Dressed back into a simple black tank top, ripped jeans, a jacket, and ankle boots, Cat felt more like herself; she'd also brushed her teeth twenty times once they got back to the motel. They didn't stay long, Cat's favorite uncle allowing them use of his private plane in order to get to London without the threat of IMF hanging over their heads. Not for the first time, Cat thanked God that her uncle was nothing like her useless father. She leans back on the new bed of the hotel, her feet crossed at the ankles and a disposable cell in her hand. She and Alex weren't stupid; they each had a phone with a secured line that the government knew nothing about (for once she was glad of her husband being paranoid). "Are you sure that you're okay," Alex was asking for the third time in the last ten minutes of conversation.

"I'll be fine when I'm back home with Isaac in my arms," Cat replies, her eyes closed as she pictured her son's face. He was small for his age, born a month early after a terrorist tried to use Cat as a human shield, but he had Cat's dark brown hair and his father's hazel eyes, a small pointed noise, and a bone structure that most would kill for. He was her beautiful boy and she would die before she let anything happen to him. "How's Isaac doing?"

"Pretty good, I told him you went out to save the world again like I used to and now he keeps telling his friends that his mommy is actually part of the Avengers." Cat can't help but laugh at that, even as tears threatened to spill over. "He misses you, Cat."

"I miss him too." She and Alex had been good friends in basic training, but the birth of their son hadn't changed the fact that neither of them loved each other the way parents should, so they each saw other people while maintaining their friendship. "Have you introduced him to Kara yet?" Kara was Alex's latest girlfriend and a teacher at the school Isaac would attend for head start next year. She and Cat got along well enough, but Alex wanted to hold back on introducing her to Isaac until he was sure that they wouldn't break up after only two months of seeing each other.

"Yeah, but he didn't seem to like her too much."

"That sucks." Cat pauses, watching as Krieger confronts Ethan about the meeting with the buyer. She'd been expecting this for a while and is surprised it's taken Krieger this long, though she supposed the liquid courage helped with that. "Babe, I gotta go, I'll call you when I can."

"Alright, I'll tell little man that you send your love."

"Thanks." She snaps the phone closed, slowly rising from the bed and resting her hand on her pistol that rested on the bedside table. It would be easy for her to shoot Krieger without the man even having time to turn around, but she's not the type to shoot people in the back and certainly doesn't feel like disposing of a body this late at night when she could be sleeping. Krieger marches over to Ethan's desk and shoves a pile of papers to the floor, as though hoping that might get Ethan's temper rising, but all it succeeds in doing is making Krieger look like a pre-K bully.

"You're not going to any meeting without me," he states, his accent thicker now that he'd been drinking. Ethan looks back down at the bible, trying to finish typing out the passage.

"My contact is extremely shy," Ethan lies with ease.

"I don't think you're in any position to give orders." Krieger had walked to the front of the desk, reaching into his coat pocket. The second his hand disappeared, Cat had the pistol directed at his chest, her hands steady as she aimed it. She wouldn't kill him yet; she'd incapacitate him by shooting him in the knee, just to teach him a lesson. "Do you? Not while I'm holding this." He pulls his hand out of his pocket, Cat chambers a round, and then Krieger reveals the disk with the NOC List on it. Too bad he's stupid enough to think that Ethan would leave the real one lying around the room. At least, she hopes the disk in his hand is empty.

"Krieger," Claire says in a scolding tone. Cat rolls her eyes, flipping on the safety and setting the gun back down on the side table.

"Ta gueule." As Krieger as telling Claire to shut up, Ethan had moved to his briefcase and pulled out the real NOC List, flicking it in order to regain Krieger's attention.

"Don't you mean this," he asks, holding it up for everyone to see. Cat smiles, joining Claire in the doorway to watch the scene unfold. Knowing Ethan, something dramatic yet funny was about to take place.

"That's not the list." Krieger holds the blank disk up now, shaking it a little for emphasis.

"Oh, what's the matter? You...You've never seen this trick?" As he spoke, Ethan held both of his arms up and to the side, making the disk disappear up his sleeve like a street magician might do to a card or a coin. Ethan feigned shock as he looked around for the disk, shooting me a grin since this was a trick he often performed for Isaac when he came down to visit. "Where'd it go?" He walks away from the briefcase and over to where Claire and Cat were standing, rubbing his jaw in mock confusion. "It's gone." And then he pointed at Claire, giving Krieger an amused look. "You."

