just sit back and watch you become a wreck like I was; not when I can help you. And I will help you, Natalya. You just have to give me a chance.”

I gaped up at him for a moment, before asking him in a whisper:

“Why on earth are you so hell-bent on protecting me? You owe me nothing.”

He looked at me, his expression a mystery, before replying

“Do you know of a Maria Denchova?”

I made sure to give him my best “you’re a crazy person” look, before responding:

“Um…no. Why?”

He paused for a moment, something haunting flitting across his face before he answered me.

“Because you look exactly like her. You have her hair, her facial structure…it’s…scary” he concluded, looking at me as though this explanation should make everything about his actions suddenly crystal clear to me.

“And let me guess” I said, rolling my eyes before continuing “You wanted to save her but couldn’t, so now I’m her substitute?”

He chuckled softly before he replied

“Not exactly. We were…close friends. I cared about her a lot. You just…remind me of her. So I guess you could say, I do feel a need to protect you because of that. But not specifically to make up for not being able to protect her.”

“You realize you don’t make any sense at all sometimes?” I asked him, smiling slightly to let him know I was joking.

“I’m not paid to make sense, Natalya” he replied with a slight grin before he grabbed my arm, more gently this time, and began leading me towards the door of the building we were standing in front of.

“And speaking of getting paid, I have to go talk to my boss before going back to work. Why don’t we go inside, and you can meet the man behind the scenes?”

Nodding, I allowed him to guide me into the building, unsure of what lay inside. Smiling to myself, I figured that I could be fairly certain whatever or whoever waited for us on the other side of the door was safer than Snow and his cronies.

Little did I know that I had just underestimated one of the most misleading, and mysterious individuals I would ever come across.

“What the hell is this place?” I asked, spinning around slowly to take in all the books, shelves, and other odds and ends in the room we entered upon leaving the elevator. I had never seen anything like it before in my life; and I had to admit, I found my curiosity piqued. I was torn between continuing to follow Reese in order to meet his boss, and snatching a book to plop down and read right then and there.

John turned slightly from his position in front of me, continuing to walk down the hallway lined with bookshelves as he spoke,

“It’s sort of like headquarters for us. Everything we do is managed here; and the beauty of it is, no one else sees this building as anything more than an abandoned relic.”

“So what is it that you do, exactly?” I asked him, stopping abruptly as I allowed my focus to be distracted by a huge volume on the shelf to my right entitled “Stress Fractures in Titanium.” I lifted it down from the shelf, hefting its weight in my right arm once or twice as I returned my gaze to John.

“Has anyone ever told you that curiosity killed the cat?” he asked, fighting back a laugh as he rolled his eyes and gestured for me to continue following him.

Reluctantly, I returned the book to its place on the shelf, following him as instructed; and grumbling internally to myself about how I had, in all likelihood, never met a more frustratingly evasive person in my entire life. As we finally reached our destination at the end of the long hallway, however; I was forced to abandon my internal complaints, instead stopping short to take in the shocking sight before me, and nearly walking into John’s back in the process.

If I thought I had seen hi-tech gadgets while in Snow’s company, that was nothing compared to the numerous computer monitors and other gizmos sitting on a desk in the center of the room I was now standing in. I moved around John in a daze, walking slowly up to the desk and the technological oasis it contained; fighting with all I had not to reach out and graze a hand against the shiny monitors to assure myself that it was real, and not just a figment of my overactive imagination.

I had never been much good with computers myself, having had an unfortunate knack for persuading a computer to crash just by going on Google. But that didn’t mean that they, and those who could actually use them, didn’t fascinate me. As I continued to walk slowly around the desk to stand directly facing the screens, I lost the battle to keep my hands to myself; reaching out to carefully touch the center screen. Before my fingers made contact, however, the sound of a clearing throat caused me to yank my hand back as I looked up to see where the noise had come from.

Looking over at John to see if had been him; I found an expression that was halfway between laughter and uncertainty on his face as he looked not at me, but at a spot on the wall to my left. Turning to see what had him so enthralled; I jumped back as I realized that he was not looking at the wall, but rather at the man who had appeared in the room from a door at the other side.

He was a smaller man, about the same height as me; with mousy brown hair and black-rimmed glasses that reminded me of some of the nerds in my high school algebra class. Unlike those “nerds”, however, he was dressed to the nines; with a three pieced suit that almost put Reese’s outfit to shame. But it wasn’t the physical appearance of this new acquaintance that had me quickly retracing my steps back to John’s side as though I was a toddler running behind the other parent when they had just been caught going at the cookie jar. It was the look that he was fixing me with; a look that held so much distrust and horror that I was almost convinced I had committed an atrocious crime right in front of him.

“Mr. Reese, what did I tell you about associating with people who tried to kill you?” the mysterious stranger said, limping (why did he do that, I wondered) over to the spot where I had just been standing and setting a steaming mug of something down on the desk before taking a seat himself.

As he sat down, he briefly fixed John with a scathing look before turning those eyes back towards me. I could literally feel the disapproval rolling off of him in waves; and I had to fight the urge to shrink back into the corner and curl up into a ball on the floor under that piercing gaze. Fortunately, my pride prevented such an undignified action; and I stepped forward just a hair in an attempt to address him and tell him the circumstances of my involvement in the “almost-murder” of his colleague. Before I could make an attempt at justifying my presence there, however, John stepped in.

