"The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley" – Robert Burns

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She felt the wave of nausea hit her and knew immediately that they'd run into a problem with the plan. Francine didn't know whether Simon had gotten the drug into her drink or her food, but despite her best efforts, somewhere along the line he'd managed it, or maybe the waiter or kitchen staff were in on it. She had finally been convinced by Amanda to take one of Dr. McJohn's test pills as a safety precaution but it seemed like whatever had been slipped to her was stronger or maybe she'd taken it too soon and it was wearing off. She reached for her clutch, knowing that she had another pill hidden in it, but her fingers were already too numb to work the clasp. "I don't feel well," she managed to slur out. "Simon, I need one of my pills."

"I have a much better idea, Frannie. Why don't I take you upstairs and give you a neck rub? I've been told my fingers are much more effective than any nasty pill."

This was the plan – to get Simon to take her back upstairs, but none of them had thought she'd really be drugged, only acting it. She was supposed to quietly take him out once they were back in the room so that they could set the stage to catch the 'boss' – a simple job for her on any other day but now she was already starting to feel the numbness creeping into her limbs. She couldn't help the wave of panic at the thought of Lee and Amanda not knowing she was actually incapacitated and tried to get up, but only managed to bump the table hard enough to knock the wine bottle and glasses over. She felt Simon's hand at her elbow, pulling her to her feet and beginning to guide her across the room, talking cheerfully to her as they went although she could barely make sense of anything he said. "You've trained for this, Desmond" she told herself. "Keep calm, make a plan." She took deep breaths, trying to fight the effects of whatever he'd given her and did her best to slow him down by being as deadweight as possible. She looked up and realized he was walking her directly past the table where Lee and Amanda were sitting.

"Hullo you two," Simon greeted them cheerfully like a man without a care in the world. "Mrs. Delahanty seems to be getting a headache, so I'm just taking her back to her room for one of my world famous neck rubs."

She stared at Amanda, willing her to understand what was really going on. "Need…pill" she managed to get out, or thought she did, before dropping her purse at Amanda's feet. She wasn't even sure she'd been speaking clearly.

"Now darling, I told you my neck rubs are better than any pill any day, said Simon, oblivious to the messages she was passing on. "Now let's get you upstairs."

She looked back and to her relief Amanda was stooping down to pick up her purse and looking after her with a worried expression.

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"Lee, she's really in trouble – I don't think that's an act."

"Amanda, you know there's nobody better at Francine at these covers – are you sure you're not just reading your own nerves into this?

"No, I don't because her second pill is still in here. I'm sure she was trying to say she needed a pill and there's still one in here. If she was acting, she would have been more subtle and she certainly wouldn't have tried to get all the attention that almost knocking her table over attracted. I think she needs help fast." She began to get up until Lee grabbed her arm and kept her in place.

"We can't just go charging after her – we have to actually catch them doing something or the whole mission goes down the toilet. You're really sure she's not acting? I thought McJohn's pills were supposed to counteract anything he gave her?"

"He said they were still in the testing stage – they might not be effective enough or maybe Simon's overdosed her. We have to go after them."

"Okay, but we need to not look like we're following them. Can you see Adam?"

"He's in the lobby keeping an eye on Halliwell."

"Alright, let's head out slowly and make sure he sees us."

They got to their feet and moved unhurriedly to the door, arms around each other, trying to look like lovers on their way back to their room. As they entered the lobby, Amanda made a show of tripping and losing her shoe, giving Lee a chance to make eye contact with the young agent who was already on alert having seen Francine being half-carried past him moments before. Lee jerked his head upwards and Adam nodded in acknowledgement. He stood up and headed for the stairs, knowing that he could run up the two flights more quickly than waiting for the elevator. Lee watched as the elevator door across the lobby closed on Simon and Francine. Amanda was right - she was way too pale and listless. He swore under his breath as they moved across the lobby to get the next elevator. He'd promised her it would never get this far and yet here they were.

"Calm down. We're not that far behind and Adam's already on his way." Amanda knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Are you talking to me or yourself?"

"Yes."

They stared at the elevator door in silence, willing it to come quickly. As they stepped in, Lee saw Halliwell watching them speculatively from behind the front desk. He reached past Amanda's outstretched hand and jabbed the button for the fourth floor.

"Lee, that's my floor, Francine's on two."

"Halliwell's watching us. We need to go up and then come back down."

"Thank God Adam's probably already up there."

Francine could feel herself being moved down the hallway to her room. No matter how much she willed herself to fight him, she couldn't make her limbs respond with any strength. She never saw Adam stick his head out of the stairwell after they passed him and couldn't help the small sob of fear as Simon stopped at her door.

