Disclaimer: I do not own Homeland, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Carrie managed to navigate through her dull working day thinking mostly about the odds of being pregnant after the previous night. "Hopefully," she kept thinking. Not for the first time, she thought how ironic it was that she got pregnant with Franny totally unintentionally, when she was not even in a relationship and the idea of having children had never crossed her mind before, and now that her family had become her first priority and she longed for a child with her husband it seemed to be almost impossible.

One of the perks of her otherwise anodyne job was that she was usually home by two pm, which allowed her to have some time for herself before picking up Franny from school.

At first, when she had just gotten out of the Agency and was starting her family life with Franny and Quinn, she found it difficult to fill it as she was not used to have much spare time. In fact, during her years working for the CIA she had become a real workaholic, and any thought of free time would seem to her as a complete waste of time. But even more, having led a hectic life since right after college, the mere thought of the actual possibility of having nothing to do really scared her. Always aware of her condition and thus fearing that too much time to think could end up triggering a crisis, she started going to yoga classes just to kill time. But in the end not only did it help to complete her daily schedule, but it also proved to be very convenient given that she was currently adjusting to a brand new kind of life and it was certainly causing her some stress. And she found herself very much relieved to have some tools to fight back that stress.

Because during those first months her life was far from being a fairy tale. Everything was new and she found most of it quite disconcerting. The exiting process from the Agency had been painful, slow and highly frustrating, and when they finally got out reality had hit her. "And now, what?" She would have to learn to live this new existence.

So under those circumstances, it was only after Franny's bedtime, when she found herself in Quinn's arms every night, whether it was on the couch watching tv or in their bed before falling asleep, that she could remember why she had decided to turn her life around in the first place.

Because not only adjusting to her civilian job was hard on her back then. That was just a minimum part of it all. On another note, she was then also getting to know her own daughter Franny, as she had never lived with her for more than a fortnight, despite the girl being nearly two years old. Carrie had rely on her sister Maggie for everything related to her baby since the day Franny had been born, and she suddenly found herself taking care of her child and also getting to know her when she was already walking and talking. They had not had a chance to bond over the first two years of Franny's life, and as she slowly became close to her own child and her maternal instinct finally kicked in, Carrie felt overwhelmed with love, guilt and remorse. And also an immense sense of gratitude to Quinn, who had been the one to suggest that they could lead a happy normal life together when he had kissed her for the first time after her father's funeral.

In that challenging atmosphere, Quinn turned out to be a huge support system, the rock on which she would lean on every time she felt her world falling apart during that transitional period, all while she was getting to know him, too. Of course she had gotten to know him over the years they shared assignments and missions at work all over the world and became friends in the process, but she had never shared nothing like the lights and shadows of domestic life with him.

But it turned out that, as he had told her a few years back, right after they started working together in a surveillance team to observe Franny's biological father, he was extremely reliable. Carrie learnt very soon into their life together that she could count on him for anything, from calming a fussy Franny at four am in the morning while she tried to get some sleep just hours before having the last interview of her exiting process in Langley, to helping her keep track of her doctor appointments and follow ups. He was even always volunteering to share the house chores. "Who would have thought that the tough CIA paramilitary officer, "guy who killed bad guys", as he liked to call himself, really enjoyed all aspects of home life?" she amusedly thought the first time he volunteered to vacuum and do the laundry.

And she had to admit that he was pretty likeable, too, which was another adjective he had cockily used to describe himself during that time they had first worked together. Against all odds, and much to her surprise, Carrie had fell in love with him just after a few weeks into their relationship, but of course Carrie being Carrie, she would not acknowledge it no matter what he did or what he said to show her that he actually loved her. Her prior experiences in the love department had ended badly so far, and it took her some time to face facts.

But then, within a few weeks everything had seemed to add up naturally, and Carrie had quit yoga classes as soon as she had begun to feel comfortable in her new domestic life. Once settled down, with their own house (they had rented an apartment at first), she became really fond of that time she had to herself after work before Franny's energy would monopolize her time until bedtime.

That's why she found it so weird to hear the front door closing while she was laying out the groceries she had just bought on her way home. That had been another big surprise, when they found out that they enjoyed cooking together, and for the first time in over fifteen years, Carrie found herself eating homemade meals every day, which was clearly reflected in her current sound state of mind.

"Hey, Carrie, I'm home," Quinn said as soon as he closed the door after him.

"Hey, in the kitchen," she replied, thinking how strange it was for him to be able to be home so early.

"Are you okay?" he asked locking eyes with her as he entered the kitchen in his shirtsleeves, looking for any sign of worry in her face.

"Well, good afternoon to you too, Quinn. Is there something wrong?" she asked back, as he approached her and started pulling up his blue shirt sleeves to help her with the groceries. As he did so, she could not stop herself from thinking that he really looked great in a suit, he had always had, even when he had discarded the blazer, as he had just done as soon as he had crossed their home threshold.

"Well, you tell me, Carrie," he said looking at her intently.

"Me? Everything's good. Why do you ask?" she retorted, turning around to open the fridge in an attempt to escape his inquiring gaze. She had never been good at hiding things from him, and she feared that if he insisted on looking at her like that he would no doubt suspect that she was worried. And, if that were the case, she would be telling him about Saul's call in no time, as that was the power he had over her. But she was not ready to tell him about Saul's message yet, as she had to come to terms with it first.

