She walked through the visitor center lobby and out into the drizzling rain again, where Evans was standing looking very tense. She sighed. "Are you tense because of the gunshots, or did Moran follow us out here and make this much more of a security nightmare for you?"

"We haven't seen Moran," he said, shaking his head. "We've had a security breach." He nodded to one of their men, who was handcuffed in the back of a car. "He shut the door behind you, and someone from inside deadbolted it. He claims he got orders over his com from me to close it, but I didn't give it. As soon as the door shut, we lost contact with you."

She felt a shiver crawl up her spine, not for the first time today. "Someone else is in there, then? I didn't see them. God, I want to get out of here. Armetti is dead, by the way. Send someone in to search him, and don't be surprised by his face. He- he looked like Moran."

"Yeah we c- Wait, sorry, he looked like Moran? What do you mean?" He turned back from where he' d been about to give the order, confused.

Lorna waved a hand over her face, letting out a huff of a breath. "He.. he had surgery, I guess. Made himself look like Moran. Freaky as shit. Certainly made killing him feel less good."

"Jesus," Evans muttered. "We'll have the body brought in. If it's anything like what that Ines bitch had in her, we might learn something." He nodded to another SUV. "Go ahead back to headquarters, if you like. We'll clean up here."

"Gladly," she sighed, heading for the SUV, climbing inside and telling the driver to head off while she shrugged out of her jacket and unbuckled her body armor. She peeled it off with a groan as the dent was removed from its place pressing into her torso. She took a moment to breathe deep, resting her head back against the seat headrest. Vincent was finally dead. Gone. He couldn't hurt Sebastian ever again. She shut her eyes, and grimaced as the image of Sebastian's altered face, sporting the gunshot wound she had given it, sprang into her mind's eye. She willed it into an image of Magpie, because it was suitably different, but mentally prepared herself for that set of nightmares.

The trip back was shorter than she remembered it being, and she stepped out into the garage with a tired set to her shoulders. She left the body armor in the SUV (it was ruined after all) but carried her blood spattered jacket under one arm.

Keira was waiting for her, and nodded as she approached the lift. "You lived, then," they said, pressing the lift call. "Infirmary, the boss's office, or somewhere else?"

She lifted her cut hand, decided that it wasn't deep enough to be urgent, and sighed. "Boss's office. Summon Moran, he's going to want to hear this too."

"Ah. Yeah. Uh, sure you don't want to get that seen to? Maybe... Ten minutes?" they suggested, glancing at the cut. "Just to be sure. Evans said you took fire."

She heaved another, deeper sigh. "Fine, I guess they can come to me in the infirmary. But it's urgent, Keira."

"I get that," they said with a nod. "And in about... Ten minutes, we can." They glanced indicatively at the space where the Jaguar was usually parked.

Lorna stiffened, her eyes locking on Keira. "Where the fuck did he go?"

"After you," they said, shaking their head slightly. "I saw him leave and checked the monitors. He must have lifted the keys from security. The car's tracker said that it went to the base trailing your escort. It left not long after you did and it's heading back. Probably eight minutes now."

Lorna let out an explosive sigh, rolling her eyes. "He could have at least picked me up and drove me back. Dumbass. Alright, let's get to medical."

"I think he was trying to be subtle," they pointed out as they stepped into the lift. "In his defense, had I not ratted him out, he might have gotten away with it without you knowing."

"I did guess out loud to Evans that he had followed, but I guess the security team didn't know," she snorted, stepping into the lift. "I know that man better than almost anyone." Somehow, it didn't even sting that Jim possibly knew him better.

"He is a bit predictable," they sighed. They wanted to ask how it had gone, but it wasn't something to discuss in a lift. They pressed the button for the infirmary.

"Don't let him hear you say that, I think you might take ten years off his life," Lorna muttered, awkwardly, with one hand, unbuttoning her shirt a little to peer down it and get a glimpse at the beginning of the bruising on her chest.

"What the hell else am I for if not increasing the number of grey hairs he has?" they asked, though their tone was docile. The lift doors opened and they walked into the waiting room. "Right. Go make sure you don't have any broken ribs. Good luck."

