Notes : thanks to the-vampire-act for the quick and awesome beta work. And thank you to all of you for reading and reviewing.

Chapter 11

"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you"Friedrich Nietzsche quotes

"And so we went in and you were right, Chuck; the deal happened exactly where you predicted it would. It was pretty uneventful, at least at first."

Don and Liz were having lunch at Charlie's place, and Charlie and Amita were eager to know how the case they both worked on ended.

"What do you mean, 'at first'?" Amita asked curiously.

"Well, do you remember Colby's friend from the hospital, Scott?" Charlie and Amita both nodded. "He showed up, started yelling around, said his team was tracking down this gang for eleven months and apparently we ruined their chances to get th?se guys on a suspicion of counterfeit money…"

Don was still explaining something about Scott, but then he realized that both his brother and Amita had funny looks on their faces so he asked.

"What?"

"Umm Don…?" Charlie started cautiously. "Didn't Scott tell us that he works for the CIA?"

"Yes…"Don answered and it suddenly downed on him why he had the feeling that something wasn't right in that story. He looked at Liz and judging by her expression, the realization had downed on her too. "CIA has no business tracking down counterfeit money; it's not in their jurisdiction…"

"But Scott and his partner…Agent Angell ,I believe was her name, said this is why they were on to these guys…" Liz asked, apparently as lost as Don. "I can't believe we didn't realize it sooner."

"Violet Angell, she works with Scott?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, how do you know her?"

"I saw her in the hospital once-when I came visiting Colby…"

"So she knows Granger too…" Don said, lost in thoughts. "This whole thing doesn't make sense. Why would he lie about the counterfeit money…"

"Don, wait." Liz interrupted him. "What proof do we have that Scott works for the CIA?"

"What?" Don, Amita and Charlie asked together.

"I'm serious. Aside from him telling you this, do you have any other proof? Did you see a badge or any other confirmation…"

"Nom, but Colby's sister told David he works there, and besides, he's Colby's friend. If anything, we owe Colby to trust his judgment and the way he chooses his friends." Charlie really didn't like where this was going.

"I'm sorry Charlie, but she is right." Don agreed with Liz. "We should have known better than to trust this guy on his word only. Granger's friend or not, we should check this thing out." With that, he pulled out his phone and dialed the office.

"Megan, hi. Listen, I need to ask you something." Don began, feeling really uncomfortable about what he was about to ask. "Run a full background check on Scott Silvestri, please."

Apparently Megan had something to say because Don was silent for a few moments before continuing. "Yes, exactly. And whatever you can find on him would be helpful. Right...Ok, we'll be in the office soon."

Don hung up and turned to Liz. "Megan had the same thoughts as us; she'll meet us there."

"Should I call David?" Liz asked.

"No." Don said firmly. "I'm not sure how he'll take it, so let's just have some more information before we start pointing fingers."

Saying a quick goodbye to Charlie and Amita, Don and Liz left the house.

"Why; I don't like where this is going…"Amita asked sitting on the couch.

"Neither do I." Charlie agreed. "Neither do I…"

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"What did you find out?" Don asked as soon as he and Liz arrived at the office. Megan jumped from her seat and approached them fast, holding a file in her hands.

"You are not going to like it…" she started.

"What? He is not working for the CIA?"

"Well I don't know…"

"Meaning?" Liz was as surprised as Don. "Is his file classified?"

"Actually, there's no file at all."

"Maybe you can't find it because it's flagged?"

"No, there's no record for a Scott Silvestri to have ever worked for the CIA-" Megan began, but before Don could interrupt her, she continued. "But as far as mysteries go, there's no record of a Scott Silvestri ever existing."

"WHAT?"

"There's no social security number, driver's license or even a birth certificate. I ran his photo from the security cameras in the hospital through a facial recognition software and – nothing! Like he doesn't even exist!" Megan finished.

"Did you find anything on his partner? Violet Angell?" That didn't make sense.

