"Tippin, you have a phone call," said one of the agents behind him.

In the middle of tightening his vest, Will turned and told him to take a message. "We're about to raid a building, Bobby. I don't have time to talk on the damn phone."

"It's a man named Jason; he says it's urgent. He's had to work hard to get this far," Bobby answered, obviously not taking Will's anger personally. Every man and woman in the van knew that Francie was now one of Khasinau's hostages.

"Jason who--Oh, Jason." He yanked the cell phone from Bobby's hand and began talking. "Look, Jason, I'm sorry, but I'm really busy right now--"

"Would you just tell her that I'm sorry," the tired voice on the other side said.

Will wondered if he missed an important part of this conversation along the way. "Tell who?"

"Amy. Look, I know she's mad, but--"

"Jason, I'm sorry, but I don't know what's going on between you and Amy, but call her at home and work it out. I have a job--"

"I'm at her place! She stormed out of here earlier to go speak to Francie, and I haven't been able to get anyone to answer at your house. If you see her, would you please tell her to call me? I didn't mean it; I thought that's what she wanted to hear. I love her--"

Will found the strength to talk; his mouth felt dry as he asked, "Amy went over to see Francie?"

"Yeah, I was an idiot. I bought a ring today--I was planning on asking her Friday--and Amy was acting all weird tonight, and I thought she was scared of getting too close, so I told her that I wanted to slow things down, but I--"

Sydney's eyes stared into his, and Will forced himself to get control of himself. It wouldn't do anyone any good for him to start screaming. No one else outside the CIA needed to know that his family was in danger. "Jason, Amy's ready for commitment and settling down, and she's decided that you're the one. She wasn't upset about you getting too close, but about some problems between me and Francie, got it?"

He could hear Jason nodding over the telephone. He knew he didn't sound like his usual laid back self. He sounded like his CIA self, but he didn't have time for anything else. "Try asking her next time what's bothering her; it will save you a lot of trouble."

"Yeah, I suppose it would," Jason said with a hint of self-mockery.

"I know that you're going to marry my baby sister, but I want you to remember that I loved her first. You hurt her, and I will kill you. Painfully. Do you understand?"

Jason was silent for a minute, probably stunned by Will's matter-of-fact tone. "Yeah, I do. I have a kid sister, too."

"Good. Welcome to the family," he said. "I think I know where Francie and Amy might be. I'll see if I can get her to call you."

"Thank you," Jason sighed.

Will handed the phone back to Bobby just as the van stopped. "It appears that Khasinau has another hostage." Everybody around him stood still, waiting for him to finish. "My sister Amy."

***

"As far as being held against your will, I'm willing to bet that there are worse places to be held at," Amy said, obviously tired of the silence.

Michael and Jack looked at each other. "There are," the older man finally answered.

"Yeah, I would think he'd want you miserable, but this place isn't half bad," Francie said, leaning her head on her hand. She yawned.

Jack looked over at his grandson. "Will is her grandson. He can't bring himself to hurt him, so we get treated well to keep him happy."

"He's sleeping so peacefully," she sighed.

Nodding, Jack stood up and stretched. "There are a lot worse places than this."

Francie looked over at Amy and then at Michael. "I keep thinking about Berlin," she admitted, surprising herself. Ever since they'd bounded her hands and stuck a bag over her head, she'd thought about the look on Will's face as he told her about Berlin; she'd feared that she and Amy would be treated the same way.

Jack tensed up in front of her, and she watched a white line appear around Michael's mouth. "He told you about Berlin?" Jack's voice was tired and distant.

"Not really," she admitted. She shifted around and wished she'd kept her mouth closed. "I asked him something and--"

"And he told you the truth." Jack looked over at Michael. "It wasn't a good mission."

"It was two weeks before you all could even use cover-up to hide the bruises," Michael growled. "That bitch."

"The physical wasn't the worse," Jack admitted. Francie suddenly knew that the older man knew the whole story, knew the question that she had asked. He wanted to reassure her that what Will said was true, that it had been a hard time emotionally for him. "We weren't tortured to talk. Laura knew that wasn't going to be effective, and she liked being efficient. We were tortured to get the others to talk."

Francie heard Amy gasp, but she was too numb to even move. "We were rotated. First Sydney was beaten while we were forced to watch. Then Will, then me, then Sydney again. It continued until I thought I would go mad." A shudder traveled through her body as she thought about exactly how bad it had to have been in order to get to Jack Bristow, a man who had probably seen far more than she wanted to know.

He stared down at his hands. "Will is the one who managed to get lose first. He was covered in his own blood when he took down the guards. When he was finished, you couldn't tell what was his and what belonged to the guards'."

"You didn't go with Will and Syd," Francie said. She remembered Will's tears, and she wanted to cry for him. But she didn't have the strength.

"No, I stayed to do the job we'd been assigned to do. Will had to drag Sydney out. We all knew that there was no possible way for me to destroy that facility and live."

He sounded so blasé about it all. Like he was talking about someone else, and maybe that was the only way he could discuss it. He sighed. "But Laura knew me, and she had a map drawn showing me how to escape."

"You were still badly burned," Michael said, and while his voice was flat, Francie could feel the heat of his anger from across the room.

Michael looked over at the wall. "J--" He stopped as if remembering their cover and the names that Francie knew them by. "Sydney still wakes up occasionally sweating and crying."

Francie thought of nights holding Will, thinking he was haunted by images he had seen as a reporter. "Will does, too," she whispered.

She wished Will was here. She wanted to feel his arms around her. She wanted to talk to him, to hear his calm voice tell her that everything was going to be okay.

Hearing a man yell, she turned towards the door. She flinched as she heard what sounded like machine gun fire. A hand--Jack's or Michael's wrapped itself around her arm and yanked. She found herself behind one of the beds, which had somehow ended up being turned on its side.

