Living Room at Castaways, New York State

1112Hrs Sunday 20th February 2005

Lavender, Trixie rolled her eyes inwardly while looking down at the spaghetti strap dress she wore toped by deep purple Bolero Jacket made from heavy velvet. This is a typical Honey-Girl design. I should have guessed Madeline G Wheeler would choose lavender for Di's bridal attendants; after all it's the brides' favourite colour. Thinking about signature colours, Trixie's mind wondered. Mine would have to be midnight blue, Honey's emerald green, Jo fire engine red, Linnie soft girly pink and Sally, what colour would Sally be? Orange perhaps? Boy, I can't wait for that wedding! Dressed up in burnt orange!

'Doesn't she make a beautiful bride?' Mrs Lynch's stage whisper could be heard the entire length of the crowded living room. There was a murmur of consent, as her sobs of joy heralded the first appearance of her daughter on the circular stairs. Like her attendants, Diana's dress had been fashioned from the same pattern and materials in antique white and embroidered gold thread.

Honey must have spent hours on Di's gown alone, Trixie admired the delicacy of the work.

'Beautiful,' Nick sighed, his eyes tracking his bride on her journey towards the "alter".

She does look beautiful, Trixie's baby blues became misted over at the first sighting of Diana, as will all the other Bob White brides when their turn comes later this year. Once there were seven of us, soon they'll be six couples, Jim and I.

Although she wouldn't say so, Trixie delightedly learnt she'd soon have Sally as her future sister-in-law. The argument over her choice of career and relationship with Jim, finally lead Brian to realise the depth of his feelings. They'd continued there silent argument over a breakfast of pancakes and coffee yesterday morning. When the minister turned up for the rehearsal, when he read the vows Nick and Di wrote for each other, everyone had seen the penny drop in Brian's warm brown eyes. By dinner time they announced their engagement.

I just wonder, Trixie silently pondered, will it ever happen for me. Will I ever find a way…

'Tears, Trix,' Honey whispered softly in her friends ear, handing Trixie a clean white handkerchief with the initials JWF II embroidered in one corner. She held onto the trinket all weekend, hoping they'd been a time or opportunity to give it to her friend.

'Will you ever miss an opening, Hon,' Trixie shot back, gratefully accepting the offered favour and quickly wiping her eyes. Attempting to give it back, Honey steadfastly refused to take it.

'Not until I see this "thing" of your's through to its conclusion,' she stated determinedly, 'you know I spoke to Jim yesterday and he…'

'It may not be the fairy tail ending you or Jim want,' Trixie cautioned, cutting her friend off. 'Life doesn't always go the way we want or expect it to.'

'You think,' Honey shot a sly grin and accompanying look at Trixie. 'I started designing wedding dressed because I was convinced I would be Mrs. Dr. Brian Belden some day. At the end of September, I'll be Mrs. Peter Kimball. Yet I still have Honey-Girl Designs to show for my youthful folly.'

'The moral is…' Trix prompted, rolling her eyes.

'Maybe life doesn't go the way we planed, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't grab a little happiness for yourself along the way. If you still feel the same way my brother does, then do something about it. You're here, Jim's here, your going to be spending a week together in England pretending to be husband and wife, your both over the age of eighteen and it won't be the first time you've been intimate,' glaring at her friend, Honey shook her head. Continuing in a whisper as Di stood only three steps away, she stated, 'how many clues do you need Trixie Belden, when fate and destiny are throwing you this many hints.'

'Maybe its not destiny or fate, Honey,' Trixie teased lightly, 'maybe it's just your over active imagination.'

'Or maybe it's the only mystery I've ever known you to ignore,' Honey quipped a moment before Diana took Nicks outstretched hand and the JP began the wedding service.

Living Room at Castaways, New York State

1236Hrs Sunday 20th February 2005

'Yes,' a wide smile couldn't be kept from Mrs Nicholas Robert's face, 'the baby's due in early October. We found the most perfect house in Long Island County last Wednesday.'

'And we couldn't stop Michael Lynch from purchasing it for us,' Nick told Peter and Helen Belden, as well as his parents, who had already heard this story several times.

