She stood on the tarmac of a private airfield in St Petersburg. Vince was being kept at a CIA black site, in hostile territory, that's how much power he had. They wouldn't even take him state side and wasn't even at a maximum security prison. Lord knew what they had done to him or what she was going to find but at least it was freezing.

Every memory of Russia or Chechnya she had were cold, for some reason but today it was sunny.

She hadn't worn any makeup, even though she wanted too. Neve also didn't want to hear Will bitch about her making an effort to see a harden criminal. Jeans, tee, converse and her new coat. She also didn't want to draw any attention that wasn't Vincent. She just want in the mood for that

Neve was nervous to see him again. Was he still going to be disappointed in her? Angry? Would he want to hurt her again?

It had been a job, it was meant to be a job but two years undercover and honestly under the covers with someone. It was hard to separate the two. The evil one that she had read about and the man that told her he loved her everyday when he stepped out the door and last thing every night. She had been on a case, he had been in a relationship. She had broken his heart. He had broken her. Neve guessed that she could understand the betrayal more now.

Karma was funny that way.

They piled into a dark sedan and into the back seat. She had been quiet for the whole flight and Brandt knew why. He let her be, let her mind tick over. Nothing he could say would stop it. Neve would probably kill him if he tired but he had to do something. He reached over and held her hand gently. Then something happened that he didn't expect, she rested her head of his shoulder, before a few seconds later, laying her legs over one of his.

She was delicate and quite frankly, it freaked him out. This wasn't his Neve and he didn't know whether to blame Vincent or Niccolo.

He wrapped her up in his arms and said nothing. What could he say? Assets weren't meant to meet their target ever again, that was the whole point. She was walking back into the guy's life and there was nothing he could do about it. Once again she had volunteered

Maybe she was addicted to the danger, the electricity that comes with it.

He would much prefer that then she was still in love with the guy.

Once the car pulled up to the gate Neve untangled herself and quietly pulled the pieces back to together until she was made of stone, expressionless and everything an agent should be. It was pretty amazing to see it happen in front of him.

#

Neve stood beyond the glass doors and took a deep breath, trying to slow her heart down. She didn't expect to ever see him again but here is was seconds away from sitting face to face with him.

Vincent Mayrbek

He should have been the monster in her dream, but he really wasn't. Brandt was right, he had been more than an asset. More than her job, he had been something else entirely but one thing was uncertain

How he was going to react to Brandt

Will refused to stay out of the room but she had made him agree to keep his distance. The last thing she needed was to have the both of them circling each other.

The guards pressed the buzzer and the glass door slid open. Neve straighten her shoulders and walked on ahead, feeling Brandt very close behind her. They were lead into a single room and there he was.

Sitting behind a table, cuffed to the middle. Who were else guys kidding? That chain wasn't stopping Vincent if he wanted to get free.

He looked good. Clean shaven. Short cropped hair, greying on the side and those hazel eyes.

Prison apparently agreed with him

Vince saw her and stared wide eyed before rising out of his chair, slowly

"What happened" he asked furiously "Who has done this?"

She was stunned and confused until she remembered the bruises on her face. Neve touched her face softly. She had actually forgotten all about them, about the beating.

"Umm, that's actually why I am here"

"Its not just to see my face?" he asked playfully sitting back down. She sat at the chair at the head of the table, not the other side like Brandt was expecting. She was as close as she could be and Neve knew it.

"From zero to flirt in twenty seconds, impressive" she chuckled smiling at him "Only just found out that you were here. Wherever here is. I thought you were still out there. Ruling the world"

"The agency not good at passing on information?"

"Actually, I was fired. Something about getting too personally involved. It wasn't a quality they wanted in an agent. Good girls and the bad guys, I guess. Always a danger combination"

"Then who did that?"

"Gennadi Melnikov" Vince sat back in his chair "I think she's sleeping with my fiancé"

"Please don't tell me it is Niccolo Lombardi"

"You can laugh if you want too. It's kinda poetic justice, don't you think?"

They smiled at each other before his face turned serious.

"She's in love with him"

"I gathered that when she was kicking into me"

She heard him take a deep breath and his eyes changed. Something behind them got dark

"Solnyshko" he uttered quietly

"I'll heal. The shock hurt more"

She stopped suddenly, realising how personal that just was. Vince must have noticed, he reached over and held her hand gently. Neve looked up at him surprised before smile.

