Chapter Three

Two words echoed through Nikita's mind. MY TURN, spoken in Owen's hauntingly insane voice. Everyone was gathered in Operations, silently wondering what those two words meant.

"There's something we're missing here, I can feel it," Ryan thought aloud, pacing back and forth. "There's a piece of this puzzle, that we haven't found."

"All we know is that Amanda is back on the radar, Owen is insane and the words "My turn". Something tells me that we're missing a lot of puzzle pieces," Nikita quipped back.

"Michael, do you have any idea what that could mean?" Ryan asked.

"No idea. I mean, we don't even know if that means anything at all. Owen is kind of insane," Michael replied, a strange look in his eyes.

"Don't talk about him like that," Alex protested. "He was a part of our team too."

"He knows, it's just been a rough day for all of us," Nikita explained, and Michael smiled at her gratefully.

"I know, I'm sorry," Ryan sighed. "One day you're in paradise, the next day you're in hell."

"Don't be sorry, this is our fight. Michael and I are here for different reasons, but we both of us have a place in this war," Nikita replied passionately.

"We all belong here. We all need to be here, fighting the good fight," Alex agreed softly.

"I know. Why don't we all go home for the night? We'll figure things out in the morning," Ryan suggested, and murmurs of agreement echoed through the room. "Alright, so I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow."

"There had better be coffee," Sean muttered to Alex.

XXX

Michael curiously entered his apartment. He had used it back when he was Percy's golden boy, but it was more than big enough for two. It didn't have a white picket fence, but it was home-y enough for the couple. Nikita had made her own personal adjustments, and every room now contained at least three photos. His personal favourite was a picture Birkhoff had snapped of the two of them watching the sunrise in front of the beach house. They looked so happy and carefree with their arms wrapped around each other and smiles plastered on their faces. Michael smiled at the memory.

"Nikita? Are you here?" Michael called out. She had gone straight home from Division, sending Michael to go out and get groceries. He was worried about her, but had known better than to argue with her.

"Yeah, in here," Nikita replied from the bedroom.

"Do you want dinner?" Michael asked, walking in.

"I'm not hungry," Nikita sat on the bed, arms folded over her chest, sighing.

"Nikita, what's wrong?" Michael immediatetly joined Nikita on the bed, his tone softening.

"It's nothing, I'm just not hungry," Nikita rolled on her side, avoiding Michael's gaze.

"I'm not stupid. You've been acting different ever since we came here. I've been giving you space, but you need to tell me what's wrong. We can deal with it together," Michael pleaded.

"Fine," Nikita consented, running her fingers through her hair. "It's just hard being back. I mean, in Barbados; everything was perfect. It was just us, together and happy, with no danger of being shot at, or constant looking over our shoulders. I miss it."

"Hey, look at me," Michael gently pulled her over so they were eye to eye. "That is not nothing. I miss it too. Someday, when everything is settled down, we can go back to that, forever. But for now, we owe it to Owen to be here."

"I know," Nikita admitted. "I'm just scared. When I started this, I didn't have anything to lose. Now, I have everything."

"You're never going to lose me. We're together and we always will be," Michael reassured gently, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"But I've come so close to losing you so many times! With Ramon, or Cassandra, or Brandt, you almost died! You know more than anyone what losing your family feels like. You lost Elizabeth and Haley, I lost Daniel. I can't go through that again, I just can't," Nikita exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes. Michael simply wrapped her up in his embrace, his arms firmly around her.

"I promise you Nikita, you won't go through that ever again, and neither will I. It's going to be you and me, for the rest of our lives. We're not just partners anymore, and I'm not your boy-toy either. You're my everything, and it would take a lot more than a rogue psychologist to take you away from me. Got it?" Michael announced passionately, Nikita needed to understand how much he truly loved her.

"Got it," Nikita agreed. "Amanda just makes me a little insane, you know? Percy scared me, but at least I could hide myself from him. Amanda knows me, she knows all my darkest secrets, my fears, everything I've kept hidden, and that terrifies me."

