Three months later
Xander was sitting in the boardroom; it was assignment time again.
"Xander?" Gibbons asked and he looked at him.
"Yes?"
"Did you hear a word of what I just said."
"Nope."
"Well if you had, you would've known I just gave you an assignment to take down White
Rabbit. One of their hackers, Red Dragon, got into our mainframe and stole files."
"What files?"
"Undercover Agent Files, he or she could sell them to the highest bidder and agents all over
the world are going to die. We tracked the website back to Dublin, Ireland you'll go and you'll
be working with a partner."
"Who?" Xander asked looking down at the table.
"Agent Razor Wings." Gibbons said and his head snapped up to look at him.
"What?"
"She's an insider, she knows the workings. They think that she's been on vacation for the
past three months. She's really been in solitary."
"She hates me."
"Oh she more than hates you. This is nonnegotiable; you two will work together. Meeting
dismissed." Gibbons said and the Agents got up and left, Xander stayed seated. "Yes?"
"If we go, she may kill me."
"We already thought of that. We told her that if she does, she'll be put in a Maximum
Security Federal Prison. She agreed not to kill you."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel better." Xander said.
"Don't worry X, I promise that she won't kill you."
"That doesn't mean that she won't try."
"True. Have a nice flight." Gibbons said and left. Xander sighed shaking his and left.
At the airportXander was at the gate; he checked his watch again. She was late. He scanned the people
for a woman with purple hair and didn't find one. But there was an extremely beautiful woman
with light brown hair and gray eyes coming towards him. She looked kinda familiar. She walked
past him and up to the desk handing them her boarding pass.
"Xander!" she said and he looked at her closely.
"Danica? Is that you?" he asked and she rubbed in between her eyes getting her boarding
pass back. He didn't recognize her without the heavy purple makeup and dark purple hair, that
and the bright purple spandex. In fact she was wearing probably the exact opposite, a plain gray
T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.
"No, I'm the Pope." She said sarcastically, "You comin' or what?"
"Yeah." Xander said and went to the desk just as she started to walk down the long
hallway. He got it back, showed the guard his photo ID and ran to catch up with her. She was
just going to her seat when he caught her, grabbing her arm. She yanked it out of his grasp.
"Don't touch me." She said and went to her seat sitting down. He was seated next to her so
he sat down and she turned away from him looking out the window.
"We're going to be on this plane for 10 hours, lets just get some things straight..."
"Don't talk to me either." She said and put on her headphones, loud music came out of
them and he turned looking at the back of the chair in front of him acknowledging her dismissal.
After a half an hour she turned off her CD player as the plane took off and she ignored him when
he tried to talk to her again once they were in the air. When the announcement came on that it
was okay, she turned her CD player on again, after a while Danica ran out of CDs to listen to
and they sat there in tense silence. He turned to her and saw her looking out the window.
"Listen Danica..."
"I said don't talk to me." She said with a clenched jaw.
"Well I'm choosing to ignore that."
"Before you start, I have some rules."
"Okay."
"One, don't talk to me unless it pertains to the case. Two don't touch me. Three don't even
look at me. Follow these rules and we will get along fine. You don't and I'll gouge your eyes out
in your sleep."
"You do and you'll be sent away." Xander said and she looked at him.
"Xander, I have lots of friends, in lots of countries that owe me lots of favors. All I have to
do is call in one of these favors with one of these friends and I'll disappear. They'll never find
me." Danica said and he nodded.
"Well you might as well get used to me being around, I'm not going anywhere, that and the
fact that we're married." He said and her eyes widened in angered shock.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" she asked and he smirked at her.
"Gibbons didn't tell you? In your three-month vacation, we met and got married. You are
Mrs. Alexander Cage."
"Screw that, I'm filing for a divorce."
"Honey, I'm hurt especially after how much fun we had on the honeymoon."
"I assure you the fun was one sided, since you spent the entire time shaking hands with
shorty." Danica said and his smile left, with a 'humph' he faced forward and saw her smirk out of
the corner of his eye.
