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.

Quinn was so shocked that he could not process his former boss and mentor's words for a few seconds. Was this really happening? Had Carrie and him actually gone all this way, building a life with Franny as a family after exiting the Agency, to end it like this? Back in Afghanistan with the CIA and Carrie missing on her way to try and reconnect with a former informer in order to prevent Haqqani from carrying out a terrorist attack?

He gulped trying to let the information he had just received sink. The fact that the news had come from Dar Adal only made the situation worse; he had never been the bearer of good news. He really missed those days when his main concern was the toll her boring civilian job could take on her mental health. Now iIt seemed to be ages ago, but it was only last week.

"Get me on the rescue team," Quinn ordered Dar after a few seconds. He was not going to be sitting around while Carrie was in danger. He could not recall a single time when he had not tried to protect her since they had met when he was assigned to lead a survaillance team to observe Franny's father who was a person of interest on a terrorism case at that time.

Dar Adal sighed. Peter's reaction was not unexpected, but he himself was also shocked by what he had just learnt. If that information was accurate and the chopper carrying their most capable agents and analysts had crashed into the mountains of Hindu Kush, the chances to apprehend Haqqani were pretty slim. Not to mention that their only solid lead, Ali Hadd, had been very adamant and had insisted that he would only speak to Carrie on Afghan soil and that seemed to be no longer possible. In this crazy scenario, the last thing he needed was his best soldier devoted to following his wife's trail instead of helping his Special Ops teams with the mission at hand.

"Again, I'm afraid I can't Peter… I'm not in charge of the…" he started. Adal was aware that he needed to start working on assembling a rescue team as soon as possible, but he was not sure having Peter near the crash site would be a good idea. In his opinion, he would be much more useful with his Special Ops team in the rearguard, ready to take prompt action if necessary.

"Bullshit, Dar!" Quinn exclaimed. If there's someone who can override the fucking current…" He knew Dar Adal too well, he was perfectly capable of pulling strings, both Stateside and overseas. After years leading a civilian life, Quinn was no longer buying his excuses.

"Listen to me carefully, Peter," Adal instructed him in a low voice, as he took his arm and dragged him away from the two army officers. Quinn quickly moved his arm away but listened closely to Dar. Despite everything, he was well aware it was important to have him in their corner. "I'm not calling the shots here, and neither are you," he simply stated.

Quinn scoffed. "Cut that crap, Dar…"

"No, I mean it. We have to lay low until…" Adal explained quietly.

"Lay low?", Quinn exclaimed. "So this is one of those times you use the death of our colleagues and fellow Americans for your own benefit? She's my wife! When are you gonna fucking stop?" he asked, not bothering to show how he despised the older man.

"Let me remind you Peter, that you yourself have been an active part, or should I say a key part, in 'those times', as you call them…" he calmly replied. "Now, if you really want to help Carrie, stop whining and join the Special Ops team you flew in with. We'll go through all the reading of the radar signals and…" Dar expounded.

But Quinn was no longer listening. He was just wishing this was one of those nightmares he had from time to time, in which Carrie was in danger and he continuously failed to get to her, and the closer he got, the closer she was to dying, only to wake up a few minutes later, sweat glistening on his brow, and her warm body beside his in their bed. Peter felt so desperate that he even pinched his arm in order to wake up. But no matter how many times he anxiously pulled at his skin, he wasn't waking up; he was still on the tarmac of the airport in Kabul, with Dar Adal by his side instructing him to join his Special Ops Team. It sure felt like turning back time.

Meanwhile, totally oblivious to the fact that in that exact moment Quinn was in Kabul fearing for her life, Carrie was angrily addressing Saul. She was starting to guess that the helicopter they had boarded in order to meet with her former CI, Ali Hadd, had not reached its original destination, as she was positive the wide pasture they had just landed on was far from Hindu Kush. They were literally in the middle of nowhere, and she turned to face Saul without even waiting for the helicopter propeller to fully stop from rotating.

"What the fuck are we doing here, Saul?" she nearly yelled at him, in an attempt to make herself heard over the noise.

Saul sighed. He had anticipated that Carrie might object to his plan, so he had just opted for the most practical solution, that is to say, keeping her out of the loop in the first place. But he knew how she hated that, thus her objection to their actual location was not a surprise. "Keep your voice down, Carrie…" was all he said. He had only delayed the inevitable, but had bought some time in return. He still did not trust Carrie enough to let her play an active role in his plan.

"Keep my voice down, Saul? Ali Hadd is waiting for us, Saul, remember? That's why I flew here," she insisted.

Saul shook her head. "I'm not as old as you like to think, Carrie. I remember Ali, and I can hear you even if you keep your voice down…"

Patience had never been one of her many virtues. "What the fuck, Saul? I'm not here to play any games. I was out a few days ago, remember?" she replied, sitting on the further end of the chopper seat, trying deliberately to put an actual distance between them, and wondering again where they were and, most importantly, why they were there.

