(I cannot spell the name of the group or the song...but I'm sure we all know who they are)

I get knocked down
but I get up again
Nobody gonna keep me down.....(continues on)

Nikita is in a workout room, continually, squat, kick the bag...squat..kick the bag...her actions move with the music. A heavy sweat is on Nikita's body.

From the doorway Michael looks on with a non-expressive look. Nikita's moves are sharp and become more intense.

Michael moves over to the tape player and turns it off. "Go home." Michael says as Nikita quickly turns around.

"After that ski down the hill, I'm revved up!" Nikita said, throwing some fake punches at Michael.

"I thought you would be tired." Michael said with no reaction to the punches.

"I can't be tired. I'm the only one who skied down that hill being shot at. You know it would have been a lot more successful if the two of us did it." Nikita said a little upset.

"I had to be with Birkoff." Michael said.

"Are you coming with me?" Nikita said as she picked up a towel.

"I have the paperwork to do." Michael said.

"Then I'd rather just stay here." Nikita said as she walked towards the lockerroom. Michael sighed.

"She's never been in her apartment by herself since..." Michael muttered and then stopped as he felt the presence of Madeline behind him.

"Lingering problems?" Madeline asked, indicating that she knew of what he had said.

"Nikita is just being extremely careful." Michael said.

"Can I ask you a very personal question?" Madeline said, now facing him.

"If I don't tell you, you'll find out either way." Michael said.

"When you have...well make love with Nikita...you've put her in the power positon?" Madeline asked.

"Yes." Michael said bluntly.

"And other positions?" Madeline asked. "In time." Michael said showing no emotion. Truly, he didn't care about this subject.

"And Nikita has been saying when and where?" Madeline asked.

"Where are you going with this?" Michael said with sudden anger.

"There will be a time when waiting for when she feels like it won't be good enough...a time were if someone sees her in a power position when she is playing the weak wife...You and Nikita are being sent to a remote resort in the Rockies. I expect some of these things to be faced." Madeline said.

"Is this the entire mission?" Michael asked.

"For you. Nikita will have her own...to cover this one. There will be a moderate size team in the same Rockie area covering other tasks." Madeline says leaving. _________________________________________________

"Nikita," Madeline calls out to a yawning Nikita before she heads down the hall to Michael's office.

"Yes, Madeline." Nikita says, covering the yawn, and heading towards Madeline.

"You can handle yourself with the extreme skiing...we all were extremely proud." Madeline complimented Nikita.

Nikita gave a puzzled look at Madeline.

"You are going to a remote resort in the Rockies with Michael. While there, you will teach Michael to ski." Madeline said.

Nikita broke into a smile. "Michael can't ski?" Nikita chuckled.

"No. That was why he stayed in the van with Birkoff." Madeline confesses.

"And that is all I have to do?" Nikita asks.

"Yes. But don't think this is simple. Michael will be hard to teach." Madeline says with an internal smile. Madeline knows that if anyone was going to get Michael over this little fear of skiing, it would be his 'love' his Nikita.

_________________________________________________

"Nikita, do you think it strange that you never go home when I don't go with you?" Michael asked as he turned from his paperwork to the half asleep Nikita on his couch. It touched him that she trusted him, but scared him, knowing that other men still terrify her.

"MMM? Why go home? I'm too tired to." Nikita excused herself. It had been that way.

"Wouldn't you be more comfortable in your Section room than on my couch?" Michael said. He rubbed his face in worry again. All the things Madeline didn't say in words, but were inbetween the lines were now fairly easy to see.

"MMM...I like to wake seeing you work." Nikita muttered as she drifted to a heavier sleep.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

"I'm glad to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Harris," a young man in a ski suit said as he meet Nikita and Michael as they began to enter the resort.

"No, call me Nikita." Nikita sparkled as the young man picked up her bag.

"I'm Michael." Michael said with a bit of personality.