"They are planning something and I think it's pretty bad but I don't know where to start. Has she mentioned anything at all, while she's been here?"

Vince just smiled at her

"So you want my help?"

"You can tell me to take a leap. It's totally up to you"

"But then you'll go away"

They heard a disapproving noise from the corner. She turned around and looked at Brandt. They battled each other wordlessly for a second or two before she turned back to Vince

"Is she a talker?"

"She's pretty vocal" he smirked

"Ugh,Vince. That's not what I meant"

He laughed good-heartedly and memories flooded back to her. Neve had blocked out so much of her time with Vince, she forgot how great his laugh was.

"Vince" she urged sitting forward in her seat "Anything you know is more then what we've got"

Still holding hands he looked into her eyes and lent forward. Brandt watched him. It was clear he was still under her spell, even knowing who she truly was. He was still beguiled and bewitched by her. Maybe that was just Neve. She had always been the only thing Brandt ever had in common with this guy.

"They're not planning genocide or anything but it's very personal to him"

"Niccolo?"

"All is not what it seems with his mother"

"Mother or Step mother"

"Family general"

"How do we know you're not bullshitting us?" Will interrupted

"Brandt!" She chastised him straight away.

"It's not going to do me any good lying to you. I'm not even in prison anymore. Nobody knows I'm here and nobody knows where here is. I'm exactly where you wanted me, little man"

"Why did they move you from a prison to a black site?"

There was something in her voice that Brandt didn't like. It was somewhere near admiration and pride but the thing that worried him the most was the interest, the care and then there was the connection. He had never witnessed anything like this before. It should have been simple but then again, nothing about Neve was ever simple.

"I was still doing what I do. Location has nothing to do with it. Business is still business. Things were still getting sold and traded. Money still was being made"

"Did you do any business with Jack?" she stopped and sighed "Niccolo?"

"He moves a lot but he doesn't do good business. China is yes easier for weapons but it is watched with diligence"

"You need to move them through the small European countries"

"You do remember me" he smiled "Lombardi's biggest downfall, other than beautiful women, is his ego. He thinks he is smarter then everybody. He thinks he won't get caught. He thinks by moving what he is moving that its going to distract from what he actually wants to do"

"Which has to do with his family? On a small scale" she talked as she was processing her thoughts "Assassination?"

"Yes"

She felt Brandt tap her arm before moving towards the door. He was out of the room and Neve couldn't move. She gripped Vince hands and looked over at him torn.

"I don't want to leave you. I know what they do here"

He pulled her hands up and kissed her knuckles on each hand

"Think of it as karma, Solnyshko"

"I knew the risks going in. I'm not as naive as people think. I knew what happened to people that double cross you and that was exactly what I was doing. I'm not victim. I lived through it. I'm okay"

She looked back at the door to double check they were alone. Surprisingly they were and there were no cameras. Neve reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a cuff key

"That's treason, Malysh"

Neve wasn't listening. She leant of the table and slipped it into the pocket of his jumpsuit

"Don't do it straight away but when you see an opportunity, Take it" she cradle his face in her hands and kissed his cheek softly before brushing her thumb across skin "Consider it an apology and penance"

She straightened up before he grabbed her wrists and pulled her forward swiftly, so fast she gasped. They were nose to nose when he fixed her with his eyes. She couldn't look away"

"Don' .Niccolo" he hissed "He has many faces and he will use all of them. Do you understand? Don't fall for any of it"

"Vince?"

"I'm mean it, Malysh"

She nodded her head and tried not to waver before he let her go. Neve walked out of the room and never looked back, even though she felt his eyes on back as she walked away.

#

They went back to their hotel and he noticed she was busying herself. She wouldn't be still for too long. All signs that she was living up in her head, a hurricane of thoughts surrounding her, drowning her.

Brandt let her for a while but as time went on. He decided enough was enough.

He walked over to the open bathroom door, leant up against the doorframe and watched her slash water on her face. Her dark hair piled up on top of her head.

"What's Solnyshko?" he asked gently.

She looked up at him through the mirror

"Um, means sunshine or small sun depending on how it's used"

"I didn't know he called you that"

"There is probably a lot I didn't tell you at the time. Given the situation" she chuckled "Double agent and all"

"You okay?"

"Always"

He knew that she wasn't but also knew that it was the only answer she was going to give him. Will shook his head and walked away, leaving her alone.

Suddenly she didn't want to be alone.

