Have I mentioned that I love the hotness that is Shane West? I own nothing

Michael went straight to Percy when he arrived at division. Birkhoff looked up briefly when he passed by but quickly returned his attention to his work when Michael glanced at him.

"Come in Michael"

"You wanted to see me"

"Yes, we have received intel that Owen is in a hospital down town"

Michael didn´t flinch.

"I see. Was he shot by one one of us?"

"Oh no, nothing like that. Appaerently he was involved in a bar fight in which he suffered a concussion and a few broken ribs, he´s been there for a few hours already so time is off the essence before he escapes or Nikita extracts him".

"It seems odd, what was the fight about?"

Years of being in first the military and then division had taught Michael to lie without flinching, and he knew that he had to question the story, anyone would be able to tell there was something wrong with this picture.

"I don´t know yet, that´s what I want you to find out".

"Yes sir"

They shared a look before Michael turned to leave.

"And Michael" He turned to look back at him " I wanted it done yesterday"

Well okey then. Michael nodded and left.

"Birkhoff"

"Jeez Mike. You can´t sneak up on a guy like that" he clutched at his heart.

"Don´t call me Mike"

"Sorry. Michael".

"You have intel on Owens location"

"Yeah hold on... he´s at angelhearts hospital downtown, I´ll give you directions as you go, oh and remember Michael, Percy wants him alive. there´s no time for... Michael?"

He was alone.

"Hello"

The nurse looked up from her chart and gaped at the handsome man before her. He was completely dressed in black, and looked like he had just rolled out of bed, in a good way. She tried to compose herself enough to speak.

"Oh! Uh, hi, I mean hello. Can I help you with something?"

"I´m looking for my cousin Owen Kravechi? He was involved in a fight, again, and I just wanted to see if he was okey"

"Yes he´s here, I´m sorry but his doctor wants him to rest right now, can you come back later?" She smiled.

"Oh I see, It´s just that... Well, his mother wanted me to speak to him. He has gotten into a lot of trouble lately and she´s very worried about him. I don´t know, I feel bad for him, he has been through a lot, but at the same time he shouldn´t worry his mother so much, she´s turning 57 next week and we kind of wanted to have a birthday party, but I doubt she will be up for it now".

The nurse nodded, sympathy showing in her eyes.

"I don´t know, he´s not 15 anymore, he needs to come to terms with everything and straighten out, but I don´t know if he can if I´m honest".

He dragged a hand through his hair and sighed.

"I´m sorry, I shouldn´t burden you with this, I just thought maybe I could help him, or at least talk to him. Make him see that he´s throwing his life away"

He saw that she was hesitating and leaning slightly over the desk he noticed a framed picture. It was a close up, with the nurse, he glanced at her nametag, Sarah, and a little boy. There was no man in the picture.

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if his wife hadn´t left him... Ever since she left with their little boy he´s been out of control, he really loves that boy" He took a chance "She met someone else and left faster than he could blink".

Bingo. Her eyes turned a little blank and she put her hand over her mouth.

He sighed and shaked his head.

"I know, it´s awful right? What kind of person does something like that? Just turn their back on someone who loves them..." he looked up at her then

"Oh I´m so sorry, I didn´t mean to make you upset"

"No no that´s okey, it´s just that, I´ve been through something similar myself, not that long ago"

"I´m sorry" his voice sincere.

"That´s okey, you couldn´t have known, it was probably for the best. Anyway, maybe you can see him for a little while, and talk to him. It would be awful if he let this ruin him."

"That would be great, thanks. You don´t know what this means, for his mother I mean, she´s so worried about him"

"I understand, it´s a mothers nature to worry about their children" she blinked at him.

"I guess you´re right"

She came around the counter and started to lead him down the hall.

"Do you know what the fight was about anyway? He was beat up pretty bad" She told him, the distaste clear in her voice.

"No I don´t really know, probably about a girl, problem is, he just dosen´t know when to stop"

She hummed and nodded sympathetically.

