PICKED OFF

Timeline of episode: Between Season 4, Episodes 6 and 7

Kitchen 24 Diner

Tom and Nadia are seated at a private corner booth at a 24-hour diner in Los Angeles. They're the only ones in the place. At first glance, they appear to be really enjoying each other's company. Their plates are empty in front of them, and now, they're enjoying some mixed drinks. Nadia is drinking a Mojito while Tom has what looks like a Tequila Sunrise.

Tom is laughing at something while Nadia has a wide smile on her face. Tom stops laughing for a bit to inquire about something he just heard Nadia say. "So, you accidentally set off the sprinklers, you're drenched from head to toe, and yet, you still have to blend in to the party? How did you pull that off?" Nadia, still smiling wide, quickly replies "Well, I remembered the restrooms had these hand dryers..."

Tom's eyes open wide astonished. "You mean..." Nadia cuts him off. "Yeah, I had to keep hitting the button! But I got dried off eventually! And the documents dried off before they got ruined. Then, I just made my way through the party and left. No one suspected a thing. It turned out ok."

Tom leans back and shakes his head in amazement. "That's some pretty wild improvising." Nadia non-chalantly shrugs, not as amazed about the story as Tom is. "Whatever it takes...oh wait, that's your line."

Tom chuckles a bit at that. "Yeah, yeah, that was my motto. I'm surprised you would remember something like that." Nadia rolls her eyes. "You only said it every time we would talk on the phone! You were a broken record!"

Tom rolls his eyes a bit and leans forward with a smirk. "Well, speaking of broken records, my 'whatever it takes' was your 'it turned out ok'. I didn't forget that either!" Nadia leans back and folds her arms in mock disgust as Tom takes a sip of his drink.

He notices his drink is getting empty and so is Nadia's. "You want another one?" Nadia nods her head. "Sure! Thank goodness we're off tomorrow!" Tom turns and flags down a waiter, who walks over to their table. "Mojito for her, and change my drink to a Vanilla Coke." The waiter nods and walks off.

Nadia notices that Tom didn't order alcohol this time. In a somewhat mocking tone, she asks Tom "Chickening out already?" Tom raises an eyebrow at Nadia. "Uh, do you want me to be able to drive you home or not? When it comes to tequila-based drinks, I'm a lightweight."

Nadia smirks, but doesn't say anything. Then, her cheery expression turns into a serious one as she stares at the table for a bit, troubled over something. Tom notices that Nadia appears to be in deep thought now. "You ok, Nadia?"

Nadia looks back up at Tom. "I've been thinking about something you said at your first day in APO." Tom leans forward on the table. He's a little concerned now, caused by Nadia's look of concern on her face. "What is it?"

Nadia continues. "You said you have no family and only three friends left on this earth, including me. I always thought you were surrounded by people you were close with."

Tom sighs and looks down at the table. He and Nadia had spent most of their conversation talking about Nadia's experiences. But, he knew he was going to have to address some of his past at some point.

But not now. He's having too much fun, and the tenor of the evening was cheerful, and he didn't want to ruin that. Tom looks back up at Nadia. "I want this night to be a happy one. Maybe another time."

Nadia sighs a bit, then smiles. He does have a point, after all. They were having fun. "I'm sorry I brought that up. But, I've been sharing my stories, let's hear some of yours."

"Oh great, out of the frying pan and into the fire!" Tom thinks to himself. After all, he knows that things started going to hell for him in Dark Cover not long after he stopped talking to Nadia. Then, he gets an idea. "I don't think I talked to you much about my career before we met in 2001."

Nadia is intrigued. "No, you haven't, actually." Tom starts to talk, but is interrupted by the waiter dropping off their drinks. They both take a sip of their drinks as the waiter walks off. This buys Tom some time to think about how he's going to play this.

After Tom sets his soda down, he continues. "Well, a few months before I met you, I was finishing up a 10 year run with the CIA's Anti-Cartel." Nadia tilts her head a bit and has a confused expression on her face. "The Anti-Cartel? I've never heard of you guys."

