A/N: This is a bit later than I intended, but last minute brainstorms do that to authors. This is much better than it would have been, so I'm not gonna be sorry about it, either. :P

The rolling motion of the car, combined with the quiet click-clack-click of Benji's typing, was oddly soothing. Jane shifted in her seat, tilting her head to see better out of the window. The sweeping view of the mountains she was treated to was breathtaking, reminding her why mountainous areas had always been her favorite vacation spots from the time she had been a little girl. And there was just always something about the Rocky Mountains that seemed…untamed, maybe, but definitely wild. It wasn't the same as the quiet peacefulness of the Appalachians, more rugged and present than anything in the eastern areas of the country. All of the ranges in the western part of the country were like that, and Jane loved it because it settled her to look out her window and see the strong, rugged mountains standing silent guard over her, that unnamed quality daring any human danger to stand against them.

It was one of the reasons she had chosen to look for a new apartment in Seattle once the lease on her old one had run out. She'd enjoyed living in New York, and it was central to one of the IMF's main offices, which was convenient for her work, but…Seattle was quickly becoming one of her favorite cities. It had sentimental value to her, being the city in which so many of her team's post-mission get-togethers happened, but it was also beautiful in its own right. Jane had made a habit of learning the rhythms and workings of any city she ended up in on a frequent basis, and Seattle just called to her on some level.

It might have been the mountain ranges – the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascade Range to the east – or it might have been the sense of safety she now associated with it, but Jane didn't particularly care which it was. Seattle was just as much home to her as New York had ever been and when she'd had to make a choice about renewing her lease, or looking for another place…well. It hadn't really been a choice. Her life had been steadily relocating west even before then; it only made sense to move out to the city she was coming to love. It hadn't been like it affected her missions. The only thing that had had to change was the office she reported to for re-certifications and pre- and post-mission briefs.

"All the way across the country though, Jane? That's not a small move."

Jane laughed at Will's incredulous tone, carried clearly to her ear despite the slightly scratchy connection of their phones. "Smaller than some moves we've made." She leaned back against the wall of her half-packed apartment, surveying her work with satisfaction. "And less dangerous."

A startled bark of laughter answered her and Jane couldn't help the smile that widened on her face. "That's true," Will said as he caught his breath. "Did you have a place picked out yet?"

"Not quite. I know what area I want to live in, but I haven't found anything suitable yet." Jane shifted her weight to one foot, and rested the other against the wall behind her, forming a triangle of space between her bent knee and the wall. "Do you think you could help me find something, Will?"

"When are you planning on doing the search?" her team mate asked, and she heard rustling pages in the background. "I have…hmm…if I…yeah. Yeah, I can do that…"

Long familiar with Will's habit of talking to himself – and whoever or whatever was in the immediate area - while he thought, Jane spoke right over him.

"I was thinking I'd do it after my first aid recertification next week. I'll be staying on base anyway for that, so someplace to sleep and shower won't be an issue and I doubt they'll mind if I take a few extra days afterwards. I already have a list of what I want and what I need, so it should be relatively quick."

"I keep telling you guys that my lists are useful. Glad to see someone was paying attention," Will shot back without heat and Jane laughed again.

"Keep dreaming, little boy," she teased. "Pure coincidence."

Will blew a raspberry down the line at her.

"Jane?"

Jerking, Jane sat up straighter, turning her head to regard Ethan. He was splitting his attention between the road and her, while Benji leaned over the arm rest in the middle of the front seats to regard her curiously.

"Yes?"

Benji's eyes were worried as he squinted at her. "Are you alright? We've been trying to get your attention for a few minutes now. You weren't asleep, but you weren't answering, either."

Jane sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm fine. Just…worried and confused. I was thinking about the last time I spoke to Will."

"We're all confused," Ethan offered quietly, his eyes returning to the road. "Nothing about this situation makes sense, and it probably won't until we find Brandt."

"Do we even know where to start? Besides New York, I mean," Jane stared out of the windshield, trying not to let the image of that explosion superimpose itself over the mountains. Will was fine. He was not dead; not until she saw the body. "We know the battle's over now." And just what had happened to make every invading alien and those flying whale ships just collapse she really wanted to know. "Will definitely won't stay in one spot just waiting for us to get there."

"SHIELD."

Jane blinked, and felt Benji shift next to her so he could join in her incredulous stare. "SHIELD?" Benji echoed.

Ethan shrugged. "They're the ones who commandeered him for whatever that project was. It had to have been them that got him involved in the fight against the aliens in New York. SHIELD has the answers we need, so we start with them."

Jane heard Will's voice in her head, a different landscape zipping by a battered Jeep's windows. "Burj Khalifa. It's the tallest building in the world, and you want to alter its infrastructure with the hopes of convincing two people they've had a meeting which actually really…never happened."

"And just how are we going to get SHIELD to be any more forthcoming than IMF was?" Benji demanded.

"We don't need to talk to them to access their servers."

Jane frowned at Ethan. "No, we can't. We don't have a user name or password to even get ON their system in the first place."

Ethan's I've got a plan grin crept onto his face, seemingly despite his control, because it was twitching as if he didn't want to let it out. "No, but Benji has access to IMF's and thus to Brandt's records. And the files Brandt keeps on our servers."

Benji let out a long ooohhh of comprehension. "If he's the liaison for SHIELD, he's got access to their servers in a limited fashion. That information has to be in his files somewhere. Not his password, obviously, but-"

And Jane was suddenly there with them. "-there has to be a way for IMF to interface with SHIELD's servers, so Will doesn't have to go to them everytime something needs done. Especially since that's how the director had to get confirmation of life for Ethan. Will would have recorded contact information, web addresses, emails…"

"Exactly," Ethan confirmed. Dark eyes glanced over at Benji, eyebrows raised. "How long do you think you need, Benji?"

