"Recoil"
Author: Waterdancer aka AquarianLady
Email: jch114@hotmail.com or jch0578@yahoo.com
Feedback: Yes
Distribution: Cover Me, Alias Uncovered, and aliasfanfiction list. Anyone else please ask.
Disclaimer: Um. If I owned any parts of Alias, you'd know it. All Alias related material are the property of JJ Abrams, Bad Robot, ABC, Touchstone TV, and anyone else who has a claim. Diana Rochelle, Nikolai Ludin, Agent Lareby, and Patrick Williams are mine.
Summary: A woman from Vaughn's past comes back
Rating: PG-13
Classification: Action/Adventure, General
A/N: This is the final chapter and epilogue, folks. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me with this fic in one shape or another. Big sloppy thanks to Robin for sticking by me with this fic from the very beginning. You have no idea how much it means.
*****
Vaughn paced the interior of his office, the pictures of Diana and Nikolai on his desk. "What is going on?" he said aloud to no one in particular. He looked at the photographs again, trying to see if he could notice some clue that would tell him that Diana wasn't sleeping with the enemy. He frowned as he saw a picture of her hand on Nikolai's cheek and smiling up at him--a gesture she usually reserved for people she cared about.
He sat down at his desk and looked at Diana's open file. He smiled slightly as he saw a picture of her taken her first year with the CIA. Her hair had been longer, and there had been more innocence in her eyes.
"You should do that more often," he said as he watched her from across the dinner table.
"What's that?" she asked, taking a sip of her wine.
"Smile," he answered.
"What happened to you, Diana?" he murmured as he glanced at her picture taken when she was brought in. Her hair was shoulder length, and her eyes had hardened, and he could see the stress behind them.
"Can you tell me about the relationship with Nikolai Ludin?"
"It's classified."
Reading over her file, he thought back to their argument from the night before. Her eyes had flashed with anger when he told her that he suspected her as well. Was it all an act? She could fool the best of them with her different aliases and dialects. It was one of the many reasons why the Agency had used her in various undercover operations. He wanted to believe that Diana wouldn't betray him or her country, but she had been gone for five years, and with her abilities it could be done.
"Excuse me, Agent Vaughn?"
He looked up from his file. "Have you found her yet?" he asked the young agent, careful to keep his voice even.
"Not yet. I did, however, hear from my friend with the LAPD. They got a call last night regarding a taxi driver and an injured man at the observatory. The taxi driver was dead at the scene, but the other man is still alive."
Vaughn felt a spark of hope "The observatory?" He'd taken Diana there on one of their first dates. He stood up from his desk and put his jacket on. "And this other man? Did anyone get information from him?"
"No, he's not saying who he is or who shot him, but he's speaking in heavily accented English; sounds like he could be Russian. My friend said that if you want to talk to him, they have him at Queen of Angels hospital."
He grabbed the keys from his desk and rushed out of his office.
****
Diana woke up with start, and moaned as she tried to move her arms. "Try not to move too much, you could break your arm," her former leader said from behind her. She hung her head forward, and tried to clear her mind. "You died in Barcelona, Patrick. I saw you die," she mumbled, still feeling the effects of the drug. "I felt your pulse," she said weakly. "You were dead."
"One of the many things I observed about you, Diana, is that sometimes you were too quick. You took what you saw at face value, and moved on. I counted on that flaw and you came through, just as I predicted."
Her head rolled around again, and she felt sick to her stomach. "What did you give me?"
"Just a sedative," Patrick said as he pulled a chair from the table and sat in front of her. "You should be grateful, Diana; if I hadn't come along when I did, Nikolai would've killed you."
Nikolai. The last thing she remembered was seeing him on the ground, unconscious. Fighting for different sides would forever keep them from being more than adversaries, but she still respected him. She brought her head up slowly and glared at her former friend. "Let me out of here, and I'll show you how grateful I am."
He took a knife from a leather holster hanging from his belt and ran the edge along her jawbone. She didn't flinch. "And give you the chance to kill me? Sorry, but I can't do that." He re-sheathed his knife and stood up from his chair. "Nikolai was always so full of himself. That asshole thought he was the one in control in our agreement, but I played him, just like I did you. I must admit, Diana, you did better than I thought you would; you got out of Chile just before I could get to you. You did a lot of damage to Diego though. Poor guy was really no use to me after that."
She knew that by the smug look he had on his face, she must've have shown her shock. "Diana, I can find you anywhere, if I so see it fit. Always remember that."
Shock, disbelief, and hatred flowed through her as she continued to look at Patrick. Her left eye twitched and her head rolled back. She felt another wave of nausea coming on.
"You should rest, Diana," he said as he walked towards the door. "I'll be back in a few hours, and we can catch up then."
****
"I hope you're comfortable," Vaughn said. "This place is at the top of its class. Can I get you anything?" He looked at the man lying in the hospital bed, and waited for him to say something.
