"Whew! Ran out of breath saying that. Alias-stealing snot-nosed kid. There we go."

"Zoe?" Nancy asks incredulously.

"Shhh!" she whispers. "That's Chloe, to you!" While talking, she snaps her clutch up to her chest and starts digging through it.

"Oh. Chloe Katsaros, right?" Nancy smirks. "Yeah, I've seen that passport."

Zoe pauses and holds a finger to her lips for a couple of seconds. Then, returning to her bag, she pulls out a small rectangular device and presses its side with her thumb. "Sound masking. Don't want nosy eavesdroppers. And speaking of 'dropping,' I know I'm cool and all, but I'd appreciate it if you quit name-dropping my aliai—even to my face."

"Okay," Nancy agrees.

Blinking, Zoe fails to respond for a few seconds. "Good," she finally says. "Wow. That was easy. Now try not to make everything else so difficult. Like, actually answering your communication devices."

"So, this." Nancy holds up the pager. "You?"

"Yeah, and I've been trying to call for the past five minutes, by the way. Wanted you to know I was coming, but you know, whatever, obviously you don't care about your life." She glowers. "You are a real piece of work, you know that?"

"How so?" Nancy replies levelly.

"All that time you spent in Greece busting the theft ring? I was there, too, trying to take care of getting Thanos under wraps with charges that would stick. Then once again you had to go and stick your nose in my business—to save some now-missing-and-probably-dead artist and Oliver freaking Twist—and Thanos is god knows where."

"They're good people, and—" Nancy freezes. "Wait. What did you say about Niobe?"

"Dead, to the person who's deaf."

"Um…"

Zoe's head snaps over to Sonny.

"What's going on?"

"Just a second, Sonny." Nancy returns to Zoe. "What exactly is going on with Niobe?"

"She's been off everybody's radar for months. I haven't been able to find her. I called in a favor from Alec Fell, and he couldn't find her. The skiptracer couldn't find her. And it's such a shame. She's the only person in this world I don't hate." Zoe's face tightens with lines.

"Don't give up on her just yet," Nancy's voice softens. "She always was good at surviving."

"Well, what about the others?" Zoe puts a hand on her hip and leans against the wobbly coffee table. For a second her weight falls farther than she anticipated, and she jerks a couple of inches backward to balance her weight. "You need some gorilla glue for these legs," she adds.

Nancy says nothing, waiting for her to continue.

Huffing loudly and rolling her head around with her eyes, Zoe abandons the table and takes two steps toward her. "You mean you haven't heard?"

After a few more seconds' hesitation, Nancy shakes her head.

"Xenia was poisoned, and so was Grigor's cellmate."

"Is anybody going to fill me in here?"

"Grigor's cellmate, whatever," Zoe continues, ignoring Sonny. "That's in a county jailhouse. Pretty easy to do. But no one knows how he got to Xenia."

Nancy's attention narrows with her eyes, glossing over her boyfriend's plea. "And that's what you want me to find out, I presume?" she asks Zoe.

"Nope. Don't really care. What we really need is to wrestle Thanos into a cell before he causes any more problems. That's where I can use your help."

A little nettled, Sonny walks silently over to the kitchen table and plucks up a sheet of paper from the pile.

"Oh, and also, Thanos is after you, too. We need to get you to a safe place, like, now. So pack up some things and say goodbye since you're going to have to be leaving this cozy arrangement."

A wadded paper ball sails past Nancy and Zoe and bounces off the opposite wall. Zoe sighs harshly while Nancy watches it roll to a stop two feet in front of her.

"Okay, now that I've got everybody's attention, what is going on?" Sonny's voice hardens with urgency.

Quickly Nancy fills him in with details of her case in Greece.

"Wait. So you're the reason Persephone in Winter was cancelled for the rest of the week? I paid big bucks for that!"

"Sorry?" she offers with a smile. Turning back to Zoe, she says, "Now I remember. You were undercover, working for the museum, weren't you? Chloe Katsaros. Saw your name in the time cards."

"Yep."

"So what happens now?" Sonny's eyes dart between Nancy and Zoe.