Bodies piled in around her, hiding behind the meager cover of the bed frame and mattresses. "Calvary's here," Michael said as he curled his body around his crying son. "Don't worry; Mommy's here to get us."

***

Later, Francie watched the chaos around her. She couldn't believe all the action happening outside this one tiny building. Watching Will, Jack, and Sydney was amazing. They were calm, cool, totally at ease with the men and women running around with machine guns in their arms and bullet-proof vests around their chests.

She looked over at her husband's name sake and smiled. He was no longer crying. He'd stopped as soon as he'd rushed into his mother's arms earlier. Now he fascinated with all the flashing lights and "police."

She looked up at the man she was married to; she wanted to pretend that everything was okay now. Khasinau was dead--how or by whose hands Will and Sydney wouldn't tell her. However, listening to those guns firing and knowing that Will was out there made her realize exactly what could happen to him one day. Being married to a report had been hard; being married to a spy would be beyond her sanity threshold.

"I can't take you leaving all the time and not knowing what you might be doing or when you're coming back. I can't pretend that you are only going to an interview," she said with a calmness that surprised her.

He glanced over his shoulder and then nodded. "I know; I already told my boss that I want a desk job."

Her mouth fell open. "You're leaving the paper?"

"I can't pretend anymore, Francie," he told her. "I don't have the strength to even lie to myself. I haven't been much of a reporter for years. It's time that I quiet acting like I am."

She shivered and hugged herself, even though the air was warm. He was giving up his first choice of career with an ease that hurt. What else was he willing to give up? "We're going to work this out, aren't we?"

Will smiled. "Yeah, we are. I'm not going to give you up without a fight, Francie."

She could breathe again. "I have a lot of questions--"

He put his hands on her shoulders. "I can't promise that I'll answer them all. I'm not sure that I can, but I'll tell you what I can."

Nodding, she thought about the pain in Jack's eyes that she had glimpsed earlier. She realized she didn't want to hear all the details. She took a step forward. "It's going to take some time."

"I know," he replied, squeezing her shoulders.

"Hey, Tippin, we need you over here," a man yelled.

Will looked over at his shoulder. "Go," she said before he could say anything back to the man. He looked back at her. "I want you to take care of all of this tonight, so that when you get home, you're all mine."

He grinned and nodded. "I like the sound of that." With a quick kiss on her forehead, he left her standing alone. She looked over to where Amy stood talking on a cell phone. The smile on her face told Francie that Amy's discussion with Jason was going just fine.

She looked towards her right and saw Sydney standing in the arms of her husband. They looked good together; comfortable, and very much in love. Jack stood with his grandson hanging onto his neck. The light smile on his lips spoke of a contentment that Francie envied. Just as she was about to wonder over to where Amy was obviously finishing up her call, Sydney turned and looked at her.

A small, familiar smile touched her friend's lips. Francie had missed that smile. Tears started to fall before she even realized that she was feeling sad. Sydney turned and said something to her Michael before walking towards her. Francie could see the hesitancy in those steps, but she couldn't move towards Sydney. She wanted to, but something inside her was frozen.

"Hey," Syd said as she pushed her hair behind her ear.

It was another familiar gesture--although the hair was now much shorter and lighter in color--and it made Francie cry harder. "I'm sorry. It's just that I missed you so much."

Sydney hugged her. "I've missed you, too, sweety."

Francie pulled back and stared at Sydney's face. The lines were deeper now, of course. Time had made its mark, but it had only made Sydney more beautiful. Distinguished.

However, Francie's eyes had been opened to more now. She could see the lines that years of emotional pain and stress had etched onto her friend's face, too. "I wish I had known you."

"You did," Sydney answered.

Francie nodded, in some ways understanding. "I know. But I never got to know all of you. I think I would like to have had the chance to hear about your Michael, to hear about how your relationship with Jack changed, hear about how you really felt."

Sydney looked over at Will and a sad smile touched her lips. "I told Danny the truth, Francie, and they killed him. When Will found out, I told him that I was glad that he knew because I could be honest with him at last."

Her friend sighed. "You know what they say about the grass being greener on the other side? I thought being able to tell him the truth would make him a closer friend. Instead, it changed everything. We never sat back and just relaxed with each other after Will found out. Watching a movie was rough because we both were sitting there thinking that we should be doing something to bring in the bad guys. Regular conversation was stilted.

"I needed the normal; I just thought being honest was what I needed." Syd shook her head. "Dixon never told Diane, and I thought it was because he was so loyal to SD-6--or the CIA like he thought it was. But it wasn't loyalty--he just understood how much normal is needed."

Sydney squeezed her hand. "Thank you so much for giving me that, even though you didn't know it."

Francie sighed. "You're going to leave again, aren't you?"

The sad smile told her all she needed to know. Apparently, there were still people who would hurt Sydney and Jack if they knew they were alive. She looked over at Michael, somehow knowing without being told, that he'd left his life to be with Sydney. He wasn't in hiding for his own safety. She looked over at Will and wondered if she could leave everything behind for him, for their family. Then, she smiled because she knew she would. "I'm going to make sure he enjoys normal."

Syd laid her head over on Francie's shoulder. "Good, because he needs to. Before I left, he told me he was going to get out." There was a hint of anger in her voice.

"He said he asked his boss for a desk job," Francie told her friend. She didn't doubt it was the truth; he was ready to get out of the field or whatever they called it.

"He did," Sydney said. "I don't think his boss was too happy with him either, but he said he would take care of it as soon as Khasinau was taken care of."

Francie sighed. "I'm going to miss you."

"It's going to be even harder leaving you this time," Sydney choked out with tears streaming down her face.

The two friends hugged each other tight in the middle of chaos.