Nikita slowly walked to the computers. Michael was standing there with Walter and Birkoff. She wasn’t sure where she stood with Michael. After Jurgen died, she took a three week vacation, and had only been back for two weeks. As she got closer she saw that they were staring up at the Operation office. When she looked up too, she saw Madeline and Ops talking to a young woman, that didn’t even look twenty yet. She also looked like she had raided Michael’s closet to get her outfit. Everything that she wore was black, the only color was the purple back-pack at her feet. She had long, dark hair the hung in a braid down her back, it was nearly to her waist.

“Who’s that?” She asked. No one answered and she was going to ask again when Michael replied

“Kathryn.”

“And Kathryn is?” Yet again no one answered as the three in the glass box got done talking. Kathryn pick up her back-pack and walked over to meet them. When she was just about there Walter stepped forward and hugged her.

“Hey, Sweets. “He said. “It’s good to see ya. I missed you.”

“Thanks Walter. I missed you too.”

“What about me?”

“You too, Birkoff” she said as she stepped over to give him a brief hug.

Since she was hugging everybody Nikita wasn’t surprised when she hugged Michael. What did surprise her was that after the hug, he kept his arm around her shoulders.

“I’m glad your back” Walter said “Now I have my Sugar and my sweets in one place. Kathryn this is Nikita.” After they traded ‘HI’s’ Walter continued

“Your going to be stationed here, right?”

“As far as I know, which is why there’s a problem with my quarters.”

“What’s wrong with your quarters?”

“She doesn’t have any” Birkoff said. He knew. Her quarters were right next to his and they had moved a recruit in there about six months ago. After he explained this, she went on.

“The good thing is that I get an apartment on the outside. It’s just not going to be ready for a few days.”

“Where will you be staying in the mean time?” Nikita asked

“With Michael.” They all turned around to see Madeline walk up behind them. “When you get a chance you should go to the storage and see what you what to keep out of there.”

“I’ll do it now. See you guys later.” They all watched her go down the hall. Nikita turned back in time to see a look on Madeline’s face, but it was gone before she could tell what it was. after that everybody seem to go back to their places. Nikita stood still for a few minutes before she went into Walter’s space. She leaned on the door frame. Walter looked up and smiled.

“Hey Sugar, what do you want to know about her?” Nikita smiled too. She knew that it was predictable to ask Walter her questions, but he was the only one that she was sure she would get answers from.

“How old is she? she looks pretty young.’

“She’s nineteen.”

“She’s been here for awhile. You all seem to know her.”

“Kathryn was here before Michael .” At her confused look he went on. “She was born in Section. Her parents were operatives. They died on a mission when she was eleven.”

“And she an operative?”

“Yeah, the only way they were allowed to keep her was if she to be trained.”

“Has she been at a substation?”

“She’s been on a mission.”

“How long? I’ve never seen her.”

“Four years, and for anything else you’re going to have to ask her. It’s not my place to tell. “

“One more question. How come she staying with Michael?” Walter grinned, he was pretty sure this was the only question that she wanted to know.

“Because she’s closer to Michael, then me or Birkoff.”

************

About a week later Nikita was sitting in her apartment. She hadn’t seen much of Kathryn, just glimpses of her training, talking to people, or sitting in Michael’s office. One thing that Nikita noticed was that no one ever left her alone. No matter what was going on, there was someone with her. It was kind of annoying, how could Nikita talk to her if they never left her alone.

All of a sudden she thought she head something out in the hall. She walked over to the door and she was positive that she heard Michael’s voice. When she opened the door she saw Michael coming out of Carla’s old apartment.

“Michael, What are you doing?”

“Michael, Could you help me?” Nikita looked down the hall to see Kathryn walking with two boxes, the top one was about to fall. Michael walked over and took the box.

With the obstruction of her view removed Kathryn saw Nikita. She quickly glanced at Michael before saying “Hi, you here to help?”

