Shirley Bennett looked out of the office window of Shirley's sandwiches and sighed. Ordering the death of Abed was one of the hardest tasks she had done. But it was necessary. He had betrayed them and that was only punishable by death.

20 years ago she had been recruited by the C.I.A.15 years since she had taken control of the Orion team, a CIA black ops team, with Shirley's sandwiches as its front. Now she had a briefing with its top operative, Jeffrey 'Tiger' Winger. A knock on the door alerted her to his presence.

"You're late", she said. Just for once she wished he could be on time. "Have a brownie"

"ummm...maybe later"

"One brownie won't do much harm to you."

"Hey someone's got to keep the temple in shape!"

She just shook her head and decided to get on with the briefing.

"What happened?"

"He ran and tried to escape. I didn't let him. The end"

"Any clues on who turned Mr Nadir".

"Yep got the info off his laptop, but you're not gonna like it."

"Who?"

"The DGES, our wonderful French counterparts"

"Those pesky, cheating bastards. They know we are off limits"

"Yeh, but when has that stopped them before"

"Oh you can be sure I'm not gonna let this drop."

"Well we could always, accidentally drop a nuclear missile on their ass!"

"Tiger stop right there. We are NOT at war with France."

"Not officially"

Shirley stopped and took a deep breath. She looked at Jeff closely and saw a tiredness she had never seen before.

"Jeff I need you to take a break. You've been on mission after mission for the last 12 years. You can't expect to do this forever. "

"I'm fine boss."

She raised one eyebrow at him.

"No really. I just wanna enjoy the field, before some idiot promotes me and sticks me behind a desk."

Shirley winced at this. Though she wanted him to be safe, she also hated the thought of Jeff stuck behind a desk. He would be in a permanent foul mood. The man was not built for paperwork.

"I suppose I could find a new mission for you"

"Where to boss?" The corner of his mouth smirked up.

"Lord give me strength. Boy give me some time to find someone for you to piss off. They aren't exactly queuing up for you to ruin their day. We can discuss this at dinner tonight, at my place."

"Dinner? At your place?"

"You know it won't kill you to eat a home cooked meal for once. Now get out of here. I've got a million things to do and you mister; need to make sure your files are up to date."

At this Jeff nodded and left her office.

-

Shirley pulled the lasagna out of the oven and tutted. Jeff could never be on time for anything. He was completely infuriating, but she loved him all the same. She was somewhat shocked that this fake lawyer, with the world's most questionable morals, had not only become her most reliable operative, but also her closest friend. When she met him 12 years ago, she doubted that he would even last a full week.

The doorbell rang and Jordan ran to answer it.

"Hiya Uncle Jeff. Long time no see"

"What have I told you about calling me uncle?"

"Not too"

"Then let's start practicing it. Starting. Now. Where's your mother?"

"In the kitchen, waiting to put your head through a jukebox"

With that Jeff slipped Jordan the packs of red vines he had bought the Bennett boys (without their mother's knowledge) and walked to the kitchen.

"Sorry I'm late. I got kinda held up"

"Did you at least ask her name this time?" she responded, placing a plateful of lasagna on the table and pushing him down into a seat. "I can only pray for your soul so much, you kinda got to help me out"

"What's the point, it's not like I'm gonna see her again" he smirked.

"Why do you run every time a chance at something real comes your way?"

"Where's Andre?"

"He's taken Ben to his mothers. And don't try to change the subject. Why do you always run?"

"Do you not remember your wedding day and my nut up and die alone speech? Plus this job you gave me hardly lets me have a meaningful relationship with someone."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't spend the rest of my life lying to a woman about what I do. I can't tell her that I'm a lawyer for Shirley's Sandwiches, when really I'm a black ops operative who you call when you need someone dead"

"You know you could always leave"

His head shot up, eyes wide at what he had just heard.

"I'm worried about you Jeffrey. You're 36 years old and the most serious relationship you've had is with Slater and you ended that, by putting a bullet to the back of her head. Not saying she didn't deserve it, but it still wasn't right that you should've been the one to do that.

Jeff just shook his head at that reminder.

"You do your job, and then go home to your empty apartment, that ain't right boy"

"You kinda do the same job as me, and it doesn't affect you" he countered.

"I'm not in the field and I have Andre and the boys to come home to. Who do you have?"

Jeff put down his fork and took a deep breath, his mind working overtime to come up with a retort to that. The silence was broken by Shirley's mobile. She stepped in the hallway to answer it. She came back in with a small grin on her face.

"Looks like someone's chosen Tiger to ruin their day"

The corner of Jeff's mouth twitched up. Whilst privately she always called him Jeffrey, when she called him Tiger, it meant it was time to get down to business.