Disclaimer: I don't own them…

A/N: This is my first LFN fic, so far I've only written Crossing Jordan fics, which by the way is a must see show so check it out if you already haven't. Would love reviews! Time wise think early season 2 after Nikita has been brought back into Section and after the whole Jurgen story line.

At the Section briefing

"The man you will bring is Saman Bakshi. He is Red Cell. We want him alive, the details are on your panels." As soon as Operations gave his briefing he retreated to the perch.

Nikita was with Walter getting her inventory for the mission when Michael came up behind them.

"Nikita." With Michael there was never a question, or request. He just said your name and expected you to know immediately what he wanted by taking one look at him. This usually worked because he was widely feared at Section. Then of course Nikita had come around and changed all that. He had changed, whether he wanted to admit it or not. She had changed him. It wasn't often that he showed it and it was even rarer that he showed it to Nikita.

"Nikita," he repeated when she didn't respond.

"Yes," she finally said as she turned to face him. Her eyes spoke volumes; she was testing him just like he was testing her. She stood her ground, if he wanted something from her he'd have to say it.

"Madeline's office," he paused. She had noticed that he liked to pause at every other sentence. "She needs to see you."

"All right." That's all? She thought to herself as she went to see Madeline.

While Michael stayed with Walter to get his inventory Nikita set out to find out what Madeline wanted.

"Hello Nikita, come in." Madeline could appear very friendly and open but Nikita had seen the flip side of that already and she knew to be cautious of her.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she sat down in front of her

"We've stumbled upon a person from your past." Straight to business as she was used to from Madeline.

"A person from my past…what does that mean?" she hated Section's cryptology. There was a dual meaning to everything said and done here.

"We've recruited someone who as it turns out has a connection to you. Normally we wouldn't keep him alive but he's excelled in his performance in the short period he's been here. That has only happened once in Section's history before. I hope that you will not let this affect your work…Nikita that will be all." Madeline said as she turned back to her screen as a sign that tells you can leave now.

She took the information in and left. A person from her past. That was all she was told. She wasn't told the identity of this person of the past. She would have to dig deeper later as the mission was about to load and they had to leave.

Michael was standing at this usual spot before takeoff. She never knew why he felt the need to stand there as people loaded the van. At one point in time she thought it was for her but that…she just couldn't think like that.

They shared a look before getting in. That was usually the way it went. The mission would start, she'd get a look from him and that was that. She couldn't help but feel that there was something more to it than usual. Some warning of some kind.

The mission went as planned and they returned to Section with only one wounded, a success in the eyes of Section. After the debrief Nikita decided to visit Michael in his office. The door was open so she waltzed right in and sat down in the chair opposite him. The way it usually went was he'd type up whatever he was working on and then came the yes? She decided to initiate the conversation herself this time.

"Michael? What's going on?" she asked knowing full well that she'd get one of his generic answers.

"Going on?" he said not taking his eyes of the screen yet. She sometimes thought he might even be timing when to look up, when to answer.

"What does a person of the past mean?" she looked at him intently and he finally looked up.

"We've recruited someone you know." He merely replied.

"Hmm right and who might this person be?" she wasn't really getting anything from him.

He paused and looked at her for a moment. "James." It was all he said before turning back to the screen in front of him.

James! Her mind was racing a mile a minute. She hadn't thought of him for a very long time. She didn't understand. How did he get here? Why now and why did they keep him?

"James?" she finally replied. Michael what is going on?" she asked a bit more concerned. There were always hidden reasons in Section.

"Nothing. Nikita I have work to do." There it was again, the you-are-excused line.

After a final look she left his office.

She wasn't called for missions until the following week. Not uncommon in Section but under the circumstances it could mean something.

As she walked closer to the table for the briefing she noticed someone talking to Madeline. The silhouette of the man was very familiar to her. Suddenly chills ran up and down her spine. From the corner of her eye she also saw another familiar figure approaching. Michael. He took a look at her before he sat down in his usual seat at the table.

"Nikita," she heard her name called by Madeline.

She turned her attention back to Madeline, "yes?"

"I'm sure you remember James from a past life. He will be working on this mission with us. He has provided us with vital intel for this mission." After her signature smile and nod she took her seat at the table.