"Probably trying too hard because he´s hurting"

"Well he´s gonna have to learn sometime"

"You´re right about that. Here we are, he might still be asleep, in that case you can wait in his room until he wakes if you want, they gave him something to sleep on since he was so anxious, he hasn´t been awake since"

"That´s alright. Thank you so much Sarah"

She blushed and stumbled back to her workplace after murmuring a quick goodbye.

Michael slowly turned the knob and stepped inside.

He closed the door behind him and turned to face the bed where Owen was just sitting up, meeting his eyes.

Nikita was bored. This was not like her, sitting around waiting for a man. Oh but this wasn´t just any man her heart whispered to her, this is Michael. Still, she shouldn´t be here. What if someone from division decided to stop by? But why would they ,her heart whispered. They don´t know that you´re here, trust Michael.

She argued with herself over which course to take. Michael wanted her to stay here, well she thought, maybe that´s reason enough to leave... But they needed to talk about what had happened. And about what was going to happen now. Besides her heart argued, her head was still throbbing dully, and she felt tired. How strange that you didn´t feel any of those things when you were busy feeling up Michael her mind mocked her.

She sighed and fell back on the bed.

Why hadn´t Owen checked in? And what was Michael doing? Birkhoff had sounded pretty agitated when he called Michael. Well, agitated for Birkhoff anyway. She hoped everything was okey.

"Michael"

"Owen"

"We have to stop meeting like this"

"Oh, you don´t have to worry about that"

"What, you come to finish the job"

"I guess you could say that"

"Oh please, I know Percy wants me alive. You´re hands are tied, so to speak"

Michael circled around the bed.

"The thing is Owen... I´m not here because of Percy... You know why I´m here"

"Nikita"

"It was really stupid of you, to think that I wouldn´t know, or see".

"Does she know? Does she know that you´ve come here to kill me?"

Michael didn´t answer and instead produced a needle with a veil with some clear fluid in it from his pocket.

"I´ll take that as a no"

Michael took a hold of his drop and pierced the tube with the sharp needle, preparing to push the fluid in, pausing to look down at him coldly.

"Goodbye Owen"

"Knock knock" The door opened and Michael quickly put the needle back in his pocket turning to face the door, behind him Owen struggled to sit up straight.

In came Rohan in doctors coat, barely concealing the weapons at his waist.

"What´s taking so long, we need to leave"

Michael sighed in frustration, motioning for Owen to get up. He struggled to stand and Michael took a hold of his arm in a firm grasp, pulling him upright. While Rohan was busy making sure the hallway was cleared Michael whispered to Owen, his grip around his arm tightening to a point where the bone was protesting.

"Consider this your lucky day. If you speak one word about anything, and I mean anything you´re not supposed to, I´m going to make sure what happened in Ukraine seem like a tap on the head. You got that?"

Owen nodded.

"Good. Move it."

Rohan motioned them forward and under his watchful eye they were soon seated in the van heading back to division.

Percy was waiting for them when they got back. Michael led Owen up to him and stopped.

"Good work Michael. Put him in room 5, me and Owen have a long talk ahead of us"

Michael pushed him along, stopping when Percy spoke again.

"Oh, Owen, since it´s been a while since we last saw you, Amanda would like to speak with you as well. She missed you"

Percys smile was as chilling as alone time with Amanda was, but Owen was trained to not show emotion, and he simply nodded, even though it wasn´t a request.

"Michael, my office when you´re done".

After having left Owen in Rohans gentle care, he ventured into Percys office.

"Owen is in place"

"What took you so long to get him?"

"I had some trouble getting in to his room"

"It was really stupid of him to let himself be taken to the hospital, perhaps he had passed out, I thought he was trained better than that".

Michael didn´t answer, he wasn´t expected to.

"Anyway, he will tell us everything he knows in due time, and maybe then we can finally close the book on Nikita as well"

Percy glared at him.

"That particular issue have taken much too long already"

"She´s good"

"I thought you were better"

"Time will tell" Michael stated.

"I guess you´re right, just as long as it gets done"

Percy motioned for him to sit in one of the chairs and sat down behind his desk.

"There is something else as well"

Michael tensed. Percy continued.