'In the guise of a Wedding present, I'll bet,' Peter Belden smiled indulgently at the happy couple before turning his brown gaze on his only daughter. Something very different in her demeanour puzzled the elder Belden almost to distraction. She seemed alert and ready for the world to fall off its axis, yet happier than he'd seen her in years.

Absorbed in conversation, the hair on the back of Trixie's neck suddenly stood up. Glancing at her parents, she knew they'd become suspicious. The look her father aimed at her mother said "she's found a mystery". A slight nod and Mom's silently agreed.

My intuition is telling me something's not right, Trixie thought, turning to see a dark haired waiter silently approached the group. He attempted to take the plate out of Trixie's grasp. Holding onto it forced him to whisper in her ear, 'excuse me madam, I believe there is a situation in the kitchen which requires your immediate attention.'

Rasing an eyebrow, Trixie searched the crowded living room for the other Bob Whites. Both Jim and Honey were missing. On the alert, Trixie excused herself hurriedly, earning a suspicious glare from her Mother. As she followed the waiter through the dinning room, Trixie continued to scan the wedding guests. So far she hadn't noticed any other uninvited "guests" or "hired help". However she did spot Honey chatting to one of the caterers.

Where's Jim? Trixie's mind screamed, wondering at his sudden disappearance. Attempting to communicate her disquiet to Honey, Trixie's best friend merely smiled politely, without actually seeing Trixie scurry past.

'How did you find me and why are you here?' Trixie suddenly demanded, looking sideways at the man and reaching for the gun strapped to her leg. Allowing the split in her dress to expose the top of her thigh, informed him of the concealed weapon.

'Don't go to London, Belden,' the waiter warned in a menacing undertone. 'She's there and knows your coming with the infectious package. You place both your lives at risk by following this path.'

'How safe will either of us be if we stay state side?' she returned with a hiss, opening the door to her shared room and pushing the waiter ahead of her. 'How long do you think it would be until you wound up with another two statistics?' Trixie asked rhetorically, ensuring no one had seen them before she closed the door. 'I have no choice. It ends when I find her and her accomplice's in London.'

'Why are you so sure there are accomplice's?' he asked, the smallest note of surprise entering his voice. 'I've been scouring internal for two years and can't find any evidence that she's corrupted any of our agents. Or that she's involved with the Russian mafia as she stated when Jake took her on as a source.'

'What about Jake?' Trixie enquired, attempting to keep her composure. In the last forty or so hours Beatrix Belden came to the conclusion that Jake Hanky and Tim O'Hara were not involved. She couldn't be so sure about Johansson but had an idea to test his loyalty. Maybe, Trixie considered, I can use this situation to prove Johansson's allegiance. But, I still don't know were Jim is, Trixie fretted while keeping her attention focused on the man at her side. 'Have you had Jake thoroughly investigated?'

'Twice, and Johansson is now aware of it,' he quipped sarcastically, taking the time to scan the room. Tim's expression didn't change at the evidence of Jim's occupation in the suite. 'My tampering within the system's been detected. Two days ago, an anonyms source inside internal squirted a data packet to Johansson with proof of my investigation into Hanky and you. He's temporally shut down all access.'

'You had me investigated,' Trixie tried to sound astounded. She didn't quite succeed.

'I had to make it look authentic if I'd been discovered,' Tim shrugged his broad shoulders. It formed the only explanation Trixie would ever get yet left her feeling Tim's interference in her personal files meant more than he alluded too. 'You have been well and truly set up.'

'You have proof?' she asked carefully, watching for any clue in his body language.

'That you've been set up,' his eyebrows rose slightly, 'yes. Of who set you up, they were one step ahead of me. My access has been completely removed now Johansson is aware someone's playing in his backyard without permission.'

'Tim,' Trixie looked up at him curiously and asked, 'why did your really come after me?'

'I told you before, Belden, I think your life is worth it,' Tim grinned, displaying his sly amusement of the situation.

'Do you know how jaded that sounds,' Trixie berated.

'Takes one to know one, Belden,' he replied.