"No, nothing." Megan shook her head no. "The same as Scott. She doesn't exist either. I don't know what to make of it, but the facts are – as far as the system goes, both of Granger's friends are ghosts."

There was a silence in the room for a few moments. Finally Liz spoke.

"So what do you think is going on here?"

"My guess is we involuntarily became a part of something that is not really our business." Megan suggested. "Maybe there's something high-profile going on. Something we shouldn't be working on."

"That's a possibility." Liz agreed. "But there's another one."

"Such as?"

"Oh come on! I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, but what if there's nothing going on? At least nothing legal."

"What do you mean?" Megan asked. Unfortunately she knew well enough what Liz meant.

"I mean, what if Scott, or what his real name is, is a part of something, but a part of something bad? Maybe he was a part of that gang we've just basted…"

"Wait, wait." Don interrupted her. "Before we go there, we should know that we have Colby's word as the only proof that this people are indeed working for the government. And if we start suspecting them it means we start suspecting Colby as well…"

Liz and Megan looked at each other and then at their boss.

"What should we do now?"

"I don't know… "Don admitted quietly.

Apparently things had gone wrong again. On one side, as an FBI team leader, Don knew he should investigate the story. But on the other , that meant showing Colby Granger that once again they didn't trust him. Somehow that was even worse.

"I need some time to think about our next move." Don said finally. "Take the afternoon, guys and…don't tell David anything yet. I really want us to be sure."

"OK." Megan and Liz nodded their agreement. They both understood why telling David about Scott was a bad idea.

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Oblivious to the problems that the rest of his teammates were facing, David went out to have dinner with Chris Granger. He told himself that the sole purpose of this evening was to get some insight on Granger's whereabouts but halfway through the dinner he realized he didn't mention Colby's name even once. He was actually quite enjoying the evening for what it was – a dinner with a beautiful and charming woman. The only reason he still refused to admit it was a date was the fact that Chris was Colby's baby sister. Somehow David knew that Colby wouldn't be too happy with him dating his sister.

"…and then I went skiing completely naked." He heard the end of what Chris was just saying. That didn't make sense…

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Oh, so you were listening." Chris laughed. "I kind of got the feeling that I've lost you half way."

"No, sorry about that, I was just thinking…about your brother." He admitted quietly.

"Oh, that's nice. Here you are with me, I'm trying to be all charming ,and you still think about my brother."

"No no…that's not..." David started explaining, but Chris just laughed.

"I'm kidding David, relax. You don't have to take anything so seriously. After all, I know why we are here." She leaned closer to him and whispered. "You want me to spill some secrets about my brother, right?" she asked, but she didn't give him a chance to answer. "So go on and ask – now that I'm no longer hungry – I'm an open book; I'll tell you anything you want to know."

If only David knew what his team was currently working on he would have taken Christina's invitation and asked her to explain the mystery behind the non-existence of Scott Silvestri and Violet Angell. Or at least he would have taken his time and ask her about how Scott and Colby have met.

But since Don decided to leave David out of it, David just asked Chris to tell him about what Colby was up to these past few months. However, her answer was not was he anticipated.

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"You know, I hate doing this to my sister."

Colby Granger was sitting next to Scott in a car, looking at Chris and David having dinner on the terrace of the restaurant.

"It was her choice, brother." Scott tried reassuring him. "She loves you, and she loves the job; she knows what she has to do."

"Yes, but it feels like I'm using her, and…"

"Is Chris the only one you are worried for?" Scott asked quietly.

Colby made a pause before answering. "No…I'm worried for David too. And for all of them… I hate doing this, Scott, I really do. After everything I put them through, they deserve better than that."

"I know." Scott squeezed his shoulder gently. "But we have no choice, Granger. Your team has come close enough to actually ruining our work; we had to do something to stop them."

"And making my baby sister seduce my bes…my friend-" he corrected himself,"-is the best way to do it?"

"She is not seducing him; they are just having dinner."

"Yeah… I hate this thing." Colby said again before putting the car in motion and driving away.

"You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough" Frank Crane