"Carter has resurfaced"

Carter. A weapons dealer with no mercy and no sympathy. He had been a thorn in divisions side for a long time. The last time they had tried to take him in had been just before Nikita was recruited if he remembered correctly. The operation had failed, and Carter har gone in to hiding, until now. Of course Percy didn´t want to kill him, he wanted to turn him.

"I want you to find him and bring him in"

Well then, why didn´t you just say so, I´ll get right on it. Michael sighed to himself.

"Of course. It might take some time."

"Yes, and remember, he´s paranoid because of what happened last time, you have to work to get close to him, he´s always surrounded with people who´s getting paid a lot to keep him safe, you have to go in alone, otherwise he´ll suspect and bolt, and we can´t have that"

"I understand"

"Birkhoff will call when the intel is complete"

He took the dismissal for what it was and left. What the hell was he going to do now. He had leave for an OP in maybe hours or days, and Nikita was still at his apartment. At least he hoped she was still at his apartment, and Owen was locked in division. This was turning out to be a complicated mess. It was too dangerous to leave her there while he was gone, who knew how long it was going to take, but if she left he couldn´t protect her, and she was injured. Okey, not seriously, she would be as good as new in a day or two, but still. And, he couldn´t risk her doing something stupid and dangerous while he was gone, like trying to rescue Owen when he failed to make contact.

There was only one option, he had to bring her along.

He was going to fly solo, which meant he wouldn´t have much contact with division or them with him until the mission was complete. She could be right there with him, and he could keep an eye on her. He could only hope that he was able to keep his hands to himself and able to concentrate on the mission at hand, if this ended badly they would have more problems than they could handle on their plate.

Now all he had to do was convince her.

He arrived home and after deactivating the alarm he opened the door and walked in, hanging up his jacket and tossing the keys on the table.

"It´s me" He called out, letting her know that he was alone. He went in to the living room and found her sitting on the couch facing him. He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. Their eyes locked on each others and neither spoke for a while. He cleared his throat.

"You stayed"

"We need to talk"

"We do".

They stared at each other, the space between them crackling with tension.

Michael decided that there was no time like the present.

"I need your help"

That was the last thing she expected.

"What´s going on?"

"Carter"

Nikitas eyes widened. Every operative in division had heard of Carter, and the monumental failure division had suffered during their last dealing with him.

"He´s surfaced?"

"Yeah. Percy wants me to track him down and bring him in. Problem is, I don´t want to leave you here, unprotected while I´m gone"

"Michael..."

"I mean it Nikita. Anything could happen while I´m away, this is serious, Percy could come knocking at any time" at her sceptical look he rolled his eyes "you know what I mean. But,"

She looked at him.

"You could come with me, it´ll be like old times" His smile almost reached his eyes.

He could sense her hesitation and wondered if it was the thought of hunting Carter or the thought of hunting Carter with him that was troubling her.

"Alright. I´ll come with you"

He sighed in relief.

"Nikita...about before..."

Her cheeks burned, but she kept her gaze steady and locked on his.

"We have to concentrate on this, I need to focus on getting this mission done, and that means that I can´t let myself lose sight of the end game".

She blinked.

"I have to apprehend Carter and bring him in, I can´t let you distract me from doing that"

"What are you saying Michael?"

She had to make him say it didn´t she.

"I´m saying that what happened before can´t happen again. I´ll be in charge of this mission and your safety, I can´t let anything compromise that".

Same old Michael. Trying to keep her close, but not to close. Was he never going to realize that he wasn´t her trainer anymore and that she was a big girl now? Talk about control issues.

"Of course not. You do what you think is best Michael" And I´ll do what I think is best she added silently to herself.

He stared at her from his place against the wall, dark eyes drilling into hers. She stared back, the air thick with tension.

I have no idea what Owens last name is, that name came to mind, now that I think about it it could be from prison break? Anyway, I wanted to show a more ruthless side to Michael. We all know he didn´t commit a crime to end up in division, but still he joined for a reason (even though it´s understandable that he would want revenge), and he´s done things that aren´t exactly noble. So he had no qualms about playing on a nurse´s unhappy memories or trying to kill a medicated Owen. I hope you liked this chapter, it was a bit difficult to write :S