Ryan was dead. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right. But he was dead nonetheless. Sean had warned Michael and Nikita about it. They were right to suspect that Amanda was monitoring Ryan. Oversight wanted him dead after discovering Gaines was a member. They tried to break him out of prison before that happened. But they were too late. Nikita was too late. She watched her friend die at the hands of Division, and there was nothing she could've done about it. Her boyfriend was even shot during their attempt. It was nonfatal, but the threat of the fate awaiting their team was as dangerous as ever. Death might've been closer at hand than their wishful happily ever after.

So Nikita went off the deep end. She pressured Sean into telling her everything that was going on with Oversight. Unfortunately, he didn't know all of the members. He only interacted with his mother. The other members were kept a secret. Madeline said it was for his protection, yet that excuse was starting to thin. He managed to give Nikita the intel on where they were moving Gaines, though. She could take him and get all the answers she wanted. Was it selfishness, stupidity, or recklessness that made her enact that plan alone. Michael had been shot; he needed to rest. She also couldn't lose him like she had lost Ryan and Daniel. He had to live, which meant she had to face Gaines and an Alpha Team on her own.

That was probably what made the mission such a failure. Nikita didn't tell anyone her plans- not Michael, and certainly not Sean. As her mole, however, he should've known. He was there at the apartment as well. And when Gaines began to talk about Oversight, he shot him. In his defense, he mentioned their mother in a room full of Division agents. Sean killed him to protect their family. Regardless, Nikita was furious. There were bullets flying to put her focus in, though. She was able to hold her own for a moment. Sean helped where he could, but he couldn't blow his cover. They were lucky that Michael arrived when he did. The team took out the threat, and Nikita was able to escape.

Back at the temporary safehouse, Michael and Nikita argued. Her frantic need to never lose him was of course reflected; how could she not see that he couldn't lose her either. Her going off on her own had scared him, just as much as him getting shot had scared her. The both of them didn't know what they would do if something happened. Their hurt feelings raged, and the couple lashed out at one another. Sean eventually joining them at the warehouse didn't appease anything. Nikita's lividity turned towards him. They were supposed to have gotten information. They'd get intel on the members of Oversight, then they'd avenge Ryan. However, her brother stood by his decision to kill Gaines. He was protecting their family. Although Michael agreed that they needed the information, he saw Sean's point. Protecting who you loved was always the priority. She simply glanced incredulously at the two before stomping off.

Whereas Michael gave her a moment to calm down before going after her, Sean left the safehouse. He needed someone reasonable to talk to, someone who was impartial on the matter. Birkhoff wasn't; he'd side with Nikita about the information. Maybe she was right about that. Yet when was she going to realize all of their family members were important. That included her and Madeline. It was frustrating. He needed relief. So he trudged back to Division to seek out Alex. If anyone knew about 'bad guy' parents, it was her. Her father was some kind of mob boss, but she still loved him. She definitely loved him enough to seek revenge. He had to talk to her, "How'd you deal with Nikita?"

"Sure, come in. Welcome to my cell," Alex muttered at the sight of Sean. The Seal practically broke into the recruit room Amanda was forcing her to stay in, moping about his sister. She wasn't surprised to see him return to hell that time. But when she had walked into Amanda's office earlier to find him going over a mission report, she was bewildered. She thought he had left to help Nikita. He talked all of that shit about family and protecting loved ones, and he was back with his sister's enemies. He even claimed his absence was due to an Oversight assignment. It all made sense, however, once she ran into him at the park; he was talking on the phone with Nikita. First her partner, then her boyfriend, and finally her brother- Nikita sure did love a mole.

"I thought you were free to come and go," Sean changed the topic, hearing what Alex had said. Things must've changed while he had been away. Not much with Amanda still in charge, Oversight still a pain in the ass, and both not sharing information with each other thus allowing his excuses to be readily accepted. But Alex appeared agitated. He must've missed something. Her path to revenge was more than likely dragging her down. Or it was becoming more complicated than anyone could've imagined. He was certainly able to understand that.

"Protection against Gogol," So it was getting complicated. Alex had expressed that she felt someone following her after she ran into Gogol in Turkey. When she and Sean were at the park, that suspicion was confirmed. They were both fortunate the other was there. They had saved each other's life. Only she seemed to be dealing with all of the fallout from the shooting, however.

"You're welcome by the way," Sean smirked, attempting to lighten the mood. He plopped down into the desk chair, and Alex rolled her blue eyes. Moving past him, she kicked at his sprawled out legs and collapsed on her bed. The whole situation with Yuri and Gogol was a nightmare. She couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her childhood friend had tried to kill her. He wanted her dead, because of some lie told by Semak. Honestly, if that wasn't enough motivation for her to kill that vile man, she didn't know what was.