For the next few hours they sat there in silence and he watched the in-flight movie, Grind,
while she read. He noticed that she started to nod off, her head dropping then coming back up
again. Soon she was asleep and in her sleep she put her head on his shoulder, her hand on his
arm. Smiling slightly he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. He watched
her while she slept. Without her heavy makeup and daring clothes, she looked young and
vulnerable, and without her purple hair she looked like a young woman straight out of college,
she looked nothing like the woman he met at a Collide concert three months prior. Xander
started to stroke her long; light brown hair and she moved her face into his shoulder more making
a small noise.
"I'm sorry Danica." He whispered and she stirred but didn't wake. When they were on
final descent he woke her and she looked surprised that she was leaning against him. She put
distance between them and he sighed. The plane landed and they got up stretching. They got off
plane, got their bags and she waited while he rented a car.
She stayed silent on the drive to their apartment that Gibbons set up, leaning against the
door and looking out the window. When they got there he unlocked the door and she pushed
past him, her bag in tow. Finding the bathroom he heard the shower start. He found the bedroom
and mentally thanked Gibbons. There were two full beds, one on the opposite sides of the room.
Xander set his bag down on the one facing the door and got changed into his pajamas, just a pair
of sweatpants.
The bathroom door opened and Danica came out in her own pajamas, sweatpants and a
tank top. She went to the remaining bed and threw her balled up clothes on the floor next to it.
She collapsed on the bed and looked at him.
"Bathroom's all yours." She said and he stood.
"You better not have hogged all the hot water." Xander said and went into the bathroom
turning on the shower. "Damnit you did!" he said and she laughed evilly. After taking his cold
shower, not that he had any choice in the matter; he put his sweatpants back on and brushed his
teeth. Going back into the bedroom he saw Danica sound asleep and he lay on his bed, pretty
soon so was he.
He woke the next morning to the smell of coffee brewing. Getting up and stumbling into the
kitchen he found a very tired looking Danica sitting at the small kitchen table with a mug in her
hands. She moved her head at the coffeepot and an extra mug sitting next to it. He poured
himself some and sat down across from her.
"Thanks." He said and she looked at him bleary-eyed.
"No problem." Danica said.
"Not much of a morning person?"
"Well let's see. I'm in a country that I don't want to be in, with a man that I despise
working for the very government that I was raised to go against. I guess I'm entitled to be just a
little cranky. Don't you?" she asked and Xander looked at her, annoyed.
"Can you stop that?"
"Stop what?"
"Complaining. Yes you hate me I know, but you don't need to remind me every five
fucking minutes. That happened three months ago and you're acting like it happened yesterday,
and like a two-year-old."
"Go to hell."
"You first."
"Been there, it's called three months of sensory deprivation and solitude."
"That's what they did to you?"
"Yes, you have no idea what its like. Not being able to hear anything, see anything; touch
anything, to have no one around. I'm lucky I didn't go insane." She said with her hands on the
table, cupping her mug and looking down. He put his hand gently on hers and she jerked it out of
his touch, some of her coffee splashing out of the mug and onto her hand. She got up and rinsed
it off.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"Well you should be, it's your fault."
"How is it my fault?"
"Open your eyes Xander! If you hadn't captured me in the first place I never would have
been put in there."
"You had been hacking into the NSA mainframe."
"Just to see if I could. The NSA has some of the most advance anti- hacker technology on
the planet, it was a thrill just to get in and leave proof that I was there. I could've implanted a
virus that would've destroyed the entire mainframe in less than an hour. But I didn't. I just got in,
dropped my card and left. Just for that I was used, and damn near tortured." Danica said and he
stood leaving his mug on the table. She let him wrap his arms around her and hold her, her cheek
on his chest. "I hate you Xander, I hate you so much." She said and began to beat on his chest
with her hands; he didn't try to stop her. She needed to get this out. After a while her steam left
her and he was left holding her in his arms while she shook.
Xander stroked her hair and just held her.
"It's okay, it's alright. I'm sorry Danica, I'm so, so sorry." He whispered and she looked at
him.