Tom nods his head, expecting that answer. "We didn't go down to Argentina all that often. Most of our focus was in Mexico. We actually had special jurisdictional privileges in Mexico to go after the drug cartels. We had similar agreements with some other Central American countries, but those were tenuous at best due to shaky governments. Our big concerns were the Mexican drug and weapon cartels. We would go into Central and South America only if they were doing things that were really pissing the CIA off, like if a gang was dealing weapons to dictators."

Nadia folds her arms together and leans forward. "Still, seems like I should have heard about you guys." Tom shrugs. "We weren't a big operation. Unlike running a 10-man tactical team in Dark Cover, there were maybe 3-5 guys in my team at any given time. When I first got there, the operation was well-funded, well-staffed, and under the direction of a director that I respected. But after he left, it all went to hell. By the time you got your start in Argentine Intelligence, we were on our last legs."

Nadia takes a drink of her Mojito. As she drinks, a lightbulb goes off in her head. "You know, come to think of it, I did hear some stories of an American agent that liked to cause havoc with Latin American gangs. One man who usually was with a group of two or three others. Was that you?" Tom takes his time drinking his soda, trying to figure out how to handle that. "What stories did she hear? If she knew certain stories, she'd probably think I was a monster." He then sets down his soda, ready to answer. "I had a bit of infamy in Latin America. That was probably me you heard about. I had to be both creative and...aggressive when it came to my dealings."

After that last comment, a lightbulb goes off in Tom's head now. He starts laughing all of the sudden, which confuses Nadia a bit. "What's so funny?" Nadia asks. Tom slowly stops laughing and starts to speak. "You remember my friend Mike, he was with me in our mission in 2001." Nadia nods. "Yeah, the guy with the beard...kind of a quiet, yet cute guy?" Tom chuckles at that. "Yeah, he's pretty laid back. And he'll probably never get married in his life. The guy's eternally single. Anyway, I was just thinking back to a mission where we thought we had lost him." Nadia asks "Lost him?"

Tom nods. "We were in southern Mexico, tracking down a weapon-trading ring. Me, Mike, and two others. Mike tells me he's going down to get a burrito...and he never comes back. We were just convinced that this cartel we were after had gotten to him. So, we infiltrate their compound, and we fight our way down to the area where they keep the prisoners. He's not there. Good news is, during our search and rescue, we did find their cache of weapons, and we get the Mexican authorities to raid the place. Mission accomplished! But, we still couldn't find Mike!"

Nadia asks "Where was he?" Tom gets a wide smirk on his face. "Get this. We get back to our hotel room and we find a note on the door. It's from these local wanna-be gangbangers who are holding him ransom down in the basement of the place. Apparently, he wouldn't buy them a burrito and he wouldn't give them his wallet either. So, here's what we did. We went down and bought them burritos. A bunch of them. We went down to the basement and we were able to negotiate his release for the burritos. Three men, and each of them got like 4 burritos apiece. But, their fun was just beginning. You know those red dye packs that tellers put in their bank bags when they're being robbed?"

Nadia takes a sip off of her drink and sets it down. "Yeah..." Nadia's anxious to see how this ends. Tom continues. "Well, one of my men was really good with explosives. Don't ask me why, but he brought this red dye pack with him that had a remote trigger on it. So, we pack our things, leave, and catch up with these guys as they're leaving the hotel. We follow them until we see a police car coming our direction. My man hits the button to make the dye pack go off, we see the red dye go all over the inside of their car and all over the windows, and they end up blindly crashing into the cop car. Turns out, the cops found more than burritos and red dye on them."

Nadia leans forward and smiles. "What did they find?" Tom smirks and says "Pure black tar heroin. Mike had let me in that they were heroin suppliers, so we baited them. Made the local papers, mainly because when they took their prison photos, they had red dye all over them!" Nadia laughs, and so does Tom. Nadia settles down after a few seconds and says "That's too funny!"

Tom takes another drink of his soda and looks down at his watch and looks shocked. "Whoa, did you know it's 2:30 in the morning?" Nadia almost chokes on her drink. "What? We've been here for 4 and a half hours?" Tom nods. "Time flies when you're having fun! Want me to take you home now?" Nadia nods. "Yeah, that'd be great."

The two of them squeeze out of their booth. Tom pays his bill at the front register, then leaves with Nadia.

