Yesterday was 9/11. Can you imagine being an emergency responder, running into the same buildings everyone else is fleeing from? Even as the towers collapsed, some firefighters were still running towards them. In images from the Pentagon, soldiers, sailors and airmen are running with stretchers and carrying victims. And the passengers of flight 93 certainly ran forward, storming the cockpit. It reminds me of one of the many Army Med. Corp mottos: This we do so others may live..

Lissie was, once again, regretting her tendency to rush headlong into things. She was crouched in a corner, Brooke Winters shaking beside her, waiting for a plan.

Winters was utterly useless. "I just want to go home," she kept muttering. Lissie wanted to shake her. Do you know what I've been through? I've been kidnapped, hospitalized, abandoned and shuffled about ; yet here I am, protecting you.

"Sh!" Lissie heard footsteps and Carolyn entered the room, looking about cautiously.

Winters shrank back further in the corner. Carolyn was standing with her back to them, surveying the room.

I'm going to kill Sherlock for putting me through this.

Carolyn backed up, so close that she was nearly brushing against them. The outline of her gun was so close- Lissie jumped, pulling the gun out and clutching it.

The evil young woman shrieked -more out of surprise than anything else- and reeled around, calling for backup.

A Karovian man rushed in, and Lissie went for a move borne of sheer desperation.

"I'll shoot her," she yelled, pure anger making her voice effortlessly hard. "I will, don't doubt it."

Perhaps it was the way she held herself and the gun, or maybe it was her voice, or expression, but it worked.

Everyone reacted differently - he froze, hand halfway to his Luger, Carolyn tensed. Winters audibly squeaked.

Lissie decided to go back to her original, much simpler plan - the keep 'em talking.

But first, a report to Sherlock. Who knew if there were more Karovians?

"Brooke," she said, eyes and gun never leaving Carolyn's temple, "can you get my phone from my back pocket and call 'Sherlock'? He's in my contacts. Tell him I have two enemy agents, but there's more."

Winters fumbled and got the phone, murmuring admiration and praise about Lissie as she went.

"Yes, yes, call him," Lissie was impatient. If the man rushed her, could she shoot him?

Oh, she could kill him if she had to, but could she do it in time? If he charged, would she be quick enough?

Winters made the call and hung up. It felt like an eternity as they stood there. The man kept edging for the door- trying to call the other agents.

"Back here. Now."

He regarded her with mixed admiration and hate. "You shoot, they all come running."

"I shoot, she dies," Lissie reminded him.

He rolled his eyes but moved back. "You are very young, no? You work for England?"

"I don't want small talk."

Carolyn laughed dryly. "She's clever, Loytz. You can't distract her."

Everything about this was so wrong, yet it felt right. It felt GOOD to be in control for once, to have guns and know how to shoot them, to be able to completely subdue enemies. She imagined herself a Bond girl, gorgeous, in a long gown, with a fancier gun that this - a Beretta 70, maybe. Had she become addicted to danger, like Sherlock?

It was delightfully wicked and freeing. She was no longer shaking, scared, a little girl with wide blue eyes crying for her mother - no, she was a powerful, beautiful, deadly woman.

I'm not scared anymore. Moriarty, nearly losing Sherlock, now this

She had celebrated too soon. Loytz leapt towards her, kicking wildly. She swung the gun away from Carolyn and at him.

There was no time. Targets, steady hands, just like practice- she fired and he fell, cursing.

Winters' jaw dropped. "Is he dead,Lissie?"

She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. "Not yet. Just unconscious as of right now."

Carolyn was yelling and other agents would be in soon. Lissie pulled the Luger out of his pocket and tossed it to Winters, who caught it with surprising relish.

They backed up, into a corner, and Winters used two hands to hold the gun steady. "Someone's coming," she whispered, and Carolyn laughed. "You can't keep me here forever."

A Karovian man rushed in, and Lissie was focused on disarming him when Winters shrieked. Spinning, Lissie saw Carolyn aiming a gun at her.

Winters was kicking the shins of a woman holding her tightly. Powerless, she mouthed an "I'm sorry" to Lissie.

This is how it ends. Carolyn was talking.

"It's funny, Felicity. You were only a cover. There was no reason for you to die. But you had to get involved, had to be the hero, didn't you?"

She shoved Lissie into Brooke, and they both were pushed to the ground. A brief conference was held by the Karovians. They were obviously debating what to do with the girls.

"Lissie," Brooke whispered, "You were brilliant."

"Thanks."

"MI6 teach you all that? The tactical stuff, I mean?"

"Actually, I'm not...really an agent."

Winters didn't blink. Lissie had the feeling she'd known all along, and only believed the alibi out of sheer desperation.

"You'd make a bloody good one, then," Winters called as she was jerked to her feet. She stared up at Carolyn without a hint of her earlier fear.

"You're valuable," Carolyn said with a smirk."It's too bad your friend Felicity isn't."

As Winters was pulled away, the vile woman leveled her gun at Lissie.

There was a shot...

tomorrow's my birthday :)