"We get out of here, starting now. You two go to a safe house—"

"Where?" Nancy interrupts.

"A couple of hours from here. I know a lady. Anyway, after that, you—" Zoe jabs a thumb at Nancy, "will help me track down Thanos, and you—" she jerks her head at Sonny, "will help my associate guard against their finding out anything about where we are or what we're doing. Nice passport job in New Zealand."

"…Thanks?" Sonny responds warily, unused to this being a compliment. The line of people he'd pissed off kept him from considering it as such. Thanks to crazy reality television producers, he'd narrowly escaped deportation. Instead, the government issued him an official warning.

He did get to meet the Prime Minister, though.

"We need you for stuff like that," Zoe continues, interrupting his thoughts, "general hacking to help expedite the search and prevent him from making any quick getaways."

"Okay."

Zoe's head twitches up and down. "Good. My associate already located a suspect, female, believed to be Thanos' accomplice. We're calling her Cerberus."

"Cute," Nancy puts in.

"You done interrupting me?"

Nancy doesn't reply. The temperature in the room seems to drop a degree.

"Any reason to be so rude?" Sonny asks, noting Nancy's frustration.

"Yep. Because if I waste time on Q & A, we'll all probably die where we're standing. Have you forgotten your lives are in danger?"

Nancy meets Sonny's eye and shrugs.

"We think she's a hacker, but no proof yet," Zoe proceeds. Whoever's covering up her and Thanos' tracks—and it looks like it's Cerberus—is doing a good job. It's slowed us down, that's for sure. Again, that's why we need you, Sonny. I've got basic hacking skills, just enough to pester Nancy here. They're not state of the art."

"So, in other words, you guys are so busy protecting yourselves from Thanos that you barely have the time and resources to fight back and find out where he is?" Nancy asks.

"Something like that," Zoe mutters, voice going a little flat, face growing a little sullen. "Although you'll never hear me say I need help. More that it'll be… easier if you do help."

Pulling her lips inward, Nancy considers this. Then nods. "Good enough for me. Sonny?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Okay. Grab some stuff and follow me. Nancy, take the pager. Sonny, wear a hat."

Sonny blinks and recoils slightly. He doesn't have any, and the idea of wearing one is foreign to him.

Coming to the rescue, Nancy tosses him the newsboy hat he gave her after she started working as a freelance reporter.

Then they spend the next two minutes doing as Zoe asked.

"Hand me that." Nancy nods at her notebook.

Sonny passes it, along with her flashlight.

"This is going to put me so behind on schoolwork."

Sonny titters in response, hoping he's covering up the nervousness so Nancy won't notice. This is only the millionth time something's gotten in the way of his education, and once again he'd find himself fighting the uphill battle of motivation when it came to returning to school.

Nancy does notice. When Sonny's eyes return to her, she's eyeing him full force. He hopes it'll be the half taken-aback, half suspicious 'Why are you so weird?' expression. Unfortunately he sees this isn't the case, not with the clear worry nestled in the proximity of her eyebrows. "Do you think we'll ever graduate?" she asks.

Nancy has a thousand faces, and this is the first time he doesn't want to sketch one of them.

It's too painful.

He shrugs, rattles off an "If it's in the stars," and turns away. He knows that it's breaking one of their communication rules—being too vague in a response—but it's all he can offer at this point.

A peal of laughter surprises him.

Sonny turns to Nancy, who looks… appreciative? for the breach. Her crinkled eyes eyes linger on him for another second before they lower, almost in a sheepish way, and she turns and calls to Zoe.

"What?" Zoe snaps.

"How long is this going to take?"

"Oh, a week or less. For now we have to work on Thanos' timeline, since he's uh, going to try to kill you in that amount of time, anyway. You guys ready? I am." Zoe goes to stand near the door.

"That shouldn't be too bad for me," Nancy muses. "I don't have any assignments for Tacoma Weekly right now, and I can just send my pitches after this assignment's done."

"A week off school? Yay!" Sonny chimes in.

Nancy turns to him. "What about your job?"

"It's okay. I was about to get fired anyway." Sonny waits for the rebuke.