“She was just as much a victim of Snow’s deception that night as Carter was, Finch” he said, his voice taking on a deadly, “no nonsense” tone as he leveled an intense gaze at the smaller man sitting in the chair. “I have no reason not to trust her; and neither do you, Harold.”

Once again, I found myself touched at just how far it appeared that John was willing to go to defend me when I had done nothing to deserve such a gift. It was as though he thought that my innocence to Snow’s true intentions was enough to absolve me of my involvement in such a scheme; no matter how much I, and apparently “Harold” wanted to disagree with him. I also found myself beginning to wonder exactly what he meant by Carter being a victim as well; but I supposed I could see the sense in her being just as deceived as I was. She had appeared uneasy during the entire encounter that night; and I could hazard a guess that it was because she, unlike me, could sense that something was slightly off about the entire affair.

I came back to reality as I heard Harold muttering something about John having allowed me to see a “Machine”, likely the computer set in front of us, I surmised; which apparently was supposed to have remained a secret from all but the two of them. He cast another disdainful look in my direction before returning to the hushed conversation between himself and John; and I stepped forward then, deciding that I had had enough of being argued over. Clearing my throat, I addressed the two men before me; saying

“Look, if it’s easier, I can just leave now. I hate to be the one causing a rift between whatever it is you two have going on here; and I have no intention of disclosing the location of this place or whatever it is you’re hiding in it.”

The man called Harold eyed me as though he would like nothing more than for my statement to become a reality; but it seemed that John had other ideas.

“She stays, Harold, and that’s that. I think she can be just as useful as Carter is; and you should know that Snow is after her as well. Why would he be hunting her if she was still working for him? Think about that before you waste too much time passing judgments, Finch” John said; an icy tone of determination in his voice as he addressed his “boss” on my behalf.

Seeing that Harold was, at least for now, ceasing his protestations over my existence inside their secret hideout, I turned to give John a small smile of thanks before returning back to my original position a bit further back from the desk; figuring that the best way to make an attempt at getting past Harold’s defenses was to keep my distance and let John do the talking for now. As the taller man moved to continue speaking, I resolved to do my best at making myself invisible so as to avoid reigniting the tension that had flared up between the two men before me.

“So what’s the next plan for Ms. Gutierrez?” John asked, changing topics and moving to sit partly on the desk next to Harold as the smaller man began typing away at his keyboard; occasionally taking the time to cast wary glances in my direction while John continued speaking:

“Those men that were after her last night will probably take another go at her; and I want to get ahead of them, if possible.”

Reese cast a brief but meaningful glance in my direction while he was speaking, and I bit back a jolt of shock as I realized that this “Ms. Gutierrez” that he mentioned was none other than the woman that I had encountered on the streets last night. As the two men continued their conversation about the young woman from the night prior, I began listening with a new interest as I attempted to sift through the numerous questions sparked by my discovery. Had he known that the woman was in trouble before the incidents of the previous evening had even occurred? Was that how he had arrived so quickly? If so, how had he known that she was in trouble? Did the “Machine” that Harold had so briefly mentioned have anything to do with it? And what reason did they have to suspect that this woman still required protection? I fought to tamp down my curiosity as I registered Harold speaking once again; and I inched forward just a bit to pay better attention to the conversation at hand.

“I’ve set up an appointment for you to meet with her; under the guise of suing your boss” he replied, and I thought I caught the faintest of smiles cross his face before he returned his focus to the screens in front of him. “You’re set to meet her in around an hour; so you’d better figure out something to do with your new friend while you’re working the case.”

I flinched as I heard that tone of disapproval directed at me once again; as though I was incapable of taking care of myself for a time while John was otherwise occupied. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t been given the impression that my presence was undesirable on other occasions; but to have someone who barely knew me despising me already…that cut deeper than I would have liked to admit.

Before I could waste too much time mulling over my wounded ego; John’s voice cut into my thoughts as he said:

“Actually, Harold, I was hoping she would be able to stay with you until I finished things up with Ms. Gutierrez. I’m not entirely comfortable having her roaming the city alone; as she seems quite capable of attracting trouble in ten seconds flat.” He cast a small smirk in my direction; and that was all that kept me from misinterpreting his statement to mean that he too found my presence troublesome.

“Though I’d love to hear your take on why I’ve all of a sudden become a wonderful choice for a babysitter Mr. Reese, I have an appointment that I absolutely cannot cancel” Harold replied with some amount of cold disdain; his eyebrows flying up, likely in shock at the thought of being saddled with me for an afternoon. I had to admit, given the man’s reaction to me; I was none too thrilled with John’s choice for my afternoon plans either, and I turned slightly to look at him before saying:

“Really, John, I can handle myself. I’ll just…go back to my hotel I was in before you met me last night. And I’ll actually stay put this time. I don’t want to be a bother to…” I cast a glance Harold’s way, unsure of what I was supposed to call him, “Mr. Finch; and he clearly has somewhere else to be, so...”

John reached up a hand, motioning for me to stop talking as he turned back to face his employer.