“Nikita live across the hall.” Michael said.

“Well, she can still help, it just means that she has a shorter distance to go when she goes home. Birkoff and Walter are bring up the computer desk now. So I need to clear a spot for it.” she said as she walked into the apartment.

It was a reversed copy of Nikita’s, and right now it was filled with an assortment of boxes. This would be the first time, in all her nineteen years, that she wouldn’t be living in Section quarters. It was kind of a scary thought, and to get over it she planing how it decorate the rooms. It would be pretty easy, with the kitchen being part of the livingroom there was really only three rooms. She walked over to the corner near the French doors and moved some boxes out of the way. A few second late Birkoff and Walter came in with the table.

“Where do you want this?”

“In this corner.” They put it down and Birkoff went to get the computer. He spent the rest of the day setting it up. He also decided that it was missing something and upgraded it to the level of his computer. He didn’t care that she wouldn’t need half the stuff. All he knew was that she was gone a long time and he missed her. And this was how he showed it.

During this Walter, Nikita and Michael brought up the rest of the furniture. It was only the bed, a couch, a book case, a stereo and a kitchen table. Kathryn continued to bring up boxes and put them in one of the rooms. After everything was brought up, the rest of the day was spent sorting it out.

After most of the stuff was put away, they order pizza and sat around talking. Nikita studied Michael. He surprised her, he seemed comfortable in a way that she had only seen on missions. He smiled and teased Kathryn about things. Everything was very relaxed. Then Michael’s phone rang. They all knew what that meant, the evening was over. After a few words her hung up.

“There’s a briefing tomorrow at eight ‘o clock. Nikita and Birkoff will need to be there.”

Walter decided that it was time to leave and since he had drove Birkoff, he had to go to. In all their talking no one had noticed that Kathryn had fallen asleep on the floor, in till Walter went to say Good-bye. They decided to just let her sleep. Of course with Walter and Birkoff gone that left Michael and Nikita alone. They hadn’t spoken to each other since right after Jurgen died. Neither knew what to say to the other and the silence was awkward. Nikita was just about to leave when something caught he eye. Kathryn was moving restlessly in her sleep and mumbling something. After a few seconds the mumbling became shouts and the restless moving became violent struggling.

“No. Get away from me. Don’t , Please don’t, MICHAEL!” she screamed before sitting up gasping for breath, but still struggling in the dream.

Michael had his back to her and didn’t notice this until she called his name. He turned and saw that she was having one of her nightmares. He quickly went to her and pulled her into his arms. He rocked her back and forth, whispering calming word to her. Finally she calmed and started sobbing on his shoulder. Michael looked at Nikita and silently told her that she should go. She nodded her head and left the apartment

************

About ten minutes after Nikita left the sobs stopped. Michael got up and went to the Kitchen and started making something. Kathryn pulled the throw off the couch and put it around her shoulders. She just sat there waiting for Michael to get back. When he did he handed her a cup. She took a sip and smiled.

"Hot Chocolate?" she asked. He smiled too.

"I didn't know if you liked coffee, plus you need sleep. They want you at the briefing tomorrow."

Oh, could it also be that you still think of me as a fifteen year old and fifteen year olds don't drink coffee?"

"Maybe" he replied lightly. "What was the nightmare about?" He asked a couple of minutes later.

"The usual"

"Do you still have them a lot?"

"Not as much as before. Actually this was the first in two years, and it's only just because I'm back."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah" she said, hoping that it was true. He stared at her, he knew that she was still a little unsure.

"Would you like me to stay?" She looked down, and bit her lip.

"Would you?" she asked timidly

"Sure" he said, and took off his jacket. She ran into the bedroom and momentarily thought about trying to make him take the bed. She knew that he didn't get enough sleep as it was and sleeping on the couch wasn't going to help. She peeked out the door and saw that he was already getting comfortable, well as comfortable as possible, on the couch, so she just grabbed a pillow and a quilt.