"I saved you back. Now what's up with Nikita?" Alex didn't want to delve into what she was experiencing. She'd rather flop back on the recruit bed and listen to Sean's story. She was aware Ryan was being monitored, but she didn't think Oversight would be so flagrant as to kill him. She was heartbroken to know she was wrong. Things didn't get much better for Nikita, Michael, or Sean. Their arguments hadn't been resolved. And they continued to reel from the loss of a team member. It was becoming too much for all of them. Alex could only sigh, "Well, yeah. I'd be pissed too."

"I thought we were destroying Oversight," Sean tried not to whine. Or be so loud; anyone could have stumbled upon the two talking and overheard them. He just thought he could have found support in his decision with Alex. Maybe the heavy effect of everything that was occurring was affecting them. Warring against Division and Oversight (and then Gogol for Alex) was far more exhausting than anyone knew. They were frayed and struggling. Disagreements and rejection of rational thought were bound to happen.

"You gotta know the members first," Despite not agreeing with Nikita on some of her other decisions, Alex understood that one. Information was like gold in their crusades. You could take out players on their team. But if you didn't know the game they were playing, then what was the point. The team had to think smarter, not harder. The people they were up against were a lot more maniacal and meticulous than the Seal had ever faced before. He needed to adapt to the new field.

"We were in a room full of Division agents. I wasn't going to let them know my mother was a part of the group that kidnapped them and forced them to kill," It was the same defense he had yelled at Nikita. She didn't even want to listen to him. How had her stubbornness gotten worse. Yet it didn't matter. He'd continue to argue that point. Madeline did terrible things, but she was still his mother- she was still his sisters' mother. Nikita might've cut ties with her, but Jill and Sandy hadn't. They deserved to continue living their happy lie for a little while longer. At least until Nikita could come home.

"What?"

Alex stared at Sean blankly. She was fairly certain that was the most confused she had ever been. The secrets she had discovered about her family so far had eventually made sense. Besides, those were all easily fixed by destroying the man who had destroyed her life. But the Pierces baffled her. Nikita couldn't have been in Division if her mother was Oversight. And Sean seemed to be way too morally upstanding to have been raised by such a corrupt woman. The explanation he gave her didn't help. She just stared as he spoke, "How do you think Nikita got recruited, and I agreed to this assignment?"

"What the fuck!"

"You didn't know?" Sean wasn't sure why he asked that. Of course Alex didn't know. He and his sister didn't know until a couple of months prior. However, he suspected she knew about Nikita's recruitment. She must've said something to her partner about how she was dragged into that hellhole. Apparently, he was wrong.

"Nikita doesn't talk about her past. Of course I didn't fucking know!" Alex didn't even know Nikita had a brother. She was rapidly understanding why all of that was kept a secret. She wouldn't want to talk about it if she was in that position. Hell, she barely wanted to talk about her own past in her current situation. All of those truths being revealed were beyond insane. They had wanted answers, but was it worth all that mess. Some days it was. But days like that one, with Yuri and Ryan, that wasn't the case.

"Guess everyone has family drama," Scoffing, Sean rubbed at his tired hazel eyes. He felt as though he didn't have the right to complain. Alex was suffering with her own mess; she didn't need him piling on his. It was simply refreshing to talk to someone else about all of that shit- someone who understood and would actually talk back.

However, Alex shook her head. She was struggling, thinking about who Sean and Nikita's mother was. Oversight sanctioned the hit on her family. They sanctioned the hit on Michael that inadvertently killed his family. And they agreed to place Nikita, the daughter of one of their own, in that hellhole. Alex didn't know if that was planned or not- if Nikita was meant as some sort of Oversight soldier like Sean was. Based on the few stories she had shared, she doubted it. Somehow, she was abused by the same system. But she was fighting back. That was all any of them could've done. Just not then, when they were exhausted and frayed, "I can't even figure out my own mess. I'm not starting with yours."

"I don't wanna start either," Sean agreed. He and Alex sat in silence for a little while. They took a moment to breathe and think. Neither wanted to think too much, just enough to process the last few days. Ryan and Yuri were dead. Gogol was after Alex. Oversight was cracking down on Nikita. Sean was fighting with his sister again. And the end wasn't in sight. At least they could still joke. Or Sean could try to lighten the tension, "I mean. I have to be my sister's mole, because you ran off."

"Good. Teaches you a lesson. Don't fuck with this team," Lightly, Alex chuckled. Sean deserved to have the stress that came along with being a mole. It served him right for snapping at her when they first met, and for abandoning Nikita for so long. The Seal paid more attention to her word choice, than her teasing though; she had said 'this team'. She could only shrug. She wasn't really with the team. But she also wasn't against them, "Once you're a part of Nikita's family, you can never leave."

"Still not sure if that's a good thing," Although Sean's joke earned him a pillow to the face, he and Alex were laughing. Things were a mess; they were going to be so for a while. And things were painful; who knew when that was going to end. But they could talk, and they could laugh. For the moment, that was enough.