"Now where's your key, my lovely?" he muttered before realizing she didn't have her purse anymore. "Shit! Hang on." He pushed her up against the door frame and braced her there with his shoulder while he reached down his leg and lifted his pant leg to reveal the knife strapped there. Pulling out the six-inch blade, he used it to jimmy the door and then pushed her inside. "Oh dear, Mrs. Delahanty, there's definitely going to be an extra charge on your bill when management sees that damage." He slid the deadbolt closed and chained the door as Francine watched with despair.

She had fallen in the entrance to her room where he'd shoved her and tried to brace herself against the wall to prevent him from moving her but he just lifted her easily and began to drag her towards the bed, talking to her in a cajoling tone, "Now don't worry dearie, you won't remember a thing about this tomorrow."

Lee and Amanda had arrived back via the stairs just as Francine's door had slammed shut. Amanda searched through Francine's purse looking for the room key and passed it to Lee. He was leaning with ear up against the door, listening for any signs of struggle. If Francine wasn't really drugged, she would have been fighting him by now and the silence was unnerving. Slipping the key into the lock as quietly as he could, he gently turned it but realized immediately that Simon had slipped the security bolt rendering the key useless.

Amanda had joined Adam as he arrived at his door and followed him quickly into his room. She realized that there was a set of double connecting doors between the two rooms; Adam already had his open and was now leaning on the closed one from Francine's room, also trying to hear what was going on next door. "Can't you just go in?" she asked desperately.

"Miss Desmond left it ajar when she left but he banged it shut dragging her in and there's no handle on this side. I thought she'd be fighting him more by now." he whispered back. Lee had now joined them and was running his hands through his hair, thinking furiously.

"He's managed to drug her and we can't count on any help from her. Okay, I'm going to go try and get from your balcony to hers. He won't be expecting anyone to come from there. Wait until you hear me in there and then hit this door with everything you have."

"Be careful Lee, that's must be at least a thirty foot drop."

"I'll aim to land in the pool" he tried to joke as he headed out and swung his legs out over the balcony and began to edge his way into position to jump to the next one over. Amanda held her breath as he made the leap and didn't release it until she saw him disappear over the railing to Francine's balcony, then ran back to the connecting door to wait with Adam.

"Thank god for good old-fashioned bad security" Lee thought to himself after he tested the sliding door and realized it was locked. Bracing his hands against the frame, he lifted the door out of its runners and shoved it open. Launching himself across the room at Simon, he knocked him from his position kneeling over Francine and sent him flying. As the Englishman scrambled to his feet, swearing, Lee continued to move towards him, realizing too late that Simon had a knife in his hand and only narrowly managing to avoid its lethal sweep as Simon came upright.

"You sonofabitch!" snarled Simon in a blood rage. "This one's mine!"

"This one isn't anybody's, least of all yours," answered Lee, ducking and diving as Simon came at him in a frenzy. He kept talking, hoping to distract Simon long enough for Adam to break down the connecting door. "You have no idea what you're in the middle of, pal. I'm a federal agent and you're at the centre of a very big problem right now. Put down the knife and this might go a lot better for you at your trial."

"Veronique doesn't have federal agents. Hell, they barely have a police force!" gasped Simon, reeling back from one of Lee's punches.

"I'm an American agent" panted Lee, all too aware that Simon had managed to circle around back into the room and that their fight was getting dangerously close to Francine again. She was doing her best to crawl out of their way but not quickly enough.

"Then you don't have any jurisdiction here," panted Simon smugly. He reached over to grab Francine by the hair and pulled her upright against him like a shield, just as Adam finally broke down the connecting door and fell into the room.

"You're right" said Lee stopping dead and putting out a hand to stop Adam from moving any further into the room. "But that also means I don't have nasty legal rules I have to follow." In the moment that Simon paused to think about what he meant, Lee pulled his handgun from its holster and trained it on him.

Simon pulled Francine closer, and placed his knife against her neck, making it impossible for Lee to get a clean shot at him. "Really mate? Seems like even you might quibble at cold-blooded murder though, wouldn't you?"

For Lee, it seemed like time stood still and all he could hear was his own heartbeat as once again he found himself with his gun trained on one of his closest friends. For a split second, he shifted his gaze from Simon's wild-eyed stare to Francine. She blinked slowly at him and glanced sideways and down. Lee took a deep breath, looked her in the eye and, praying she hadn't underestimated what she was capable of in her current state, asked her, "Are you sure?"

Simon assumed he was answering him and began to respond but as he did so, Francine twisted her head, letting the knife cut into her skin, and bit Simon on the hand holding the knife, then, as he yanked it out of reach cursing, she dropped ungracefully to the floor. Lee leapt across the intervening space to slam his fist into Simon's face, hearing the crunch of cartilage with a vicious satisfaction, followed by the snap of breaking cheekbone as he continued to pummel him.