"Here" she said, then she hugged him. "Thank you."

"I'm just sorry that-"

"Michael, I told you, it wasn't your fault and there was nothing that you could have done" with that she went into the bedroom. Michael watched her go with a soft smile on his face, and as he fell asleep recalled the first time he saw her. Her and her parents were the first people he saw in Section.

************

Michael's history is from my first story 'Leopard'

The first thing that Michael was aware of was that the lights behind his eyelids were very bright. The next was that he was lying down, with his wrist and ankles restrained. He slowly open his eyes to the blinding light, and saw that it was intensified by the fact that the entire room was white. He didn’t know where he was. The last thing that he remembered was the guards calling lights out. That woman, Simone, had visited him again today. She had smiled a lot and made veiled hints about him getting out soon. He didn’t understand her but just went with it, he didn’t get many visitors. His parents never came and he doubted that Marcel knew what day it was let alone that Michael took the heat for killing that cop. His sister, Julie, wrote and said that she wanted to come but his parents wouldn’t let her. He was glad, this was definitely no place for a seven year old.

He turned his head to the side and saw a man sitting there, waiting for him to wake up.

“Hello” The man said. Michael just blinked at him. “It’s good to finally meet you Michael. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Michael’s only reply was to tug at the restrains at his wrists. The man noticed this. “Oh, I’m sorry,” He said. “ I do forget myself sometime.” He pulled out the key an unlocked four restrains. Michael sat up so that he was facing the man, and looked around the room. The room was more less circular, it had no window and one door. The only furniture in the room was the bed he was sitting on and the chair the man was in. “I suppose that your wondering what’s going on. Well let me start off by saying that my name is Ron, and that your not in jail anymore. They won’t come looking for you either, because they think your dead.” He reached in to the folder on his lap and pulled out a photo. “Suicide” Michael looked at the picture, and saw his parents, and Julie and a few of his friends. The fact that Marcel wasn’t there wasn’t lost on him. he looked up at Ron and saw him smile.

And smile Ron did. He was impressed with Michael, He was everything that Simone said that he would be. He wasn’t quite sure, it was obvious that Simone was attracted to Michael. Everyday after she went to see him in the prison she would find his wife, Kathy, and talk about him nonstop. Ron could now see that it wasn’t just talk. He would make a great operative, and Ron wished that he could train him, but he would go to Jurgen. As Michael continued to stare at him, he went on.

“This place is called Section One. It’s the most covert anti-terrorist organization on the planet. You have just been recruited to become a member. For the next two years you will be trained. If at the end of that time we think your good enough you’ll work for us.” Michael narrowed his eyes and spoke for the first time since waking up

“What happens if you don’t think I’m good enough?” Ron smiled again, ‘Yes’ he thought ‘He’ll make a great operative.’

“Come on, I’ll show you to your quarters.” He got up and went over to the door. When it opened he looked back behind him, Michael was still sitting on the bed. “Come on” He said again, Michael slowly got up and followed. As they were walking down the hall Ron started talking aging. “Usually your training would begin tomorrow but the person your assigned to isn’t here.” Michael looked around, everything looked the same. Just then he saw something running towards them. As it got closer he saw that it was a little girl, she couldn’t have been more then six. She reminded him of Julie.

“Daddy!” she called out as she saw them. She ran over and jumped into Ron’s arms.

“Kathryn, what have you been told about running?”

“Don’t do it in less it’s an emergency” she quoted dutifully “But it’s the only was I can keep up with you, you walk to fast.” She complained

“Don’t do it anyway.” Ron said with a smile. Kathryn started to study Michael. His hair was starting to get long and his eyes were a neat color green. Staring in his eyes she thought of something.

“Is this the recruit that Simone was talking about last night?”

“What?”

“Last night, she kept talking about the new recruit.”

“You were supposed to be asleep.”

“She was talking to loud, I couldn’t sleep. What did she mean when she said that he was hot? I thought you weren’t allowed to touch people in prison?”

