Mason ducked his head down to say something in the ear of his mother while Darien watched from outside on the porch through one of the windows. Alyx sat next to him in the deep shadows that had begun to form as the sun reached it's apex overhead. The buzzing of insects loud so far from the city. Similar to the hiss of tires on pavement; white noise that she could use to focus or clear her mind, giving her a few moments of peace and mental quiet.

He could only wonder which she had chosen this time. She appeared to be calm and at ease, but something… some underlying feeling that was not his seemed to suggest otherwise. And that… that worried him, if only a little.

She had pulled off a frickin' miracle getting his dad a few hours with Grams before shipping him off to the east coast. They had planned very carefully and made certain Madeline was protected without being obvious about it. Hobbes just up the road in and unmarked non-Agency vehicle watching for any surprises. Sadly there was only a single main road that would get them to Grams' farm, which had both good and bad points. Easy to watch. Hard to hide. Luckily, chatter had indicated that while the connection to Darien had been discovered the one to Madeline had not. And even if it had how could an eighty year old woman be a factor in this game as anything other than bait?

When the final moves in this particular game happened he would be the one playing that part. They would follow him to find the location where Mason was to be shipped off to freedom.

"Thank you for this," he said softly, turning to look at Alyx who appeared to be dozing in the drowsy noon heat.

She shrugged without opening her eyes. "I said I'd try, didn't I? Besides, she deserves a proper goodbye this time. And to know it's not forever."

"And that means I can't thank you?" He got up and walked over to her, leaning down to kiss her, fingers tracing lightly along her cheek. He smiled as he pulled away, the pleasure in her slowly opening eyes a living thing that he wanted to keep creating for as many years as possible. They'd a had a comparatively quiet twenty-four-ish hours, firming up plans and making arrangements. Jarod had everything set at his end, ready to whisk Mason away once his death had been confirmed and the news spread about enough to make any lingering concerns vanish.

"Thank me when it's over and he's away safe and sound," she told him, without losing the quiet happiness in her eyes. A good trick that, he had to admit. "So, hear there's been turkey day plotting going on behind my back."

Darien ducked his head, smiling. "Some, yeah. You didn't think Grams was going to let another holiday go by without a family event happening did you?"

The light in her eyes sputtered and died at those words. "No, I suppose not."

The hurt in her voice was a living thing and he wanted to smack himself in the forehead for his stupidity. His family were either dead or torn apart by circumstance - till very recently anyway - not that there were many left. The leaves remaining on his family tree few and wilting. But hers… she had family everywhere and could see almost none of them. Just a select few who had been deemed capable of protecting themselves should the wolves at her door turn their hungry gaze upon them.

And the likelihood of her being able to spend a few hours, never mind an entire day with them remained well out of the realm of possibility. She would never put them at risk, not unless the danger in not seeing them outweighed that of doing so. He feared there would come a day when she would need to announce to the world who and what she was, to make herself the ultimate target to protect those she cared for most. And that list seemed to grow longer every single day as more and more about who she was and how she came to be was revealed.

In mock offense he said, "What my family not good enough for you?"

She started, taking his words seriously. "That is not what I meant. I just want it to be our family. All of it. Together. And I'm realistic enough to know that might never happen." She turned away, missing him drop the fake indignation he'd worn in hopes of getting her to lighten up, which had failed miserably.

He crouched down before her. "Darlin' I was kidding. And… and you know I want it to be our family as well. Hell, if you want to tell your kids tomorrow I would back you one hundred percent and do whatever it took to make it work." He grabbed her hand, kissing the palm, before looking back up at her. "Grams likes you, which is pretty damn cool, if you ask me, and I want you to like my family. Small and broken as it is."

"Did you just misquote Stitch to me?"

He smiled slightly. "Would I do that?"

"If you thought it might work, yes," she stated, still not giving him an inch.

