The lights flickered upon the waters surrounding Vancouver, catching Carlos' eye easily. He sighed against the air turning cooler and relinquished thoughts of falling asleep as soon as he lay his head upon his pillow tonight. Too many questions itched in his mind. The one most troubling was, if he hadn't burst upon that rain-soaked, muddy scene, having found Kiera pointing her gun pointblank at Julian, would she have shot him in cold blood?

A chill surged through Carlos as he considered. Flinching, the question she had asked him roared back into memory…

If he had been a time traveler, in the time of Hitler's youth, would he have killed him, knowing the ilk of rabid vermin he'd become, the unspeakable, unforgiveable atrocities he would commit?

Could Hitler have changed, if he had been given the chance? Had his circumstances shaped him, or had he been born incontrovertibly evil, no turning around, not ever?

Carlos gagged, having put those steely, rhetorical questions to himself.

He lifted the bottle ensconced in the brown paper bag, clinging to one of his answers before he spoke it aloud. Leisurely, he settled the lip of the bottle on his lower lip and tilted his head back to allow the alcohol's bite to claw its way down his throat. With the suggestion of sullen swagger, Carlos reaffirmed his affirmation. "Yes! Yes I would—in a heartbeat!"

He was evil incarnate, Carlos irrevocably condemned.

Woozy from a little too much to drink, the day's fever pitch and sheer exhaustion, Kiera inched around to take him in. He looked as edgy as she felt. "Yes you would what in a heartbeat?" She helped herself to another swig once she'd eased the bottle from his hand, which he let her, not raising any protest.

"Kill Hitler," Carlos spat out savagely, venom dripping from his words. Those harbor lights were doing wicked things to his bleary eyes' vision. Though he closed them, he opened them again immediately at the sound of Kiera's soft, soothing voice. Was this woman getting a clue just how much she had started to mean to him? What if she had blown Julian away? Would he still feel the same about her, now? He was glad, counting himself fortunate this night, at this point in time, since he didn't have to deal with the agony of that reality.

Not this night…

Finally, because she had kept silent for what felt like an eternity, Kiera replied, "Why?"

Implausibly, Carlos reiterated, "He was the sickest freak who ever lived—that's why. You sit there, asking me that." His eyes targeted the paper bag, the paper badly crumpled now, almost torn as was Carlos' voice. "You, who live and breathe to prevent the same thing from happening in your time."

As soon as the words had left his mouth, he slapped his hand over it. Why had he said that? Was the booze having the opposite effect, turning him into a raving, inconsiderate lout, instead of mellowing him out, tempering his punchy temperament?

"Kiera—I'm—"

"No, no. Your point is well taken, heartily embraced. As I said before, every monster starts off as somebody's baby." Her saying so this time sounded less predatory.

Nevertheless, Carlos cringed, hearing her say that again, as he'd done the first time she'd let it roll off her tongue so unemotionally, like a machine. It was the identical machine-like precision and coldness he'd witnessed seeing her stalk and corner Julian, moments away from pulling the trigger if he hadn't talked her down off the ledge.

"Now you understand what drove me to hunt Julian down, capture him and place him in the hands of Martinez and Lisicky, and mine."

Did he, Carlos pondered. Martinez and Lisicky, those two psychos are some real classic pieces of work, he thought. The idea did not sit well, Kiera resorting to those loose cannons anytime in the future if the investigation seemed to warrant sheer brutality for getting the job done. She was his partner, more than man enough and effective enough, wholly vested in being what she needed him to be. Hadn't he proved that already any number of times since teaming up?

Screw Gardiner, though the secret agent man was no more. Screw Dillion's new tag team, the sadists.

He was all she needed to help her further her quest.

Sitting here with Kiera now on this bench, sharing a bottle, trying to comfort her as best he could, hearing the humanity flow back into her lovely voice, this was the Kiera he had begun to know and…prize. That other, driven, robotic Kiera scared him. She looked like her, had the technology, but not the heart; she wasn't the partner for him. He vowed to keep that alarming version of Kiera at bay.