"Lee! Enough!" As usual it was Amanda who managed to get through the veil of rage and made him stop. He looked down at the unconscious mess he was still clutching by the shirtfront and then looked over to see Francine dragging herself up to lean against the side of the bed. She drew in a deep breath and smiled tremulously at him before managing to slur out "Just…one...more…from...me, okay?"

With a bark of laughter, Lee dropped Simon and leaned down to pick her up and help her to sit on the bed. "That's our girl," he grinned at her.

"Not…anybody's…girl," she growled at him even as she leaned into him for support.

"No, but that is definitely our Francine," said Amanda, stepping forward to sit beside her and take her weight against her. "Lee, you need to get him out of here before the boss shows up. We're going to need a Plan B though – she's in no shape to deal with anything else tonight and I need to get something on this cut on her neck."

Lee got back up from his spot beside Francine and grabbed Simon under the arms and began to drag him towards the connecting door to Adam's room. "Adam, get the bolt and chain undone – he'll need to be able to get in here. Amanda, how bad is that knife wound? Do we need to get a doctor up here?" He dropped Simon on Adam's bathroom floor and dug handcuffs out of his pocket to chain him to the pipe under the sink. Amanda appeared a few steps behind him and grabbed a washcloth and ran it under the tap.

"The cut's just a scratch I think but it's bleeding a lot because of the angle." Adam had carried Francine through to the connecting room and she was now sitting in an armchair, head tilted back, eyes closed with exhaustion. Amanda crouched beside her, and began pressing the washcloth against the cut, trying to assess the damage, while talking to her in soothing tones. "Francine, I don't want to give you any of those pills to help you fight this because I'm afraid any adrenaline at this point will make it bleed more and I want you to sit upright for a bit until the bleeding slows. But it really is just a scratch and I'm sure it won't leave a scar, okay?"

She knew Francine was already starting to fight the effects of the drugs when she opened her eyes, and muttered "Thank god it's turtleneck season" before lapsing back into silence. Amanda pulled the cover off the bed and wrapped her in it to try and prevent shock before turning to look at Lee expectantly.

Lee looked around the room, thinking rapidly and let his eyes rest on Adam for a moment before a plan formed in his mind. He pulled off his jacket and handed it to the younger agent. "Put this on over what you're wearing. The double layering will make you look bulkier like Simon. We have to assume his boss is keeping watch, so you're going to go out the other door and try to look as much like possible like our psycho here. You've got the same hair colour and about the same height so you might be able to pass for him if you keep your head down and move quickly. Just head for the stairwell and stay there, okay?"

The younger agent nodded and began pulling on Lee's tux over his own. It didn't make him a lot bulkier but it might pass long enough for whatever Lee had planned.

"Amanda, get back into Francine's room and wrap yourself up in the covers. You and Francine are both in white, so if you can do something to cover your hair, he might not know it's the wrong woman until he's far enough into the room. I'll get that door back on its frame or he'll definitely know something's wrong."

Amanda nodded and moved quickly into the other room. She began pulling the covers on the bed into a state of disarray while Lee reset the balcony door and stepped back into Adam's room, pausing to stuff his pocket square in the lock so the connecting door couldn't close and lock again. Amanda took a deep breath and lay face down on Francine's bed, wrapping herself partially in the light blankets and hanging her head over the far side so that only her body was really visible.

"Everybody ready?" she heard Adam whisper from the doorway.

"Go!" Lee muttered from behind the door.

They heard the door open and then unexpectedly they heard Adam start to shout something before it was cut off by the horrible whistling snick of a gun with a silencer firing and the thud of Adam falling back into the room, and landing unmoving in the narrow entranceway to the room. Not needing the warning yell from Lee, Amanda was already scrambling off the bed and falling to the floor to relative safety as Lee burst back into the room. She turned her head and realized she could see the reflection of the two men in the balcony door. It was indeed Halliwell standing over Adam's body – he now had his gun pointed at Lee, who had his own weapon out and trained on him in an impasse. Amanda saw something in her peripheral vision and realized Simon's knife had fallen under the bed, just barely within her reach. She stretched out her fingers and let them close around the handle and drew it in close to her body.

"Well, Mr. Steadman, I should have known you'd be the one to give me trouble. So handsome, so charming – I told Simon I didn't like the cut of your jib but he was so sure of himself." He stepped casually over Adam and into the room as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Right now the only thing he's sure about is that he needs a hospital," snapped Lee, edging into the room to get between Halliwell and Amanda.

