A/N: Thanks for the reviews.

Disclaimer: We don't own the show, we don't own the characters, and we aren't making money.


He was torn.

On the one hand, his partner had shown up to help him and he wasn't alone in his predicament anymore. Sarah had gotten his alert signal and she'd raced here to try to get him out of this cluster fuck he'd gotten himself into. His odds of getting out of this were better now.

On the other hand, now they were both in this predicament and the odds of her getting pulled in and ending up hurt or worse had gone up as well.

He gave her another dramatic shrug, eyes wide. Did she have any ideas? Because he sure as hell didn't. He tried to peek around the corner to see what was happening with the Ring agents. But he decided it was too risky and pulled back again.

He heard Renata's voice. "Just get the bodies away from here," she hissed. "Anybody could come around the corner or go down into the hold and see them and then how do we explain that?"

There was a quick shuffling sound, grunting… He heard a quiet sound then, almost like a hiss. And when he turned, he saw Sarah trying to signal to him. When she saw she'd caught his attention, she slowly mouthed...words. Words he could not decipher. He narrowed his eyes and focused on her mouth, lips, the click of her teeth, but couldn't figure out what she was saying. At all. He winced and shrugged at her.

Sarah took a deep breath, rolled her eyes to the ceiling, and then ducked back around the corner again. He knew she hadn't abandoned him; she wasn't currently leaving him alone to face this by himself. And yet, he couldn't blame her if she did. He imagined she was concocting some plan, which was good, because he was at a loss. He'd been trying to get out of this mess for ten minutes now.

"Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you killed them!" Renata hissed at the others.

"They came after us!"

"I don't care! We aren't supposed to be drawing attention to ourselves. If they start finding bodies around, they'll—"

"Well, that first body wasn't our fault, was it? He was one of ours and CIA took him."

"And so?" she asked. "We just add to the body count? How does that help the cause?"

"Everything we're doing here is helping the cause…"

Chuck heard the soft hiss again and he switched his glance over to where Sarah'd appeared before. She was there again, and she nodded, that special look on her face. The concern that had been there before was gone, and in its place was his partner, and prior to that his CIA handler. She had a plan. She knew exactly what she was going to do.

He just wished he knew what that was.

She poked herself in the chest a few times, then raised both hands. He watched them curl into fists, and then her finger poked herself in the chest again before swooping through the air in a way that he thought he could figure out.

Sarah was gambling that he could understand at least the gist of the sign language she'd just thrown at him. He wondered if it was somehow in his dossier that he and Ellie took sign language courses. Was he fluent? Absolutely not. Ellie had picked it up, and he hadn't, aside from some of the basics. But he knew his partner was asking for him to trust her.

And he knew exactly how to respond. He held his pointer finger up, pointing it at the ceiling, and wound it in a few wide circles like he was spinning a plate. Always…

Sarah's eyes widened and she smiled at him. She nodded, seemed to take a deep breath, and then she disappeared from view again.

He only had to wait another ten seconds before he heard a clacking sound from where she'd been, and then he heard humming, loud humming...loud, out of tune humming.

"Shit! Someone's coming!"

"Oh, what now?"

Chuck heard them scrambling, cursing...but he kept his eyes on the corner, not quite knowing what he was about to see.

Agent Sarah Walker burst around the corner...or rather, she swung around it, her hand pressed against the wall, her hat off, hair a bit of a mess. And her eyes were glossy, one of them a little more shut than the other.

She tipped a little, her shoulder hitting the wall, and she stepped all the way out of one of her heels. "OOP!" she squeaked, bursting into laughter and covering her mouth sloppily, before she knelt down to snag the heel off of the floor. "Who even in-invented theezz fuggin' thinzzz?" she slurred, taking the other off as well and picking them both up.

Without even a semblance of a glance, she staggered past Chuck, then halted a bit, blinking and narrowing her eyes at the group by the entrance to the hold. "WELL! People!"