He dropped a manila envelope on top of the blanket. "I know that you have information regarding Agent Rochelle. She's missing, and I need your help in locating her." He waited for a response as Nikolai opened the envelope and the pictures fell out. The other man smirked and looked out the window.
Feeling exasperated, Vaughn stood in front of his bed. "I know at some point you and Diana were very close. The smiles in those pictures are natural, not false. Did she do this to you?" he asked, feeling sick for even thinking it.
Vaughn watched as Nikolai picked up the pictures again and looked them over. "You think that Agent Rochelle did this to me? Interesting."
"Help me, Mr. Ludin, and I'll help you. It won't take long for the government to notice that one of K-Directorate's agents is in the country, and I'm sure that they'll want to talk with you. I can delay them some, but I will only do that if you provide me with the information that I am looking for. I've seen the damage that Diana can do when provoked. You attacked her yesterday, which would have given her motive to return the favor."
"The incident yesterday was unfortunate, but as Agent Rochelle would tell you, it is what I do. My integration methods are extreme but they produce results," Nikolai said weakly. "No, Diana didn't do this to me. It isn't her way."
"What do you mean, 'isn't her way'?"
"You really don't know her at all, do you, Agent Vaughn?" he asked with a small chuckle. "Diana was sent to infiltrate K-Directorate and weaken it from within. When your country sent Diana to Russia, they sent a woman who had a mind like a sponge. She soaked up everything she could about the Russian culture and K-Directorate. It took a year for my employers to contact her, and they sent me to verify her and her story. She was so eager, Agent Vaughn, to prove herself to K-Directorate and to me. I trained her to be the best agent that they had ever seen, and she never disappointed me. She knows everything that is needed to be an effective assassin. Her actions have relieved the Directorate of numerous leaks, and strengthened our hold in the Russian underground. Of course, that wasn't her objective, but in some ways, I'd like to think that she enjoyed it."
With contempt flowing in his veins, Vaughn stared at the man. Nikolai talked about Diana so casually that it made him ill. Although Vaughn had doubts about her allegiance, he knew she wasn't a cold-blooded killer. "Or is she?" a small voice asked, taunting him.
"She saved my life numerous times, and I trusted her implicitly. Believe me when I say that Diana isn't one to attack a person from behind. She's up front with her actions, always has been. Now, Patrick Williams--"
"You know Patrick Williams?" Vaughn demanded as he tried to hide his surprise.
Nikolai winced took as he took a deep breath. "I know him quite well. Diana now knows him as well. He was the one that set her up, the one who killed her team, and the one who did this to me."
"Patrick Williams is dead, Mr. Ludin. We have evidence of his death in Barcelona, and I've read the report."
"No, Agent Vaughn, Patrick Williams is very much alive. I was able to reach the entrance of the observatory as he took Diana, and now that she knows the truth, Agent Vaughn, she will kill him," he said confidently.
"Agent Rochelle isn't a killer."
"Maybe not the Diana you remember, but the Diana I know will kill him the first chance she gets."
****
She winced as she heard the metal door scrape across the floor, and watched Patrick as he came into the room. "How's your head?" His voice was almost kind.
She continued to glare at him, and attempting to mask her pain. In her mind, she tried to think back to the signs she must've missed with Patrick. How many times had she ignored his aggressiveness and said it came with the territory? The thoughts made her head pound even harder. It had been hurting ever since she'd awakened earlier. "I'm fine, Agent Williams."
"Is it 'Agent Williams' now? I thought we were closer than that Diana." Chuckling, he pulled out a chair and walked over towards her.
He sat down in front of her. "Diana, aren't we closer than that?"
"I thought so," she muttered as she tried to push down the nauseous feeling that was becoming as harsh as her current headache. "Why'd you do it, Patrick? Why the betrayal? If this has something to do with me, let me--"
"Did you think it was about you, Diana?" Patrick said as he smiled at her. "I'll admit that at first it was. I had planned to take you in Chile. The information contained in my reports have shown you to be a double, and you wouldn't be able to show your face on U.S. soil again. I knew that if I told you the right story and under the circumstances, you'd come with me. What I didn't count on was this." Patrick reached inside the jacket he was wearing and pulled three photographs out.
"You just couldn't stay away from him, could you?" he yelled as he tossed them at her.
Diana's heart stopped as photos of her and Michael fell to the floor. There were pictures of them together on his patio, and a picture of them together in bed. She hadn't been able to get enough of him that night. Hot tears pricked her eyes as she thought back to how happy she'd been when she was with him. "How did you get these?"
"The magic of a telephoto lens. Again, you weren't paying attention," he said with a smile. He leaned over and picked up the pictures from the floor. "I can't believe you would do this to me, Diana. Sleeping with him was the worst thing that you could have done, and for that I can't forgive you."
"Forgive me?" Diana said with a laugh. "That's interesting. Why did you kill the team, Patrick? They had nothing do with this." She shook her head as she felt the drugs starting to wear off.
