Title: You Can Never Escape Your Past
Spoiler: This story is a continuation of Viva Las Vegas.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer I have nothing to do with The Agency and receive no
compensation

Since Stiles and Terri are now secretly married. I've changed some of the scenes to have it play out a little different. This next part involves an Absolute Bastard.

Chapter 8

Terri and Stiles walked into the hotel room. Terri was visibly upset. She knew Stiles didn't want to talk but she needed to make him. "We've been compromised."

"Anybody could've seen what was going on. The maid, a bellboy... Banga has spies." Stiles was sure he knew where Terri was going with this and he didn't want to talk about her.

She needed to see his reaction to this next question she walked up and looked into his eyes. "What about Mrs. Banga?"

Stiles got uncomfortable and broke eye contact with Terri. "What about her?"

"Well, if you knew her, she knew you." He walked away from Terri to the other side of the room and grabbed a beer. "I mean, you may not have struck her as the kind of person that would be a diplomat. All she had to do was tell her husband to keep an eye on us." Terri was completely torn apart, as a new wife, she wanted to know exactly what was between her husband and this woman. As a CIA agent, a fellow agent was jeopardizing this mission. "Stiles." she walked over to him, he tried to avoid looking at her.Right now she had to be a CIA agent. "Listen! You are affecting this mission now!"

Stiles sighed, he knew he had to tell her, there was just no way out of it. "There's not much to tell. Boy comes to Africa to plan embassy evacuation, boy meets girl..." He looked at Terri. He could see she didn't know what to say to him. He knew no matter what he said was going to hurt her. "She worked at the embassy."

"Then she could have taken files and given them to her husband."

"Uh uh. No."

"How do you know?"

"Because she wasn't trying to steal documents that day. She was trying to join the evacuation. She thought she would be killed if she stayed."

"And you thought she'd be killed if she stayed." she paused for a moment looked at Stiles. "But you left her anyway." Terri immediately thought if he left her, he could leave me. She turned and walked away from him.

As Terri was saying this he looked down. He knew that Terri didn't understand this. "I had duties. I was a Marine Corps Officer."

Terri could tell this was hard for him to talk about, but all of her doubts about getting involved with him in the first place were slowly coming back into her mind. Stiles just sat down in the chair. Terri sat down across from him. She put her hands on his thighs. "Stiles, what happened?"

"A mob was attacking the embassy. I was protecting the staff and the CIA station. Dacia got caught on the wrong side of the fence as the helicopter was taking off." He looked away from Terri and with a heart full of regret told her. "I could have let it go without me."

"Maybe she took the files after you left."

"Why?"

"Because she was left behind to die by her American boyfriend." Terri said this with a little more anger than she wanted to. Terri couldn't believe he didn't realize this. Terri stood up and walked away, Stiles wanted to say something but he didn't know what to say.

Lex and Jackson walked back in. Terri was standing by the bar, and Stiles had his back to her looking out the window. Lex told them. "They have a band in the bar downstairs that you would not believe."

Jackson looked at them and could tell that they have been arguing. "What's going on?"

Stiles told him "Our exfiltration list just got reduced by four."

Terri elaborated. "Murdered, after one of them came to the room."

"Are we out of here?" Lex asked beginning to get concerned.

Stiles looked at Terri. "I need to talk to Mrs. Banga."

"No, no you don't. Stiles." Terri was very upset. She couldn't believe he wanted to go see his ex. Jackson and Lex both noticed the tension.

Stiles walked over to Terri. "If you're right, the there's nothing we can do, but if you're wrong we can go ahead with the mission." Haisley looked at both of them. He could tell there was a lot of tension. He was very curious as to what was going on.

"Well you can see her tomorrow. DeCamp just told us downstairs that Banga has invited us for further discussion in the morning at his country club." Terri was noticeably uncomfortable with this.

It was getting late and all decided to go to bed. Terri went into her room. Lex and Jackson walked into their rooms. Stiles just sat there. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to go hold his wife and reassure her how much he loved her, but with Jackson and Lex in the other rooms he knew he shouldn't, as far as everyone knew they weren't even dating. the last thing he wanted was to get into a fight with her and have Lex and Jackson hear them.

Terri sat on the bed and couldn't help crying. When Stiles finally went to bed, he could hear Terri's muffled cries. He got up and went back into the living room. He wanted to go to her but couldn't, he couldn't go to his room and listen to her cry. Jackson heard someone walking around.

"Hey Stiles, couldn't sleep?"

"No."

"Stiles, I'm not trying to pry." Stiles looked up at him. Whenever anyone starts a conversation like that you know, they are going to stick their nose where it doesn't belong. "I don't know exactly where you and Terri are in your relationship. It's obvious that you have feelings, strong feelings for each other." Stiles nodded. "If you and Terri are" Jackson struggled to find the right words. "you know," Jackson couldn't find the words, Stiles looked up and smiled. "Go in there with Terri, if that's what you need to do. Talk this out with her. You'll regret it if you don't. Whatever went on between you and Mrs. Banga, Terri needs to know how that affects her now."

"Thanks Jackson." Jackson patted Stiles on the shoulder as he returned to his bedroom.

Stiles stood up and walked to Terri's door. He could hear that she was still crying. He gently knocked. "Terri, can I come in."

Terri sat up and tried to dry her eyes. She desperately wanted to see him, she needed to know. "Yes."

Stiles walked in and sat down next to her. "Terri, I'm sorry." He put his arms around her. "You must hate me now. I saw the look on your face."

"Stiles I don't hate you." She looked at him as much as she hated to ask she needed to know. "Are you in love with her?"

"No, I don't love her. I love you. Terri, it was 5 years ago."

"Were you in love with her then?"

"I thought I was. I really didn't know her that well. I was only here a few weeks."

Terri immediately thought about how they began. They only knew each other a short time, before they slept together. They definitely didn't know each other long enough to be married. She hated asking this but she wanted to know exactly what happened between them. "Were you lovers?"

Stiles didn't want to refer to any woman other than Terri as his lover. After meeting her he realized, he was never truly in love before he met Terri. "We slept together."

"So the two of you were lovers." Terri was upset thinking about Stiles with someone else even though it was so long before he met her.

"Terri, you do realize that you were not the first woman I ever had sex with don't you?" Terri just looked at him. He could tell she was mad and that comment didn't help any. "I'm not your first either. Terri, you are the only woman I have ever truly loved. You are the only lover I have ever had. I won't cheapen what you and I have by comparing it to what happened with Dacia or anyone else before I met you."

Terri was beginning to soften. "Stiles if you left her."

"Terri, you think I would leave you behind." Terri looked at him, anything either of them said at this point would hurt the other. Stiles took her left hand in his "Terri, look at our wedding rings." She looked at them and then back into his blue eyes. "This is all you need to look at, to remember my commitment to you. Do you remember what I said to you in front of Elvis?" Terri smiled and kissed him. "I love you Terri. I promised you that you could trust me with your heart. I love you." He kissed Terri as he was saying this. "only you." They began to kiss passionately.

Stiles was about to start undressing her "Stiles what about Jackson and Lex? They're just across the living room."

"Jackson told me, very politely, typical Jackson. That I should be in here with you working things out." Terri just started laughing she could imagine how uncomfortable Jackson was having this conversation with Stiles.

"I love you Stiles." Terri and Stiles made love and just for a little while forgot about Dacia, Banga and the mission. It was just the two of them nobody else. Their happiness would only last until the morning, when yet another curve would be thrown at them.