He hadn't intended to hurt her. Hell, he simply wanted her to be part of his family as much as he had become of hers. Still wanted to marry her, but knew he needed to be patient. At least now he understood why she wanted no part of that iconic institution and that allowed him to take that necessary emotional step back and savor what they had and were trying to build in the here and now. And here she was putting up walls, just like his dad had warned him about, because he'd made an innocent comment that she'd chosen to take out of context.

Almost as if she wanted to start a fight. Which meant distraction. Which meant something else had to be going on, though he had no idea what it might be.

"Alyx, what is going on?" He squatted down next to her, not letting go of her hands, and not permitting her to hide from him. "Why do you not want to… like my family?"

She glared at him for a long moment. "Why do you assume I don't?"

" 'Cause it seems like you're looking for any excuse to not be anywhere near them." Which suddenly make perfect sense in light of more recent train of thought. If she stayed away from her family to protect them, then she would do the same for his. "You can't isolate yourself forever. You need more than just me."

She turned away, eyes slipping closed, a mask of pain sliding onto her face for a moment before she got ahold of herself and put her poker face in place. "If that's what it takes to keep family safe, that is exactly what I will do."

"And if they go after me again? Are you going to leave me? Leave the Agency to protect us?"

"If there were no other choice? Yes, I would." She faced him, freed one hand to cup his cheek, thumb brushing lightly across his lips. "I will do anything to protect my family. Even if it means being alone and only watching from afar."

"A difficult choice. I should know."

Darien turned his head to see his father standing behind the screen door, watching them and obviously having heard at least part of their discussion.

"How about convincing her there's another way?" Darien requested, wondering how plaintive he sounded. He'd been an idiot the last few weeks, but they needed to work through this to keep moving forward and not get caught up in the little disagreements that would happen.

"If there were another way don't you think she would have done it by now?" Mason stepped through the door and onto the porch, his expression unreadable.

"Not necessarily." Darien glanced over at Alyx for a moment, who sat there stoically. "Sometimes it's easier to maintain the status quo than make a dramatic change." Their moving in together had been a huge step forward for her. She still feared what she could do and had been concerned that living in close proximity would put him in danger. That she would hurt him unintentionally. Not an unreasonable concern, and it went both ways. He still had violent nightmares and had done his share of damage to her since they had begun sharing bed space.

"There is nothing easy about my life," she grumbled. "They are safer away from me."

"Because of what you do or what you are?" Mason asked far too astutely for Darien's taste. Then again, maybe, though without special powers, he could relate.

"Both? Until I'm certain that black ops agency that wants me and mine are out of the picture, I have to be out of my family's lives."

"And if they make a move to take them?" Mason questioned, clearly referring specifically to her children.

She grimaced. "They'll regret it."

Mason nodded slowly. "Yes, I imagine they will. Any information I have is at your disposal."

"Thank you," she responded, poking Darien in the chest.

He got the hint, stood and backed off so she could get up. She went to Mason, hand out, which he grasped firmly and drew her into a hug. They held still for a long moment, his dad leaning in close to whisper something in her ear, before both pulled away. He looked over her shoulder at Darien. "I think it's time to go."

Alyx turned about nodding. "I'll alert Hobbesy that the package is on the move."

Darien rolled his eyes. "All this code phrase crap is stupid. If they are listening it's not like they won't figure it out."

Mason chuckled, "Ever think that's why we use the stupid code phrases? To annoy those listening in?"

Darien laughed softly. "That would make a hell of a lot more sense." He turned to Alyx. "What about eyes in the sky?" Perhaps too late to ask that given they could have tracked them out here using them, but better late than never.

"Handled," she assured him. "They will see nothing I don't want them to."

"You have that much power?" Mason asked.

She simply cocked an eyebrow.

"You meant that rhetorically, right?" Darien found the look of realization that crossed his father's face highly amusing. Power? Alyx had it in spades. He took a mental step back at that. She didn't need to ask permission to re-task a satellite or two. She just had to hack in and they would dance to her every whim. Much like she had offered with the Christmas lights.

He felt the sudden need to sit down.

