He thought he could hear her screams. Painful, bloodcurdling screams. He thought he could see an outline of her body in flames. He could not get to her. The billowing, black smoke. The heat. The flames. He was beaten back.

Jesse woke up, panting, drenched in sweat. It took him several seconds to still his racing heart. He swung his feet over and planted them on the ground, rubbing his face hard. After the explosion, the rest of the hotel guests had panicked and swarmed the hallway, trying to escape the raging fire. He tried to get into the room. He did not want it to end this way. But when he saw how hopeless the situation was, he let himself be swept away in the commotion and left the hotel.

He had slept fitfully last night, plagued by dreams of Raven in flames. All because of his stupid mistake. He had killed before, of course. In his line of work, there was no avoiding it. Especially when there was a thin line between death and survival. But this is different. He did not mean to kill her. The guilt sat on him like a heavy mantle until this very morning.

It took a while before it filtered through his mind that Beca was not back yet. He frowned and checked his phone. No messages. That was strange. He was sure Beca did not mention she will not be back. He tried ringing her but it went straight to voicemail.

The TV was switched on to the morning news. The sound of the all too perky newscaster reading the news was background noise as he sipped his coffee. He tried to get to Beca but her phone still went to voicemail. It was very odd.

"...An explosion was reported at the Roosevelt Hotel last night. The fire is now under control but the Fire department is still treating the incident as suspicious. The site was a scene of commotion as hotel guests, including celebrities Harry Styles and music producer, Max Hartley were ..."

Jesse dropped his mug. It smashed on the floor but he did not noticed that. He stared at the tv, now awash with pictures of the fire seen from the hotel's exterior before swapping to images of a charred room and corridor.

Max Hartley? Beca?

Beca was at the Roosevelt last night?

He frantically tried ringing Beca again, his thoughts in a jumble - No, no. She was there last night? What was she doing there? Oh my god. Was that all the commotion in the lobby about? I nearly ran into her. She was there when I rang her? Why am I panicking? Is it because there was a fire and I can't get through to Beca? Or because I could have run into her while I was trying to find the Raven?

He cursed hard when the calls did not connect. Then he tried ringing Luke.

"Yes?"

Jesse let out a sigh of relief when he heard Luke's voice.

"Luke, it's Jesse. I can't get through Beca."

He heard Luke's frustrated sigh and when he spoke, he sounded a little angry. "Yeah, I meant to ring you."

Jesse was still, very afraid now. "Why? What happened?"

"There was an accident."

Jesse fought to stay calm. "Beca was at the Roosevelt last night. And there is this massive fire.."

"Yes. She's..."

"Where is she, Luke?" Jesse yelled.

"Calm down."

"I can't calm down. She did not come back last night. There's a fire. I can't get through to her. I can't fucking calm down!"

Just then, he heard the apartment's door opened and Beca walked in.

Jesse froze.

He just dropped the call, not caring Luke was still on the other line and went straight to her.

"Thank god!" he whispered, enveloping her in a tight hug. Beca winced. He saw that and drew back. "It's all over the news. Are you hurt? Why were you at the Roosevelt? There's a massive fire and I can't get through you. Becs, why didn' t you call?"

"Dude.." Beca sighed, still wincing. Her arms hurt and she waved her sprained wrist, bounded in bandages at him. "I'm OK. Let me sit down."

He couldn't quite let her go. And Beca just moved to sit on the couch with Jesse's arms still around her waist. He held her tight, letting her head rest on his chest.

"Becs..."

Beca sighed. "There was some press conference I had to go to."

"You should have called."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"How did you get hurt?"

"Everyone panicked and ran out after that fire. I was pushed to one side and sprained my wrist. Nothing major."

"You could have been trampled on, Becs."

"I'm fine," she mumbled, burrowing her face into his chest. "This is nice." She had quite a night and she was just so glad she was there in one piece with Jesse.

They sat quietly, watching the news. Jesse was stroking her back and hair, just relieved she was there with him. The news rolled around to the fire at the Roosevelt again; now with the news report at the scene. A reporter was interviewing the Chief of the Fire Department.

"Are you still treating the fire as suspicious? Do you think it is a terrorist act?"

