[A/N: I have decided to start adding the date/place etc. to the beginning of the story so it's less confusing. The chapters before are all in the same timeline, they just aren't labelled]

Make a promise, cross your heart.
Kings vow that we'll never part.
Sign in blood and hope to die.
Little black flowers grow, in the sky.

          -Chris Issack "Black Flowers"

Chapter Fifteen

New York City

            July 16, 1999

            6:38 PM

            Hayden walked down the hall of the apartment building, taking his time as he took in the surrounding environment. It was an expensive but not flashy apartment building, with only a man sitting at the front desk at the entrance, who Hayden had simply walked past without receiving a second glance.

            He was positive that Ames and Krycek wouldn't come with him willingly but he hoped he'd have to use as little force as possible, as he didn't want to alert any suspicion.

            When he reached the top of the stairs, he never liked taking elevators, he saw that something was definitely wrong. Four men, dressed all in black were charging towards the stairs, towards him. There was no hiding the massive guns they held in their gigantic arms and the smell in the air definitely proved that they had been fired recently.

            Hayden barely got out of the way, as they charged down the stairs. He ran quickly to Alex Krycek's apartment, only to find his fear, true. It had been his apartment those men had pummeled with bullets. Hayden rushed over the scene, not finding the two, he realized why the men where rushed out of there so fast. Krycek had escaped.

            Hayden flipped open his cell phone, as he ran down the stairs, his feet pounding against the cement floor.  "I need a team on 4th…I don't know which direction…Someone's trying to kill Alex Krycek…it is our business." Hayden hung up the phone as he reached the bottom of the stairwell.

            He ran outside but didn't see anything, without any leads on where anyone had gone, including those four hit men, Hayden stood rather impatiently and waited for his team to arrive.

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            Alex stared at Sandra, "How can you possibly be afraid of heights? Even if you did fall, it's not like you're going to die."

            "We don't know that with absolution, do we. If I fall and break my neck, I'll be dead instantly…no time to heal. Plus, this isn't a fear I came up with yesterday, when I was little I fell off a ladder and broke my leg."

            Alex sighed, "Alright, just slowly grab onto the ladder and don't look down." Not that there really was much to see, as it was pitch black.

            Sandra tugged on her lower lip, the one thing they didn't need right now was her being a baby. She slowly, with utmost caution, climbed onto the ladder.

            "Okay good. Now just don't move," Alex told her, holding the flashlight with one hand, while skillfully climbing onto the ladder on top of her.

            His chest was pressed fully into her back, his right hand one rung above hers, holding the flashlight so it pointed to the side, while the other hand wrapped tightly around her stomach.

            "Okay, now we're going to take a step down with the left foot and drop the right hand down one," Alex told her, his body locking around her more.

            He was completely aware of the scent of her shampoo and the smell of soap that clung to her body. Her body felt so small and perfect against his, he could feel her softly shaking in fear and he reflexively held her tighter.

            "Alex, this is going to kill us both, just go down without me and I'll follow as fast as I can."

            Sandra wasn't only scared out of her mind, she was also aroused by the way he was pressed up to her and by the tightness of his arm around her stomach. His hot breath was tickling the hair around her ear, reminding her of when they had first met, minus the gun.

            Alex couldn't help but breathe in the scent of her hair, "Sand, just shut up and move."

            "Alex this is stupid! Just go!"

            "Sandra! It's not stupid, don't worry about it, I used to do this for a living."

            They were now moving at a steady speed, "What, helping crazed alien girls down ladders?"

            "I used to be a SEAL," he told her, knowing that conversation was distracting her and had them moving at a record pace.

            "What?" Although it surprised her, at the same time, it sort of made sense.

            "You heard me. I enlisted when I turned eighteen and I ended up climbed the ranks pretty quickly," Alex grew quite for a minute, "Then my mom died and I decided that it would be best if I became a SEAL."

            Alex could tell they were nearing the basement, as he could see a faint light bouncing off the lower walls.

