A/N - thank you for the kind reviews! I'm glad that other people like the concept of this series. Keep those ideas coming. :) xoxo - tmtcltb

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Character: Sasha Cooper

Setting: St. Louis - six weeks after Season 3

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Sasha Cooper picked up the thick sheaf of papers from her desk, skimming through the official list of survivors as she drank her morning cup of coffee. She glanced up when the door opened to admit Kara Green. Due to the destruction of the White House, room was limited and the two women had been assigned a combined office space during the renovations. Despite Sasha's initial reservations, the arrangement worked well, as their work style was similar and many of their projects overlapped. She smiled. "Good morning."

"Morning." Kara did not smile back as she trudged to the coffee maker.

Kara looked tired. Very tired. All-nighter kind of tired. Sasha took another sip of her coffee. "You look wiped. Did something come in last night after I left?"

In the middle of pouring a cup of coffee, Kara jumped, her face twisting uncomfortably and Sasha found her thoughts going immediately to Tom. Had something happened? Something, perhaps, that the tight-knit - and tight lipped - crew of the Nathan James had not seen fit to tell Sasha? Because no matter how friendly Sasha might have become with Kara and Danny and Mike and Alisha, she had no illusions about where she stood in the pecking order and, while that stung a bit, she had to respect their loyalty to their former Captain.

"No, nothing for work." Kara stopped, fiddling with her cup, and Sasha waited patiently. "You know how Val's from Napa?"

Sasha blinked. "Actually I didn't know that."

"Well she is." Kara drank half of her cup and refilled it before continuing. "Anyway, her parents' memorial service was last week so Val and Alisha drove out for it. While they were there, they liberated several nice bottles from the wine cellar. They dropped by last night with a couple and, since we don't keep alcohol in the house, it was either drink it or dump it."

Sasha chuckled. Was this Kara's roundabout way of saying that she was hungover? "And who dumps good wine, right?"

"Especially when every bottle cost at least a hundred a pop." Kara gave her a genuine smile for the first time that morning and Sasha wondered why alcohol was such a tense subject for the other woman. Sasha could remember seeing Danny drinking a beer here and there, no indication that he struggled with alcohol dependence. Did Kara have a problem? Sasha made a mental note to ask Mike about it later, in order to avoid any kind of faux pas. "Val might claim that her parents were tyrants but they did have good taste. Unfortunately, Frankie woke up at four thirty so I only got about two hours of sleep."

Sasha picked up her coffee, returning to skimming the pages before her. "Why didn't Green get up with him? Isn't he off this week?"

Kara snorted, moving towards her own desk. "Danny can sleep through anything. It's beyond annoying. One time in college there was a fire drill and ..."

But Sasha was no longer listening to Kara, her entire attention on the page before her. Paige Cooper. Sasha began frantically flipping through the stack, looking for any other name that she recognized. Any other Cooper.

They had to be here.

"Sasha! Are you okay?" Suddenly Kara was in front of her and Sasha realized that she had no idea what they had been talking about. She looked up, her mind a fog, unable to formulate any kind of coherent response. Fortunately, Kara seemed to have grasped the basics. "That's the survivor list. Who did you find?"

"There's a Paige Cooper listed. That was my sister-in-law, well, that was her name. Cooper's not an unusual name so..." Sasha trailed off.

Kara picked up the paper, locating the name with her finger. She began dialing her cell phone as she spoke. "Your husband's sister or sister-in-law?"

"Sister-in-law," Sasha replied mechanically. If only Paige was listed, did that mean Robert was dead? What about Jayden and Emmie? "Her husband was Robert. My husband's brother. They had two children. Nobody else is listed here."

But Kara was already speaking to the person on the other end of the line, not paying attention to Sasha. "Yeah, it's me. I need you to run a name. So I'll owe you one. Sure, Danny would love to...Yeah, well, that's the thing about being married. Fine. Fine. Anyway, woman is Paige Cooper. That's her married name. Husband was Robert. From the DC area," Kara looked to Sasha for confirmation, and she managed to nod. "She's listed as being here in St. Louis now. Okay, let me know as soon as you get an address."

Sasha took a deep breath, trying to ground herself. "Who was that?"

"Jacob Barnes."

For the third - or maybe fourth - time that morning, Sasha found herself surprised by the other woman. "The reporter? The one who broke the Michener story? The one who is always hanging around asking you on dates as a completely transparent means of getting insider information?"