She busied herself a little longer before making her way to the doorway. He was tapping away on his laptop, he was annoyed, which annoyed her for some reason.

Neve moved slowly over and sat on the bed closest to him, folded her legs underneath herself and stared into space for a seconds.

"Whats Niccolo's mothers name again?"

"Emailia Schneider. Might want to contact MI6"

"On it"

She nodded her head softly and staring off into her own world. Vince, Niccolo, Brandt. Her world was certainly a hell of a lot more busy these days. He was Vince, her Vince. Not the man that everybody said that he was. Sort of like Niccolo. She was starting to believe it was her. Maybe that was her type. Suddenly the tapping of the laptop stopped and she could feel him staring at her and not kindly

"What William?"

"Nothing"

"Bullshit"

"Why didn't you follow me out of there?"

"What?"

"You stayed in there with him for a long time"

"Yeah we had a quickie before they sent him back to his cell"

"Neve!"

"What?" What do you want me to say? We were saying goodbye" she fired back "You are blinded by your hatred for him. Why do you hate him so much?"

"Do I need to get you a mirror?"

"You are scared by these marks more then I will ever be"

"I was there Neve!" he shouted without meaning too "They grabbed me on the street, they clocked me on the head and I woke up there. I woke up to you screaming in the next room"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Neve, I still wake up to you screaming, even today"

"How long did they have you?"

"The whole time I think. That was my torture and he knew it. I couldn't get out. I didn't know where we were, I still don't. I either blacked out or I've blocked out the memory but I was there"

"Why didn't you say something!" she yelled him turning around

"When Neve? When we had you in that filthy building? Do I just bop it into conversation? When we were stitching you up with whatever we could find? Maybe right before you passed out for the pain? That's the prefect time, don't you think?"

"How about after when I was recovering? Maybe before or after you terminated me? The years since when you were keeping taps. We went through the same thing and the only people that could have understood that was us. You choose to walk away"

"So this is my fault now?"

"I thought you left because" she stopped and pressed her lips together before pouting and nodding her head "You know what? It doesn't even matter anymore"

"Oh nah. No-no. If I have to spill my guts, you do too"

"I wasn't me anymore"

"What?"

"I thought it was because I wasn't me. The person you fell in love with. I wasn't her. I was mark up by a man you hated and I will always be" she shook her head angrily "What else could it have been"

He stalked across the room grabbed her and kissed her so hard that she bent over. Neve held on to his arms before he pulled her in by the waist as his fingers of his other hand pressed into the back of her neck.

"It was never that"

"You didn't see your face at your house the other night, Will"

"Neve, I didn't keep you safe and that was my job. So seeing your scar now just brought all that back. I failed"

"You didn't fail" she said wrapping her arms around his neck "Let's figure out what Jack is planning and deal with that first"

"We're not done here, okay?"

The laptop started beeping and Will started to wonder if they would ever get a good moment alone without anything else looming. She could see the irritation in his eyes and she chuckled sweetly

"They're just doing their job"

Neve walked over to the screen and pressed the right button before she saw Benji

"Hi A Stóirín"

"Oh you're cute" she laughed and her face softened at the sound of someone else speaking Gaelic "How are you going Benji?"

"That was going to be my question"

"Better than expected"

"Yeah, we got Brandt's report"

"He's already done a report?" she looked over the edge of the computer and smirked at Will "You're such a nerd"

"Yeah because it not like we're on a timeline or anything"

Brandt sat behind her on the windowsill so Benji could see them both

"Well while we're tracking everyone down in his family tree" Benji joked "How you feel about being to a romance cabin in Italy?"

"What?" Brandt asked confused

"Lake Maggiore?" she asked searching through her handbag on the desk

"That's the one. You'll might have to break in though"

"Not when I have a key" she chuckled "Fiancé of a crazy, table for one?"

"We're looking for anything we can use, Sweetheart"

"On it"

The screen went black and Neve turned around to face Brandt. Suddenly things were awkward between them. In the moment they had said a lot and neither of them were revealing people and in the moment, they had revealed a hell of a lot.

"Cabin in Italy?" he questioned "How rich is this guy?"

"Not short of a penny. Although now I know it's all dirty money"

"You do like those bad boys" he teased smirking. Defusing the awkwardness. She was relieved.

"You're not actually a boy scout yourself"

"Oh that I know"

She playfully threw a cushion at him. He caught it one handed before getting back on the laptop and getting back to work.