"We are still treating it as suspicious but we are sure it is not an act of terrorism. "

"How bad is the damage?"

"Fairly contained to the room and the hallway. There were no casualities."

Jesse stopped in mid-stroke. No casualities? They didn't find a body? Or bits of a body? Does it mean she escaped? Oh my god! She escaped! In the ten seconds before the explosion? Did she have wings or something?

Jesse sighed a huge sigh of relief, the burden of guilt sloughing off. He had to stop the smile on his face. He could not believe it. How did?... When?.. How? It just blew his mind. Oh, he definitely had to meet her now. There was no two ways about it. He would not be able to rest until he set eyes on this Raven. This very worthy, very good adversary. He would just need to up his game.

"Becs, are you sure you are OK?" Jesse asked. "...cause I need to get to work. But I'll stay if you want me to."

Yes, I would like you to stay - Beca thought. But she was not one of those needy chicks and she did not want to be one. Frankly, if he had work, she did not really want to be in his way. "No, I'll be fine. You just go."

"Are you sure?" Jesse asked, feeling a little guilty. She nodded. "OK, I'll be back for lunch."

Beca sighed when she heard the door slammed shut. He was in a hurry - she thought sourly. It would have been nice if he had fussed over her a little more. She missed him. And after yesterday's dice with death, it would have been nice to have him hold her. No, she would not be that needy type of girlfriend. She was fine. Really.

Beca run her good hand through her hair. But he's so distracted lately... the traitorous thought crossed her mind and she felt a little pang - No. It's fine. He's just busy.

What a night.

There she was, carefully opening that laptop when Sam suddenly screamed in her ear, "Code 10! I repeat Code 10!"

And she ran.

Straight out to the nearby balcony. She just had enough time to get onto the balustrade, her feet scrambling on the edge, a hair's breadth from the yawning drop below. A loud roar and the force of the explosion propelled her forward towards the air and certain death, floors below... if she had not had wrapped her arm around the metal rope she secured on the railing before.

The rope swung in an arc outwards before swinging back towards the balcony of her room below. She felt the excruciating pain in her hand and arm as the rope yanked hard. She let go and landed in a heap on her balcony. Her ears were ringing from the explosion and she could now feel the heat now.

"Beca! Beca! Are you there?" Sam barked into her intercom, fear in her voice.

Beca gulped deep breaths in, quickly moving into her room and picking up all her stuff in one movement.

"Beca!"

"I'm here."

"Thank God!"

"What happened?"

"I picked up the countdown. There must be a silent trigger in the room. That was one helluva explosion."

Beca cursed hard. That laptop. She should have known. No self-respecting agent of his calibre would used such a low end device. Beca was suddenly very very angry. Stupid, fucking Oracle with his cheap laptop trying to kill her twice in a day!

"Beca."

"I'm hurt. My hand.."

"Come on, child. Let's head home."

"Affirmative. Let me disappear into the crowd."

Alarms were ringing all around now and she could hear people moving along the corridor. Someone was frantically knocking on her door.

"Miss Hartley! Please open the door!"

Beca shut her eyes. I should have used a bogus name - she thought. It was probably one of the hotel staff trying to make sure the VIPs were evacuated.

"Sam, I need to be Max. I'll see you back at base."

"Affirmative. Luke is not going to be happy."

"Oh fuck. I forgot. He's not going to like our little detour, is he?"

Jesse quickly scanned the fire report in front of him. He had to call in a few favours to get the report so quickly. Yep, definitely no body found. She definitely escaped.

He ran through more documents. Anything and everything he could get his hands on Raven. Any clues, however miniscule. He even tried to track down the manufacturers of the calling card she used, just in case he could track an invoice, a name, an address, an email. Anything.

Nope, she was too good.

Jesse tapped his fingers on the table, trying to think where else could he find a clue. Any of their old records, any of their old taps? Maybe she had casted the same joint and they caught a glimpse of her? He quickly ran over the past jobs he did.

"Charlotte," he said over the intercom. "Can you pull up some of our old tapes?"

"Which ones do you want?" Charlotte said.

Jesse reeled off a series of particularly juicy jobs he had done in the past two years. Jobs that he was sure Raven would have loved. Charlotte pulled them all out and he sat in front of the monitor, shifting through the grainy images.