"I'm Jack Garrett. I'm glad I found a good pair of rescue people...I was told establish a rescue team or close the resort." Jack Garrett said as he helped Michael take the ski's off the top of the car.

Nikita and Michael were posing as rescue workers. And along with Michael's and Nikita's separate missions, they were there because it was suspected that some arms dealers were using the unhabited lands to move illegal, deadly guns across.

"I have all the information about my land in my office. Why don't you settle down in a cabin, and I'll find you when you have relaxed." Jack said, handing the bags over to another man.

The cabin was huge. About three times the size of Nikita's apartment. In the back there was a hot tub out on a patio. Nikita smiled with a thought.

"AH...Nikita...we can't relax that well yet." Michael said with a smile as he saw the hottub. Mentally he noted that Nikita was thinking about the hottub, so that he didn't try his mission there.

"So, Michael, want to go for a ski down the mountain, probably the best way to learn the resort?" Nikita piped up as she looked at her skis.

"Jack may be by any minute now. Why don't you go?" Michael said almost nervously. He did know how to ski...but then that was with Simone...he had no plans of ever putting skis back on. Now, when Michael even thought of skiing, his body would tremor.

"I won't be long!" Nikita called out and the door slammed shut.

Michael picked up his phone quickly and called Madeline.

"Michael...didn't you just arrive?" Madeline asked surprised.

"This is going to be impossible!" Michael said through clenched teeth.

"Michael...tried already?" Madeline said with mockery.

"I'm never going to get Nikita off the ski slopes!" Michael complained and then became very silent.

"Michael?" Madeline asked.

"It's a duel mission...Nikita is to get me to ski." Michael figured out.

"It's in Section's best interest that we do not send Nikita by herself, hurling down a 75% grade hill with guns firing behind her." Madeline said harshly. Silence feel over the phone.

"Michael...you have your mission." Madeline said hanging up.

"She knew I would figure this out!" Michael steamed. A knock at the door, and Michael opened it to find Jack.

"Hi, here are those charts." Jack said, looking around the cabin. "She hit the slopes?"

"Yes, that is Nikita." Michael said with no emotion.

"Let me guess...you coordinate...she skis." Jack said as Michael took the rather large pile of charts.

"Yes. But I ski some." Michael said, hoping he could make this mission easy on Nikita.

"Well, I'll see you after the weekend. So you can get a feel for the resort." Jack said, and paused. "How long have you been married?"

Michael paused. "5 months." he said with a smile.

"Must have known each other a whole long time then...most newlyweds jump right into that hottub."

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

"Over here is a nice valley to cross country ski through," Jack said as he pointed a valley to Nikita and Michael. They were surveying the resort via snowshoes the next day. Nikita has stayed out until the last skier had left the slopes. By the time she ate, Michael had fallen asleep.

"What's over that hill?" Nikita asked. Jack turned towards her.

"It's dangerous. Alot of avalanches happen over that hill. Extreme skiers tried to get to ski on it, but I've never allowed it." Jack said firmly.

"It should be better secured then." Michael said.

"We don't get that many people here, I don't worry." Jack said.

Nikita looked over the hill. If there was a passible section, the arms dealers could come and go as they wanted.

"How steep is the slope?" Nikita wondered outloud.

"81%" Jack said and Michael let out a small whistle.

_________________________________________________

"Mmm, Nikita you smell so nice today." Michael said after they had dinner.

Nikita was intently studying the charts that Jack had given them. "Look, Michael, they could come right through here. It's relatively flat and goes from one highway to another." Nikita said.

"I don't see it." Michael said as he rubbed Nikita's shoulders.

"Come here!" Nikita said pulling the map into the bedroom. She laid it down on the bed, so that the bed was covered. She pulled out a highlighter and marked the path she believed the arms dealers were using. "See?"

"I see you." Michael said in a deep voice. He turned her around and kissed her deeply. At first Nikita responded. Rubbing his chest, until he threw her down on the bed and stayed on top. He rubbed her gently, but could see the fear building in her eyes.

