"He was shot point blank, from what we can tell so far." Dr. Ford hurried to escort Alex through the hospital corridor. "The bullet went through his head and the pillow, and got stuck in the bed frame."

Alex nodded, swallowing down the nausea that was coming up in her throat. "Has anyone else been inside since it happened?"

"No, ma'am." The man shook his head. "We sealed it off, as per your orders."

"Good." Alex said, as the duo stopped in front of Barclay's hospital room. The doctor hesitated. "Our security wasn't optimal, but someone should have seen something, since this corridor is watched 24/7 by orderlies and the ward nurse."

"Any cameras pointed at his door?" Alex said, looking around.

Dr. Ford shook his head. "Something happened with the footage again. It seems that the first black-out during the disappearance of Detective Sawyer wasn't a coincidence."

Alex closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as she realized that she wasn't any closer to figuring out what happened, and how it could possibly have happened.

Whoever was responsible for the DEO bombing, knew what they were doing – hiding in plain sight and getting away with shooting a high profile target in the middle of a busy hospital.

She didn't like it at all.

"I'll give you some privacy while you work, ma'am. Give a shout when you're done, so that we can open the crime scene up to the NCPD."

"Detective Sawyer is on her way." Alex replied, glancing at the door. "She just gave me a headstart."

Dr. Ford nodded, and handed her a pair of latex gloves from a nearby cart. Then, he opened the door for her.

On the outside, the room looked like any hospital room in the hallway. But the second Alex came in, she was greeted with the coppery smell of spilled blood, reminding her that it hadn't been a dream.

Tristan Barclay was still lying on the bed, his body completely limp. It almost looked like he was sleeping, had it not been for the blood leaking from a bullet-sized hole between his eyes.

The T-box – the shape between the eyes and nose. The deadliest spot to fire a bullet through someone's head. Alex leaned in closer and examined. Based on the entry wound, she knew that he would have been shot from less than a few feet away. It was up close and personal.

No security cameras, no witnesses… A meticulous job. The perfect crime.

But Alex refused to believe that there wasn't a flaw in their plan. She just had to find it.

She leaned back for a second, recapping what she knew.

The people that bomb the DEO, announce another attack. Instead of going after another big target, they assassinate the only person that survived the bombing.

But why would they announce it and draw attention to it?

To be fair – it had a result. Alex had taken her eyes off the man, which had resulted in his execution.

And now, they were back to square one. The only difference was that Barclay had told his side of the story – hostage takers.

Maybe they were afraid that he'd recognised them, and silenced him before he could say more?

But that would have meant that they were listening in, because she and Maggie were the only ones in the room during his explanation, and only the three of them knew that they had stepped away for a break.

So, that could mean two things.

Either the hospital room was bugged, and they had eyes on the inside…

… Or Maggie had been right all along in calling Barclay's bluff, and he was one of the bad guys after all.

"Alex."

The agent spun around at the sound of the voice, expecting Maggie in the doorway. But instead she found J'onn, who seemed frustrated to say the least. But his face showed a forced calmness as he stepped into the room. "Winn called me about what happened."

"Point blank range, looks like a handgun caliber. Nobody saw anything."

J'onn nodded at Alex's words, and glanced at the man on the bed. "Barclay… I remember his interview."

Alex looked up, her interest piqued by his words. Maybe J'onn knew something that could put her mind at ease.

His gaze was locked on the body. "The second he walked in, I knew he was one of the good guys."

Alex narrowed her eyes at that. The DEO wasn't exactly on the grid, so joining the ranks was only possible through personal recommendation or relocation from another government organisation. "How did he get in?"

"The CEO for the last company he worked for wrote a personal recommendation. He's one of the big guys, I couldn't exactly refuse the interview. But Barclay was a reliable agent during training, that's why I wanted him with you on that Marsh'ah mission. I was impressed – he reminded me a bit of you."

"Of me?" Alex shot back. "What do you mean?"

"He had that fire. He had something to prove, just like you did."

Alex glanced back at Barclay's body. "We need to look into him. He might have had something to do with it, this could have been a clean-up job. And he could have been bugged, we need to do an autopsy on the body, see if they injected something."

