One second he was about to pull the trigger, and the next Xander had an empty hand, and Alicia was looking annoyed with him

One second he was about to pull the trigger, and the next Xander had an empty hand, and Alicia was looking annoyed with him. "What is it with you men today?" she snapped, dropping the clip out of his gun. "You all get together today and decide to think with your guns before brains?" Xander was going to come back with a scathing retort, except that Cole had taken Nightshade to the ground in a protective gesture. That was unexpected.

And the day seemed like it was getting better, Janice thought from the ground. She had walked out from the woods with Cole, thinking that she was going to get to meet a couple more X-6's and instead, there was Brickman. She would have reacted, but Brickman had just learned how fast an X-6 really was. Cole had her on the ground and Alicia had him disarmed before his little threat was barely uttered. The shock on his face was almost funny. For once, she was the one with friends in high places.

Janice had a second to wonder who else was going to show up. It would no longer have surprised her to see Headmaster Webber show up, gun in hand. Brickman. Of course. He had been assigned as a keeper. After every top secret project ended, the CIA had a keeper put over it to watch out for whatever was left and make sure that nobody else got their hands on whatever had been going on. Brickman had all those records on Manticore. He was the keeper. The fact that Shadow, no, her name was Shawna, was with him proved the point.

"She's with us," Cole snarled, standing up, and helping Janice up. God, his brother was a total dip at times.

"No she isn't," Xander retorted. Cole obviously had no idea who he was dealing with. She must not have told him anything. They'd kept track of her. There was no way it was coincidence that she was teaching at the same school Heather went to, and was right there when Heather was threatened. Maybe she had Cole fooled that she didn't know who Hawk was, but he knew better.

"Damn straight I'm not," Janice said coldly, glaring daggers at Brickman. "I would never admit to being part of any operation involving you, no matter how much I respected the others involved." If possible the temperature around that area dropped even further as he iced over at that little insult.

Janice smirked at him. "Just be glad I'm not in the mood to give you what you really deserve since you're no longer my boss and you can't fire me twice." With a glance she had totally dismissed him, and looked over at the others. "The kids alri…" her voice trailed off as she finally noticed the figure still lying in the snow behind them.

Cole had seen it from the helicopter, but she hadn't. He wanted to put his arm around her or something, but knew that would not be the best move at that moment. "You bastard," she whispered, and he wasn't sure whom she was directing it at. It could be him since he had promised her that she could deal with Kevin. If he did touch her and it was meant for him she might decide to break his arm, and he would probably have to hurt her to stop her, and he actually would prefer not to. It was bad enough that she might still go after Xander. She didn't realize quite yet that he wasn't just who she thought he was.

She didn't say anything else, just broke from Cole, and went to Kevin's still form in the snow. She knelt beside him, forcing back the tears that wanted to come. For a moment she wasn't seeing his body, but his smile when he came back for her in India when she had told them to leave. It was suicide, but he'd come back anyways and they'd both somehow managed to get out. She remembered him teasing her about not liking being on a submarine. The five of them getting drunk at O'Reilley's Pub the night before his wedding. The day Devon was born. She touched his hair lightly grateful for the friend and teammate that he had been for so very long, mourning him for the mistakes that had brought him here. They weren't all his fault.

"Seulement les bons meurent jeunes," Janice whispered so softly only Manticore hearing could pick it up. It was their traditional toast at weddings and funerals. She had never thought she would have to say it to Kevin a second time. She stood slowly, facing Brickman, the fury in her eyes and body almost scary even to the others.

For a moment, nobody was sure what to do. Alicia and Zack had assumed that Xander or Shawna had taken out the dead man in the snow for threatening Heather, but now Janice was acting like he was her best friend or something. Best friend. In the helicopter, they had heard her mention a Kevin to Cole. Cole didn't look happy, but he had said that he wouldn't interfere. What do you do when your best friend goes rogue? Alicia's French was still pretty current, and she had recognized the words "only the good die young" as well as the motions of ritual. Still, Janice was a norm, and from what Xander had pulled earlier, them two obviously weren't on the best of terms.

"Grover," Janice spat out walking towards Brickman menacingly. "Markham, Little, Brewster. But not him. How much did the Riespian family pay you to tell him to drop it?" They were eye to eye now. Janice hadn't always liked being so tall, but for once she was grateful a man didn't have the added intimidation of looking down on her.

Xander didn't back down. "You screwed yourselves over," he growled. "Don't even think of blaming anyone else. You knew to drop it."

"If it had been your wife that was murdered would you have dropped it?" she hissed. "No, you wouldn't have, and it would have been simply unsanctioned, no consequences. A little slap on the hand for you. None of us gave a damn about consequence really. All it would have taken was for one of you to say you do what you have to, but you know the consequences. All he needed was to hear that it couldn't be sanctioned, but you approved. You did that for so many others, why not him?"

"The fact you're alive should speak volumes, now shouldn't it?" he replied. "It would have been taken care of had you not taken it upon yourself." Cole's eyes widened at that. Xander had asked him about six months ago if he would mind helping him out with something.

"That's what you needed help with isn't it?" Cole asked Xander, hoping to calm Janice down. The last thing he wanted was for her to get seriously hurt. "You needed someone unknown who could take him for messing with one of your own."

