Chapter 9

Elise felt her body humming in anticipation as the elevator ascended. Here and now, she would finally catch up with that bimbo and get her man back. She could just feel it, his closeness. Either way, that lying, traitorous bitch was going down tonight and this would all be over. She and John could go back to their interrupted lives, once more together as they were meant to be. She took a deep breath just as the elevator doors slid open, her gun trained on the area directly ahead of her while she used the button panel as cover.

The first thing to greet her eyes were two men lying on the floor. They had been immobilized and duct tape was stuck across their mouths to keep them silent. 'Good!' Elise thought; she couldn't be too far behind if these guys hadn't been discovered yet. She glanced down at them as she passed. "Sorry boys, I'd help you out but I have a previous appointment with that bitch that did this to you." Their eyes widened but they remained silent and she proceeded ahead, her gun in hand and her senses on high alert.

Standing over the bleeding Reese, Stanton pulled his arm out of his suit jacket. Rolling him onto his back, she began to unbutton his blood soaked shirt. Once it was undone, she sat back on her heels and looked at John. Still a damn good looking man, she thought. Remembering the numerous trysts throughout their years as partners, a small smile appeared on her face. Reaching over, she patted his cheek with one hand while she pulled out her knife and flicked it open with one touch of the other.

"Nothing personal lover, but I need that chip back."

As his strength ebbed with the loss of his life's blood, all Reese could do was give her a steely blue glare as his lip curled into a snarl. Hatred radiated from him in waves, but he was too weak and powerless to stop her.

Blood continued to flow freely from the damage caused by Stanton's bullet. Pulling his shirt away from his shoulder, she pushed the sleeve of the undershirt up so she could see the bandage she had placed there less than twenty-four hours ago. She'd wondered if he'd make a sound as she manhandled his body but was not surprised when he didn't. Leaning over John, she worked to peel the medical tape off the incision where the chip had been inserted. She was so intent on getting the chip out without damaging it that she was not aware the security door had been quietly opened behind her. And then, at the very last moment, Stanton became aware of a presence behind her but her reaction was not fast enough. An arm reached past her and grabbed her knife hand and whipped her around and onto the floor. Kara felt the bones in her hand crack and the knife slip from her fingers. Kicking out with her legs, she connected with air, not finding her attacker where she'd expected them to be.

In the meantime, Elise let go of Stanton's hand and stepped back, waiting for the woman to get to her feet. She wasn't going to end this quickly. The woman didn't deserve it. Elise wanted her to feel some of the pain that she herself had been feeling the past few days. She knew it was a fault of hers, this desire to take revenge, but tonight she embraced it with all she was worth.

Scrambling, Stanton was finally able to regain her footing, stood up and gasped, "You?!" as she realized who was standing in front of her: John's 'piece of fluff'. 'What the hell? Where did she come from?' Feeling superior to the small woman standing in front of her even with her injured hand, Stanton suddenly lunged at Elise, telegraphing a blow with her injured right hand while her left hand came up from below ready to deliver a devastating blow to Elise's midsection. Elise easily blocked the right hand and the left before landing two solid punches on Stanton's ribs. An audible crack could be heard before she jumped back out of reach. As Stanton leaned over and clutch her ribs, Elise delivered a powerful kick right under Stanton's chin. As Stanton staggered back, Elise let loose every ounce of fury that had built up against the woman who had stolen John and dared to steal their happiness.

Stanton was unable to lift her arms to protect herself and slowly sank to the floor under the onslaught on Elise's cold blooded ferocity. Blow after blow was met with no resistance. One final blow to her head and Stanton fell bonelessly to the floor, unconscious. Standing over Stanton and panting loudly, fists clenched in rage, her dark hair hanging around her in a black cloud, Elise looked like an avenging angel.

Off in the distance Elise could hear a voice calling frantically to her. Slowly coming back to herself, Elise realized she was hearing Finch frantically calling her. Looking around she brought the computer room back into focus. Then she saw John lying in a pool of his own blood, just like her dream. All the air seemed to be sucked out of the room. The roaring in her ears deafened her. Taking a step forward, she again heard Finch calling her.

