A/N I thought it was funny to give Anna the cover name of the actress who played her. No one mentioned it so I don't know if anyone got the joke.

Anna climbed into the minivan looking a bit unhappy. "That was weird."

Sarah and Carina were even less happy than she was at being relegated to the rear seats, furthest from the doors, but their covers as non-combatants made that the logical place for them to be, so they sucked it up. "What?" asked Sarah.

"There's a guy with a clipboard out there, he's got all our names on it and checked us all off—"

Perfection and Stampede shared a look. They were the extraction team for the Intersect Project. This group had to be an NSA team sent at Anna's original request, but then how did their names get on the list?

"—and then they put Morgan in a limo and stuck me back here with you two civilians! No offense."

Sarah and Carina looked at each other. "What's weird about that?"

"They said he was needed in Washington. Who needs Morgan anywhere? And they took my gun away. I hate playing babysitter but how am I supposed to do even that job right without my gun?" She crossed her arms and lowered her head, frowning, much like a baby that needed to be sat. "This sucks."

"Your weapon needs to be sanitized, Agent Ling," said the driver in a monotone. Not 'cleaned', Anna did that herself, but rendered untraceable."You'll be issued a replacement at the target site."

Sarah leaned forward. "Ling?"

"My cover name, Julie Ling."

"You don't look a bit like a Julie," said Carina.

"I didn't think so either, but who listens to the trainees."

The second agent got into the front passenger seat and the radio said something in static-ese, which must have been a signal of some kind as the cars started off back down the road in a close formation.

"Where are we going?" asked Sarah, knowing she was expected to ask, even though they wouldn't tell her.

"Agent Ling, control your guests."

"Where are we going?"

"Target site is need to know, trainee."

Anna turned back to her 'guests'. "The radio doesn't reach past the other car and it's encrypted, and they still give us this need to know crap, like anyone's listening."

The earpieces in their ears came to life in their own bursts of static. "—is Graboid, please respond. Perfection and Stampede, this is Graboid, please respond."

Both ladies coughed at pretty much the same time.

Anna barely glanced. "Yeah, your legs do go on forever, don't they? Blankets under your seats."

Chuck ignored the comment, since he couldn't hear it anyway. "Piggybacking on the secure signal but it probably won't last. Be advised that evac is from a higher power, North Star got you added on, priorities remain the same. Acknowledge."

The ladies were spreading out the blankets they didn't need. "Great." "Thanks."

"We'll pick you up again en rou—" En route. Probably in the air.

So. Sanctioned by Beckman. That reduced the threat of betrayal to manageable levels.

They watched Anna walk away, or try to, as the plane they were on was made for carrying much heavier things than themselves and handled like a pig on roller skates. Morgan was kept up front, behind a curtain, where they'd heard him groaning loudly a couple of times and she wanted to find out why.

"I'm telling you, Blondie, it's creepy."

Blondie was watching the men in the bad suits situated all over the plane. "In what way?"

"Here we are, two hot babes in bikinis—"

"And scratchy blankets."

"Oh, is that why you decided to take it off and artfully re-drape it about your suddenly-revealed body? Because it itched?"

"The way you were wearing yours, it certainly wouldn't have been revealing much to take it off, now would it?"

"Well, you know, it's the old routine, good cop—"

"Undressed cop. Any eyes bug out?"

"'The way Chuck likes me', my ass. That's what was creepy. Even Casey's eyes…linger."

"He's just checking you for weapons."

"I know. But these guys, that's all they were doing. They're inhuman."

"What's the matter, afraid you can't do better?"

"Yes."

Sarah paused.

"This may come as a surprise to you, Blondie, but some of us, namely me, don't just flaunt my body in the line of duty. I don't think I need your SIL's medical degrees to know when people are not acting normally."

"On the other hand, they are NSA. Maybe they select for that."

"Now that is creepy. I wouldn't think there's be this many men like that in the world and you're saying we got them all in one place?"

"Would you like me to interrogate one for you?"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure, but we have to choose carefully. I've only got one dose."

"Where the hell are you keeping it? Don't tell me, I don't want to know. You must be losing your touch if you need a truth serum on a man, even these mandroids." Carina got up and staggered over to the nearest male creature, much more unsteady on her feet than the turbulence would explain. Sarah watched as she practically fell over him, made a little small talk, apparently getting directions which she was careful to follow before staggering back.

"And?"

"His mother taught him to be very respectful of ladies, and the bathroom's back that way."

"I could have told you that."

"Could have told her what?" said Anna, stumbling back within earshot.