Jane didn't need to see her team mate's face to be aware of the feral grin that would be spreading on it.

"I'll have us an in by the time we reach Idaho. Just don't crash."

While Jane and Ethan turned their attention to ironing out their strategy once they reached New York – and Benji would be glad if they could hop a flight somewhere in here, two days or more in a car this size was going to get cramped fast – Benji settled into the back seat again, zeroing his attention to his laptop.

Accessing Will's files without drawing attention to himself wasn't exactly hard, but it did take a bit of finagling, and while Benji waited for his program to run its course, he had time to think over what Ethan had told Jane and him as they set out from Seattle.

"Like I told you two back at Benji's place, the IMF does not want us looking into Brandt's missions outside of this team. Most of my conversation with the director revolved around that." Ethan's hands clenched on the steering wheel, and Jane and Benji exchanged worried looks. How bad had that meeting been? "I was reminded that Brandt is an agent for the IMF before he's a member of our team, and that I knew that when I picked him for our team."

"Shouldn't that mean they're just as curious about what he's doing in New York with a bow and arrows, though?" Benji asked, feeling his eyebrows climb towards his hairline. Ethan shook his head, still tense.

"Apparently not. I mentioned the footage out of New York, and got lectured about leaping to conclusions and trying to do an analyst's job."

Jane let out a low humming sound. "It almost sounds like they've got something against Will."

Ethan switched lanes without signaling, causing a scattering of honking horns that he ignored. Benji braced himself with one foot on the back of Ethan's seat and a hand on the ceiling, making sure his laptop didn't go sliding off the seat with the other.

"I don't think it's the entire IMF, just the brass." Ethan glanced over to Jane. "You mentioned the facility that he was helping set up is a crater now. I didn't know that until I reminded the director that Brandt should have been somewhere on this coast, setting up an IMF installation, not on the eastern, shooting aliens with archaic weaponry." Ethan's head cocked, the same way Benji was familiar with when his team leader stared at intel that didn't match up during missions. "I must have surprised him, because he blurted that it wasn't our installation, and 'thank God for that' before he realized what he said."

Benji didn't bother hiding the amusement in his voice. "And you refused to leave until he explained."

Ethan flashed a grin Benji's way in the rearview mirror. "I do have a reputation for being stubborn."

Benji was fairly certain Jane's cough hid the words and destructive but Ethan had chosen that moment to dart around another couple cars that weren't moving fast enough for him, so it was hard to hear over the honking.

"Anyway," Ethan continued, as blithely as if he hadn't just infuriated several of the other drivers on the highway. "I got him to confirm that Brandt was alive, but he wouldn't tell me why he was liaising with SHIELD. Whatever it is, that is the reason Brandt got pulled into this thing in New York."

Benji blinked his way back to the present as his computer blipped at him, indicating it was finished running the program. With a determined frown, he started opening files and copying what looked like it might be useful to his own hard drive. He could only stay under the radar for so long, even with his program. Someone would notice that their Chief Analyst's files were being hacked eventually, and take measures to stop it. Benji needed to be done before anyone thought to look.

Considering how pissed off Ethan had probably made the director, Benji didn't figure he had very much time to work with.

"I mean, who even knew the guy was that territorial about his plants?!" Benji exclaimed, waving his hands emphatically to emphasize his point. "I swear it's like Ethan has some sort of hidden talent for finding people's buttons and stomping all over them!"

Sitting next to him at the bar, Will snorted into his drink, eyes sparkling with laughter. "I don't think it's as hidden as all that, Benji."

"It's bloody annoying is what it is! If I'd had just two more minutes – two, Will! – I'd have had that code cracked and we'd have been in without any of the crazy shit we ended up having to pull!"

Will downed the last of his drink and shrugged with equanimity. "I've learned something since joining this team. You know what it is?"

Benji eyed his friend warily. This tone of voice in Will usually meant the snark was about to start flying and Benji wasn't entirely certain it would be aimed at someone other than him. He really wasn't in the mood to trade barbs with Will right now. "What?"

A small smirk tugged one corner of Will's mouth upwards. "When working with Ethan Hunt, the best plan is to assume all of your plans have half the time you estimate and none of the breathing room you hope for. Otherwise, you end up scrambling along behind him, trying not to trip and get left behind."

Snorting laughter erupted before Benji could contain it, and he and Will ended up leaning on each other as they laughed and laughed until the bartender came over to ask if they were all right.

"Half the time and none of the breathing room," Benji whispered to himself, a smile tugging at his mouth even as he worked, moving with the rocking motion of the speeding car as Ethan pushed the speed limit as much as he dared in this mountainous terrain. Jane's voice drifted into his ears, speaking of timelines and possibilities and approaches.

"-really be much easier to just work the lost relative angle, he's a cousin recently moved to New York, we lost contact, all that. Once we get that established, we can move on Stark-"

It wasn't as if Benji had assumed they would be avoiding Stark in this mess. The man was the only recognizable figure of the six who had battled the aliens. How they would get to the man without raising suspicions, though…

Will, I think you were onto something, there. Especially if Ethan and Stark end up in the same room with each other!

Benji couldn't help but laugh at the mental image, and Ethan's curious question from the front only made him laugh harder. This would be something to share with Will over drinks when this mess was over.

Because they would find their missing - not dead. Not unless they found the body - team mate; Benji was sure of it, because he and Ethan and Jane would make it so. After that first mission together, everything else had seemed like a milk run, and finding one person, even in the midst of the teeming chaos that would be New York?

It wouldn't faze Benji's team one little bit.