Prague, The Czech Republic 2013

Olga Chezeglik was no fool. You don't become one of the top assassins in the Krevczech family without knowing the score. Olga had risen quickly through the ranks with a reputation of being willing to kill anyone at anytime, frequently in the most brutal way possible. Many people feared her, everybody damn well respected her and many many people wanted her dead. It was this last group that had her concerned tonight.

Olga was waiting for someone, someone who shouldn't be here. This wasn't the first time Olga had sat in the dark facing the door with her gun clutched in her hand. When people wanted you dead, you learned to be ready all the time. She was decked out in mission ready gear. The only clue that this was not a normal mission was that the blade she kept tucked in her sleeve was plastic not metal.

Not able to keep her eyes open any longer in the inky blackness. Olga let her head slip back and closed her eyes. It was the security latch on her door flipping open that alerted her to the fact that something was very wrong. She slid the safety off on her gun and moved it so that she would be able to raise it and fire in an instant.. Nearly two minutes later the lock on her door knob unlocked and Olga heard the knob turn ever so slightly.

Whoever it was had apparently extinguished the lights in the hallway and the inky blackness was uninterrupted as they entered. The lone man moved quickly over to the fireplace and Olga realized he was wearing night vision goggles. Olga stood silently and moved behind the intruder. She holstered her gun and pulled the small blade out of her sleeve and turned it backwards in her hand. Olga jumped on the back of the intruder wrapping her left arm around his neck and putting her blade against his jugular. "Merry Christmas, Santa," she whispered. "Don't speak the room is bugged," she said so quietly she could barely be heard even in the deathly silence of the room. "We're leaving, come quietly if you want to live. Do you understand?" The man nodded almost imperceptibly. He had a package in his arms and clutched it possessively as Olga pulled him towards the door. The man hesitated slightly as she slipped her blade away and pulled out her gun. She tugged him along to the door and opened it as quietly as she could and then slipped out with the man.

Olga took the man to the stairwell and opened the door. The man pulled back from her causing Olga to whip around. The man walked down the hall and unplugged a device from the wall outlet and the lights in the hallway suddenly popped back on. Olga shielded her eyes as the man ripped off his night vision goggles. She couldn't look at him…not yet.

They went down the stairwell until they reached the second floor. Olga slid the door open and walked to the end of the hallway. She pulled the rope from around her shoulders and moved to open the window only find that there was no glass in the pane. It had been cut and completed removed. Olga grasped the grappling hook and started to lean out the window when the man pushed her aside gently and reached out the window to the left. He pulled a rope to the window and offered it to her.

Olga shook her head and indicated that he should go first. The man did not move. She sighed and Olga looked up into the face of the man she loved and pleaded at him with her eyes. He shook his head. He pointed to the window and made some motion with his hand and then held the rope out to her again. Olga shook her head and poked him in the chest and held up one finger. He again shook his head and motioned towards the window. Finally he whispered out loud. "You have to go first, I need to fix the window."

Olga gave him a warning look and grasped the rope she leaned backwards out of the window. She noticed that off to the left the pane of glass had been suction cupped to the wall of the building. She shook her head in disbelief and then grabbed the rope with her legs and slid slowly hand over hand down the rope until her feet touched the ground.

She watched from the ground as the man leaned out the window and clipped himself to a safety clip installed just above the window he pulled the pane of glass off the window and then ran something along the edges of the window. He held the glass in place for a full minute before he released it and then raised up on the rope enough to release the safety clip and then proceeded to climb down the rope.

Olga checked her watch it was 4:49 AM. The man grabbed a bag at the bottom of the rope. He retrieved his phone from the bag, punched in some sort of code and the rope that he had just climbed down fell to the ground with a loud clank, that made Olga's frazzled nerves jump. He picked up the rope and stuffed it into the bag and walked over to Olga. "Where are we going?"

"Where's your car?" Olga asked.

"Two blocks over."

"You lead."

He nodded. The man started walking in what Olga could only assume he thought was an inconspicuous fashion, but instead just made him look ridiculous. If anybody had actually seen him they'd immediately know he was trying to be sneaky. "Stop that," she said when they were out of ear shot of the hotel. "Nobody who's actually trying to be inconspicuous walks like that."

"Sorry," he said and started strolling along much more normally.

They walked to a nondescript red car in the middle of the block and the man opened the trunk and put his bags in. He opened the driver door and Olga got in the passenger door. Before she even knew what happened he was kissing her and she pushed him away. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!" she screamed.

