A/N: Sorry for the delay, guys! I've been really busy at work lately. Hope you're still interested though.

I don't own them.

Chapter 12

"What do we do now?" Jane asked, staring at her cup, still half-filled with the already cold coffee.

"Now we wait," she heard Brandt's voice, as the analyst entered the room. She noticed that he looked kind of shaken, as if something disturbed him more than them. Had Benji told him something upsetting?...

"How is he?" Ethan asked Brandt, as if reading Jane's thoughts. The analyst shrugged.

"He's fine, I'm sure he is. I bet he's thinking of some version of 'I'm not dead yet, you bastards!' to send to Lovett and whoever is there with him," he chuckled. Noticing that the other two didn't quite buy it, he sighed as his features dropped. "He hates this idea but he agreed to go along with it. It's hard for him but let's not treat him like someone badly disadvantaged. Pity won't help him".

Ethan nodded, noticing Jane do the same by his side. It was kind of interesting to see how the events had affected not only Benji but all of them. The Brandt he had known before was unlikely to go into such insightful rants. He was growing more mature, and that was a good thing. He only wished it had happened under different circumstances…

The rest of the day was quiet. Everyone was too anxious to even start one of their infamous fights. They barely talked at all. They hated waiting. And at the moment they had no idea what to even get prepared to.

Benji was visibly the most agitated, his hands shaking slightly as he kept pacing the room for almost the whole day. Whenever someone got a glimpse of his eyes, he turned his head away, but it couldn't always stop his friends from seeing the mixed emotions of anger and some slight fear in his face. They didn't say anything even on that. The time for encouragement was over. Now they couldn't allow themselves to back down.

It was about 10 PM when things went from deadly quiet to unnaturally, feverishly loud and lively. Benji's phone rang, making everyone in the room jump. It took the former technician a few seconds of looking something up on the screen of his laptop before he sighed in relief and picked up the phone, switching it on loud speaker.

"Hello?"

"Benji?" it was Luther. And he didn't sound very pleased. "Just what the hell is going on? I saw you dead, you mad English bastard! Maybe I shouldn't be yelling at you, you're crazy anyway, but what the hell was Brandt thinking?!"

Benji rolled his eyes. He thinks I'm insane, right, I forgot.

"So there are two madmen there? He's there with you, isn't he?"

It was Ethan's turn to roll his eyes this time.

"Luther, we'll explain everything later, now you just go along with it," he said, leaning closer to the phone.

"Ethan?! You, too? What the fu-?"

"Jane is also here if you're wondering," Brandt finally spoke up, as if in some childish act of self-defence.

"Of course she is," Luther's voice was now full of sarcasm, simply because he didn't know how else to react. "Hard to imagine you clowns not all being there when something happens".

"Spare the greetings, Luther, are you sure our line is secure?" Ethan intruded again.

"It's too late to ask about it anyway, not after you introduced everyone present here," Benji didn't hide his annoyance at the team leader. He would be angry even in his good times, yelling at Ethan was not an unusual thing for him, but now he was simply furious. It only began to dawn on Ethan and Jane now. They could have been their secret weapon, because Lovett might have not known they were there. Now they only had to hope.

"Luther," Benji focused on the phone now. "Have you heard anything from Lovett in the past few hours?"

"What? No, I…"

"Can you track his whereabouts?"

"Why do you even need this?" the older man was reluctant to trust the apparently miraculously surviving Brit. "How are you-?"

Ethan noticed Benji's hands clench into fists. This was not the time to discuss the disavowed agent's mental health. They simply had no time to waste. Clearly, this fact was too clear to the former technician who was making enormous efforts to stay calm.

"Just answer my questions," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Do as he says," Ethan added in a calmer tone. He only heard his friend let out an exasperated sigh and the sound of typing on the other side of the line.

"But you owe me an explanation, the lot of you," the muttered. "Oh…"

"What?" Brandt didn't like that "oh" one bit.

"He… he's in Italy. I don't understand. It wasn't in his plans, we were supposed to have a meeting today…"

"Damn it…" Benji whispered under his breath. He knew it was to be expected but it seemed too soon. He didn't feel ready for it. Feeling Jane's glare on him, he tried to recompose himself. Even though she had been quiet during the entire conversation, her expressions alone spoke volumes. And now she looked concerned. And he wasn't even sure he could dismiss her concerns.

"Will anyone explain to me what's going on?" Luther broke the short but awkward silence.

"We'll tell you when we see you," Ethan replied, finding those words familiar all of a sudden. He must have already said that before… Years ago. Maybe in some previous life.

Another telephone rang, and the Englishman's hands were shaking violently as he was trying to answer the call. It was Guido. They were there.