"Yeah, that's the one. He has some uses," Kara replied, something that Sasha could recall saying a dozen times over the years. Apparently Mrs. Green had more layers than Sasha realized. Unlocking a drawer and pulling out her pistol, Kara looked at Sasha. "What are you waiting for?"

"Don't we need to..." Before Sasha could finish, Kara's phone beeped.

"I have the address right here," Kara replied, holding up the device. "And we both know that you aren't going to get any work done until you check. So, let's go."

Thirty minutes later, Sasha paused before the door of the address that Jacob Barnes had provided, hand raised to knock. Taking a deep breath, she brought her hand down, knowing that this was the moment. She glanced at Kara, who nodded, providing what support she could, both women aware that no amount of positivity would change what was about to happen. Kara had offered to wait in the car but Sasha found that she didn't want to be alone. She might have single-handedly undermined Peng at ever turn but this, finding out whether any of Nicholas's family - of her family - had survived, this was an entirely different type of mission.

The minute before the door opened was one of the longest ones of Sasha's life.

Paige Cooper, a petite brunette wearing a worn green sweater and ripped jeans, opened the door with a scowl. "If you woke up..." She stopped, mouth falling open. "Sasha?"

"Paige!" Tears dripped down Sasha's face as she hugged Paige tightly, the joy and relief overwhelming.

Paige was the first to pull back, her own face covered in tears. "Is Nicholas with you?"

And, just like that, Sasha was back in reality. Nicholas. Her husband of less than a year. The man she imagined spending the remainder of her life with, raising children with, retiring with. Gone before she even had a chance to adjust to being a wife.

"No. He's..." Sasha stopped, remembering that they were standing in the middle of a hallway.

"Please come in." Paige must have had the same realization. She glanced at Kara, then did a double take. "I recognize you, I just don't remember from where."

Sasha started to jump in. As the spouse of one of the missing sailors in Thailand, Kara's picture had been plastered all over the news for weeks, but Kara spoke first. "I've seen you at the daycare. I'm Kara, by the way, I work with Sasha."

Daycare? Did that mean? "Jayden and Emmie?"

Paige's face fell, and Sasha knew before the other woman spoke that the news would not be good. "Just Emmie. She's asleep right now. Come on in. I'll make coffee."

Kara glanced at Sasha, who gestured for her to join them. Both women followed Paige into the small room. The small apartment was a far cry from the split ranch that Paige and Robert owned in Northern Virginia, but it was cheerfully decorated with colorful afghans and toys piled on almost every surface. Toys designed for a two-year-old rather than a would-be six-year-old, Sasha noted with a pang of sadness. Paige retreated to the utility kitchen, switching on the pot and gathering cups. Finally she settled on the couch, Paige and Sasha looking at each other, neither of them apparently knowing where to start.

Sasha broke the silence. "What happened?" Paige's eyes darted to Kara and Sasha felt a ghost of a smile pass her face. "Kara has clearance. We work together."

"Robert and I were both CIA. Analysts, not field agents," Paige offered, clearly for Kara's benefit. Kara nodded, silently focusing on her coffee, letting the other two women have their reunion, as it were. Paige fiddled with her cup, eyes becoming unfocused as she began talking. "It all happened so fast. You were gone, Sasha, and Nicholas was at the hospital. He warned us to be careful but Robert and I thought that Langley was safe. Everyone was being screened and there were so many protocols. That was actually our backup plan. We thought that if things got really bad, we would all hole up there. I was working half-days from home at that point, so Robert took Jayden with him when he left that morning. I was still sleeping, didn't even give them a goodbye kiss."

Paige's voice cracked and she paused, but nobody spoke, allowing her to tell the story at her own pace. "Some bigwig bypassed the screeners, claiming that he couldn't wait. He infected the entire building. At first we thought that the daycare might be spared because it had a separate air-flow system but it wasn't. The last text I received from my husband was to tell me that our little boy was gone."

Sasha reached across the small space to place her hand on Paige's knee. Wishing that she could do more, wanting so badly to help, but knowing that nothing would take away this pain. She waited a few minutes for Paige to collect herself. "You and Emmie?"

"A few days later I was contacted by my supervisor and offered a spot at a safe zone in rural Pennsylvania. I said no. After what happened at Langley, I didn't trust any of them. But he persisted. Let me drive my own car. Provided me with enough gas to do the trip without making contact. Gave me biohazard suits. I finally gave in. That's where we were when the cure arrived. We stayed until President Michener made contact, and then we moved here to set up a new office." Paige nodded to Kara. "Hence using the same daycare."

