Author's note: This is my second fanfic and can be read as a companion piece to Once A Spy and it's set in the same universe. You don't need to read one to understand the other.

Sabina was the first girl Alex ever had an interest in, and with her looks and personality, it was easy to see why so many other boys were interested in her too. Despite their age difference of one year, Alex was smitten, and Sabina too. For all she looked at other boys-older and taller than Alex-it was he she liked best.

As cliche as it was, Alex and Sabina were the only ones who really understood each other. After so many shared adventures; the Triads in Cornwall, the explosion in France, and the midnight swim in the loch in Scotland, there was something binding them together.

Then Jack died and it was all shot to hell.

Alex had been looking forward to seeing Sabina, but in the six months since they had seen each other they had grown apart. Sabina was older, in the midst of her teenage years, while Alex struggled to come to grips with his new reality.

They would always be friends, but there was a bridge between them now. Sabina and Alex still talked, still confided in each other, but the spark was gone.

But sometimes in the middle of the night, each of them would lie in their rooms and think about what could have been. If Sabina hadn't moved to America, if Jack had never died. Nothing ever happened, and Alex and Sabina grew up, as friends and nothing more.

Eventually, Alex moved back to England and went back to spying, and Sabina married and had beautiful children with a beautiful man. Life was good.

They visited each other and talked, bridging the gap between them, fast friends long after Sabina had divorced her husband and Alex had settled into spying with new fervour. And still, nothing ever happened. Maybe in another life, Sabina had said. Alex had agreed, nodding his head absently, and that had been that.

They might have been happy together, it might have ended in divorce, and neither of them would ever know because the timing just hadn't been right.

For all that had happened between them, for all they loved each other, it just couldn't be, and that was okay. Sometimes, being friends is enough.

Please review! I love any feedback, criticism or love, as long as you're nice about it! :)