Ron smile and tried not to laugh. He looked Michael thought the corner of his eye. He had a slightly bemused look on his face. Ron looked back at his daughter, and saw that she was waiting for the answer.

“Well?” she asked.

“Okay,” Ron said slowly. “One, you were not supposed to hear that. Two, that’s not something that you need to know yet. And three, don’t tell anybody you said that, especially Simone, Okay?”

Kathryn regarded her Father for a moment, thinking about what he said before agreeing. She didn’t know why, but thought it was just one of those thing that grown-ups did. They did a lot of weird stuff.

“Where’s your Mother?”

“She with Walter.” Kathryn drawled. She liked Walter when he came to their quarters, but when he was in the main part of Section he was away in his shop. She wasn’t allowed in there. It was too dangerous. She didn’t see how, but that’s what everybody told her.

“Kathryn, where are you?” Kathy walked up to them. “You were suppose to wait for me.”

“I’m sorry, but I wanted to see the new recruit.” Kathy took a sighed and looked at Michael. Simone was right, He was good looking.

“You must be Michael,” she said “I’m Kathy.” she extended her hand and after he shook it she took Kathryn from Ron. “I’ll let Ron finish showing you around.” Then walked away.

Over the next two years Ron and Kathy were always there for him. If he wasn’t training he was in their quarters. Either talking with one of them or playing with Kathryn. She was only a year younger then Julie and she became like a sister to him. Five years later when she started training, he was her trainer. It was shortly after that, that her parents died on a mission. She tried to be brave and put up a front, but that night she cried herself to sleep in his arms. Ever since then he’s looked out for her.

************

Michael woke up when he noticed that someone was shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes and found Kathryn leaning over him.

“Michael, you better wake up or we are going to be late for the briefing and I don’t think that Operation will be too happy with that.” Michael blinked

“What time is it?’

“7:15” Kathryn smiled. She was pretty sure that this was the first time that Michael had slept more then three hours in months. Actually she was more then pretty sure, she was positive. While she was away Michael had written her letters, most of them were written after he had woken up from his own nightmares.

The one thing that Kathryn regretted about being away was that she wasn’t with Michael when he needed her. When Simone and their son died she couldn’t get back, and she knew that it was hard on him. In away she was with him. In the letters, he told her what he was feeling, all the pain and anguish poured from them on a daily bases. She knew that he was dealing with it when the letters started coming two a week instead of everyday. Then it was once a week, then once every two weeks and finally once a month. She didn’t know how he dealt with it until she got a letter from Walter. When she read that he was shutting himself down she didn’t know what to think. She really couldn’t blame him. She had wanted to do that herself after her parents died, and then again after the incident that got her sent away.

It was getting sent away that helped her get thought it, with out the constant reminders she got thought her pain, but by then, Michael was too important to Section to let him go for a couple months to grieve for his family.

Of course shortly after that the letters started to increased again. It seemed that Michael had gotten a recruit. They had gotten up to once a week. In them was everything that anyone would want to know about Nikita. From the way that she refused to follow Section rules to how she had decorated her apartment to how he felt about her. She got two a week when Nikita was going out with Gray, but after they broke up it went back to one.

Then about eight months ago, there was the Shays mission. It went back up to one a day immediately, those letter were hard to read in two ways. One, was that his heart was broken again and secondly, because it was obviously that he didn’t care about finishing the word he was writing. When he spoke of messing up on missions she got a little worried. He was the only thing she had left and she didn’t want to lose him. The letter that said that she was alive was filled with hope. But after Nikita got our of observation and started with Jurgen, all the pain came back. The last letter that she had gotten before she came back was the one that told her that Jurgen was dead.

She wondered if Michael knew that she kept the letters. She kept them locked in a box in her foot locker, to make sure that no one found them. Especially Madeline. Kathryn had nightmares about Madeline finding them, and using them to hurt Michael even more.

