A/N: And I'm updating again since someone in charge of the Who Are You challenge didn't post yet! Lol! This chapter is dedicated to Fire From Above. It's finally getting back to the plot, buddy! ;)

"Where's Carina?" Sarah whispered to Bryce.

Bryce pulled up the tracking device on his Palm Treo (because, you know, there were no iPhones at the time), and from his previous knowledge of the building schematics, he immediately was able to figure Carina's current course as that which would lead to...

"She's headed straight for Ramone's office!" Bryce gasped.

"Dammit, we have to go get her!" Sarah said as she began running in the other direction.

Bryce grabbed her arm firmly and pulled her back. He knew this was the knock on Sarah Walker. She was a top flight agent, maybe the most skilled in all of the CIA. But her loyalty, which could serve as a great strength, was more often than not her greatest weakness. Sarah would never dessert a comrade in battle; she'd never turn her back on a friend. She would fight to the death to make sure everyone came back alive, even at the risk of the operation or her own life. He couldn't let her do that this time. Sometimes even a big bad CIA agent like Sarah needed to be protected, if only from herself, and that's what Bryce intended to do.

"No!" he demanded. "We can't do that, Sarah. We'll be walking right back into their hands!"

"I don't care!" she responded harshly. "I will never leave a teammate to die when I could've helped."

Before the male agent could protest further, Sarah had pushed him away and begun a full sprint in the direction of the DEA agent that was heading straight for the teeth of the bad guys' trap.

"Crap. Sarah," he muttered, as he began his pursuit of his fleeing partner.

Sarah slid around the final corner and saw Carina just as the redhead was about to enter Ramone's office. She increased her sprint to an even faster pace in hopes that she'd reach her friend in time.

"Carina!" she shouted, grabbing the other woman's arm.

"Sarah?" Carina asked, surprised to see the other woman. "I was looking all over for you guys! Where's Bryce?"

No sooner had she asked the question, than Bryce appeared wheeling around the corner. Reunited, the three agents thought that luck was finally on their side. They'd appeared to have avoided further enemy contact, if just barely, and they'd be able to escape and regroup. All was not lost just yet.

These positive thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of several guns being drawn from somewhere in the shadows of the opened office.

"So nice of you to join us, agents," said a gruff voice from the offices interior.

Bryce didn't hesitate to act. He shoved the two women away, giving them a command to run, and he charged head first into the room to try to draw the attention of the baddies. Gunfire immediately began to pour into the lone male agent, and his body was wracked with repeated blasts from their weapons.

Although they should have followed his orders and run, neither Carina nor Sarah could force themselves to abandon Bryce. Luckily, with all of the attention of the men focused on their partner, the gang members made pretty easy targets for Sarah and Carina. They took down all seven of the men inside the office rather quickly.

Only then did they take note of Bryce's stilled form lying prone on the floor. Sarah began to panic, and rushed to the side of her new partner.

"Bryce! Bryce, talk to me!" she yelled, but he didn't respond. He didn't appear to be breathing, and she knew what she needed to do in this situation. Bryce's odds weren't good to make; in fact he might already be dead. She and Carina needed to get out as quickly as possible. For some reason, however, the blonde just couldn't tear herself away.

That was what Carina was for. "Sarah, we can't take him out of here! We'll never get out ourselves! Come on!"

Sarah nodded numbly, and slowly began to take Carina's lead as the two women began to leave the compound. Minutes later, they'd finally found their way to an exit, and they seemed to be in the clear. Appearances once again, however, proved to be deceiving.

Two men busted in through the exit, and two more approached from the flanks of the DEA and CIA agents. They were surrounded, outnumbered, and thoroughly defeated. They dropped their weapons and dropped to their knees in surrender.

The henchmen all shared a devious smile of contentment as they moved to take the women back into custody. No sooner had they started to approach, however, than four quick shots were fired. The gang members dropped to the floor, dead before they hit the ground. Sarah and Carina wheeled around to see their rescuer.

"Never count out Bryce Larkin," he said with a confident grin.

"Bryce! You're alive?" Sarah said shocked.

"Well, if I'm not, then those guys really got a raw deal. It would suck to get offed by a dead guy."

The two women looked at him through a look of feigned reproach, but neither of them could deny just how incredibly sexy his moment of heroism really was. And it was about to get even better.

"Okay, I know this didn't go exactly as planned, but these morons thought it would be a good idea to keep electronic files of all of their transactions and business associations."

"And?" Carina asked.

"And, I managed to lift the hard drive that contained all of those files," he said with another smile. "Let's get out of here."

"So that's it?" Chuck asked incredulously . "Bryce just hacked into their system and you guys left?"

"Why?" Sarah asked, smiling. "Disappointed?"

"Well," said Chuck, "yeah. I thought there would be more, you know. Explosions and gun fights and chases. Even more you and Bryce. Didn't Carina say that she saw you two together?"

Carina smirked, "That I did, Chuckles."

Chuck creased his brow, "Then...?"

"The story isn't over yet, Chuck," Sarah sighed. "Not by a long-shot."

"Nope," Carina agreed, parking the car. "Lots more to the story, but you're home now. Guess Sarah will just have to finish the story later. You two need to go tell your sister that you will be moving out."

"Right," Chuck nodded his head, "but can't you just finish the story? Please?"

"Nuh-uh," Sarah shook her head with a smile, "we need to go in there now. Mission first, 'kay? But, tell you what, I'll give you a little spoiler."

"What?" Chuck asked. "What is it?"

Carina rolled her eyes at the two lovebirds, "Sarah gets tied up again."

"You guys get captured?" Chuck asked, confused.

"Maybe," Sarah said, glaring at Carina. "You'll just have to wait and see. Now, come on, we have to go in."

"Okay," Chuck said, disappointed. He wanted to hear the rest of the story. "Is Carina going to come in?"

"No, Chuck," Carina said, pointing out of the window, "I'm gonna take my car and go back to the hotel."

"Uh, okay," Chuck smiled as he and Sarah got out of the car.

"Thanks," Carina replied, also getting out of the car.

Chuck and Sarah walked towards the apartment while Carina made her way to her car at the other side of the parking lot.