"I'm well aware, Carrie. I brought you back, remember? Or, at least, I like to think I did," Saul sighed. He suspected that Dar Adal had played a key role in her return to the CIA, but he preferred not to think about it. As much as Saul didn't like to admit it, he didn't share Dar's methods but usually benefited from them, so he felt more comfortable drawing a veil of secrecy over those methods and their results. Carrie was back, and that was all he needed to know.

"You brought me back?" Carrie's eyes were wide open. "I came back myself to help my country because you're in charge of an incompetent bunch of agents. Fuck you Saul!"

"Believe it or not, I did. I called you, and I'm happy to have you here..." he trailed off, trying to hide a smile. Her last line proved that she was still 'his' Carrie, no matter how domestic her life had been for the last few years.

"Cut that shit. Why are we here and not in Hindu Kush?" she bluntly asked once more, not wanting to engage them in a heated discussion about the reason that had brought her back to her former life. The sooner she knew what he intended, the sooner she could meet with Ali Hadd, track down Haqqanni and be back at home with Franny and Quinn.

Saul took a deep breath. She hadn't changed a bit. This was not going to be easy, and he feared her reaction. He had to do his best to stress how much they needed her in this new scenario without scaring her. "Carrie, this is important. You're still meeting with Ali, but in a new location... "

She snorted, unbuckling her seat belt. "New location? That's funny Saul, so fucking funny! Why nobody gave me a heads up? He's my CI…"

Trying not to lose his patience, Saul sighed again, looking for a more practical approach. After all, they were in a secluded part of Afghanistan and their former CI had made it very clear that he would only speak to her. "Say whatever you want, Carrie, I don't care as long as you keep helping us apprehend Haqqani..."

"You're definitely out of your mind if you think that I'm gonna keep working with you unless you tell me what's actually going on," she said, scooting over the seat and quickly heading for the wide back door of the helicopter.

"Carrie, we've reasons to believe that we have a mole inside the Agency..." Saul blurted out in a soft tone before she was able to reach the door handle.

Much to her dismay, his sudden revelation hit her. "What?" she managed to ask, shaking her head, and sitting again while their coworkers opened the door and began to hop off the chopper. For the last few days she had thought that it had just been bad intel and rookie agents in the field the main things that had prevented them from succeeding in capturing Haqqani. As a matter of fact, that had been the only thought that had given her some solace during all those long days of work behind her desk at Langley. "I thought you'd everything under control…" she muttered.

"Let's just say that it seems I don't anymore..." Saul slowly said in a low voice.

"Well, if that's the case, clearly you haven't… You getting too old for this job, Saul? I'd laugh if it wasn't for the horrible consequences..." Carrie scoffed. If he was right and Haqqani had direct access to their intel, it was difficult to believe he was going to be apprehended anytime soon.

"I'm just old, you'll get there sooner than you think..."

His words and his tone truly surprised her. He had never said anything of the sort before. "Is this for real? You really have no fucking clue of what is going on?" she inquired. "That's reckless, to say the least..."

Saul sighed again. "Well, coming from someone who fucked a guy in a suicide vest, that means a lot... "

Carrie shook her head, overlooking the reference to her daughter's biological father. She had not struggled so hard to go back to work for the Agency, eventually leaving Franny and Quinn on the sidelines, to watch how it all was useless due to a breach. "I left everything behind, Saul. I have a family now, and I'm shocked to admit that I am happy. I'm looking forward to going back home when we're finished here. Tell me you have a Plan B..." she stated.

"I do, and that's why we're here. But I need you to be quiet and follow my lead..." Saul was not lying. Never during his long career had he seen a more capable agent than Carrie. And, to be fair, Quinn, but at the time Saul had no clue that the latter was also in Afghanistan.

She locked eyes with him, her lower lip slightly quivering. "This better not be one of your shitty plans in which you're willing to betray whoever it takes..." she quickly said.

"It isn't. Everyone lies in this business, I accept that. But we all draw lines somewhere, and the two sides of that line are us and them … We're still working on knowing the full extent of the breach, please follow my lead," he reiterated his plea.

Carrie snorted. "You really still haven't figured it out?"

Saul looked around before responding, as he wanted to make sure that the rest of the group had already exited the helicopter prior to filling her in. "Let's just say someone in Special Ops that used to be close to your husband is our best guess…" he finally explained in a very low voice.

She was not surprised to hear it. Dar Adal had always taken the long view and liked to play both sides of the fence. And he had played that game with Haqqani before. But little did Carrie know that this time he would not hesitate to involve Quinn in his foul play.