"No," Claire laughs.

"No?" He reaches between her cardigan and blouse, coming out empty-handed. "No, hmm." And then he turns to Cat, the brunette leaning against the door and sending him a wink. "Oh, definitely you." He reaches into the back pocket of her jeans, pretending to extract the disk while in reality he just let it slide out of his sleeve and into his hand. He holds the disk above his head again with a shit-eating grin for Krieger. "It was gone, but not too far." The grin still in place, he walks over and thumps the disk against Krieger's forehead, earning a small laugh from Cat. "I know what you're thinking, Krieger. You're thinking, 'back in the computer room, I was up here, he was- he was down there.'" Ethan moves away from the Frenchman, growing serious again. "Yes, and he was..." Ethan holds his hands out again, the disk vanished again and Claire laughing a little louder. "He was carrying two disks." He turns to face everyone. "It's so hard to keep track of these things."

"Where is it," Krieger inquires. Ethan pats himself down, giving everyone a grin as he pats his left pocket, and then pulls the disk out.

"Do you actually think I'd let you have the NOC List?" Suitably defeated for the moment, Krieger offers a lame threat instead.

"Try any sleight of hand with my money, I'll cut your throat."

"Then you'd better move faster than the .22 that my pistol shoots," Cat warns, walking further into the sitting room. Krieger scoffs, throwing the fake disk in the trash can and storming out of the room. "I don't trust that man as far as I can throw him."

"That's because you're smart," Ethan remarks, picking up the bible that Krieger had thrown at some point. "Why don't you go and talk to little man, tell him his godfather loves him." Cat studies him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into a hug, knowing whatever thoughts just passed through his head had been dark. "I love you, Cat."

"Love you too, E."


Just as Cat thought she could be done with trains, Ethan drags her on another one with a plan that might have all of them in handcuffs or shot by the end of the day. At least this time she was wearing clothes she picked out, though—a black off the shoulder top with a black tank underneath, black pants with multiple buckles running down the legs and a belt across the waist, calve-high boots with a thick heel, and a black jacket that's back stopped at the top of her boots, and the front stopped mid-thigh. She was feeling confident in the outfit, but she felt relatively safe with the gun tucked in the holster strapped to her hip.

She was sitting behind the people Ethan identified as Max and her two goons, meant to listen in on their conversation and intervene if necessary. As it was, she was trying not to fidget too much in her seat as the train sped past the hilly landscape outside. She didn't even look out the window, the sight of blurred trees and sky made her feel nauseous and she doubted anyone would be happy that she missed something because she was busy puking in the bathroom. The ringing of a cell phone behind her made Cat jump, barely turning her head to look at the pair behind her. "It's him," the first goon states, handing the phone to the woman beside him. For some reason, the fact that Max, an international arms dealer, was a woman made Cat smile.

"This was not what we discussed," Max says into the phone, Cat barely able to pick it up over the sound of her teeth chattering. She still didn't know for sure why trains made her like this, but it's only gotten worse over the years and she blames her mother. After a moment, Max leans over and pulls the black cloth out from under her seat, Claire having taped it there before anyone else boarded. The disk was inside and Cat had to use her compact in order to see the goon inserting it into the disk-drive connected to the laptop. There was silence as the NOC List was translated on the screen. "Dear boy," Max laughs quietly," I hope this doesn't preclude a meeting in private."

"Did you know she was British," Cat murmurs to Luther, the man sitting across the aisle from her. He heard her through the earpiece and she saw his smile in the mirror of her compact.

"The mere possibility is worth ten million dollars. Baggage car, rack three." She's certainly happy, but we're expecting an extra person involved in this scheme. "Silver briefcase, combination 3-1-4... Wouldn't worry about him. When you get the money, he'll find you." So Job's close by. Ethan hadn't told her about the third person until just before they left the hotel in separate cars, but he kept the person's real identity to himself like he was afraid to let the name pass his lips. A faint buzz reaches her ears and she gives a little smile. Luther was doing his job and preventing them from sending out the list. "What's the matter?"

"It's not transmitting," the goon says in confusion.

"Try it again. Damn it, I have to get this through before we hit the tunnel." Oh great, there's going to be a damn tunnel and everything's gonna go dark. This really wasn't Cat's lucky day. "What's the problem?" Cat holds the compact up a little higher, pretending to apply a new coat of lipstick while getting a glimpse of the laptop screen where a bright red strip with black writing appeared at the bottom of the screen. The problem for them was that Luther was too damn good for an amateur goon to beat him.