"Thanks," she sighed, with the usual enthusiasm of a woman who thoroughly hated infirmaries. She caught the attention of a passing orderly and was taken into one of the back rooms. They bandaged the cut on her hand and x-rayed her ribcage, but she'd gotten off with some painful bruising and a hand she needed to rest for a while. She came out about twenty minutes later, buttoning up her shirt a little awkwardly with using mainly the one hand.

Sebastian and Keira were both sitting in the waiting room, making everyone else there feel awkward and uncertain, and both looking a touch too smug about it. Seb stood when she entered, crossing to her. "What happened to your hand? Are you alright?"

"I stopped Armetti from stabbing me with a knife, so all in all it could have been worse," she smiled up at him, her infirmary-related bad mood gone in his presence. "I'm fine. Some bruising on my chest from taking a shot, but I have better aim, turns out, even with a cut hand."

He grit his teeth slightly, but nodded. "Could have been worse," he agreed. He had had a line of sight on the building exits from his perch, but that was the best he'd been able to manage. Had he been with her, he would have been able to stop it. But he wasn't, and he hadn't.

She reached out with her uninjured hand to squeeze his briefly. "Yes, it could have been. I did have to kill him while he looked like you, but, yeah. Could have been worse."

"He... What? No. Never mind. Jim. Come on, you can tell us all at once." He headed for the lift, hitting the call button.

She nodded, following him, Keira on their heels. The lift ride was silent, Lorna holding her hand carefully against her hip.

They exited the lift and Keira knocked, scanning and entering at Jim's distracted, "Come." He looked up as the three entered, looking over Harrison's injuries briefly before deciding they were superficial. He paused to give Sebastian a glare that said he knew exactly where his former bodyguard had been and was choosing the high road for once, and turned his attention back to Lorna. "What happened?"

Lorna took a deep, deep breath, and then said, "Armetti had received cosmetic surgery to look like Sebastian. Contacts, too, though, not the right color - sorry, off topic, I'm just," she waved a finger at her own head, indicating the slight instability that had been created by having to kill what looked like her husband. "He made an offer to get away from you, Jim, before it all goes to hell or whatnot. Euros is, of course, the one pulling the strings, though I don't know why she was willing to let him throw his life away like this. But you mentioned he was spotted in England. Not possible, obviously, due to the," she pointed at Sebastian, "thing, so. Who is walking around with Armetti's face, and why? Is it Euros? What the fuck does she get out of it?"

There was an unusual silence following her statement, stretching out a few long seconds before Keira broke it with "Jesus fucking Christ."

Jim was caught up in his own thoughts, eyes slipping shut as he tried to think more clearly. Sebastian was attempting to shake off the goosebumps crawling up his spine.

"Yeah, I sure didn't fucking like it!" Lorna snapped, at nobody in particular. She shivered again.

Jim opened his eyes again. "It could be why he killed his entire network. She could take over for him with nobody noticing his tells were gone. His business connections would be harder, but that's what she's probably after. Knowing her, however, she'll breeze right by them without them noticing."

"Hold on," Moran sighed. "She's not just walking around with his fucking face on. She's supposed to be in prison. And yes, I understand that that's gone to the gutter by this point but surely someone would notice if she suddenly changed into a rather unattractive Italian."

"Unless she didn't," Keira countered. "Who says someone else doesn't have her face?"

Lorna buried her face in her hands and groaned. "Are you saying that we could be dealing with a triple face swap?" she moaned.

Jim's jaw looked awfully tight. "I'm highly considering the benefits of alerting Mycroft to this." His eyes were on Moran. Asking for his judgment.

Seb wasn't surprised by the comment, but he didn't like it. "He asked for Harrison's assistance on good faith, boss, and then kidnapped her. Maybe the younger Holmes instead?"

Jim tsked, waving his hand a little. "Sherlock is far more concerned with defeating the 'evil' in front of him than a threat that hasn't manifested yet. He'll hyperfixate on us, ignore the bigger picture until it's much too late. Mycroft, while a traitorous sack of shit, is more reliable on spotting when he should work with us and when he shouldn't. We just won't send anybody into his grasp this time. Work in tandem, but... apart."

