A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, I really do appreciate every one, and of course for all the support being shown for my Carlos bashing. I am so glad that so many of you agree with me: Really Fiona, what were you thinking?
Thanks go out as well to my good friend Jedi Skysinger, thank you for all the help with this chapter and finding the time to Beta for me too.

A PALE IMITATION

Part Four

"Put yar foot down, will ya Fi? Me boys are thar already an' thar not gonna wait fer us forever." Seamus closed his phone and sat back as the SUV began to pick up speed.

"So what's the plan when we get there?" Carlos leaned forward from his place in the back seat.

"We get us some guns... An' if anybody is stupid enough ta try an' stop us, we send tham on thar merry way," Seamus replied and then, twisting around in his seat, he gave the younger man a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about it, son. Tis jus' a little armed assault on a building full o' guns, gunpowder an' high explosives... It'll be fun."

"Fun?" the Miami native echoed in disbelief. He had learned the hard way what operating on the fly with a firearm got you. "Fiona, don't tell me you agree with this? We need something better than -"

"I'm working on it... Seamus is joking with you. He has no intention of blowing up anything, do you, Shay?" Ms. Glenanne tried to keep the peace while driving as fast as she could along unlit back roads lined with deep drainage ditches and at the same time trying to work on a strategy which would keep everybody safe.

"You know this. Has it really been so long?" An annoyingly familiar voice floated into her subconscious. "Secure the perimeter, post look outs on the roads in and out, count the sentries. Only then deploy your breeching team. And when you go in, you go in hard and fast."

Go away, Michael. She hardened her heart.

"My brain, your brawn…do you remember that?"

"Ah, see thar, you've lost yar sense o' humor, sweetheart." Seamus grinned, his words scattering her silent conversation with her absentee ex-boyfriend.

Then, as they rounded a tight corner, the Irishman nudged his sister's arm. "See up ahead? Thot's tha pick-up me boys borrowed off Jojo."

Slowing the SUV, Fiona brought it to a stop next to a dark-colored Ford truck which looked it had been abandoned at the side of the road.

"Where -?" The redhead spun around when, as if in answer to her question, there came the harsh rattle of automatic weapons fire.

"I tol' ya they would nae wait," Seamus growled. Running back to the Honda, he grabbed hold of a couple of P90s, throwing one to Fiona and the other to her boyfriend. Then, taking up two of the Mac 10s, he led the way along the road until they came to a gap in the fence which had most likely been made by the younger members of the Glenanne clan.

Following the sounds of gunfire, they soon came to a stop as they saw the scale of their problem. Three young men were crouched down, using a large tractor as cover, while they tried to keep the small army shooting at them at bay.

"Jayzuz! We gotta get tham outta thar." Seamus raised the machine pistols and prepared to step out from the stand of trees shielding them from the men defending the barn.

"Stop! Yer as bad as tha rest o' tham." Fiona grabbed hold of brother's arm, pulling him back into the thick undergrowth they were using as cover. "Ya gonna get yerself an' tham killed! Jus' wait a minute. Let me think."

"Think?! Thar's no time ta think." The older man shrugged off the slender hand, but remained still, his eyes focussed on what was taking place on the battlefield.

"We should move round, try to get behind the barn." Carlos gestured to the large barn where the majority of the gunfire was coming from.

"We don't know what's round the other side and have no time ta scout it out." Fiona cut him off, dismissing her boyfriend's tactics as another voice softly whispered in her ear.

When facing a superior force, you can either retreat quietly... The phantom of Michael Westen came to her again.

"Oh and how d'ya suggest we retreat wit 'Shay's boys pinned down, smart ass?" she demanded of the ghost of her former lover.

If ya cannae retreat, luv, ya attack an' ya do it wit' as much fanfare as ya can manage, me darlin' girl... he answered back in the lilting tones of her Irish lover.

"Thank ya, McBride," she whispered quietly and then turned to her present paramour. "Carlos, did you pack the flare gun and cartridges?"

"Si, por que –?"

"No time to explain. Just go get them and be quick." She turned to Seamus, who was watching his sons' precarious position with growing frustration. "Shay, I want ya ta get ready ta cover me."

"Whot are ya thinking, Fi?"

"War gonna fight fire wit' fire," she replied cryptically. Then smiling, her eyes glowing with anticipation at what was to come, she added. "Don' worry yarself, brudder. Dinnae ya always want ta know whot me an' Sean used ta get up ta on tha weekends? Well, now yer abou' ta find out."

Before Seamus could question his little sister further, Carlos returned with the Coast Guard approved emergency flare gun and six spare cartridges. "Here you go. Now, what's the plan?"