Chuck knew immediately what she was doing. It was the classic drunken girl distraction. He was inwardly grinning as he watched her work.

"Hello, people!" She gasped then, moving closer to the group. "Oh my God, your earrings! Where'd you get them? Are those Tiffany's or Cartier? M'so sorry, m'I interrupting y'all's conversation?" she asked. "D'you know thiz ship has drinks served by the pool? And you don't even have to be swimming you can just SIT THERE! I mean, WHAT?"

"Uh, no. No, I-I didn't," one of the men said after an awkwardly long silence.

"WELL IT DOES!"

Chuck chanced peeking at the scene. Sarah had maneuvered herself in the middle of them.

"No, look! I wuz—Okay, maybe I had a bit much to drink…" She giggled, beaming charmingly at them, staggering a bit in the opposite direction and forcing two of the men to step in to keep her from falling over. It made it so that everyone was turned with their backs to Chuck.

And he found himself grinning at the CIA agent, drawing all their eyes to her as she stooped, holding onto one of their shoulders to put her heels back on, drawling out a drunken, "The carpet hurzz my feet worse than if I juz kept thezz damn thinzz on…"

She was a God damn genius.

He used the opportunity to step out from behind his hiding place, feeling the fake facial hair on his face to make sure it was still there, and he hurried towards the group.

Clearing his throat loudly, he watched as Renata turned and noticed him first, her eyes widening. He sent her a look and then muttered "follow my lead" as he nudged past her to put his hands on Sarah's shoulders.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we can't have you out in the hallways this, erm, under the influence…" Sarah was babbling something under her breath, still holding one of her heels, and she looked up at him in confusion. "Yes, ma'am. You. I'm—Can someone help her get this other shoe on her foot, please?" he asked, his frustration evident.

They bent to the task, trying to help Sarah get the other heel on.

"Oh thank you! You're such nice—hic—nice boys!"

Chuck turned back to Renata and gave her a harsh look. "The hell is this?" he hissed.

"Don't ask," she groused.

"Take care of it. I'll take this one out of here." He huffed and shook his head in annoyance, going back to Sarah. "All right, ma'am. Can you hear me? Do you understand me?"

"Well, of course I—of course I understand you. I'm not deaf and I'm definitely not stupid."

"Right. I said you cannot be out here this inebriated. Okay? I'm taking you—yes, thank you." She was trying to pet his tie. "I'm taking you back to your room. Do you know where that is?"

"Can I wear your hat?"

"No. Come on. Let's go."

He let her sling an arm over his shoulder and he maneuvered her out of there.

"D'you know they serve drinks by the pool? Oh wait, you're in uniform." She giggled. "I'm not telling you anything you don't know, eh?"

He curled his arm around her waist and slowly guided her down the hallway, holding her upright as she staggered into his side. "Ma'am, I need you to try to behave, please."

"Oh, come onnnnnn sourpuzz! I paid ta be on thizz boat! I have a few drinks an' suddenly I'm a criminal?" She snorted as he finally got her around the corner.

Before he could straighten up and break character, she grabbed onto the front of his jacket and stopped him. "Not yet," she whispered. And she clacked her heels, humming again… still humming even as they staggered down the hallway, back to the staircase…

It wasn't until they got to the very top of the staircase that she halted and straightened up to her full height, glancing down in the direction they'd come from and pulling her hat out from where she'd stuffed it down the back of her blouse, fixing it back over her hair, then going for his face with both hands.

She ripped at his facial hair and he let out a silent scream, the stinging sensation rocketing through his entire upper body, and he felt tears pricking at his eyes. "Sorry," she whispered, wincing. "Jacket. Get the jacket off."

He sprang into action, still scrunching up his face from the stinging pain of the facial hair being violently ripped off by his partner. Together, they pushed his jacket off and she grabbed it from him. Without saying a word, she knelt down in front of an electrical panel in the corner next to the door and hit the side of it with a closed fist, popping the door open. Inside was a small black carrier bag. She grabbed it and shoved it into his hands, unzipping it as he held it and shoving his jacket and hat inside.