"Couldn't happen to a nicer chap. It's always disappointing when all the work you put into training a monkey turns out to be for nought."

"Maybe you shouldn't have picked such a psychotic monkey". Lee chanced a glance down at Adam and was relieved to see the shallow rise and fall of his chest that said he was still alive. He didn't think he could have even survived a gunshot at such close quarters but as he watched, he realized with shock that Adam's hand was moving slowly towards Halliwell's ankle. He looked back up at the manager, trying to keep him talking. "This must have been quite the little money maker for you – who were you selling your information to?"

"My word, you really have been a busy boy haven't you? You really have been doing your homework, I see, if you've already figured out it's not simply theft. Well, if you're so smart, can't you figure it all out on your own? You don't need me making some long-winded confession like a movie villain, surely?"

Lee stared at him thoughtfully for a moment, putting the pieces together. "The Cubans. They're close enough to have easy access on and off the island and they can sell anything you have onto the Soviets." Adam's hand was now almost within reach of the gunman.

"Oh well done. I see there's brains behind that pretty face." As he spoke, Adam's hand shot out and grabbed at his ankle. Halliwell stumbled with a shout of rage and fired his gun wildly at Lee. Lee dove sideways before firing back just barely missing as the manager jerked back out of the room and disappeared in the direction of the stairs. Leaping over Adam's body, Lee leaned out into the hallway, jerking his head back as Halliwell fired again. When he heard running footsteps again, he chanced another look and then set off in pursuit. Halliwell was pulling over the tables that lined the hallway at regular intervals in an effort to slow him down. As he started to catch up, the manager suddenly stopped and yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall and swung it wildly, letting it loose as Lee approached. Lee ducked but he was close enough that it caught him on the side of his head, just enough to temporarily drop him to his knees. As he scrambled to get upright again, he looked up to see his adversary pausing to lift his gun towards him. Before he could even react, there was a whistling sound past his head and a knife buried itself in Halliwell's shoulder. He fell back with a scream of pain, giving Lee enough time to launch himself up at him, knocking him backwards and from there, it only took one well-placed punch to knock him out.

Lee knelt beside him gasping for breath for a moment before hauling himself to his feet to turn and look back down the hall to see where the knife had come from. Amanda was standing in the middle of the hall, looking shocked and swaying.

"Amanda? Where the hell did you learn to do THAT?" He couldn't believe it had been her but there was no one else in sight as he strode back towards her and grabbed her arms.

She looked up at him and started to laugh, an edge of hysteria to it. "We had a lot of evening downtime at Station One and Leatherneck started teaching me knife tricks to pass the time. I never thought it would actually work – I just thought it would distract him."

Lee looked back over his shoulder in disbelief, then looked back at her with a grin. "I'll have to tell Billy you need extra credit."

A groan from the open doorway had her whirling back towards Francine's room. "Oh my gosh, Adam! Are you okay?" She knelt beside the young agent, trying to help him roll onto his back.

Lee dropped to his knees as well, scrambling to undo the jacket buttons, searching for the gunshot wound he knew was there but suddenly realizing that what he was feeling was the familiar bulk of a bulletproof vest. "What the hell? Kid, I thought you were dead!"

Adam groaned as he continued trying to drag himself upright. "New rule from Mr. Melrose and Beaman. Rookies have to wear vests on all jobs during our probation period because we're too dumb not to get shot." He managed a gasping laugh. "I guess they were right."

Lee stared at him, nonplussed, then looked up at a grinning Amanda. "So why aren't you wearing one?"

"Because my spaghetti strap version for evening wear is on back order," she answered, rolling her eyes at him.

"Still sounds like a good idea to me," muttered Lee.

"I'm kind of appreciating it myself," gasped Adam even as he continued to wince with pain. "But do you think you could get me out of it now? I can't breathe too good."

"Probably broken ribs and taking off the vest will make it worse. We'll get you more comfortable in a minute but for now, just lay still while I go make sure Halliwell's secure. Amanda, you know the codes. Get the front desk to call the police and then call Billy and let him know what's going on."

"Yessir!" she snapped off a salute with a smile and eased herself upright to go make the calls. Lee watched her go and then stopped only long enough to grab a set of handcuffs from Francine's hand luggage before stepping back into the hallway. He walked up to Halliwell and stood staring down at him, knife still embedded in his shoulder. He glanced back down the hall to the spot where Amanda had been standing moments before and then back down at the unconscious manager and began to laugh. As he snapped the cuffs on as a precaution, he muttered to himself, "I need to remember to get the biggest bottle of rum at the duty-free for Leatherneck. And to never ever get into a fight with her in the kitchen once we're married."

He was still chuckling when the hotel security finally burst out of the elevator.