"You're both going to cover me while I set that barn alight."

"You're gonna step out there? No!" Carlos made a grab for the flare gun.

"Leave it, son." Seamus pulled the younger man away from his sibling. He didn't like the risky strategy, but his boys were undoutedly running low on ammunition and would be overrun in minutes if they continued to do nothing.

"Estas loquita? Mira, give me the flare! I'll do it." He tried again to stop what he saw as nothing more than a suicidal mission.

"Cover me or go wait in tha car!" Fiona snapped back. "Am faster than tha both o' ya and a better shot." Then, to stop all arguments, she ducked down and ran out into the open, zig zagging her way over to a stack of wooden pallets.

Bullets flew all around her as she dropped behind the woefully inadequate shelter. Several large chunks of wood were blown off the pallets, sending out showers of splinters in all directions. But even though she was under fire, surrounded by the harsh, almost deafening cracking sound of gun play with smoke filling the air, the flame haired former guerrilla fighter couldn't stop grinning.

Oh god, how much had she had missed this. The pure adrenaline rush of gambling everything for a good cause... Liberating guns of any sort was, in the mind of Ms. Glenanne, always a good cause.

Taking a breath, Fiona glanced to where Seamus and Carlos were continuing to lay down covering fire and then to where her nephews, who had quickly worked out the cavalry had indeed arrived to save the day, followed their da's example.

Gripping the flare gun in both hands, she peeked out from her cover trying to gauge the trajectory for the shot and then, at a break in the defenders' hail of bullets coming from the barn, she rose up and sent a flare rocketing into the air and then down onto the roof of the large two story structure.

She had no worries. She trusted her brother to watch her back, she had faith in her own skills and, most of all, she knew that when a man was hiding in a highly flammable building filled with explosives faced an incendiary device, he would, if he had a smidgeon of the good sense God gave him, run a mile to avoid being blown to kingdom come or getting burnt to a crisp.

"YA BETTER RUN, BOYS!" Ms. Glenanne yelled out at the top of her lungs. "CUZ THA NEXT ONE'S GOIN' STRAIGHT THROUGH THA WINDOW."

For several seconds, the only sound was the crackling of the fire which had quickly taken hold on the wooden roof. Then came a sudden burst of gunfire and, as a truck engine roared to life, a loud shout of surrender.

"BURN IN HELL, YOU CRAZY BITCH!"

Fiona got slowly to her feet and cautiously stepped out into the open. They had won. For a moment she stood entranced by the glowing flames licking up into the air, lighting up the grey of the pre-dawn sky as she listened to the thumping of her heart. Bounty hunting was fun, but chasing down criminals was nothing but a kiddies' game compared with a full blown armed assault and having the chance to unleash her destructive side.

"Fiona, Fi, are you okay? Were you -?" Carlos rushed over, his arms enveloping her tiny frame in a tight hug.

"I'm fine. Carlos, let me go. We have ta get those guns out." His embrace had broken the spell and she was straight back into paramilitary mode.

"Guns? The guns are gone, chica! That whole barn is gonna blow."

"But it has nae blown yet... Go, bring tha pick up round while I help tha boys." She was already moving and nearly fell when her latin lover pulled her back.

"Esta loco, no! We need to get outta here." As if to prove his point, the distant warble of sirens was discernible in the background, as the fire began to roar in earnest.

"Not a chance," she spat back. Jerking her arm free, she took off towards the barn where her family were already relocating boxes of ordinance away from the fast spreading blaze.

"Madre de Dios..." he muttered as the wild woman, who looked like su amado but who had just rocked his universe and not in a good way for the first time in their relationship, ran without hesitation straight into a burning building.

Fiona rushed over to where her brother and nephews were working as only a tightly knit team could, swiftly dragging or carrying box after box out of the increasing inferno. As she got closer, a smile broke out and she was filled with a flood of nostalgia as she listened to Seamus remonstrate with his disobedient oldest child.

"Tha wa' nobody about, da. We thought -" The dark haired young man grunted, dragging a large heavy box away from the growing flames and trying to explain why they hadn't followed orders.

"Ya thought? Ya thought whot? Ya bunch o' idjits. Yer tha oldest, Pat, yer suppose ta set an example," Seamus growled back as he lugged another box to safety alongside of his eldest child.

"We waited fer -"

"Oh, ya waited?" The older man wasn't quite ready to hear the excuses for his three oldest children's act of mutiny. "Twenty minutes, we wa' twenty fecking minutes behind ya. So ya didnae wait very long, did ya? An then – whot? Ya jus' thought ya could bloody well stroll up ta tha barn an' knock on tha blasted door an' they'd hand ya tha guns. Whose bright idea wa' thot?"

