CASABLANCA, MOROCCO

"Do you trust her?"

"Ilsa?" Skye asked. "Not one bit."

Benji smiled quietly. "How did it go?"

"The plane is sorted and ready tomorrow morning. I'll fly us out, you enter through the main gate, we get the profile, you pick me up, and we rendezvous at the service hatch," Skye summed it up. "And then we get the hell out of here and tell the CIA how blind they are."

Benji chuckled, but otherwise remained silent. They were alone in a bedroom in the house. Skye had just come back from organising transport. The balcony door was open and warm wind came in on occasion.

"Something's bothering you," Skye stated.

"You mean aside from being wanted fugitives?" Benji smiled. A smile that broadened into a grin when Skye's arms snaked their way around his neck and pulled him closer – much closer.

"Tell me," she whispered into his ear.

Benji was dazzled for a moment. Skye's hair felt so soft under his fingers. He wanted to kiss her, in fact he hadto, right now, or he would go crazy. His lips landed on her cheek first when he lacked the patience to find her mouth, and then made their way from there.

When the two of them broke apart it was like resurfacing from underwater. Neither of them recalled how they ended up leaned against the wall, having started in the middle of the room.

Skye traced invisible lines on Benji's neck. "Tell me," she persisted smiling.

"I felt slightly bad that our weekend trip to Vienna turned into... well, this," Benji said, fully aware that the past tense wasn't lost on her. He held her tightly, making sure she was comfortable in his embrace. "I swear I didn't know that Ethan was behind the tickets. You have to believe me. If I had known that..."

A tender kiss interrupted his sentence effectively. "If you had known it was him you would have gone regardless." Skye smiled as she quit standing on tip-toes. "Which is why I love you."

Benji stared a bit. Skye didn't say it often, which made him cherish those moments when she did all the more. The warm wind from outside tousled Skye's hair. He caught her in a tight embrace, wanting to be closer to her than any kiss would allow, with her head against his chest and his nose buried in her hair, until they weren't sure whose heartbeat it was they were hearing.

"Don't get me wrong, but a part of me is glad this happened." She looked up.

He nodded. "I know what you mean."

It was like someone had flicked a switch the moment things had come into motion in Vienna. Like putting a car back into the right gear after driving in the wrong one for a while, and suddenly things went smoothly again.

"It's this place somehow," Benji said, sliding one hand underneath her shirt. "There's something about it."

"Yeah," she breathed.

Once more, they kissed. It felt like they had all the time in the world.

Benji made an annoyed noise when she broke loose, but then his head tilted back uncontrolled when Skye kissed the spot below his ear. A quiet groan escaped him, causing Skye to start chuckling softly.

How much he had missed this. Her. Them. Suddenly he realised how close he had been to losing this. He picked her up and carried her over to the bed, her giggling unbroken. They kissed and kissed, losing Benji's shirt somewhere in the process.

"You're right," Skye whispered, and he felt her warm breath on his neck, "it's this place somehow."

Benji grinned, and in this sudden happiness that overcame him like a wave he pulled her close again, kissing her passionately.

"Mh," she suddenly said, trying to free her mouth enough to speak, "Benji, wait."

He looked at her with his big blue eyes, wondering, almost a bit afraid, why she suddenly looked so serious.

"Should we leave them alone down there?"

Benji frowned, but then he sighed. "God damn it."

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Lane is the type of person who likes to control every single step of everything, isn't he?" Ethan asked.

"Let's not talk about Lane," Ilsa said.

Ethan crossed his arms and smiled. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Why are you doing this despite being disavowed?" Ilsa seemed genuinely curious.

"Why are you doing it?" Ethan turned the question around.

"I asked you first."

Ethan's grin returned. "Isn't it enough that I'm here?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Ilsa replied with the ghost of a smile.

For a second they just looked at each other, then Ethan pushed himself off the table he had been leaning on and made his way across the room to where Ilsa was sitting. She never broke eye-contact and seemed curious about what he was gonna do next.

"Is anybody hungry?"

Both agents turned around to the kitchen area. Benji was standing in the middle of the room, innocently tilting his head.

Ethan sighed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Thanks again," the blond woman said in French as she signed for the plane from the tiny rental place.

"Of course," the man replied, flustered at the sight of her gracious tip. "This is too much, I can't-"

"Sure you can," she said firmly. "I got some great photos out of it."