            "And I was good, really good at it. When I was about twenty-six this man approached me about joining the FBI…which it actually turned out to be a little more covert."

            Alex climbed off the ladder as they finally hit the bottom, then led Sandra down a hallway to the left and behind a door. The air was damp from the leaking pipes that aligned the walls of the dark cement passageway. The only light came from Alex's flashlight, which darted every few seconds, catching every dark corner.

            "I was making pretty decent money in the army but the money this guy was offering me…well, pretty much, one years salary could keep me leaving comfortably for the rest of my life."

            They once again, came to a door, which Alex unlocked and then guardedly looked out the door. Seeing nothing, he took Sandra's hand and ran towards his car, his head darting every which way for signs of movement.

            When they reached his car, Sandra's mouth fell open, it was a brand new Miata. "Yeah, this looks pretty comfortable to me, " She muttered, climbing in the passenger side of the navy coloured car

"Anyways, I'll give you two guesses on who made me the offer."

Sandra thought for a moment, she really didn't know all that much about Alex but she did know about one person, "That Cigarette-Smoking Man."

Alex smiled at her, "Yeah, CSM. And I took it…I 'm still not sure if it was a good idea or not." He pulled out of the parking spot and out of the basement parking garage.

"You know, if I were chasing after someone, I'd block off all the exits to the building." Sandra said, as they pulled out onto the street.

Alex threw the car into a higher gear, gracefully moving through the lighter night traffic of New York. "That's probably what they did. But they weren't thinking to block the exits of the building two doors down."

Sandra looked back down the street, seeing his building far in the distance. "Where are we going?"

Alex thought for second, "Airport? We'll go back to Calgary."

"Don't you know?" Alex shook his head. "Calgary's not safe.

Alex slowed his speed down as a cop car sped past. "What are you talking about?"

Sandra sighed, reliving that night, which she realized, was only last night. "Well, unless you call having a man dressed all in black, crashing through a window and shooting up my bedroom and me safe, then we'll have to figure out another option. Turn here," Sandra pointed to the left.

Alex followed her direction, "He shot you?"

"Just in the shoulder. Turn right."

"Are you okay?" He wasn't sure how this 'instantaneous healing' thing worked, specifically with being shot.  

Sandra heard the worry in his voice, causing her to smile. Maybe he really did care… "As of this morning I still had a bruise but that's it."

"Oh. Where are we going?" He suddenly realized she'd been leading him around the city, taking away his usual control. It didn't bother him as much as he'd thought it would.

"Stop here," Sandra jumped out of the car before he had time to object.

Alex scanned the street but to his relief he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He organized this thoughts as he waited for Sandra, too many events had happened in the last few days for this all to be a coincidence. First him getting shot in Calgary, then Sandra's supposedly safe house being broken into, then four men finding her at his apartment. A place no one was supposed to know about.

Alex lined up a list of suspects; Hayden and the Resistance, Alex knew for sure, didn't know where Sandra was, as they were still looking for her. Plus these guys were trying to kill her and him, and the Resistance was far past wanting that. CSM and the Consortium were over, plus CSM though Sandra was dead and if anything he needed to keep Alex alive, as he was CSM's only 'ally'.

  He couldn't think of anybody else who knew about Sandra…unless this was just about him. It could be entirely possible that they were after him, that they'd hit Sandra's house looking for him since he'd been there only a few hours earlier.

He strained his memory, trying to remember who had shot him but he hadn't even seen it coming and he'd blacked out after that.

When they had been in Calgary, at the warehouse six months ago, Hayden and CSM had found them by way of a tracking device Hayden had injected into Sandra without her knowing. Alex knew that, that device would have only lasted a few days before it was broken down and left the body. But was it possible that someone had put one in her and that it may have lasted longer than it's few days. But then again, he was the one that was shot first, so maybe he had one…

"Okay, go to this address, " Sandra handed him a piece of paper as she lowered herself into the car.