"Wha-What's—Where'd you—How'd you know—?" he stumbled.

"I have a few of these kept in different stairwells on the ship, just in case we need to make outfit changes," she muttered, grabbing a pinstriped suit jacket out of it for him and a smaller grey blazer for herself.

"When—When'd you do that?" he asked, gobsmacked, just staring as she changed jackets, shoved the old one into the bag, and shoved her floppy cap inside.

She fluffed her hair methodically and sent him a look. "When we first got on the ship. Obviously. Hurry up and put that jacket on."

Chuck kept gaping, even while he set the bag down and shrugged his new jacket on. It fit him perfectly. "I have got a lot to learn from you."

Sarah sent him an unmistakably amused smirk, gave his jacket lapel a tug, and knelt down to scoop the bag up by its handle. "Let's get back to safety. Quick."

"You had enough time to search her cabin?" he asked her as they pushed out into the hallway and made their way towards their own cabin.

She sent him a look. "Of course I did."

Chuck just shook his head, as impressed by her as ever.

}o{

The first thing she did when they got into their cabin was to slip a knife out of her boot heel and put a hand on Chuck's arm. "Lock it," she breathed. "I'm gonna make sure no one's in here."

She heard him gulp, but saw him nod in her peripheral as she made a quick search of their cabin suite, checking closets, the restroom, under the bed, or anywhere else someone might hide. As she pulled curtains back and shut them again, she thought back to that moment in the hallway, outside of the hold, when their entire mission might have fallen apart… all it would've taken was one wrong move, one slip… They were outnumbered and all she'd had were her knives.

But Chuck had picked up on what she was doing like he was inside of her head. It wasn't anything she'd ever experienced with any other partner—not Casey, not Bryce, none of the CATs… And he'd done it beautifully. He was every bit the Ring agent pretending to be a ship's officer, trying to take care of one of the guests… but mostly trying to get said guest the hell away from the agents where she might see something she wasn't supposed to see. They'd gotten out of there safely, and hopefully Renata would never see said Ring agent ever again.

God, Chuck was a good spy. Agent Carmichael was a really, really good spy. And an even better partner.

"Anything out of place?" she asked as she strode back into the living room.

"Not that I can see. I don't think anyone's been in here. Just us."

She nodded.

"Hey, how many of those special disguise bags did you hide on this ship?" he blurted, as if he'd been thinking about it the whole way to their cabin. She smirked, tilting her head. "You're not gonna tell me, are you?"

"You have much to learn, young grasshopper," she drawled, plucking the rubbing she'd stolen from Renata's notebook out of her waistband.

"Is that from Renata's cabin?" he asked. He crossed the room to her side as she nodded and unfolded it. "What is it?"

"I don't really know. I found a notebook she hid in her cabin," she explained, flicking on the nearby lamp and squinting as she held the paper against it.

"Do you have it?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. She turned the rubbing she took a little, trying to decipher what was there. Numbers, perhaps? An address of some sort? She couldn't tell. "I didn't want to take anything out of it, so I took pictures of everything she wrote in there. But the last page she wrote on was ripped out, so I tried to take a rubbing of the next page to see what she wrote. Not much seemed to come out. She probably hadn't pressed hard enough while writing," she said with a sigh. "Damn it."

"Why didn't you just take the whole thing?"

"If she sees anything out of place, she'd know you led her away from her cabin and that opened the door for an accomplice to break into her cabin and steal her notebook, Chuck. Her short meetings with you won't leave too much of an impression, but if she knew you helped someone break into her cabin, she'd be able to describe every last bit of your face. And she'd know you were working with the U.S. government. This is the safest thing; not letting her know we're onto her." She turned the rubbing another way to try to figure it out.

"That makes a lot more sense. Here, lemme see it. You get Casey those pictures you took of the notebook. Was there anything good in there? Juicy?"