"It wa' mine, Da. Tha place wa' as quiet as tha grave an' I wa' coming up wit' a new plan. We woulda got out on our own... We wa' gonna use tha tractor as a battering ram."

The bickering between Seamus and his eldest boy continued as father and son worked together removing the ordinance to safety. Even the arrival of Fiona didn't cause a break in their heated exchange.

"Aunty Fi, glad ya could make it ta tha party." One of the twins jogged up alongside her as she made her way into the burning barn.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world." She narrowed her eyes, peering through the thickening smoke to get a good look at the youngster's features. "Dara?" she guessed.

The twins were identical except for the younger brother by twenty minutes, Brendan, having a badly broken nose from a tussle during a field hockey match in high school.

"Ya - remembered." He coughed as smoke billowed into his face. "Let me - help ya wit' thot."

The Irishwoman barely spared her boyfriend a thought as she easily fell back into working with her family, even though she hadn't seen any of them for over seven years. Like a well-oiled machine, the quintet soon had every attainable piece of ordinance clear of the rapidly spreading fire, and when Carlos pulled up next to the stacked up boxes, they quickly loaded up the vehicle with the swift efficiency which only came from regular practice.

In less than five minutes the pick-up truck, loaded down with all the arms the Glenannes had managed to liberate from the blaze raced away from the scene at breakneck speed, barely making it on to the road when a loud ground shaking boom scattered the remains of the barn all over the large compound.

"Jayzuz! Would ya look at thot!" Brendan Glenanne, leaned as far out of the window as he could to watch the conflagration. "I've not seen a blast like thot since Uncle Sean showed us how -"

Fiona's vice like grip on the shoulder on the younger of the twin's shoulder effectively stopped the young man divulging any more Glenanne family secrets. "Carlos, pull over next to the SUV." She instructed and then turned to Seamus, who was still quietly berating his oldest child's leadership skills.

"So, is there a plan for what we're doing next?" she asked, climbing out of the overcrowded back seat of the truck.

"Tha bright spark har…" Seamus glared at his oldest boy. "Tells me thot they moved tha Dulcinea an' anchored her out near Totten Key...So, I say ya take thot SUV along wit' yar fella an' follow us down ta Turkey Point whar apparently Milo tis watchin' o'er a pair o' Zodiacs."

"We're going on a boat?" Carlos asked.

"You've brought Milo along?" Fiona spoke over the top of her lover. She remembered Milo Glenanne as a quiet twelve year old who had ambitions to be a veterinarian.

"Aye lad, we'll hit tha bastids comin' after Fiona fram tha water. Thot way we'll have tha advantage." The Irishman chuckled darkly and then turned to his sibling. "An' yes, Fiona, I brought Milo along. Tha lad is twenty now. He's been comin' out on jobs fer tha las' three years. Jayzuz, ya know tha rules. If ya not in school, yer workin'. Getta grip, an' get along wit' ya both or we'll all be spending time as guests o' Uncle Sam."

Settled in the SUV with Fiona behind the wheel, the couple traveled in an uncomfortable silence following the tail lights of the heavily loaded pick-up truck being driven by Patrick Glenanne. In the end it was Fiona who broke first, unable to take the stifling atmosphere any longer.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I should have told you – more, about who I am and what -"

"So, when you said your brother was in exports what you meant to say was he's an arms dealer?" Carlos glared back at her. "And when you told me you used to occasionally buy and sell guns, it wasn't the small time dealing you made it out to be, was it?"

"I didn't lie exactly. Seamus is a businessman, maybe not in truly traditional sense. He makes money buying and selling a specialty product to a select group of customers." She had hoped her description of her sibling's trade would bring a smile to the lips of her lover, but instead the dark haired younger man scowled and folded his tattooed arms over his chest.

"Not telling me about your family, that's not the problem. I've told you almost nada about my family, so we're even on that score... But you're not being honest with me about what's going on… No, mommee, that's not what you and me are supposed to be about."

"I told you the truth when I said I was making a big change in my life." She sighed heavily while trying to come up with a way of describing their present circumstances. "My family is paying for my mistakes. People are getting hurt because of what Michael and I did. I have to help them sort out this mess..." She risked taking her eyes off the road for a second to glance at her lover, hoping that he could understand family loyalty.

"Oye, su familia…what we do is dangerous enough, chica, but what your family does is realmente demente. You all ran into a building that was about to explode, you coulda all been killed, and for what? A few -"

"We weren't even singed and we got what we came for." She tried to reassure her lover, but just by a quick glance she could see that her airy dismissal of his concerns was just adding to his anger and confusion. What could she say to someone who thought bounty hunting was dangerous? Taking a deep breath, the petite redhead tried again. "I agree it was a risk, but it was a calculated risk. You have to trust that I know what I'm doing."