It was tough work but he was determined. Hours passed and Jesse was getting quite irritated now. He got nothing. No new faces. All had been accounted for.

He had been on a fool's errand. If he knew her, she would be too good to get caught so easily on camera. She might have been in one of those dud jobs he had done in the past; the ones where the footage were just too unclear or interfered with. When that happened, he had just relegated them to the bin after the job and gave it up as a bad job.

Like that art gallery job. Too much interference, no doubt from other bugs. It was like listening to static. The visuals were awful and he had given up on that job.

Jesse had to smile. He remembered that job. It was when he met Beca again. In that beautiful blue dress, her hair held up with shining diamond barettes, her lips red and smiling. He had a blonde date, whom he could not remember the name of, as his cover when he tapped the place. Yeah, and Luke was there. Hands all over Beca. He grunted at that.

Oh god, what's the time? - Jesse quickly closed down the screen and stared at his watch. It was way past lunch time. What the hell, Jesse?! - he yelled at himself internally - You are spending way too much time trying to find this elusive girl that you are neglecting Beca. Who is hurt. And probably waiting for you for lunch. What the hell are you doing?

OK, I got this. I got her favourite takeaway and her favourite flowers. And I'll grovel and tell her she can skip movication for a month. No, make it two months - Jesse walked into the lobby of his apartment block, hands full, trying to work out what to say to make Beca forgive him.

His phone rang and he quickly shifted everything to one arm while he picked the call.

"Jesse."

"Yeah, Bumper. What do you want?"

"Please tell me you are not involved in that Roosevelt explosion."

"Do you want me to lie to you?"

"Damn, boy! What are you doing?"

Jesse leaned against the wall and sighed heavily. "I don't know."

Bumper was ranting a string of expletives now. He simmered down and said "Whatever you are doing, pack it in. We've got work tonight."

Jesse cursed softly. He forgot about tonight.

"Listen, man. Can you get me off the hook tonight? Beca's unwell and I need to stay in," he said.

"No can do. We've planned this for ages, Jesse," Bumper said, without a trace of empathy in his voice. "You are key to this. I wouldn't know what to say to Camilla if you are not there."

"It's not convenient tonight. Beca's home."

"No. I won't have you jeopardise the job, Jesse. You can only string Camilla along so far," Bumper said, his voice final. "Be there. And bring your A game."

Jesse sighed "OK. I see you tonight."

He ended the call and was about to move to the lift when he found Beca was right in front of him.

"Becs! What are you doing here?"

Oh god, how much of that conversation did she overhear? If she heard any, it was not showing on her face.

"I got tired sitting around. I'm just going to pop back to the studio," she said, her face delibrately blank. She heard the last two sentences of that conversation.

"But you are hurt. You should be resting," Jesse said worriedly. "I got your favourite. Come up and I'll feed you."

Beca shook her head. "No. I ate already. I won't be long. Maybe we can have it for dinner?" she said, smiling sweetly up at him.

Jesse dropped his gaze and shifted his weight from one foot to another. "Yeah. Tonight. I have to be somewhere," he said slowly. "Some boring awards thing."

"Sounds fun," Beca said. "Can I come?"

"Oh..That.. umm.. I think it might be a bit last minute for the guest list, Becs."

"Oh."

They just stood there a while, looking at each other.

"I'll come home as soon as," Jesse said, feeling a little wretched.

"Don't worry about it. I just might work late" Beca said blandly. "I gotta go."

And she walked out, brushing past him, not looking back. She kept her eyes front, trying not to feel anything, trying to keep her suspicions in check. Jesse just stared at her rapidly diminishing back; hands clenching, wanting to run after her but not knowing what to say if he did. And both of them felt the growing distance between them.

A/N Come on, guys. Do you really think I will kill Beca off? Hmm maybe I missed the potential of making this a zombiefic. Darn!

Inspiration for both the last and this chapter was from Justin Timberlake's Sexyback music video. I kid you not. That song will reappear in an M chapter later on ;) Stay tuned.

The last chapter was dedicated to Gossipsweetlips :) Thank you for all your support from the beginning and for tirelessly championing Jeca. Love Jeca.