Title: A Case of Deja-vu

Chapter title: Borderline

Summary: Brandt's worst nightmare comes to life as he is forced to relive his demons when a kidnapping turns into a protection detail … and this time he is determined not to fail, no matter the cost.

Author's note: Now, here comes the action. And a lot of it! I have tried the best I could to write it as good and well-described as possible, but it isn't really my forte if you know what I mean. But (!) I've done the best I could, so please don't hate me if it's bad … Just tell me where I went wrong and I will fix it! :D

Thank you to SPN4eva556 for reviewing, and TheMostRandomOfRandomWriters and bindsy for following and bindsy and kira2127 for adding to their favorites (:

Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, the world is not mine … Jeremy Renner is not mine. I'm saaad :'(

"Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it."

Though he looked calm on the outside, Brandt was anything but on the inside.

In the dark corners of his mind he was screaming as loud as he could and cursing every single being on the planet. He yelled at whatever higher power was up there for the unfairness. He was convinced he was being punished for making the stupid decision of coming back to finish the mission. This was an act of God and he was currently laughing his ass off at Brandt's expense. It seemed like no matter how hard Brandt tried to redeem himself for his past mistakes, something would always come up that would knock him down. Maybe he wasn't just cut out for field work like he thought he was. Maybe he shouldn't have picked up Ethan's offered phone and just stayed an analyst. That part of his job he hadn't messed up yet. But he knew that even if he could, he wouldn't leave. He couldn't … not now. He promised Claire he would get her home to her father and that was what he was going to do.

But right now, getting out seemed highly unlikely. The entire safe house was surrounded by Giovianni's men, all of whom they could see were carrying either a gun or automatic rifle. Giovianni himself was still standing in front of his car, looking as smug as ever. He cleared his throat loudly a single time.

"Bring out the girl and we will let you live!" the Italian mobster shouted loud enough for the IMF team to hear, including Claire. She huddled closer to Brandt who in return hugged her tighter, hoping to assure her that things were going to be alright.

"Then come in and get her!" Ethan challenged back, seemingly unfazed.

Benji walked into the living room, carrying a walkie-talkie in one of his hands. "I manage to secure the back door. If anyone tries to break through, they're in for quite a surprise. But that also means we can't use that exit anymore, even if we manage to clear it."

"That's all good, but how are we going to get out?" Jane inquired.

"We sneak out," Brandt calmly stated.

"And how do you suggest we do that? They have the whole area surrounded!"

"It's actually a good idea," Ethan said, suddenly with a knowing smile on his face. It usually meant he had a plan or that he was about to do something stupid. Normally the two of them intertwined with one another.

"Ethan, whatever you're thinking … Stop thinking it," Benji warned but Hunt would have none of it as he continued to smile.

"Hear me out. We are never going to get out if we try to sneak away at the same time. But if we move out one by one, we should be able to get out."

"If we provide enough firepower by the front door and use different exits, we should be able to get out. We'd have to take care of any surprises at the perimeters if Giovianni in fact has the whole place surrounded though," Brandt supplied, starting to analyze the situation.

"I give you one last chance! Hand over the girl or face my wrath!" Giovianni's voice boomed outside.

"I've told you to come get her!" Ethan answered back. By now, everyone checked their guns, made sure they had enough ammo and gadgets in their belts and pockets.

"Very well," Giovianni muttered and walked back to stand behind the black vehicle. He turned to his men beside him. "Light them up. If you can retrieve the girl, good. If not, leave no one alive."

The men nodded at the order and then raised their weapons. As soon as the first bullet left the chamber, a whole rain of them followed. They propelled through windows and lodged themselves inside the cement walls of the large safe house.

Ethan and Benji were at the front door, the bottom of it open so they could return fire with their automatic weapons. Jane was covering the right side window while Brandt was covering the left, with Claire clinging to his leg for safety.

The bullets continued to rain upon them without breaks but so far none of them hit any targets besides the grey walls.