Sighing, Trixie returned her attention to their earlier conversation. 'Johansson has always known I'm the one who squirted that information packet to him on Friday night. We set it up months ago as a signal, in case you got to close to the truth. I'm the person you've been looking for. I set myself up, altering my personnel files to make it look like I'm a bungling, naive agent who could easily be coheres over to the other side. I did it so Sabina would take the bait and attempt to recruit me. I needed to be on the inside of her operation if we're to have any chance of catching her.'

'You've had me fooled for the last two years,' Tim said bitterly, realising his judgement, time and effort hadn't been wasted on this young woman induction and education. He also realised she'd become more adept at this game than he thought possible. Tim wasn't sure he liked the idea. 'What I can't understand why you didn't succeed in infiltrating Sabina's operation.'

'I didn't succeed for the same reason she tried to have me eliminated last Christmas,' Trixie shook her head, 'because my cover was blown well before any of us realised.'

'Jim,' astounded, Tim looked at Trixie with horror.

'I know you tried to help me, telling Jim to get his but down to DC when you realised I was pregnant before I did. Then persuading Jim I'd be better off without the complications he'd add to my life after what happened.' Closing her eyes for a moment to feel the pain wash over her, Trixie continued in a hoarse voice, 'when Sabina managed to extract information from Jim after he got rolling drunk, she put it all together. I assume she realised I'd been planted to look like the bungling, inexperienced contact she could use to her own purpose. That my interface with the CIA was actually a professional op designed to draw her mole out of hiding. In the mean time it also explained my interest in her relationship with Jim, my association with Josh and Jake. Every time I attempted to show any interest in her international money making scheme, Sabina tightened the noose without quite hanging me out to dry. She's been playing with us for the last two years, until she became board and decided to have me eliminated.'

'She failed,' Tim stated emphatically but wondered how many of those nine cats' lives Belden had left.

'You can attribute that to Josh's good judgement and impeccable timing rather than a faulty plan,' Trix sighed. 'I have come to believe Josh put it all together, that's why he took the bullet.'

Tim didn't need to ask her to explain his look alone, enough to force Trixie to continue her story. 'Josh called Jake half an hour before the hit. Josh couldn't afford to give me any more time without the situation appearing contrived. He believed me to be the primary target with Jim as collateral damage. Sabina wanted both of her problems solved at the same time. Access to Jim became a problem when he ended their association a few weeks earlier.'

Nodding his head, Tim once again gave Trixie a piercing look. 'My "romance" with Josh reached the limit of my endurance a couple of months earlier.'

'And lover boy decided he wasn't going to miss yet another opportunity,' a mocking smile covered Tim's lips as his eye's made insinuations about the current state of Belden's love life.

'We only met once, a day or two before it all went down,' Trixie confessed in an easy, professional style which belayed the emotions she felt. 'I believe Sabina thought we'd become too close. Jim is the only person who can connect Sabina to her activities here in the US. I finally had her running scared, only I didn't realise it at the time.'

'That hit, ending the way it did, accomplished more than Sabina had dreamed,' annoyed at herself for bungling the assignment, Trixie attempted to justify her actions to the one person she trusted above anyone else. 'I found it difficult to get over the guilt I felt, which has thrown my judgement off for the last few months. Any attraction between Jim and I had been effectively destroy, giving Sabina a second opportunity to embroil Jim further in her web and ensuring we became even more estranged than usual. I haven't done anything useful towards this investigation since Josh's death which would have delighted Sabina.'

'Jim returned reluctantly to the relationship he had forged with her, giving Sabina time to hand over stateside activities to our still uncovered mole within the CIA. We'd achieved exactly nothing after two years hard work.'

'So what is going to London with Jim going to achieve?' Tim asked in a hard tone.

'Resolution, Tim,' Trixie looked up at him with sadden eyes. 'I know you don't do international assignments, but I want you in on this one Shadow Man.'

'What makes you trust me?' he seemed genuinely interested in her answer.

'Gut instinct,' Trixie answered, 'because at this point in time I have absolutely nothing else to go on which would stand up in a court of law, except Jim's memories which are circumstantial at best.'