"No!" Nikita whispered out.

"Mmm. NIkita, the hot tub last night mmm..but I wanted you." Michael said in a hungry voice.

"Michael!" Nikita screamed. She pushed him away and jumped up. Tears rolled down her eyes as she quickly through on a jacket and grabbed her skis.

The door slammed hard. Michael checked his com unit...it was still on, and he could hear Nikita's hard breathes. She had forgotten to turn her's off also.

"Madeline, I can't do this." Michael said on the phone.

"Michael it is late here." Madeline said in an annoyed voice.

"Everyone is in the rockies...there is hardly anyone left in Section...why are you tired?" Michael said angerily.

"Michael, you're projecting your angry of yourself on to me. Where is Nikita now?" Madeline said more like herself.

"Out for more skiing." Michael said. There was a pause. "I have to go for her, right?"

"What do you think she is thinking right now?" Madeline asked.

"This better not be part of the mission Madeline..."

"I had nothing to do with this."

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

It was a game of follow the leader. Michael, worried about Nikita's fragile state of mind, strapped on skis he swore once he would never do, and went to the slopes following Nikita. In the pre-dusk lightness, Michael saw Nikita sitting on a ski lift to the top of the hill where they had snowshoed through earilier.

Nikita looked staight ahead. Tears were hot against her cold face and cold air. But the ride up the mountain calmed her down.

"Michael must have to do this." Nikita muttered.

"Nikita...wait." Nikita heard Michael say. Damn! She left her com unit on. She could have turned it off, but knowing Michael was behind her, she kept going so to complete her mission and have Michael skiing.

Quickly she went down the hill, the wind whipping her long blonde hair behind her. Michael took a deep breathe and followed behind her.

At the bottom of the hill, Nikita saw Michael working down the hill at a good rate of speed. She was going to wait, when she saw a teenager fly onto the ski lift. Something was wrong.

NIkita got on the ski lift.

"Nikita we have to talk." Michael said softly through his ragged breathing.

"Not now." Nikita said through clenched teeth. Michael jumped on the ski lift, about twenty seats behind Nikita. He had not seen the girl teenager ahead of them both.

As Nikita got off the lift, she saw the girl head towards the "Hill". Immediately, Nikita flew after her. Nikita knew more than likely this girl wasn't planning on coming back.

Michael stepped up his pace.

As Nikita rounded the top she screamed "Stop!" The girl didn't look back and raised her arms in the air and flew down the steep hill.

Nikita, her heart pounding, flew after the hurdling body as Michael eached the peak.

"Nikita!" Michael screamed.

The girl was like a rag doll falling down the hill.

Nikita, moved side to side, and soon got to the girl at the bottom.

Michael looked to the other side, and saw snow moving.

"Avalanche!!!!!" Michael screamed in horror.

Nikita heard him through the com unit, picked the girl up and started to ski for a small house.

Michael looked up, "Please let it hold!"

Nikita dove into the house after the girl as the tidal wave of snow hit the house.

Michael closed his eyes. "No...NIkita!!!!"

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

"Michael, I'm alive," was the first thing Nikita said after the powerful avalanche rushed over the house.

"I can't see the house." Michael cried out.

"Michael, this girl is really hurt." Nikita said with compassion.

"Kita...she was committing suicide! And you were about to throw your life away..." Michael started

"What life?" Nikita hissed. Nikita tended to the battered girl.

The girl was around 17, blonde hair. Nikita looked at the skinny frame, and believed that this girl probably hadn't eaten in weeks. She saw the breathing was regular. There was severe blood from the head and the right knee was visable broken.

Michael pulled out his cell phone. Time was in the essence now. Before calling Madeline, he called Birkoff, who was in the Rockies with the other team of operatives.

"Michael..enjoying the calm resort?" Birkoff answered...the joys of caller id.

"Pull out and head here. All operatives to resume the roll of search and rescue." Michael said quickly.

"Michael...I need more than you..." Birkoff argued.