Going into the field with someone who doesn't have the proper training is a recipe for disaster. There are times, though, when having a civilian on an operation is unavoidable... This, in case you haven't realized, isn't one of those occasions. The ghost in her head lectured quietly.

The former paramilitary regular hardened her heart. "Leave me alone, Michael," she warned the phantom lurking in her subconscious.

"I do trust you," her present lover agreed. "I'm not so sure about your brother. I mean, I knew you were muy loco when I met you. I'd heard all the rumors about you and Lou tried to warn me, but I just didn't realize exactly how crazy..." He took a deep breath and let it out in a noisy exhalation.

"Carlos, once Greyson Miller and his friends are dealt with, we can get back to being us," she promised, willing it to be true. When this was over, their lives would go back to normal.

"That's what I wanted to hear." He took one of her hands off the steering wheel and kissed her knuckles before returning it. "So, what are we going to be doing next?"

With those words, Fiona's heart lifted. This was what she had always wanted, a man who accepted her for who and what she was and was willing to support her in whatever she did. But her joy was short lived because, as she went to answer him, Seamus' words of warning came back to haunt her, joining in with the fears which had already taken root.

"Fer god's sake, Fiona, send ham on his way befer he ends up like that Kavan fella."

"Carlos isn't Kavan!" she angrily told this second voice taking up room in her head.

"Aye, but he isn't trained, is he? How many wars has he been through? D'ya think his street fightin' skills would stand up in Belfast on a Saturday night? Have yar seen ham under heavy fire? Is he gonna get us killed over him trying ta save yar arse?"

She wanted to defend her lover, she wanted to be able to convince herself that her new boyfriend had all the skills necessary to keep up with the Glenannes when they went to war. But deep down, she knew she couldn't do it. So she swallowed back the words that had been bubbling on her lips and, instead of filling her man in on Irish paramilitary battlefield tactics, she did what was necessary.

"I- I've been thinking about that, thinking about whatever we do, there is going to be a massive backlash if we miss anybody. Greyson isn't just trying to hurt me. When we start attacking his shipments..." She paused, hating what she was about to do. "He is going to be looking to take his revenge on anybody connected to me... Somebody has to stay with Madeline. I think of Michael's mom as me own mother. Greyson knows that -"

"You're asking me to babysit your ex's mother?" Carlos spat out in disbelief.

"Yes, please, she likes you, Carlos. I can't think of anybody I trust more than you to keep her safe." She sniffed and dropped a hand onto his thigh. "Please, Carlos, Greyson Miller is my mess to clean up and Madeline is all alone. If something happened to her because of me."

Ahead of them the pick-up slowed down and turned onto a narrow track which would undoubtedly lead them down to where the Glenanne Zodiacs were waiting to carry them out to Seamus' ship.

"Okay, okay, I'll do it, but what will she say when I just turn up? I mean, we've only met twice."

"Just tell her Fiona says it's a Disney World thing... She'll understand." They came to a stop in a small clearing. Ahead of them the Glenanne men were climbing out of the truck and beginning the task of unloading their bounty.

"Thank you, Carlos." She leaned over towards him, one hand ghosting up his muscular, inked arm until her fingers could comb through his short dark hair. "You have no idea how much this means to me." Her lips crashed against his and the couple fell into a deeply passionate kiss. When she finally released him, she stroked the back of her hand over his cheek. "But when I get back, I plan to show you exactly how much you mean to me."

Slipping out of the vehicle, she waited while less than happy lover got slid over and got comfortable in the driver's seat. "I'll be back soon. I promise."

"Don't take too long, mi amor."

She waited until the SUV vanished from sight and then turned to where her brother and nephews were carrying the boxes down to a small beach.

"You did the right thing."

The petite redhead closed her eyes, trying to banish the soft spoken voice of her former love. "Get outta me head, Michael." She began to march determinedly towards where her family waited for her. "I don' need ya hangin' about hauntin' me. Ya had no problem stayin' away fram me befer!"

"I could come back."

"And you'd be too late." Fiona spoke out loud. Why the hell was she thinking about him now, letting the man who had thrown her aside for his job get under her skin? It was distracting and dangerous.

Seamus looked over her shoulder. "So, ya come ta yar senses an' sent ham home didja?"

"He has another job to do," she answered stiffly, her narrowed eyes and fixed expression letting her brother know that as far as she was concerned the matter was closed.

Her brother's face lit up with a wide grin. "Well, then, let's get on with teachin' Miller a lesson."

The Glenannes were going to war!