Why was she still here? She didn't need the Agency or the Official or any of the trappings that went with it. Hell, he could only wonder if the Official realized that he only ran the show because she permitted it.

He turned to find her gazing at him, a hint of a smile on her face and he understood why.

Him.

Darien Fawkes.

Thief. Con-man. Eternal fuck-up, if you believed the rumors.

A less than ordinary guy who'd fallen into an extraordinary life.

She wanted… needed something normal in her life. Wanted to be nothing but ordinary and live a simple life. To love and be loved. And he gave that to her, at least a little. Gave her something to cling to that was real. That had nothing to do with spies and genetic experiments and black ops agencies.

He was her sole connection to the real world.

He kept her grounded.

And, if he had to think about it, she did the same for him.

Little wonder he'd fallen for her so very hard.

"D? You okay?"

He blinked and refocused on her. Based on the look on her face she had no clue what had just gone on in his mind, for which he was eminently thankful. "What? Fine. I'm fine. We gonna get this show on the road?"

She narrowed her eyes for a second then nodded. "I'll pull the car around."

She strode away, Darien's eyes following her until out of sight around the side of the house where they'd parked the SUV.

Mason set a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

Mason tipped his head slightly to the side. "The look on your face. You realized something about her. Something important."

Darien ducked his head. "Yeah, I guess I did."

"What was it, if I may ask?"

Darien shrugged. "Me."

. . . . .

Presbyterian minister and proponent of positive thinking, Frank Crane, taught us, "You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough."

Trust had never been easy for me, given all the loss in my life and the lessons I'd learned as a thief, but with time I had learned to, at least a little, since coming to the Agency. Probably not the smartest thing given I'd traded criminals for spies.

Seems like I was destined for torment either way.

. . .

"Where the hell are we?" Darien grumbled as he slowed down for the turn.

"Well, we're the green dot," his father responded, waving at the GPS mounted on the dash. They'd pre-programmed random routes to and from Grams's house, not even they had known which would come up until they hit go in order to keep from being tracked. Hobbes would join them at a checkpoint they had to go past to get back to the city - that lone main road they would inevitably end up on.

Darien sighed. "I know that and I've followed the irritating voice, but I have no clue where the hell we are and it's not like we haven't taken roundabout routes to get to the farm before." He glanced at the rear view mirror and his partial view of Alyx.

She leaned as far forward as the seatbelt would allow. "Uh, I'll admit to creating the list of options, but I let it do the choosing," she told them, which they already knew and didn't really help.

The voice began speaking again, telling him they would need to take a right in the near future. "So, do I follow the voice or find another route?"

She had her phone out, tapping on the screen. "Follow the voice for now. I'll double check the route… if I can get enough bars. Stupid mountains," she muttered, settling back into the seat, while Darien flipped on the blinker and took the turn as commanded, kicking up dust as the tires hit the poorly maintained surface. It was barely one step up from dirt and seemed to wend its way deeper into the hills instead of back towards the city.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," he muttered.

They continued on for several minutes, Alyx grumbling imprecations in back, plainly her tech not working the way she wanted it to. Even she couldn't boost a nonexistent signal.

"Alyx?" Mason questioned, twisting about in his seat to look at her.

"I don't know. We're in a frickin' dead zone. I've texted Bobby, but he won't get it until I can get a signal out." She didn't sound overly concerned. "I vetted all the routes. It makes no sense that we'd end up out in boonie hell."

"Can the GPS be hacked?" Darien asked, slowing the SUV in case of surprises. Not that there was much out here. A barely two lane road edged by trees and brush that was far more brown than green.

"Well, it's not a smartphone, but yeah, it can. And can be done remotely."

"And they sent us someplace where we can't call for help," Mason stated, summing up their worst fear. "They knew where we were."

Which meant Grams must be in danger. "Shit," Darien growled softly.

"She's safe. There's been a detail watching her since after your dad's first visit. They will not harm her."

"I know," Mason told her. "We, however, may not be so lucky. We're probably driving into a trap."