Sebastian grit his teeth, but couldn't argue. "No, I don't see another option, boss, if that's what you want me to say."

"It's not what I want you to say, but it is what I expected." He sighed, leaning back in his chair with a creak of leather.

Lorna rubbed her eyes with her uninjured hand. "Next time I see Mycroft I'm going to spray him with lysol again."

"Try something stronger. Bleach maybe? Or some form of animal piss," Keira suggested helpfully. Sebastian smirked despite himself.

"Alright, out," Jim said, waving them off. "I'll contact Holmes and keep you all updated. Keira, have security get eyes on our Armetti lookalike. I want to know where they are now, but as soon as possible will have to suffice."

Keira nodded, with a, "Yes, sir," and the three of them all headed back out. Lorna gravitated to Sebastian's side as the door shut behind him, giving him a look.

"You followed me in the Jag, of all things? Ever heard of subtlety?"

"I have," he said, unabashed. "But I've also heard of looking like I belong somewhere when asked. And if I was going to run into the damned mess you had following you, I needed to look like I had permission to be on site."

She let out a huff of a sigh, shaking her head and heading for the lift. "You could have given me a ride home at least. You know those damn vans have the suspension of a rickety old wagon."

"By the time I got down you were gone. I didn't clear my post until you were in the car and headed back here," he said, shrugging. He reached out to take her good hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

She squeezed it back. Keira smacked the lift button, and it opened, apparently still on their floor. They all piled in. Lorna finally processed what Sebastian said. "Got down? You got out one of your rifles, didn't you? Sly dog."

"What the fuck else was I going to do?" he growled as he punched the button for their floor. "Sit around in the tower with my thumb up my ass like some damsel in distress? Pass."

She smirked, hip checking him. "I'm teasing you. You know how I like the rifles," she murmured. Keira sighed heavily.

"Can it wait until I'm not in the lift?"

"When have we ever given you the impression that we were not going to flirt in front of you?" Seb asked, raising one scar-riddled eyebrow.

"Never! I'm just hoping that with a little attrition I can get some fucking compliance, I don't know," Keira huffed. Lorna chuckled.

"If you had the ability to flirt with your girlfriends at work you would, wouldn't you? Do they know what you do, by the way?"

"Yeah," Keira said with a sigh. "One's in security, the other's in grifting. Only way I could see any relationship working honestly."

Lorna's head swiveled to stare at Keira, a grin on her face. "Who in grifting? Not Jaina?"

"No! God, no, isn't she like... Forty? Christ." Keira shook their head. "None of your business anyway."

Lorna snickered, and the doors opened on their floor, allowing Seb and Lorna to step out, Lorna tossing a, "I'll find out, you may as well tell me!" Over her shoulder to a groan from Keira as the lift doors closed again. She immediately headed for their flat. "Alright, help me get out of my shirt and into something comfier. Or not, I'm down to be comfort-ravaged."

He smiled, leaning down to pick her up- careful of injuries- and hucking her into one arm as he unlocked their door, shoving in and kicking it shut behind them.

She grinned, ignoring the pressure he was unavoidably putting on her chest. "You're very hot, have I mentioned?"

"It may have come up once or twice," he said with a laugh, lifting her enough to kiss her as he headed for their bedroom. "You were saying something about a comfort ravaging?"

She got a leg around his hip to support herself enough to kiss him firmly, keen on burning the day's events out of her head with the heat of him. "Something like that, yeah," she said in a breath. "Help me out of my shirt?"

She didn't need to ask- he was already setting her down on the bed so that he could get it off of her. He paused to look at the nasty bruise blooming out from her sternum, but decided not to think about it, instead leaning down to start kissing her again, his hands finding her wrists and taking hold.

She both hated and loved when he did that. It gave her a little thrill down her spine, but she liked touching him just as much. She hooked her leg around his thigh to pull him in closer, nipping his lip, heat rising in her face.

He gave her one hand back, keeping the injured one captive. He kissed her hungrily as he pushed her backward, body covering hers easily. He was finally regaining muscle, though he was still leaner than he had been, and kept most of his weight off of her.