Michael himself was surprised that he slept the night thought. He sat up an stretched his arms. He felt pretty good considering that he slept on a couch. He looked at his watch, it was 7:16, he had fourteen minutes to get to Section. He could either hurry home to shower and change or he could shower here and change at Section. He opted for the latter, and four minutes later they were headed out the door. And right into Nikita who was leaving her apartment at the sometime.

Since Kathryn was behind Michael, Nikita only saw him. His hair was still damp from the shower, and he looked like he had in her dream last night.

“Michael, what are you doing here?”

“He’s getting late, he has to be at Section in ten minutes.” Kathryn said from around Michael’s arm. Kathryn walked around him, grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall.

Forty minutes later at Section Nikita was sitting at the briefing table waiting for everyone else. Birkoff came over and sat down, then Walter. After that Michael and Kathryn came out of his office. Finally Operation and Madeline came downstairs.

“Listen up people,” Ops began “on this mission we’ll be working with an....old acquaintance” the disgust was evident in his voice.

“Who?” Walter asked. Operation looked at Madeline, then clicked on the vid-screen. The picture that came up was of a man in his late forties, with dirty blond hair. “Howard Dunham”

“What?” Birkoff asked “I thought we canceled that dirtbag?”

“We didn’t.”

Kathryn, who had been leaning with her elbow on the table and her chin in her hand, sat up straighter, folded her hand in front of her and stared at them for the rest of the briefing.

“You will continue the roles that you had on the last mission, with the exception of that Nikita will do Michael’s leg work. Michael, you will never leave Kathryn alone, even if it’s with Walter, Birkoff, or Nikita. Is that understood? I do not want the mistake of the last mission to happen again.” He looked at everyone, then let Madeline finish the briefing.

“For a quick review, Dunham was a miscellaneous thug, but about four years ago he got lucky and arranged a deal between The Russian Mafia and a very prominent seller of never toxins. Our target was the seller and we persuaded Mr. Dunham to help up get the seller, we did. But about a year ago his business started up again. We want to know who this person is and where he’s getting his supplies. You leave tomorrow.”

“Remember people” Operation said “I want this one to go flawlessly. Dismissed”

The last syllable had barely gotten out of his mouth when Kathryn got up and walked strait into Michael’s office. Michael followed immediately. Everybody watched and when the shads went down Walter turned to Madeline.

“How could you? How could you put her on a mission with him after what he did to her?” Madeline stared at Operation until he went up to his office.

“It wasn’t my first choice, Walter. If there was another way I would have picked. I just hope that she’s ready for this.” With that she walked to her office.

Once again Nikita found herself sanding alone in the main part of Section. And once again she went to Walter, to find him slamming equipment around.

“Walter, what’s wrong? What’s going? What was that all about?”

Walter slammed his fist on the workbench, and sighed. “Howard Dunham is scum, that’s what’s this is about.”

“Yeah, well most of the people we go after are. What make this guy worse?”

“Not my place Sugar.”

“Come on Walter. No one else will tell me.”

Walter sighed again. “Four years ago, on the last mission, everything was going great. Michael was leading a second team to picking up the seller and all we had to do was wait for morning to come back.” He paused, took a deep breath and continued “It was Kathryn’s last mission before she went back for more training. She was only fifteen, anyway she was in Michael’s room sleeping. My room was next door when I heard something. I went next door and she was gone. It seemed that Dunham liked them young, and had his eye on her since the beginning of the mission. It took us three days to find her. It was horrible. Her face was so badly beaten that you could barely tell it was her. She couldn’t walk, both her legs were broken and wrist were bloody from the restraints. We don’t know how many time he raped her, she didn’t remember and just wanted to forget it. When we found them, Michael nearly punched the guy to death.”

“Is that why she went away?”

“Yeah, she spent a month and a half in MedLab, then she left.”

“I thought you said that she was on a mission?”