She snorted and stuck the paper in his outstretched hand, going for her bag and snagging her laptop. She set it on the coffee table and opened it, quick to connect her camera to it and start loading the pictures she'd taken of the notebook onto it. "It wasn't the diary of a teeny-bopper. I didn't see much there, just a few notes that I couldn't really spend the time to read."

"Coordinates."

She blinked. "What?" As she looked up at Chuck, she saw he was holding the rubbing up to the light and squinting at it. "Coordinates?"

"To a treasure. Ring treasure. That's buried. At these coordinates."

Sighing, she shook her head and went back to her task, sending the dozen or so pictures to Casey, specifically. Her misgivings about Shaw were still there, in the back of her mind. "It isn't coordinates, or...if it is, we don't have all of the numbers we need most likely and it's definitely not for treasure. But it might be for something else important. Maybe something big is going down there. I don't know."

She put her laptop away and sent Casey a quick text for him to check his email. She didn't tell him to check it without Shaw around, for fear Shaw somehow got his eyes on the text. She wasn't keen on him knowing she didn't trust him as much as others seemed to.

Snagging the rubbing from Chuck, she carefully slipped it into a safe place in one of her bags, and then she came back and leaned on the arm of the couch near Chuck. "We're at a bit of a disadvantage, even if the Ring hasn't figured out that we're the CIA agents they're looking for."

"Disadvantage? Noooo. We're at an advantage. We're smarter than they are."

"And not quite as armed. And there are only two of us and… God, there must be dozens of them on this ship, Chuck. Look at the number of people you flashed on, the ones I took pictures of. It hits at least thirty or more. And those were just the people we came across so far."

"Casey or Shaw have anything for us on the people I flashed on today?"

"Well, sure, they've got analysts at Langley drawing up dossiers as we speak, but none of that helps us with the situation we're in now. We're surrounded on every side, there's a Ring agent staying in the same hallway as Hannah Liu, her secret first officer boyfriend is so nervous for her safety he's taken up smoking period-appropriate cigarettes, and we still haven't figured out where that fucking key is." She growled in frustration, pushing a hand through her hair.

Chuck came around to sit on the couch next to her and she swiveled a bit so that his shoulder was pressed into her waist. The slight physical connection was settling her nerves without her even realizing it. "It'll be okay. We're gonna figure this out. We'll find that key."

"Oh, yeah? How? How do we convince Hannah she can tell us where she's keeping that key? How do we convince her that giving it to us is the only way she can ensure she survives all of this?" Sarah absently let her hand fall onto his shoulder and leaned a little on him. "She almost died in a fire that someone set in her cabin, Chuck. And that didn't convince her to trust us enough to keep that key safe for her."

"I dunno, I'd probably have trust issues if someone purposely burned my cabin to try to kill me." He shrugged.

"Yeah, good point. I can't say I blame her for it." Sarah huffed and stood up then. "I think better in the bath. I'm going to go soak in the tub for a bit. After today, I need it. You need the bathroom for anything?"

"No, you've already ripped half my face off getting that facial hair off of it." He rubbed his chin and jaw with a wince. "So I don't have to worry about that. I'll wait until you're done."

She gave him a wry smirk. "It's like a bandaid. You just do it quick. It's worse if it lasts longer." She shrugged, backing towards the bedroom. "Anyway, we were in a bit of a rush."

"Yeah, yeah," he teased, rolling his eyes.

Even with their banter, as she slipped into the tub a few minutes later, letting the hot water and soap surround her aching body, she was hit by a frustrating amount of cynicism. Hannah wasn't going to let them have that key. They wouldn't be able to get that box open. She and Chuck weren't on the side that murdered innocent people who got in their way. But the Ring would do it without blinking an eye. They could try to explain that to Hannah. But Sarah knew the woman wouldn't budge. She'd think it was smarter to keep it in her possession, safer. No matter what they said to her.

