I know I said I wasn't going to update without a review, but someone added my story to their favourites list, lol...it softened me up ;) Just as a sort of pre-warning, the next chapter will deal with some sensitive issues. Anyway, everyone at OtJ (my forum) seemed to really love that chapter, so the sooner I get reviewed (or favourited, lol), the sooner the chapter goes up ;) In other words, R&R :)

A sudden commotion in the hall caused Nicole to look up from where she was planting the bug. Before she could move, the doors slammed open and Tobin's security men burst in, their guns pointed in her direction. She froze, dropping both the bug and the phone she had been in the process of planting it in, then stuck her hands in the air, grinning sheepishly.

With the room and the intruder secured, Stephen Tobin himself stepped casually in. He stopped a good distance away from Nicole on the other side of the desk. "I thought you people were professionals," he sneered as he signaled to his men to grab and disarm her.

The one guard did a quick search for weapons, then another pushed her forward onto the desk and cuffed her hands behind her back. He pulled her up by the hair and pushed her around to the other side of the desk.

Tobin looked her over with a sneer. "Take her to the basement and shoot her," he ordered.

As she was walking by him, Nicole tripped on the carpet and fell sideways into Tobin, knocking him off balance and falling to the carpet. One of Tobin's men yanked her up roughly and shoved her out the door, while Tobin brushed himself off.

"That was some sloppy work, baby," one of the three men escorting her down the hall muttered to her. She nearly lost her balance when the man shoved her shoulder to encourage her to walk faster.

The third man broke off through a doorway just as they neared the main foyer of the mansion, and Nicole heard him apologizing to someone for the delay. Cocking her head slightly she tried to listen to the rest of the conversation, but whatever might have been said was cut off as a black BMW drove through the front doors.

Nicole ducked down and rolled forward, then ran for cover behind a sculpture in the hall. "Why didn't I grab the keys?" she muttered to herself as she tried to manipulate her body and get her hands around front.

At the sound of someone approaching she looked up just in time to see Lieutenant Peck slide to a stop and fall to the ground beside her. "You wouldn't happen to have a spare set of keys, would you?" she asked over the hail of gunfire.

He pulled a leather pouch out of his jacket and, with a smooth grin, replied, "no, but I have the next best thing." Unzipping the pouch, he revealed a set of lock picks.

"My hero," Nicole muttered, her hands held out toward him.

"We can always leave the cuffs on next time," Peck mumbled with a sly smile as he quickly freed her hands.

"Cute," she said, smiling tightly. "You have a weapon for me?"

Peck's expression became slightly nervous. "Well, uh, not as such," he muttered. "Just, uh, stay close and I'll cover you, okay?"

Nicole rolled her eyes and replied, "well, I've heard worse plans."

"Count of three?"

She nodded, flinching slightly as one of the shots hit a little too close by for comfort.

"One. Two. Three!" Nicole ran out first with Face providing cover fire as he ran close behind her.

When she had made it to the doors where Colonel Smith was waiting, he pointed her to a large black, red and grey van that had parked itself right on top of what used to be a very expensive fountain. Shaking her head and smiling to herself, she nodded and ran for the opened side door of the van, accepting Murdock's outstretched hand and the rifle he offered her. Immediately she went to the back bench and opened the back doors, steadying herself on the bench as she took aim.

"Go, BA!" she heard Colonel Smith shout as the van screeched away from the mansion.

Face came to sit beside her, propping himself up as she had done and firing out the back doors.

One of Tobin's men - the third one that had been escorting Nicole - burst out the front door and started shouting orders to follow the van. He then pulled a radio out and yelled into it as well - presumably warning whoever was at the gate. But Nicole focused her attention on the cars starting to follow the van.

She and Face shifted their aim slightly and opened fire on the vehicles, trying to blow out the tires. When they'd blown the tires on the lead car, the one directly behind slammed into it, disabling two vehicles at once. The driver of the third car took a bullet and wound up plowing the car into one of the pillars at the gates as BA sped away from the compound.

As soon as they'd reached the bottom of the hill and driven a safe distance, Nicole and Face leaned forward and pulled the back doors shut.

Colonel Smith turned around in his seat and watched her take the seat beside Murdock. "You okay, kid?" he asked her, a note of concern in his voice.