"Maggie should be here soon, we can contact the ME…"

Alex cut him off. "No. The NCPD Medical Examiner isn't familiar with alien tech like this."

"What do you propose? The nearest DEO facility that has an ME on site is on the other side of the country."

Alex shook her head, moving closer to pull Barclay's body away from the pillow to examine the exit wound. "We can't move him. The press can't hear about Barclay being dead, or there'll be mass panic. We'll move him down to the morgue here, and I'll do it myself."

J'onn raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Alex, you don't have…"

"The training? The skills? A clue what I'm talking about?" Alex huffed. "It's the only way, J'onn."

J'onn took a deep breath, before nodding slowly. "I'll check out the rest of the room, try and read some minds to see if anybody here knows more than they're letting on."

Alex winced involuntarily at the words; J'onn never read minds without consent if it wasn't an absolute emergency.

However – if one situation ever fit that description, it was this one.

Alex headed out of the room, pressing her phone to her ear, while in search of Dr. Ford.

As soon as the situation at the precinct had settled down, Maggie had told Winn and Kara to go back. She would deal with the rest of the cops asking questions and face the consequences, but for now, both Winn and Kara needed to be problemsolving.

Kara had wrapped her arms around Maggie quickly, before grabbing Winn and launching herself up into the sky.

Alex had left minutes ago, rushing to the hospital after announcing to the three of them that Barclay had been in an accident.

Nobody needed to say anything, yet they all knew what it meant.

They'd been wrong.

But now that she was alone, she faced the task of explaining to her colleagues why Winn had rushed into her precinct and evacuated the entire thing.

The four of them had agreed to keep the cover of a possible alien attack on the precinct, that Maggie had discovered through her detective work. Nobody in the NCPD was allowed to know more about the DEO bombing than absolutely necessary. But as much as she had agreed to it instantly, it still meant that she would face the backlash – and possibly would be getting fired.

But at least everybody made it out alive and there wasn't an attack.

Maggie headed into the building, seeing the sheer damage that the sprinklers had caused.

"Fuck…" She muttered to herself, as she headed for the stairs to reach her floor.

But before she could take the first step, she was shoved into the wall roughly, her side screaming in pain at the impact. A hand was put on her mouth, and before she could do anything, she felt herself being pulled into a deserted meeting room on the ground floor.

She shoved away from her assailant, already completely aware of what had just happened, and shot the man a glare as she watched him lock the door.

As soon as he was satisfied, he turned around to face her, and she finally saw Greene's face. He looked furious. "What the fuck did you do, Sawyer?!"

"I tried to stop them, but how the hell was I supposed to do that?!" Maggie defended herself angrily. "I thought they were going to blow up the precinct, Greene!"

"You know they won't!" Greene yelled. "Maggie, damn it, if you're not going to help me…"

"I'm sticking to the plan, alright?!" Maggie put a hand on her side absent-mindedly. "But if you're not getting anywhere soon, they'll get onto you."

"Then it's your job to keep them away from me. I'm working it."

"Did you shoot Barclay?" Maggie asked, taking a step in his direction.

Greene laughed weakly. "We both know that Barclay was a loose end."

"So you did."

"Barclay shot himself." Greene replied. "He stuck to the plan, 8 PM sharp. I just went to pick up the piece."

"Alex is suspicious about him." Maggie lied quickly. "She thinks he was part of it."

"Couldn't have picked a worse one to tie the knot?"

Maggie didn't laugh at his joke. He grunted. "I'm getting close. We have another meeting tonight. Don't forget I'm risking my ass here to get inside and get information. They'll kill me if they figure out I'm not on their side."

"You insisted on doing it." Maggie huffed. "Don't come crawling back now. And if you get intel, you talk to me. Not leave Winn cryptic phone messages."

Greene's eyes widened just slightly. "You-… you knew that was me?"

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't exactly subtle, was it? Giving Cerberus up. You're lucky I managed to sell it, but it made you the bad guy."

"What else is new?" Greene chuckled dryly. "So, how do you want to play it with the DEO? They're going to keep digging until they find something, and they're going to get in my way sooner or later."

