(Chapter 8. Hope you enjoy! I know the big argument between Brandt and Jane was one of my favorite parts to write :) I own nothing but Helene)
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It didn't take long to leave the hotel. After a brief run in with some Russian mercernaries, the team managed to meet back up with Ethan at a safe house several miles away from the Burj Khalifa.
No one spoke on the journey there. Helene and Brandt were both in too much shock over what they just witnessed to say anything and Jane was too busy trying to avoid being questioned.
Even Benji was tense and his incessant typing on his computer seemed to make Jane even more on edge than she already was.
"What happened?" Ethan asked the second they all got out of the car in front of the safe house.
Brandt glared at Jane. "Ask her." He all but snarled as he struggled to contain himself.
Jane glared back at him. "Moreau's dead." Helene spoke up before an argument could break out. "Leonid too. He was shot twice in the chest." She tried to speak calmly, but her heart was still racing.
Ethan looked at her shocked. "What?!" He turned his gaze back towards Jane, but she just huffed at him and stomped her way past him to get inside the safe house.
Ethan sighed and rolled his eyes as if Benji just told him he spilled his coffee on his computer.
Helene watched as he turned to follow Jane inside and Benji followed suit. Brandt started to go after them and Helene tagged along.
The tension was definitely high and it only got worse once they got inside the safe house.
"Now what happened with Moreau, Jane?" Brandt asked, unable to contain himself anymore as he watched Jane wash her face in the kitchen.
Helene glanced warningly up at Brandt as Jane calmly grabbed a towel from the counter. "She couldn't help us with Hendricks." She retorted, clearly still furious, but trying to contain her anger unlike Brandt.
"Yeah! So let's throw her off the building then!" Brandt raised his voice. Jane threw her towel back on the counter. "I didn't throw her!" She snapped, glaring at Brandt again.
Helene started to interject. "Let's throw her off the building! She was NOT the mission, Jane!" Brandt shouted, slamming his fist on the table.
Helene cringed at him while Benji practically jumped up three feet out of his seat in fright.
"The mission was to trace the file back to Hendricks! Who is IN THE WIND! With nuclear launch codes I might add!" Brandt towered over Jane.
"Will, stop it. This doesn't help anything." Helene tried to reason with him, but no one was listening to her except Benji.
"Maybe you guys didn't notice the gun she had pointed at me!" Jane retorted, losing control of her anger again.
Brandt laughed bitterly at that. "Oh yeah! Like you didn't notice the open window, OR that we were about a mile up in the air!" He shot back at her, clearly not willing to back down anytime soon.
"It was an instinctive move! Helene saw it too!" Jane stomped her foot.
Helene shook her head. "I'm not getting in the middle of this." She said darkly yet firmly.
"It doesn't matter what she saw!" Brandt continued to yell. "We're talking about a nuclear war here Jane! The asset is more important than you!"
Helene felt her jaw go slack at that.
"Where do you get off telling me how well I executed it?!" Jane accused him. "You're nothing but an Analyst! We inherited you and your little sidekick!" She hissed clearly not thinking logically anymore.
"You think I need you to tell me what the mission is?"
Brandt rolled his eyes. "Apparently so."
"Really?! Well you need to learn to how DO your mission! How about that?" Jane cried.
"All right! That's it! You two need to cut it out!" Helene finally stood from the table, bumping her knee into the underside of the piece of furniture with a noticeable bang.
Jane turned to glare at her. "Stay out of this, Meyer! You did no better than I did with Leonid!" Helene stared at her shock.
"Oh so all of a sudden this is my fault? Last I checked, I wasn't the one who shot Leonid!" She answered, getting annoyed.
"No, but you failed to save him! He was an asset too and none of us would be arguing right now, if at least you had done your job correctly!" She started to round in on Helene.
Brandt stepped between them. "Hey don't go pinning on this on Helene! She did what she could!"
"You're saying I didn't?!" Jane turned her glare back at him.
"Clearly! Since we have no living assets with us right now!" Brandt retorted.
"Will drop it! Right now or I swear I will knock you both out before you can count to three!" Helene warned, pulling out her gun and slamming it on the table. Brandt could see in her expression that she was clearly vexed with her new teammates right now especially with him.
Jane sighed and turned to walk away from Brandt as he struggled to take a deep breath. Helene continued to stare him down until he turned to go sit on a bench across the room from where Jane was.
"How the h*** did the Russians even find us?" Jane asked, her tone not changing with her volume as she suddenly marched up to Benji.
Benji looked up meekly from his laptop. "What are you asking me for?" He asked calmly, clearly uncomfortable under Jane's gaze.
"Because you're communications! You're in charge of covering up our tracks!" Jane snapped suddenly slamming her hand down on the lid of Benji's laptop.
"I'm sorry are you inferring-?" Benji started, but got cut off by Brandt.
"You cannot afford to make mistakes like that now, Benji. You're not a technician anymore! You're a field agent!" He spoke from across the room.
Ethan chose that second to walk back into the main area from the bathroom where he had been cleaning up. "And you're just an analyst! Right?..." He turned his gaze towards Brandt.
"Right?..."
Helene sighed and turned to walk into the bathroom as Ethan rounded in on Brandt. "Who are you really, Brandt?" He asked just as Helene shut the bathroom door and locked it.
There was a short pause as Ethan waited for an answer.
"What are you asking?" Brandt asked after a minute, clearly thrown.
Ethan sighed. "Oh, what am I asking? Let me see if I can put it another way." Helene heard the click of a gun and tensed grabbing the edge of the sink as she listened to the tussle going on outside.
She had about half a mind to go back, when the struggling suddenly stopped and Helene heard Ethan's voice.
"How does an Agent with skills like that, end up an Analyst?" He asked and Helene opened the door a crack.
"For that matter...since when does a Medic know how to handle herself with an advanced type fire arm?" Ethan added, making Helene realize she had left her gun on the table where the others could find it.
Brandt sighed and lowered the gun he had pointed at Ethan's head. "Well, we all have our secrets." He said looking up to meet Ethan's eyes. "Don't we, Ethan?"
Helene shut the door again and locked it as Brandt handed the gun back to Ethan. "You tell me yours and Helene's, I'll tell you mine." Ethan said without missing a beat.
Helene waited for Brandt to respond to him, but no one spoke. Finally she returned to the sink and turned on the water, not waiting for it to get cold before splashing some on her face.
"I have friends in the region." Ethan spoke up when the silence had lasted too long between them. "Just sit tight. I'll send someone to get you out of here. Tell Helene when she gets out of the bathroom!" He said, his footsteps walking across the room.
Helene straightened up in front of the sink with a start.
"What about Hendricks? What's the plan?" Jane asked.
"The Plan, was to stop Hendricks together!" Ethan retorted clearly still pissed at the rest of the group.
Helene sighed.
"Well what are you going to do?" Benji asked.
"Change the plan!" Ethan slammed the door shut.
"Wait! That's it?" Benji sounded astonished, but Ethan was already gone.
Helene heard Brandt sigh as he shuffled across the room to grab his things.
"Do you care to explain yourself, Agent Brandt?" Jane asked, the icy overtone still in her voice as Helene sank to a sitting position on the floor by the air conditioner.
She reached into her back pocket for an old cell phone she had in there and dialed a speed number after inputting her passcode.
"Hey, it's me." She whispered so she wouldn't be overheard. "How's he doing?"
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