A/N: I super appreciated all the reviews and hope you all enjoy the next two chapters to round it out. I know it's AU but after today's episode 4x04. I wanted to run a little differently to other fics on here. I hope you love and please let me know!


Chapter 2


Many hours later, back at Giorgio's house.

Tom came out of the bathroom with towel slung low on his hips, completely lost in his thoughts until he saw Sasha sitting on his bed. He froze wondering why she was here. She looked like she had finished her own shower as her hair hung loosely around her shoulders. She wore a man's shirt presumably Giorgio's and a pair of shorts he knew to be Lucia's. Her arm was in a sling and face had marks left from their fight.

She seemed a lot calmer than when he first saw her, it was like she had gotten some answer from their time in the ring. He on the other hand felt restless and raw. Lucia was in mood the entire ride home. Commenting on how vulgar it was for women to fight. Giorgio however thought it was just grand, but then he was a blood thirsty bastard.

"You're okay?" she asked him, a question he'd been about to ask her. Except there was no genuine care in her features. It was purely professional question of her trying to assess him.

"Yes, of course I'm okay, even with the concussion you gave me. Did you have to hit me so hard?" he asked as he moved to his dresser for some clean clothes. Dinner was going to be served soon, so he had to get dressed.

"Sorry, have I ruined your evening plans with Lucia?" She drawled mockingly.

"It's meaningless." He assured her, but it didn't seem to matter to her. He pulled on a fresh singlet and pulled off the towel; not shy and pulled on a pair of jeans before he turned to face Sasha.

"It doesn't seem so on her side of it, but then I guess that's just who you've become." She remarked, she appeared unaffected by his presence and it annoyed the hell out of him given she affected him.

"You want to kick me in the balls, really get your two cents worth?" he asked her, she chuckled and shook her head, a moment passed and he watched as her expression grew serious. Clearly he'd been wrong about not affecting her.

"I was really worried about took your kids and just went AWOL for 16 months. How could you just-?"she paused as she tried to bottle her anger up but it wouldn't stay contained. "No warning, no word, just nothing. You kissed me before you left, I thought-" her voice broke a little "I thought I meant something to you but I didn't." she told him, looking at him now; she felt like a fool for thinking as much.

"Sash-" he started but she cut him off.

"No, don't bother with 'sorry' or 'I should of'. It's clear to me that I'm just one in a line of women you just use as a means to an end. It actually makes a lot of sense in hindsight." She said in a calm and resigned voice. It was like she accepted his actions at face value than trying to dig for a deeper meaning. He still saw a flash of pain in her features that she couldn't completely hide.

"It wasn't like that." He told her, because it wasn't. He just didn't have the words to explain it.

"Look at it from my side and tell me it's wasn't. Tell me how I was no different from Lucia or presumably the women before her and after me." Sasha stated pragmatically. He for one could not argue with her on that score as she was right. He used Cali and Lucia, with Cali it wasn't intentional but Lucia it was but the end result was the same. He didn't care for either woman but he did for Sasha. He had mucked it up royally. Sasha spoke before he could even find the words.

"You can't because it's true, if I were Darien; you never would've left me like that." she told him, he felt a stab of pain at her comparing herself to Darien and in a way she was right. But Sasha wasn't Darien and vice versa. However, it wasn't a bad thing nor was it a competition.

"Darien would've had to take care of the kids." Tom told her.

"She was different while I wasn't enough, but it's ok." she said as she didn't want to argue nor did she need the ego boost. She just wanted some sense out of it all. "I get it now. I really can't judge you for moving on as I'm with someone myself. But I can at least put whatever this " she gestured between them, "behind me for good now that I understand what really happened." she told him.

"What do you want from me?" Tom asked, cutting to the point as he knew it was stupid but it stung that she had moved on, that he was a quandry to be solved. He also couldn't take the brutality of Sasha's clear indifference now that her anger was gone.

"I want you stay out of this mission. You left us, I get your reasons for leaving and it took me a while but I understood the radio silence. But you can't just pop back up with no explanation of where you've been and believe that I can trust you." Sasha informed him coldly.

"You think I'm with these guys?" he asked incredulously.

"Why are you here?" She asked, asking him to justify his reasons for being smack bang in the middle of her mission.

"They killed my friend, they steal food from the people. They are starving-" Tom tried but Sasha cut him off and scoffed at his explanation.

"Everybody is starving, Tom. They have been for months. I'm sorry for your loss but seriously, what the hell are you doing here?" Sasha asked pointedly.

"I-" He stopped as he had no real plan. He'd just been on reconnaissance. She gave a wry smile and shook her head.