“She when to a substation till her legs healed. Then they gave her a easy, but long mission. And now they’re sending her on a mission with him again. I swear that if he even looks at her the wrong way he’ll wish that he could spend a few days with Madeline.”

************

The next day they were all sitting at the briefing table, when two security types came up, escorting a man between them. The man was Howard Dunham. They stopped a few feet behind everyone. Kathryn could feel him staring at her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before standing up with everyone else. Kathryn stood in front of him with Michael standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders. Walter and Birkoff were standing on either side of her, but a step ahead of her and Madeline and Nikita a step ahead of them, creating a semi-circle around her.

Howard Dunham smiled when he saw Kathryn. He smiled for two reason. One was that he was glad she was here, She had grow up but not too much, and she still peaked his interest. And the was the second reason. He was planning on continuing their fun. It was interrupted last time and because she was so young he had held back some. But now, she was perfect. The only thing that would make it better was if she was unspoiled, but his pervious fun prevented that. Of course, that would make her fear all the more intents, which was a fair trade. He was enjoying the anticipation of waiting until they could be alone again.

“Hell, my dear. It’s good to see you again.” He said and held out his hand.

Kathryn stood up straighter and squared her shoulders. She didn’t want to touch this thing that was masquerading as a person. She relaxed a little when she felt Michael’s hand tighten on her shoulders. She could get thought this as long as Michael was there.

Howard let his hand drop. She had her guard up already, that was good. It would make getting her all the more fun. He slowly let his eyes drifted over Kathryn. Only the fact that Madeline was standing in front of Walter kept him from decking the man. Just then Ops came in.

“All right everyone transport is waiting.”

The mission was pretty easy. It only took a week. The only way it could be considered hard was the fact that Walter had to be physically restrained from hitting Dunham, many times. Kathryn was sitting on the bed, watching Michael work on his laptop. Beside the fact that Dunham was always leering at her, she was having fun. It was a good mission to get back into the swing of things. Walter and another cold op, Jack, were next door with Dunham. Her, Michael and Nikita were sharing a room. And it had been fun watching Michael and Nikita. He stared at her a lot, and Kathryn had seen her staring at him. Also, one night she had woken up for some reason, and had heard Nikita mumble Michael’s name in her sleep. They still barely talked to each other, but she was thinking of a way to fix that. The ideas were multiplying in her head when there was a knock at the door. Nikita answered it. When she opened the door a waiter pushed in a cart.

“What’s this?” Michael asked.

“Room Service. It was order next door and I was told to bring this cart here.” Michael examined the cart and saw a note on it. “It’s from Walter. He says to enjoy it.” Nikita picked up a sandwich and started to eat. Kathryn took a bit or two of a sandwich but wasn’t hungry. Michael went back to his laptop.

Next door the something was happening. There was a knock on the door, Jack answered it. A cart was pushed in and the waiter gave the same message.

“This was order next door and I was told to bring this cart here.” On this one was also a note, from Nikita. Walter picked up the note and laughed at what it said. He picked up a sandwich and gave one to Jack.

Back in their room Nikita decided to take a nap after eating. Kathryn sat down on the bed to read a book. All of a sudden she got sleepy. At first she didn’t think much of until the words on the page started to blur. She blinked her eyes and when it didn’t help, she realized what happened.

“Michael!” she called out and tried to stand, but found herself falling.

Michael looked up in time to see her fall. He rushed over to her and sighed in relief when he saw that she was alive but unconscious. A look to Nikita said that she was the same. When he realized what had happened, and rushed next door. He was halfway there when he realized his mistake and rushed back. But it was to late, Kathryn was gone.

Dunham was slightly surprised that his plan had worked. He had a friend impersonate a waiter and bring up the room service. He had smiled when Walter and jack started to eat, it only took about five minutes for the sedative that was added to work. It was just a mild sedative, it would only work for about twenty minutes, but the side effects were the reason that he chose it. It would keep them out long enough to get Kathryn and get out of there. Now he looked at his prize. As soon as she woke up the fun would start. A groaning brought his attention to her. She was waking up. Her eyes opened slowly, and he looked deeply in them, so he could see her fear when she realized where she was. But he was disappointed when she stared at him with a blank face.