And she couldn't blame her because she'd do the same thing if she were in the brunette's shoes. She'd grown up not trusting anyone but herself. It was second nature.

Agent Walker let her eyes slip shut, all the while trying to figure out their next step. She and Chuck were alone out here in the Caribbean on this cruise liner. However they ended up getting that key, nobody else was here to help them. Nobody trustworthy, at least.

And she knew they were running out of time. Sure, there was plenty of time left before the ship docked in Rio de Janeiro, but if that key wasn't in their possession or safely headed back to Langley within the next few days, their chances of losing it to the Ring would increase every moment they didn't get their hands on it.

And sure… Hannah Liu's safety was in serious jeopardy, too, the longer it took for them to get that key.

Letting her limbs loosen up, she went into her place of deep focus and wracked her brain for an idea.

}o{

It wasn't a nightmare that woke her up, or even a dream. It was a sensation, maybe. Something she felt, even in her sleep. A sense of unease settling over her, perhaps projected by someone else. Or maybe it was simply her own unease.

Whatever it was, she sighed, her eyes still shut, and frowned a bit. As she woke up a little more properly, she subtly slipped her fingers under her pillow and slid them around the hilt of her throwing knife she kept there when she slept.

Opening her eyes slowly, she oh so carefully turned to look over her shoulder.

Her grip on the knife loosened and she pulled her hand out from under her pillow altogether.

It was Chuck's unease that had woken her up. She'd felt it even as she slept. She scanned the dark room, an immediate protective habit, a defense mechanism. No one was there but them.

But Chuck was sitting up on his side of the bed, his figure slumped forward, head bowed, his hair wild, shirt a bit crooked, as though he'd been tossing and turning all night long. She looked at the clock on her side of the bed and frowned deeper as she realized it was half after three. What was he doing awake?

"...Chuck?"

He jumped a bit and turned to look at her, his eyes wide. "Hey. Sorry. Did I wake you?"

Sarah shook her head and shifted a bit so that she was on her stomach, before she pushed herself up to sit beside him. "Everything okay?"

"Um. Well, technically no. In the grand scheme of things, not much is okay. But I'm-I'm okay."

"Typically when someone is sitting up in the dark at three-thirty like this, it means things aren't okay. What is it, Chuck?"

"Can't sleep."

"Too much on your mind?"

"No, I ate something that must've disagreed with me—Yes, obviously I have a whole lot on my mind," he snipped. It wasn't like him to be so short-tempered, and he looked like he regretted it immediately, his hand landing on her wrist as she shot him an arched brow. "Sorry. I'm so sorry, it isn't—I mean, that wasn't at you. I'm just really frustrated about this whole situation. We need that key, Sarah. And we need it before the Ring gets their hands on it. And I just feel like they've consistently been a step ahead." He huffed, pushing his hands through his hair. "I'm also—I keep thinking they're going to figure out who the CIA agents are on this cruise and while we're sleeping, they're gonna break in and murder us. I don't wanna go that way, Sarah. I really don't."

Sarah sighed and reached back, shoving her hand under her pillow and coming out with her throwing knife. "We aren't going out that way, Chuck. The slightest sound and I'm awake and alert immediately. Part of my training. And how would they even know who we are? Everyone who identified us as CIA agents is dead."

"Except for Hannah and First Officer Nicolas."

He had a point, but she didn't want him to be overly stressed about this, so she didn't tell him he had a point. Instead, she jumped back to what he first cited as a reason why he couldn't sleep.

"Chuck, we need to think about this like spies."

He shook his head. "I'll think. You can sleep. Who knows when we're gonna get to sleep again?" She gave him a flat look and then reached over to turn on the lamp on the nightstand on her side of the bed. "Okay, I guess not. I guess we'll both think," he muttered, pressing his lips together. "How do we think about this like spies?"

She nibbled on her bottom lip. "What would I do if I were in Hannah's shoes?"

