A/N: Please review and let me know how you're feeling about this! See the first chapter for the disclaimer. Hope you enjoy this one, and please review!

Chapter 1: The Name

"Phoenix."

"Yes."

"That's really what we're calling ourselves now? Phoenix?"

"That's a problem? You should've come to our renaming session."

"That was a renaming session?"

Mac and Riley walked into the war room, finding Kayla and Jack bickering.

"Turned out to be," Jack said.

Kayla sighed and rolled her eyes. "Phoenix," she muttered.

"Named after the…" Mac started.

"Ancient mythological bird that rose from the ashes stronger than it ever was," she finished. "Yeah, I got that, smarty pants. You're not the only one who knows stuff. Like the fact that we needed to change the name because your very much alive ex-girlfriend exposed DXS."

Mac groaned, but said nothing.

Kayla continued, "Besides, I get the whole symbolism thing, but we couldn't be something more like Cerberus?"

"Aside from being something no one can spell or pronounce, what the hell is that?" Jack asked.

"It's from Greek mythology," Mac explained. "It's the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hell."

"Ohhh, I like that better."

"Oversight has already approved of Phoenix," Thornton said as she walked in. "The name stays."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "It's not like we have business cards or anything, Director," she remarked.

Jack and Mac looked at each other, but said nothing.

Thorton ignored her, instead choosing to brief them on their mission in Russia.

"You really don't like her," Jack commented as the group walked out of the war room to grab their bags and head out on their mission.

"There are a lot of things I don't like, Jack," Kayla replied.

"What'd she do to you?"

Kayla just looked at him.

Jack furrowed his brow. "What?" he asked.

"I think she means sticking her with you," Riley replied.

Kayla glanced at Riley with a slight smirk.

"Uhhh… I think we're a little lost out here," Jack said, looking around the village. "Are we even still in Russia?"

"I… don't think so," Mac said as they walked further, looking around at the small houses.

"So, where are we?" Riley said. "Because I can't get a good signal right here."

"Well, if I had to guess?"

"Bosnia," Kayla answered.

Mac furrowed his brow. "I'm not sure I want to know how you knew what I was going to say," he commented.

Kayla looked at him, arching her eyebrows. "I didn't. I recognized where we are."

"So, you know exactly where we are?" Jack said.

"No, I have no freaking clue," she replied.

"But you just said…"

She groaned with annoyance. "I recognized the language, not the location."

"Well, then how are we supposed to…?"

Kayla ignored the question, walking away to speak with one of the villagers.

"Is she.." Jack started.

"That's… what it looks like," Mac replied.

"She speaks Bosnian?"

"Apparently."

"Okay, I get the Spanish, and the Italian, Russian… hell, even the Arabic and Korean that are listed in her profile. But Bosnian?"

Mac arched his eyebrows, shaking his head.

Kayla called back to the group, "this way," waving them over to the villagers she was speaking with.

"Be glad she's on our side," Riley said, shrugging.

As they sat around the fire at Mac's house after another successful mission that had, of course, gone sideways but they survived, Kayla made her way over to join them. "Well, well, well," Jack said. "Look who finally decided to join us for once."

"Well, you said there was beer," she replied as she walked towards the group.

"Right here," Mac said, handing her one as she sat down.

"Thanks." She opened the bottle, taking a long swig.

"I gotta know," Jack said. "How the hell do you know Bosnian?"

Kayla shrugged. "While I do know Bosnian, for the record, that was actually a Serbian dialect," she told him.

"Well, either way, how the hell you know it?"

"I learned it."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"No, really, come on. We're family here."

Kayla rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Since you're dying to know the story, there was this super hot Serbian guy…"

Jack arched his eyebrows with a delighted smirk. "Really?"

She scoffed. "Abso-fucking-lutely not."

Mac choked slightly on his beer as Riley laughed.

"I don't sleep, Dalton," she said, half-bitterly. "I need something to do at night."

"So, you learn to speak Serbian," Riley said.

Kayla shrugged. "Gave me something to do."

"Most normal people have hobbies, or go to doctors when they can't sleep," Jack said.

"I have hobbies," Kayla replied.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Learning languages."

"That's not a hobby."

"Believe what you want, Dalton, but it sure as hell just saved your ass out there."

"She's got a point," Riley said.

Mac stood up to get something in the kitchen as Jack and Riley continued to banter back and forth. Kayla followed him, causing him to turn to him. "You need something?" he asked.

"An answer," she replied.

"Okay."

"You feel responsible for letting Nikki get away."

Mac furrowed his brow.

"Statement, not question," Kayla said matter-of-factly.

"What's the question?" he remarked.

"Why?"

Mac tilted his head in confusion. "Why?"

Kayla looked at him. "What she did or didn't do… that's not on you. That's all on her."

He shook his head, trying to wrap his brain around what was even happening between them at the moment, let alone the questioning. "What are you…?"

"You aren't responsible for Nikki," she interrupted.

"Uh, where is this coming from?" he asked.

"I know Nikki."

He scoffed. "You know Nikki? When did you even meet her?"

"At a company barbecue," Kayla snapped sarcastically. "The point is, isn't there even a part of yourself that's wondering how and why she came to end up where she is? Or are you just so hell-bent on catching her that that thought hasn't even crossed your mind?"

Mac furrowed his brow as he tilted his head, thinking about what she said.

Kayla put down her bottle. "Thanks for the beer," she told him, walking away and leaving through the front door, while Mac stared at her in complete confusion and disbelief.