"Oh yays," Darien said cheerlessly. "How about I make a U-ie and get us the hell out of Dodge?"

Mason shook his head. "Probably can't. I'm sure someone has blocked any potential escape route." He turned to look straight out the front window, the hills to either side seeming to converge not too far in the distance.

"We're running out of road here." Darien wanted to run away, to whip the SUV about and floor it; smashing through anything that blocked their way. "And options. We're not exactly prepared for a firefight." Too true. Alyx had her gun, and her abilities, of course, but that was pretty much it. They had wanted to go in under the radar, minimal personnel and weaponry, his Dad invisible the entire way, so there should have been no way for anyone outside of the Agency to know Perdue was anywhere but in the cage back at home base.

"When going through hell…" Mason suggested with a shrug of his shoulders. Not his first time stuck between a rock and a hard place for sure, but the first with his son. Darien had to wonder if that changed the situation at all for him.

"Keep going," Darien finished, mouth set in a grim line. They were in too deep already, now they would have to make it to the other side, preferably intact. From the rear he heard the sound of Alyx checking her gun. He knew she typically had two extra clips with her; fifteen rounds per clip, plus one in the chamber gave her forty-six chances to keep their asses intact. And maybe delay enough for backup to arrive.

"How long before Bobby realizes something is wrong?"

"Not soon enough. And then he has to find us." Alyx sounded as unthrilled as Darien currently felt.

"Can you contact him? The way you can Darien?" Mason asked, smart enough to remember that she always had options.

"I'll try. My connection to him is not like the one I have with Dare."

"Do it, Alyx. We're about to be backed into a corner and have no clue how many we're gonna be up against. Or what, for that matter. One RPG and this'll be over a lot sooner than I'd prefer." Darien slowed the car down even more, wanting to give her the time she needed to call for a rescue. He feared that's all it would be; a rescue from an untenable situation that would result in him losing yet more of his family. And if things went really bad, he could lose her too.

He adjusted the rear view mirror to keep and eye on her and watched as she unbuckled and moved into a lotus position, probably to help her focus. Hobbes tended to be resistant to her unless planned ahead of time, still not comfortable with someone other than himself in his head. Darien couldn't blame him, pairing a psychic with a paranoid had always caused friction, but Bobby had adapted and learned to make use of her abilities. He glanced back at her, eyes closed, face slack as she tried to find their partner and alert him to their potentially dire predicament.

They continued forward for all of five more minutes when the road ended at, of all places, a dam. The curving wall of concrete soaring above their heads. "Great. Just great."

The windows of the car were tinted dark except for the windshield, so whomever might be out there would have a limited view within the vehicle. Not that they had much to see. The dam. The hills to either side, both covered in desiccated plants. The tall grass at ground level would be more than enough to hide a crouching man or three or a dozen. He unbuckled and turned about, noting his father gazing out the windows with a sharp eye, looking for the danger they knew to be out there.

"Sweets, we need you." He reached out and set a hand on her shoulder, a signal that they needed her back now.

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking back to full awareness. "I got through… sort of. If he doesn't have the worst feeling of dread then I really suck at this."

Darien cracked a smile for her though worry churned deep in his gut. They were not going to get out of this intact without a hell of a lot of luck and the grace of a god he no longer believed in. "All our plans have gone to hell."

"Then we adapt," Mason said turning about to watch Alyx with care. "How many?"

She gave him a grim smile and nod, closing her eyes again. "Four. All armed. Two for distance, two for up close and personal."

"They know each other?" Darien asked, sounding surprised, He thought most of the hitmen sent after his dad were random, not drinking buddies.

"Not really. With so many after the same target it makes sense they'd encounter each other, even create… alliances if necessary." She opened her eyes. "Yakiro is here."

The SUV shifted then, the front left dropping as the tire blew. Probably with the help of a bullet. The report followed a moment later, echoing off the high walls of the dam. "What now?" Darien growled. "We're fucking sitting ducks."

"Out," she said, sliding to driver's side. "They're all on our right. This beast is armored and will give us some cover."

