AN: Sorry for the delay at posting this chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you so much for reading, commenting and adding this to your favourites and alerts. It really gives me motivation and strength to keep writing and especially publish :)

After they step inside Sara's room, Ava slowly sits down on her bed. Her eyes stay fixed on the files in her hands. Something tugs on Sara's heart at seeing the look of worry and fear on her girlfriend's eyes and she moves to sit down next to her. She takes her hand in hers and squeezes softly. Ava looks at their joined hands and then up to Sara's bright eyes, filled with understanding and concern for her.

She sighs, "I thought I made the right choice by bringing the files with me, but now I'm scared to look at them."

Sara holds Ava's face with her right palm, her thumb caressing her cheek gently, "Aves…"

Ava gives a small smile at the nickname and Sara continues, "Whatever those files say about your past, what matters is who you are now. The fierce and brave Director of the Time Bureau, the beautiful and kind woman I'm in love with, the woman who makes me think twice before I do something reckless. You're like my moral compass, I would be kind of lost without you."

Ava chuckles lightly at that and Sara takes it as a good sign to continue, "There's absolutely nothing in those papers that will make me change my mind about who you truly are Ava. I love you and that's definitely not going to change."

The Director sniffles softly and a single tear threatens to roll down her cheek before Sara wipes it away carefully. She plants a kiss on each side of Ava's face, before moving back to look her in the eyes, "You have no obligation to look at these files right away. You can decide to look at them in a week or even months, or never to look at them at all. It's your choice."

Ava seems to ponder on those possibilities for a while, but ends up deciding, "No. I've come this far; I wanted to know more and now that I finally have the opportunity to do so, I'm not going to post-pone it anymore. It's better to rip the bandage right away."

Sara nods, "Okay. Where do you want to start then?"

Ava shrugs, "I don't know… For the first file I guess. Clone number one?"

"Go ahead, I'm right here," the Legend tries to reassure her. She moves closer to Ava's side, so they can both read the file together. She lets her left hand rest on the small of Ava's back, to offer her support. The taller woman leans into the touch, her rigid posture relaxing a bit.

She exhales deeply before opening the first file, "Okay… Here goes nothing."

"Clone #1

Name: Ava Sharpe

Date of Fabrication: November 26th, 2209

Function: Agent of the Time Bureau Organization

Purpose: Operate as one of the top Agents at the Time Bureau

Characteristics/Skills:

Remarkable Offense and Defence Abilities in Combat

Strong and Athletic Body Structure

Remarkable Rational and Logical Thinking

Lack of Emotional and Sentimental Judgement

Unfaltering Devotion to its Function and Purpose

Personal Background:

State of Origin: California

City: Fresno

Father: Randy Sharpe (played by actor James Andrews)

Mother: Pamela (Pam) Sharpe (played by actress Alice Jones)

College: University of California

Instructions: The Clone is to be brought to Earth in the year 2014, and to immediately be set as an Agent at the Time Bureau Organization.

The actors playing its parents are to be hired straight away.

Its factory settings concerning its memory are to be erased and replaced with new fabricated memories of childhood, teenagehood and adulthood years as a normal human being.

ATTENTION: THE CLONE CAN NEVER FIND OUT THAT IT IS NOT A HUMAN BEING. ANY PERSONNEL WHO REVEALS THIS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION WILL IMMEDIATELY SUFFER PUNISHMENT.

LAST KNOWN STATE OF THE CLONE: TERMINATED.

CAUSE OF TERMINATION: EXECUTED WHILE IN MISSION."

The sheet of paper in Ava's hand starts to wrinkle under the strength of her fingers. Sara notices her girlfriend's hands tremble and takes one hand to her lap, reaching for the file with her other hand and placing it down on the bed beside her.

"Ava…" She says carefully, with the gentlest voice she can muster at the moment, "Look at me, please," she asks, now holding both Ava's hands on hers.

Ava looks at her, her vision blurry with tears, "I'm sorry," she whispers, wiping her tears away quickly.

Sara grabs her hands and holds them in place, "Hey… Don't ever, ever, feel like you need to apologize for crying in front of me. Besides, this is a lot to take in, you have every right of being upset."

Ava lets a small sob escape her lips, "I just… I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I wasn't expecting those files to have such blunt information. I wasn't expecting it to affect me so much you know? I thought… I thought I had already made peace with it. But it turns out I didn't, this is all too much. It feels like I'm finding out the truth all over again."

Sara smiles sadly at her, "That's the problem Aves, you always feel like you have to be this super strong, unbothered and in control woman at all times, but it's okay to feel vulnerable sometimes too. It's okay to need time to make amends with something as huge as this. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love your fierceness and all of that about you, but I also love your sensitive side, your human side. That's what makes me fall more in love with you every day."