“Finch, you need to understand, I’m not doing this to pawn her off on you. If I had more time to explain what it is that we’re doing here, I’d just take her along with me. But I don’t want her out wandering the streets alone; not with Snow out there. So just do this…for me, Harold” he said, almost seeming like he was pleading with the smaller man to see the reason behind his decision.

A minute or two passed while John locked Harold with as intent a gaze as I had ever seen; before the mysterious little man nodded curtly, standing stiffly from his chair and flicking a switch on his “Machine” before hobbling around the desk to stand beside John and address me.

“You understand, Miss…” he trailed off, looking expectantly at me; awaiting my answer.

“Gerard” I supplied, in a voice that was a bit too shaky for my own liking.

“Right. You understand, Miss Gerard, that what we do here is of the utmost secrecy. Absolutely no one can ever know anything about what you learn here. To the rest of the world, you know nothing about us, about the Machine, about any of it. Do I make myself clear?”

I could only nod in agreement; wondering how someone who was very obviously…limited in terms of physical strength could have intimidated me so thoroughly without even making an overt threat. I gave John an apprehensive look as Harold limped past me, but upon seeing only a small smile that was likely meant to be reassuring; I turned from him to make my way back down the hallway behind his boss.

Walking behind Harold and pondering what on earth I had gotten myself into now; I stopped short when I heard John call my name.

“You may want to take this, just in case” he said, picking the gun from the back of his suit and walking towards me to hand it over. He fixed me with a level gaze as he continued speaking “You see Snow out there, you shoot like there’s no tomorrow, understood?”

Looking from the gun in my hand, to him, and then back to the gun; I stowed it safely in the back of my own jeans, taking care to cover the top of it with my sweater. I gave him one last nod of thanks; awed yet again at the lengths he was taking to protect me, before turning back and following Harold once again to wherever his “appointment” would take us.

As Harold and I moved out into the brilliant sunlight of a New York afternoon, I reached behind my back to the top of my jeans; once again ensuring that the gun was stowed securely within reach as we proceeded to walk down the street. Maintaining a careful watch over our surroundings, I made a promise to myself that, no matter what it was that this mysterious man with the limp was involved in, or how much he tried to evade my curiosity; I would find some way of gaining his trust, if nothing more than to try to figure out what lay behind that guarded outer wall he was so adept at erecting.

And if curiosity did end up killing the cat…well, I’d deal with that when I came to it.

“And what, exactly, are we doing here?” I asked the mysterious man standing beside me on the opposite side of the street from the police station; as I simultaneously scanned our surroundings for any hint of someone who was watching too closely. I was worried about Snow, and how my presence with John’s “business partner” may put him in danger as well. That particular scenario was one that I had no desire to try and explain to the tall man who had done so much for me in the short amount of time I had known him. Keeping my hand close to the gun hidden at my back, I watched the man known as Finch as he replied:

“We’re meeting someone that I’ve known for a very long time, Ms. Gerard.” He turned stiffly to level an intense gaze in my direction as he continued, “And I trust that I have your promise not to mention a single bit of this encounter today to Mr. Reese?”

I nodded my assent, wondering what it was about this encounter that demanded the utmost secrecy; and despite how many doubts I had regarding the wisdom of lying to John, I couldn’t help but wonder if my secrecy would give me a chance at earning Harold’s trust. I wanted desperately to prove that I was someone that the two of them could count on; so I decided to take my chances with Reese’s irritation in an attempt to prove that Harold’s original assumption regarding my character was incorrect.

As I was mulling over the new dilemma I found myself presented with; a shift in Harold’s body language forced me back to the present to stand on high alert for whatever it was that had caught his attention. It didn’t take me too long to realize what it was that the mysterious man had seen; as I saw the young man that was now walking across the street to our position, smiling at the man standing beside me as he approached.

The young man closed the distance between us; and I caught Harold smiling at him as he said:

“Cut your hair…finally.”

I kept my hand close to the gun at my back, even though, for all intents and purposes, the young man seemed harmless; listening intently as he replied to Harold’s statement.

"Got new glasses...finally."

As the two men hugged, I brought my hand slowly back down to my side; chastising myself for my paranoia. It appeared that these two were just as they seemed: old friends sharing a reunion; despite the fact that one of them had just exited a police station. I shoved the numerous questions that came to mind with that knowledge to the back of my mind; intent on remaining alert, as it seemed that Harold was now introducing me to his “friend.”

“Will, this is Natalya. She’s my new assistant at the office” he said, gesturing to me with his hand, even as his eyes gave me silent communication to go with what he was saying.

I reached out a hand to receive Will’s as I made a concentrated effort to relax my face into as much of a natural expression as I could. Smiling at the young man, I found myself blushing at his next statement:

“Geez Uncle Harold, where’d you find someone like this to just sit around at your beck and call all day?” He looked me over once, clearly pleased with what he saw, before turning back to his “uncle” (I’d save my inquiry as to that label for later) to say:

“I’d have pegged her for something a bit more…sophisticated than that.”

Harold gave me an unreadable look, and I could swear I saw him roll his eyes before he glossed over Will’s astonishment at my job arrangements; and said

“I suppose you could use some rest before I lecture you on the perils of underground gambling?”