"Ooohhh, I like that. That is very spyish thinking," he said a little breathlessly, his eyes wide, excitement in him as he crawled up to his knees and turned to face her, leaning in. "What would you do if you were in Hannah's shoes?"

Sarah thought, pushing her hair out of her face. "I'd hide it somewhere safe. If it were me, I'd keep it on me because that'd be the safest place, but I'm a well-trained CIA agent and no one will ever get the upper hand on me."

He smiled a bit dreamily, and the tiredness in his features almost seemed to underscore how insanely cute he was. "Yeeaahh," he breathed. He cleared his throat and shook himself a bit, as she bit the inside of her cheek to keep him from seeing how pleased that had made her. "But she isn't a well-trained CIA agent. At least, I don't think she's trained in combat."

"She wouldn't be as scared as she is if she was." She shook her head. "So she'd hide it somewhere."

"Right. She's just a regular person. No training. No spy brain, most likely. Not that she isn't smart, she's just...probably not a spy-thinker," he said, nodding, his brown eyes casting off to the side thoughtfully.

It hit her.

She reached out and tangled her fist in the front of his shirt. "Wait." She waited for him to meet her gaze. "A regular person. No spy brain. Not a spy-thinker." She shook her head, not meaning to repeat all the nonsense he'd muttered. "She's not like me. She's like you. Not that you aren't a spy. You are, you're training to be a spy. But you're different, Chuck. Your brain works differently from mine, from Casey's, Shaw's. So why don't we see what happens when you put yourself in Hannah's shoes...?"

His face lit up and he pointed at her. "You. You're a genius. That's genius."

"Chuck."

"Sorry. Right. Put myself in Hannah Liu's shoes." He grinned big. "That rhymed. Sorry. I'm extremely tired," he rushed out, shaking his head. "Not sure how good this brain of mine is gonna work, I'm just gonna fire shit off and see if it grabs ya…"

God, he was cute. She couldn't get enough of how cute he was.

"I wouldn't keep it on me. I'm not a bad ass. I mean, I know a few things but I wouldn't trust myself. I'd trust you," he said, shrugging. A warmth spilled through her and she felt something tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I mean, I know the key would be safe if I gave it to you 'cause you're a bad ass." He shrugged. "I wouldn't want to have to do this all alone. That sucks. I'd want to tell someone. I'd want to tell someone I care about. You. I'd want to tell you, Sarah. Get it off my chest. Hope that maybe you can help me, but worst comes to worst, I'd at least have someone I could confide in…"

Things were starting to click for her, even as Chuck's eyes were widening.

"Confide in," he murmured. "Who better to confide in, who better to trust with something than this person, than someone you love?" He looked right at her then. "Sarah, I'd give you the key for safekeeping. I'd tell you what was going on, and then I'd trust you to keep it safe. You're safe. What if Nicolas is her safe person? She's in love with him, right? She trusted him with this Ring stuff, so of course she might trust him to keep the key safe. That's why they never found it. She doesn't have it. And they don't know about Nicolas!"

She'd been putting it together right along with him. "So we're on the same page then?"

"Is that page that Nicolas is hiding the key for her, most likely in his personal cabin that he shares with no one and—"

"Most likely has a safe inside? Yep."

"YEP!"

"We need to go now, Chuck." She was already crawling out of the bed. "Right now."

"Ri—What? Now? Now now? It's...Wait, it's…" He grabbed his phone that was charging on his nightstand. "It's not even four in the morning! Everyone's asleep!"

"Not everyone. And we need to get that key before the Ring does, if they haven't already figured out Nicolas is connected to Hannah after his stunt when her cabin caught fire. He wasn't exactly great at keeping his feeling for her a secret when he burst into a room filled with flames to save her life," she said, giving him a droll look as she stepped into a wide-leg pair of silk pants.

