She slid her katana into her artist's tube and put it on her back. Then she picked up her headset and placed it back on her head.

"Rhone, you should get back to base so Bones can…" Griffin had been talking like this since she got out of the Gell puddle. She had said no, and that was it.

"What I should do is find out why this was a total surprise," she gestured to the museum around them and its relative state of disarray. They were alone so she decided now was as good a time as any to talk about this – she didn't like public reprimands.

He looked up at the broken skylight. He knew this was coming. He was kind of hoping to put it off – permanently. He normally didn't fail. He normally…

"What happened? I refuse to believe that he was too good for us," she emphasized the word he. Gell was a traitor, no better than anyone else they fought against. How had he managed to do this in their backyard?

Griffin shifted his gaze from the ceiling to the floor.

He never behaved this way, Rhone observed. She told him to watch Gell – but he had made it sound as though he didn't view him as a threat… "Did you even have anyone on it?" she asked blatantly.

"I did," he finally looked at her, "I told you that I would put D on it." And he did…

"What priority?" her voice raised an octave and she narrowed her eyes at him. It was meant as more of a rhetorical question.

His eyes were on the ground again.

"Griffin?" she stepped closer to him and put both hands on his shoulders.

"Eight," he said softly. He truly didn't believe that Gell was going to be a problem – that he was retired and that was it. He had never heard of a traitor at all, let alone one after retirement… At the time, he thought she was overreacting.

"Eight?" she asked almost in disbelief. She lowered her hands to her sides.

"I know that you said…" Griffin was trying to explain.

She turned her back to him and looked at the white marble wall. Her right hand wrapped around the watch on her left wrist, "Just so I know, did you ever – in all those years – give anything Bishop said a priority eight?" The scale went from one to ten, one being the highest. They used it when determining the level of research or attention something should get – a method of prioritizing.

They both knew the answer to that was no. If the EX-O wanted research on anything – be it where to get the best Chinese food to the production of illegal arms, it should at least be a six.

"And what the hell is with you letting civilians remain in a restricted area?" he knew she meant Lex. She was talking loudly, assertively but not yelling.

"He was worried about you," Griffin said to her back. He didn't think she was angry. He had never really seen her truly livid. He asked her about it once and she said that she didn't like the idea of losing control – something that, at the moment, he was quite thankful for.

She paused for a moment, "Did he tell you that?" She really wished it wasn't absolutely necessary for her to know that. She decided not to think about it – or how pathetic it was.

Griffin paused, "Well, not exactly."

Of course not, Rhone thought cynically. She thought of Victoria Hardwick and how attractive she was. Victoria looked right standing next to Lex – she could stand next to Lex. Rhone assured herself that she didn't deserve such a position. …Something was wrong with her eyes, they stung. Maybe she should see Bones for a once over. She cleared her head. "How in the hell did he get a chopper without us seeing it?" she asked in a tone that told Griffin she wasn't going to hold it against him, more wondering out loud.

"It's my fault," he started, "If you think you need to – rearrange the hierarchy of our organization, I understand. I – I really screwed up…"

She could tell that he felt terrible – he was trained to follow orders and never to accept failure from a very young age. She could hear it in his voice. "Save your self-loathing for the chicks you try to pity into the sack. We won, that's all that matters. No casualties," she turned to him, "Only minor property damage. All in all, a good day." Well, no important casualties anyway.

He shook his head and smiled softly. If he were serving under Bishop and this had happened…

She interrupted the thought, "And what about the other guys that came with Gell?" She had taken her head set off and didn't want any loose ends.

He debated lying, but decided that since it seemed he was getting off basically scot-free that he shouldn't push it. "All of them except one are in the custody of the M.P.D. Oh and there are the two you took down when you – made your appearance," he said looking at the skylight.

"And the other?" she asked with a sideways glance as they began for the door of the museum again.

"I dispatched the chopper – he's on the run," he said.

"Really," she said in a tone that said the night might not be over.

To deter any more heart attack inducing behavior from her this evening, he put his had to his ear. He said, "Thaxx, status."

There was a fair amount of background noise from the helicopter, but Thaxx's voice came over the headsets. His voice sounded almost board, "He's on the freeway – amateur. Anyway, there was enough P.D. air and ground to follow O.J.'s Bronco like ten times. So, I left it to them and I'm damn near on top of you. How's that for service?"

Rhone smiled and touched her headset, "Screw the military, Thaxx. I think I'm going to buy you a red coat so you can start a freelance valet service."

Lex saw her walk out the museum door as she spoke.

Awol's voice came over the headsets, "I can see it now, Thaxx. You could call it Thaxxi's Taxies."

Lex smiled when a chorus of men started saying how bad the pun was. Every workplace must have their Gabe Sullivan. …Although Gabe didn't speak to him the way Awol did.

