Charlotte watched through the one way window as Alex walked into the room. She may not have the experience and training she had but she'd always been good at reading people. Despite what he projected to the outside world, she could read the small hesitance in his steps. He didn't want to do this and she knew it.

Her gaze turned to the girl in the cell with him. Her file said her name was Shelley Mason. In a way, she realized, Shelley's life was a lot like her own. Her family had been killed by the same people she'd later come to trust. Though her family's deaths were much more fresh in her mind, having occurred in the last year. The shots still rang out in her head when she closed her eyes.

No. I'm done with that part of my life. Its over. Scorpia got me out. And now no matter what I think of their morals, I need to live. I need to live for my family. For Tommy.

Tommy (actually Thomas) was Charlotte's twin brother. He'd supposedly died with her family in the "random drive by" that killed her mother, father, and baby sister. But his body had never been found and she knew in her heart that he had to be alive. She would know if he was dead. And despite all the facts that said otherwise, she knew that Scorpia could help her. they would have the information she needed to find her brother and that was the real reason she was still here. She didn't agree with Scorpia's MO. Killing, stealing and torturing were not things she would have been able to handle if she didn't know it would help her find her brother.

And she WOULD find him.

Shelley knew there was only one thing she could do now. She was a spy and her instincts were to save the mission. But to do that would either mean suicide…or murdering the man she loved. She couldn't let that happen. She knew the time had come. She had promised to herself that she would give Alex 2 months before she called them in because she believed the mission could still be salvaged if Alex came soon enough. But she hadn't counted on Alex losing his memory like a damn movie!

She reached around her neck and lightly pressed into the implant on the back of her neck for three seconds. Immediately, in a room hundreds of miles away from her current location, a red light had begun to blink in rapid succession. It would keep blinking until she died or was saved.

In a room under an innocuous bank, a man had started to become very excited. They had been waiting for almost 2 months for any sign of them. And finally Smithers had found it. right in the middle of him inventing yet another crazy gadget, a light started blinking on the radar he had been diligently watching for 6 weeks.

The girl had done it! she'd managed to activate the tracker!

He knew the tracker would be a smart addition to her gadgets. his instincts had been telling him that something was going to go horribly wrong with this mission and how correct he had been! He wasted no more time worrying about the reactions of the higher ups when they found he'd given her an unauthorized gadget. No, he just ran as fast as his pudgy body could carry him to the personal elevator in his office and went to tell Blunt and Jones the news.

Alex was shocked as he looked into the prisoner's eyes for the first time after he said those words. something about them stirred a feeling in him much deeper than any before. He realized that for some reason, he loved those eyes. Not even the similar green eyes Charlotte had could compare to the eyes of this girl. They were somber and sad and pained. And he knew he had to try to get her out of this. he wanted that pain to disappear and be replaced by a mischievous sparkle he somehow knew they would twinkle with under normal circumstances. He hadn't even heard a word from her yet he felt he could trust this girl with his life.

He wished he could take back the words he'd just said. He'd never hurt this sad yet beautiful creature in front of him. He didn't want to scare her.

He looked towards the one way window he knew Charlotte would be watching through. Somehow he knew that she wouldn't stop him from carrying out the plan now forming in his head.

"What's your name?" he asked her. those words single handedly obliterated the last vestiges of hope from Shelley's heart. Or that is what would have happened if she hadn't, at the final moment, realized that his voice was no longer hard and threatening. The words he'd used this time were iof simple curiousity. His tone was comforting and soft instead of the deadly chill she had been expecting.

Is it possible? Could he possibly feel the same as he had before this whole mess?

It sure sounded like it.

"Shelley Mason. And I know who you are Alex. You wouldn't hurt me. I know it," she stated with a deep heartfelt conviction that shocked him to his core.

How does she know?

"How do you know?" he asked, his tone once more guarded though not nearly as much as when hed first walked into this room.

"Because I love you."

Alex's head reeled.

In the observation room, Charlotte stumbled over her feet as she heard this strange chick say the last words she would have ever expected.

as mentioned, a quicker update:D