'I hope you realise, Belden,' Jake warned, 'even if this ends the way you expect it too, you'll never have what you really want. Cracking an international case like this is only going to dig your position deeper within the political machine, not get you out of it. You'll be put on permeant international assignment.' Watching closely for any reaction, Tim's eight year association with Beatrix Alicia Belden almost wasn't enough to see the instantaneous moment of emotional turmoil to his words. And maybe that's exactly what you want, he realised belatedly, because it's the only way James Frayne will voluntarily allow you out of his life.

'So what's your answer, Shadow Man,' Trixie demanded stoically, attempting to calm her racing heart and ignore his veiled threat. 'Are you in or not?'

'Don't ever ask anything of me again,' he hissed. 'I've repaid the mistake in judgement I made six years ago by telling your boyfriend to get out of your life. Although a lot of good is seems to have done.' Disappointment clearly evident in his eyes, Tim's gaze once again swept the room lazily. 'We're even after London.'

'We'll be after you tell me how you knew about The Terror Bug infecting my friend's computer system?' Trixie parried.

'That's my op Belden, leave well enough alone,' realising his creation wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily, Tim sighed warily. 'We've infected systems in twelve states with benign modified viruses and monitored any response. So far we've found three programmers able to eradicate the infections.'

'You've been using Mart,' Trixie was horrified.

'Your brother has done very well out of our silent patronage,' Tim revealed, 'and he's about to be offered the contact of a life time.'

Nodding her understanding, Trixie took a moment to think. Walking across the room, she gathered up her computer and turned to Tim. 'The anti virus you need is already written,' she tapped the electronic notebook in her hand, 'along with another programme Mart has been working on to halt Sabina's information gathering activities.'

A slow smile gathered on Tim's features as he wondered how this slip of a girl always seemed to be one step ahead of the pack. So far only Sabina managed to give Trixie Belden a run for her money. He'd bet his life on the outcome of her first overseas assignment. For whatever reason, the five foot bomb shell before him always got her man, well, criminal at least.

'Wait until you see his terms first,' Trixie couldn't help her own grin of amusement. 'After all, my brother is a business man first and a patriot second.'

Eyeing the young woman, Tim attempted to keep a neutral expression. Martin Belden looks like his sister, I just hope he doesn't bargain as well as the Little Sparrow does.

'Now back to my business. This is how I want to play it,' Trixie informed Tim, safe in the knowledge he would see any inconsistencies in her plans to draw Sabina out of her hiding place in London.

Balcony overlooking the lake at Castaways, New York State

1256Hrs Sunday 20th February 2005

'Jim,' Trixie came up behind him. As he turned his head to acknowledge her, Trixie could see she'd startled Jim out of his silent revere. 'I guess you didn't hear me coming. You look like you're a million miles away.'

'I remember the last time we were in London,' he spoke softly, continuing to look out over the distant lake. Still not happy about going, he'd come to terms with the need to be close to Trixie at any price. 'You got mixed up in a mystery about The Queen's Necklace.'

'Think of this adventure in much the same way,' Trixie attempted a teasing tone, 'only we're after a different kind of thief.'

Refusing to react to her words, Jim continued to survey the scene before him. Confused, Trixie attempted to see what Jim contemplated in the wide, natural vista before them. The vastness before her reminded Trixie how small she felt in the grand scheme of the universe. The natural surrounding reminded Trixie how cruel Mother Nature could be, making only the fittest survive her toughest tests. The music behind them reminded Trixie her every movement could be watched, commented on and conclusions drawn. Finally, Jim's posture reminded Trixie of her promise to protect this man at all cost.

Shaking her head, Trixie's mind reasserted it's self to the here and now. Flights of fancy wouldn't help her focus or get the job done, her conscious reminded. Deliberately taking a moment, she cleared her mind.

'I know I'm asking a lot at the moment, with so many issues between us,' Trixie told him levelly, attempting to allow her voice to communicate the gravity of the situation they now found themselves in. 'Jim, please don't wander so far away from me again. I can't protect you like this.'