It never arrives. "Maybe you should freelance like me," Nancy says instead. "It works better with crazy schedules like ours."

"I don't write." Sonny ducks down to the head of his beloved teddy bear Jin Junior, which is currently resting under a mane of discarded papers. He grabs it, holding it close against his body as he pivots around for his briefcase.

"Start a web comic?" Nancy suggests. But on the last word her voice starts to trail off, and Sonny knows he's as good as caught. "That teddy bear sure looks familiar."

"You probably just saw it lying around here and forgot about it," Sonny says, then cuts back a wince. In his hurry to provide an excuse, he interrupted her. Talk about suspicious. "Or you, uh, saw it in Skipbrot in the gift shop there. That's where I got it."

"Oh, so it's the bear you stole after Soren fired you before you got your first paycheck?"

"Yeah." Sonny scratches his head and his eyes dart up to her.

"Oh, how romantic. Kleptos of a feather flock together." Zoe rolls her eyes.

"Hey! I don't steal things." But there isn't much weight to Nancy's protest, like she doesn't believe her own words.

"Yeah. Like aliai and spyglasses. Yup. You totally didn't steal those. Or all the things you take out of people's purses or handbags."

"Or the code and comics you removed from my trunk in New Zealand," Sonny adds, then proceeds to laugh a little hysterically. Maybe Nancy can be distracted out of this debacle yet.

"Enough!" Nancy grits her teeth.

"I thought you'd be mad since it wasn't, you know, exactly legal how I acquired it," Sonny says, trying to keep the tension out of his voice. It is his bear, after all. He's not ashamed of taking what he had coming. Most employers at least had the decency to pay him before firing him.

And, as if that didn't cinch it, it was love at first sight with the little furry bandit. Iceland was a cold and lonely country, especially when Jin's leads didn't pan out. The teddy bear—or Jin Junior, as Sonny had decided to call him—turned out to be his only friend there.

Then, remembering he's in the middle of a conversation, Sonny jerks his eyes up to Nancy. There's a guarded sorrow in her eyes, and he guesses she's been reading his face again.

"My main stressor this week was the thesis defense," Sonny continues, changing the subject, "so I'm not too worried about the job. And web comics—heh heh. You might have an idea there."

"Let's hope so."

"You guys ready yet?"

"Yep!" Sonny lifts his briefcase, jiggling it to make sure he could hear papers rustling inside. They're not in there. His eyes fall on his newest stack of papers on the floor between the couch and coffee table, and he moves to pack them before he forgets again. Then he remembers.

And freezes.

"Oh no," he mutters, hands flying to his head and raking back his black and vermillion hair. "Oh no."

"What?" Nancy's voice hardens as her eyes follow Zoe out the door.

"Jamila's project. I promised I'd have it done tomorrow."

"That's not going to happen," Zoe raises her voice from the doorway. "Now come on. Move it. Let's blow this popsicle stand."

"Where are we headed?" Nancy picks up her bag and makes her way out of the apartment, throwing a glance over her shoulder to make sure Sonny's also ready to go.

"Friend of mine, whom we'll call Diegesis, has a little place where you two can hide out. She's one of our benefactors, gave us the money to build several safe houses. It's a little unusual," Zoe adds upon seeing Nancy's hesitation, "but it's the best I can do on short notice. Plus, when it comes to this mission, her place is pretty optimally located."

"How so?"

"Less talking, more moving." Zoe grabs her arm and starts her down the stairs. "Can't blow this by discussing details in such a compromising location. You don't want your tenants to get caught in the crossfire, do you?"

"Nope. Just the landlord," Sonny quips.

Nancy turns and opens her mouth to chide him, but Zoe's nodding. "Difficult man," she says. "When I told him just, you know, to keep an eye out in the next couple of days, just in case our friend decides to stop by, he flipped and demanded to know which of his tenants was causing the trouble so he could kick them out."

Exchanging glances, Nancy and Sonny don't immediately respond. Then Sonny turns to Zoe and asks, "So are we in the dog house, or no?"

"No, I squared it. Didn't even tell him it was you guys, although he seemed to guess it. Now," she shoes the door open, "I'm going to take you to a place. Then you have to go to another place."