"Right, no plan. You're just wingin' it. You decided on a kind of just get right in there- direct offense? Hoped that you can unravel this from the inside? Get your revenge for your dead friend by getting all the food Giorgio stole back to the people? Be a hero? Like you're some twisted Robin Hood?" She asked incredulously, she couldn't help but be pissed at his lack preparation and presence. Clearly she was calculating how much of a risk he was to her mission now.

"I get your point, how can I help you?" He asked darkly as he hated how close to the mark she was and how it made him see how stupid he was for not thinking his actions through.

"By going back to your kids. They need you and you're not even close to being field ready. I don't need you here compromising the mission any further than you already have." She told him, delivering yet another hard blow to his ego.

"You don't mean that." he said, he wanted to tell her how much an asset he was and that she was ignoring it because of her personal issues with him.

"I do, you really let me down when you disappeared and this isn't the time to prove yourself to me, it's certainly not the time to walk back into my life and expect me to throw myself at you." Sasha told him.

"I don't expect you to but you have to realise that you need me; even if I'm a substandard partner in your view. You wrenched your shoulder and I know this house like the back of my hand. So let's just finish this together and then we can part ways." he told her.

"What part of I don't need you, do you not get?" she asked as she lifted up her hand to show a scarab necklace dangling from a chain. She placed it back into her sling and then reached behind her. She pulled out a cylinder that contained seeds and placed it on the bed. The same seeds Lucia and Giorgio had paid a lot of money for.

"How did you get those without the alarms going off?" he asked her. He had to remind himself that going undercover and infiltrating the other side was part of her job. She managed to get it without setting off any alarms.

"It's my job. Right now, I'm only here as a courtesy. So you and I are going to stay here and when it's all over; You go home to wherever it is and stay with your kids, because tonight, it's over and I don't want ever want to see you get caught in the crossfire again. You and your kids deserve better." she told him.

"When?" he asked her, referring to the attack, ignoring the jibe of her telling him what was best for his kids.

"Now." she said, the lights went out and Tom moved to the window and saw the dark shadows of figures making their way into the compound and the sound of men crying out in pain, the muffled noise of gunfire. He wanted to leave the room but even he knew that if either of them stepped out they ran the risk of being shot or getting in the way.

Anyway, it was all over in a few minutes and then the lights came on, the door opened and Mike came in. He looked between the two of them, clearly feeling the tension. Or at least Tom's tension as Sasha looked like they were finishing an impersonal business meeting.

"All good?" he asked them.

"Yeah, we're done. Tom's going to take half of the food that's in this place back to wherever he came from. You?" she asked Mike.

"Place is secure, you got the seeds." he told her, she gave him a smile and nodded.

"I'll be downstairs." Sasha said, she got off the bed ; taking the seeds and necklace with her and looked to Tom one last time. "It's good to see you're still alive. Just take care of yourself and the kids." she added, and with that she was gone. He wanted to follow her but Mike stepped in his way.

"Just let her go." Mike told him in a low voice.

"I can't." Tom said.

"You did once before and it's clear you're not ready to give her what she deserves now." Mike said.

"You don't know anything." Tom said glaring at the man. But his friend just looked at him with a calm yet resolute expression. He was not budging.

"I know you walked away, I know you didn't feel you had any choice but it wasn't okay to turn your back on Sasha or your friends. You may think you were doing us all a favour by not sharing what was going on with you. But it took a toll. One you sadly have to pay for now with Sasha. She's with some other asshole now, you just gotta accept that and let sleeping dogs lie." Mike told him.

"I didn't want it be this way." Tom told him in a low voice. Mike gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I know, but it is. So, take care yourself as you were supposed to be doing and call, shoot us an email or a postcard once in a while. We want you in our lives just not in-"

"The crossfire." he finished, he got the message. He couldn't get himself mixed in with the mission he'd left. He also wasn't needed by them but Sasha was right. His kids did.

"You ever want to rejoin the Navy, we'll take you back in a heartbeat." Mike assured him.

"Thanks." Tom said drily, it wasn't exactly what he wanted.

"But the Nathan James is mine and I ain't giving her back." Mike told him, the two men clashed eyes for a moment before chuckling. They both grew sombre before Mike continued, "If you let me know where you are, I can tell you when we're back stateside. It might give you and Sasha the chance to sort it out without the stress of all this shit gong on." Mike added.

"Probably a good idea, how are you?" he asked.

"Good, same ol', same ol'." he said, he paused as his ear piece went noisy. After a few seconds, Mike picked up his radio receiver "Copy that," he replied, he looked to Tom and held out his hand. "I gotta go. Take care." he said, Tom gave a nod and they shook hands.