"Why do you care so much?" she asked and he shrugged.
"I don't know, I just do. My conscience has been beating me ever since that night at my
place."
"Why?"
"Because ever since I became an agent, I've been going after and arresting bad guys but
you, you weren't bad. You were just a girl having some fun with a computer. You weren't doing
anything wrong, you just wanted to test to see how good you were." Xander said and she laid
her head on his shoulder.
"Why can't you be terrible? Why can't you be a complete dickhead? Why do you have to
be compassionate and wonderful?"
"I don't know. Would you prefer it if I was?"
"Yes, because that way I would have a good reason to continue to hate you. But instead
you want my forgiveness; you're showing sympathy and guilt. I don't think I can hate you much
longer if you do that."
"Then don't hate me."
"I spent three months in solitary cursing the moment I met you. Three months thinking up
different ways to kill you, each more painful than the last. The last one I came up with is cutting
off bits of your limbs just a little bit at a time with a butter knife and then cauterizing it every single
time until I got to an artery."
"Ouch."
"I have a very active imagination."
"I guess so. We should probably call Gibbons."
"Yeah probably, but can you just hold me a little longer?" Danica asked and he nodded.
"I don't see why not." Xander said and did just that. After a little while she began to touch
his chest lightly and he tilted her chin up so he could look her in the eyes. His head descended
and he pressed his lips to hers, she hesitated but kissed him back. They kissed slowly and gently
for the longest time, but it was probably only a minute or so.
When they parted they were both breathing heavily and Xander couldn't seem to stop
looking in her eyes. The gray so light that it almost blended in with surrounding white. He kissed
her forehead gently and pulled away.
"Okay we can call Gibbons now." Danica said and he smiled.
"Just let me get a shirt on." Xander said and she nodded against his chest. He took his arms
from around her and went into the bedroom.
When he was gone she sat down in her chair with her head in her hands, elbows resting on
her knees. What the hell was she getting herself into? She took her cell phone out of her pants
pocket and dialed the number of an old friend.
"White Rabbit? This is Razor Wings. I have a slight problem that needs to be dealt with."
Xander pulled on a shirt and picked up his vid-phone, he hooked it up to his laptop and
dialed the office number. Gibbons picked up and his scarred face filled the screen.
"X, I'm surprised to see you still alive."
"She and I have reached a truce."
"Where is she by the way?"
"In the kitchen. Hold on a sec." He stuck his head into the kitchen just as she was closing
her cell phone. "Danica, I have Gibbons on the line." He said and she stood.
"Okay."
"Who'd you call?"
"No one important." She said and as she was walking past him he grabbed her arm.
"Hold on a second, you have something right here." He said touching her bottom lip and he
kissed her. When he pulled away he was grinning.
"Smart ass." she said and he kissed her quickly on the mouth.
"Thank you." Xander said and they went into the living room where he had set up the
laptop.
"Hi Gibbons." Danica said and Gibbons nodded.
"Danica. Xander here tells me that you two have reached a truce, is that right?"
"Sure is." She said and Gibbons nodded again.
"That's good. It's a good thing you called Xander, I have some more info on White
Rabbit." Gibbons said and his image went up into a corner of the screen as the information
appeared. "So far the hacker hasn't begun to sell the information. Danica, who is Red Dragon?"
"Erik Voutrin. He has no priors, so you won't find anything on him but a birth certificate."
Danica said and Gibbons nodded.
"How well do you know him?"
"Not very. The hackers working for White Rabbit they don't socialize, they just know each
other's real names."
"Wait a minute...White Rabbit is a person? I just thought that it was the name of the
organization." Xander said and she looked at him.
"Yes, White Rabbit is a person, no I don't know his or her name. We just all call 'him'
White Rabbit; kinda like how Charlie's Angels just call Charlie, Charlie. They don't know his
real name or what he looks like, just that they communicate with him and he gives them
assignments. It's the same with White Rabbit."
"How do you know so much about Charlie's Angels?" Xander asked and she smiled.