"The bathrooms are that way."

"Sure they are. You really should learn to pay more attention to your surroundings, Carina."

Carina nodded. "Yeah, I know. So how's Morgan?"

Anna frowned. "I saw him, but we didn't get a chance to talk. He was in his underwear. They're fitting him for a suit! All those groans we heard, they were stabbing him with pins whenever the plane shook. I'm sure he must have loved that, he stayed awake the entire flight to Hawaii, rooting for the plane to stay in the air. No wonder he was so pale."

"Pale?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah, poor little baby hates to fly."

"Maybe when we land in LA he can get a walk on solid—"

"They're doing a midair refuel, no stopovers."

Sarah and Carina shared a look.

"Well," said Sarah.

Carina nodded. "That's…"

"Yeah, I know," said Anna, smiling brightly. "Isn't it cool?"

Sarah was catching up on some long-overdue sleep when Chuck finally called in. His voice saying, "Perfection, this is Graboid" woke her instantly, not that anyone else could have told. Most of them were doing what she was, sleeping, or pretending to. She rolled over, mumbling something.

"Yeah, I know," he said back. "I had to call in sick myself. Told them my frat-boy health-nut brother-in-law forced me to drink one of his protein shakes, and they believed me."

Sarah moaned her amusement.

"Okay now that's not fair. Either you're really asleep and having a really great dream, or you're trying to punish me for that kiss, and either way I really think I ought to be there."

Carina growled low in the back of her throat and turned her face towards her pillow, just in case.

"Fine, be that way. I just want to let you know when you touch down to expect some high up higher-ups. Morgan's getting a medal from the Costa Gravan premier, on live TV."

So that's what this is all about! Sarah sniffed.

"We'll try to break you free of the circus. See you on the ground."

Touchdown woke them, but they stayed as they were until Anna came along and not-so-gently woke her 'sluggish' charges. "Okay, ladies, rise and shine. Stop soaking up everybody else's beauty sleep."

Carina stopped her with a sudden turn and lunge, which Anna easily blocked. "Sorry, I thought you were my last boyfriend for a second there."

"You wake up mean," said Anna in joy. "I like you."

"Great," muttered the redhead, staring at Anna's departing back, "She likes me."

"Must be all that initiative," said Sarah, and they both laughed.

As the put the robes and blankets back on, DC being a good bit 'nippier' than Hawaii, Anna came back with another woman. "Ladies, this is Agent Sydney Prince. We'll be leaving the plane from the other exit so Morgan can make his grand solo entrance for the cameras."

"Don't be bitter, Agent Ling," said Sydney in a sultry 'brunette skank' sort of voice, leading them to the midsection of the plane. "Sure it's unfair, but to the world at large it's best that he be the public face of your triumph. Agents avoid fame whenever possible." They went through the doorway and started to descend a mobile set of stairs. "Just know that we are aware of you and what you've done, where it matters."

"You are?"

"Absolutely," said Prince. "You had everyone convinced that a much more senior agent no one knew about must be on station. You can't imagine the surprise when we discovered that a mere trainee had accomplished so much. You'll go far, believe me."

"Wow, thanks."

"Miss Prince?"

"That's Agent Prince, Mrs…" she checked her clipboard "Bartowski. What is it?"

"My husband works here in DC, If I could just borrow a phone I could call him and have him pick us up, save you the bother."

"Chuck works in DC?" asked Anna. "Doing what?"

"He's in…Maintenance."

"You turned the king of the Nerd Herd into a janitor? Way to urge him on, Sarah."

Prince seemed amused. "You know her?"

Anna sighed. "Her husband is Morgan's best friend. That's all I've ever wanted to know about her."

Prince smirked at them all. "My phone is in my car, Mrs. Bartowski. We'll get you right back to your husband."

As they approached her car, the rear of the plane started to drop. Cameras flashed as Morgan made his way in official splendor down the ramp, accompanied by men in suits and uniforms, absorbing his reflected fame.

"Is that a BlueTooth he's wearing?" said Anna. "What'd they give him that for?"

"It's a prop," said Prince, opening her car door and reaching inside. "Something for the security people to confiscate and feel better about themselves over. We injected a subdermal transceiver on the flight in case we had something he needed to hear."

"Needs to hear? What would he need to hear?"

Prince dropped the clipboard, to reveal her gun. "Just the sounds of you and your friends dying horribly, if he fails to follow our instructions exactly. Congratulations, Agent Wu, your boyfriend is going to assassinate the Costa Gravan premier on national television."