Sonny raises his eyebrows. "Wouldn't it be easier just to take us to the place that the place would take us to?"

"Easier, yes. Safer, hell no. Just listen to me and you'll be all right."

Nancy leans sideways towards Sonny. "That's true, unfortunately," she mutters.

Zoe pops a clicker out of her purse and steers Nancy and Sonny towards a sleek black sedan. "For god's sake, let's get out of here before hitting rush hour."

"Seattle?"

"Nope. The train station." Nancy steps in front while Sonny tumbles in back, and Zoe swings out of the parking space. "We have just about another fifteen minutes together, then I'm outta here for the next few days. Nancy, there's a little brown bag in my purse. Get it out."

"You sure you want me touching your things?" Nancy replies dryly. "I might steal them."

"Shut up and do it."

Nancy complies, her hand retreating with a paper bag in it.

"Open it."

Two sandwiches in plastic wrap, two sets of keys, two disposable cell phones, and a book fall out.

"Eat those whenever. The other stuff is what's important."

"Is one of them vegetarian?" Nancy asks before Sonny can.

"Yes, you hippie." Zoe's eyes pop up at Sonny in the rearview. "Turn it over."

Nancy, who's still holding both of the sandwiches, finds a "V" scrawled in Sharpie on the back of one of them. She hands it to Sonny.

"Those other things." Zoe turns her head just enough to nod at them, still eyeing the road. "Pick a phone. Doesn't matter which is which. They're disposable, so you won't be using them after today. My associate will give you more disposables for tomorrow and then as you need them. The keys open up the room where you'll be working in Diegesis' house, as well as the house itself."

Attempting to take all this in and keep it all straight, Sonny is glad when Zoe starts directing the instructions at Nancy alone.

"The book is for you, Nancy, explaining some of the codes you'll have to be familiar with to communicate with us. Read, memorize, burn. Don't let it out of your sight until then. Start studying now. Have it memorized before you get to Diegesis, and burn it there."

Brow already knit in concentration, Nancy opens the book and starts reading.

"Sonny."

Sonny's head jolts up. So much for keeping everything straight.

"In the room where you and Nancy are staying, there's a file that'll tell you which devices my associate and I think Thanos could be using. Get familiar with those. Read. Memorize. Burn."

Sonny gulps. He's not great at any of those things.

"If you have trouble, write yourself notes that only make sense to you. Then never let them out of your sight."

This mollifies him, and he starts breathing normally again.

A few minutes later Zoe glances around the street at the growing amount of cars. "Good. Perfect timing," she mutters, pulling off and parking on a red curb.

Nancy pulls her eyes from her book and stares with some perplexment. "Isn't that—"

"Yeah, I don't care. Just have to get out of here soon. You and Sonny get on that 590 that's about to pull up if I timed this right. Get off at the Dome Station, go inside, and look for a blond man wearing a brown sweater and green hat. That's my associate, K2. Call him K2, not anything else—" here she tosses a reproachful glance at Nancy, "—he'll take you where you need to go."

Then as if on cue—and for Zoe it probably is—a yellow bus pulls up ten yards in front of them, 590 flashing in orange letters on the back.

"All right. Time for me to go. Both of you, blend in. Now get out."

They run to catch the bus. Sonny's head sinks into the headrest and he's about to drift off when—

"What do you think she meant?"

"What are you talking about?" Sonny frowns, keeping his eyes closed.

"You can sleep later. When Zoe said 'don't call him anything else,' her associate, why would I call him anything else unless I already knew his name?"

"Is this you thinking out loud again?"

"More like I wonder if I'm being crazy and reading into this and I wanted a second opinion."

"The only crazy thing you do is try to interrupt my sleep when neither of us get a lot of it."

"So you accept my conclusion?" she asks. He can hear the smile.

"Yeah. Do you accept my slumber-oriented goals? No, forget that. Sleep is necessary for life. Do you accept my life-oriented goals?"

"Yeah, but… we do have to make sure we get off at the right stop, and four eyes are better than two."