Chuck grabbed a suit jacket from where he'd left it draped over the back of the nearby chair and threw it on over his white T-shirt before dashing across the room to the closet to snatch a pair of trousers off one of the hangers. He nearly fell trying to pull them on. That was all she needed, Chuck falling and hitting his head on something and bleeding out.

"But do you really think we can't wait until maybe, like, two hours from now? This feels really rude, waking him up. What if my hunch is shit?"

"Then it's shit, but we need to catch him off-guard. It'll be easier to persuade him to open that safe. If he really does have the key, he's in serious danger, even more than she is. While she's the only one who knows where the key is, she has some immunity. If two people know where it is?"

His face fell. "Shit. They only need one of them alive."

"Exactly."

They were out of their cabin in a flash, locking the door behind them and walking as lightly and silently as they could down the carpeted floors. Thanks to both Agents Carmichael and Walker having studied the ship's layout, they were able to find their way to the First Officer's cabin.

"What if it's his shift on the bridge?" Chuck asked.

"Good question," she admitted, huffing. "I don't know. We'll have to wait until tomorrow I guess. It'll be too obvious for us to go to the bridge and bang on the door to demand to see the First Officer." She winced.

They stopped at his door and she heard Chuck take a deep breath. They met gazes and she tilted her head towards the door, ushering him to do the honors.

Chuck made a quiet whining sound, then knocked on the door. When he didn't answer right away, Chuck shrugged. "Welp! Guess he isn't here, huh?"

Sarah reached out with one hand and grabbed Chuck's arm to keep him from hurrying away from the cabin, simultaneously rapping on the door with her other hand. "First Officer Valle? Are you there?" she called.

"Sarah, dear God! Do you wanna wake the whole ship—"

"SH!" she hissed. "You hear that?"

She'd heard a muffled sound like feet shuffling, and a voice maybe but Chuck had talked over it. "Listen," she said, covering his mouth with her hand.

There it was again. It was an unmistakable sound now that she could hear it clearly. A muffled voice trying to get their attention. She tried the door but it was locked. "Shit!" she cursed.

"Want me to kick it in?" Chuck offered, and he stepped back until his shoulders were against the opposite wall. But Sarah was already pulling out the lockpick she kept in her floppy hat she'd been sure to grab before she left. She knelt in front of the door to pick the lock even as she heard her partner mutter, "Or we can do that, I guess. Less of a ruckus. Sure."

She would've smirked if she didn't have a terrible feeling churning in her spy gut. "Got it!" she gasped, and she pushed the door open, the gun she'd slipped down the back of her pants in hand.

Sweeping it through the small cabin, she looked for any threat right off the bat. But all she found was the poor first officer sitting on the wood floor next to his bed, a relieved and yet desperate look on his face. He had a half-assed gag across his mouth and he was handcuffed to the leg of his bed, dressed only in his boxers and a tank top. His hair was mussed, sweat making it stick to his forehead. "MMFFFFFF!" he yelled the second he spotted them.

"What the hell?" Chuck asked, making sure to shut the door behind them thankfully.

Sarah rushed to Nicolas's aid immediately, having to crawl onto the bed and lay out across it so that she could properly reach down to pick the handcuff lock and free him. The blood was rushing to her head but she did it anyway. It was awkward the way she was wedged into the corner, Nicolas's back pressed against her arm.

But she felt the click and let out a quiet, "A ha!" before she yanked at the cuffs and let him out.

Chuck was there, untying the cloth from Nicolas's mouth.

The second it was off, he panted, "She's up to something. I don't know what but we need to find her. She needs help."

"What? Who?" Chuck asked.

Nicolas pushed himself to his feet immediately and went for his uniform that was pressed and pristine in his closet. Sarah respectfully climbed off of the bed and faced in the other direction. "Hannah! Damn it! I should've known better. Why else would she show up here at three in the morning? I thought she just came here because she felt unsafe, you know?" She heard a zipper. "I've been letting her stay here when she wants during the day and, er, sometimes at night…" He blushed she saw as she turned around to see he'd put pants on thankfully. "She said she feels safer here than in her own cabin. And I figured as long as she wasn't followed, they wouldn't know… I thought that was why she came. I let her in. Shit!" he snapped, pushing his hand through his hair and somehow that managed to fix it. Easy as that. It was suddenly perfect again. Chuck had a point about First Officer Valle and being a bit movie star-ish.