Will gave me one last smile before responding to Harold, saying “That’d be great. I’ve been up almost 48 hours…cellmate snored like a freight train.”

I bit back a laugh at his attempt at humor before falling into step behind the two men as I realized that Harold was leading us away from the station. We continued to move down the street towards whatever destination Harold had in mind; and I maintained my constant watch over our surroundings, even as I began to wonder over how these two men had come into contact with each other.

I was beginning to realize that there were many more secrets to Harold Finch than his brief reference to a “Machine”…secrets that, if I played my cards right, I just might find out.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
After catching lunch with Will, and learning that he had just about as many secrets as his “uncle”; Harold and I returned to the abandoned building in silence. I knew better than to voice my questions to him in this early stage of the game; and, for his part, he seemed intent on acting as though I wasn’t even there. As he sat down once more in front of the computer screens that had so fascinated me earlier, I busied myself with returning to my position from earlier…standing further away from him to give him space while he dialed a call out to John.

We came into the middle of a conversation; and I heard a woman’s voice, likely Andrea’s, saying:

“Um….no, not at all. It’s just, I thought you were a clear cut civil case. The unicorn I’ve been looking for…like, the perfect man.”

I smirked to myself at that description of John; making a mental note to harass him about it later, as I heard a sound from the other line that sounded suspiciously like something being knocked over.

“I’m sorry, I’m…all thumbs today” was John’s remark, and I arched an eyebrow as I mulled over an image of Reese being clumsy. I heard Andrea moving away from the microphone; even as I registered Finch saying:

“Nicely done, Mr. Reese. I have a signal now.”

“How was your appointment?” was the reply directed to Harold from the other end of the line. Harold looked at me with a “keep your mouth shut” expression as he turned back to face the screen in front of him to respond.

“Quite productive, thank you.”

“Natalya? Anything to add?” John said; and I jumped from his unexpected question, trying my best to suppress the shudder I felt as Harold eyed me with a new-found intensity, awaiting my reply.

“Mmm?…nope. Went fine” was my response; and I could almost hear John’s eyes rolling as he picked up my poor attempt at masking my hesitation. Before he could question me any further, however, Ms. Gutierrez came back in the room; effectively redirecting the conversation back to the task at hand.

“Okay…here we go” she said as she returned; and there was a slight pause, at which I caught Harold giving me a nod of encouragement for my non-disclosure before the young lawyer’s voice cut through the room again; forcing us both to listen.

“So…tell me. Why do you wanna sue your boss?”

“Well, my uh…working conditions are…unsafe” John replied; and I had to hand it to him for sounding so sincere that he almost had me convinced that his intentions for visiting Andrea were legitimate. I smiled a little to myself at John’s skill as I realized, belatedly, that I had been so intent on listening to the conversation that I hadn’t realized I had been edging ever closer to Harold; and was now standing at his side. Since he didn’t seem to register this; or if he did, he didn’t mind, I maintained my place next to him as we heard Reese continue:

“I slipped and hurt my back.”

“Did that happen on the job?” Andrea asked him.

“Just last night, actually” he responded

Andrea remained silent for a moment; and Harold took that opportunity to speak.

“Mr. Reese I’ve got sound in both microphones now…connecting to her hard drive. I sent an email with a virus promising 40% off any purchase at Bloomingdale’s…she couldn’t resist downloading it.”

I couldn’t resist throwing Harold a look of surprise at that last admission. “That cruel, yet clever man” I thought to myself; knowing full well that, had I received a similar email; I too would have fallen prey to the virus. I shook my head in disbelief at Harold’s technological prowess as I continued listening to Andrea talk.

“So, what’s this boss of yours like?”

“Very manipulative. Secretive. We’ve had some personality conflicts” John replied; and I bit back a snort of laughter as I continued listening intently as Andrea asked:

“I take it…he has a lot of money?”

“He’s one of those rich…loner types. The kind you’d call strange if he didn’t have so much cash. So instead, he’s…eccentric.”

This time I was not as successful biting back my laughter, but I noticed from Harold’s expression that he too was amused. As we listened to John wrap up the meeting with Andrea; I couldn’t help but be amazed at how these two men handled the unique situations thrown their way. They both certainly had their own unique skillsets that leant themselves brilliantly to the goals they wished to achieve.

As Harold and I awaited John’s return in a silence that was not quite so awkward as before; I found myself thinking up all sorts of new questions to pepper the ex-agent with upon his return. One way or another, I would get to the bottom of whatever was going on here. My time spent with the CIA learning all the ins and outs of spying would allow nothing less.

And, if John were honest with himself, I had to believe he’d understand. I just hoped that, in time, Harold would grow to acknowledge that my constant searching for information came not out of a desire to use it against him; but out of a need to help in whatever way I could. Because that was exactly what I intended to do; provided the two men would allow me (and maybe even if they wouldn’t).

As I cemented my new plan in my mind; I found myself reluctantly beginning to hope that, maybe, through helping these two men do some good in the world, I could get a better chance at assuaging my guilt over what I had almost done to John. I knew, deep down, that I owed it to the man who had taken me in without a second thought to at least try.

A few hours later, the three of us were once again crowded in front of the many monitors at HQ; Finch and John discussing the case while I listened intently.