Looking up and over towards Finch she could see him but she couldn't understand him. Slowly his voice penetrated her stasis, calling to her. She registered that he'd come into the room at some point while she was fighting Stanton and….

"Elise! Elise! I need your help, now!" Looking back at John, she realized his eyes were closed. His face was deathly pale.

"John"…. she whispered.

Hearing her voice as if from a distance, John opened his eyes a looked at Elise…memorizing her face for the last time.

Again Finch called, "ELISE! I need your help now!" Panic sounded stronger in his voice.

Reese took a breath and said, "GO" to Elise. It took almost everything he had to get that one word out. One last try and he was able to gasp out, "Help Finch" and gave up. His eyes closing against his will.

Fighting every impulse she had to go to John, Elise turned to Harold and asked what he needed her to do.

"Sit here, at the terminal. I've already hacked into the system but I need another pair of hands." an exasperated Finch said. He took a seat at the terminal next to Elise's and began to type.

"Stanton wasn't STEALING something, she was uploading something. I can see its trail but I need to stop it or at least slow it down." Mumbled Finch. Sweat appeared on his face. Elise had never seen Harold lose control before, never seen him looked so panicked. Whatever Stanton had done, it must have been bad.

Finch began calling out code to Elise to type in. It took a few minutes but they slowly got in sync with one another. Finch was actually hacking the virus as it grew, stopping the flow from one direction and forcing it into another. Once he closed a loop hole, he needed Elise to seal it off and trap the virus. Finch typed and called out code and Elise typed...over and over again. Both were soon lost in the cyber realm.

Finch was frantically trying to stop the virus and protect The Machine. At the same time he was trying to teach The Machine what to watch out for and how to combat it. He had seen enough of this virus to realize it could jeopardize The Machine itself...make it go dark and unresponsive. Finch could not let anything harm his creation, not one that had already saved countless lives.

Elise locked down everything around her and focused just on the monitor in front of her and the coding that Harold was giving her. She didn't understand everything she was doing but knew enough to complete the moves that Harold needed.

John lay on the floor trying to conserve what strength he had. Lying there with his eyes closed he could hear Harold and Elise typing frantically. He knew it was bad. He'd seen the look on Kara's face when she hit the enter key to upload the virus or whatever it was she'd done to the system. He'd seen that look too many times in the past. And he'd also seen it again these last few days. Kara took pleasure in killing people. And now it sounded like she may have jeopardized The Machine itself.

He couldn't believe that Stanton had fooled him so completely. He had honestly believed they were going after Snow for what he had done to them in Ordos and for his part, to protect Elise. Stanton had used him just as thoroughly as she had used him when they were partners. He still had trouble understanding how their 'business relationship' of being partners, turned into a sex romp after each mission. Doing the job had been a turn on. The adrenalin rush of danger coupled with the thrill of getting the job done unscathed was heady stuff. It had amped up their libidos like a drug that MUST be consumed. Often they would barely make it back to the hotel room before they were stripping each other's clothes off. Sometimes they didn't make it back and had hot rough sex against a wall in an alley somewhere.

Why had he ever thought that was enough? It satisfied his animalistic side, but the sex left him unfulfilled and wanting, every time, his soul still feeling empty. He never knew what to fill that emptiness with.

Until Elise. The way he felt when he was with her, on her, in her...body, mind, and soul...it was the perfection he had been searching for all of his life. What he'd had with Kara, paled in comparison.

Opening his eyes was almost impossible but he HAD to see Elise one more time. Slowly his eyes focused on her and Harold, sitting side by side at a bank of computers. Harold was barking commands at Elise and she seemed to understand what to do and completed each task. She didn't talk, just typed and nodded her head every so often. He could see her long, dark hair flowing down her back. His hands ached to bury themselves in its inky darkness one last time. Watching her reach up and tuck her hair behind her ear, like he loved to do, almost tore out his heart. His eyes closed once more and he almost moaned in pain over what he was losing. Biting his lip for control, he opened his eyes again. Focusing on Elise, he tried to memorize everything about her.

