AN: Thanks again for all the great feedback and alerts, folks. It means a lot. Reviews really are like crack.

"I don't know her well enough to know that yet. It scares me." Her hand left his shoulder and there was a soft, familiar sound as she pushed her hair behind her ear. "You ready?"

"Yeah. Okay. Let's go."

I. Inference

"I'm going to turn up my vision, Gary. If something happens and I'm not reacting, shine your cell phone at me or something." Rachel focused on her eyes, squinting to see something, anything. Everything else dulled—the sounds of the rain outside, Gary's hand in hers. She looked and looked and—still there was almost nothing. She could only make out vague shadows, not even enough to navigate by.

"This—this isn't going to work. I can't see. We'll just run into those computer tower things the whole time." As her other senses returned, she shifted closer to Gary. They were still crouched outside the IT office. Feeling his hooded sweatshirt against her shoulder and the cheap carpet under her fingers grounded her slightly. She could figure this out. She would not panic, because they couldn't afford it.

"Rachel, I can take lead."

"I don't think—"

"No, wait. I have an idea. There's a pattern, a grid. Everything is laid out in aisles. I'll lead, and you listen."

She sighed. Was he so used to people ignoring him? "I am listening to you, Gary, and it's a not a bad idea—"

He chuckled. "Actually, you're not. You're hearing, but you're not comprehending." He squeezed her hand lightly. "I'll lead, but you'll listen. For the guards."

"Oh." She really wasn't listening to him, was she? "You mean that I can be the lookout, and you'll lead me through while I can't feel anything?"

"Yes!" He laughed again, a happier sound. "Yes."

Holding hands, they crept through the aisles. Gary trailed his right hand along the server towers, one to another. His left hand pulled Rachel along behind him. She could hear the rain outside, Gary's heartbeat and her own, some very distant footsteps a few floors below them. There was no gunfire or screaming, thankfully. They continued and the rain seemed to grow louder until they finally stopped. Gary whispered her name and she turned her head in his direction.

She heard him speaking as only a loud whisper, so he was making some effort to be quiet. "We're at a wall. I think it's the north wall. Which stairwell? East or west?"

"I don't know. Just pick one?"

He pulled her in one direction, until the sound of light boots on concrete hit her like a wall. "No! No, go the other way. Someone's coming."

They were done creeping around. Gary nearly dislocated her shoulder as he hauled her to her feet and in the other direction. She heard a soft squeak of metal hinges, so he must have opened the stairwell door.

"Anything here?"

There was lots of echoing quiet above and below them. "No."

He pulled her through the doorway, probably by her arm but she was so focused on the closing footfalls she wasn't sure. The door clicked shut behind them, then both froze as the other door slammed open—the stairwell they had been heading for seconds earlier. From the shuffling and heartbeats, Rachel guessed there were three of them milling around. The guards searched for a few long minutes and Rachel hardly could breath.

Up and to her left side there was a very loud whisper. "They have flashlights—"

Bringing back her other senses, she slapped her hand over his mouth. "Shh!" He pushed back, but she pressed closer and pulled his head down to her level. "Quiet! Please, Gary!" Now she could see that a dim red light illuminating his wide, panicked eyes. Before she could do anything else to reassure him, there was a thunk about 10 feet away they both heard without superhearing—steel and glass against carpet? Had one of the guards dropped a flashlight? Gary finally stopped struggling. After some harsh swearing, the nearby footsteps moved away, and then there was a chorus of "All clear!" A door slammed shut and boots pounded up another flight of stairs.

After she released her hold on Gary's mouth and neck, a wave of lightheaded relief swept over Rachel. Dizzy, Rachel leaned against Gary as she tried to catch her breath. He had one hand on her elbow and his arm around her waist, carefully keeping her far as from the stairs as possible. She let herself stay in his arms. If he was holding onto her that tightly he must not mind the contact too much.

"Rachel? Rachel, there's more light here. It's emergency lighting, so it must run on its own batteries." He kept a firm grim on her arms and he stepped back, his eyes falling to their feet. "I don't think we need your hearing as much and I shouldn't lead you down the stairs if you can't see. That's not very safe."

She nudged him forward. "Don't worry about it. If they're moving up, we should be okay to go down."

II. Conclusion

Gary kept a hand on Rachel's elbow as they hurried down the stairs together. He knew she was seeing fine again, but the way she had stumbled as they'd ran had scared him a little. He just felt better being close to her right now and she hadn't pulled away or yelled at him, so she didn't seem to mind. Rachel never had any problem telling him what she felt, sometimes loudly. Gary liked that about her. He liked that she told him what he was doing wrong, that is—not so much the loudness. He could tolerate loudness from Rachel, because she didn't yell much these days. She'd figured out how to say it quietly so he would understand just the same.