"Are you expecting me to say that I had a hard childhood, and that I hate my mother? Sorry to disappoint you, but it was simple case of them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kellie was the first one to arrive at the safe house, and she saw me talking with the agents from K-Directorate. One of their agents killed her, and the rest of the team were like dominoes. The look of surprise on their faces when I pulled the trigger was one that I'll never forget. They actually begged for me not to do it. Poor kids," he said, chuckling as he stood up.
Diana felt guilt wash over her as she watched Patrick walk around the room like he owned the world. If she had just paid attention to her surroundings, had listened to her instincts about Barcelona, she would have figured out the truth about Patrick. And afterward, she should have pinpointed what it had been exactly that had made those instincts scream. She'd known something was wrong, but she'd been so damned concerned with getting back to the CIA, and seeing Michael again, that she ignored the most basic surveillance techniques.
"They'll figure out that you're alive, Patrick. Vaughn will find me, and then you and I are going to have a little talk," she said with a cocky grin.
Patrick stopped pacing and glared at her. He unsheathed his knife and rushed towards her. She held her breath as he pressed the sharp edge against her neck. "Do you remember your job into Sao Paulo? They were only able to find Alexi's gold teeth after the fire was put out. Vaughn will be if he finds that lovely necklace you're wearing."
****
As Vaughn pulled up to the warehouse he marveled at the similarities of this place to where he and Sydney usually met. He could understand why Diana would want to meet there; it was close to the sea, and although it was in an industrial park, it was peaceful. Nikolai had bartered for an hour about the conditions of his release before he'd given the location to him.
"Look for the first place that they had their first mission discussion."
"And where was that, Mr. Ludin?" Vaughn asked tersely, trying to keep his voice even.
"A warehouse in Ventura, California."
"How do you know that, Mr. Ludin?" Vaughn asked as he flipped through Diana's file.
Nikolai chuckled. "You have your sources, Agent Vaughn, and I have mine."
Resisting the urge to ask who his source was, Vaughn continued with his line of questioning. "Do you have an address?"
"Unfortunately, I do not. Ventura is all I know. My source was only able to get me the location, the address would have been revealed soon."
He stared at the darken warehouse and looked for any sign of movement. He cursed himself for thinking that Diana was capable of being a double agent. He adjusted his Kevlar vest and pressed on his earpiece.
"Lareby? Is everything a go?"
"Yes, sir. I've checked the schematics of this building for all points of exit. If Patrick Williams tries to leave, I'll get him."
"Any sign of him yet?"
"Nothing so far, but we are still scanning the area."
Vaughn closed his eyes, and he could see Devlin ordering him not to go after Diana and Patrick, warning him that it was against protocol, and they had people who were trained for recovery missions. And after the team was finished with a mission involving a K-Directorate agent who wanted to turn in Jack Bristow, they would go after Patrick. Knowing in his gut that Diana didn't have time to wait, Vaughn had laid out the plan several times to him, explaining that all he would go in get Diana, avoid as much confrontation as possible, and bring Patrick in. Devlin wouldn't budge, reminding him that if Patrick Williams was involved in Diana's disappearance and a double agent, they needed to approach him with caution. After realizing that every other available agent was currently unqualified or unable to join him, Devlin reluctantly agreed to just send Agent Lareby.
"Keep me informed," Vaughn said as he pressed on his earpiece
"Copy that."
"And if anything happens to her," Vaughn said to himself as he got out of the car. "I'll never forgive myself."
***
Diana spit out some blood and looked angrily up at Patrick. "Hitting me while I'm tied up, Patrick? Let me go and we can trade punches," she said with a wink. "It'll be fun." She pulled her arms slightly and felt her rope give a little. She winced as she felt her shoulder tighten up.
"As always, Diana, you have a witty remark." He brushed her hair out of her face and sat back down in front of her.
He looked over her shoulder at a monitor and smiled. "I don't believe it. He got here a little later than I anticipated, but better late than never I always say. Diana, it's been fun reliving all our memories together, but I must run. I'll be sure to give Vaughn a kiss goodbye for you before I blow his head off," he said as he stood up from his chair.
She lunged at him, and took pleasure in him jumping back a little bit. "Stay away from him, Patrick," she said, straining at her restraints again. "Do whatever you want to me, but stay away from Vaughn."
"Don't worry, Diana. I'm not going to hurt Michael much; he's just target practice to me."
****
Vaughn walked into the warehouse with his gun drawn and looked for any signs of movement. As he looked over inside the building, he tried to imagine Diana getting her mission specs from Patrick, running her training exercises. As he opened the first door, various scenarios ran through his head about Diana's whereabouts. He wondered if she was still alive, and if Patrick would hurt her.
"Diana's an amazing woman, Vaughn," Patrick said as they watched her in the shooting gallery. "I've tried to talk her into going into black ops. We could use someone with her talent in the division."