He was so focused on Elise that he almost missed the movement on the floor. The pile of trash on the floor that was Stanton, had begun to move. In horror, John watched Stanton sit up and slowly shake her head. He watched as she looked around and got her bearings. He could tell from her movements that she was in extreme pain. Stanton could take a hit and keep on going, but apparently Elise had done some serious damage during her beat down. Holding her right hand cradled in her left, Stanton struggled to stand up slowly, trying not to draw attention to herself. Elise and Harold were oblivious to anything except the codes running across the monitors in front of them.

John tried to call out to Elise or Harold but he was weaker than he thought. Losing blood as fast as he had been, he was incapable of making a move or calling out. He watched helplessly as Stanton quietly got up and slowly hobbled out of the room. She was obviously in a great deal of pain but still able to move.

Outside the room, Stanton paused to lean against the wall. 'That damn bitch got lucky. I think my wrist is broken and I know I've got some cracked ribs.' She thought angrily. Using the back of her good hand, she rubbed it across her mouth. Dried blood came off. Using her tongue she realized that she had a busted lip and maybe a broken tooth or at least a loose one. Shaking her head over being beat down by another woman and a tiny one at that, Stanton knew there was more to John's 'piece of fluff' than she'd assumed. Rage boiled up in her. Her weapon was back in the room, next to what she hoped was a dead John Reese. Looking down she realized the two men she and Reese had taken down on their way into the control room were still down on the floor. The guy she'd taken out was quite dead but it looked like the one Reese had taken out had only been shot in the kneecap. What a boy scout John had become! Reaching down for the dead guard's gun, she checked the silencer on it and finished the job Reese had started.

Now she had a weapon and she knew exactly what she was going to do. That little bitch was going to pay for what she'd done to her and then she'd get her chip back too. She turned around to re-enter the control room but stopped when she heard the elevator door open. Turning back around with the gun in her hand she was surprised to see Mark Snow walk out into the hall.

With his gun already out and now trained on her, he greeted her. "Hello Kara. Sorry I couldn't get here sooner to join in the fun. Where's John?"

"Hello Mark. Dead I hope, just like you will be shortly." Stanton said with a grimace. She was right handed but she could shoot with her left hand just not as fast or as accurately. Although she knew she looked bad, she hoped Snow couldn't tell how badly she was beat up.

"I see you met John's partner. Little slip of a woman who packs a pretty mean punch," rubbing his own chin in memory of their 'introduction'.

"Well, I'm about to introduce her to the great equalizer." Growled Stanton. Edging backwards return to the control room, she stopped when she heard Mark chamber a round in his Glock. Slowly turning back to him and pointing the gun with her left hand, Stanton eyed Snow coldly. "And just what are you going to do about it? More importantly, why do you CARE what I do about it?"

"Because you're a cold hearted, damaged bitch. You were ready to shoot me as soon as you didn't need me and I'm sure that's why John is dead or dying now. He outlived his usefulness to you. Actually, you're not cold hearted...you are black hearted. Your heart is a withered black ball of hate inside you. You aren't out to help your country or anybody else. You're all about revenge. You do your new master's bidding with no questions asked. Well I've got a question for you...How do you want to die? Quick one to the head or slowly with a gut shot? I'm more than willing to accommodate you either way."

Snow had noticed that Kara was holding the gun in her left hand and saw that her right eye was slowly swelling shut; her mouth looking like someone had kicked her there. Watching her breathe in shallow gasps, he figured she had some broken ribs to go along with her obviously broken right hand or wrist. He was just biding him time, out waiting her. Stanton's agitated state had not gone unnoticed by Snow. He knew she was in extreme pain and trying to hide it. It more or less evened out the odds between them.

Raising his right arm with the gun, he pointed it directly at Stanton's head. Stanton smiled her death head's smile and raised her left hand and pointed the gun at Snow's head.

"Fuck You!" she snarled and pulled the trigger at the same time that Snow did. They both crumpled, the only sound was their guns clattering to the floor. Neither one stirred.