"Whiskey and soda. And bartender?"

"Sir?"

"Leave out the soda." With a muffled grunt of pain, Reno sat down at the bar next to his silent, blue-suited co-worker. "Rude, man, how's going?"

"..."

"Like normal, I see." Unlike before, Rude silence left him unperturbed, every word he failed to say didn't twang on his nerves like they had just a week earlier. Now, with the comfort of liquor and nicotine nestled securely inside him, he just took it all in stride.

"Some good work the other day." Rude's voice was low and careful as he nursed his drink. Reno glanced at him, but that larger man's eyes remained hidden behind his ever-present shades.

"Hey, thanks man." Reno found himself more than a bit wary. While accustomed to his silence, the young Turk knew that every word Rude spoke was one that spoke volumes in itself.

"You'll do."

Now it was Reno's turn for silence as he felt his face go white hot with rage. "What did you say?" he asked lowly.

"..."

"You- were testing me?" Reno heard his voice getting higher with each word and struggled to bring his anger under control. Luckily, at that moment the bartender returned with his drink, saving what otherwise could have been a very unpleasant situation. And not necessarily for Rude.

Now Rude looked up from his drink to stare at his co-worker. His blank gaze made Reno uneasy as he shifted in his seat. When he stretched out the silence long enough to have felt that his point had been made, Rude spoke. "If I am going to place my life in someone else's hands, I think I have the right to know whether or not I should be writing out my will," he said, not breaking his gaze for a moment. "In that sense it was, as you put it, a "test." You passed."

"Huh. Is that supposed to make me feel honored, or something?" Reno could barely hide the cutting edge to his voice.

"..." Rude stared at him for a few moments longer, then switched his gaze back to his drink. "We are Turks. We are all we have, all we are. There is no one to trust but each other, and if we cannot then we are nothing. Remember that."

"Right." Reno tossed back his drink and shook his head. "Sure, I'll remember that." Still, there was something inside him, some tiny, almost inaudible voice in his mind telling him that this was exactly what T'seng had told him back in his office that day and in his apartment before that.

"Just how many Turks are there, anyway?" Reno asked suddenly, impulsively.

Rude turned to look at him again, but this time, his face was far from blank. Although it was impossible to see past the darkened glasses, Reno could have sworn he saw the man blink.

"...Three." Rude tilted his head slightly at Reno's surprised exclamation and raised a single brow in askance. "What were you expecting?"

"Jesus, man." Now it was Reno who blinked. "I dunno. Nothing, I guess- but three?" He sat back in his seat and let out a deep breath. "So this is it, then? You, me and T'seng." The young Turk shook his head in wonderment.

"Now do you see why it is so imperative that we all must trust each other?" Rude asked him mildly. In the corner of his mind, Reno wondered whether mildly was the extent of Rude's emotional expression.

"Has it always been like this?"

Rude shook his head and hunched back over the bar. "Usually there are four of us. Last year we were down to three, then- one of us took a bullet in the back. That left me and T'seng. You were an emergency replacement."

Again, Reno felt the hot rush of anger in his blood, but quelled it. He wasn't sure if the other man was baiting him or not, but he was almost certain that the tall, dark man would never waste words in such an expedient. "Replacement or not, I'm still good enough. Found Kayli, didn't I?" he all but snarled.

This time, Rude turned in very real surprise. "That was never in doubt."

"But you just said-"

"That we needed to make sure we could trust you," Rude finished for him. "Your ability was never an issue. Your integrity was." He paused, searching for the right words, words that came so easily to one who used them so little. "With so few people, our organization could easily be wiped out by a well placed assassin. A man- or woman- who is highly skilled but deceitful is ten times more dangerous than a well meaning, untrained agent." He searched Reno's face for any signs of comprehension.

Reno, who sat speechless for a few moments, was suddenly hit by a revelation. "That's what happened to the man I replaced, isn't it?" he asked with a certainty he didn't understand.

"..." Reno didn't look up as he felt his companion's eyes upon him.

"Yes and no," came the reply after a brief pause. "That is what happened to the one you replaced, but it wasn't a man. And her name was Shari."

Reno looked up at his co-worker, startled by the intensity of the emotion he heard in his voice. Rude stared into his own glass, giving no outward sign of the pain and loss in his voice.

"She was my wife."