"Connection denied." The more they argued the wider Cat's smile became until she noticed two familiar men in trench coats slowly making their way towards her. She closes the compact and rises from her seat, grabbing her purse before slowly making her way down the aisle, tapping Luther's arm as she passes.

"Ethan," Claire says, her voice soft through the earpiece," Kittridge is on the train."

"He's in the same area as Max," Cat adds, pretending to scratch her cheek in order to get the microphone closer to her mouth; the tiny device had been installed in one of the buttons on the sleeve of her coat.

"The money's in the baggage car," Ethan responds," I'll meet the two of you there." Cat made it there before Claire, looking around the dark room until her eyes landed on the familiar form of the man she'd thought dead.

"Oh my God..." She covers her mouth with her hands, back pressed against the door to help her stay standing.

"Not quite," Jim says tiredly, standing up and walking into the light so Cat could see him better. She moves closer to him, resting her hand against his cheek and truly believing it to be Jim until a familiar scent wafted to her. As the recognition dawned on her, the impostor gave a familiar, though sad, smile that looked out of place on Jim's face. "I'm glad you got here first, Cat."

"Why are you dressed like this, E?" Her best friend was dressed in the coat Jim had loved the most and had even pulled on a mask of the man's face, capturing age spots and wrinkles.

"You'll see in a second, but I need you to hide right now." She crouches down low as Ethan resumes the spot he'd been sitting in before Cat entered, hunching himself over and further in the shadows. For once, Cat was glad of how short she was since it made it easier to hide without being too squished behind the crates. Seconds after Cat had hidden, the door to the baggage car opened again and she could make out the low-heeled shoes of Claire from the inch of space between the floor and crate bottom.

"Ethan's right behind me," the other woman warns, unaware that it was Ethan she was talking to. "Listen, Jim, is it such a good idea to kill him?" Ethan stays silent; wanting to hear everything Claire had to say before he revealed himself. "Kittridge is here." Cat watched as the shoes began to move closer. "We take the money. Ethan takes the blame. No one else has seen you alive." Cat closes her eyes and steadies her breathing, a feeling of betrayal hitting her hard. Had she been on that mission with the others, then she may have been sent home in a box. "No one will believe him." She's reached Ethan now and came to a stop; Cat's fingers itching to un-holster her pistol and shoot Claire in the ankle before delivering a head-shot. Cat could hear the sound of a mask wrinkling before it hit the ground.

"Of course, I'm very sorry to hear you say that, Claire." The trench coat hit the ground next and then Ethan was helping Cat to stand up again. She was furious, and not even the fear of the train she was in could interrupt the emotions running wild. Claire looked like a doe in the headlights, pretty brown eyes wide and her bottom lip trembling.

"Ethan...Cat?"

"Yes," said a voice from behind the betrayed agents. They turn as the door behind them opens to reveal Jim, holding a pistol. "Ethan Hunt and Catarina Alveres, darling. You remember them, don't you?" Ethan and Cat take a few steps back, Ethan standing half in front of Cat in an unconscious form of protection. Again, Cat's fingers ached to wrap around the butt of her pistol, but Jim would shoot her before she even lowered her hands to grab for it.

"You knew about Jim?"

"Of course. Just exactly when he knew is something of a question. Cat, on the other hand, poor thing just found out and now she has to pay that price with her best friend. "Ethan, did you find out before or after I showed up in London?"

"Before London," Ethan admits" but after you took the bible from the Drake Hotel in Chicago." That had Cat confused for a second until she remembered that Jim had been away during the Kiev mission, he was recruiting and must have lifted the bible while he was staying there. She also remembered that Ethan had used a phrase from the bible to confirm it was him while messaging Max and he'd gotten a weird look on his face when he saw the inside cover of the book.

"They stamped it, didn't they? Those damn Gideons."

"Too bad such a small thing caused your plan to blow up in your face," Cat retorts bitterly. "Weren't you the one that told me never to leave a trace of myself behind when the mission was complete? You're getting clumsy in your old age." Frowning, Jim fires off a warning shot, the bullet grazing Cat's ear. Cat barely flinches, the wound stinging, but nowhere near the worst one she's ever received in this line of work. Jim would be dead before all of this was over, and she might be too.

This really, really wasn't turning out to be Cat's day.