Her hands move to cup Ava's face and she presses her lips against her forehead, leaving a gentle kiss there. She lingers for a while, leaving feather light kisses all over Ava's face. Between her eyebrows, trying to ease the crease that formed there; on the bridge of her nose, bumping their noses together affectionally afterwards; on each side of her face, catching the tears that dared to fall from the beautiful green eyes she loves so much; and finally landing on her lips, first cautiously, trying not to press too much, afraid of not being the right moment for it. But when Ava deepens the kiss, she follows suit and lets herself melt into her girlfriend's body.

Ava's movements turn rougher, her hands carding through Sara's hair quickly while her tongue comes out to part her girlfriend's lips, a surprised moan escaping through Sara's mouth.

The taller woman presses Sara down on the bed, discarding the rest of the files to the floor, moving to straddle her girlfriend's lap. Sara looks up at her with big bright eyes, her mouth partially open and her cheeks and neck flushed red.

Ava swallows at the sight in front of her, having Sara completely at her mercy does things to her core she never imagined ever being possible.

Sara looks at her with a worried face, "Ava…" she says, resting her hands on her hips, her thumbs tracing her skin there gently, "Talk to me baby, what do you need right now?"

"I…" Ava is at a loss of words. She feels lost. Her mind is racing, all she can think of is that all her life until now has been filled with lies; lies told by someone she thought was a friend of hers, a person in whom she could trust, someone she looked up to. How could Rip have the courage to lie to her face about something so important?!

Her expression turns into one of rage, before a deep sadness settles inside her and it doesn't go unnoticed by Sara. Her girlfriend can always tell when she's struggling to fight the sadness that starts to take over inside of her.

"Aves," Sara tries again, calling her softly, and moves to sit up, "Tell me, what can I do to make you feel better?"

That sentence wakes something inside of Ava, and before she even has time to realize what she's doing, she's throwing herself into the inviting arms of her girlfriend.

Sara gets thrown down into the bed with the force of impact, but she doesn't care. All that matters is that Ava needs her. She immediately wraps her arms around Ava's waist, holding tightly enough so that she can feel safe. Her girlfriend buries her face on the crook of her neck and she feels hot tears on her shoulder. She runs her hand gently up and down Ava's back, whispering soothing words that she hopes will help her feel better. Her other hand cards through Ava's long blonde hair and she presses a number of kisses on her head.

They stay like that for a while, with Ava crying and holding on to Sara's arms. Sara does the best she can to support her, even though it hurts her that she can't make all the pain in Ava's heart go away quickly.

It's only a couple of hours after that Ava finally seems to have calmed down, her breathing more even than before. She's not crying anymore, the only remnants of that being her swollen face and red eyes. She looks up to looks at Sara and the woman smiles softly at her.

"Hey there, do you feel better?" Sara asks with a gentle voice, kissing her forehead and Ava closes her eyes at the gesture, sighing contently.

Ava presses a kiss to Sara's neck, feeling her shiver against her lips, "I do," she plants another kiss, this time on top of her shoulder, "You always know how to make me feel better. Thank you," she whispers into freckled skin.

"How pathetic was that I ended up feeling like a wreck only by having read the first file? I still have eleven more to go," she chuckles bitterly.

Sara tenses at hearing Ava talk badly about herself, "Aves… Don't say that about yourself please. It's not pathetic at all, you're not pathetic," she tries to assure her.

Ava can hear the worry in Sara's voice and removes herself from Sara's side and holds herself up on her elbow, her head resting on her hand, "I'm having a hard time believing in that lately," she admits in almost a whisper, adverting her eyes from the woman in front of her.

Sara grabs her chin and tilts her head up again so she can look at her, "I know, and I won't stop saying it until you finally believe me. You, Ava Sharpe, are extraordinary."

Ava's lips curve into a small smile and Sara can't resist to kiss her, "You know what else you are?" she asks when they part for breathing, "An excellent kisser," a smirk graces Sara's lips.

Ava can't help but chuckle at that and Sara chest warms up at seeing her a bit happier. It's not a full laugh where wrinkles form on the corners of Ava's eyes and where her eyes shine with a light shade of green, but it's still something.

"Well you're not so bad yourself," Ava answers back.

Sara scoffs, feigning being offended, "Not so bad?! Maybe I need to stop kissing you then Miss Sharpe."

"No, no!" Ava whines with an adorable pout, "I was just kidding baby, you know that," she says, poking Sara on the side making her squirm. A mischievous look falls on her face and Sara tries to get away from her, but Ava's grip on her is strong.

"Ava, I know that look. Don't you dare tickle me!"

"Too late," she says, before attacking Sara on her sides. She laughs watching Sara squirm and yelp, pleading with her to stop between laughs.

