Next chapter my lovlies! Hope you read and enjoy!

Nate finally came to, shaking his head slightly to get rid of the residual fog from whatever he had been drugged with. Looking up, he noticed he was sitting at a cafe table, all the items he had had in his pockets laid out before him. Sitting across from him was Marlowe, a smug grin on her face as she rolled Francis Drake's ring between her long, gnarled fingers.

"Welcome back," she crooned. He took note of his surroundings. Talbot sat at the table on his right and another rough looking man sat at the table on his left. He moved to sit up a bit more. "I don't recommend making a scene," she warned. "You're not exactly here legally, remember?" She twirled Drake's ring between her fingers, making a show of examining it. "Greatness from small beginnings." Her sharp eyes met Nate's. "Beneath that cocky exterior, you're still the same scared, filthy little runaway, aren't you?"

"Skip the mind games," Nate snapped. He shuffled uncomfortably, leaning his arms against the table and turning away from the old woman. "You don't know me."

"In fact - I suspect I know you better than anyone, Mr. Drake…" Marlowe slipped on a pair of reading glasses and eyed Nate from over the top of them. "Of course, that's not your real name, is it?" Nate's head shot up, eyes wide and Marlowe smirked. "But we won't dwell on that." She opened a file she had in front of her and shuffled through the papers. "Mother commits suicide… Father surrenders son to the state at the age of five… Entrusted to the St. Francis Boys Home…" She gave a sinister laugh. "It's all so Dickensian." Nate shot her a glare which quickly switched to worry as he noticed a picture of Alex on the table. "Ah, Alexandria King, daughter of Jacob King and Sofia Romano. Mother died at age seven, father died at age twelve, bounced around various foster homes until she was reported missing at age fourteen." Nate knit his brows in confusion. He didn't understand why Marlowe was telling him all this, Alex had told him all this years ago. "It's a shame really, with the reputation of her parents she could have amounted to something with the proper schooling." Nate clenched his fists.

"What do you want from me?" He demanded.

Marlowe sighed. "Well, as much as it pains me to admit it, I need your help. To find Victor Sullivan and Alex King."

Nate scoffed. "Right."

"We already know he has the coordinates to find Iram," Marlowe informed him, tapping the side of her head as emphasis.

Nate eyed her suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"You told us, Nathan," Marlowe said with a dark chuckle. Nate sat back in his chair, mind whirling. "It seems your loyalty isn't as firm as you'd like to think it is. What about his?"

Nate's head snapped to her. "What? Wait. What are you trying to pull?" What mind games was this witch playing at?

"Nothing," Marlowe replied innocently, or about as innocently as she could. "It's just that - well, we've had you 'in our clutches' for quite some time now… and he hasn't exactly mounted a rescue. He didn't rescue you or Miss King back in Cartagena, either. He just saw something he could exploit."

Nate shook his head. "I know what you're trying to do -"

"Trust me - Victor is only ever in it for Victor," Marlowe said, cutting him off. "It's a cold hard fact. I discovered it twenty years ago. I'm surprised it's taken you this long to figure it out."

"You're wasting your time lady." Sully had been by his side for twenty years. Gotten him and Alex out of more scrapes than he could count. After everything they had been through, there was no way he was going to be doubting Sully now.

"Fair enough," Marlow conceded. "But ask yourself… when he scooped you off the streets of Colombia twenty years ago, did he save you from that life? Or did he just doom you to this one?" Nate remained quiet. He wasn't going to give her any satisfaction. There had to be a reasonable explanation as to why Sully and Alex hadn't 'mounted a rescue' as Marlowe so delicately put it. They were probably working up a plan right now. Oblivious to his inner musings, Talbot walked over and whispered something to Marlowe. "Ah, excellent. Well, we've located Sullivan and King on the other side of the city." Talbot smirked at Nate and walked off. "I'm sorry, Nathan - it seems you've been removed from the equation." The rough looking man stood behind hand, placing his hands on Nate's shoulders. Nate shrugged, then promptly flipped the table and bolted after Talbot.

Alex's POV

I paced the floor of Elena's apartment. It had been two days since I had seen Nate and to say I was worried would be an understatement. I hadn't slept and had barely eaten anything, my stomach in too many knots to keep anything down. And if that wasn't bad enough, Marlowe had Sully. A few hours after Nate had run off, we had been ambushed and Talbot's men had taken Sully hostage. They had tried to grab me, but I managed to shake them off, not without consequences as my bandaged arm will attest. I felt utterly helpless, unable to do anything but wear a rut in Elena's floor as I paced. Elena did what she could through her various contacts to locate Nate and Sully, but so far we've only managed to discover what happened to Sully. I've tried to stay positive, telling myself that Nate's been through worse, that he'd make it back and we'd go after Sully together. But as the hours ticked by and Nate was still a no show, I began to wonder, would he truly make it this time? In the meantime, Elena and I have been working on a plan to rescue Sully. Elena was currently on the phone with her contact at the airport. I was only half listening to her conversation when I heard the door open. I snapped my head around and my heart stopped. Standing in the doorway, exhaustedly leaning against the doorframe to keep himself upright, was Nate.