Vaughn shook his head. "And I'm sure that she's already told you, Williams, she isn't interested going into that division."
"Is it her that isn't interested, Vaughn, or is it you?"
Vaughn looked at Diana who was taking off her glasses and her earplugs, and smiled as she looked back at him. "I'm not going to pretend that I liked the idea of you approaching Diana about black ops, but she is her own person, Williams, and if she's telling you no, then no it is."
"If she were with me, Vaughn, I'd support her. You on the other hand are holding her back."
He took a deep breath and turned to face him. Diana had told him to stop being an easy target for Patrick. "Look, Patrick, I don't know what your problem could be but—"
"How are my favorite two men in the CIA?" Diana said cheerfully as she walked into the room. "Is everything okay?" she asked.
Vaughn smiled and turned the face the woman he'd been in love with for over a year. He felt as if Diana was 'The One' for him, and he couldn't wait to ask her to marry him. "Everything's fine, Diana. We're just having a discussion. Right, Patrick?" He knew that she hated it when they argued.
Patrick stared at him, and then smiled at Diana. "Yes, everything's fine, Diana."
Vaughn looked around to see if any of their superiors were watching. He then took her hand in his and pulled her close to him. "You were fantastic." As he hugged her, he looked over her shoulder and saw Patrick glaring at them.
He hugged her tighter and smiled as she returned it. Patrick continued to stare at them with a look that would have put them both in an early grave. He made a promise to himself talk to Devlin about his concerns.
"I'm so sorry that I doubted you, Diana," Vaughn mumbled. He walked out of the room, and continued his search.
****
Diana continued to strain against her restraints and winced as she felt her shoulder tighten up again. "Come on. Come on," she mumbled as she the ropes loosen. She stood up and rubbed her wrists.
"It's been a long time since I've been in this room," she muttered as she took the chair that Peter had been sitting in and pulled it towards the large metal door. "I wonder if my failsafe is still working," she said as she stood up on the chair and began to feel around the doorframe. Smiling, she found a small switch, and lifted it up. She jumped off of the chair and stepped back to let the door open.
As it opened, she crouched down and waited to see if Patrick was standing there. Not seeing or hearing anything, she started out of the door. Turning down the hallway, she tried to push down the nagging thought that this was too easy. She heard a loud click a few footsteps further down the passageway. Recognizing the sound, she dropped to the ground as shots rang out over her head in a crescent formation.
"The son of a bitch rigged the hallway," she said, half-laughing, but mostly pissed off. She placed her hands over her head and crawled across the corridor towards a closed door. Reaching the frame of the door, she pressed herself as close as possible to it, and kicked it open. She ducked even lower as the bullets shot over her, and she rolled into the darkened room.
Finding a switch on the
wall, Diana squinted as fluorescent lights came on. She let out a low whistle as she looked at the interior of the
room. Different guns lay against the wall with a layer of dust and cobwebs
covering them. She ran her hands over the concrete arch in the middle of
the room and smiled as she spotted a familiar box in the corner.
"I'm surprised he hasn't been in here yet," she said as she walked
over to a chained wooden box marked with her nickname, 'Lizzie'. Taking a pipe from the floor, she swung it
hard at the rusted lock, gasping as she felt pain radiate from her shoulder
blade. Grunting, she picked the heavy
pipe and swung it against the lock again. As the lock hit the floor, she
tensed and waited to see if anyone heard her. Feeling confident that she was
alone, she removed the chain from around the box, and opened it.
A slight smile played on
her face as she looked over the contents of the box. "Just as I remembered
it," she said as she pulled out a gun and a knife. She hit the
bottom of the box with the palm of her hand and pulled it up, revealing a pair
of night vision goggles, a silencer, and three magazines of ammunition. She
loaded one magazine into her gun, and quickly screwed the silencer
on. Rushing over to the door, she put the goggles on, and turned the light
off. Hoping that five years in a box hadn't damaged her equipment, she flipped
a switch on the goggles. She blinked several times as her eyes tried to
focus in the low blue light. Patrick had teased her about being
over-prepared, telling her that she wouldn't be back here, so there wasn't a
need to keep all of her equipment in the warehouse.
"I'm glad I didn't listen to you, you son of a bitch," she muttered as she
rushed over to the doorway. She pressed
herself into the wall, and located the motion detector located in the corner of
the hallway. Lying down on the floor,
she hoped her hunch was right and Patrick hadn't set the detector to pick up
stray animals that would venture into the warehouse. She moved slowly careful not to make any sudden movements that
would set the motion detector off again.
As she reached the end of the hallway, she stood up, turned, and ran
towards front of the warehouse.