"If we don't, we can just double back," Sonny yawns.

"Zoe probably wants us to stay out of sight."

"Fair point." His eyes blink open.

They get off at Dome Station as Zoe instructed.

"Blond man, green hat, right?" Nancy asks, narrowing her eyes at the stream of people as they go inside.

"You think I remember?"

"Zoe also said he's wearing a brown sweater," Nancy continued through his reply.

"What about that guy?" Sonny pointed.

Pushing down his hand to avoid drawing attention to themselves, Nancy sneaks a peek.

Green hat. Check.

Brown sweater. Check.

Tuft of blond hair on forehead. Check.

Nancy begins walking in his direction.

Sonny follows.

"Careful approaching," Nancy murmurs to him. "We could be wrong, you know."

But their problem is immediately remedied when the man sees them, smiles, and removes his hat as they reach him—revealing more blond hair. "Hello," he smiles. He sounds English.

And familiar.

"Colin?" Nancy asks incredulously. "I mean, Just—uh… K2?"

"You remember me?" He brightens.

Well, somebody has a crush, Sonny notes, battling an expression of amusement.

Nancy appears to come to the same conclusion. Her back is to him, but he sees her stiffen and her hands go flat against the tops of her thighs. "Yes," she replies in a voice like somebody has her in a chokehold, without moving a muscle.

Laughter threatens him. Clearing his throat to cover the beginning of a chortle, Sonny folds his arms across his chest and refocuses on the funny-looking people passing by so his amusement will have an alibi. It's a little adorable, he decides. He's not the jealous type.

The man's—Justin's—eyes fall to the vacant hollow of Nancy's throat, and he practically glows. "You're not wearing that locket anymore, then?"

"Uh… no." After a few more seconds of blind grappling she grabs Sonny, wrenches him forward, and declares, "This is my boyfriend, Sonny Joon."

"Ah." Justin's eyes fall to his feet. "Good to meet you."

"You too." Sonny rubs his arm and backs three steps out of Nancy's reach, throwing her a startled glance.

"So… yes. Yes, let's go." With that, Justin whips around and begins making his way to the exit.

"You and Zoe?" Nancy continues, stunned. "You work together?"

"Yes, we do. I was on assignment when we met in Venice, as a matter of fact."

"Aha. I always thought it was suspicious that you had the puzzle box."

"It was my idea to give it to you. Zoe hated me for it." He turns out onto the sidewalk without a backward glance at them and begins heading to a green smart car.

Nancy is tall but not as tall as Justin, and she jogs to keep up. Sonny takes her hand and her pace.

"Zoe hates this too," Justin adds with a touch of mirth, "but I managed to convince her that no one would expect a spy to drive around in one of these things."

"Cool!" Sonny chimes in appreciatively, hand trailing along hinge to handle. "I bet the mileage is terrific."

"Yes. Unfortunately it's accustomed to only driving around Zoe and myself, so we're going to have to be a little creative with the seating arrangements."

"Here." Sonny sits down and pulls Nancy into his lap. "Solved."

"Fine idea for shorter distances." Justin looks away. "Will you two be comfortable for a couple of hours like that?"

"Yep!" Sonny tugs off Nancy's hat and plops it on her head, rearranging his hair.

"Sure," Nancy replies, a little more reserved, but Sonny feels the sincerity in the way her arms linger sliding over his shoulders.

"Right." Justin pulls out and turns on a device that looks remarkably similar to the one Zoe had back in their apartment, and Sonny assumes that this one is also a sound masker. "We're headed to Anacortes, where you two will hop on a boat to get to your destination."

"Diegesis?" Nancy deduces.

"Correct."

"She doesn't mind helping us out?"

Justin chuckles.

"What?" Nancy asks.

"She already knows you, Nancy."

"She does? Who do I know who li—"

"Actually, you don't know her. She just knows you."

Nancy pauses. "Not sure I like the sound of that."

"She's trustworthy. She's been involved with our organization for the better part of ten years, apparently."

"Your organization being…?"

"You'll have to ask Zoe," he replies contritely. "I'm not sure I'm cleared to tell you. And speaking of Zoe, she's adamant about no names from now on. Code names only in phone communications. For in-person communications, initials are acceptable."