“Our dearly departed hit-man; Alonzo Garcia, was an ex-con. He served three years at 5-points for second degree manslaughter. But, Andrea wasn’t his representative” Finch was saying, busily working at his computer as John and I observed.

“Then what’s their connection?” John asked, throwing a glance in my direction and smirking a bit as he saw that I was leaning forward towards the computer screens; almost as though a magnet was pulling me into the action.

“Terrence King. They share a parole officer; named Dominic Galuska” Finch responded, dragging up a photo of the man in question as he spoke. The three of us eyed the picture for a moment before John spoke up.

“Yeah, saw him at the court house. Maybe I should pay Mr. Galuska a visit…see if this is more than a coincidence” He replied, looking at me for a moment before he continued:

“Want to tag along, Natalya?”

Jumping a bit at the unexpected offer, I nodded quickly; standing up and stretching a bit before following John towards the door. I caught Finch eyeing me speculatively before turning my back on him completely; anxious to get a closer look at whatever it was these two did for a living. It seemed that I was about to be fully inducted into their world…and I couldn’t have been any happier.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“So, what exactly are we doing here? I thought we were paying Galuska a visit; not just watching him from a distance” I said, trying my best to tamp down the excitement I felt at being out in the field, as it were, with John. He threw me a smirk before he replied:

“Just wait, Natalya. We can’t always go barging up and get what we want right away…” He came to a stop as the phone in his coat pocket buzzed; and I fought back a huff of impatience as he turned his attention to the person on the other line.

“I know what your gonna say…”

Redirecting my focus to the conversation at hand instead of my nagging itch to dive into the action headfirst; I found myself chuckling a bit as I heard Carter’s voice on the other line.

“I give you an address; and you promise me no one would get dead. And what happens?”

I caught Reese smiling again before he responded:

“Well, in my defense; Mr. Garcia didn’t look both ways before crossing the street.”

“How did you know the dead guy’s name? We couldn’t’ find any I.D on him” Carter asked; the suspicion she held in her voice obvious to me as I heard her speak.

“It was on his driver’s license” Reese said; his voice laced with a surprising amount of non-chalance…as though rifling the body of a dead man for his wallet was as natural as taking a shower in the morning.

I heard Carter chuckle then, before asking:

“You stole a dead guy’s wallet?”

“He tried to kill Andrea Gutierrez last night…he’s gonna try again. Garcia had just under, what…10 grand on him? My guess; it’s a pay-off for a hit” Reese replied, moving his camera up and snapping a picture of Galuska while I tried my best to sink back into the passenger seat so he could get a clear shot.

“Who’d wanna kill her?” Carter asked, her voice showing her concern mingled with a slight hint of curiosity.

“I’m working on it” He said, disconnecting the call and snapping a few more photos of Galuska as a smaller man approached the parole officer; saying:

“I can’t pay you this much, Galuska.”

“If I don’t get my cut, I bet I could find a dozen parole violations that could throw you back inside” Galuska said; leaning in eagerly as the smaller man began rifling through the pocket of his apron and getting out what appeared to be cash. The parolee was obviously afraid; a fact that was made even more apparent by the small quiver in his voice as he said:

“That’s ten percent; okay?”

Galuska sneered at the smaller man; sending a chill through me before he replied:

“When I got you this job, our deal was thirty percent of your paycheck…don’t you cheap out on me.”

As Galuska stepped even closer to the man, John set the camera down; giving me a look that indicated I should follow him as he got out of the car.

I did as instructed; getting out and trailing a few steps behind him as he approached the two men in front of us, my hand never straying far from the gun at my back.

“Hey Dominic. Where’s my money?” Reese asked as he approached.

Galuska gave him a look that stated he clearly did not have time for any interruptions before he asked:

“Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Thought I was talking to the guy who’s shaking down his parolees for their legit pay” was John’s reply. The two men eyed each other for a moment; before Galuska made a move to punch John; at which point the ex-op reacted so quickly that I never had a chance to approach and lend my assistance before Galuska was on the ground, unconscious.

I could only stand there; gaping in astonishment as John stuck a hand into the officer’s pocket, drawing out a wad of cash and handing it to Galuska’s parolee as he said:

“See if you can find me a bottle of booze in there; will ya?”

The smaller man did as instructed, hurrying off into the store in search of the aforementioned booze while John hefted Galuska into his car as though he weighed no more than a rag doll.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked him, as I took notice of how he was now eyeing Galuska’s gun. “You aren’t going to shoot him…please tell me you aren’t going to shoot him.”

John shook his head minutely as he picked up the gun and wrapped Galuska’s hand around it; grabbing the bottle of liquor from the parolee who had returned as he was loading Galuska into the car. He poured the liquor over the officer; simultaneously picking up the phone that was on the dashboard and dialing 911. The voice on the other line spoke:

“911; what is your emergency?”

“I’m Dominic Galuska; and I may be a danger to myself and others” Reese said in a detached tone; tossing the bottle aside as he discarded the phone and shut Galuska in the car. I shook myself then; turning around to dart after him as I called:

“You can’t do that! Can you? I mean….you can’t do that!”