Outside Sydney's apartment

Tom follows Nadia up to the front door. He's got a wide smile on his face, still in disbelief over how well this day has gone for him.

They get to the door and Nadia stops and turns towards Tom. She's practically beaming as she says "I had a great time tonight." Tom nods his head in agreement. "I couldn't agree more. It was so great to catch up. You know what made tonight so great?"

Nadia shrugs. Tom says "For the first time in my life, I can talk to a woman I deeply care about and not have to keep my CIA life a secret. I felt so free at the diner tonight with you." Nadia smiles and says "I felt the same way. Thanks for the wonderful evening. I needed this." Tom wastes no time in replying "Me too."

All of the sudden, after Tom is finished saying that, he quickly leans in and gives Nadia a kiss. After a second or two, Tom feels Nadia's hand on the back of his head, pushing him in closer. "Oh thank God!" Tom thinks, realizing that his play was successful. They share a rather passionate make-out session for what seems like an eternity to them, but really is just about 10 seconds or so.

Then, the tender moment is suddenly interrupted by the door opening next to them.

Tom and Nadia both jump out and yell out in surprise at the sound of the door. They settle down and realize that Sydney is standing in the doorway, and Vaughn is right behind her.

In her shock, Nadia yells out "Sydney!", followed by Sydney turning and yelling out "Tom!", followed by Tom turning and yelling out "Vaughn!", and followed by Vaughn, right on cue, turning and yelling "Nadia!"

The four keep standing there for a bit, all four in surprise to see each other. Finally, Nadia speaks up. "Sydney, I thought you were in the hospital!" Sydney quickly replies "I just got home a half an hour ago. I heard sounds outside the door!"

Tom looks at Sydney a little agitated. "Well, you just picked me off of first base, thank you!" Sydney puts her hand to her mouth. "Oh, I'm SO sorry!"

Tom chuckles and holds his hand up to calm her down. "It's ok, it's ok..." Tom turns and faces Nadia. "Well, on that note, I guess I should be heading off then..." Sydney cuts him off. "Oh, you don't have to go. Me and Vaughn were just going to settle down and watch Shrek 2. You can stay and watch with us if you want."

Tom shakes his head. "No, I don't want to impose..." Nadia cuts him off. "No! You look tired. And, on the way back, you told me you live a little ways away from here. I want you to stay and get some rest."

Tom looks up and thinks. He is starting to drag a bit, and the prospect of driving anywhere seems less attractive to him. Tom looks back at Nadia, smiles, then turns to Sydney. "Well, if it really is ok with you guys, I guess I can stay."

Nadia was happy to hear that. "Good! I'll make us some decaf, I need to shake this buzz!" Tom laughs and looks over at Sydney. "Word of advice, don't ever get into a drinking game with your sister. She must have had 4 or 5 mojitos tonight and she's sober as a bird, I don't care what she says."

Sydney and Nadia both laugh. Nadia just shrugs a bit after laughing while Sydney tells Tom "I appreciate the advice! Now, come on in! It's a little chilly." Tom and Nadia follow her command and enter.

Sydney's Apartment- The Next Morning

The clock on the microwave says it's 1:27. The sun is out, and Sydney stands in the kitchen in her pajamas making coffee. Vaughn and Nadia are sitting at the breakfast bar and look like they just woke up recently too.

They're started by the sound of a sudden snore from behind them. Nadia looks back into the living room and sees a pair of feet hanging from the couch. She smiles, knowing it's Tom Falk.

Nadia turns back around as Sydney pours her a cup of coffee. As she's pouring, Sydney asks Nadia "So, where did you two go last night? We all fell asleep before the movie ended and I never got to ask." Nadia grabs the cup of coffee as Sydney finishes pouring and starts pouring Vaughn a cup. Nadia says "We went to this 24-hour diner called Kitchen 24."

From Nadia's right, we hear Vaughn say "Ah, I know that place. Great danishes." Nadia shrugs a bit. "Wish I had known that! Anyway, it was so wonderful! We had dinner, then just chatted. It went so well, before we knew it, we had been there for over four hours."