Nikita was now standing face to face with the person from her past. "Hello James." There was no reason to make this any more difficult on herself. She'd face bigger things before.

"Nikita, I've looked forward to this moment for the past two years now." he seemed sincere, but she never knew with him.

"You have?" this certainly was a surprise to her. She wanted to ask more questions but Operations was starting his briefing.

It was more than just difficult for her to pay any attention to a word that was being spoken. She was more focused on the facial expressions and appearances at the table. James' was easy. She now really believed that he was happy to see her. Madeline, she was sure, was studying her every move. Michael was the one person she had a difficult time with. They did share their usual looks that they would have during briefings but other than that there seemed to be a blank stare. It was not like the stare he usually had, no this was different and it really scared her. She was convinced now more than ever that there was a deeper meaning hidden beneath all this.

After the briefing she went to get her inventory. James walked with her.

"You look amazing Nik," he said softly. Nik? He was using the nickname he had given her in a previous life.

She tried to act cool about it. "Thanks."

He came closer to her. "I've missed you so much. You can't even imagine how I felt when I found out you were still alive."

She was feeling the heat. She knew she was being closely watched so she tried to not say anything that could be used against her. She also didn't know what to do with James…how she felt about him after all these years.

She had hated every second of being in Section. After a while she basically learned to live with that. Now that she saw James here in Section, it rattled her. It threw everything off balance.

"Let's go," she heard Michael say behind her. It didn't escape his notice that Nikita was standing very close to James. "Mission's loading." He said as he walked away.

Something about that didn't sit quite well with Nikita. He wasn't just being his usual quiet self; he was going out of his way to not interact with her at all. She gave Walter a smile before she left with James in tow.

The mission went on flawlessly and the team returned to Section. As they unloaded Michael informed the group that they were on standby before leaving to debrief Operations. With nothing to do Nikita set out to find Walter and distance herself from James, who luckily was needed elsewhere in Section.

"Hey sugar, how'd it go?" Walter said as he looked up from his little project in front of him.

"All right I suppose," she replied as she did her usual walk of his little section.

"What's the matter? Something you want to talk about?" he had heard about James but wasn't going to ask unless she wanted to talk about it.

"What isn't?" she replied. "There's this person…someone I knew before and he's here now. Does that happen a lot in Section?"

He seemed to think about that for a second. "Not that I know of. You think you're being set up?" he knew of the friction between her and Operations.

"Yes…no…I just really don't know anymore. It's just I think I'm actually happy to see him and I don't want to." She trailed off.

"I see…this person mean something to you?" He had that twinkle in his eye.

"Hmm, yeah a long while ago." She had always felt she could tell Walter everything and trust him to not tell anyone. "But that was a long time ago and a lot has changed now…I've changed."

"Hmm. I see. So what now?"

"I wish I knew Walter. There's no way I could just sit down and talk to him I mean this is Section. There has to be a reason for his coming here."

"Yeah, you could be right. Have you talked to Michael?" he also knew of the whatever that something was between her and Michael.

"Michael? No, not really." she said as she turned around. "See you Walter."

"Anytime sugar."

Instead of seeing Michael again she went to Birkoff.

"Hey Birkoff, you busy?"

"Yes." He was busily typing away on the multiple computers surrounding him. "I'm looking at the intel you guys brought back."

"Oh anything interesting?" she had to feign interest if she was going to get him to help her.

"Nothing that would interest you. What can I do for you?" he asked wanting to go back to work.

"I need a favor."

"I don't do favors and that last favor you asked of me is still hanging over my head. So no thanks."

"Birkoff please. It's important."

"Ha," he scoffed. "Isn't it always with you?"

"I suppose so. Ok thanks Birkoff," she said as she pretended to walk away. If all else failed she knew to just play on his feelings. She didn't enjoy doing this but for now she had no choice.

Naturally it worked, "ok what do you need?"

James' file was impressive just as Madeline had told her. Still there was something that was off. She found a lot of information about his life prior to Section that she already knew. It was certainly thorough and quite painful to look through but she wanted to know why he was here and if she had to read through every painful detail then so be it.

A/N: should prob let ppl know that future chapters will not be this long, this is an exception I usually write short chapters and I always finish my stories. Ok it might take me a long time to finish a fic but it gets done lol.

Review PLS!!