***
Patrick pulled at the wires, and checked the timer against his watch. "Right on time," he mumbled picking up a duffel bag at his feet. He chuckled as he heard the automatic gun firing faintly in the background. "Didn't see that one coming, did you, Diana? All you had to do was to stay away from Vaughn." He walked further towards the other column and placed another cartridge against it. Standing up, he strolled over towards the right of the room and rolled a liquid filled canister towards the center. He reached in the black duffel bag, pulled out the last C-4 cartridge, and affixed it to the canister. He smirked as he thought back the look that Diana had given him when she realized that he had been alive the whole time. "So fucking blind, Diana, and it was right in front of you the whole time," he said, relishing the memory. Standing up, he kicked away the now empty bag, picked up the handgun that had been lying in front of him, and calmly walked out of the room.
***
Vaughn stopped as he heard a faint firing sound coming from the floor underneath him. He pressed on his earpiece. "Lareby, are you hearing this?" Static answered him. He looked around and noticed that the walls had been covered in some sort of substance that was preventing the radio signal from his earpiece from escaping the building. Frustrated, he yanked it out, and noticed a door at the end of the hallway. Sprinting over to it, he opened it and started down the stairs. As he continued down, he saw someone dart around the right corner.
"Diana!" he hissed as he reached the bottom and ran down the corridor. Reaching the end, he turned right and left, hoping for some sort of sign of her.
Vaughn started down the left corridor as he heard a voice behind him. "Well, if it isn't the White Knight here to save his damsel in distress. Of course, the damsel could easily defeat her knight, but you didn't think about that. I knew you wouldn't. Drop the gun."
Vaughn's grip on his weapon tightened as he heard Patrick chamber a semi-automatic weapon.
"Careful, Vaughn. I'll kill you before you'll be able to get one shot in, and besides I wouldn't want to ruin the look on your face as you realize that I'm the better man," Patrick continued to mock. "Drop the gun."
He grunted as Patrick pressed the tip of the gun into his back. "Where's Diana?"
Vaughn could hear the smirk in other man's voice. "Dead. She didn't even put up a fight, Vaughn. You weakened her; she was always weak around you."
Vaughn felt his heart stop. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the last time he'd seen her. A sad smile came to his face as he remembered the smile she given him the morning before she was attacked, then he tried to imagine her face as she fought Patrick, and a smirk came to his face. "How badly did she kick your ass before you killed her?"
"Shut up," Patrick growled as he hit him with the butt of his gun, causing him to fall to his knees and drop his gun.
"All you had to do was to stay away from her, you son of a bitch," he yelled as Vaughn stood and faced him.
"She needed my help, Patrick, and I was able to give it to her," he retorted as he gingerly touched the back of his head. He grimaced as he felt warm blood at the base of his neck.
"And give it to her you did, Vaughn," Patrick sneered as he brought the gun to Vaughn's face. "You ruined her, Michael. If you had left her alone—"
"Left her alone? For you?" Vaughn couldn't help but chuckle. "Diana never saw you in that light, Patrick. She would tell me all the time, how much she respected you, and how much she aspired to be as good as you. There were never any romantic feelings on her end."
"Really?" Patrick sneered as he put down the gun on a box. "So, I'm assuming she hadn't gotten the chance to tell you about Budapest yet. Does she still have that little tattoo on the inside of her thigh, Vaughn?" Vaughn glared at Patrick. "I'm assuming that by your look that you were unaware of our previous dealings. It's interesting how she always left certain things out, isn't it?"
He lunged towards him, and jumped back as Patrick pulled a gun from behind his back. "Nice try but as you can see I'm always prepared," he said as he swung the butt of the gun and struck him. As he started losing consciousness, he felt Patrick's hands removing his vest.
***
Diana watched from the corner as Vaughn and Patrick argued. Anger coursed through her as she heard Patrick tell Vaughn about Budapest. "Don't believe him, Michael," she whispered to herself as she saw Vaughn features changed. "It never happened."
She jumped and knocked over a box when she saw Patrick strike Vaughn on the temple. Drawing her gun, she aimed for Patrick's head. Her finger lightly touched the trigger, and she held her breath. "One shot and it'll be all over." Looking at him standing there, she saw the man, the agent, she used to admire. It was only for a second, but it was long enough. Sensing her hesitation, Patrick yanked up Vaughn, blocking the clear view of she had of him.
"You're good, but I know that you won't take a shot with Vaughn in front of me," he yelled, straightening to full height, but making sure to keep Vaughn in front of him.
"We can finish this, Diana. Me and you. I'll let him go, if you deal with me alone." Her grip on the gun didn't loosen. "Let's be smart, Diana," he continued to yell as he dragged Vaughn over towards the box where he had laid his gun.
Her finger touched the trigger again, and she looked through her sight. She got ready to squeeze the trigger and gasped silently as Patrick let Vaughn fall to the ground and brought the gun to Vaughn's temple. "I'll kill him, and don't think for a minute that I won't." Her finger still danced on the trigger as he brought out his other gun and pressed it to Vaughn's midsection.