He looked briefly for any frequencies. There were a few distant cell phone signals, but nothing from the building itself. The power must still be down for a large area.

"Anything out there, Gary?"

He kept looking and managed to key into someone's mobile broadband. "The cell towers are working again—their backup batteries must have turned on. It looks like the thunderstorm will clear in an hour or so." They walked into a bright green signal when they reached the fourth floor. "The electrical company's press release says that city power should be back on soon, but the local news stations don't think it will happen."

The stairwell ended at the first floor. This was the northwest stairwell, so it opened directly into the lobby. He had to wait while Rachel listened again, and he hated waiting. He wanted to see what was going on but there was still no power to the—

With a buzz and a hum, electricity flowed through and brought everything back to life. He started opening the first frequencies he saw, sifting through a dozen CCTVs of empty hallways. Finally, there was Bill cleaning up in the lab, three security guards on the floor. Gary smiled. "Bill's okay. He's heading down the other stairwell."

"Something's wrong," Rachel whispered. "There's four people, and two of the heart rates are fast—very fast."

"Relax, Rachel. You can relax. The power's back on. I got this."

"Gary, keep it down. I don't think it's safe out there." He looked briefly at her. She was pressed to the door, listening. "Someone's hurt." She was…worried? She looked worried. "I can smell blood. Gary, we need to know what's happening before we go out there."

He worked faster. Closing his eyes helped, and that it was quiet here. Rachel was very quiet, not even bothering him to work faster like Bill always did. Ironically, this allowed him to search more quickly. He should explain that to Bill sometime—ahh. There was the numbering system for the cameras, how it correlated by floors and rooms. First floor, lobby, and he had it. Five different views were all showing the same very bad scene.

"Oh. They've—they've got Nina and Hicks handcuffed. I think Nina's bleeding." Rachel grabbed his arm at that. She was squeezing so tight it hurt. "Rachel, you're hurting me. Let go." She did, and he went back to watching. Nina was propped against a desk and the guards had guns pointed at Hicks. Another man in a fleece jacket had showed up and it looked like he was asking questions. "Okay, there are two guards and someone new. They're hitting Hicks. He's in trouble. We need to help." He moved towards the door but Rachel pushed him back. "We need to help. They're hurting him." She was surprisingly strong and knew her physics, the way she had braced her feet and leaned into him.

"We have to be smart. We need help but we can't make it worse."

Be smart? He was smart—really smart, Dr. Rosen said he was gifted—and so was she. He flicked back to the cameras in the other stairwell. Bill was almost on the first floor. "Bill's alone now. Break radio silence and tell him what's happening"

"You should really start wearing a radio."

"They're uncomfortable. And distracting. I need to focus to do my work." She wasn't listening anymore, which was okay because she was whispering into her radio piece. They needed to be smart, so they needed a plan. Maybe a distraction? Then Bill could take care of the bad guys.

"Bill says we should stay put. He's calling tactical for backup. They're ten minutes out."

Back on the camera feeds, the guards were walking towards Nina. They pulled her over in front of Cameron and were shaking her. "I don't think we have that much of time."

III. Synthesis

"Stop! DCIS! We're federal agents."

"Gary! What the hell are you doing?"

"Stop right there! Hands up!"

"Stop! Please! They're just kids!"

Rachel winced at the wall of sound that hit her. Bill had just finished yelling directly in her ear and Rachel totally agreed with him. This was psychotic and stupid and she didn't know why she had let Gary do this. Oh, wait—yes, she did. Bad guys were about to torture her roommate, her best friend, to get information out of another friend they had already beaten black and blue. Also, Gary—sweet, brave, stupid, stupid Gary—was going whether she wanted or not. If she was with him, at least she could push him out of the way when the gunfire started.

It had occurred to her before they opened the door that if anyone could cause a distraction, Gary could. He didn't disappoint, waving his badge around like it mattered. She did her part, babbling and crying, pulling him this way and that. They made a dramatic pair, and she was barely acting at all. The two guards shouted back at them and waved their guns between Hicks and Gary. Blindfolded Nina had chimed in, as well. Hicks and the other guy—mussed up hair, untucked shirt, ridiculously shiny shoes—were the only ones quiet. He appeared to be shell-shocked, with one hand loosely on Nina's upper arm. He was unarmed, thank goodness, and looked like some kind of middle management goon. Cameron, meanwhile, had caught on that something was up and started scanning the room.

"DCIS! This is a sanctioned government operation and you are under arrest. You are all under arrest!"

"Put your hands on your head and get down on the floor!" The guards moved closer to them and further from Cameron and Nina, though the other guy still had his hands on the pusher. Cameron had started fiddling with his handcuffs. Rachel, with one hand on his left arm and another on his waist, tugged Gary in the direction of a large potted plant, closer to potential cover.

