Sydney sat at the table, anxious, watching the sun go up. She had made coffee, and was currently strumming her fingers on her mug. The door to the bedroom opened, and Mira emerged, half awake.
"Good, you're up." Sydney said, standing. "Get your coat."
"I don't have one." Mira frowned. "Where are we going?"
"I'm taking you in to be examined."
"Now?" She rubbed her neck. "Can I eat first?"
"You can eat on the way."
"Ok," Mira said, "lemme go pee first."
Sydney waited for her to return. When she did, Sydney was standing by the door. "Come on," she said, opening it.
Mira stopped at the threshold. "I don't have any shoes," she said, looking down.
"I'll buy you some on the way."
"Alright..." Mira was suspicious, but she went along with what Sydney was telling her.
In the car, Sydney drove without saying anything, as though she were completely intent on watching the road. Mira could tell she was avoiding her.
"Look," Mira said, "I know nothing is open. It's only 5am. I also know you want to be away from me right now, but you can't because I'm your assignment. Why don't you just ask me or say to me whatever it is that's bothering you?"
Sydney looked at her, then pulled into a playground parking lot and turned the car off. She turned to the girl. "What the hell did you do to me last night?"
Mira hesitated. How was she supposed to explain this? "I...healed you." She said, then waited for Sydney's reaction.
Sydney just stared at her.
"I felt it all day. The physical pain and the emotional anguish that was tied to it. You were unbalanced, half empty. And the nightmares..." She shook her head. "I couldn't bear it. So I healed you."
"What do you mean you healed me?"
"I made it as if it had never happened," Mira said, looking straight into Sydney's eyes, "as far as your body is concerned, that is."
Mira saw Sydney's expression change as it clicked with her what she was being told. But she needed reassuring, and Mira sensed that too.
She paused and watched Sydney for a moment. "I understand you'll probably need medical proof. And that's ok. It doesn't offend me. But I'm telling you, they're all there."
Sydney didn't know how to react to this, or whether she believed it or not.
"It was Rambaldi, wasn't it?" Mira asked solemnly.
"How did you know?" Sydney asked, reluctantly showing she at least somewhat believed her claim of being psychic.
"I can recognize that lunatic's work anywhere. The emotions are always the same...the nightmares..." She trailed off, looking around her suddenly. "Can we go back to the safe house and talk?"
Sydney frowned. "Yeah, sure." She started up the car and pulled away. A couple of blocks down the street, Mira suddenly pointed out the window.
"Ooh, look." She said, pointing at a bagel shop. "It's open, and it has a drive- thru." Mira looked at Sydney. "Do you mind? I'll pay you back when my account gets transferred over here."
"Uh, no, it's fine." Sydney said, pulling into the drive-through. They ordered, and Sydney paid. As she pulled away from the window, she looked over at Mira, who was watching the rear-view mirror and the road.
"Someone's following us, aren't they?" She said.
Mira's eyes shot up to her. She didn't say anything, but there was no mistaking her expression.
Sydney turned her eyes back on the road ahead and turned the wrong way out of the parking lot.
As they were driving, Mira spoke to Sydney while seemingly putting cream cheese on her bagel. "Listen, they have a gun. If I tell you to get down, don't hesitate. Pretend you're trying to beat the fastest reaction time record, ok?"
"I get it."
"Do you have a gun?"
"Yeah." Sydney slipped a gun to Mira. "Do you know how to use it?"
Mira shot her a quick look. "There are a lot of things about me that are going to surprise you." She looked in the rear-view mirror. "Fuck. Get down!" She yelled.
Sydney immediately slumped down into the seat, her head hitting the horn as a bullet came through the back of her headrest and into the windshield.
"Ok," Mira said, and Sydney picked her head back up. "Oh and look, we didn't even run into oncoming traffic." She looked at the back window. "Perfect," She said, snapping the clip into place. "Lean forward, would you?"
Sydney leaned forward and Mira draped herself across the back of Sydney's seat, hanging on to the holy headrest with one hand, and aiming the gun with the other. She fired one shot, that went straight through the hole the previous bullet had made and into the head of the perpetrator. Then she swung back into her seat and put her seatbelt back on. "Thanks," she said, giving Sydney her gun back.
"Where did you learn to shoot like that?"
Mira shrugged. "Here and there."
Sydney shot her a look.
"What?"
"Nothing. I think we're ok now."
"You're ok, yeah."
Sydney looked at her. "What about you?"
She shook her head. "Keep driving. And whatever you do, don't turn." She swallowed hard. "Once I'm out, do not take me to HQ, or the CIA hospital, or any place we will ever return to. Drive for at least three miles before you turn into anyplace. And whatever you do, make no contact with my blood. Do you understand? Oh, and once I'm out, do not call for backup. Just wait."
"What do you mean 'once you're out?'"
"Trust me," she said with such conviction Sydney was taken aback. "Wait."
"Mira-"
At that instant something shattered the passenger window, and Mira fell forward in her seat, unconscious.