Disclaimer: Burn Notice and its characters belong to Matt Nix and USA Network.


I woke, stiff. The leather backseat of Sam's sedan was sticking to my cheek. Through one of the open doors, I could hear Michael and Sam arguing about something. Slowly, I unstuck my cheek and slid to the door of the car, ready to step out if I needed to.

"Michael, come on. The meds you gave Fi won't last forever. We have to get something usable for Max before she wakes up and wants to start beating on them."

"We've been trying all day Sam. Our tactics aren't working."

"Yeah, well, maybe we should change them again. Anything's better than letting Fi be alone in that container with them."

"I can hear you." I called out, and stepped out of the car.

"Sleeping beauty awakens." Sam attempted a joke.

I swatted his arm, hard, as I walked up to Michael. He met my eyes camly, but stubbornly. Like Sam, he didn't think that my going in there alone was a good idea. I didn't see what their problem was. All I needed to do was to go in there, put some pressure on sensitive joints and there would be an answer.

"Fi, if you think you can get them to talk without hurting them…" Michael started.

"Pain is very motivating."

"To get the fastest answer to get the pain to stop."

"Well, Michael, why don't you come in too? You obviously have some idea of what we need. Or I can just scare them a bit so they'd be more willing to speak with you and Sam. I can do it without touching them, if you're so against violence today."

Michael's face tightened for a minute, and then he nodded slowly. "Fine. Just don't cut them, kill them, or make them unconscious. Or unable to talk."

I flashed him a smile and sashayed up to the container. Unhooking the metal beam from the outside, I slipped through and pulled it shut behind me. The thugs flinched when I flicked on the floodlight. Without waiting for them to recover from the sudden blast to their retenas, I strode up to the leader and grabbed his crotch. He howled satisfyingly.

"Bitch!" He snarled.

"Oh, are we doing the name-calling thing? Best not play with me, I know like five languages." I let go and took a step back towards the light, flipping my hair over my shoulder.

"You killed Gerald."

"Gerald. Now that is another lovely British name. What makes you think that I killed him?"

"He was a gun runner."

The other two were busy trying to seem inconspicuous so I wouldn't start grabbing them. I smiled.

"A gun runner? Well, I usually don't kill them. I didn't realize there was another gun runner operating out of Miami."

"Fort Lauderdale." He corrected.

"I hardly go up there. Especially not to kill gun runners who really aren't taking my clients. Sorry, but you must have the wrong person."

"He was strangled."

"Oh, you definitely have the wrong person. I don't strangle. Shot, maybe. Or blow up. But not strangle. That's too much effort." I grabbed the arms of the chair and leaned over him. "Now that that's taken care of, we have a little more business to take care of."

He blanched. Interesting.

"You impersonated a client. And attacked me. Now, the client thing I could maybe forgive you for. But you cut me. I had to have stitches. Now my boyfriend is being an overprotective idiot. He doesn't know I'm here, of course. Otherwise he'd have something to say about it.

"Now, those two idiots out there don't know I'm here." I let out a huge sigh. "They want to talk to you. To get some sort of information. I don't care if they get their information. You won't tell if I do a little bodily harm, will you?" I gave them a toothy grin. "I think I'll start with you."

I stepped around the leaders chair and grabbed his hair.

"Where should I start? The tongue? Or maybe an ear?" I trailed my fingers down his chest. "Or maybe something a bit lower?"

"We'll talk!" He barked.

"And will you tell the truth? One of them is a human lie dector."

He nodded desperately. I let go of his hair, shoving his head forward. On my way out of the container, I flicked off the light, casting them back into darkness.

"Done already?" Sam asked incredulous as I came out.

"They're going to talk. Without lies. If they try to, just call me back in."

Michael was sitting in the lawn chair. Before he could get up, I placed myself into his lap. He looped an arm around my waist and looked over the top of my head at Sam. A minute later, I heard the container door swing shut. With a smile, I tucked myself closer in against Michael.

"What did you do, Fi?"

"Oh nothing much. The big one has a bruised knee from earlier. And he might have trouble using the little boy's room for a week or so. I pulled his hair."

"And?"

"That's it Michael. I may have threatened to certain body parts off."

"Fiona."

"I don't have a knife! So if I did threaten to cut things off, I wouldn't have been able to follow up on it!" I pulled back to look at Michael. "Max isn't going to let you let me kill them, is he?"

"No." Michael looked at his watch. "If Sam doesn't get good answers out of them in twenty minutes, Max will take them."

"Won't he take them anyway?"

"Yes. But he's not coming for thirty minutes."

"so I'll get to beat on them?"

Michael's mouth twitched. "Yes."

With a smile, I leaned back against Michael and settled for watching the container door. He ran his slowly up and down my arm. Just as the container door was opening, a black sedan pulled up alongside Michael's charger. Michael cast a glance at his watch and let go of me. I stood and turned to face the car. Max stepped out.

"Max, you're early." Michael pressed a hand against the small of my back in a silent warning.

"Well, Michael, I was so certain that you'd be successful at getting the information that I thought I'd come by early. You don't have it yet?"

"Yeah, we do." Sam came to stand with us, looking Max up and down.

"Great. The tape please."

Sam and Michael traded looks and Sam pulled a small tape recorder out of his pocket. Pausing a moment to look back at the container, he handed the recorder to Max, who smiled as he took it. Before I could protest, Michael ushered me into the Charger and got behind the wheel. He switched on the car and followed Sam back to the street.

Just as he pulled his car onto the pavement, a fireball filled the rearview mirror. I twisted around in my seat to stare at what had been a storage container just moments before.