"We're DCIS! You put your hands on your head and get down on the floor!"

The management with the bed-head had apparently remembered that he was the boss and had started shouting orders. She couldn't hear what he was saying over Gary and the guards, but it added to the general chaos. Taking advantage, Bill had crept out of his stairwell and hidden behind a trashcan. He made some complex hand signals at Cameron and then his voice sounded directly in her ear. "Rachel, take cover on three and for the love of God keep Gary's head down."

The guards suddenly quieted and a voice rang clear across the lobby. "Gary Bell and Rachel Pirzad, if I'm not mistaken. I've been looking for you." She froze. Gary stopped talking.

"One."

The guards moved to the side, giving their boss a clear view of the two young Alphas. "You've been leading me on quite a chase." He smirked. "I didn't think you'd show up on my doorstep."

Rachel stole a quick glance at Cameron. His hands were still behind his back but they were free and he had tucked his toes under to be ready to jump. Rachel dug her fingers into Gary's arm and waist.

"Two."

"I've called in my assault team, you know. Why don't you two sit down quietly? They'll be less likely shoot you, and I would rather have Mr. Bell alive. Allow me to introduce my—"

"Three!"

She threw both of them sideways behind the planter as a flash-bang exploded somewhere to their left. The impact knocked the wind out of her so she missed the first few actions. Pulling Gary up, she peeked over the edge of the planter. Nina had pulled off her blindfold and was ordering the boss to sleep. Cameron just finished pummeling the hell out of his guard while the other writhed on the floor, blood seeping from his shoulder.

Bill lowered his weapon and scanned the room for other enemies. Apparently satisfied, he tossed some zipties at Nina. She went to work on Management Guy.

"Are you two okay?" Bill asked as he helped Rachel and Gary to their feet.

"We're fine," Rachel answered in a daze, "But Nina's hurt and we need to get out of here now. That guy said more people were coming."

Bill was about to reply, but bright lights blinded everyone. A set of black SUVs had pulled up outside, their headlight shining through the rain-spotted windows. Rachel's heart rate shot through the roof. Men in black with very big guns rushed into the lobby. They're already here, she thought through an adrenaline-fueled haze.

She was pushing Gary back towards the planter when she saw Nathan Cley climb out and stride through the doors. Releasing Gary, she had never felt so happy to see Nathan Cley. He headed straight for Bill while his team finished securing the guards and Management Guy. She was pleased to see one of the tactical guys wrapping a pressure bandage on Nina's upper arm. Cameron hovered over her, making Rachel smile for the first time in what felt like days.

"Is your team okay, Harken?"

"Nina needs medical, but we're got more unfriendlies on the way. This is turning into an absolute clusterfuck and we should clear out."

"I'll send Franks and Sanchez to get the van. You all can come with us."

They were rushed out of the building and into the SUVs so quickly she barely felt the light rain left over from the thunderstorm. Rachel found herself crammed into a backseat next to Gary and speeding off before she could even process it. One SUV went another direction, taking Nina and Cameron to a hospital. After all the action, it was finally quiet. Bill and Nathan were debriefing quietly in the front seat, accompanied by windshield wipers and the rain on the car roof. It was supposed to be a simple job, she thought. Hack a few computers and get out.

"You're shaking, Rachel. Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm—" She paused. What could she say that would make any kind of sense? "I'm just tired, Gary."

"I'm tired, too, but it's almost three AM so I don't think I'll be able to sleep. You should sleep though."

She smiled at him. It was difficult. "I don't think I could."

He hesitated. "You could use my shoulder for a pillow. Nina does that with Hicks, sometimes, on long car trips. It will take us a while to get back to the office." He flicked at the air. "Forty-five minutes, by their GPS."

She felt a light touch on the back of her hand. It was Gary, resting his hand against hers. Was it...intentional? His fingertips brushed against her skin once more before settling, implying that it was intentional. Maybe.

She stared at their barely-touching hands. Would it be so bad to accept the comfort? "That would be nice, Gary. Wake me when we get there?"

"I will. Don't worry; I'll keep watch." Gary's dedication amused Rachel. He had seen too many spy movies, but it was still reassuring in a strange way. Feeling a little more calmer, she settled her head on his shoulder. The softness of his hooded sweatshirt made a surprisingly nice pillow; under other circumstances she really could have fallen asleep like this. Tonight, though...tonight was a little too much and a little too close. She didn't close her eyes, though her vision blurred a little. Instead of sleeping, she listened to the rain and Gary's heartbeat the whole way home.

AN: It would seem that I found a plot of a sort; I wasn't quite expecting that. I'd love to hear feedback on the action, such as it is. Thanks!