"Brandt!" Ethan yelled over the noise of firing guns. "We have to get Claire out of here. We'll create a diversion and then you take her to the bedroom window and escape around back. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged!" Brandt shouted back. Then he turned his attention to the girl at his feet. "Remember what I said about being brave?" She nodded. "This is now."

He ushered her towards the bedroom while he checked all of his gear to make sure he wouldn't miss anything. He squatted down as he entered and made Claire do the same. Then they made their way to the window where Brandt stuck his head up so he could see what he was dealing with. Outside stood five black clad men, all carrying weapons but only two of them were firing.

Brandt took the opportunity to unsecure the window. When he opened it, he first threw a smoke bomb on the ground in the middle of them. As it ignited and a thick cloud of white smoke started to spread, causing the men to cough, Brandt pulled his gun and fired on the last location he had seen the armed men before the bomb. As the smoke drifted away and cleared all five Italians was on the ground.

"I have passage line cleared," Brandt said into the communicator in his ear.

"Copy that," Ethan's voice ringed in his ear. "Await my mark."

They didn't have to wait long. A loud boom echoed in the streets and several shouts, Italian if Brandt had to guess, followed shortly. A few seconds later he spotted a small group of mobsters running past the window to the front side of the house. When they rounded the corner, the analyst grabbed Claire and jumped out.

They landed with a soft, almost inaudible thump and when Brandt had made sure the coast was clear, he started moving towards the back end of the house with his firearm aimed in front of him. By the building corner he stopped and peaked around. There he saw at least ten men guarding the back. None of them was shooting or on high-alert, but there was no talking either and all of them had one hand secured on their rifles.

Brandt knew he couldn't try to sneak around them nor could he just go in there shooting. There were too many blind spots and even now he counted on his back being covered, though it probably wasn't. Besides, he had to save his ammunition if he had to use it later. So he decided to take out as many as possible without firing a single shot, as ambitious as it was.

"Stay here until I call for you, alright? You only move if someone is coming around the corner that isn't one of us. Understand?" he gently said to Claire. When she nodded and he was sure she completely understood, he rounded the corner and sneaked forward. Trying to be as still as possible, he crept up behind the first man, who was stupid enough to turn his back on him. He easily snapped his neck. Then he quickly moved towards the next one.

Jane was the next one to move out. She moved up a flight of stairs that led to the roof where she carefully opened the door an inch. She kept her gun aimed in front of her body while she continued to open the door more and more. Then she relaxed slight when she saw that the roof was completely clear.

It had been half an hour since Brandt had moved out and the plan had been for him to take out most of the men out back, so Jane could have her back clear without having to worry about fire coming from all directions. But she hadn't heard from him yet, so she crouched and kept low when she moved away from the door opening. A few stray bullets ricocheted around and the sound of firing guns was almost as deafening as inside the safe house. Circling the roof and slowly headed towards the back, she tapped the comm. in her ear.

"Brandt, how is that cover progressing?"

Before he replied she heard a single shot echo over his line. "It's moving forward. But a little help would be appreciated."

Jane was still hunched over when she neared the end of the roof. Slowly she peaked over and saw Brandt shooting at two Italians in the alley, holding up a limp man for cover. The dead Italian was clearly a burden to the analyst and just as he hit one of the shooting men, his cover slit out of his grasp and landed heavily on the ground. Jane didn't think, but quickly raised her weapon and fired two rounds. One of them grazed the man on the leg, while the other bore through his neck and he collapsed on the asphalt, dead.

Brandt looked up and when he saw Jane standing two stories up, he nodded his thanks. Then his voice, a mixture of breathlessness and humor, came through the comm. unit. "The cover is clear."

Jane shook her head and rolled her eyes at his response. "Thank you," she replied sarcastically.

"You're quite welcome," he shot back. Then his voice turned serious again. "I'm taking Claire out of the line of fire and rendezvous with you when she is safe."