"If not, we will be exposed...Nikita is in a house underneath about ten feet of snow!" Michael said angerily.

"How do you know she is alive?" Birkoff asked solemnly.

"Her com unit is on." Michael said.

"We're pulling out now. ETA, 30 minutes. Better call Section"

_________________________________________________

"Nikita, keep your unit on no matter what, Birkoff will be better able to locate you." Michael said softly.

Jack had reached the top of the mountain now, and was waiting with Michael for the arrival of search and rescue.

"Michael, I think I found the arms dealers' hideout." Nikita said.

Michael smiled. Nikita was right after all, and thankfully they had built a house, which now kept Nikita alive.

The girl moaned inside the house. "I wanted to die..." the girl cried out. She looked at Nikita. "You are crazy, woman!"

"I'm not crazy. I'm Nikita." Nikita said softly. She checked the head wound, it had slowed down.

"We're going to be stuck here for a while...mind telling me what a young girl like yourself wants to die?"

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

"So Sarah, are you going to tell me why you were going to kill yourself?" Nikita demanded.

"Nikita..." Michael hissed through the com unit.

"It's a long story..." Sarah crackled with tears. Michael turned down his com unit. He looks down the mountain, and sees his 'search and rescue' team pull in.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"We have plenty of time." Nikita said as she sat down. She tore pieces of cloth into strips so she could create a brace for the shattered knee.

"I...I lost a hundred pounds, thinking that everything would be great....I lost my old friends...couldn't make new ones....got dumped by my love..." Sarah rattled off.

"But to take your life? You still have a whole life to live." Nikita cried out. How she wished her only problems was friends.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"Michael we have pin pointed the location of the house...the chimney is the easiest access point." Birkoff said as he looked up from his computer. A Section heliocopter flew across the site.

"I'll tell Nikita to start removing snow from the chimney from her end." MIchael said moving away. He quickly turned up his com unit.

"Nikita?" Michael spoke.

"NO! No! stop Michael stop it!!! Please!!" Nikita muttered in a nightmare. Michael froze.

"What is it Michael?" Birkoff asked seeing Michael's distress.

"Nothing." Michael said as he continued to listen to Nikita's screams.

"Nikita...Nikita...wake up.." Sarah's voice is heard screaming.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"Oh!" Nikita said as she awoke from her nightmare. "I'm sorry Sarah...I didn't...well, are you feeling ok?"

"Who is Michael?" Sarah asked. Nikita looked around nervously. She has forgotten that the com unit is on.

"He is my guardian angel...you know, Saint Michael guards heaven, Michael guards me." Nikita explained in a true voice, expressing her feelings for Michael.

"But the nightmare was about Michael...you were screaming for Michael to get off you...I don't understand." Sarah said. Nikita took a deep breathe.

"That is a long story..." Nikita said wearily.

"We have time." Sarah reminded Nikita.

Michael sat down in a chair as he listened.

"I was raped...a long time ago...but it never leaves you...I have nightmare alot that Michael is watching them...well..." Nikita said as tears started to roll.

"Nikita...please don't." Michael said softly and Nikita stopped

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

"Nikita...that isn't all...is it?" Sarah chimed up softly as Nikita sat silently after Michael's plead through the com. In shock, she realized Michael must have heard everything.

"No, but we have other things to worry about." Nikita said as she quickly stood up.

"Nikita, we will dig from above the chimney, you must start from your end." Michael said.

Birkoff heard the word dig. Something was up, Birkoff knew as Michael stayed in not one place.

"Maybe we can get out through the chimney." Nikita said to Sarah as she opened the glass and snow rushed down onto Nikita.

Nikita jumped back, as the force of the snow continued to go, and then stop.

"Michael, the team has seen movement in the snow in that area." Birkoff said loudly.

"Nikita, good job. Only a bit longer. Keep your unit on, I'm going to catch a nap." Michael said, but did not turn off the com unit.