John merely turned once; smiling at me before he said:

“How about we finish discussing this later? I don’t really want to be around when the cops show up.”

I gaped after him for a moment as he opened the passenger seat of the car; gesturing for me to get inside as he crossed over to the driver’s side and got in himself. He laughed softly at the look of incredulity I threw him before we drove off; the questions I had regarding the arrangement he and Finch held multiplying as we rode along in silence.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
When we returned to HQ, Finch was gone; so John made a quick perusal of the place to ensure that Finch wasn’t tinkering around somewhere else before he left me with instructions to pick up some take-out from a Chinese restaurant a few blocks over for when they both returned. He seemed to know that I was bursting at the seams with questions for both he and the mysterious man he called his business partner; so he fixed me with a smile as he made to leave, saying:

“Don’t worry, Natalya. We’ll answer your questions over dinner. For now, I’ve got to go take care of something. Think you can keep yourself out of trouble for a bit without me?”

I threw him an exaggerated glare, smiling against my will at the laughter that small action evoked as he disappeared from sight. Turning back to the center of the room then; I took notice of the bag that was sitting in the corner opposite me. I walked over towards it; realizing with elation that it was the bag that contained my clothes from the hotel I was staying at prior to encountering John.

Picking it up, I walked quickly down the hallway towards the bathroom; shutting the door behind me as I smiled at the prospect of being able to freshen up somewhat.
I rummaged through the bag a bit before locating a pair of jeans and a light pink sweater; and I donned them with unwarranted excitement, spritzing myself with the bottle of cheap perfume I kept with me in the bottom of the bag. It wasn’t quite as refreshing as a shower would have been; but it would do for now, until I could beg Reese to take me somewhere with a bathtub and plenty of shampoo.

Straightening a few unruly locks of hair that had popped out during the day’s activities; I gave myself one last glance in the small mirror before I returned the bag to its original location and made my way outside to pick up our dinner. I could hardly wait to get back and start questioning John and Harold in earnest.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Still almost jittery with anticipation and excitement, I walked down the busy street; following John’s directions to the Chinese take-out place that he and Harold seemed to love so much, all the while remaining attentive to my surroundings. The ex-agent had once again given me his gun, which I had safely tucked in the pocket of the jacket that I now wore; as it had grown colder as the day drew on. Drawing the garment closer around my body to ward off the wind, I turned left down the street that was parallel to my destination; risking a glance in the window of the shop on the opposite side of the road as I did so.

The reflection in the mirror that the window provided showed a man with sunglasses and a black leather jacket a few feet behind me; walking a bit more brusquely than the others around him. His left hand never departed from his ear as he talked to God knows who; while his right remained at his back, over what I could only expect to be a gun. He appeared to be gesticulating wildly, in clear contrast to the casual demeanor of the other people on the street; and I picked up my pace only slightly while I continued watching him.

Deciding at the last minute to cross the street, I waved at the car that had let me pass; before returning my gaze to the shop windows as I passed them, only to realize with chagrin that Mr. Sunglasses had crossed to my side of the road as well. I debated over whether or not I should call Reese with the new cell phone that he had given me during the car ride back to HQ (despite my numerous protests); but decided against it, as I had no way of telling if the man were really following me, or if I was just being paranoid.

I continued walking down the street, my gaze constantly flitting back to whatever shop window I happened by; keeping track of the man behind me. I was so intent on watching him that I almost missed the man who popped up from around the corner in front of me; dressed almost identically to the man who was tailing me. This man, however, was not so casual about the weapon he held; keeping it visible in his hand while his other rested inside the pocket of his jacket.

Swallowing my momentary panic, I tried to rationalize the situation I now faced; all the while keeping an eye on the man I had my back to via the shop windows. He was walking faster now, and if I didn’t act quickly, I would soon be trapped between the two men on the street. Drawing out my phone to call John (as I was now fairly certain that these men were indeed after me); I ducked into an alley on my right, bringing the phone up to my ear as I waited for Reese to pick up the call.

The phone never even had a chance to ring, before it was knocked from my hand by a third man who had been waiting for me in the alley. I looked up at him then, choking back a yelp of pain as he promptly backed me into the brick wall, saying:

“Well, well, well, Maria; we finally meet again.”

I did my best to struggle against him; but all hope of wriggling free or gaining any purchase of my own to hurt him with was cast out of the realm of possibility when he slammed his arm into my throat, knocking the wind out of me as the other men I had seen on the street entered the alley. One of them wore a leer the size of Texas as he ogled me; while the other threw a smirk in my direction as he spoke with a thick accent.

“Told you it was her, Ivan.”

The man holding me to the wall gave me a brief smile that looked more like a grimace before he released his stranglehold on my neck; causing me to cough as air re-entered my lungs. He retained his position in front of me, still caging me in with his body as he addressed the man who had spoken to him.

“You don’t think I recognize my own wife, Peter? Although she has made some…changes. Changes that I think I rather like.”

I shivered involuntarily as Ivan trailed a finger from my face down to my neck, and came to rest on the top button of my jacket; all the while trying to figure out how I was going to overpower three men and get the hell out of here. Despite the instinctive need to fight to get this man’s hands off of me, I remained against the wall; paralyzed for reasons inexplicable to me as the men before me continued talking.