"You won't have to face her alone. You have me, Alex, Birkhoff, Sean, Ryan, and even Sonya all behind you," Michael reminded her.

"I know, and thank you," Nikita leaned in and slowly placed a kiss on Michael's lips, their open mouths moving together perfectly.

"I'll always be there for you," Michael promised.

XXX

Nikita woke to the sound of a distant ringing. After Michael had soothed her fears, they had made love and drifted to sleep. It had been a peaceful sleep with lovely dreams, making her feel much more light-hearted and she was very annoyed to have it interrupted. Groaning, Nikita realized that it was one of her old burner phones, and that she was going to have to answer it. She envied Michael and his ability to sleep through anything.

"Hello?" Nikita answered the phone groggily as she walked into the living room.

"Hi Nikita, it's Jill. How are you?" The reporter's voice drew Nikita out of her half asleep state.

"I would be better if you had called in the morning," Nikita complained jokingly.

"Yeah, I thought about that, but I figured you'd be up doing secret agent stuff anyway, so I called," Jill rambled for a bit.

"So I guess you got a new phone," Nikita teased.

"Well it's been over a year, I figured I needed some way of communicating with people,"

"Fair enough, so I assume this isn't a social call,"

"Well, actually it isn't. A girl named Sara contacted me, hoping to make contact with you," Jill explained. "Apparently, she heard about Division reforming and wants to be a part of it. Of course, I wouldn't know what she was talking about since you refused to tell me anything."

"Oh shut up, I know you've done your research,"

"The attack on those Senator's, the President's weird bahavior and Madeleine Pierce's suspicious death, care to comment?"

"I'm not giving you an exclusive," Nikita smiled. "So when did Sarah want to meet?"

"Actually, tonight, as soon as possible. I'll text you the address," Jill replied.

"Thanks so much. It was really good to talk to you," Nikita said sincerely, she really did like Jill.

"Back atcha, we should do lunch sometime,"

"Bye Jill," Nikita hung up the phone, and hurried to get dressed. She contemplated waking up Michael, but he looked so peaceful in his dreamworld. Instead, she kissed his cheek and scribbled a note on some paper, promising to be back soon. She received Jill's text and left the apartment, with an extra skip in her step, looking forward to seeing the young ex-recruit. Nikita drove for about an hour in the pitch black night before getting to the remote looking motel Sara wanted to meet at. Nikita rolled her eyes about how predictable Division meeting spots always were. Scanning the area for Sara, Nikita tucked her knife into her boot and her gun into her waistband. She could never be too careful.

"Sara?" Nikita called out, she wasn't expecting much danger at this meeting, other than an unpredictable youth. As the shot rang out and the dart collided with her shoulder, Nikita's final thought was of how badly she misjudged the situation.

XXX

Michael worriedly paced back and forth through Operations. He had woken up alone, and the day had only gotten worse. Nikita's noted had claimed she would be back by morning. It was now noon, and Michael was concerned. After promising that they would never lose each other, it felt like a betrayal to himself to let Nikita out of his sight. He inwardly cursed his heavy sleeping habit. Michael jumped when his phone beeped, ruining his train of thought. He was relieved to see that the text was from Nikita.

To: Michael

From: Nikita

Payback is a bitch.

Michael's heart stopped. Only one person would have sent that text, the one person who wanted him dead more than anyone else. It wasn't just Nikita's secrets she knew. Turning to his friends, Michael put on a brave face.

"Amanda has captured Nikita," Michael announced, trying to keep his voice straight and ignoring the heartbroken looks from Alex, Ryan and Birkhoff.

Sorry for the cliffhanger... Who am I kidding? No I'm not.

So I'm hoping to finish this story as soon as possible, but I'm kind of going away to camp for five weeks soon... Where I won't have a computer. I'll try to update a ton before then.

Anyways, reviews are always the icing on my imaginary internet cake.