CHAPTER 3

At first glance it looked like a typical two bedroom, not much unnecessary furniture, but it did look lived in. Upon deeper inspection he realized Lexa's personal and professional life were as inseparably entangled as had been rumored. Informational and 'how to' books on about every gun thinkable were piled on a simple black bookcase as well as a few easier to read mystery novels. The end table next to the sofa had bottles of every color of nail polish from black to orange on it, and from the looks of the floor and surrounding furniture every one of those colors had been used at least once. There was also a china cabinet sitting against the brightly painted wall, but it looked as if it had never seen any use other than to have a gun leaned against it.

Nikita seemed as at home as anyone could though, completely unfazed by her older sister's unusual decorations. Pushing a chair against the cabinet, he grimaced as the metal chair scraped against the dark wood. Nikita didn't seem to notice, instead climbing up on the counter past the 9mm laying on the counter and reaching into the cabinet for a cup. Once the glass was in hand, she expertly jumped off the counter-top and moved on to the fridge which contained a well-stocked supply of juice and snacks a seven year old could easily fix.

"What do you wanna do?" she asked once halfway through the apple juice she had poured.

He wanted to find out more about Lexa and the kid she had mysteriously acquired; he wanted to have more time to watch Nikita and find out a little more about their daily life. After all, this was a rare glimpse into the agent that had plenty of rumors but few confirmed facts known about her.

He couldn't exactly tell her that though.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

She thought for a minute before answering.

"I wanna watch a movie."

"Alright," he agreed, vaguely disappointed. It would give him a chance to see what kind of things Lexa watched at least. And what she let her sister watch.

"Go pick your favorite movie then."

She ran down the hall and disappeared before he had a chance to see where she had run off to. A couple minutes later she returned with one in each hand.

"These are my favorites. You pick."

The Fox and the Hound and Rambo. That explained a lot.

\A/

It was late afternoon by the time Hawke woke again, this time feeling much better after a solid eight hours of sleep.

Making his way to the window, he could see the weather was clearing up, opening the option of flying back into town if he was up to it later. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. If the weather would hold, he could fly back to Van Nuys in time for dinner then bring Saint John and Le back to the cabin before it got too late.

Settled on the idea, he went to find a sweater.

Five minutes later he was lifting off the dock for town. As he neared the hangar he saw the snow hadn't fallen as heavily as it had at the cabin, but all the same many stores were closed and few people braved the unusual weather, making the city seem strangely quiet.

He landed on the tarmac outside the hangar and was unsurprised to the it empty. There wasn't much point opening a charter and movie stunt business when most people didn't want to be out in the weather. Maybe coming out today hadn't been the best idea after all. He was here now though, so he thought he might as well make the most of it.

\A/

"Sure, I'd be willing to get dinner with you," Dom agreed. "I can't fix anything decent here anyway with the power out. We'll just have to make sure the restaurant has electricity before we sit down and order," he continued with a hearty laugh. "How were things at the cabin?"

"Worse than here, but at least I have electricity."

"Yeah, you and that fancy generator," Dom grumbled. "You'd best watch out or you're likely to have this whole side of Los Angeles decide to stay with you tonight."

"They have to get out here first," String retorted, "but you know you're always welcome."

"I'll tough it out tonight. Power is supposed to be back by tomorrow if the electrical company is to be believed. If not, you might just have a little company. I'll get off the phone and find Le though; we should be over to pick you up in a couple minutes."

\A/

2 Hours Later

"You sure you don't want another round?" Dominic offered as he let out yawn and patted his belly. "I'm buying." Truthfully, he knew he had already eaten more than his fair share, but it was too good to resist. The seemingly last place in town with electricity had been a nondescript crab house he hadn't been to in years, but when inevitability caught up with them and it too lost power, the manager had declared everything half price, knowing that if they didn't regain electricity soon most of the fresh seafood would go bad anyway. In response, he had eaten twice as much.

Hawke shook his head, unable to eat another bite.

"What about you, Le?"

Even Le, who they had found out could put away enormous amounts of food on occasion, declined.

"I guess it's time to pay our bill and roll on out of here," he concluded with a hearty laugh, "that is, if the jeep can still hold us all."

Even String chuckled, but the smile quickly disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared.

"What is it?" Dom asked as he sensed the sudden change of mood.

"Behind you," he replied, giving no further explanation.

Grumbling about how much he had overeaten, the older man turned to see Archangel brushing past the hostess offering to seat him.

"And it doesn't look like he came to join us for dinner,"

"Hawke," he called, still several strides away. "I need to talk to you now."

"What happened to Mr. Diplomatic?"

"I'm afraid there isn't time for superfluous formalities. I need to speak privately with you.

"There's only one other group here," Dom pointed out. "It's about as private as it's gonna get unless you want to drive us all the way out to Knightsbridge.

"Fine," he agreed, although not completely satisfied with the arrangement. Time was of the essence now that he had let things get so out of hand.

"Marella is out in the car right now with a seven year old girl who claims Lexa Cole is her sister, and guardian."

"That's a scary prospect. Do you have anything to substantiate that claim?"

"I have nothing. That's the scariest part. Lexa took some personal time a week ago and evidently was supposed to have returned by this morning. Her plane ticket was only to Quebec, but knowing her, she could have gone anywhere from there. Then, this evening a seven year old kid showed up at my office claiming Lexa told her to go there if she hadn't returned by this morning.

"But you have no way of telling if she's who she says she is?"

"Any of Lexa's relatives or close associates should be in the computer, but no one had any idea this kid existed. Lexa's father died years ago and her mother when she was little. I would have thought a sister would have come up in a conversation somewhere, but...

"But what?"

"If I had to guess, I would say she's telling the truth, at least about the guardian part. She's very intelligent, knows a little too much about explosives, and her story fits; she even took me to Lexa's apartment. She has to be Lexa's sister... that or her daughter."

"Great. So a field operative that's borderline crazy now is the guardian of a young child that might or might not be hers while she is off doing who knows what? How does someone like her even get custody of a child? Her job... the danger and the fact she could be called to go anywhere in the world at a moment's notice... If nothing else, he driving should keep her from being able to. She probably has tickets in languages I didn't even know existed."

"I don't know how she did it, just that she did. Our fear now is that she's gone rouge."

"Out of hand is an understatement."

"It's not confirmed yet, but I don't want to waste any more time. She made the plane to Canada, but customs has no record of her ever entering the country; she never left the plane according to their records. She's just gone."

"Lexa has dropped off the radar and she left behind a kid, that's a new one for even her. Most people try to take their family with them," Hawke commented.

"But she did see to it Nikita would be looked after," Michael countered. "She knew I'd have to do something."

"Or maybe she knew the kid would spend some time at the FIRM and hoped you would want to keep her around, maybe once she was older throw in a little special training..."

"It's all a hunch though, and I need something conclusive or the Committee, understandably, will have my butt."

"I wouldn't expect anything less. What exactly is it I'm supposed to do about it though?"

"The impossible. I want you to find her."