Sasha was stunned to realize that Paige and Emmie must have been here in St. Louis for months without her knowing. No wonder so many people complained about the official survival lists. How accurate could they be if it took them months to include a woman who was drawing a government paycheck? And even then managed to exclude her surviving child?

Kara finally spoke. "You must have been with Agent Robinson. Your group has been a lifesaver, getting various networks up and running. I'm so sorry about your husband and son."

"Thank you." Again silence fell as the women sipped their coffees. Finally Paige looked up. "You were going to tell me about Nicholas?"

Nicholas. Already Sasha found it difficult to picture his face, his laugh, his scent. The memories feeling almost dream-like. Their time together had been so short, made even shorter by the demands of their jobs. It was one of the things that drew them together, his dedication to the hospital and Sasha's to the Navy. But, in retrospect, Sasha wished that she had spent more time at home while there was still the opportunity to do so. That, she supposed, that was how loss worked. You always wished that you had done things differently.

"That mission I was on when the virus started?" Sasha began, waiting for Paige to nod. "It was to China. We had intelligence that they were covering up cases of the virus but I had no idea how bad it was until I got there. The things that they were doing..."

Firing squads. Slaughter of entire villages. Burning of buildings with the occupants still inside. All in a failed effort to stop the spread.

Sasha would never stop having nightmares. Taking a deep breath, Sasha forced herself to focus on Nicholas. "By the time we realized how bad it was, there was no way for me to leave the country. I managed to speak with Nicholas a few times, but he was busy with patients. You know how he was."

"A healer to the core," Paige replied softly.

"At first I was at the Embassy," Sasha continued. "Then someone got infected. I don't know exactly how, but I ended up in the State Bunker. Phone service was down but I would check my email every so often, just in case, and then one day I got a message from Nicholas. It was from weeks, possibly months before. Someone must have switched on his phone close enough to a tower for the message to go through."

She paused, taking a deep breath. Sasha had never told anyone this before but Paige deserved to know. More importantly, Emmie deserved to know. Nicholas's last surviving blood relative. The uncle that she would never know. The idea of Nicholas's beloved niece growing up with no memories of him somehow making the fact that Nicholas was dead so much worse. "Nicholas stayed at the hospital until the end. He knew it was only a matter of time before he got sick but he kept thinking that the cure would arrive in time. He never gave up hope."

A tear rolled down Paige's cheek. "That sounds like Nicholas."

Sasha nodded, uncomfortable at Paige's tears. Not because of the emotion, not exactly, but because she herself remained dry eyed. Perhaps that was what people meant when they said that all their tears were gone.

"And you were in China the whole time?" Paige asked, and this time she was the one to reach out to Sasha, taking her hand between her own. "Alone?"

Sasha shrugged, telling the super simplified version. "I had a few local friends. They asked me to help spread the cure. I got back to St. Louis about six weeks ago."

"That must have been hard," Paige offered. "Being so far from home and from everyone you knew. Not knowing what was happening here. Wondering... still working, I suppose."

Sasha cracked a smile. "You know me. Never leaving work at work."

"You and Nicholas did have a few things in common," Paige replied, a teasing note to her voice. Sasha found herself smiling in return. Settling back into the easy relationship they had developed when Nicholas first brought Sasha home to meet the family. Sasha used to tease Nicholas that Paige and Robert were the real reason she agreed to marry him. Approachable and forthright and considerate, so very different from Sasha's own relations.

The whine of a child broke the silence and Sasha realized with a start that the sound must be coming from Emmie. Paige stood, moving towards a door at the back of the apartment. Then Paige paused, turning back to Sasha. "I'm glad that you survived, Sasha. So glad. That's what Nicholas would have wanted."

Sasha's eyes burned, the tears that had eluded her earlier returning without warning. That was Nicholas. Given the choice between saving himself and another, saving her, Nicholas would not have hesitated. He would have wanted Sasha to live. Paige reappeared after a minute, carrying a little girl with golden curls and large blue eyes that Sasha immediately recognized.

Nicholas's eyes.

A living reminder of the man she once loved so fiercely. A little piece of him that remained here on Earth. Sasha blinked away tears. "Hello sweetheart."

Paige bounced the little girl as she sat down on the couch next to Sasha. "Emmie, this is your Aunt Sasha."