If it had been anyone else, she would've pulled the trigger and hoped for the best. The chances of him getting off a shot before her bullet him were slim, but there was a chance. The man she had once trusted with her life held the man who could give her the normal life she craved in his hands. She knew that she couldn't trust Patrick as far as she could throw him, but as she watched Patrick stroke the trigger of the gun he was holding into Vaughn's midsection, she took her finger off of the trigger.
She laid her head against the wall as Patrick gathered Vaughn up. "It seems that you have made a good decision. Diana, if you want to finish this and I know that you do, you know where to find me."
***
Vaughn woke with start and winced as he felt his arms yanked behind him. He squinted as his eyes adjusted to dimly lit room.
"Where am I?" he mumbled as he took a deep breath. He coughed as a metallic smell attacked his lungs.
"One of the rooms that were used in her training sessions," Patrick said from an unseen part of the room. "This was apart of our search and rescue simulation. It was the one part of Diana's training that she was never quite good at—she always put her target in front of her own life. There is one way into this room, and while she was good at getting in, she was never good at getting out."
"She's alive?" he asked as his coughing intensified.
"Diana is very much alive, Vaughn. She's always so predictable. She'll come into this room with guns blazing to get you out of here, and you'll both die."
"She's not that predictable, Williams. You should know that more than anyone," he spit out as he tried to clear his lungs of the stench.
"Tell me something, Vaughn," Patrick said as he appeared out of nowhere and was right in front of him. "Does Diana still insist on being on top? I remember that she was always very aggressive in the bedroom."
He knew that Diana would never voluntarily sleep with Patrick. While he'd been jealous of Patrick when they were younger, he'd gained enough wisdom over time to see that she truly had not looked at Patrick in that way. He was an agent she admired; as a man, Patrick had not been noticed by her. But the last twenty-four hours had made Vaughn realize how little he did know about her. The Diana he knew was dead in some ways. Vaughn glared up at Patrick and tried to move his arms.
"You seem so surprised, Vaughn. Did you expect her to be a nun while she was away?"
"No, but I expected her to pick someone better than you. Was she drunk when you took advantage or did she just have pity on you?"
Vaughn braced himself as Patrick drew the gun, cocked it back, and pressed it into his face. "I could end this right now."
"Then do it," he grumbled as he felt his head become heavy again.
A small sigh of relief escaped his body as he heard Patrick uncock the gun. "No, that'll be too easy. This pissing contest I'm having with you has been great, Michael, it's brought back a lot of memories, but if you'll excuse me, I have bigger fish to fry."
He started to shout a warning for Diana wherever she was that Patrick was setting her up when he felt a rough cloth come over his mouth. He started to choke as he felt the rag grow tighter.
"Can't have you ruining all my fun, Vaughn. You'll see her soon enough."
***
Diana ran through the passageway, stopping every few seconds to adjust her goggles. She stopped and waited for any signs of Vaughn or Patrick. Hearing nothing, she turned and headed towards the area where she ran her training exercises with the rest of the team.
Using the infrared sights, she looked for any traps that wouldn't be noticeable to the naked eye. Finding none, she rushed down the hallway towards the room that had been used during her last training session in the building.
"Vaughn?" she whispered loudly as she stopped at the door.
Not hearing any sounds, she drew her gun and cracked open the door. Her eyes swept over the room, looking for any sign of life. She started to cough as a sharp metallic scent assaulted her lungs. "Vaughn, are you in here?"
As she turned to her left, a frightened feeling came over her when she saw Michael sitting with his head slumped over. She cursed herself for not taking Patrick out when she had the chance. She ran over to him, hoping that she hadn't gotten there too late.
She bent down in front of him, placed the gun on the floor and grimaced as she saw the gash over his eye. Placing her fingers on his neck, she let out a slow breath as she felt a sluggish but steady pulse.
"Vaughn," she said, patting his cheek. "Wake up. We have to get out of here before Patrick gets back." She took her knife she'd been holding out of its sheath and cut the ropes that had held his hands together. As she re-sheathed it, she gasped as his head slumped forward.
"Come on, Vaughn," she said more urgently. "You have to wake up before he gets back. I can't do this by myself." She patted his cheek again, this time harder. He mumbled incoherently.
"Vaughn!" she shouted, worried. "You HAVE to get up. I don't have much time; this whole place is wired to blow in ten minutes." She smacked his cheek. "Wake up!"
"Di-Diana?" he stuttered. "What are you doing here?" he mumbled, his eyes opening slowly.
"Yeah, it's me," she replied. "I'm going to get us out of this mess, Vaughn." She picked the gun up from the floor, put it back in her waistband, and took his arm to place it around her shoulders.
She strained as she helped him stand up. "Can you walk?" she asked.
He shook his head and took his arm from around her shoulders. "Yeah, I'm good."
She nodded. "We need to move; I'm not sure how long we have left. The structure of the building has been laced with explosives, and we need to—" She stopped as she watched Vaughn's features change.