“I still don’t know that it’s her.” The third man who had been leering at me earlier said, speaking up then as he moved over to stand closer to Ivan. “She looks like Maria; but she’s too…fresh. Young. And her eyes are wrong.”

Ivan rolled his eyes as he brought up his other hand to begin undoing the buttons of my coat; his eyes never leaving my face as he said:

“Well, Victor; she obviously had work done. My guess is, she was trying to hide from me…”

He shoved the coat off of me, smirking a little as it fell to the ground with a soft clack; revealing the location of my hidden gun. I attempted to give him my best look of indifference as he ran his hands down my sides to rest them on my hips; trying to keep my mind in the present instead of drifting back to ponder why the hell he was after me. I knew that something should be ringing a bell at his mention of this “Maria”…I just couldn’t break through my frantic attempts at planning an escape route to figure that out.

“And it seems like she got herself some protection too. How…cute.”

He leaned in towards me then, stooping down so that we were face to face before he spoke again.

“You should have known, Maria. You should have known that, eventually, I would find you. Nothing you could have done to hide yourself would stop me…not even if you had run back to your precious soldier boy for protection.”

Stowing everything this man said in a corner of my brain for later analysis, I began to formulate a more coherent plan for getting myself out of there. If I could trick him into thinking that I was actually going to give myself up to him; then perhaps I stood a chance at getting him to let his guard down. From there I could make at least a halfway decent attempt at overpowering him and dealing with his two cronies…although the likelihood that I could get away from all of them seemed rather slim. Taking a deep breath to steady myself and biting back the small voice in my head that was screaming at me not to do this; I made my move.

Leaning my own face forward until it was only millimeters from his; I said:

“Did it ever cross your mind that I made these…changes…to my appearance to capture your attention? That maybe, I wanted you to find me?”

I fought back a wave of nausea as his expression turned from merely curious to predatory; forcing myself to remain neutral as I continued to speak.

“I’ve missed you, Ivan…you can’t even begin to imagine how much.”

That seemed to have the desired effect; because before I could fully register his reaction, he was releasing his hold on me and bending down to reach for my jacket. Using his distraction to my advantage; I brought a foot up to connect with his groin, sending him toppling over with a groan as I made a grab for the gun that was now in plain sight.

As my fingers curled around the cool metal of the weapon; I found myself being roughly shoved back against the alley wall by the man they called Victor. I blinked against the stars that popped before my eyes as my head connected with the brick; simultaneously squeezing my finger over the trigger of the gun and firing it into Victor’s stomach.

The man doubled over in front of me; staggering backwards before falling to the ground and clutching at his wound as he stared up at me in horror. I had only a moment to recover from my own shock at the almost instinctual act that I had just committed before Peter was in front of me with his own weapon pointed directly at my heart.

Re-adjusting my aim so that I had a clear shot of his forehead; I cocked my head in his direction, saying:

“You really want to play with me now? I have no qualms over shooting you just like I did your friend here.”

The only response I got from him was a sneer before the cool barrel of the gun pressing against my back put a dent in my unusual surge of bravado.

“You may want to reconsider that question, dearest Maria.” Ivan said, having regained his footing. “Despite your…valiant attempt at wriggling away from me yet again; the fact remains that there are two of our guns against yours. Those aren’t good odds, darling.”

“Tell me something…Ivan.” I said, swallowing hard as he dug his gun further into my back, and trying my best to ignore the sounds coming from Victor as he clutched at his wound. “Why are you so intent on getting me back after all these years? Why couldn’t you just…let me go?”

“Oh Maria; you couldn’t have thought that your father and I would let you just disappear after having your little bastard, did you? You stole what was rightfully mine. A chance at a beautiful wife; and a lovely little girl, though I know she wasn’t mine. I could have ignored that, you know. I would have raised her as my own…we could have had a perfect family. But you…you didn’t want that, did you?” He said, grabbing hold of my shoulder with his arm that was not aiming the gun at my back; pushing me so I was forced to kneel on the pavement of the alley.

Fighting back my panic that was growing by the minute; I swallowed hard before responding:

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Ivan.”

Ivan let out a coarse chuckle before shifting so that the gun was now positioned at the back of my head; saying:

“Drop your gun Maria. It’s useless for you now. Just like your soldier boy was; in the end. He never did come back for you; did he?”

I remained silent at that, reluctantly depositing my gun on the ground as I attempted to figure out what all of this meant. I was just about to speak in an attempt to gain more information when Ivan cut me off.

“You’re done running, Maria. You’re going to die here; alone. Maybe now you’ll know how I felt when you took your brat and left me.”

I heard the sound of him cocking the gun and braced myself for what was to come, praying silently that John wouldn’t feel it necessary to hunt these men down, and yet knowing full well that he probably would. Closing my eyes, I prepared for the last moments of my life; an unbidden tear sliding down my cheek as I drew in a deep breath.

“NYPD, put down your weapons!” A familiar voice rang out and I cracked open one eye to see who this newcomer was, realizing with a start that it was none other than Detective Carter. She had her gun drawn, aiming it directly at Peter as she ran into the alley; and I could tell from the expression on her face that she meant business. If she recognized me from the debacle with Snow; she didn’t show it, choosing instead to continue addressing the two men in the alley with us.

