Things had calmed down, which was strange, considering the caliber of the outburst. But, Sarah decided, that was what love did for people. Or, rather, to them. She smiled at how Cass and Chris found their comfort in the midst of all the chaos, and how she looked over his shoulder as he continued to tweak the gloves.

She felt terrible, however, when she saw the pained look in Sloane's green eyes. She didn't have to be able to read people's emotions directly to know what was going through her head. She felt it too. "They'll be fine," she soothed as she walked over to the chestnut haired woman. "Trust me...I..."

The other woman raised her eyebrows and stepped away from the protective embrace of a friend. "Have you been through this before?"

Sarah smiled. "The painful waiting where you have no idea what's going on with your boyfriend and where you wonder who to worry about more...the man himself or the people who had the stupid idea to mess with him in the first place." Cass put her chin on Chris's shoulder and stifled a laugh as Sloane smiled softly. "More times than I want to count, much less remember."

Sloane nodded. "I guess you do know..."

"We have a situation on our hands." Sarah swallowed and gritted her teeth when she heard Dave's voice in that tone.

"What's going on?" The question could have been spoken by everybody at the same time, and in Sarah's view, it most likely was.

"Settle down," came Dave's voice, raised just enough over the cacophony that everybody could hear him. "As I said, we have a situation on our hands." Sarah watched as he closed his eyes, folded his arms and prepared to get down to business. "I just spoke with Carmen."

The voices of the people who knew her got louder. Everybody else just wanted to know the rest of what Dave had to say. "Settle down dammit," he ground out. Sarah grimaced as her Uncle Walter, usually happily in control, shifted uncomfortably in his position behind Dave. "We..."

"So," interjected Ed, calmly. "What is the situation?"

"If you let me finish," Dave answered, his tone ice, "you'd know by now." Sarah herself found it hard to keep from shivering. But she knew Dave well, something that most people didn't. Which is how she kept quiet and confident in the knowledge that he'd tell her as soon as he knew something. An action he was trying to take. "We've just finished watching a tape that's been sent of Carmen. She's fine. They...one of whom is confirmed as Lewis, have decided to use her as a spokesperson."

Her heart jumped into her throat, at the idea that Carmen was being used as opposed to any other of the group that had been captured. "Why," she breathed, barely realizing she'd done it aloud.

Dave smiled and walked towards her, putting her arms around her like only the boyfriend of a very close friend, and a close friend in his own right could. "Because she's got the notoriety that everybody else has by reputation." He patted her shoulder and she somehow relaxed. Once he'd untangled himself from her, he walked back to the front of the room. "Now we've been able to pinpoint her location," he began once he'd settled himself back up there, though to Sarah it seemed like he'd never left. "And we've put together a contingency plan."

"This plan," began her Uncle, back again in his element. "Involves a small group of you flying to a remote mountainside base in the middle of the Sierra Madre del Sur Range..."

Her upstairs neighbor raised his eyebrows. "Southern Mexico..."

Sarah watched Chris's face pale. "Is there any other way to get there," he managed. "I mean..."

She stifled a laugh as Cass raised her eyebrows. "You don't trust my flying?" And almost died laughing as Chris locked his jaw. "I'm kidding scaredy cat...but no, I'm sorry. If you want to go, you gotta trust me."

"Cass," Chris made out as Sarah caught a wicked glance from him. "I trust you completely and you can't make this out to be anything other than my extreme paranoia about flying....because it really..."

"I know," she shot back, odlly calm from Sarah's point of view. But, she reasoned, Cass herself was trying to calm Chris, who was clearly more out of his element than anybody else, including her uncle. Who was shuffling from foot to foot, making her nervosa a bit small in comparison. She actually thought she'd heard a laugh from either her neighbor or Sloane. "For someone who senses emotions, you couldn't sense mine if you tried..."

Chris raised his eyebrows. "I don't have to try," he made out, somewhat, in Sarah's view, offended. "It just..."

"Yeah, yeah," Cass returned, dissmissively. "It happens. Well you're like two to zip on me so far." She tossed her head and glanced at Dave who shook his head. Sarah found it hard...not to find it all amusing. " You've missed the entire fact that there is absolutely no other way to get there. None. This place is inaccessible by any other way than a small landing strip about three quarters away from the base of the range. It's IMPOSSIBLE to get there any other way. And as much as I know you want to go...I can't make it any easier for you."

Sarah nodded, taking the pressure off everybody else. "So aside from me," she began, who else is going?"

"You're not going without me," Sloane interjected.

Sarah shrugged. "Stands to reason I guess." She then turned towards Dave. "Who else?"

He smiled and she relaxed as they fell into a pattern that made Sarah comfortable. "Well...we have Ed and Chris at base with..."

"And I'm flying." Cass swallowed. "That doesn't make sense...sending them in..."

Dave shrugged and met Sarah's eye. "A friend of mine is on his way..."

"You mean," Sarah interjected. "A friend of ours." She smiled because she understood. And in spite of everything, she was. This rescue mission would be interesting.