He thanked her enthusiastically. "And good luck with your article, mademoiselle!" The woman had already disappeared. He looked back at the bank notes in his hand. He should rent out to American journalists more often.

Skye had followed the radio chatter while she was still in the air, but eventually everyone had fallen silent. The landing had gone smoothly – Skye was pleased with herself – and she had returned the plane to the rental agency, keeping things discreet. Now, as she made her way back into town, she could only hope everyone else was fine.

The silver BMW pulled up next to her exactly on time.

Benji already grinned when she dragged the passenger door shut.

"Did we get it?"

Benji's grin grew even wider as he pulled the flash-drive out of his shirt's breast pocket. Skye smiled back at him. He started the engine and drove their car back into the direction they had come from, sticking to the side streets this time, all the while excitedly recounting what had happened on the inside.

In a moment when he was distracted by traffic and his own excitement, Skye accessed the car's security profiles and deleted Ilsa's hand print.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Skye and Benji entered through the backdoor, into a large concrete-only dodgy hall that provided access to the service hatch.

"What did I tell you," Benji said cheerfully as they went down the stairs. "Difficult, absolutely, but certainly not impo..." The sentence trailed away into nothingness when he saw Ethan lying on the ground, not moving and at the very least dazed. Ilsa was leaning over him, soaking wet herself, the defibrillator on the floor right next to her.

"What happened?" Skye asked alarmed, running down the stairs with Benji close on her heels. But the next second it seemed to be quite obvious what had gone on while they were outside. That explained the silence on the radio. The three of them exchanged glances, when Benji sprang into action.

"Okay," he said, trying to calm himself down, and took off his backpack. He handed Ilsa the clothes she had packed. "Hey," he said before he let go, waiting to have her full attention. "I misjudged you."

Skye had a weird feeling about this. Not a bad premonition as such, just nagging doubt if Benji wasn't too fast to trust her. But first things first. While the Brit went over to Ethan, Skye stuck with her. "Are you okay?"

Ilsa pulled her fresh shirt close and turned back around to the Dane. "Yes," she said curtly. "He's just a bit dazed."

"I meant..." Skye stopped when she saw Ilsa glance at the flashdrive in Benji's hand. Something about it bothered her.

Then Ilsa looked back at her. For a second neither of them moved, then she made a half turn and Skye's legs were pulled away from beneath her.

The blond woman tumbled backwards, almost lost her balance at the edge of the high step of the platform in front of the hatch. She heard an electric noise, and Benji cried out for a second before the sound abruptly cut off. Ethan murmured something.

But Skye was back on track. Fury welled up in her when she saw the defibrillator in Faust's hands. She should have trusted her gut feeling. Skye charged forward. She caught Ilsa midway and both women tumbled over the edge, falling half a meter and hitting the concrete hard. Ilsa was already on her feet, intent on getting away, and Skye saw the flashdrive in her hand.

She got close again, hit her jaw as hard as she could, but Ilsa managed to keep the advantage, and so all Skye got was an angry shout. The next thing she knew was that Ilsa rammed her foot into her stomach, sending her doubling over and tumbling backwards at the same time, hence hitting the sharp edge of the step full-on with her back. She groaned before she fell limply to the floor, where she involuntarily curled up. Through tearing eyes she saw the slightly unfocused picture of Ilsa Faust fleeing the scene.

"No... wait..." Ethan said hoarsely, but hardly managed to turn his head.

Skye squeezed her eyes shut and focused. She got on her knees, briefly resting on all fours before forcing herself to ignore the pain and get up. Ethan was blinking furiously, trying to clear his head, already attempting to get himself in a more upright position. Benji lay a bit off, sprawled out on his back, eyes closed, the fatal defibrillator just next to him.

"Benji!" Skye was already by his side and felt for his pulse. She held his head, kept repeating his name – and then his eyelids started flickering, finally revealing big questioning eyes. Skye exhaled deeply in relief.

Ethan managed to prop himself up on his elbows. "You have to go after her," he rasped in a whisper, but Skye was already up and running.


Author's Note: I know it's not that big of a deal, but every time I watch Rogue Nation it bothers me so much that we don't know who's flying that plane Ethan and Ilsa jump from. To be honest, that's kind of what triggered this whole story because Skye is a pilot.

I also want to thank Fallout47 and lyona5 again for their reviews, it's been amazing to read them everyday :)