A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short! Hope you enjoy it anyway, if anyone is still reading.

I don't own them.

Chapter 16

The news Jane, Brandt and Ethan had just heard was like a punch to the gut. One failure after another. It was a miracle they were still alive. On the other hand, it had kind of always been like that.

For Jane it was especially difficult to process the information. Her concussed brain was somehow convinced that she didn't need to know all that and fancied a good sleep. However, years of training and working experience had given her some level of control over her mind. So Benji was alive. That much had been established about half an hour ago, but Jane preferred to remind herself about the fact once again. Moving on.. apparently, it was he who had saved her from Lovett. By nearly strangling him with his bare hands. Jane glanced over to Benji who was still sitting on his chair by her side. He looked tired, beaten and somewhat older than she remembered him. However it was still him. The person she had known to be cheerful, smiling and sometimes babbling or bickering with Ethan. And now… she never knew he was capable of that.

"Capable of what?" he suddenly asked, making her jump and look down awkwardly. She didn't realise she had said that out loud.

"Strangling someone," she replied timidly. She knew Benji could and had killed when he had to. But strangling required more… rage than she thought he could contain. It made her feel a bit weird. As if he wasn't the person she thought she knew.

"I hadn't known about it myself," he replied with a little sigh and shrugged. "Besides, I didn't quite strangle him, did I?" Jane thought she heard some regret in his tone, which made her feel even more uncomfortable. There was a short silence, accompanied only by distant sounds of Ethan and Brandt talking in the next room. "I never knew you were capable of throwing people out of windows," Benji added with a small chuckle.

"That was a special occasion," Jane retorted and felt some odd relief when she saw a familiar smile making its way towards the surface of her friend's face. Even though the end result didn't look quite like she wanted it to, it still gave her hope. Benji was still there and there was still a possibility for him to come back. And then another thought crossed her mind: they were laughing at such incredibly morbid things. This job had really messed them up, whether they wanted it or not. They were incapable to lead a normal life in a normal society, with normal people with their normal every day worries surrounding them. All they had left was a small circle of equally messed up agents. There was no way back.

"Thank you," Jane said after another awkward silence, her tone much more serious this time. Benji just waved his hand.

"What happened, happened, right?" he replied softly, offering her another smile.

Suddenly, a noise from Lovett's corner made the Englishman's features harden again. In a blink of an eye Benji was on his feet and out of Jane's view.

"Where do you think you are going?" she heard the former technician growl. There was a silence which ended when two sets of footsteps sounded from the other room.

"Okay Benji, go take a seat," the team leader's voice was authoritative and demanding. "We'll talk to him".

"Why can't I talk to him?" Why are you asking this, Benji, you know the answer…

"Just do as I say, Benji," Ethan tried to soften his voice, making his order sound more like a plea.

"Do you think I'll flip out?"

"Yes," Brandt hadn't intended it to sound as harsh as it did but they had no time. Besides, Benji had to understand…

Jane kept listening lazily, her brain urging her to sleep more than ever before. She waited for Benji's reply to Brandt, yet it never came. The last thing she remembered before passing out was the former technician sitting down on his chair, looking right in front of him, not paying attention to anything that was happening around him anymore.