Xander looked a little surprised that he would ask such a question. "Riespian was out of the question, you should know that." Well, well, big brother did know what was going on. He would say that was a nice change, but Xander had a feeling Cole knew what was going on more than he let on. The fact he was here and wasn't surprised to see Alicia, Zack, or Heather said a great deal. "We were just going to return the favor. I think his sister was targeted."

"I see," Janice said softly, bitterly. "If I have trusted you...."

"Then Hawk would still be alive, and you would be where you belong," Xander finished.

For a moment there was silence. Xander suddenly let out a sharp squeak, doubling over as Janice removed her knee from his groin. She turned and walked away as he hit his knees, then whipped around suddenly. "That was from Melissa!" she shouted at him. "And Riespian's sister for that matter! Don't give me any of that "you would have revenged" crap. If you don't have what it takes to go for the cancer, then don't bother treating the stubbed toe!" And Christy thought Granny's saying were useless. Janice glared at him furiously as he tried to recover from the pain. She had strong legs, and hadn't pulled the punch.

"If given the chance to do it over," Janice said coldly. "You better damn well believe I would. The only thing I regret is following orders and leaving Virginia when Kevin still needed me." With that she turned and stomped off, the thought of looking at him for another second making her sick.

Xander was having a tough time getting back to his feet, but he managed it. With all the engineering that went into them, he would have thought that one of the male scientists would have made that a less sensitive area of the body. Now his siblings were looking at him like he was a rather repulsive beetle. Damn it, he was doing his job when he told them to drop the subject. It wasn't pretty, but sometimes the bad guys won one. First though, he was going to pay that little bitch back in spades. Christ, she had a bony knee.

"I know that look," Shawna suddenly said to him coldly, "and I know what it means, but if you even twitch to do what you are thinking about doing, I am personally going to kick your ass." Xander went to protest, but she cut him off dead. "Do not even tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about, because trust me, I do. That babe did the whole damn world a favor, and you have got no room to act like you weren't glad to see that someone had the guts to do it."

"That's not the point," he said flatly. "What I was glad to see has nothing to do with the right thing." Xander glared at Shawna for a second. "And I didn't see you protesting taking him out, Madame Morality," he continued indicating the body in the snow. Shawna's eyes narrowed at that remark, and Alicia had to bite back a smile. That little nickname still infuriated her after so long. It was wonderful to see that some things hadn't changed.

"Is she going to take a swing at him?" Heather whispered to her mother.

"No, honey," Alicia replied in the same low tone. "That's not efficient enough for my family. We use knives." Heather blinked and looked over at Shawna. She did have a knife on her. Heather suddenly realized that after the last half of an hour, she understood her mother much better.

Alicia felt Zack nudge her and knew exactly what he meant. They really needed to get back and make everything better back in the unclassified world. Also, finding out what this boy beside their daughter knew would be a very good thing. He hadn't said anything really since they'd shown up, so either he was very smart in keeping his mouth shut right then, or just in shock. Zack was being nice and giving her opportunity to deal with her siblings on her own before he took care of them, so she had better get to it. The chances of them living were much higher if she would deal with them.

In the blink of an eye, Alicia was standing beside Shawna, and she was holding the knife Shawna knew she had just had pressed against her palm the second before. Alicia's ability to disarm any of them at any time had always been slightly annoying, and obviously had not dimmed in the slightest over the years. Shawna's attention was turned from Xander, the comment meant to burn him now to be turned onto Alicia.

It died on her tongue. It was not her long-lost sister standing there, but her commanding officer. It was still there in those cold blue eyes that demanded their respect and obedience. Xander saw it to, and was almost amused when he realized how close he was to snapping to attention. There was no arguing with that expression, and anyone who so much as hesitated found his or her ass soundly kicked.

Jon and Heather could see it too. "I'm not supposed to be scared of them?" Jon whispered to Heather as quietly as possible. He didn't notice Zack's lip twitch slightly. If Heather was to have a boyfriend, it would be a good thing that he know exactly how much danger he would be in if he hurt her.

"That's nothing," Heather whispered back. "You ought to see her when she tells the twins to clean their rooms or else. Nobody's ever seen the 'or else'. We're too scared." Jon swallowed hard, his eyes widening when he heard Heather's mother start to speak. She had seemed so nice when she had told Heather it was okay earlier, but now this sounded like a totally different person.

"You," Alicia said coldly to Shawna, "are going to ignore him until we get my kid off of this pile of rocks, and you," she said jabbing the knife in Xander's direction to emphasize her point, "are going to do whatever the fuck you need to do to find out and eliminate whoever wants to buy one of my kids. If that means apologizing to someone, you're going to do it, am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am," they both chorused before they even knew they were going to, and then looked a little embarrassed. There were some habits that were so ingrained, no matter how many years passed; they would still be there. It was like Lydecker in some ways. Xander far out-ranked him in the scheme of things, but he would still jump to attention whenever he saw him walk into the room. Hell, Shawna out-ranked him militarily, and she still used "sir" with him at all times.

Alicia was looking over their shoulders, a slightly confused expression overshadowing the command one. "And we all need to find out what the hell is up with that," she said. They looked over to where Cole had been standing when Janice had stormed off. He was gone, and from the tracks in the snow, he had gone after her without a word to any of them.

Xander sighed. "It figures," he said dejectedly. "Cole finally decides to actually chase a woman, and she just happens to be the one that wants my balls on a silver platter." Without much enthusiasm he headed off in the direction of the tracks.