She got ready to ask him what was wrong when she heard a noise from behind her. "Vaughn, when I say move, you'll go to your right, and I'll fire," she said quietly. She took the gun out of her waist and cocked it back. "Move!" she shouted and turned to face her former friend with her weapon drawn.
"I almost had you," he said with a wink. "Vaughn gave me away."
"Let him go."
"Sorry, but I can't do that."
"You're going to go back on your word, Patrick, and I thought that was beneath you," Diana said, sarcasm dripping from her words. The grip on her gun tightened. "Vaughn isn't in this equation, Patrick. You wanted me and you've got me." A worried look crossed her face as she thought about the bomb. At her last check, they'd ten minutes left, and without her watch working she didn't know much time remained, and without her watch and the drugs slowing her usually reliable sense of time, she didn't know.
"Worried about the explosives?" Patrick asked with a smirk on his face. "You're probably thinking that you can kill me, save Vaughn, and you two can live happily ever after."
"What makes you think I can't?"
She saw a flicker of uncertainty on Patrick's face. As cocky as he was, he knew how good she was, or maybe he was remembering how many times she'd succeed on sheer stubbornness. "You always were determined, Diana. It was one of the things I loved about you."
"Love? You've never understood that feeling," she spit out, anger flowing through her words.
She watched his face change. He wasn't the only one who knew the enemy well. His anger was going to be her ally. She'd reminded him time and time again to keep that anger in check, but he'd never listened.
He lunged at her, giving her the opening she needed. She spun and hit him center in the chest with the heavy boots she was wearing. Grunting, he fell to the dirty floor. She grabbed Vaughn's hand and raced out the door. In his weakened state, he was slowing her down, but she kept urging him to keep going. As they reached the opposite end of the corridor, she used her arm to warm him, indicating a trip wire across the floor. It had been there since her early days, and almost everyone forgot it.
In his anger, Patrick would, too. They carefully stepped over it, and raced down the hall. A few seconds later, a grunt and the sound of a body hitting the floor told her that he'd forgotten the wire. Avoiding the trigger for the automatic gun, she got Vaughn out the door.
The adrenaline rush was starting to wear off. Vaughn leaned heavily on her as they walked out into the dark night. Hearing the sound of approaching footfalls, Diana spun and aimed her gun.
"It's me!" Agent Lareby called as he skidded to a stop in front of them.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Did you come with him? Why weren't you there as backup for Agent Vaughn?"
"Calm down, Diana," Lareby said calmly as he looked her over. "Devlin ordered me to be here with Vaughn, but Vaughn wouldn't let anyone come in as backup. He said that he could handle the situation himself."
"And he did a super job," she muttered.
"Help him," she said as she strained with Vaughn leaning heavily on her. "He has a concussion."
"Vaughn?" she called to him as Lareby took him from her arms. "I have to go back inside."
Vaughn mumbled incoherently. She looked at his eyes and realized that he was passing out again. She felt his pulse and let a slow sigh of careful relief.
"Keep him awake while I go inside," Diana said as she rubbed Vaughn's cheek.
****
Diana walked into the warehouse with her gun at her side. The adrenaline she felt earlier as she and Vaughn escaped was back. She paused to listen for any signs of Patrick. She frowned as she remembered the rage in his eyes when she told him that she'd kill him with her bare hands if he came near her again. Knowing that he had been watching her that night in Budapest with Alejandro had made her skin crawl. The next day he'd apologized profusely for overstepping the boundaries that she had set down her first month in black ops. For reasons she was having a hard time understanding now, she'd forgiven him. Accepted his apology. How had she been so blind?
"How could you be so stupid, Rochelle?" she muttered to no one in particular. "If I had paid attention, then the team wouldn't be dead." She knew in her mind that it wasn't her fault that her friends were murdered, but as memories of the happiness on Kelli's face when she talked about her younger sister's college achievements assaulted her, bitter tears formed in her eyes. As she reached the center of the big warehouse, she felt eyes on her.
She placed the gun on the floor in front of her and held her hands up.
"Patrick? I know that you're still here," she said as she turned in a circle in the room. "You said that you wanted to finish this, and here I am."
She tilted her head and waited. The drug was almost complete out of her system, but she was still uncertain of the time. She didn't have long before the bomb went off. She felt the ground shake and looked up to see the columns start to crumble. She fell to the ground as concrete started to fall.
"Patrick!" she shouted again as she stood up. The dust from the concrete entered her lungs, and she started to cough. She braced herself as she felt the floor shake again. She turned and saw him standing right in front of her with that rage she remembered and a gun in his hand aimed at her midsection.
She held her hands up and narrowed her eyes at him. "A gun, Patrick? I thought we were better than that. You used to tell me that killing your enemy with a gun was the easy way out, and you didn't believe in doing things the easy way. Why don't you put the gun down and we finish this like adults?"
She braced herself as he brought the gun up and aimed it at her head. "You know, Diana, you're right." He threw the gun on the floor, spun and kicked her square in the chest, causing her to fall to the floor.