“Back off, Yogorov.” She said, motioning to Ivan even as she kept her weapon locked on Peter, who was still standing in front of me. “Back off, or I take care of your boy, here.”

“You’re the second person who’s threatened me with that, Detective. Why don’t you just let me deal with something I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time; and we can forget you just threatened one of the heads of the Russian mob?” Ivan responded, nudging me in the head with his gun as he spoke.

I tried to lock eyes with Carter in an effort to tell her to get the hell out of here; but to no avail. She was too busy keeping her eyes trained on Ivan and Peter to notice anything. I grimaced internally as she responded to Ivan; the same steel lacing her tone that I had witnessed first-hand from John during our brief time together.

“Ya know, Yogorov; I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. How about we let the girl go and I’ll forget that I saw you doing something that should earn you a one way ticket to jail.”

Three other detectives came up behind her then; with guns drawn and aimed at Ivan. One of them cast a cursory glance in my direction before addressing my assailant.

“Four to two now; Ivan. Not looking so good for you; from where I’m sitting.”

A brief pause ensued before I was unceremoniously shoved to the ground as Ivan and the other man retreated into the alley; stopping only briefly to pick up Victor’s body before disappearing from view. Slowly getting up from the ground; I took Carter’s proffered hand, smiling briefly at her before she asked me:

“You’re out of John’s company for what; five seconds? And already you’re finding new ways to get yourself killed?”

I cast a look of confusion in her direction but was spared the trouble of asking why she was so exasperated with me when she continued speaking.

“He told me about the incident with Snow when he first found you. And now this? I can only imagine what he’ll say when he finds out about the Russian mob wanting a piece of you too.”

“He doesn’t have to know that the Russian mob is after me.” I responded, casting a meaningful look in her direction as I stooped to pick up my coat and gun; ignoring the curious glances of the other detectives as they observed our interaction.

Carter smiled then, laughing a bit before she said:

“You honestly think you can walk in to see him with blood on your shirt and he isn’t going to ask questions?”

Glancing down at my shirt, I realized with chagrin that she was right. And I knew full well that there was absolutely no way I was getting past Reese looking like this. Sighing inwardly, I donned my coat and buttoned it up to cover the blood before I looked back at Carter; deciding to direct the conversation in another direction besides my seeming aptitude for attracting trouble.

“So how did you end up in this part of town almost exactly when I needed you, Detective?”

“We just happened by after finishing up a job; heard gunshots…I’m sure you know the rest.” She said, avoiding my gaze as she turned to exit the alley. I hurried to catch up to her; making a mental note to ask Reese if he had asked her to tail me when I got back to HQ (which I suspected was the case, given her eagerness to skirt the topic I had mentioned). Placing a hand on her arm as we walked back out onto the main street; I squeezed gently as I said:

“No matter how you knew I was in trouble…thank you.”

The detective offered me a brief smile before asking:

“Where were you headed before all of this happened? We can stay with you until you are ready to go back to…wherever you, John, and Finch…hang out.”

“Oh that won’t be necessary; I was just going to get some food for dinner. I’d hate to be a bother to you” I replied, hedging at the thought of imposing myself upon the detectives when they had more pressing things to do than make sure I managed to get food safely. Besides, I wanted some time alone with my thoughts before I had to go and explain to John why I was returning, covered in blood; when all I had set out to do was pick up some dinner. That was not going to be a pleasant situation, to be sure.

“A cop’s gotta eat too, Natalya.” Carter replied, jolting me out of my thoughts and leveling a questioning gaze at me as she said:

“It is Natalya, isn’t it? Or is it Maria?”

“No, Carter…it’s Natalya. I honestly have no idea why Ivan and his crew were calling me Maria; beyond the fact that I apparently bear a resemblance to…oh God...”

I came to an abrupt stop in the street then; as the reason why, the name Maria should have rung a bell to me before, slapped me in the face. Reese had mentioned my similarity in appearance to a Maria Denchova and I found myself wondering if this person was the same Maria that the mob was referencing.

And the soldier boy…why did I have a gut feeling that it was John? He had said that he and Maria were close friends. Was he the one that she had wanted to go to for protection? I made a mental note to grill John about exactly who Maria was later tonight; choosing for now to return to the present as I caught Carter giving me a look of concern as she walked back towards where I had come to a screeching halt.

“You okay, Natalya?” She asked; concern evident on her face as she eyed me with curiosity.

I brought my eyes up to meet hers then, nodding shortly as I replied:

“Yeah, Carter; I’m fine. Just still a bit shocked over…over all of this, that’s all.”

“Well, let’s get your food and get you back to where you need to be, okay? Those mobsters won’t be able to touch you when you’re with John.” She said, smiling at me once again before gently grabbing my arm and ushering me through the crowds towards the restaurant that had been my destination all along.

Swallowing my apprehension at the prospect of telling John what had happened while I was on my errand; I followed Carter inside the restaurant, my thoughts still in the alley with the mobsters. One way or the other; I was going to figure out who in the hell Maria Denchova was, and why everyone seemed intent on thinking that I looked like her.

Just let Reese try to protect me from the truth this time…I didn't intend to let him.