A/N: Thanks for the great response to the first chapter! - Choco Donut, E. S. Young, CaptainRaven and of course Emma, Heva and Holly- Thanks soo much for the great reviews!

The first chapter was rather short but it was intended as just a brief introduction the storyline. I'll try and make the chapters longer now that we are into the story but I don't have a lot of time to write and I prefer to update short chapters regularly than long chapters with months between each update.

This is my first attempt at an OUATIM story so I'm quite new to this. I do read a lot of these stories though so I have some idea of what I'm doing...I hope. Agent S.J Sands is one of my favorite characters of all time. I love him because there's so much about him that's left unsaid and unexplained in the movie. He has a sort of phobia of weakness and vulnerability and feels the need to act stronger than he feels. With Sands, things are rarely as they appear. It was 'circetigana' on livejournal that said Sands 'handles the pain because he doesn't even know there are other options'- I think that's perfect. He's one of those people who is born unlucky and has stopped even trying to escape. I'm writing this because I think he deserves to fall in love!

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The early morning sun seeped through the silver blinds casting stripes of golden light across Sands' sleeping face. Dark eyes fluttered open and he groaned in annoyance, rolling over and burying his head in his pillow. A few minutes past and Sands, realising he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again now he was awake, sat up in bed muttering darkly. Fifteen minutes, a strong coffee and two cigarettes later, Sands was just about awake enough to consider his plans for the day. He needed to do a bit of shopping- something he hated with a passion- and then he had a hospital appointment at 2o'clock. He was due for a check-up x-ray of his right collar-bone which he had literally splintered just under a year ago in a car-chase with a Mexican drug cartel. What a fucking roll-up that was Sands mused to himself and now, guess what? I'm back in this God-damned country. You'd think they'd have learned by now that I don't work well in the heat. Getting to his feet, he showered, dressed in his usual black and grabbed his keys as he left his apartment.

Sands walked speedily down one of the many aisles inside the local Mexican supermarket. He passed straight by the food section- having been raised in an extremely wealthy family he had no idea how to work a cooker and had either eaten out or ordered in his entire independent life. He was, however, fresh out of both coffee and tequila and so he was forced to spend a small amount of time inside this stuffy building earning many strange looks from the other shoppers who were obviously wondering why on earth he was wearing a long sleeved black shirt and jeans in the summer in Mexico.

Finding the rows of coffee jars, Sands reached out for one trying to take it from the shelf, the jar wouldn't move. Frowning, Sands tugged harder and stumbled backwards slightly, hearing a small yelp from the opposite side of the shelf. He looked down at the jar in his hand and then at the gap in the rows of coffee where an arm had appeared, poking through from the other side. Sands' frown deepened and he brushed off his shirt, crouching down a little and coming face to face with a pair of forest-green eyes. Sands recognised the eyes straight away- the girl from the café. Quickly assuring himself that his expression was unreadable, he grabbed a second jar of coffee and passed it through the gap. The mysterious woman accepted the jar with a grateful smile.

"Thanks." She had a cheery voice and an American accent although Sands, being far more perceptive than the average person, could detect just a hint of Spanish.

Great she had to talk. Why do they always have to talk? Well, I'm going to look like an idiot if I don't reply...

"Sure" he shrugged.

"Have I met you somewhere before? You seem familiar."

Sands scanned 'mystery woman's expression carefully. She remembers me he concluded she just doesn't want you to know it... that or she's trying to start a conversation. Play along...

"Café." He replied simply.

"Oh yeh!" She'd make quite a decent actress "My back's hurting, could we continue this conversation somewhere other than this supermarket? Are you free tonight?" Ooh look at that, she's asking me out- well she's easy on the eyes, that's for sure...

"I suppose." Sands replied casually.

"Don't talk much do you?" Mystery girl raised an eyebrow in an amused fashion.

"Only when necessary, can't say I'm one for casual conversation."

"Maybe I can change that." She winked at him.

Well she's certainly confident Sands thought.

"What do you reckon?" She continued "Same café as last week, eight o'clock?"

"OK" Sands nodded before standing up again, turning away from the coffee shelf and heading off towards the tequila.