Sean attempted to keep his eyes on Alex at all times. Yet dating such an independent woman made that difficult. Despite his suggestion to stay out of Division, she was always there. Even when he'd try to take her home for the night, she'd always have an excuse to stay; there was always something she had to do that stole her attention. If he tried to ask her about it or follow her, she'd become suspicious, on edge, and irritated. So, Sean had to let it go and impatiently wait for Alex at home. Sometimes, she'd join him soon. Others, he had to call, "Hey. Are you coming home?"
"Yeah. I know. Sorry. The thing I had to do took longer than I thought. I'm on my way home now," Alex apologized over the phone. Sean heard the sounds of traffic around her, so he believed what she had said. Though, in the past, he hadn't needed evidence to believe her. He had been able to know that everything she had said was the truth. He wasn't entirely certain if it was a reflection of her or him that he had a hard time believing her then. It was possible that it was a mix of both. But that wasn't as comforting of a thought as he had hoped it to be.
"What thing?" Sean tried to ask. Alex had claimed in Division that there was something she had to get down before she could go home. She hadn't explained herself past that, however. Sean had attempted to figure out what it was she was up to, yet he hadn't been able to come to any conclusion. Ryan didn't have her assigned to a mission. Different agents and members of their team had already done all the 'housekeeping'. And they had stalled on any progress with the Dirty Thirties and Amanda. There was nothing for Alex to do. So what was she actually up to- what was more important than going home.
"It's nothing for you to worry about. I've got it handled. Just trust me. Everything will be fine soon. I promise," Alex's smile could be heard over the phone, yet it didn't appease Sean. She had been saying that since the mess involving Danforth: he didn't have to worry since she was going to ensure everyone's freedom. He always worried about her, though. Owen and Birkhoff couldn't provide much insight into Amanda's chair to make a guess at what was wrong with Alex. And after the mission with Danforth, Alex's anger and frustrations at Nikita, Ryan, and Division had calmed. Yet something was still wrong. Sean just couldn't figure out what.
When Alex arrived home, Sean was able to settle down and more or less forget about her avoiding him. However, once she wordlessly separated from him in Division the next day, his concern started up again. Alex's actions couldn't keep happening. Sean needed to learn what had been done to her, and he had to learn immediately. But he was stuck. He believed he had done all he could to figure out what was wrong, yet it clearly wasn't enough. He needed help. So, as soon as he could, he went in search of Michael and Nikita. He eventually found Michael in the weapons locker, and the agent immediately asked the him, "Any updates?"
"Alex is doing something in Division late at night. But she's not telling me what. And it's hard following her at times and pressing her for more information. She's already on edge. One wrong thing could set her off," Sean replied and paced the weapons locker. He had been trying to keep an eye on Alex and note everything she did. But if he asked too many questions or didn't accept her brush off, then she immediately became suspicious. The last thing Sean wanted was for Alex to know that he believed something was wrong with her; that'd just upset her and make things worse. So he had to back off at times, which wasn't very helpful.
"Yeah, I know. Nikita can't even say a word to her. And if I discuss anything more than you or Division, she thinks I was sent by Nikita to say something. You're our best bet in finding out what's going on with her," Michael didn't mean to put the pressure on Sean. but if Alex was going to let anyone into her current headspace, it'd be Sean. Nikita and Michael couldn't get close without making things worse. Maybe that was by design. Maybe whatever Amanda had done to Alex made her push everyone away so they wouldn't realize there was something off. But no matter what anyone did to her, Alex could never push Sean away- not completely.
"I'm trying, man. It's just…" Sean tried to put his problem into words, but he couldn't quite place what it was. It just felt as though Alex was pulling away from him- not maliciously, but definitely intentionally. She didn't want him a part of her schemes. Although they were partners in every sense of the word, she'd rather remain solo. Sean didn't like that, especially after all they'd been through together. Yet he didn't know how to make Alex let him in again- besides forcing his way in like he had before, "I don't know. If she's acting like how she did when we first met, maybe I should act that way too."