"Yeah," she replied with a nod. "Could have gotten myself out, though. What made you…how did you find…?"

Pulling out a cigar and lighting it, Smith replied, "Face found out that Shirral was in town. We tracked him down and followed him."

"Why? What made you change your mind?"

"If you'll recall, I didn't say 'yes' or 'no,' kid - you took off," he pointed out.

Nicole slouched in the seat, looking a little embarrassed. "Didn't really have time for a debate," she muttered. "And the conversation didn't seem to be headed in a very co-operative direction."

"What made you decide to go into a place like that alone?" Murdock interrupted the conversation. The look on his face suggested that he thought she was insane.

She shrugged. "Had to get the bugs planted somehow."

"There must have been a better way than that," he exclaimed, looking concerned.

"It's nice to know you were worried, Captain, but I'm fine and I would have been fine even if you hadn't come for me." As the team exchanged glances she smiled dryly and asked, "anyway, can we go back and get my car now?"

"You want us to go back there?" Face exclaimed incredulously.

Turning her head to face him, she shot back, "you want me to leave my baby back there?"

"Where did you leave it?" Colonel Smith asked patiently.

"North-west corner, bottom of the hill just off the property. Why?" she asked skeptically. "Are we going back for it?"

"We are not," Smith replied obstinately.

When he exchanged a glance with Lieutenant Peck, Nicole turned to look back at the man, and, out of the corner of her eye, saw his arm raised. But before she could react, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck and slipped into unconsciousness.

Murdock reached out and caught Nicole as her body slouched forward, then gently propped her back up in her seat and fastened her seatbelt. He reached his hand around back of her head and lightly ran his fingers over the spot where Face had hit her with the butt of his gun. "She'll have one gonzo headache when she wakes up," he muttered. "Did you have to hit her so hard?"

Hannibal turned back to face the front, and muttered to BA, "pull the van off to the side here."

"I didn't mean to, I…," Face started.

"She gonna be okay, Murdock?" Hannibal asked as he glanced back at the Captain.

The Captain nodded. "Like I said, she'll have a gonzo headache and probably one heck of a goose egg on her noggin, but otherwise…"

"Good," he muttered as BA pulled the van to a stop. "Find her keys and go get her car, will you, Captain?"

Again Murdock nodded, then he began patting her down to find the keys. When he found them he looked once at Face before opening the door and leaving.

Nicole groaned as she awoke with a headache. Reaching her hand around back of her head, she felt a rather large and painful lump at the base of her skull. When she sat up, she felt dizzy and her vision became clouded, the sensation causing her to move her hand from the back of her head to her forehead and squeeze her eyes shut. "Great," she muttered.

To her right she heard footsteps and risked opening one eye. Lieutenant Peck was offering her a glass of water and Tylenols. "Thanks," she muttered her acceptance as she took the glass and the pills. She tossed the pills into her mouth, and downed the glass of water in one swig.

"How're you feeling, kid?" Colonel Smith asked from the couch across from where she was seated.

Reaching up to hold her head again, she replied, "like I just downed a gallon of ice cream in about 30 seconds flat and have the worst ice cream headache on record."

"Sounds about right, minus the ice cream part," Murdock muttered.

Suddenly, she remembered her car and stood up a little too quickly. A pair of arms steadied her as she swayed.

"Easy, there, muchacha," she heard Murdock mumble.

"My car?" she grunted.

"I drove it back for ya, it's in the driveway."

She nodded and let him help her sit back down. After her vision had cleared somewhat and her head had stopped spinning she looked up at Colonel Smith. "Why did you have to knock me out?" she muttered.

"We just pulled you out of that place, kid," Smith replied. "I wasn't about to let you go back in."

"But you let Captain Murdock go back in?" she shot back, suddenly angry.

Smith waved a dismissive hand and replied, "Murdock can handle himself."

"And so can I! And why are we arguing when we should be listening to that bug? And where is Sergeant Baracas?" Nicole stopped and took a couple of deep breaths to relax herself a little, then calmly added, "and would you please stop calling me 'kid,' my name is Nicole."

"BA's in the other room setting up an amplifier so we can all listen in, k-," Smith stopped and corrected himself, "Nicole."

"Thank you," she mumbled quietly. She leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes; the shouting she had done certainly hadn't helped her headache any.