"So many rules," Sonny grumbles.

"As Zoe already told you, I'm K2. She is Infinitum. Infinitum suggested we steal Nancy's name from Cathedral to make things easier, so Nancy, your name remains Kestrel, and Sonny, you're Wren."

"Oooo! So I get a super secret super awesome spy name?" Sonny stops sulking, interest piqued.

"Yes," Justin laughs.

"Good," Nancy puts in. "Now unless you have other things to tell us, I need to continue reading the book Zoe gave me."

"Good idea. I was supposed to remind you of that."

While Nancy reads, Sonny spends the two hours talking to Justin. His tone, while polite, falls just short of cordial.

Until he gets him talking about art, that is.

"I can't understand why the intricacy of mosaicking is so little appreciated," Justin admits, frowning. "It's practically an invisible joy. It's there for everyone, but everyone doesn't see it."

"I know!" Sonny fairly yells, startling Nancy into dropping her book. As she rearranges herself to reach down and grab it, he continues: "What is with people who don't know the difference between scarlet and crimson, for crying out loud?"

"What is the difference?" Nancy asks evenly.

"Crimson is darker," they reply in unison. "Scarlet is almost like orange," Sonny adds.

"Exactly!" Justin repines. "To think of all those who go to their graves never knowing. Devastating."

They continue their impassioned discussion until "Welcome to Anacortes" flies toward then past them.

Minutes later Justin parks at a small dock, hands them another batch of disposable cell phones, and shoves them toward an outboard motorboat. Nancy manages to see the letters HS painted on the side before she is hurried in.

"Thanks, man! I mean, K2," Sonny says, proud of himself for remembering.

"Don't mention it." Justin smiles. He hands Nancy the key and a sheet with directions. "I'll be in contact soon, or Infinitum will. Tear up and toss the instructions in the water when you're done with them."

After he leaves, Sonny watches the boat rock in the mounds of waves, puzzled. "Now what do we do?" he asks. "Is it like driving a car?"

"Leave it to me," Nancy replies, twisting the key in the ignition until the motor bursts to life. "I have a boating license."

Shaking his head, Sonny says, "You really know everything, don't you?"

But his voice is drowned out by the boat as it rips out into the open water.

Sorry this has taken me so long. School, man. Has this habit of assigning a crapton of papers. Oh, and by the way, DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters or Labyrinth of Lies or whatever other game I referenced here. Seriously, they slip out faster than I can keep track of them. Allusions are far too enjoyable.

Yeah, the whole thing with Nancy riding on Sonny's lap in the smart car is completely implausible, but I figure I'll have bigger plot holes to worry about soon enough. Besides, Justin TOTALLY drives one of those tiny European cars, being from there, am I right? Or is that xeno-profiling or nationality-profiling or Anglophobic or whatever it would be called? Too bad: I'm now attached to the idea and will be building a barricade around Justin's smart car and NO ONE SHALL REPLACE IT WITH A NICER CAR! MWAHAHAHAHA!

I was playing some Grass Roots for my sister a couple of months ago, and she noted that "Sooner or Later" must be Nancy and Sonny's song. I realized that she is completely right. At least, that's their song for RWC, which she's still reading. (Yes, I make her read my things so we can discuss how/why Nancy and Sonny are the OTP.) For this one, I'm envisioning "If It's Love" by Train a bit more.

Speaking of Nancy/Sonny, there still isn't a ship name for them. It's embarrassing because all my other favorite pairings are easier to convert... Jamila/Dylan = Jamylan, Zoe/Dagny = Zagny, etc. Because of this massive failure, hansbmd suggested making the voyage to surnames. That said, we might finally have something: how do you guys feel about "Droon?"

Also, call me a shipping whore (although I prefer "strumpet"), but now I ship Sonny Joon/Justin Beaumont a little just from writing that conversation. I mean, it's starting to seem to me that they'd make a fine couple, although I already ship Justin with somebody else. For love of the Drewniverse, dear Nancy, somebody please stop me. Can't... stop... shipping...