"What happened?" Sarah asked, hiding her lock pick again and putting the hat back on her head.

"She told me she needed the key. I was confused. I asked why. She wouldn't tell me. She kept pushing, I kept pushing back. I wasn't going to let her take the thing that put her in so much danger. It was safer with me. It was much safer with me…"

"Yeah, you literally have a safe," Chuck said, pointing.

Valle ignored him even as she sent her partner a flat look. He shrugged as if he had said something perfectly reasonable. But then she frowned. "An open safe," she said then, hearing the foreboding in her own voice. "She took the key, didn't she?"

"I wouldn't let her take it so she pulled a gun." Sarah felt Chuck spin and look at her in shock. She didn't look back at him, instead watching Nicolas. He was frowning deeply, and he swallowed loudly. "She said she'd shoot me if I didn't open the safe. I knew she wouldn't. But I figured she'd done that because she really needed the key, and-and I thought, you know, maybe I should just trust she had a plan, a good reason for needing the key, and she knew I'd resist, because I love her, because I don't want anything to happen to her…" He stepped into his shoes and buttoned up his uniform jacket. "So I decided not to call her bluff, and I let her into the safe where I'd been keeping the key for safekeeping," he said quietly.

"I was right!" Chuck said, making a celebratory fist. She gave him a dark look and he withered into himself, dropping his arm to his side. "Which is not even close to being the most important thing right now, we need to find Hannah immediately, I totally agree."

Sarah spun back to Nicolas. "If she held a gun on you, it meant she really, really needed that key. Did she say why?"

He shook his head miserably and then led them toward the door of his cabin. But then he halted, spinning towards them, fear in his handsome features. Chuck nearly slammed into him he stopped so suddenly. "Wait! She said something…" He looked to the side, thinking. "She-She said something...I remember. She said, 'They can't kill me, but there's nothing stopping them from killing you. I won't let that happen.' Something like that."

"Why can't they kill her?" Chuck asked.

"The key. They think she's the only one who knows how to find it," Sarah answered. "If she really believes that, she's probably gone back to her suite. She must figure she's safe there as long as they think she's the only one who knows where the key is hidden."

"Well then let's go!" Nicolas exclaimed, leading the way out into the hallway.

Within minutes, they skidded to a halt outside of Hannah Liu's new suite, the one she'd moved to after her first cabin was set on fire. Nicolas knocked on the door hard a few times. "Hannah!" he hissed against the wood of the door. "Hannah, it's me! Please open up. We just want to help. Please!"

There was nothing. Silence.

Nicolas spun on his heel. "Do the thing with the lock pick," he commanded.

Sarah bristled a bit at that. But she knew he was a man in love drowning in worry, and there was the whole maritime law thing. Technically he might be her superior out here on the high seas. She immediately set to unlocking the door and she got it open in record time.

Nicolas Valle shoved the door open and rushed inside first.

Sarah followed, and finally Chuck.

The first officer staggered backwards though and his back crashed into Chuck's chest. Chuck caught him, holding him tight and Sarah frowned, following Valle's stricken gaze.

Hannah was sprawled out at the foot of the antique chaise, face-down, unmoving.

"Hannah!"

The first officer staggered to her side and dropped to his knees, grabbing her and turning her over. Her face was white as a sheet, eyes shut, and the horrific stark contrast of red trailed down the side of her face, her neck, soaking into her dress collar. Her dark hair was matted with the blood caked there.

And Sarah knew before First Officer Valle even confirmed it with broken words.

Hannah Liu was dead.


A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review if you can. Thanks!

-SC and DC