"Um…" Chuck stammered. "I thought it would be pretty obvious. I was delivering your stocking…"

"Chuck…I left that stocking in Fairfield Virginia, for a reason. I don't even want to know how the hell you managed to break into my private weapons stash and get it back, I want to know what in the hell possessed you to come to Prague and walk into the middle of a mafia controlled hotel. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED! YOU COULD HAVE BLOWN MY COVER! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN CAPTURED AND CAUSED ME TO HAVE TO KILL THE ENTIRE CZECH CRIMINAL UNDERGROUND!!!"

"Uh…"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!!!"

"That it's Christmas? I didn't want you to have to go without some real part of Christmas."

"That's sweet," she said. "BUT YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!"

"I was really careful."

"Chuck, that's a mafia hotel. Every person who has a room there is in the Czech mafia. If any one of them had seen you, they'd have either killed you outright or they would have captured you and tortured you for information. There isn't one good person in that hotel. Do you even know what they'd have done to us if they'd caught you in my room?"

"There was one good person in that hotel," was Chuck's only response.

Sarah grabbed her head in frustration. "We can't stay here. Can you drive this thing?"

Chuck looked insulted. "Of course," he muttered. "I'm not an idiot."

He turned the key in the ignition and took off down the road. "Where's your hotel," Sarah asked.

"I don't have one," he replied tersely.

"What, were you planning to just sleep in your car?"

"I only came to deliver your stocking, I wasn't going to stay."

"You know, if you're going to risk your life every Christmas to bring me a stupid piece of jewelry at least you could stick around so that I could get laid."

Chuck slammed on his breaks in the middle of the street. He turned towards her. "You think the gifts are stupid?"

Sarah paled. "No." She shook her head, but Chuck just stared at her. "I…" Sarah closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm just angry and frustrated. I love my stocking and I love my gifts. You must realize that I've kept every single item you've given me since the first one. Well…except the chocolate. It's all stored in the same box with the stocking…"

"I noticed," Chuck replied taking his foot off the break and starting them moving again. This was a relief of the delivery van behind them that had been honking angrily. "You know toothpaste actually does have a shelf life. It's better when it's fresh."

"Yeah, well I only have so much Christmas toothpaste and I don't want to use it up, because then it will be gone."

"That's perhaps the third craziest thing anyone as has ever told me," Chuck replied.

"What's the craziest?"

"Oh, some girl once told me I had a government supercomputer stuck in my head. Now that was crazy."

Sarah swatted him. "It was true!"

"Maybe, but still completely insane."

"Where are we going?" Sarah asked.

"I have no clue, you told me to drive."

"Well where were you planning on going until your flight?"

"The airport."

"You didn't find any kind of safe place to stay?"

"I just flew in a few hours ago and my flight leaves at two. I'm not planning on staying, so why would I need a hotel?" Chuck explained.

"So you flew all the way to Prague just to deliver me tiny bottles of shampoo and toothpaste and you're leaving in the morning?"

"Pretty much."

"I'm going to have to hurt you, you know."

"Santa doesn't bring presents to bad girls."

"Find me a hotel room somewhere and I'll prove to you, you're wrong."

Less than a minute later, Chuck had pulled his phone out of his pocket and was furiously booking himself a hotel room. Fifteen minutes later he was checking into the Four Seasons. Twenty two minutes later Sarah was proving that she was indeed a very, very bad girl.

***

Chuck was laying on his back while Sarah drew circles on his chest with her finger. "I'm still mad," she finally announced.

"You don't seem mad."

"Don't confuse sexual satisfaction with happiness. You shouldn't be risking your life. I worked really hard to make sure it was protected."

Chuck kissed the top of her head. "I know, I'm sorry. But I can't bear the thought of you hating Christmas."

"I still hate Christmas," Sarah grumbled.

"What?" Chuck exclaimed in alarm.

"All I want at Christmas is to be with you, but you're always gone by the time I find the stocking. It just makes me feel lonely."

"Oh…"

"Don't get me wrong. I love it and it's meant a lot to me. But this year... I was sitting up there terrified that you'd show, terrified that you wouldn't show and absolutely petrified that something would happen to you before I could get you out of there. Those were some pretty slick tricks by the way. Where did you learn that stuff?"

"I have my ways," Chuck said in his most seductive voice.

"This isn't a game. I don't like it when you put yourself in danger. Can't you understand that?"

Chuck sighed. "Yes, I understand it, do you think that I like that Olga Chezeglik works in a mafia syndicate and could be killed at any moment? Do you think I sleep well at night wondering about if you're okay or not? But I don't try and stop you."

Sarah kissed him on the chest causing him to shiver, so she did it again. "I'm sorry too. I wish you didn't have to worry. But seriously how did you find me? This is deep cover, only a handful of people know where I even am."

"I used my job."