As Kathryn woke up she couldn’t help groaning at the pain in her head. She had an idea where she was. The fact that she was standing up with her hands chained above her head was a good clue. If she was still with Michael, he would have put her on the bed. She slowly opened her eyes, she tried to get her head clear before she had them open all the way. As she lifted her head all the way, she put on a blank face.

“Ah, my dear, your awake.” He said and raised his hand to caress her face. She didn’t move or make a sound. “Going the silent way again, are you. You did that at first last time too, remember. An hour later you were screaming so much that you lost your voice.” He continued to caress her face, down her neck and arms. He reached up and let her hands fall, they were still cuffed, but at lest they weren’t being pulled at an angle. Out of his pocket he pulled a gun that he took off Jack. He took hold of her arm and pushed her across the room, to a cot sitting against the far wall. He stepped behind her and placed the gun against her cheek. His other hand roamed over her chest.

“Now let’s see, where do we want to start this time?” he said as his hand moved under her shirt.

Michael carried Walter and Jack into his room and laid them down on the bed next to Nikita. He knew they were starting to wake up when he heard a groan from Walter. Jack and Nikita woke up shortly after that. When her head cleared Nikita asked

“What happened?”

“The food had a sedative in it. You’ve been out for about twenty-five minutes.”

Walter look around.

“Where’s Kathryn?” he asked with concern. After looking at Michael’s face he knew.

“NO!, not again.” Walter got up and fell back down as his legs wouldn’t’ hold him.

“Careful. Don’t worry, Walter, we’ll find her.” she was talking to Walter but the last words to Michael

“Yes, we will.” He said thought clenched teeth. His hands were balled into tight fists and his body was shaking in a effort to control his emotions. He went over to his suitcase and pulled out a tracking receiver. Walter and Nikita looked at each other in surprise.

“You put a tracker on her?” Nikita asked. Both relived and incredulous

“Kathryn is the last good thing I have in my life, I wasn’t going to risk losing her.”

“So we know where she is?” Walter asked hopefully.

“It takes a minute to get the signal but we will know soon.” After a moment a tense silence it beeped with the location. “ Let’s go.”

The signal led them to an abandon building about twelve blocks away. Michael was leading the way down a stairway to the basement of an abandon building. They had reached the bottom of the stairs when they heard the gun shot. Michael took off down the hall, only one door was closed and it was locked when he tried it. The lock must have been flimsy because it gave way with very little force, or so he thought. When it opened he stood in the doorway staring at the seen within

Dunham moved Kathryn’s hair off to the side, and started to kiss her neck. With the gun now at his side Kathryn made her move. With her hands still cuffed, she reached up and grabbed the hand caressing her. Twisting it behind his back she grabbed two handholds of hair and brought his head down into her knee, breaking his nose. As his hands went to his face, he dropped the gun. She picked it up, and started to point it at him, but he had recovered and tried to grab the gun back. She back handed him and let the barrel of the gun smash against his head. He fell back against the cot and sat down. She pointed the gun at his chest.

“You know,” she said “You should really learn to control yourself. Let me help you.” With that she reaimed and shot him between the legs. He toppled over and screamed in pain. After a couple seconds he passed out. Kathryn sank to the floor in a vaguely Indian-style position and sat there numbly. When the door burst open she looked up and just blinked. Michael walked over and knelt down next to her.

“Kathryn?” he asked tentatively. She looked at him, confused.

“Michael?” When she started to tremble he pulled her into his arms. She started to cry as all the adrenaline left her body and the fear took over.