Rhone's voice came over the headset, "They're right, Awol, that really was horrible. Griff, where's my gun?"

He could hear the helicopter getting close. There were some chuckles around him, responding to Rhone's comment. Lex watched a couple of people walk up to her. She was walking in his direction, but not really looking at him. He wanted to talk to her and solidify that they were – okay. They hadn't actually spoken since she had left the Plant. And he really didn't know if she truly understood the necklace, it having been promptly returned with a note that didn't specifically say that they were still – friends or maybe…

She was walking toward him, still not looking at him. By now, Lex was wondering if she was deliberately ignoring him. Griffin was walking beside her, a look of intense relief on his face. She was in her element.

"Nix, I want you and D on damage control," Rhone was within earshot now, speaking loudly instead of using the headsets.

A helicopter landed in the street and a number of soldiers headed for it. Rhone passed closely to Lex. She didn't touch him, passing very closely. But without even the slightest acknowledgement – her face turned from him completely, it seemed that if he were a few inches to the left, she would have just plowed right into him.

A few uniformed officers walked up to her from the side and one put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey! You can't just leave this mess. There are witnesses to…"

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at the hand on her shoulder. Then she looked at the owner of the hand. Lex noticed that the officer flinched when he looked into her eyes. "Listen," she looked at him intensely, "You're new. And I won today, so you get that for free." She grabbed his wrist and squeezed it hard as she removed it from her person – she was careful not to actually damage him.

The officer's knees bent a little at the sudden pain, "Ah…" He tried to pull his wrist away but was unsuccessful.

She bent closely to his ear, "If you ever try anything even remotely like that again, I will make sure that you hurt – everywhere – all at the same time." She abruptly released his wrist and he took a few defensive steps backward. "Like I would leave this up to some inept police force, anyway. It's handled," she continued her walk to the helicopter.

Lex felt an air of tension relax around him. He looked at the soldiers around him; most of them were holstering firearms. He hadn't even noticed they were drawn in the first place. He realized that they would have killed that officer for looking at her the wrong way during that little exchange – not that she couldn't handle it herself. Their loyalty was second to nothing that he had ever seen. A smile tugged at his lips; she should go into politics.

Lex shook his head and started after her. He wasn't just going to let her leave, although he wasn't really sure if she were angry or just focused. A hand came up in front of him, impeding his forward motion. He heard a familiar voice – yelling over the helicopter, "That's as far as you go, Armani. And no, you can't buy a ticket any farther." Awol didn't look at Lex, just watched Rhone heading for the helicopter.

Lex allowed his voice to reach a yell – he could always just say it was the noise of the helicopter that made him, "Are you always like this?"

"Honest?" Awol asked disdainfully.

Rhone's voice came over the headset, "Awol, get your ass over here."

Lex watched Awol jog to the helicopter Rhone was just stepping onto. From her position on the platform, Rhone bent and grabbed Awol's headset with both hands. It wasn't forceful, more in the way that football coaches grab players to get their attention. Lex watched her look into Awol's eyes and speak. Then Awol shifted, he didn't like what Rhone had just said. She spoke for a few moments as most of the other guys piled onto the helicopter. Then Awol nodded, despite her hands on his headset.

Rhone let go of Awol and Lex heard her say, "Alright," over the headset. The helicopter started to lift, leaving Awol on the ground staring at it.

When the helicopter was about fifteen feet in the air, Lex heard Rhone's voice on the headset, "Hey."

Reflexively, he looked up at the helicopter again. She was standing erect in the door of the helicopter, one hand to her ear, looking right at him.

He didn't know how to talk into the headset. He was sure that it was just a push of a button on the ear. He never took his eyes off of her as fumbled for it, but couldn't find it. Her voice came again, "I'll see you soon." He gave up on the headset and just nodded. He held up his hand in a small wave and immediately began to chastise himself for lameness of the gesture. She nodded once and turned. The helicopter continued its ascent.

Awol approached him with an exasperated look on his face, taking off his head set. Lex realized that nothing more was probably going to happen and followed suit. Lex really hoped this guy didn't have anymore speeches about the upper class left in him.

"Let's go," Awol said as he reached Lex.

Lex blinked, "Excuse me?"

"Did you give any thought as to how you were going to get home with this place quarantined like a bad virus movie?" Awol said.

Lex really hadn't. He reached for the cell phone in his breast pocket.

Awol smiled and laughed lightly, "Good luck. You can call your limo but they'll never get in here. And you won't get out without a lot of bullshit."

"Is that what you came over here for?" Lex asked annoyed. This guy was Rhone's friend – for reasons he couldn't fathom, but he was beginning to get pretty fed up with his attitude and rude comments.

"No," Awol looked at the ground and sighed. "Come on," he took out a set of keys and gestured with his head to a police barricade a few blocks away.