Sydney puts the coffee pot away and returns to the counter next to the kitchen sink and leans forward, smiling over the fact that Nadia had fun. "I guess you two had a lot of catching up to do." Nadia nodded. "Yeah, we did. We both missed each other." Vaughn, finishing taking a sip of coffee, asks Nadia "I've been curious, how did you two first meet?"

Nadia gives an embarrassed smile and just shakes her head. Sydney notices and now is really curious. "Come on! I bet it's a good story!" Nadia takes a sip of coffee and sets down her cup. "Ok, it's July of 2001. I was still a trainee for S.I.D.E., but I was due to be made a full agent. I was partnered with a veteran agent named Pedro Colon, and one day, we both were assigned to assist a black-ops CIA division in rescuing a doctor from a local gang called Los Conquistadores. So, we meet in the hotel cantina. I was to told to scan the place before I made my way to their table because, apparently, Tom's team had caused a scene with the Conquistadores earlier that day."

Vaughn tilts his head, confused at that. "What did he do?" Nadia looks over and smirks. "He was scouting their main compound when apparently he stepped on a twig and got discovered. During their escape, one of his team members snipes the son of the gang leader, so we all were worried about retaliation. Anyway, once I found nothing out of the ordinary, I go to the table and I'm told that Tom is at the bar ordering drinks and that I should help him carry the drinks back. So, I go to the bar and..."

Nadia laughs at the end of that. Sydney looks over to the couch and sees Tom's feet stir a bit, but he doesn't wake up. Still looking at Tom's feet, Sydney asks Nadia "What happened at the bar?" Nadia, oblivious to what Sydney is doing, says "Well, when we both laid eyes on each other at the bar...something weird happened to me. He felt that same feeling. I could tell, he couldn't hide it. I think it was love at first sight, but something about it was...strange. Like I was looking at my destiny. I always thought something supernatural was happening, but as time went on, I just kinda laughed it off. But when I saw him again during his first day at APO, that strange feeling returned. It's almost as if we have this special...link with each other or something."

Sydney and Vaughn both stir a bit, not sure how to address that. Eventually, Sydney just shrugs. "Well, considering our roles with Rambaldi, I guess anything seems possible." Nadia smiles a bit. She doesn't particularly like her role in Rambaldi's prophecy, but Sydney did bring up a good point. Vaughn then speaks up. "Jack once told me that you saved his life. Was this the mission where that happened?"

Nadia looks over at Vaughn and nods. "Yeah. We infiltrated the compound and Tom had sent me and Pedro down the hallway to scout for any remaining gang members while he worked on the door that led to where his doctor was being held. Pedro sent me back and when I came back down the hallway, I saw two men with their backs to me. I heard someone talking from around the corner and then Tom's voice. I knew he was in trouble. I snuck up and peeked around the corner and saw that Tom was on his knees and he had a gun pointed at his head. He was a goner. I had to do something. But, up until that point of my career, I only had killed one man..."

Nadia pauses for a bit and looks down at her coffee cup in thought. Sydney, a little curious to see how this story ends, speaks up. "What did you do?" Nadia looks up at Sydney. "I grabbed the guy immediately in front of me and used him as a shield while I killed the guy who had Tom marked for execution, and then I shot the guy to the immediate right of me before I shot my human shield in the back of the head. It all happened so fast! But what stood out afterwards was Tom's reaction!"

Nadia starts to laugh again. Sydney and Vaughn crack cautious smiles. Nadia then slows down her laughing to say "He looked around really quickly and then turned and looked at me with this look of complete shock on this face for a few seconds. Then, he said..." She's cut off by a man's voice behind her:

"Where have you been all my life?"

Nadia, Sydney, and Vaughn all jump when they hear that. They look over to the couch and see Tom is now standing and awake, still in the dress shirt and slacks that he wore yesterday. He looks a little drowsy, but he's got his trademark smirk on his face. Sydney and Vaughn both say at the same time "Good morning!" Tom just gives them a drowsy wave back and mumbles "morning". Nadia then asks Tom "How long have you been awake?"

Tom laughs a bit. "Good morning to you too! I've been up since you started talking about our encounter at the cantina. I've always been curious how that story sounded from your point of view." Nadia shifts in her chair a bit so she can face Tom more. "How'd I do?" Tom chuckles. "You told it good, and you pretty much got it down. Up until the point I cut you off, anyway."

