A/N: You know the drill. WOOOOOOO!

Chapter Seven:

Days after the Fiasco Italiano, as Sterling liked to refer to it, Marilyn kept herself holed up in the laboratory. It made to difference to him, however; since their Reich investigation had been put on hold he had been sent on several different assignments. Recently, he was holed up himself in a two story house that his former best friend, Lucas Troy, planned to turn into a bed and breakfast. Everything was happening so fast around him; Sterling felt that he had no time to think. He was glad for some personal time upon his return from the woods of Vermont. Woodhouse had the hot tub and a bottle of scotch ready for him when he got back to his house.

Slowly, he sank into the tub and let the jets put pressure on his back; his muscles felt sore and tense. He unscrewed the scotch and took a shot, ignoring the tumbler his butler had set out for him. "Shall I call for some girls, sir?" Woodhouse called from the doorway.

"Not tonight, Woodhouse." Sterling mumbled, taking another swig from the bottle.

"Very well, sir." Woodhouse replied, turning away.

Sterling swished the booze in his mouth as he thought. After taking another drink, he came to the conclusion that tonight he did not want to think. "Woodhouse! I changed my mind!"

Meanwhile at ISIS, Marilyn glared down at the notebooks muttering what sounded like hexes under her breath. She hadn't left the lab for days in order to focus all of her attention on her work, yet work was not what was on her mind. "Stupid Archer and you're stupid 'let's get to know each other' bull shit." She thought bitterly. She had decided long ago that her past would never come back to haunt her again; it had taken her years to block out all the bad memories. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, mentally repeating to herself, "Breathe in, breathe out," as once instructed by a therapist.

As she went back to her work, she heard the faint electronic hum that stalked the lab; Algernop's virtual girlfriend stood behind her. "You steal Krieger-san away from me," she said angrily, "How you like revenge?"

"Revenge? Look, I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, but I'm really not in the mood for it, okay?" Marilyn rolled her eyes and went back to work. She reached for her computer and pulled up what she had decoded so far. The hologram giggled girlishly as she turned off her display. Now Marilyn understood what she meant by revenge; all of her work had been erased. She panicked and tried to find her documents, all traces of the files were lost. "You bitch!" she shouted and shook her fist at the ceiling. "One of these days, I will send your motherboard through a paper shredder!"

"Is your computer infected by the virus now, too?" Algernop asked, suddenly appearing behind her. "I could take a look at it if you'd like."

"It's nothing, Doctor." Marilyn replied as she forced herself back to the notebooks.

"Well, if you need me, I'll just be designing a new pair of robotic legs for Ray and not snorting a huge pile of cocaine."

As he made to walk away, Marilyn turned back around. "Doctor, could I help you with that?"

Algernop paused. "With the robotic legs or the huge pile of coke?"

Marilyn shrugged. "Both?"


The next morning, the agents once again gathered in Malory's office to discuss an upcoming mission to Rome; Ray had been spending the past week planning it and was excited to put it in action. "I feel like the director of the Mission Impossible movies," he had said on more than one occasion when planning an op. As they were getting down to business, the door cracked open; Marilyn poked her head in the room. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Archer?"

"Yes and it's about time you got here." Malory scolded the young woman. Sterling watched as she sat near the door; her appearance seemed a little disheveled and her behavior abnormal.

"Mother, I just got back from a hostage situation yesterday." Sterling complained after Malory explained the details of the mission. "I can't be expected to do… whatever it is we're doing in Rome."

"Well then it's a good thing you're not going." Malory replied.

"Womp womp." Lana stated, imitating the sound of a sad trumpet.

"Before we sent anybody over there," Malory continued, "Marilyn will be sent undercover as an employee of the ambassador's estate. Once we reach word on the ambassador's arrival, we move on to Phase Two."

"She's just a scientist," Lana argued. "Why are we sending unqualified people into the field all of a sudden?"

"Need I remind you that you were unqualified when I hired you?" Malory snapped, taking everyone in the room aback; it was obvious the statement struck a nerve by the look on Lana's face.

"Schooled." Marilyn said after a moment, to which Lana promptly replied with a cold scowl. "Plus I was promoted to reserve agent while you were saving Archer's ass- figuratively and literally." She giggled at her pun. After the meeting Marilyn rejoined Algernop in the lab where he was still designing the legs, headphones in and blasting Rush. Off to the side of the room, the virtual girlfriend read a presumably pornographic manga; she looked up and glared at Marilyn as she entered the room. The woman rolled her eyes as she sat across from the doctor; he was so engrossed in his work that he notice her until she pulled an earphone out. "I won't be able to help you with the operation, Doctor."

Algernop looked up from the blueprints, his goggles rested on top of his head and he had begun to take his clothes off. "Aww, why?"

"I have to go to Rome in the morning." She sighed. "Malory's making me go undercover."

"Aww…" Algernop repeated. Behind him, the hologram very animatedly celebrated. "That totally kills the mood."

"You were thinking about battle bots again weren't you?" Algernop glanced down at his lap and nodded his head. Slowly, Marilyn shed her lab coat and crawled across the table to him. "Whatever are we going to do about this?" she asked as she reached downward, pleased at the angry stare on the virtual girlfriend's face.

Algernop followed her stare. "Oh, yeah, what about her?"

Marilyn grinned seductively as she sank down into his lap and pulled her top over her head. "Let her watch."