A/N: This one was really easy to write once I figure out the best plan of attack. The next chapter will be Auggie, I swear to you and keep a look out for a sad little oneshot called Fading Photographs. I'm excited to write that one. Very brother-centric and we all know how much I love brothers. Anyways! I really would love to hear from you! Your theories on whats going to happen; our take on Vera; how Auggie will cope with the finality of his disability when he gets home! Talk to me peoples! I love you!

Disclaimer: I forgot this thing AGAIN earlier, but I remembered it now. I do NOT own CA but I do own Vera. So there.

Thanks for sticking with me guys!
CA fandom is the greatest!

Death and All His Friends

Something made her stop in the doorway of room 212, some unknown force keeping her from going any further. (Apprehension?) She stared at the woman lying between crisp white hospital sheets, her flaming hair fanned out like a fiery halo. Though this woman had spent more than twenty years in the Circle, she looked like an innocent child now. No blood on her hands, incapable of manipulating the thoughts of unsuspecting bystanders. Surely this wasn't the woman who taught Vera how to kill a grown man without leaving a mark on his skin. Impossible.

Vera took several tentative steps forward. The breathing tubes were gone and it looked like this woman was just sleeping. Maybe it was just exhaustion or just plain inexperience in this field, but Vera felt like her heart was trying to flee her chest. Anxiety, she thought, what an awful feeling.

"Emma," she said softly as she took a seat beside her old mentor.

Hazy brown eyes fluttered open and settled on Vera's face. A small smile cracked the woman's mouth, crinkling the corners of her eyes.

"I should have known they would send you," she said. Her voice was soft, tired. "What should I call you?"

"Vera," she answered quietly.

"Vera… It's a pretty name, how did you come up with that one?"

"It's my birth name," Vera said. Emma's eyebrows raised considerably. "How are you feeling?"

"Let's not dance around the real questions, hmm? We don't have much time," there was something urgent in her voice. "I only have a few hours left."

"What are you talking about," Vera leaned in closer, so close that she could count every freckle on the other woman's face, "You're going to survive this one, Em."

"You don't understand, Vera. When a Femme agent is brought out into the public, she has an obligation to her cell… Vera- the sisterhood is going to know that I'm compromised and when that happens- If I don't do it, they will."

An icy chill trickled down Vera's spine. The implications were not lost on her.

"But how are you going to do it," she asked.

Emma gave a sad smile and opened her left hand to reveal a small white pill in her palm. It looked like a sugar pill to anyone ignorant of its purpose. Immediately, Vera began to steel herself for the reality that was settling in. After Emma gave her the needed intel, she would swallow that pill and suffer what looked to be a heart attack. But Vera would know better.

"Where did you get that?"

"A Femme agent has already been here with her best wishes, Vera. They're very efficient," Emma sighed.

"So it wasn't Femme who shot you, then."

"No. If they'd wanted me dead they wouldn't have been so sloppy," Emma said, pushing herself up a bit, "I pulled a hit on this man's son and somehow he found me. I can promise you that Femme won't let him live much longer, they don't take the death of their own lightly."

"Well, I suppose I should ask," Vera took a breath and stared Emma in the face, "Were you corrupt?"

"Hmm." Emma smiled for real then, her dark eyes pulsed with a strange light. "That's a good question. Femme believes in what they're doing, Vera. They have this uncanny way of justifying their actions. I have to admit that there were times when I wasn't sure whose side I was on."

"You're not answering my question," Vera said. Once again, she could feel the emotion draining from her voice. This was a job now.

"I don't think that I can answer your question." For several long moments the two women watched each other, a silent battle raging within each one. "I will tell you this. Femme operates much like the Circle. Their agents are few and each one operates individually. This makes them very hard to catch.

"There is one person running the entire operation, they call her Mother."

Vera scoffed despite herself. It was all so childish.

"I know it seems puerile, but this is a powerful woman and she has aspirations that could cause a multitude of problems. She has to be undone," Emma's tone wiped the smile from Vera's face. "Aside from her agents, she has somewhat of a council. They are her inner circle, the only ones she trusts with the location of her operations. They are the ones who decide what missions to take on and what ones to set aside.

"I have never been anywhere near that inner circle and I know that she didn't trust me all that much, but I do know one thing. She is trying to get some of her agents into the CIA."

"What," Vera had to keep herself from shouting out loud. "That's impossible, they wouldn't make it through the background check."

"You don't understand. Most of these girls are like you, Vera," Emma spoke as though to a small child, "They are pulled just after high school graduation, they don't have time to even get a background. Their birth names are discarded and they are trained to lie and manipulate. She wants these agents to bring her intel straight from the DCS and that kind of intel in the Mother's hands… You have to warn the DNI."

"I will. I promise."

With a hollow look in her eyes, Emma swallowed the pill.

xXx

Four minutes. That was how much time Emma had left to live. Vera couldn't help but wonder how many heartbeats that was, how many memories, how many breaths. Silent as a shadow, Vera made her way down the hall, ignoring Carter when he called her name. She needed to put as much space between herself and room 212 as possible.

Three minutes.

The cool of the evening air dried the tears that slid down Vera's face and she reprimanded herself for such a display of weakness. She had wanted to stay with Emma, no one should have to die alone, but Emma wouldn't have anything to do with it.

Two minutes.

She sat on a bench just outside the hospital with her head in her hands. Emma had been a mentor and a friend. The only one she had been able to trust for the longest time. Now who could she trust?

One minute.

There was still time to go back up. Time to hold her hand and wish her a safe travel to whatever was awaiting her on the other side. Be there a god or not, Vera wished her the best. But the moment passed and, just like that, another life was lost.