'How close do you want me to stay, Trixie,' his temper flared, 'attached to your side like a limpet?' An instant later the heat dissipated from his voice. 'I remember when Brian, Mart, Dan and I rescued you and Honey. Now, the boot is on the other foot and I don't have to like it. None of this seems real. I just needed a moment to think. When I came out here, I realised I could breath peacefully for the first time in what seems like years.'

'It's beautiful,' Trixie agreed before lapsing into silence as she took up a position next to him on the railing. Biting her lower lip and unsure how to begin telling Jim about her plans for London, she stood quietly at his side her mind working furiously.

Sighing a few moments later, he pre-empted her. 'Out with it Trixie Belden or neither of us will get another peaceful moment until you tell me what ever it is that's in that head of yours.'

'Tim's here,' she stated flatly.

'I know,' Jim replied with a deep sigh. 'That's one of the reasons I came outside. Believe me, I wanted to take a swing at the guy. I figured, if you have to work with him, it might not the brightest idea.'

'So you escaped the situation instead?' Trixie couldn't help a giggle at the thought of a hand-to-hand combat trained CIA agent taking on Jim in the middle of Di's wedding reception.

'It's not that funny,' Jim tried to hide his own mirth as he read the thoughts running through Trixie's mind. 'Although the idea that I might end up as minced meat did cross my mind and found the thought unappealing.'

'I can't imagine why,' Trixie could no longer constrain her laughter. Wiping her eyes as the tears continued to stream down her face, the hilarity ended when she managed to look up into Jim's face. Her laughter stoped abruptly.

'Dance with me,' he pleaded, taking a step closer and gathering her into his arms. 'Just for a moment, forget everything, and just dance with me like we use too.'

Trixie hated herself for acquiescing so easily. The rational part is telling me I'm using Jim again. I'm using the emotion he's generating. I know by keeping his emotions out in the open it will be easer to protect him.

They hardly moved from the spot. Not a sheet of paper would have fitted between there entwined bodies. Trixie's mind actively stored every stimulus. Jim's touch and smell were the first sensations to overwhelm her. The fresh mountain air tickled her nose. Trixie's heart began a rapid tattoo as her breath became shallow. Softly she heard herself sobbing as the romantic music played in the background.

I want to be here, she realised belatedly. The emotional part of my mind is screaming to take this little piece of paradise and file it away for all the cold lonely nights I will have to face in the future.

'Trix,' he whispered. The quality of her name on his lips forced her stare upwards. Jim had been waiting for just this moment, expecting it since their cathartic conversation two days previously. 'I have to do this,' he continued a moment before his mouth captured hers.

Memories came flooding back, holding her captive. Six years melted away and the emotions she felt the night they'd gone for a picnic in the preserve returned. Jim held her in his strong arms while he nibbled on her lips, sending a delightful shiver down Trixie's spine. It pooled in her groin, causing her to feel as she hadn't allowed herself to feel since that long ago night. The rail at her back halted any pretence of dancing. He searched for an opening, and when Jim found it, he exploited Trixie's moment of inner turmoil.

'No!' Finding the strength, Trixie pushed him away. 'No, I can't do this again. I can't go through loosing you again. This time it would destroy me, Jim.'

Searching his eyes, Trixie found they mirrored her sentiments. Slowly, deliberately, Jim reached out a freckled hand and curled the wandering lock of hair around his finger. His touch continued down her cheek. When he got to her chin, Jim forced her to look up at him.

'This isn't over by a long shot,' he warned. 'I don't intend to let you go this time, Shamus. I've made my mistakes and payed the highest price a man could pay for them. Wether you or your employer like it, I'm going to be a part of your life from now on.'

This time when Trixie shivered, the sheer determination emanating from Jim caused her violent reaction. She believed him, whole heartedly and wondered where it would leave her professionally.

'I believe we were dancing, Shamus,' he said before pulling her back into his arms.

I can't fight this feeling anymore.

I've forgotten what I started fighting for.

Its time to bring this ship back to the sore, for ever.

And I can't fight this feeling anymore.

Trixie's thoughts echoed the final strains of the music.