"And what job is that?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"I can't tell you."

"Chuck, come on…"

"Seriously, even Director Hayes can't read you in. You think they'd let a little peon like me tell you? I'm not even allowed to know who my boss is."

"Come on, I'm worried. This all sounds very dodgy."

Chuck sighed. "Okay, you know when all of the sudden you become Olga Chezeglik? She doesn't just spring from the ground fully formed. Someone has to break in the Czech Republics birth records and create one for you. Someone has to go in and put your school records in. Someone has to break into the department of Motor Vehicles and create a record of your driving test. This isn't 1970, everything is stored on computers now, you need a credit history, a passport with a verifiable travel history, you need to have been paying power bills for the last eight years in case someone checks. Everything his stored on computers now, even in the Czech Republic and when you get a new ID someone has to crack all those databases and insert the records. Who do you think does that? Some analyst that works for the CIA? No, they put in a requisition to us and we do it."

"Seriously?" Sarah asked. She was impressed.

"Yes, well, not me personally, I've got a team of people that does it."

"You're management?"

"Well, you know, not management, I'm kind of their supervisor."

"So you're supervising a herd of nerds?" Sarah snickered.

"We are covert record assimilators, but yeah, essentially."

"That's great. I'm proud of you."

Chuck blushed and Sarah was once again fascinated by the fact that it showed on his chest. "Thanks," he mumbled.

"So you use this massive hacking of covert data to track me down and pretend to be Santa."

"I use it to track you all the time. We get all of your item manifests, your credit card records and your reports of any lies you've told on your mission that you need to make true. I do all of your work personally. I don't want anybody but the best working on it. You're cover is your most important asset."

"My very own guardian angel."

"Something like that."

"I love you," Sarah suddenly said.

Chuck let out a long sigh and then squeezed her. I love you."

"Do you remember what you told me during our last Christmas together?"

"Of course…"

"I want to come home," Sarah announced.

"Really?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah, I've been talking to Director Hayes about it. My body isn't healing as fast. I don't enjoy the missions as much as I used to. I'm starting to feel more like a tool than a weapon. I'm getting burned out…and…I miss you."

Chuck reached for his phone on the night stand. "I'll get you on my fight out of here."

Sarah grabbed his arm and smiled up at him. "As much as I would love that. I have a mission to finish. I'm just saying, it's time, I want to come home."

"Okay, we'll work it out. As soon as you're done. Don't worry about a thing I'll get everything taken care of at home. I'll be waiting for you."

"Really? Where?"

"It doesn't matter. I'll make sure you find it." Chuck gave her a grin from back in his Buy More days when she could still make him smile by just suggesting a cover date.

"Okay…but, Chuck?"

"Yeah,"

"No more stupid risks with your life okay? I love my stocking and I'm going to open it. Then I'm going to send it home with you. The next time I see it, will be when we can open our stockings together, all right?"

"Okay," he kissed her on the forehead and she snuggled into him.

***

Sarah did open her stocking. When Chuck told her that he needed to go to the airport and she finally let him put his clothes back on, he fished it out of his backpack and gave it to her. It was standard fare mostly. Some perfume, chocolate and ridiculous little Christmas elf, but what Sarah was looking for was the white jewelry box. She opened it quickly and pulled out the little silver clock. Sarah was slightly confused until she turned it over and etched in tiny letters on the back it said. 'I W8 4 U'.

"Thanks," Sarah said in a watery voice. "My charm bracelet is hidden in my gear. I can't afford to wear it here."

Chuck nodded. "It's kind of odd not seeing you wear it. This is the first time I've seen you without it since I gave it to you."

Sarah sighed. "Yeah, I hate missions where I can't wear it. I've used the ear rings though, a lot."

Chuck smiled and walked over and hugged her. "I'm glad you like them."

"I love them."

"I love you."

Sarah untucked her head from Chuck's chin and looked up at him. "I miss you so much. I don't know if I can make it to the end of the mission."

"You can still come home with me. We'll work it out with the CIA."

Sarah gave him a grim smile. "If only, I could. The people I'm fighting against are sponsoring terrorism. I'm fully imbedded. Soon I'll be able to get their contacts, we could do some terrific good here. I can't just walk away and let them continue."

"I know," Chuck pulled her tighter into his hug. "I have to go…"

Sarah squeezed him more tightly. "Please be safe, I'll be home soon."

"You be safe too…"

"I'll do what I can."

Chuck still didn't let her go right away. It was several more minutes before he let her go and picked up his stuff, so she could walk him out of the hotel. They'd only had a few hours together, but it was the best Christmas in years. She'd be home soon. Sarah didn't even know what that meant, but it sounded good.