Chapter Two

Trust

Emma ran quickly causing the sound of her boots hitting the ground to echo throughout the building. Being stealthy was the least of her worries as the crack of gunshots was coming from right behind her. Her breaths were short and clipped while she continued to sprint down the seemingly endless hallway. No matter how far she ran, she couldn't get away from her pursuers.

The blonde was startled when a bullet whizzed past her ear and she gasped slightly, picking up her pace as much as she could. Finally, she reached the end of the corridor, taking cover behind the edge of the wall. Trying to even out her breathing, she stood her ground, deciding to wait for the men who were chasing her.

A bead of sweat dropped down the side of her face and her head spun dizzily. The heavy footsteps were approaching fast. Shaking her head to try and rid herself of the feeling, she then pressed up against the walls, alert.

Finally, two figures came out from around the corner and Emma immediately reacted. She brought her gun across one man's face, and the sound of the metal colliding with his skull made a sickening crack. While that man crumpled to the floor, the other started to throw punches at her. Dodging swiftly and lithely, she quickly overpowered him as he began to get tired from his slow, heavy, but powerful attacks. Taking advantage of his weariness, the agent gave him a flat kick to the face and he followed his companion and fell unconscious.

Staring down at her work for only a brief second, she began to run again. There was a light at the end of the hall coming from a window of some sort. Emma almost laughed in relief as she dashed at full speed towards the opening. She was almost there when—Crack!

She didn't have time to think or react in any way. Even the pain was paused. There was a warm liquid creeping into her left side. Slowly, her eyes began to widen as she finally processed what had happened. Blood was beginning to blossom on her white tank top from the wound in her lower abdomen. Staggering backwards, the spy leaned on the walls for support, but found none. Sliding to the floor, she saw her shooter in the corner of her eye.

His attire was the usual, in his black leather jacket and dark jeans; he walked up slowly to where she was propped up. Her breathing was ragged as she pressed on her injury, trying to stanch the blood that was now pouring freely from the bullet hole. Through blurry vision, she could see a small smirk on his face when he bent down to her eye level. None of it mattered to her, though.

The world around her was slowly becoming fainter and darkness clouded the edges of her vision as she stared upwards at her shooter as he spoke. No noise came from his lips, however, and Emma's eyes drooped closed and her body slumped sideways. She never hit the ground, though. She could feel herself, falling downwards, sinking deeper and deeper into a void of darkness.

Everything screamed in pain, her legs, her arms, but most of all, her head and left shoulder. There was a terrible throbbing in her temple that would just not stop, and judging by the strange stinging sensation coming from a central point in her shoulder, she could only assume she had been shot. With each breath came another wave of pain that seemed to course through every vein in her body. Even her eyelids ached refused to open. Emma just wanted to succumb to her injury and sleep forever. Perhaps she would have done so if an icy cold bucket of water had not been dumped on her.

When the water had hit her skin, it felt as though her blood had froze. In just seconds, she felt herself begin to shiver intensely, but she refused to let it show because she then realized where she was. It was no wonder that she felt a strange throb in her head; she was hung up by her ankles, her arms tied behind her back, leaving the rest of her body to swing limply. Trying to figure out what was right side up, and what was not, made her head pound even more.

Looking around she could see she was in a plain room with walls made out of concrete and large wooden shafts above. Letting her head fall back down, her hair dripped small droplets of water onto the floor. Suddenly, she could hear a faint chuckle from one corner of the room. Gulping, Emma braced herself for whatever torture that was about to come.

Sure enough, a knife was slid over her cheek, leaving a shallow cut, but blood still trickled down to her forehead despite the size. Clenching her jaw, she hung helplessly from the wooden shaft that went across the ceiling. "What is this? A spy on my territory?" The man said simply. Bringing her head up a bit, she could then see his face.

Now she remembered. Alec Ross, a middle-aged man who possessed a rare blood diamond that is used to fund terrorism. Both she and Jones had received their mission, saying that Ross would be in the upper extremities of Maine that week. They had been told that the man would be out of the building, leaving the diamond decently guarded, but nothing that the two A-class spies couldn't handle. However, they found the opposite.

Ross was indeed gone, but his vault had a strange security system. Once Emma and Killian had gotten inside, Jones agreed to be lookout while she retrieved the diamond. However, once she got inside the vault, she felt strange, her throat felt warm and ticklish, which caused her to cough and sound the alarm. Her partner was nowhere to be seen by the time the guards came for her, but they seemed perfectly fine when they entered the room. Fighting proved to be difficult for her as dizziness took over and she was quickly defeated.

Now, she was tied up, upside down, with a bullet lodged into her left shoulder. Perfect, she thought sarcastically. A painful stutter exited her lips as she attempted to shift her hands, but she only felt a burning sensation as the material irritated her raw skin. Dammit, Killian, where are you? If he got caught too they would be screwed.

Her attention once again went to the man in front of her and she gave him a hard glare. "You know, I'm feeling generous today so I'll give you a choice. I can torture you by snapping every bone in your body, or we can do this quickly," Ross pulled out a gun and pointed it straight at her face. "What's it going to be blondie?"

"Neither," a familiar voice sounded from behind her. Alec's eyes rose from her, only having a moment to be surprised before a fist met his face, fazing him. In the corner of her eye she saw a figure move, quickly striking his opponent again. Ross was knocked out in seconds. Emma then looked at her savior. He wore a black leather jacket and dark jeans, his hair was wild and she only saw his face once he turned to her.