She immediately buried her fingers in his hair, then skated down to brush his jaw and tug teasingly at his beard once, kissing him back with hunger and lust and relief, so glad that she'd made it back to him, that this was the real deal under her hand and pressed against her inner thigh where she had her leg entwined with his. She drew back for a second, breaking the kiss, her hand cupping his face, her thumb under his icy blue eye. She just wanted to look at him for a moment - just wanted to see the real thing, to see where Armetti had gone wrong. Then she pulled him back in, arm circling his neck, biting at his lower lip.

He let her look. He would go look at Armetti's corpse later, he decided. See for himself what she'd seen. But for the moment, he let her tug at him, his broad palms sliding over her warm skin, ensuring she was whole. His tongue rolled with hers in familiar patterns, before he pulled away enough to unbutton his shirt.

"Dammit, one of my favorite parts and I'm handicapped. Ha, literally," she chuckled, getting to work in his absence pushing down her trousers and wriggling out of them.

"You'll be fine in a few days," he said, tossing his clothes aside and crossing back to her, taking her trousers from her and tossing them onto the pile. Then he was pushing her back onto the bed, one hand splayed across her stomach to pin her down as he kissed her.

She ran her hands down his chest - one palm down, the hurt one the opposite - kissing him back with a fervor, her one hand digging her nails into the ridges on his chest - her LH to be exact. A reminder to both of them. It seemed so long ago now that he'd let her sit astride him and leave her initials there. She wished she could bear his mark, too. Maybe someday.

He pressed hisnchest into her hands, his knee nudging between her thighs until he could put gentle, teasing pressure against her core. "You know, we really need to stop almost dying, but I have to admit the post-almost-death sex is nice," he said conversationally against her lips.

She chuckled, a little breathlessly, her hurt hand coming up to card through his hair carefully. "It's always been a nice little bonus, hasn't it?" She murmured with a smile, the hand on his chest skating down to catch at his waistband. The first time they'd had sex after the cancer, she'd been almost scared of breaking him, but neither of them would ever wait the proper amount of time until they could half climb inside each other again. They were too drawn to each other. That was clear by now.

He pushed his boxers off, then went after her bra and underwear, his fingers sliding across her skin, tracing her curves as he did, like he was ensuring she was still all there. Once they were both fully undressed, he pushed her a little further up onto the bed, stooping to press his lips to the inside of her thigh, tongue and teeth tracing patterns.

"Shorting out my brain today, are we?" she gasped, good hand falling to his hair, the other to the sheets, ignoring the ache in her palm as she twisted her fingers in the sheets.

"That was the general idea," he agreed, lifting her legs to settle over his shoulders so that he had room to work. "Unless you're objecting?" He grinned.

She dug her heels into his back a little in encouragement. "No complaints here," she said, biting her lower lip.

"Good," he said with a small laugh. He shifted his shoulders a little more, then pressed her tongue into her slowly, determined to make her remember what his proper face looked like and forget anything else.

She shivered at the hot ecstasy of it, letting her head fall back into the pillows, fingers scraping gently across his scalp.

He slid hands along her thighs, his movements slow and precise, tongue circling her clit before entering her and repeating. He found his rhythm, shivering slightly under her grip on his hair.

He built her up slowly, and left her writhing under his mouth, her thighs tight on his head.

He pulled away eventually, looking up at her with a smirk. "What do you think? Should I let you come? Or make you wait until I take you against the wall?"

She lifted her head to give him a dirty look that was betrayed by how wide her pupils were and how red her cheeks. "The 'make' makes me think you already know exactly what you're going to do."

"You know me too well," he said with a sigh, smiling and pulling away from her for just a moment before he was shifting up over her again, his body weight pinning her in place.

"I'd hope that ring on your finger meant something," she smirked, reaching down to wrap her hand around him, stroking slowly. "What wall did you have in mind?"

"The closest one. Why, did you have a special request?" he asked, a touch breathlessly.

"Unfortunately we don't have any neighbors I'd particularly like to annoy, so no, the closest one will do," she hummed, smiling smugly at his breathless tone. She squeezed him slightly. "I do insist on all due haste, considering the edge you've left me hanging on."