"I used to watch the show when I was a kid. But what I do know, is his phone number and
that he lives here in Dublin, but I don't know where exactly."
"Fair enough, contact me when you have more information." Gibbons said and the screen
went blank leaving only the info.
"I know all of this already, so happy reading Xander." Danica said and walked away.
Xander sat down on the couch and pulled the laptop onto his lap, unhooking the vid-phone.
Danica lounged around the bedroom and after a little while got up and went into the
bathroom taking a shower. When she got out of the bathroom she found Xander lying on her bed
with his hands behind his head, his shirt lying on his bed.
"You get confused or something? That's my bed." She said and stood next to it, water
dripped off of her hair and beaded on her arms and collarbone and anywhere that wasn't
covered by the towel.
"I didn't get confused. Nice towel by the way." He said and she held back a smile.
"Get up."
"I believe I already am." He said glancing down at his lap.
"Oh my god! You are such a perv." She said and went over to his bed sitting on it and
dropping his shirt on the floor. "By the way Xander?"
"Yes?" Xander asked standing and caught the towel just before it hit his face. Grinning he
went to her.
Several hours later Danica unwrapped herself from Xander's sleeping body and went into
the bathroom. Looking in the mirror she saw that she had several red marks on her neck and
throat from when he had nipped at her skin with his teeth. She went into the bedroom and went
over to her bag getting a pair of handcuffs; a sound made her look at Xander. He was still asleep
but was now lying on back whereas he had been lying on his side before, the sheets had slipped
so they only covered from his waist down leaving his chest bare.
Grinning slightly she went over to him and straddled him putting the handcuffs in-between
the mattress and boxspring. He came awake instantly and smiled up at her.
"Hi." He said and put his hands on her waist, kneading slightly with his fingers. She ran her
hands from his shoulders, down his wonderfully muscular and tattooed arms and back up again.
She touched his neck and chest with her soft hands, her fingertips slightly callused from heavy
typing and he moaned moving into her hands. Leaning down she kissed from the hollow of his
throat to his lips, his arms wrapped around her and he deepened the kiss.
"Remember what I said three months ago when you took out those handcuffs?" Danica
asked when they pulled away.
"That I could use them only if you got to the next time?"
"Yup." She said and took the handcuffs out.
"Danica Lewis, I never would have guess that you were like that." He said repeating her
words from that night.
"I'll surprise you. So how about it?"
"Why not. I least I know for certain what's going to happen." Xander said and took his
arms from around her. She handcuffed his hands to the headboard and they kissed.
"You know what Xander?" Danica asked as he kissed her neck.
"Yes?" he murmured against her skin.
"Payback's a bitch." She said and his physical reaction to her died instantly. She got off of
him and he pulled at the handcuffs trying to break the chain but it wouldn't. She got dressed and
pulled the sheet off his body, she got a pair of his sweatpants and when she tried to put them on
him he kicked her shoulder with his heel. "Xander! Some people are going to coming over here,
you don't want to be butt naked do you?" he allowed her to put sweatpants on him and watched
as she took out her cell phone. "Okay." she said into it and closed it, she forced a gag into his
mouth and took a syringe full of an amber liquid out of a small case. Even with his thrashings she
managed to inject it into his arm and he felt himself start to slow down. There was a knock on the
door and she left the room coming back with several men, by then the drug had taken effect and
he could barely focus on their faces or what they were saying.
"Interesting position Razor Wings." One of the said and she looked at him.
"Enough with the cover, I can't stand it. Call me by my real title." She said and he nodded.
"Yes ma'am. Whatever you say White Rabbit." He said and Xander's eyes widened.
White Rabbit, it makes...strong stuff. What the fuck was it? He thought as she
handed the keys to the handcuffs to one of the men. They went over to him and he didn't have
the energy to fight back, he started to lose time. One moment he was on the bed, next he was
being carried out of the apartment; the next he was in a van and the van was driving away from
the building. Groggily he looked out the van window and saw Danica looking out at the van from
the apartment window she disappeared from the window and darkness took him.