"Then what?" Darien groused as he grasped the door handle, preparing to slip out into the sunlight.

Another bullet hit, this time striking the passenger side of the front windshield, creating a spiderweb of cracks. Mason turned calmly to look at the damage. "Not armored enough for these bullets."

"So it would appear," Alyx agreed. "Out boys. I'll play bait and eliminate however many I can."

Mason reached out to set a hand on her arm. "You can't get the two on top of the dam. They're out of range."

"Then I'll have to encourage them closer, won't I?" She slid across the seat, opened the door and stepped out into the sun. The SUV a fair eight inches taller than her standing.

Two more impacts followed by impressive reports sent him and his father scrambling out to sit on the hard packed and hot ground. "Well this is familiar," he muttered.

Alyx snickered. "That explains the bullets holes in the van a couple months ago.

"Hey, it happens." Darien grinned for a moment, thankful she was trying to keep it light while they still could. "So, we just gonna sit here?"

"No." Alyx drew her gun, holding it with ease that still surprised him as she moved towards the back of the vehicle. Another shot rocked the SUV, but towards the front like the previous ones. Alyx didn't even flinch, poking her head about the back end to get a lay of the land. When she shifted around the rear and out of view Darien wanted to grab her and yank her back, but held his place. She had the best chance of seeing what their real chances were.

A bullet whined past the back of the SUV, hitting the asphalt and creating a fair-sized crater in the surface.

"Shit," Alyx snarled. She fired off two quick shots earning a yelp in reaction. Though whether a close call or a hit Darien had no way of knowing.

The response that came was impressive to say the least. What sounded like a cannon to Darien's untrained ears fired several times rocking the SUV and spraying shattered glass atop he and his father when the bullets easily penetrated both sets of armored glass. He'd left the engine running for a potential quick getaway, but now it might just get them killed.

"Alyx," Mason barked over the ruckus. "We need to find better cover."

"On it," she responded, then fired off four more shots, which earned her a scream of pain that cut off after a few seconds. Silence reigned for the moment, even the local wildlife scattering.

"Can't you just blast them or something?" Darien would me more than happy to let her kill them if they got away alive and mostly intact. Glass cuts were survivable at this stage. Being next to this beast when it blew, not so much. The smell of gasoline had invaded his nostrils; one wrong move or lucky shot would set it aflame.

"Not with any accuracy at this distance. I could blast a hole in the dam, I suppose, but it'd wipe out the whole valley."

"Overkill," Mason stated. "We need to draw them out. You got one with certainty. If we lure them into your line of sight could you use your Jedi mind powers on them?"

She popped back around the end of the SUV, shoes wet with spilled fuel. "Not all at once."

Mason nodded slowly, clearly thinking hard about what to do. "Give Darien your gun. He'll lay down covering fire. You take them out one at a time, and we'll get away from this IED we're sitting next to."

"Works," she agreed without hesitation. She handed over the gun and spare clips to Darien, which he shoved into his back pockets. Not perfect, but would do. "Maybe a little invisibility to make you less of a target. I'll do your dad, give him a chance to get over to the crappy tree line behind us. Some decent sized rocks back there."

Mason snarked, "Decent sized for you maybe. I'll find something to hide behind, but if even one of them has thermals…"

"Then we're screwed as usual," Darien stated with a shrug. "We just need to hold out until Hobbes gets here with backup. We don't have to win. They don't have unlimited ammo any more than we do, right?"

"Right. Let's see what we can do to even the odds a bit." She reached across Darien to set a had on Mason's chest; the Quicksilver flowing quickly to cover him and make him vanish from sight. "You've got about ninety seconds," Alyx told him.

"Got it." They could hear him get to his feet and move off, the brush shifting out of his way as he hit the tall grass, headed towards the limited cover.

Darien followed suit, his time invisible also limited, but more than a mere ninety seconds. That said, if this took more than three segments to resolve this they would be in truly deep shit. He popped up at the hood of the car and fired two shots up at the dam, knowing they would hit nothing. He kept moving towards the dam, not staying in place for more than a few seconds.