"Fine, fine," he grumbled good-naturedly. "So impatient, you know that?" He pushed himself up, then grabbed her up into his arms, pausing to sink his teeth into her neck more-or-less gently, scraping across her skin.

She gasped softly, locking her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck so he could lift her more easily, fingers sliding into his hair from the base of his neck.

He turned to push her up against the wall behind them, his body weight pinning her in place. He ground against her slowly, his skin hot.

She moaned, nipping under his jaw, fingers scraping down his scalp. "Fuck me already," she groaned, impatient.

He grinned, and shifted to obey the request, tempted as he was to make her work for it. He adjusted her a little until he could press into her, his forehead resting against hers as he entered her fully.

"Oh, fuck," she groaned, biting harder at his throat, enough to leave a bit of a mark, her hips fidgeting against his, looking for friction. "You feel so good."

He growled low as she bit him, his hips rocking slowly against hers, letting her adjust until she could take him a little deeper. Then he started moving. There was only so slow one could go against a wall, and he didn't bother trying, just started the pace where he wanted it, hips rolling against hers.

He knew she loved it when he made that noise, biting where his shoulder met his neck, a beautiful hot wave of pleasure building in her stomach, her body still wound tight from earlier. "You're not going to punish me if I come, right?" She asked breathlessly.

"Do you want me to?" he shot back, breathless. He leaned down to return the bite, his grip on her ass tightening slightly to keep her from shifting too much against the wall.

"No," she laughed, a strained sound, her fingers tight on the round of his shoulder, a shiver running up her spine and then back down again. "Fuck," she muttered, and then came hard, clutching at him desperately, pleas for more already falling out of her mouth.

He had absolutely no intention of stopping, his head pressing against the plaster to give himself better leverage. She rode him out through her orgasm, and he could feel it in her body wherever she was pressed against him- which was pretty much everywhere. Her nails bit into his scar-ridged skin, pinpoints of pain mingling in with the heat and sweat and pleasure.

She smoothed her hands over the places her grip had gotten a little tight as she came down, beginning to roll her hips in rhythm with his as best as she was able to while still feeling a little tingly.

He pulled back enough to rest a hand at the base of her neck, gripping just slightly, just enough to feel the shape of it in his palm, feel her pulse beneath her skin, racing as they moved.

"God I love you," she said brokenly, fingers curling in his hair, her breath hot in his ear. She loved him so much. No one else could burn away this fear like he could.

"I love you, too," he panted, distracted, his body alight, pushing him rapidly toward orgasm. It felt so good to be alive like this, not trapped in some hospital bed wired to machines.

She was getting close again too, her breathing harsh, her skin on fire, her core beginning to bear down on him without her trying, and she whimpered, cheek pressed against his. "Seb."

His teeth dug into his lip, the pain grounding him for a moment, but then he was gone, pinning her harder against the wall as he came, his body alive with heat and energy, breath caught deep in his throat as he mouthed a filthy line of curses.

She came for a second time with a shuddering gasp, clutching him as close as she could, heat rushing up her spine.

He eventually became aware of things besides her again. The texture of the wall where it pressed into his forehead, the low hum of the air conditioner and lights, the cool air against sticky skin.

"Fuck..." He breathed.

"Yeah, that... That covers it," she chuckled weakly, shaking slightly against him. She took a deep breath, fingers sliding through his hair. "I needed that."

He nodded in agreement, grunting slightly as he picked her up away from the wall, walking over to the bed and setting her down.

She thought briefly about getting up and cleaning up a little, but her day caught up with her all at once, and she passed out contentedly.

He shifted around a little to get comfortable, then yawned, and followed her into sleep.

I don't wanna come down, I'm floating on strange clouds
Burning up with the sun, we let it all fade out
Falling out of the sky, I'm laying with you and staring at the ceiling
I don't wanna come down, I'm floating on strange clouds

Don't stop, don't stop doing what you're doing to me
I said keep on, keep on being what I need you to be

- ufo ufo - Strange Clouds -