A/N: Okay, okay, this is a defense. I got some feedback that Jolie fans character assassinate Cristian. I respectfully disasgree with that and I definitely don't think how I've characterized Cristian in one part is inaccurate. He was kidnapped, brainwashed, programmed to kill. He was angry last time he was on the show and abandoned, in effect, by John McBain and law enforcement in general on the show. He was then in prison. It has an impact on a person and to ignore that would be irresponsible as a writer on my part.

That said - thanks for all the feedback.

Part 9
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"Who are you?" Cristian asked as a woman was let into the beach house.

Natalie just stood by the windows in the living room with her arms crossed, barely paying attention to the arrival of another fed.

"I'm Special Agent Marcia Kelly. I'm with the behavioral science unit." She stood in the middle of the tiles foyer onto which the living room opened.

"A profiler. Why are you here?" Cristian asked.

"I've worked up the profiles on the people who kidnapped you Mr. Vega, as well as your wife."

At that Natalie turned around to face the red-haired woman. She walked over to stand next to Cristian. He put his hand on her back.

"What do you mean? Our cases aren't related, are they?" Cristian asked.

"She means she's come from Llanview where she lied to everyone about where I was." Natalie's voice shook with rage.

"You are right, Natalie, may I call you Natalie? However, one of the officers there figured out that we had you and the proverbial cat is out of the bag."

"John?" Natalie whispered, her heart pounding.

"Yes. Why don't we sit down."

"Who knows I'm all right? I want to speak to my mother. How is she? She has a heart condition you know."

"Let's sit down." She began to walk into the living room.

"Answer me, first. How is my mother? How is Vicki Buchanan?" Tears thickened Natalie's voice.

"She's fine. She probably knows by now that you are safe with us."

"Who told her?"

"I'm not sure, Commissioner Buchanan was going to make sure that it was done, despite our wishes."

Natalie closed her eyes and let out a sigh. Cristian stroked her hair and led her the seating area where Agent Kelly was already making herself comfortable.

"I want to speak to her. I want to go home."

Cristian's expression hardened.

"Leaving is not possible right now. Maybe soon, but not right now."

"I need to talk to my mother. And my brother. And Roxy. And my sister, is she back?"

Agent Kelly looked at her speculatively.

"You must have some sort of encrypted phone and I won't say where we are."

"You haven't told us why you're here," Cristian pointed out.

"Part of my qualifications for being a profiler is a doctorate degree in psychology. Since I'm already familiar with the case I was asked to come here and talk to you about your options once the Peroni family is taken down, which we hope will be any day now."

"Options? What do you mean options?" Natalie asked. "Why can't we just go home to Llanview?"

"That is one of your options, but if you do that we can't guarantee your safety. There will always be others filling the vacuum this bust creates. There may be people seeking revenge or to prove their power by cleaning up this business."

"But they may just leave us alone since we didn't do anything! They took Cristian and made him cooperate, but he was never one of them." Natalie was angry.

"In fact you resisted cooperating at the end, Cristian. Even against what was incredibly deep brainwashing."

"My love for my wife got me through." Cristian took Natalie's hand.

"We can set you up in the witness protection program, new identities, new place. But then you can never go back to your old life. To your families."

"That's what I want to do," Cristian said.

"But it's too late. People already know where I am and that I'm with Cristian, don't they?" Natalie said.

"They will know you are alive, but you won't have contact with them and they won't know where you are. I need to make sure you are really prepared for that before you decide."

"I'm ready."

"We haven't even scratched the surface of the brainwashing that was done to you, Cristian."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Cristian stood up and glared at her.

"You've had your life ripped from you for almost two years, one reason I can see you would choose to continue that is if you're afraid that your brainwashing might cause you to harm them."

"I'll be fine as long as I have my wife."

"Maybe you and I should talk in private, Cristian."

"No. I want my wife here!"

"I'm going to give Natalie the opportunity to speak to her mother."

Cristian scowled at the obvious manipulation.

"Cristian. I need to speak to her and you need to talk to someone." Natalie's voice was hesitant. They hadn't spoken about him seeing anyone since he was in Llanview and was vehemently opposed to it.

Cristian looked at Natalie, seeing her worry his expression softened. "All right, baby."

Natalie stood up and followed the plain clothes agent waiting for her at the entryway. She followed him up to her bedroom where she was handed a cellular phone that she was told was encrypted and untraceable. She turned it over in her hands, but she couldn't see how it was different than any other phone. As she was studying the phone it rang.

A smile broke out on her face and she opened it quickly and put it to her ear.

"Mom? Are you all right?"

"Oh, honey!" Vicki cried over the telephone.

