Chapter 1

Threats or Warnings

"What do you know about Sofia Fletcher?" Harry asked Ruth quietly.

"She was an MI-5 officer a few years ago. She was in Moscow and was kidnapped by the Russians with Lucas-"she broke off, awkwardly, the loss and betrayal of their colleague was still fresh in their minds and speaking the name they had believed him to go by felt like pouring salt on the gaping wound. She caught herself and continued in a controlled voice "When their cover was blown. She was released around the same time but she didn't want to come back to The Grid, she opened a book store just outside London I think. Why are you asking?"

"Because she's in my office. She claims to have highly important information that she feels obliged to pass on to us. She's also hinted about returning..."

"Be careful Harry...She was always, reserved, empty, but people say she's retreated so far into herself she forgets who she is, they say she's mad."

"I often find that whoever 'they' are, they're often wrong." He replied cryptically, on a more serious note he added, "If she did want to return to The Grid how would you feel about it?"

"I wouldn't have any objections, she was brilliant." Ruth replied bluntly.

"Thanks Ruth." Harry said, turning to leave.

"Let me know how it goes."

...

Sofia Fletcher sat, perfectly composed in a chair opposite the desk, taking in her surroundings and determining what she could learn about her old boss and mentor. A part of her missed this, missed The Grid missed feeling important, necessary. On the other hand, everything had changed so much that she barely recognised it and found it difficult to yearn for something that she knew nothing of anymore.

The door slid open noiselessly and she stood to receive the handshake from Harry Pearce who, unlike most of the things and people around her, had not changed.

"Mr. Pearce." She said, allowing a slight smile to tug at her lips at the sight of him and the reassuring feel of his rough hand in hers.

"Sofia, it's been a while."

"Yes, it has." She agreed with a soft sigh, never one for small talk finding such obvious observations a waste of time and energy.

"You said you had some information to pass on to us?" he said, matter-of-factly taking his seat behind the desk and surveying her through cold calculating eyes.

She smiled again, remembering now why she and Harry had got on so well.

"I hear that one of your officers is dead, Lucas North?" she said vaguely.

It was clearly not what Harry had been expecting, he leant back in his chair, taking a deep breath and studying her, no longer treating her as an ex-colleague or an asset, but as an opponent in the literary chess game that was played daily within these walls. He looked at her, trying to assert how much she already knew and how much therefore he should tell her. He knew that she and Lucas had worked together and, more importantly, suffered through Russia together, he could not expect her to be unbiased and impassive about his recent death. He decided to take her temperature and force her to reveal more before he gave her anything.

"Yes." He said simply.

"Terrible business..."

"Indeed."

"Not killed in the line of duty as I understand it, more of a dishonourable discharge." She said, her eyes narrowing, again leaving everything open ended, forcing him to guess at how much she knew.

Harry was beginning to feel that Sofia knew more than he did on this subject, he had spent most of his time when she was on The Grid feeling as such, although he had soon discovered that she often did not initially though by the end of their conversation she invariably did. She had an incredible talent for getting people to part with information they would rather not, without them realising that they were giving up anything at the time.

"Something like that...He could no longer cope with the demands of the job, he committed suicide." He said, deciding that she was trying to determine how far to trust him but asking for information that she already had.

"Bullshit. I knew Lucas, I don't believe it." She said, suddenly appearing to become far more open about the subject though her voice remained flat and even. The effect was indescribable.

"I thought I knew him too." Harry admitted, he was not in the mood for discussing his intimate, and fresh feelings on this subject, least of all with Sofia but knew that he had to give her something.

"Don't misunderstand me, I didn't know him like you did Harry. I knew him..." She said softly, "Eight years in Russia...In that situation, you don't need people to tell you things about them to know them. I know everything about that man, nothing would surprise me about him, and yet this did. That tells me everything I need to know about it."

"You were held together?" Harry asked, surprised, not aware that male and female prisoners were allowed to mix, choosing to ignore the rest of her observations on this matter.

"Not quite." She said with a sinister smile, "When they realised we knew each other they placed our cells side by side...Sometimes it is the pain of others that will make you break."

She broke off, allowing him to digest this piece of information, also choosing to ignore the second part of her concerns about Lucas' death.

Harry was becoming irritated. Sofia was pressing buttons and she knew it. Lucas, or John, or whoever he had been was dead; whatever her personal feelings on the matter he had no interest in them or her conspiracy theories pertaining to Lucas' death.

"He's dead Sofia." He said brutally, "Whoever he was, whatever he was, whatever you felt about him doesn't matter anymore. Whatever he was to you and whatever you believe about this won't change anything...Dead men have no use for reputations."

"No, no they don't..." she said quietly. Pondering her next move

"You said you had information." He pressed tiredly, not giving her the chance to discuss Lucas anymore.

"I did, and I do...But we need to deal with Lucas first."

He swore and leapt to his feet, banging his fists against the thick wooden table, "I have no interest in discussing the man I believed to be Lucas North, and don't have the time to agonise over conspiracy theories that have no bearing on anything. It's been nice seeing you Sofia. We'll do this later, for old times sake if nothing else, but I can't be worrying about dead men, I've got a country to protect." He snapped, saying far more than he intended in his anger, and revealing more than that to her. He was angry, angry at her and angry at Lucas, he had been completely taken in, swallowed every one of his lies and believed them to such an extent that he had cared about the man. He no longer cared however, about whatever information she did or did not have, he could do without it. He wouldn't even entertain her potential return while she was in this state of mind.

She had not flinched when he had leapt to his feet and her face remained mask-like and impassive throughout his speech. As he made for the door she spoke in a perfectly calm, even tone," Lucas North is not dead. John Bateman never existed. " Harry sighed and made to wrench the door open before she said with the trace of an edge to her voice now, "And if you want to stop Britain from becoming embroiled in the third world war, then you will sit down and listen to me."

A/N: My first go at FanFiction, I know the whole 'Lucas coming back from the dead' thing has probably been overdone but I hope that I can create a plausible explanation for it and build an actual plotline around it. I hope this is OK, my apologies, I am extremely unsure and insecure about this so please let me know what you thought :)