Alex studied the address before pulling back onto the street. "Why did you just go into a gym? And where are we going?"

Sandra held a backpack in her arms, "My parents left me a bunch of stuff, so I hid it in a gym locker." She was far from trusting him yet, so the less he knew the better. "The address is to an apartment, I supposed to be safe."

Alex wasn't willing to give up all control, "Says who?"

"Says me."

Alex huffed, about to argue with her more when he spotted something out his window. Without word, he pulled into the hotel parking lot, parking behind a tree. He got out of the car but when Sandra didn't follow, he went around the side and yanked her out, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the lobby.

Sandra was mad enough with his behavior to kick him in the head but she reined in her temper, her attention glued to the room in front of her. The hotel looked like it's last heyday had been back in the seventies, with it's shaggy molded green carpet and walls that had probably once been yellow but were now faded and chipped. The only thing in the room was the front desk, which was encircled with wire fencing and only a small space at the bottom where Alex slid some money through.

The man sitting in the self-induced cage was as greasy as a McDonald's hamburger, with a balding head and dirty ripped clothes. He seemed to recognize Alex but said nothing as he slid a key through the opening, before going back to his tiny television.

Alex moved to the stairs, taking two at a time and Sandra had to rush to keep up with him. Once they got to the room, Alex locked the door and pulled the lime green drapes, closed.

"Take off your shirt," he ordered.

Sandra's stared at him, "Um, if you're looking for a quickie, buddy your in the wrong place."

His response was by removing his shirt then moving quickly over to her, not asking her again, he skillfully lifted the shirt off her and turned her so her back was to him.

"Hey! This could be classified as ra-" she shut her mouth as she felt his hands skating across her flesh.

He was looking for the tracker, which was always put near the shoulder but he couldn't help but let his hands wonder all over her back, which felt as smooth as silk. Her body was warm and it took all his internal strength not to drop his lips to her neck and taste her skin.

His hands probed her shoulder, finding what he wondered to be there, flipping open his knife, he wrapped his other arm across her breast bone. "This is going to hurt, so stay still."

Sandra felt the knife dig into her shoulder, causing her to bite her lip to restrain a scream.

Before she knew it, Alex spun her around, looking her straight in the eyes. "Are you okay?" In his hand he held something that resembled a button. "This is a tracking device, I don't know how long you've had it and I don't know who put it in you."

Sandra's breath caught in her throat, if someone had been following her then…they would know all about the safety deposit box and…what if they tried to get John or Paul, what if they tried to kill them to get to her…

As if reading her mind, Alex said, "I think it's just you that they want. But I'm not sure it's only you who's been tracked, I need you to check me."     

Sandra nodded and Alex turned his back to her, "How do I know what I'm looking for?" She gingerly placed her hands on his back.

"Just feel around and see if anything is out of the ordinary, it should be around the shoulders."

Sandra did so, applying pressure to his back, feeling for something out of the ordinary. Even as part of her mind concentrated on the task, her stomach swam as she thought about how he had felt against her on the ladder and then a few minutes ago. She silently wondered if he had noticed but she greatly doubted it, he was all business.

She was just about to give up when she felt a small round piece above his shoulder blade, "I found it. " Alex nodded, handing her his knife. "Maybe you should lie down, it might be easier."

Alex laid down on his stomach and turned his head to face Sandra as she kneeled on the bed beside him. Maybe it was just the situation, with him shirtless and her in only a bra, but he thought he recognized a look of partial arousal on her face. Even though he really didn't know her all that well, he knew that look, so he turned his head to the other side.

"Ready?" Sandra asked before slicing open the area above where she felt the device and quickly digging it out. She placed her hands firmly over where she cut him, healing the incision.

Alex sat up as he felt the pain in his shoulder lessen, "We have to go."

Sandra nodded, grabbing her shirt, she was so relieved that they were leaving that she didn't notice Alex holding his coat in front him, to hide his arousal.

"I'm in a sweet, sweet hell," he muttered.