"Copy that," Jane said and moved away from the edge and into the, for the time being, safety of the middle of the roof. She still stayed low so she wouldn't give away her position too early. In the best case scenario, she wouldn't even need to, but best case scenarios never seem to follow their team, so she used the time to checking her weapons and making sure everything worked properly.

A few minutes passed in silence and then the comm. cradled to life. "Jane, we are going to need a distraction," Ethan's voice said. "We have no clear line of passage."

"One distraction coming up," Jane answered. She braced herself shortly and cocked the safety off of her two guns. Then she stood up fully and started firing wildly. She wasn't aiming at anything specific; she just let her bullets fly in every direction and made sure they knew where they were coming from. It got their attention. One mobster stopped firing and yelled and started to point towards her position on the roof. All of the Italians moved their barrels away from the front door and to the top of the roof where the new threat was standing.

The small break allowed Ethan to burst through the front door. By the time the mobsters turned their attention back to the front door, the team leader had already ran to the right to a new hiding place; a large dumpster. That only left Benji. Both Ethan and Jane started firing blindly, giving Benji the same opportunity Ethan had moments before. When he exited he ran in the opposite direction Ethan had, hiding behind a parked car by the sidewalk.

On the roof, Jane started to run. She had provided the cover, now she needed to get down. As every mobster now knew her position she needed to leave before they managed to surround the building which would block every escape route she had to get on street level again. But with bullets raining down on her trail every few seconds, it would prove tricky. But she wouldn't give up. It wasn't in her nature and it wasn't in any of her team's nature.

She ran and jumped until she found a free fire escape. She grabbed a hold of the railing and slid down from it, jumping the last few feet to the ground where she landed gracefully. Only when she looked up did she notice the three Italians in the small alley.

They stared at her dumfounded, surprised that a woman clad in black suddenly had appeared before them. She looked at them in shock too but she recovered quicker than they did and she managed to shoot one of them in the chest before the rest sprung into action.

Jane shot one of them in the head before a small pain cut across her left arm. Disregarding it, she aimed and fired two times, both hitting the shooter in the chest. He collapsed to the ground next to the two others and the alley fell silent again.

Jane then examined her arm and to her relief saw that the bullet had only grazed the limb. It made a thin cut where a small prickle of blood was oozing down her arm towards her hand. She looked around to make sure the coast was clear and then pressed the comm. unit in her ear. She received nothing but static.

"Ethan?" she tried, hoping the static would only be in her end. But silence only followed, occasionally broken by the scatter of the static. "Benji? Brandt? Does anybody copy?"

No replies came.

"Dammit!" she cursed to herself.

Then an uneasy feeling settled over Jane as realization cut in. None of them seemed to have a clear line of communication between them. And that meant, until they assembled, they were on their own with no way of speaking to each other.

In a situation where there could be Italian mobsters lurking around every corner, it was not good.

This wasn't good at all.

After Brandt had made sure the alley behind the safe house was clear for Jane, he escorted Claire through it. He made sure she wouldn't see the dead men lying in there by making her close her eyes and guiding her through. She had seen enough already. Her innocent eyes didn't need the extra load.

But as both had continued walking in the alleys and small passageways, it became clear that finding a way out would prove difficult. And locating a new safe house for Claire was even more so. The amount of Italians they encountered seemed to double every time they came across some and hiding places were running out. That was until Brandt spotted an isolated warehouse a mile away. Even from a distance it looked worn down and for the analyst that meant it was most likely to be vacant. There was only one problem and that was that the warehouse was located out on the open. Getting out there could mean getting spotted and there would be no hiding and cover places until they reached that building. But there weren't any better options that Brandt could see and he took refuge in the fact that the gunfire he could hear wasn't near their position.

Therefore, knowing they had only borrowed time, he scooped Claire up in his arms and started to sprint towards the lonely building. Once they would be there and it proved safe, he would contact Ethan and they could regroup from there.

He ran, unaware of the pair of eyes that followed him and the smile that broke out on the watcher's face when Brandt entered the warehouse.

TBC

Until next time ... Review, please! :)