"Sarah, you look very pale." Nikita commented and she placed another blanket over Sarah. Nikita moved some snow away from the fireplace to let more snow fall down.

"Nikita...why did you save me? You have your own problems." Sarah asked as she cuddled into the blankets.

"Life is full of problems. You're young and can learn from your mistakes." Nikita said.

Michael walked into a make-shift outpost and sat down, listening intently.

"I learned." Nikita said softly, and Sarah didn't hear, but Michael did.

"I feel so stupid now." Sarah muttered. "Tell me more about your Michael."

Nikita walked over to the suffering girl and sat next to her. Nikita rubbed Sarah's arm, 'where to begin', Nikita wondered. She knew she had to be abstract to protect this girl from Section.

"Michael saved my life. I was very hurt from a lot of things...somehow he reached out and grabbed me before I plunged off a mountain top." Nikita said.

Sarah winced at Nikita's comment.

"So he saved you like you did me." Sarah generalized further. "Is he here with you?"

"Yes, I'm sure he is in the resort wearing a hole in the carpet. He is a quiet soul, hardly expresses his emotions. You can't tell what he is exactly thinking at times. He is a guardian angel, but then part darkness...he haunts me when he is not around...I can feel him watching my every move like a father, or like a brother. His smiles are few and far between...but my heart bleeds when so far away...it's like being tortured in a cage, and he...being caged too..." Nikita whispered with tears rolling down her face. Sarah had fallen asleep, and suddenly Nikita wished Michael had left his com unit on.

Michael stood up, pacing. 'If Madeline could only hear this...I would have no mission.'

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

"Nikita.." Michael said as he slid through the chimney. Three ropes were being held in his hand, the heliocopter was waiting to pull them all out.

"mmm...Michael..NO!" NIkita screamed as she woke up suddenly as Michael touched her shoulder. Nikita shook her head and awoke Sarah.

After Sarah was pulled out, Michael and Nikita set up explosives to destroy the house and the stockpile of weapons.

They were pulled out and in the heliocopter when the ground shook and then collasped with the explosion.

-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"My hands are soo cold." Nikita said as Jack followed Nikita and Michael to their cabin.

Michael grabbed them in his gloved hands and rubbed them.

"I'm going to secure that area this week." Jack said as they reached the cabin.

"The girl is going to be fine?" Nikita asked.

"Yes, some internal bleeding, a shattered knee and a bad concussion, but that is good." Jack said as he watched Michael silently open the door. "I'll let you guys go. Thank you Nikita."

Nikita slumped into the couch. Michael set a roaring fire up and then made some tea.

Nikita huddled in a blanket as Michael handed her the tea.

"Thanks" Nikita said and quickly drank the warm drink.

"Nikita...you're still having the nightmares..." Michael said, worried that he still had to finish his mission.

"Yes..." Nikita admitted quietly. Michael rubbed her hair.

"And what are they like?" Michael asked. Nikita looked at him quickly.

Taking a deep breathe..."Most of the time...it is some guy...rubbing my body hard...and after...he looks up..and it's your face..." Nikita said.

"Nikita...I won't say I'd never do that to you...you never know with Section...but I would like to show you how much I care..." Michael said with a grin.

"Michael...earlier...I didn't pull away because of that..." Nikita said calmly.

"Oh Nikita...I understand that your mind still hurts..." Michael continued on as his hands started to rub lower on Nikita's shoulders.

"Michael...I wasn't capped." Nikita said.

Michael looked at her with a strange look.

"I wasn't capped..." Nikita said with a raised eyebrow. Understanding spread across his face.

"But you were so mad..." Michael said softly.

"Because I would have been so quickly...but you wouldn't listen...you did have the power...and I would not have mind if you would have listened to me." Nikita said as she rubbed Michael's hair.

"So, are you capped now?" Michael asked as he started to nibble at her ears.

"Yes, Michael..." Nikita said, as she slid underneath Michael. "Show me..." she muttered as Michael made her breathless.

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