"You're adorable," Ava admits, looking at the flustered woman beneath her. It's these intimate and playful moments between them both that give Ava the strength to keep going, to have hope.

"Just kiss me already!" Sara demands, and Ava can't help but smile into the kiss. They part after a few seconds despite Sara's whine, she tries to kiss the Agent again but Ava moves away.

"Sara, as much as I love kissing you, I need to know what the rest of the files say," she admits and Sara can hear the almost imperceptible fear on her voice.

She nods knowingly and sits up, "Okay, let's do it."

Ava mouths her a thank you and gets up to pick up the files from where they were discarded on the floor.

She opens the file that says Clone #2 and starts reading it in silence. She realizes that the information is basically the same as the previous one. She tosses it aside and opens the next files. She reads through from number three to number seven, and is reaching for file number eight when Sara's hand stops her. She turns her attention to the Captain.

"What is it babe?" she asks with concern.

"Aves, I feel like there's no point in putting yourself through more of these files. They all practically say the same, with the only exception being the way they… Died."

Ava sighs and runs a hand through her blonde hair, "Yeah… I guess you're right," she admits, rubbing her temples with her left hand, "Besides, all of this information is starting to give me a headache."

"Aww baby," Sara says in a sweet voice, reaching over to leave a kiss on Ava's forehead, "Maybe we should take a break."

"Or, we could simply skip the rest of the files and go straight to mine. My curiosity has been killing me."

The freckled woman shrugs her shoulders, "Your call Aves."

Ava nods and grabs the file that says Clone #12, placing the others beside her on the bed.

She exhales deeply, preparing herself for what it might say. Sara senses her tensing up and moves even closer, snaking an arm around her waist to hold her, tracing small patterns with her thumb to the fabric covered skin there.

Her girlfriend skips over the personal information which is the same as the other Clones, and goes straight to a different sheet of paper coloured blue, that wasn't in any of the previous files. She frowns and turns to Sara, seeing that she's frowning as well.

"This one here is different… Do you think...? Do you think it's something bad?"

Her girlfriend sighs and purses her lips, "I don't know babe, there's only one way to find out."

Despite Sara's slight encouragement, she can tell Ava's hesitant.

"Do you want me to read it?" she offers, smiling kindly.

"Maybe? I don't know… I mean…" Sara notices her start to panic again and holds the woman's face in her hands, "Ava, it's okay, you don't need to go through all of this today. We can check it out later."

Ava grabs her hands in hers and drops them to her lap, "I know that…" she sighs, thinking her next words carefully, "But I think it will be easier if I look at it now. We both have such a crazy life Sara, you with the Legends and myself with the Bureau. I'm not sure when's the next time we'll have some alone time for ourselves and I can't do this without you. I need you by my side, just like this," she says, kissing Sara lightly to further prove her point.

The freckled woman hums into the kiss, nodding when they part, "Okay. Take all the time you want then; we have all night, I'm not going anywhere."

Ava nods, smiling slightly at her and turns her attention back to the piece of paper on her hands.

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION REGARDING THIS SPECIFIC MODEL:

It has been brought to our attention that the Clone started demonstrating human emotions and feelings that were NOT programmed into its system.

EMOTIONS DEMONSTRATED:

Doubt;

Excitement;

Guilt;

Courage;

Fear;

Anxiety;

Sadness;

Love.

Therefore, protocol NAVA is to be initialized.

ORDER OF PROCEDURE:

The Clone is to be captured and consequently TERMINATED."

Ava's breath catches in her throat after reading those last words. Her head starts spinning and she feels dizzy. It's becoming harder to breathe. Her hands go to rest on her thighs and she digs her nails forcefully in her jeans.

Sara snatches the sheet of paper from her hands quickly, crumpling the paper in her hands, "No... This can't be right!" she says raising her voice, "There has got to be an explanation to this!" she finally turns to Ava, who's now hunched over and shaking.

"Aves, baby, it's okay." She says soothingly, letting the paper fall to floor and opens her arms for Ava to lean into her. Ava immediately buries her face on her girlfriend's inviting chest, letting her tears fall free. Sara surrounds her with her arms, holding her tightly. She moves her left hand up and down Ava's back gently, while her right hand threads softly through honey blonde locks. She leaves small kisses on her forehead, whispering reassuring words to her, "It will all be okay Aves, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

When she feels Ava calm down a bit more, she places her hands on her face and wipes her girlfriend's tears away. Looking at her sad and hopeless eyes feels like a knife in the heart, but she puts on a brave face for her, "I promise you we will get to the bottom of this Ava. I will do everything I can to solve it," she assures her with a determined expression and fire in her eyes.

Ava nods and rasps a small okay.

AN: Well that's it. Hope you liked it! Anything just leave me a comment or a private message. You can also find me on Twitter, AlexaCondesso .