Arthur looked at the man sitting across from him, a deep unmoving frown creasing his features. Elizabeth had asked him to take care of this irksome matter while see was enjoying the weekend at Windsor.

"She wants it taken care of and she wants it taken care of discreetly." Arthur said staring the man down, knowing that he understood perfectly the severity of the matter. "In my opinion your brother has been attracting too much attention to himself to attend to this issue with an adequate level of discretion. The fact that the attention comes from a rather impressive record of successfully resolved cases has not escaped my notice… He is nearly singular in his deductive talents," Arthur saw the man's eyebrow raise slightly, a drastic change in expression on his otherwise politely composed face. Arthur repeated himself with a small smirk remembering a different time and different men with the same names. "Nearly singular. We expect you to get him to accept the case, and she expects nothing less than an exemplary resolution of the matter. I trust you understand." The man before him gave a brief nod and stood, understanding Arthur's statement as the dismissal it was.

"I will see to the matter at once. If you will excuse me," The man nodded his head towards Arthur before turning to leave.

"Mycroft, this needs to be taken care of quickly you know there's more at stake here than those photographs. He needs to solve this before America decides to get involved, remember that." Arthur waited for a reply and then watched as the man hastened from the room.

…

Of course America had gotten involved, of course he had, Alfred couldn't leave anything up to anyone else he always had to try and save the day himself. Arthur glared at the paper work on his desk and raised his head sharply to bark at whoever was opening his door. Of course, it had really only been a question of when really.

"What do you want Alfred? I'm busy trying to clean up your mess."

"We need to talk." Alfred was closing the door behind himself as he spoke, serious for once.

"Really? Why would you think that, because to me the whole thing is rather straight forward. We agreed you would give us time, this is a sensitive issue Alfred, you can't just walk in with your secret agents and bully a solution!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Alfred sucked in a breath sharply between his teeth before continuing in a more sedate tone. "They weren't supposed to move. Yes, they were sent in early, I know, I'm sorry… They weren't supposed to do anything though, it was supposed to be strictly surveillance…"

"You should have told me they were present. We could have stopped them had we known who they were, where they were coming from. She escaped Alfred, the phone with her. You should have told me, we're in this together, if that plane doesn't fly, if the terrorists find out we know-"

"I know! I know that… I tried okay, I know that doesn't change anything, I know I should have told you, but I can't do anything here. They're still terrified of almost anything they perceive as a threat. Say the word terrorist and they still instantly recall… Hell, I still recall that." Alfred plopped down in the seat across from Arthur's desk running a hand through his hair and twisting his face in his frustration.

"You aren't the only one who's had terror attacks." Arthur bit his lip as he watched Alfred immediately seize up with tension, his hands gripping the arms of the chair so tightly Arthur was surprised it hadn't shattered into a splintered mess. "I… My apologies, that was out of line."

"No, no it wasn't, you're right… we don't do this though, during the wars there was an ocean between us and the mess going on over here, most of the wars we've had we either did to ourselves or were the instigator… We're not used to being attacked." Alfred rubbed his face harshly before looking up at Arthur again. "I can't do anything about what's already done. So, what do we do from here?"

…

It had seemed for awhile that The Woman had in fact disappeared, the flight date grew closer and then Arthur made a mistake. He let himself hope that things would work out alright.

"She's back." Alfred gave no preamble to the statement as he simply let himself into Arthur's office.

"Yes, Mycroft was just informing me." Arthur was not sitting behind his desk as he so usually did but was instead standing. His chair was pushed out behind him as he loomed over the papers before him, arms bracing himself up, locked in place. A man in a three piece suit stood to one side of the room, his round face seemed to be warring between expressions; one of the extreme displeasure that he was surely feeling, and the other of composed politeness that he likely wore as a mask at all times. "The agents failed?"

"… yeah… Do, do we know the damage?" Alfred swallowed not knowing if he really wanted the answer to that question as he took in the solid line of tension that made up Arthur's shoulders.

"We're waiting. Knowing Adler and Holmes, well… Mycroft?" Arthur turned to look at the man who shook his head.

"Nothing yet Sir." Mycroft only raised his gaze long enough to reply before his eyes were once more glued to the screen of his mobile. They waited. They did not, however, wait long.

Mycroft's phone beeped and the two nations studied him carefully, his eyes closed and the tension in the room snapped and seemed to dissipate almost instantly into resignation and in Alfred's case anger.

That was it, it was over, the terrorist group knew that they knew. The dead flight plan was a bust. Who knew what was going to happen to their informants.

"Well. I'll go finish things with Adler then."

"We're coming." Alfred was silently fuming, clearly waiting for an argument.

"Lead the way Mycroft." Arthur said as he finally righted himself and rounded his desk to join them.

…

Arthur and Alfred waited in the car, listening to events unfold within the plane on earpieces. They listened to the completely inane reason the plan had come crashing down around their heads, they listened to Adler's list of demands, they listened to Sherlock Holmes deduce as no one else could or had for years. When it was over Mycroft rejoined them and they made their way back to the city.

"Oh, hey, before I leave." Alfred turned to Mycroft and stuck out his hand. "I'm Alfred Jones. Sorry we didn't meet under happier circumstances."

"Indeed," Mycroft took the offered hand briefly and they shook. "Although I suspect we most likely would have never met under happier instances." Mycroft turned to leave, no doubt a nightmare awaited him at his desk.

"So Arthur, any idea why we couldn't get any help from a police box?"

"Shut up Alfred, you'll regret teasing me about that one day."

"Hey now, who said anything about teasing."

Mycroft closed the door of his car once more shutting out the rest of the conversation. He didn't understand it, likely wasn't meant to. Still, he stored it away for later, knowing the things he dealt with on a daily basis it would likely come up again.