Return shots came quickly from at least three directions. Three different sounds,

echoing off the hills and the giant concrete wall, making triangulation a challenge at best.

Alyx, crazy-ass that she could be, stepped out into the open, completely visible, red hair twisted back into a messy bun, escaped curls waving like banners in the light breeze. A bullet pinged off the ground near her feet, the mid-sized boom one, but she didn't even flinch.

No, she just tipped her head slightly.

Movement caught his eye and he turned to see a person suddenly stand, rifle in his hands, at the top of a staircase that appeared to be an entrance to the dam itself. He lifted into the air, slammed into the door and then dropped to the landing and didn't move.

That was followed by the big boom. Darien flinched, the Quicksilver falling away, expecting Alyx to be the target. She wasn't.

The explosion that damn near deafened him proved the target to be the SUV. The pool of gasoline igniting and causing whatever fuel left in the tank to explode, sending debris and flames everywhere.

Alyx shifted to her left avoiding a piece of of burning metal that landed where she'd been standing a moment before. She turned to look at him, eyes wide.

Darien heard his father swear and shifted to see that the grass surrounding where his dad had chosen cover on fire, the breeze pushing the flames towards him forcing him to stand and run to keep from being trapped against the steep hillside.

Alyx twisted about, one arm stretching out in the direction of the fire, probably in an attempt to dampen it before the entire area exploded into flames. His dad kept moving headed for the limited cover on the opposite side of the road when a single shot rang out - that big boom - and his father's chest exploded into blood.

As if in slow motion Darien watched his father stop then fall backwards onto the dusty hard surface.

"No!" Darien screamed, the gun falling from his hand, as he stared in utter shock. All of this time and effort only to have it end like this. On some dusty back road in the middle of nowhere.

A figure stood up from the grass, pistol in one hand, a phone in the other. It took a moment, but Darien recognized Jarod in his guise of hitman. With a casualness that belied the danger Jarod walked over to Mason, phone held in such a way as to suggest he was taking pictures or video and stood over the man heaving for breath on the ground.

Darien knew Jarod could save his dad, so was shocked when he instead pointed the gun at his father's head and pulled the trigger. The single shot shockingly soft. The hitching breaths his father had been taking stopped, the body twitching once with the impact then becoming still. Too still.

Darien felt anger surge, his sight bleeding over to red as he moved, going for Jarod. Not caring that he was Alyx's brother. As far as Darien was concerned he was the man who killed his father. And that took the family card off the table.

He moved quickly, his mind a blur of nothing more than dealing with the son of a bitch that supplied the final blow to his father.

He came back to himself suddenly. His hands wrapped firmly about throat of Jarod, though not choking so much as squeezing and keeping him immobile so as to pound his head into the asphalt he lay upon.

Someone struck him repeatedly on the back, a voice fuzzed out by white noise shouted at him.

Fingers brushed along his neck followed by a zap of electricity, enough to make him yelp and and flinch away to end up lying next to Jarod clutching his head in pain. It didn't last more than a couple of minutes and he came back to himself with Hobbes, of all people, standing over him.

"Fawkes, you okay?"

Darien lay there staring up at clear blue sky above trying not to think about the fact that a few feet away lay his father. His dead father.

Anger and despair warred within him. "Where is he?"

"Who, Fawkes?"

"Jarod," he growled, fully intending on finishing the job on sending him to the hell he had clearly come from.

"Gone, Fawkes. Along with the other one the kid didn't flatten," Hobbes answered as he held out his hand to help his partner up.

Once upright he looked anywhere but the body lying on the ground a few feet away. Wanting a few moments more to not be forced into admitting the truth, to see the blood and pale skin and…

He choked back a sob.

He heard Alyx giving orders to the other agents who had arrived to fail being there in enough time to save Perdue, but it swiftly descended into white noise.

Without a word to anyone he turned and simply walked away.