"They took me and they wouldn't let me call you or come home. I was so worried about you? Are you all right?"

"Oh, Natalie. I'm so much better now that I know you're all right!"

Natalie lay down on the bed and fought back her tears.

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"You're afraid that you will hurt them, but you are also afraid that you don't know who to be around them after trying to kill your brother."

"Don't forget Tico Santi. I killed him, not that it was much of a loss." Cristian was bouncing his legs and his hands were moving in an agitated manner.

"And prison. Prison had to be hard for you the few months you were there."

Cristian rubbed his head.

"How often do you have the headaches?"

He stopped his ministrations and looked up at her. "I still get them, I don't know, a couple of times a day."

"You don't like to take the painkillers the doctor prescribed?"

"I don't like drugs. I had enough of them on that ship."

"Are you talking to me because you want to help yourself or because you're afraid you're going to hurt Natalie? Or already have?"

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"When are you coming home?" Vicki asked.

"I don't know. Maybe days, but." Natalie rubbed her eyes.

"But what, honey?"

"Cristian doesn't want to come back. He wants us to go into the witness protection program. He says that it's because he wants to make sure we're safe from this mob family that took him and programmed him to get rid of the Santi heirs."

"Of course he wants you safe."

"He doesn't understand how I feel. That I can't just disappear." Natalie paused and rolled over onto her back. "And I can't just pretend that the past couple of years haven't happened."

"How do you feel about him?"

"I love him. I do. But I'm so angry. At him. At what keeps happening to us." At John, she silently amended.

"What about John McBain?" Vicki zeroed in on her daughter's thoughts.

"I don't want to talk about him. He lied to me, I don't know how to feel about it. Cristian said he made him promise not to tell me for my own good. It's just...I don't want to talk about him." Natalie gripped the bed blanket and twisted it.

"He was quite devastated when he thought you were in danger, possibly dead. He was a big comfort to me."

"That's his job. I can't deal with him right now. It's Cristian I need to concentrate on. I don't know what to do. How to get through to him."

"Honey, you need to give yourselves time. Neither of you are the same people now. You've both been through so much."

Natalie's own tears fell as she heard the tears in Vicki's voice.

"Im sorry they let you believe I was kidnapped or dead. they wouldn't let me call."

"I know. This is not your fault. They tell me it's safer for you there."

"I miss you. And Roxy and Rex. I don't know if I can call them, please tell them I'm okay. Even if the FBI won't let you."

"All right, honey. They tell me I have to hang up. Remember that I love you."

"I love you, too." Natalie dropped the phone onto the bed and rolled over and cried into her pillow.

Sometime later she felt the bed dip and Cristian lay down next to her and take her into his arms. He didn't say anything, he just let her cry.

After a few minutes she looked up at him. "I love you Cristian. I do. But I need time, we need time."

"We've already lost enough time!" Cristian insisted.

"You're still angry, like you were when you came back to Llanview."

"Of course I'm angry at what they've done to us! What you're doing to us."

"Well you know what?" Natalie sat up and looked at him. "I'm angry too! For what they did to you and at you for lying to me. Were you ever going to tell me you were alive?"

"But not angry at McBain, I guess?" Cristian sneered.

"Of course I'm angry at him! I'm furious at him!" Natalie got up and looked for something to throw. "And I'm furious at you! Both of you conspiring to protect me like I'm some kind of child. Then you have me kidnapped and brought her and my family and friends think I'm still being held by a bunch of psycho killers."

"Furious is good." Cristian crossed his legs and leaned back on the headboard.

"It's good?" She demanded.

"Better than the ghost that's been walking around here, excuse the irony."

Natalie put her hands on her hips and glared at him. Taking in his amused countenance her fury began to temporarily recede and she climbed up the edge of the bed.

"The last time I saw you I was told you were an imposter and I thought I was so stupid I didn't know my own husband. I've grieved for you twice. I love you. And I want to go home. That's all I know right now."

"I love you, Natalie. But I don't know if I can go back."

Natalie began to cry again and she crawled up the bed to sit next to Cristian, careful to keep her sensitive ankle to the side. She put her hand on his cheek.

"What was done to you, you need to deal with. We need to deal with. And you should have your family with you."

"I've gotten counseling."

"Is it enough?"

"Sometimes i get so angry, even with you. The other day, I didn't mean for you to fall. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It was an accident. I know that you didn't mean to hurt me."

"But I felt satisfied that it happened."

"That's not you, Cristian. That's not who you are. That's what they have done to you."

"I don't know if that Cristian Vega can ever come back."

Just then, the telephone rang.

Startled, Natalie picked up the phone and opened it. She looked down as saw John's cell number. She looked back up at Cristian.