"I know." Maggie nodded. "I think we need to scare them off."

"We tried that with your kidnapping and it didn't work." Greene countered.

"That's what you think. Alex got hysterical." Maggie stopped herself, closing her eyes at the immense wave of sadness at the thought of lying to her wife. "… one more push and she's over the edge."

"Okay. Off to plan B, then." Greene said. "But if she shoots me, I'm coming back for you, Sawyer."

"Deal. And next time you want to be dramatic – grab my arm or something. If I need to get that thing restitched again, I'm shooting you myself."

Greene clenched his jaw, and unlocked the door again, leaving Maggie alone in the room with a heavy sigh.

"Tristan Barclay – born December 12th 1989." Winn stated out loud.

Kara nodded, leaning back against the table and reaching for another piece of pizza. "I remember him, one of the junior agents."

Winn turned back to his laptop. "Joined the DEO seven months ago. Valedictorian in high school, champion debater and on the swim team. Joined the army, got an honorable discharge after two tours, and then started working as private security up until his recruitment."

"From private security to government agent – that seems like an odd career choice." Kara frowned. "Why would he do that?"

"Oh." Winn replied, as a pop-up screen appeared. "It seems he received a personal recommendation letter from the CEO at his last jobsite."

"Who?" Kara tilted her head, moving closer to the laptop. Winn squinted to read the name on the letter. "Jordan Lyons, CEO of Lyons Inc. He worked security for the firm and Lyons seemed so happy that he pulled strings, he sent this straight to J'onn."

"Guess we'd better go ask mister Lyons some questions." Kara said, dropping her half-eaten slice of pizza back onto her plate and reaching for her coat. Winn nodded, and followed her out the door.

"Hey."

Alex looked up at the greeting, seeing Maggie standing in the doorway of the morgue. The agent turned back to her work – making a meticulous incision in Barclay's left temple.

"I see you've decided to jump ahead." Maggie commented. "You knew that I had to check out the crime scene first?"

"I know." Alex said, not looking up. "It couldn't wait. He could be bugged, I need to find a transmitter."

"Bugged? Why do you think that?" The detective tilted her head and crossed her arms as she moved to stand next to her wife.

"The three of us were the only people that knew that he was going to be left alone. So someone had to have been listening in to know that it was possible to kill him." Alex said, finally glancing up to meet Maggie's eyes. "If I can find out how, we can finally figure out who's behind it."

"I'll leave you to it, then."

Alex shook her head. "You can stay if you want. I don't mind. I'm used to working and talking at the same time. Helps me stay sharp."

Maggie nodded slowly, watching Alex work. The focus and precision that Alex wielded was absolutely amazing, and Maggie couldn't help but feel proud that she could call this woman hers.

But then the uneasy feeling settled in.

She knew. She knew everything, damn well enough, but she couldn't tell Alex anything. To protect her from the people that did this, because there was another way that kept Alex safe.

But that meant lying and manipulating – two things she vowed to Alex on their wedding day she'd never do.

Though, if it meant that Alex would be spared from a gruesome death at the hands of Cerberus…

Maggie would give her life to make that happen.

She probably would, at some point.

Her musings were interrupted by the door to the morgue flying open, startling Alex and almost ruining her handywork. "What the fu-…"

Alex's curse was cut off by the figure in the doorway, that Maggie now recognized as Greene. "Sawyer, I need to talk to you."

"Ever heard of knocking?!" Alex growled, glancing down to make sure that she hadn't messed up the incision she'd been making.

"Did you follow me here?!" Maggie huffed. She had to provoke him enough to get his lashing out to make sense, but she had to stay the victim. "I told you at the precinct, I don't want to talk to you."

This caught Alex's interest, as she stopped examining the incision and glanced between Maggie and her boss nervously.

"Sawyer, outside. Now." Greene grunted. "That's an order."

Maggie sighed, and turned to Alex, putting a hand on the small of her wife's back before walking out of the room. She didn't miss the look of concern that Alex was shooting her as she headed for the door.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, Greene nodded. "Showtime."

The next thing Maggie felt was the man's hand wrapping around her throat and shoving her down onto the ground.