Elena gasped. "I gotta go." She promptly hung up her call and rushed over to hug Nate. I stood, frozen, watching as Nate patted Elena on the back.

"I thought this was frowned upon," he said tiredly.

"Shut up," Elena responded with a light laugh. She stepped back and looked at me. Nate followed her gaze and smiled when he saw me.

"Hey." That simple word was all it took. Choking back a sob, I rushed forward. He grunted as I collided with him, but held onto me tightly despite his exhausted state. He buried his face in my shoulder, taking a deep breath

"Pensavo di averti perso," (I thought I lost you) I whispered, not trusting my voice any louder. I pulled back just enough to draw him in for a deep kiss. We pulled away and rested our foreheads together. "Please don't do that again."

"I promise," Nate said. I was a little surprised by his answer. I had half expected him to joke and tell me he wasn't making any promises, but he said it with such sincerity. What had happened in the last two days? "Is Sully okay?"

"He's alive," Elena answered for me. Nate breathed a sigh of relief. "But they've got him."

Nate's head shot up. "What? Where?"

"They're in a convoy, headed into the desert."

"We gotta go -" I quickly reached forward to steady Nate as his knees nearly buckled.

"Slow down, Nate. You're not going anywhere in your current state," I chided gently. "Besides…" I guided him to sit on the couch where he flopped down without much resistance. "They've got a two day head start on us, so catching up is not exactly an option."

"We gotta try -" Nate protested.

"Listen, we've got a plan. But we're only going to get one shot at this," Elena explained. He looked at her curiously and nodded to indicate he was listening. She sat down next to me and gestured to the map we had spread out on the coffee table. "They're loading up a cargo plane at the airport. They're going to make a supply drop to the convoy."

"We gotta be on that plane," Nate realized.

Elena nodded. "Exactly."

Nate shifted lower on the couch. "You do realize that means parachuting in, right?"

Elena gave a light laugh. "We've done it before."

"Not well," Nate pointed out.

"Don't remind me," I grumbled. Nate patted my hand lightly before nodding to himself.

"Okay, I could really use a glass of water and then we oughta get going." I grabbed his arm to keep him from getting up.

"No, no, no," Elena said. "My contact at the airport says that the plane isn't taking off until dawn. In the meantime, just try to get a couple hours sleep, both of you," she added with a pointed look at me. Nate tried to protest, but I merely shushed him.

"Best not argue with her," I told him. Satisfied that we were going to get some rest, Elena went into the next room. I scooted back against the couch, tugging Nate to lay down. With a tired huff, he laid his head on my lap, pulling his legs up onto the couch.

He turned his head and grazed his fingers along the bottom edge of the bandage on my arm. "What happened?"

"Got it when Talbot's men made a grab for Sully and I." I leaned my head back, staring at the ceiling as I absently carded my fingers through Nate's hair. "I managed to shake them off, but Sully…" I trailed off, guilt welling in my chest for leaving behind one of my oldest friends and father figure. Nate turned to face me, lifting himself up on an elbow and cupping my cheek.

"Sully wasn't your fault, okay?"

"But -"

"But nothing. Marlowe was the one after you two, so if you're going to place blame on anyone, put it on her and her attack dog," he told me firmly. He ran his thumb over my cheek. "We'll find him." His baby blue eyes held such a determined look, that any doubt and guilt I held dissipated.

I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. "Ti amo." (I love you)

"Ti amo anch'io." (I love you too) Pulling away, he tugged me gently until I situated myself to lie next to him. There wasn't much room on the couch, but neither of us minded. Nate wrapped his arms tightly around me, drawing me close to his chest and resting his chin atop my head. Lulled by his steady heartbeat, I let out a deep, contented sigh as I drifted off to sleep.

I admittedly felt better after a few hours sleep, but I still wasn't very happy at being woken up at O'dark thirty in the morning. Why do these things always happen at dawn, why couldn't they take off in the afternoon? I screwed on the silencer to my gun as Elena drove us to the airstrip.

"There it is," she announced. In the middle of the airfield was a huge cargo plane. Nate passed her her own gun with a silencer. "Man… I don't want to have to use this."

