Here's the second chapter!

Thank you all so much for your great reviews! I hope you like this chapter as much as the first one...

Please, let me know what you think!

xxx

Next morning they had to be at Conrad's office by 8am. Elizabeth made her way down the hall slowly, as she had arrived fairly early and still had half an hour to kill before everyone else arrived. She had just grabbed a coffee and was planning on enjoying it sitting next to a window as she waited. Suddenly a stranger bumped into her, her coffee spilling everywhere.

"Shit. Watch it!" she said annoyed, as the plastic cup fell to the floor and clattered loudly in the silent hallway.

Henry stared at the mess and cursed inwardly to pay more attention. What a way to start his first day. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. Are you okay?" he asked, concerned about her.

"I would be better if I still had my morning coffee." she muttered glaring at him, as she fanned her t-shirt, the hot coffee burning her skin as she bent down to clean the mess.

"I can buy you another cup if you want…" he offered kindly.

"I'll pass. I have to get changed before an important meeting." she said, before turning and making her way to her office, hoping she had some spare shirt to change into.

"How rude… I didn't do it on purpose…" he muttered under his breath as he watched her walk away.

At 8am they found themselves in front of Conrad's office waiting for him to come. "You again?" she asked, clearly unhappy with the situation.

He didn't have time to answer as a tall man, with gray hair, wearing an impeccable suit and a bowtie approached them and greeted them. "Henry, Elizabeth. Good morning. Please, come on in." They both looked at each other, realizing that they were probably each other's partner for this mission. She huffed in annoyance as they entered the office and both took a seat in front of the desk.

"Henry, this is Elizabeth Adams. She is one of our best analysts and she will be your partner for this mission." Conrad said to him.

"Nice to meet you, Elizabeth." He tried to be polite, extending his hand to greet her but she never reciprocated. He could already sense this mission was going to be difficult and Elizabeth wouldn't make it any easier. She's so rude. How are we even supposed to work together if she won't even greet me?

"Elizabeth, this is Henry McCord. He is the marine I talked to you about." Conrad added, turning to look at her.

"Whatever." She huffed, and gave a curt nod of the head. Her mind reeling. Great, I'll have to work with this ass. He couldn't even watch where he was walking this morning, much less help on a mission. I don't like him and I haven't even met him.

"Any questions?" Conrad asked as he looked looked at both of them.

"Is there any more information you can give us on the operation?" she asked, her mind focusing again with the task at hand.

"As I said yesterday, we're after Scott Hill." Conrad said. "We think he might be funding a terrorist group based in the Middle East and we need proof to lock him up and prevent him from sending any more money. The group will likely dissolve without his funding. I want to make clear that this is a joined-operation between the CIA and the Marines, which means we expect you to work as a team."

"No problem, sir" she voiced, but she was thinking the complete opposite. Great. Now they expect me to work with this guy as an equal. Why the hell would I want to work with some runty Marine?

"Fine by me" he said, but in reality he was not happy. A team. How I'm going to manage to work with her if we haven't even managed to introduce properly? With a bit of luck, she'll mess up and get herself out of the case.

Dalton clapped his hands together watching both of them. "Great. You'll both be working in Elizabeth's office until further notice and you'll have everything you need at your disposal." He said. "Henry, we expect you to keep providing intel on this case and to work with your connections on the ground. Elizabeth is very good at piecing things together so we're sure you will make a great team. It will be a good opportunity to go undercover. Elizabeth has done that before and exceeded our expectations. You'll have to find a way to infiltrate Mr. Hill's life. In the meantime, start right away to look at the information Henry brought and see where you can start."

"Thank you, sir. Is there going to be anyone else on the team?" Henry asked, hopeful that there was someone else joining. Please, let it be a big team so I don't have to work with just her.

"For the moment it will be you two. You can ask help from other operatives if there's need to. Bess, I'm thinking maybe Isabelle now that she's still here can join you, but I'm sure the two of you are more than capable of pulling this off. Good luck." Conrad answered.

"Thank you, sir." Elizabeth said, as she got up and exited Dalton's office. "Are you coming or what?" she added, turning her head slightly to check if he was following him.

Henry looked at her and quickly got up while grabbing the files he had brought with him and followed her suit. They entered a small office with a desk under the window, rays of light peeking through the blinds, a meeting table with a spare chair in one corner and a little lumpy sofa on the other.

"You get the meeting table. I stay at my desk." Elizabeth stated, curtly. He's staying over there. I'm not sharing my personal space with this idiot. Take a breath, Elizabeth, this is all means to an end. Do this as well as you can, the faster the better and when this is over, you'll get your promotion and leave.

"Fine with me. Here, you can take half of the files. When you're done we can switch." he said, offering her half of the stack. I'm putting her to work. I'll do my best but I don't think we're going to get along. Henry, breathe. We don't have to like each other, I just want to be here so I can get home every night and work on my marriage.

And each of them started to go through the first files on their own. Their purpose was clear: do their jobs as best as they can without stepping on each other's toes, not having to deal with each other much.

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