Sydney then motions Tom over to the breakfast bar. "Come on, you can finish the story while I get you a cup of coffee." Tom slowly makes his way over to the table. Before he takes his spot to the left of Nadia, he leans over and gives Nadia a peck on the cheek. Upon hearing the kiss, Sydney, who has her back turned to them as she pours Tom a cup of coffee, says "I am SO sorry for interrupting you guys out on the porch last night."

Tom takes his seat on a stool and says "Well, if your coffee's good, I guess I can forgive you." Sydney turns smiling as he says that with a cup of coffee and hands it to a smirking Tom. Tom takes it and takes a sip, then lets out a relieved sigh and says "All is forgiven." Sydney giggles a bit, then says "Now come on, finish the story."

Tom looks over at Nadia. "Well, we got our doctor. I also ended up helping get Nadia promoted after I gave her a glowing review on her quick reaction skills in the field. But, personally, I was tore up for a while after that mission." Vaughn asks "Because you got put in a predicament?"

Tom looks at him and shakes his head slowly. "No. Because, after the mission was over, every fiber of my being wanted me to ask Nadia out on a date. But I couldn't because I was married at the time." Tom then looks down and shakes his head. "Little did I know that was about the time my marriage was starting to hit the skids. My ex was getting sick of my secret life. We lasted a little under two years after that mission, but one thing seemed to lead into another, she started cheating on me, and then, it all went to hell."

Tom takes another drink of coffee, but looks like he's in a somber mood. Nadia, seeing Tom down in the dumps, reaches over and rubs his shoulder a bit. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that. But, like you told me your first day at APO: Here we are. Right here, right now." Tom looks up and looks over at Nadia, who's got a wide smile on her face. Upon seeing that smile, Tom starts to feel reassured and smiles back. "Exactly."

Tom then goes back to his coffee and lifts up to take a sip. Sydney notices a long, red scar running up Tom's hand and pinkie finger. "How did you get the scar on your hand?" Tom stops in mid-sip and freezes. Vaughn and Nadia are also looking at the scar, and he knows it. He tries to hide his look of trepidation, but he can't. He thinks to himself "No! They've discovered the very thing I don't want them to know about me! If they know about how I got that scar, they'll know what happened on that day..."

As he's thinking how he's going to wriggle himself out of this one, all four of their cell phones go off. Tom's is still in his pocket while Sydney's, Nadia's and Vaughn's are on the table. The all see the number. Nadia rolls her eyes. "Come on! On our day off?" Tom looks up at Nadia real quickly. "Oh crap, I didn't bring a change of clothes with me! I can't go into work wearing yesterday's clothes!"

Sydney smiles and says "I have you covered!" Sydney quickly scurries off into her bedroom, leaving the three to wonder what she's going to emerge with.

After about a minute, she emerges with a suit jacket, dress shirt, pants, and a pink tie. "These belonged to Eric Weiss, the guy you replaced. He always kept these here in case he needed to crash here. When he left to join the NSC, he forgot to take them!"

Tom gets up and grabs them from Sydney. He immediately notices something about the clothes. They're huge. To no one in particular, he asks sarcastically "Who was this guy, Paul Bunyan?" Vaughn gets a stern look on his face and says "Hey, that's my friend you're talking about..." Tom looks over at Vaughn. Seeing as he was a little insensitive just now, he says "Sorry, man." Vaughn's eyes open up and he smiles. "I'm just kidding. We always joked about how tall Weiss was."

Tom smirks as he goes back to examining the clothes. "Well, the suit jacket is a bit big, but I can just wear the one I wore yesterday. I should be able to pull off everything else. Might need some clothespins for the pants, though, so I'm not walking all over the bottoms." Tom then lifts up the tie. "He had to choose pink..." Nadia walks up from behind Tom and pats him on the back. "Pink is a good color for you!" Tom slowly turns his head at Nadia with an incredulous look, shakes his head, and walks off with the clothes to the bathroom, while the other three get moving so they can get changed too.

Note: A few minutes later, everyone heads to APO, leading into the events of Season 4, Episode 7, which will be covered in the next chapter.