For Patty Beau Hammond. What happened in Mumbai? What's the story behind Cairo? Why do Jack and Sarah both hate Sao Paulo? Or, three missions in the lives of the partners.

AN: So, this universe is very popular, apparently, so here's yet another story set in the universe of Partners/Not Just a Cover. (I guess it is a pretty fun universe, and there's a lot of opportunities for whump, which this entire fandom seems to adore…)

MUMBAI

An Indian media tycoon had recently purchased a decommissioned Russian military satellite to add to his mobile phone network.

Unfortunately, said Russian military satellite wasn't actually fully decommissioned, thanks to a rogue element of the Russian intelligence forces.

Hence, Jack and Sarah's mission was to get the access code to the satellite from the tycoon so that it could be fully decommissioned.

For some people, that was the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.

For Jack and Sarah, that was Tuesday.

Jack looked up at his partner, who was sitting on the edge of a chair in their hotel room, putting on her heels.

(This particular media tycoon had a known weakness for beautiful and badass women. Jack didn't like the guy at all, despite the fact that he'd never met him and the businessman was, by all accounts, a law-abiding one, but he couldn't exactly blame him for that weakness. Especially since Sarah seriously rocked that green evening dress.)

'He won't know what hit him.'

She smirked up at him, tucking her gun into her concealed thigh holster.

'That's the plan.' She got up and made a face. 'But next time, you're wearing the heels.'

As usual, it ended in a fight.

It always ended in a fight.

'I'm out.'

As his partner spoke, Jack fired off his last shot, which hit home. They were pinned in a room in the back of the tycoon's mansion.

(Apparently, while the tycoon hadn't known about the satellite not actually being decommissioned, his PA had been in on it, which had thrown a spanner in the works, to put it lightly.)

'Me too. Looks like we're doing this the old-fashioned way.'

Sarah groaned.

'Nostalgia's overrated.'

Jack punched the first bad guy's lackey square in the jaw, as Sarah kicked another in the stomach. (The lackeys were thankfully unarmed.)

'No arguments here!'

SAO PAULO

Jack did end up having to be the honeypot eventually, but at least he didn't have to wear heels.

The target: female arms dealer in Sao Paulo, with a known weakness for handsome, muscular guys with a touch of cowboy to them.

It didn't go to plan.

Nothing ever went to plan.

As they ran across the rooftops, Jack glanced back at his partner. Her left arm had been broken in an earlier altercation with the arms dealer's bodyguards, who were currently pursuing them, and was in a makeshift sling made from Jack's tie.

'Did you really have to shoot her and get all of her bodyguards on our tail?'

Despite their situation and her arm, Sarah rolled her eyes at him.

'I didn't like how she had her hands on you!'

They jumped to the next rooftop.

'Hey, no need to be jealous, you're my best girl, always will be!'

As they ran across the rooftop, Sarah just shot him a look.

'Would you really rather I let her strangle you?'

CAIRO

They'd actually had two missions in Cairo, but whenever anyone on their team mentioned Cairo, the rest of them all knew exactly which mission they meant.

They didn't talk about the other mission in Cairo, not if they could avoid it.

It'd taken long enough for Mac to tell his best friend the full story, told him that it was more than a mission gone south, even though Bozer had sat by his bedside and cared for him and nursed him back to health after that Cairo as much as Jack had.

And it wasn't until months after she'd joined their team that Riley heard all about that Cairo.

That Cairo was Jack bursting into the room, Sarah hot on his heels, just a fraction of a second too late, as Nikki pulled the trigger on Mac (whose big brain had finally unravelled her plans, confirmed Jack and Sarah's suspicions, unfortunately too late), telling him that they'd always have Cairo with a smirk on her face.

(It hadn't been a kill-shot. Jack was grateful, oh, so, so grateful, as they all were, that it hadn't been. It could have been. Maybe Nikki, first and foremost a hacker and an analyst, wasn't that good of a shot. Maybe Mac had moved, just a fraction, just in time. Maybe the kid's extraordinary luck had saved his life. Maybe whatever feelings Nikki had pretended to have for Mac weren't completely faked. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above. Whatever it was, it hadn't been a kill-shot and that was the most important thing.)

That Cairo was the image of Mac, heartbreak and anger (at himself more than her) and determination to stop her written across his face all at once, blood blooming on his shirt. That image was seared into Jack's retinas forever.

The other Cairo, the Cairo that they were talking about when they mentioned Cairo, hadn't actually happened exactly in Cairo.

More accurately, it'd happened about a hundred clicks outside of Cairo proper, smack bang in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

Jack and Sarah were pinned behind their Jeep.

He glanced over at his partner.

'I've got a clip left.'

She shook her head.

'I'm down to four bullets. And we're out of flash-bangs.'

He risked ducking out from behind cover to shoot one of the bad guys. He didn't miss, as usual.

'Well, it's not over 'till they're dead.'

She fired off a shot, then another.

'Or you are!'

He, too, popped up and shot another bad guy.

'If we're gonna go down, we're going down fighting. Together.'

At that moment, they heard a helicopter approaching, and exchanged a glance. The sat-phone attached to Jack's belt rang, and he picked up as Sarah took down two bad guys with her last two bullets.

'Patty, this is not a good time-'

'I can see that. Next time, call for back-up sooner. Stand by for extraction.'

The helicopter landed behind them. The door opened, and their boss leaned out and fired at the bad guys.

Jack and Sarah hustled into the helicopter as Thornton provided them with cover.

'I thought a corner office had made you soft, Patty!'

She simply quirked an eyebrow at him and turned to the pilot.

'Cynthia, get us out of here.'

'With pleasure, boss.'

Jack and Sarah exchanged a look, and then Jack shook his head.

'Came all the way to Egypt, and didn't even get to see the pyramids.'

Sarah nodded and smiled at him.

'Had some great coffee, though.'

From the pilot's seat, Cynthia addressed Thornton.

'Are they always like this, boss?'

The dark-haired woman looked over at the partners for a moment, and then nodded and replied dryly.

'Yes. You get used to it. Eventually.'

AN: Yes, the mission in Mumbai is heavily inspired by Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The mission in Sao Paulo is why Sarah isn't able to go on mission with Jack and Mac in Not Just a Beau Hammond, did that hit the spot? (Nikki is very, very evil in this, but I don't think anyone will be too upset…)

helloyesimhere, your request for a time when Mac was treated like an asset, not as an agent, is up next – it ended up being more about that general mind-set and is really rather dark. The guest who asked for Mac-falling-for-Nikki's-friend-and-talking-to-Jack-about-it, I am 13,000 words deep (the plot is finished, but it needs editing badly) into a college!AU fic that can only be described as Mac's life as a teen drama, complete with teenage oblivious!Mac with major self-esteem issues.