"Sure about that?" he whispered in a low, almost sexy voice, holding her by her waist to allow him place some of the fresh groceries in the refrigerator.

"What the fuck is going on, Quinn?" she asked back turning around and facing him.

He crossed his arms over his chest waiting for a few seconds, and started talking fixing his eyes on Carrie. "Dar Adal called."

"What did that son of a bitch want?" Dar Adal, the CIA Black Operations Director and an old friend of Saul Berenson's, was not among Carrie's favorite people, not at all, and she frowned when her husband mentioned him. "Is this related to Saul's call?" she wondered.

"What do you think, Carrie? You really don't have a clue?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

Carrie shrugged and briefly diverted her eyes to the kitchen window, only to gaze back at him while she bit her lower lip. "Saul called me a few times today, but I didn't pick up. Can that be related?" she finally voiced out after a few seconds.

"Yeah, it might be, don't you think? Dar said Saul has been trying to reach you. He needs to talk to you asap and will probably show up here any minute if you don't call him back. And thanks for the heads up, by the way…" His heart had skipped a beat when he had noticed Dar's name on his cell screen. His first thought, even before picking up the call, was that something had happened to Carrie, or Franny, or even his son John Jr. He knew his former boss kept tabs on the boy, and he had been grateful to him for that as he himself had not been able to deal with the fact that he had a son that was growing up without knowing him. Carrie had tried a few times to get him to open up about that subject, and had even offered to build bridges between Quinn and John's mother in order to try and revisit the agreement that had reach right after the boy had been born. But Quinn had just clammed up every time she had mentioned the subject, and she had ended up giving up for the time being.

Totally oblivious to her husband's initial reaction when he had gotten the phone call from Adal, Carrie deliberately avoided his comment about not sharing Saul's call with him. "I don't want to call him back, Quinn. I don't want to see him or talk to him for that matter," she firmly stated trying to get her lips to stop quivering. Saul wanting to speak to her and his subsequent message had brought back too many memories about her time in the CIA, and most of them were not happy.

"Hey, I know, I know..." Quinn tried to comfort her, stepping closer to her and extending his right arm to cup her face and caress her cheek. She immediately responded and placed her left hand on his and slightly tilted her head to feel his palm on the side of her neck while she closed her eyes. Once she was calm, he carried on talking. "But if you don't reach out I'm positive a black SUV will turn up in our driveway sooner or later. There's one parked two blocks from here, I bet Saul is in it… Dar said it's important, Carrie. You know the drill, they're not gonna fucking stop..." he trailed off.

She opened her eyes and he withdrew his hand. "All habits die hard, uh?" she chuckled at his regular use of protective and identification tactics in civilian life. "Okay, I don't want them showing here, Quinn. We're out, what is the fucking part about that they don't understand?" she asked going back to the groceries displayed on the kitchen counter.

"Hey, I know..." he quietly mumbled from behind her.

"So what do I do?" she inquired turning back to face him again, nervously moving her hands.

"Just call Saul, Carrie. Don't worry about Franny, I'll go pick her up," he slowly answered.

She nervously nodded, looking around for her phone. "Okay… But what the fuck you think it is, Quinn?"

"Dar wouldn't say, probably some crap about an old file... You know these bastards are unpredictable..." he speculated, in an effort to keep her calm while he searched her face and body for any sign of distress. She had been mentally stable for a long time now and he would hate to see that go down the drain just for a blast from the past.

"Yeah, you're damn right they are..." she muttered as she took a hold on her cell.

Carrie's hands were shaking when she called Saul. Noticing it, Quinn stood by her side and held her left hand while she hit "call" on his missed call and cleared her throat in preparation. Saul must have been waiting by his cell because he answered on the first tone.

"Carrie..." he quickly said.

"What the fuck is going on, Saul? I'm out, remember? And not thanks to your help..." she blurted out as soon as she heard his voice.

Saul's sigh could be clearly noticed over the line. "I know you're angry, Carrie. But this is beyond that. I need to talk to you, and time is of the essence…" he explained.

"Is that why you've parked your SUV just two blocks away from our house?" she could not help asking.

"Carrie, how do you…?"

"If you recall, I'm married to the best former CIA paramilitary officer…" she proudly stated.

"You're damn right about Quinn, but as much as I'd like to discuss our former operatives with you, I'm afraid we don't have time for that… You already know where I am. Please come meet me. It'll be quick, I promise?" Saul nearly begged. He would actually beg if it came to that, there was too much at stake to let his pride get in the way.

"You promise? Like when you took your fucking oath to serve and protect your country and ended up betraying it along with your friend Dar Adal?" Carrie angrily retorted.

Saul sighed again. "Carrie, I don't really have time for that now. Do us all a favor and rag your sorry ass over here, your country needs you!" And with that he hung up.

Carrie raised her graze and met Quinn's eyes. He was still holding her hand and squeezed it. "Go, it's all right. I'll pick Franny up from school and we'll go to the park for a while."

Little did Carrie know when she put on her coat, took her purse, her phone and her keys, kissed Quinn goodbye on his cheek and rushed out the front door of her house that after her major efforts to built a normal family life for herself after leaving the CIA it was all bound to change again, whether she liked it or not.