"I know, but we have to do this quietly," Nate told her sympathetically. "They catch us sneaking onto that plane, we're dead."

I noticed a gate off to our left. "Let's try cutting through the building."

"Good call." I helped Nate lift the gate then slid under after Elena and we both held it up for Nate. We walked through the warehouse, looking for another way out. Nate found one by climbing up some crates and promptly crashing on the other side.

"You okay?" Elena called.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm great," Nate grumbled.

"We are trying to do this quietly," I reminded, climbing over to join him.

"I know, I know."

"Looks like we can get out that window," Elena announced, pointing to an open window.

I placed my hands on my hips and considered the window. "Yeah, but it's too high for a boost."

"What about that truck?" Elena asked. Nate and I turned to said truck. "If I put it in neutral, I think we can push this."

"Alex and I will push, you steer," Nate said. Elena nodded and opened the truck door.

"How much further?" I grunted.

"We're almost there," Elena assured me. After what seemed like forever, we got the truck under the window.

"All tight, hold it steady, I'm going to climb on top," Nate said. He quickly left his spot and clambered on top of the roof.

"Nate, hurry your culo (ass) up," I groaned, straining against the weight of the truck. My feet slid against the ground as Elena and I struggled to hold the truck in place. Nate lept for the window and climbed into the other side.

"Alex, let go!" Elena warned. I quickly stepped aside and let the truck roll back down the hill. I heard the window slam shut and Nate's quiet cursing on the other side. I winced. Window must've caught his fingers. Now to wait for him to open the other gate. I was only partially surprised when I heard muffled gunshots. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Wasn't he the one that said we needed to be quiet?"

"Yes, yes he was," I said with another sigh. "Nate, open the door!" The gate popped open a moment later. Before I could so much as utter a word, a car drove up and several mercenaries jumped out. "Get down!" We quickly took cover and took them out as quietly as possible.

"Think we can do the same thing?" Nate asked, standing next to the second car. Unfortunately, it didn't go as smoothly this time. The car began to slip and rolled away, slamming through the gate at the bottom of the hill. "That's bad. That's really, really bad…" Of course the noise attracted some security nearby and we had to take out another group.

"That went well," I muttered, holstering my gun after taking out the last mercenary.

"Well, it was never going to be easy, was it," Nate said as he came up next to me.

I huffed. "I get suspicious if something's too easy." We moved on, approaching another warehouse.

"We're almost there. It's just over that roof," Elena announced. We climbed over the roof and stopped at a fence. Just beyond was the plane.

"All right, looks like it's a straight shot from here," Nate said. "I'm gonna climb to the top, then I'll help you two over." Elena and I both nodded in agreement. "Keep me covered." Elena and I kept a lookout for any more mercenaries while Nate climbed the fence. I spun around as I heard him hit the ground.

"What -" I growled and holstered my gun and started climbing the fence. "I should've known you would try something like this!"

"Alex, Don't. Please." I paused at his desperate tone. I sunk back to the ground. Nate intertwined our fingers through the fence. "This is a… this is a million-to-one-shot."

"All the more reason for me to come with you," I insisted.

Nate shook his head. "I almost lost you once, I can't do that again."

"And what about me?" I demanded. "How do you think I'll feel if I lose you?"

He squeezed my hand with a sad smile. "You're strong, much stronger than me. You hid your crush for years, you'd pull through eventually." I stared at him, unable to come up with the words to respond. "Now, I want you and Elena to take that jeep over there and get the hell outta here, all right? While you can?" I glanced at the jeep off to the side then turned back to my boyfriend and made a quick decision. I reached through the fence and grabbed him by his shirt, smashing my lips against his.

"If you die, I will kill you," I threatened, but there was no real heat to my words.

Nate nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Now go." I turned and jogged off to the jeep, Elena following behind. I climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine.

"You're going after him, aren't you," Elena stated.

"Of course," I replied. He should know better that he can't get rid of me that easily.

"Fine, at least let me drive this time." I chuckled and moved into the passenger seat. We peeled out onto the airstrip. The plane was already rolling down the runway, Nate running behind it. Elena stepped on the gas and pulled up next to Nate.

"Hop on!" I shouted. Nate jumped on and Elena floored it.

"Hey - deja vu, right?" Nate laughed. "Just get me up to the landing gear!"

"Oh no you don't! I told him, causing him to look at me in surprise. "We're doing this together! I thought you would've thought you'd've learned that by now. I just got you back, I'm not letting you out of my sight." Nate looked like he wanted to argue, but settled for a nod.

"Just keep it steady!" He told Elena. The jeep pulled up to the front landing gear.

"Jump! Now!" Elena shouted. Nate and I jumped, grabbing hold just as the plane took off.