"W-what have I done?" she bemoaned.

He heard her accuse herself again, the way she had maligned herself a minute ago for possibly turning Julian into that monster she now felt responsible for creating.

"Don't go there again, Kiera. You have nothing to reproach yourself for. You're doing all that you can, all that's humanly possible. You can't get inside Julian's head. You couldn't then, you can't now."

She trained sharp eyes on Carlos. "Yes, oh, yes I can. The CMR. I refrained from using it to sift his brain. It could have meant its destruction. If we learn that he's teamed up with either Sonya or Travis, I won't hesitate to pick his mind apart."

"Like how you used we just now." He crimped his smile. Hesitantly, his tone tight, Carlos propounded, "Why didn't you use that ability instead of torturing him?"

Sounding ashamed instead of vainglorious, Kiera fairly whimpered, "I…I don't… I might have done irreversible damage to his brain. Didn't you hear what I just said? My weapon, the C-M-R...the result would've been the same. I would have destroyed Julian." She threw her head back, feeling her blood drain from her face. "I m-made a mistake, deciding he wasn't worth a chance. If I had killed him, I'd have that to live with, always wondering if I'd made the right decision. You helped me realize that." Effortlessly, she folded in on herself, thoroughly spent. Pretense sucked. Carlos was right, she mentally fondled, who was she to be playing at being 'mistress of the universe?'

She could use more proof. She would look for ways to get it, because…

What if Julian could change just as Alec was bent on doing?

She had nearly let blind rage transform her into another Garza. There was nothing good in that.

Kiera felt the weight of Carlos' stare upon her. She sat up in her seat and crossed her legs, bouncing the crossed leg, the motion distracting her for a couple of seconds, seconds helpful in allowing her to collect her thoughts.

"I can't afford making them, but…I am capable of them."

Having heard her say that, the way she had expressed it, and her woebegone demeanor, Carlos felt his heart swell with admiration. As quickly as he felt that, something more profound and superlative for this gutsy, fallible, heartrending woman took control. This was the woman who could alter the beats of his heart with a sigh, a telling glance, the sauciness of her lips, when she could be so deliciously, and infuriatingly coy.

"You're from the future, but still human through-and-through, like the rest of us."

The reflections of the harbor lights danced in his eyes.

Intense desires swept over him. They had him dreaming of possessing, saying hello again, to those fine lips as he had that day she had said goodbye before she'd taken off for parts unknown to him.

"Are you cold?" Carlos whispered, already extending a silent invitation that her shelter was here, waiting for her in the compliancy of his empty arms.

"With as much as I've had to drink?"

"I've had just about as much as you've had."

"You cold?" Kiera winked at him. "Touche."

"A little…"

They met each other halfway; she pulled him into herself. He snuggled against her, his arms wrapped protectively around her.

"Better?" Kiera asked.

"Lots," Carlos deferred, praising the amazing properties of body heat shared. "So, Kiera, I'm just asking…" His chin rested gently on the crown of her head. "Next time things get crazy like today. Don't keep me in the dark. Please…let me in. Don't shut me out when you've already made up your mind that I won't be 'down' with what you think needs doing. When we actually do act like one, we make a righteous team. Like I said…just sayin'."

She liked how it felt, sighing against him as she was consciously doing right this very moment, hearing his heartbeat in her ear. "And I'm listening, Carlos. Plan on doing more of it. You stopped me from denying someone I really don't know in this time period the right to choose what he will become. I can't let myself forget that."

"Kiera…" Carlos breathed into her scalp, "You won't. I have faith in you."

She closed her eyes at the same time her partner shut his. Next time, and there would be one, he had no doubt, if she went rogue, so would he.

The harbor lights grew brighter as their ephemeral reflections twinkled on the water.

TBC…