She rolled over and stood up slowly taking deep breaths. Her lungs burned with the acrid air from the concrete. "Is that the best you've got, Patrick?" she asked, mocking him. She winced as she took another deep breath. She played the rage card before and she hoped it would work again. "Your roundhouse has become weak."
"You stupid bitch," he growled as he came at her again with his fist drawn back. She blocked his punch and hit him with an elbow to the face. She jumped back as she felt the ground shake again.
"You'll never get out of here alive, Diana," Patrick said as he stood up and gingerly touched his punctured lip. "The structure of this building will go in a matter of moments, and I'm sure that the fire has already started."
A cold wave of fear washed over her. She looked at Patrick who was now smirking back at her.
"Did you think I forgot about your fear of fire, Diana? That fear always paralyzed you."
She swallowed deeply and continued to glare at Patrick. The adrenaline she felt moments before was starting to leave her. She knew that he was right; she'd had a great fear of fire since her parents had been killed, and he'd protected her from that fear many times.
She inhaled and smelled the faint odor of wood burning. She smirked at him as she willed herself to speak. "If I die, I'm taking you with me. You shouldn't've killed the team, Patrick," she said, her voice showing determination.
She frowned as Patrick started to clap. "That's the Diana I remember," he said. "I was beginning to wonder if I'd see her again." He spun around fast and kicked her in the kidney causing her to fall to the floor with a loud grunt. "While you're good, Diana, I'm still just a little bit better."
She rolled to the side as Patrick brought down the heavy boot he'd been wearing in an attempt to hit her in the throat. Using her right leg, she swept it under him taking him off his feet, and she grabbed a pole that was lying by her. She stood up to face him, and stepped back as she faced a gun being aimed at her.
"You said no guns, Patrick," she said as her grip on the pole tightened. She took a deep breath and the smell of the smoke had grown stronger.
"I lied," he said with a smile and a tilt of his head. "Goodbye, Diana."
She lunged at him with the pole firmly in her hand, just before he squeezed the trigger. The pole connected with his head, and she heard a loud crack from his neck as he fell to the floor.
She fell to the ground and gripped her midsection. She cried out in pain as a wave of nausea came over her. She'd been shot.
Struggling to breathe, she willed herself to sit up. "Get up, Diana," she muttered out loud as if her own voice could get her to move. She winced as she looked at her hands, covered in her own blood. "Get the fuck up, Diana!" she shouted to herself. She strained to sit up as she heard the supports above her start to crack. Leaning heavily against the wall, she struggled to stand up fully. She threw her arm over her eyes to protect them from the growing dust from the rubble. Seeing the doorway to the stairway where she and Vaughn had escaped earlier, she sprinted towards it, trying to keep the pain from crippling her. As she reached the door, she yanked it open and started down the stairs.
***
Vaughn struggled against the medics who tended to the gash over his head. "I have to go back in there!" he shouted into the oxygen mask that one of them had placed on him. "Why didn't you try to stop her?" he asked Lareby as he yanked the mask off of his face. He glared at the outwardly anxious man, who had been standing nervously off to the side watching the now burning building.
"I-I tried, Agent Vaughn, but Diana wouldn't listen. She said that I had to stay out here with you, and you know how she could get," he said as he continued to look at the building.
Vaughn frowned as he thought about Lareby's comments. Diana was at her stubborn when her mind was set on something. "That maybe true, Greg, but you still should've tried to stop her."
Vaughn watched as Lareby continued to stare at the building. Something about his comments didn't set well with Vaughn, but either the painkillers that had been given to him or the fear that Diana wouldn't make it out of the building alive prevented him from querying any further.
***
Diana ran down the hallway, grimacing with every step towards the back of the warehouse. She hoped that Patrick hadn't remembered to block the hidden exit. She stumbled as a piece of wood fell in front of her. As she struggled to stand again, the room started to spin.
"No, No," she muttered. "Can't stop." She stepped over the wood and continued down the hallway. Sweat started to get into her eyes as she reached her destination. She moved boxes out of the way, and almost screamed when she found the door that could lead her to safety. She looked the door over and tried to remember where the failsafe was. Finding what she was looking for along the door jam, she lifted the switch and waited for the door to open. A sharp pain ripped through her as she struggled to breath. She looked over her shoulder and could see the fire inching towards her. She looked back at the door, and it didn't move. She examined it closer and noticed that a piece of metal had been jammed into a small crevice, preventing it from opening.
Seeing a box that looked sturdy enough to hold her, she pushed it towards the door to help her gain leverage to move the piece of metal. She stepped gingerly on the box, and reached up to remove the metal. As she stretched towards it, she felt the box start to give way under her weight. "Just a little bit further," she gasped as the pain from her wound continued to grow. As her fingers touched the metal, the box broke under her weight and she fell to the ground with her head hitting the floor hard and knocking her unconscious.