"Jones, thank god," The blonde said, her voice slightly raspy.

Her partner grinned, "Finally found you, Swan," he cut the rope that bound her wrists hurriedly. "I wasn't sure where they had taken you, but I figured something of value had to be in a room that required four guards to watch over it."

Despite the ache and pain that her body was giving her at the moment, she managed to reply casually. "What? Only four?"

She heard him curse in response, "Damn… All right, here's what I'm going to do; I'll hold on to you from behind while you untie your legs." Emma's shoulders tensed for a moment at his touch, but she nodded.

Doing a semi-sit up, she quickly untangled the chains that restrained her legs. Undoing the last loop, she didn't have time to prepare herself before she went plummeting down to the ground at gravity's will. The woman cried out as she fell into the arms of Killian Jones, who held her tightly, making sure not to touch her shoulder wound. "You're lighter than I thought," Jones commented with a smirk.

Emma's eyebrows rose, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I can probably drink more than you," he winked and she rolled her eyes. Here they were, just barely escaping the clutches of a man who supported and funded terrorism, and they were chatting about drinks.

Shifting in Killian's arms uncomfortably, wanting to be on her feet, she muttered, "Right, because that's what's important right now." Her colleague didn't reply, but put her down, probably realizing that she wasn't very cozy in his arms. However, Emma immediately regretted it. Her head spun in all different kinds of directions that she couldn't see straight. Staggering, she grabbed onto the closest thing to help steady herself, which just so happened to be Jones' arm.

"Easy, lass, you've been hung up there for at least two hours. If you were anybody else, I would have expected you to puke," the Irish man said.

"Yeah, well, if it were anybody else they wouldn't be dangling from the ceiling in the first place," Emma huffed. After a few moments, she regained her composure and released her grip on her companions arm. Remembering their mission, she asked, "Do you have the diamond?"

To answer her question he pulled out a small pouch and opened it to reveal a large glittering rock. Hell, the thing was the size of her eye. "Amazing how something so beautiful could lead to such horrible things." He pocketed the jewel and handed her a gun. "You all right now? We need to get that wound treated."

She inspected her gun and clicked the safety trigger off, "I'll be fine. Let's go." With that said, Killian nodded and opened the door gently. He stepped out into the hall, keeping his gun in front of him as he turned his body in both directions before signaling her to follow. Emma got her gun in the same position and left the room as well.

The building was filled with yells and calls from Ross's men, who were obviously aware of the two spies that had infiltrated the place. They just had to make it to the exit and then they would be out of there. They could call a retrieval team to take Ross away and be done.

Emma's left arm was at her side as she tried not to move it in fear of what pain it would cause her if she did. While they crept along the corridors she would catch Jones looking back at her every now and then and she wasn't sure if it annoyed or surprised her. She was a grown woman and could take care of herself, yet she never really expected the man to care at all. Shaking her head, she thought, he's probably watching to see if I collapse from exhaustion, and she wasn't far from doing so.

Suddenly, a man yelled from behind them, "I found them!" Both she and Killian's heads snapped back to see one of the guards with their gun up, aimed straight at them. Before the guy could even take a shot, Jones put a bullet between his eyes, but it was too late. Loud and heavy footfalls were headed towards them.

"Shit." Emma cursed and the two spies sprinted towards the exit since there was no point in trying to conceal themselves now. When they were just out of the building a man stepped in front of Killian, causing them to stop in their tracks. Turning on their heel, two more guards came up from their rear. They were surrounded.

"Come on. Give us the diamond, or we'll just take it off your corpse," one man spat. No one moved for the longest time. Jones glanced at her and for a brief second, they made eye contact before they both shot the men in the face, faster than lightning. The bodies fell lifeless to the ground.

"Pity… only three of them. You would think they would know not to underestimate us now," her partner said with a nonchalant tone. "Your shoulder?" He asked, sounding slightly concerned.

Emma was clutching her left arm in pain, "I'm just lucky that it went all the way through. Surgery would be a bitch."

At first, Killian didn't respond, but then he quickly brought up his gun, pointing it towards her. In that split second, she couldn't move. She suddenly remembered her dream; the barrel of his gun directly aimed at her while she sat vulnerable and wounded. She recalled feeling something at that very moment.

Then, the flashback was over and the loud crack of a gun brought her back to the present. Smoke curled from Killian's gun and Emma realized that the bullet was not meant for her. Slowly looking behind her, she saw another man slump against the wall, dead.

Both agents were silent for a moment. Emma refused to look at Jones, wondering if he saw the look she just had in her eyes, the one of doubting and distrust. When she finally glanced at him, she saw his features. His eyes were locked on her, questioning and analyzing her reaction and she thought she saw something. Was that a hurt expression she just witnessed?

Jones was the first to break the silence. "Let's get out of here," he said. His voice was cold and blunt, with no trace of his usual flirty undertone. They both left the building without another word to each other. Except for the call that she had made to General Lucas, the conversation on the ride home was nonexistent.

Now, both agents finished their mission, remaining as unfaithful and distrusting as when they first met.

[A/N]: Hey guys! This is kind of late! I feel bad since I'm writing less when I'm actually on break! Haha. I hope you guys like this chapter. I was debating on putting more light hearted jokes here and there, but in the end, I wanted this to be a serious chapter. As promised, I have no footnotes for you, haha.

Thanks for all the faves/reviews/follows! Please review, at least for the first few chapters so I can see how I'm doing and receive some feedback. ~ Xelbie