************

On the plane back to Section, Kathryn was sleeping on with her head pillowed in Michael’s lap. Nikita stared at them and kept thinking about what Michael said about Kathryn, that she was the only thing good he had left in his life. Surely Michael had good thing in his life. She knew that Section had put him thought a lot of painful situations, but he had to have something. During her vacation she thought over the time since she came back. she realized that he was trying to protect them and she ended up hurting him this time.

When they got back Kathryn was taken to MedLab, the rest got the pleasure of debriefing. The doctor cleared her and she had someone driver her home. She really needed a car! Michael had said that he’d stop by when he was thought at Section.

When she got to her apartment, she when into her bed room and opened her footlocker. She took out Michael’s letters, and laid down on the bed to read them. She had gotten to the last one when she started to fall asleep. She couldn’t tell how long it was but after awhile she heard someone enter the apartment. She was pretty sure it was Michael coming to check on her. When she looked out into the liveroom and saw Nikita, she thought that this was the perfect time to help Michael and Nikita.

Nikita stood outside Kathryn’s apartment. Shortly after she had gotten home both Walter and Birkoff called to ask her to check on Kathryn. She had knocked twice, and gotten no answer. She went into the apartment. She looked around and saw Kathryn laying on the bed, she went in there and saw that she was sleeping. Nikita pulled the quilt up some and was about to leave when Kathryn turned on her side and knocked something on the floor. She leaned down to pick the letters up. Normal curiosity made had look at them, but when she saw her name in Michael’s handwriting, she started to read them.

Nikita was surprised at the emotions in the letters, but didn’t know why. Then she remembered what Michael said about separating himself in half. She knew his Section half and here was his other half. She cried when she read the pain filled letters about his son and Simone. When she got to the letters about herself, she paused for a second. She would finally know how Michael felt about her, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know. But this was probably the only way she would fine out, so she read on.

...she claims she innocent and I’m starting to believe her...
...Yet again, she risked cancellation to help people she didn’t know, just because she thought it was the right thing to do...
...One of the watcher, Eric, has a plan to escape, he wants her to go wit him. Would she go? They’ll killer if she does. I can’t let that happen...
...They found Eric today. Nikita still won’t talk to me, maybe it’s for the best. They’ll just make me hurt again if she starts to trust me again…
...She’s in MadLab. The rat bits will heal okay, but she thinks I lied to her again. If only she knew that it wasn’t all a lie…

What did he mean it wasn’t a lie? What wasn’t a lie? Her mind was in a whirlwind over this information and she wasn’t done yet.

...They sent her on a suicide mission. I couldn’t let her die. Beside you she is my life...
...I tried to contact her again today, there was no answer....
...She’s dead. I know it, if she wasn’t she would have answered by now...
....I messed up in Liberia, Ops chewed me out for an hour, I didn’t care, she gone...

He told Kathryn about letting her go free, at lest that what it looked like. His handwriting was horrible in these ones.

...She alive! I saw her! She was as beautiful and ever...
...The assigned her to Jurgen for retraining. You know what will happen if they get close...
...I was right, their using her against him. I don’t know how but she’ll end up blaming me...
...Jurgen’s dead. I’ll miss him, but it was hard watching them together. I miss her...

She was right, she had hurt him. The tears streamed down her face. And not just with Jurgen, but a lot of time from when she first arrived at Section. She heard a noise at the door and looked up. Michael was standing in the doorway. He walked into the livingroom. She got up and walked over to him. She put her arm around him.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry” she said. He didn’t know what she was talking about in till he saw what was in her hands. His letters, he couldn’t really be angry with Kathryn for keeping them. He had all the ones that she wrote back. What he could be angry with was that she had given the to Nikita. He looked into the bedroom, even thought her eyes wee closed he could tell that she was awake.

“Kathryn Marie” he said in a warning voices.

“Be quite Michael, I’m trying to sleep. Go across the hall if you want to talk.”

The next morning she left to go shopping for a car. When she stepped outside she smiled when she saw the Michael’s car was still here.

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