"What? Telling her to shut up?" It wasn't the time to make jokes, yet Michael couldn't stop himself from reminding Sean how he had acted when he first started working for Oversight. Granted, he was constantly dealing with life changing secrets about his family. But that hadn't given him the right to tell Alex to shut up. It was water under the bridge then, though. In fact, Alex liked to lovingly tease him about it (well, she used to before whatever started going on). The memory was only worth bringing up to lighten the mood. And Sean was in desperate need to have some weight lifted off his shoulders.
"Yeah, not my proudest moment," Sean chuckled dryly. There were a lot of things he should've done differently when he had worked for Oversight. Though, one thing he had done right was how he had gotten Alex to listen to him at times. He needed to do that again. Maybe he could have Michael help him. Except, when he opened his mouth to ask, he finally noticed what the other man was doing. There was a reason Sean had found Michael in the weapons locker: he was preparing a bag for an operation. But there weren't any active missions at the moment. Whatever he was up to was off the books, "What are you doing?"
Sighing, Michael debated with himself about what he should say. With everything that had been going on, he hadn't wanted to worry the others with his plans. Also, after the argument about performing operations that weren't related to Amanda or the Dirty Thirties, he didn't think it was appropriate to mention his personal mission. Since he was finally putting his plans into action, though, Michael should finally say something. He couldn't keep the secret to himself any longer- not because he thought something bad might happen to him on the mission, but because he knew better than to keep people out, "I think I got a lead on a better prosthetic for my hand."
"Like Bechiraj's?" Bewildered, Sean asked for clarification. He had thought that Michael was adjusting to his prosthetic. He was home with his fiancée, he was doing well in his new Division role, and some of the problems that had arisen after the accident had been resolved. As far as Sean was aware, there was no need for Michael to have a new prosthetic, especially one that was like Kosta Bechiraj's leg. Whoever had given him that new leg weren't people to mess with- a lesson that had been harshly learned already, "I thought after Kosovo…"
"Look, I… just don't tell Nikita. I'm only gathering information. It's nothing for her to worry about. God knows she has enough on her shoulders as it is," Michael couldn't bring himself to tell Sean his motivations for getting a better prosthetic, not then. His fiancée needed to be told first. However, with the entire world being carried on her shoulders- including her guilt about the accident- he couldn't pile on. He needed to wait until he had something concrete. Then there would be nothing to worry about. Some of that weight bearing down on her could be lifted.
"Don't push her completely out," Sean warned. He agreed that Nikita shouldn't have any more stress piled onto her plate- none of them did. However, he refused to allow a rift to grow between his sister and her fiancé again. Their relationship was finally back to where it had been before the accident (well, as close to it as possible). New secrets couldn't form and tear them apart once more. Michael needed to keep Nikita in the loop, even if all he found was nothing. She needed to know everything about him- just as he needed to know everything about her.
"Once I have something, I'll tell her. And together we'll decide on how to proceed," Michael agreed. The instant he had any tangible information about a new prosthetic, he'd tell Nikita, and together they'd work on a plan to secure him the hand. He had tried to carry the burden of his lost hand on his own, and he had failed. The same could be said of Nikita. The only way they could move forward and find solutions was together. Michael wouldn't do anything on his own. After all, he had already promised his fiancée 'til death did they part.
Once Sean shared some ideas of how he'd get Alex to talk to him, Michael left for his reconnaissance mission. He took his time scrounging up intel, and he didn't return to Division until later that evening. He still had his investigative materials regarding Heidecker in Birkhoff's nerd cave, so that was where he brought the new intel. Birkhoff was used to Michael's presence, so he didn't comment on his arrival. Nikita, on the other hand, soon walked into the area with a tablet in her hands and a deadpan expression on her face, "You know, Babe, I'm not normally the jealous type. But you've got me wondering: who the fuck is Darlene643 from Cincinnati?"
"Nikita, I can explain," Michael quickly responded. He recognized the look that crossed her face as one of curiosity, not anger; she had probably already guessed that Darlene and the dating site were for a mission. She knew him better than anyone else and was secure enough in their relationship to not suspect anything. However, he still felt guilty for going behind her back and talking to another woman (even if he didn't actually flirt with her). Fortunately, he could make it up to his fiancée by telling her everything, "You remember Heidecker, the guy in Kosovo with the plane full of kids?"
"Uh, yeah. How could I forget a human trafficker and his weirdo science friends who know everything about me?" Nikita huffed. Both her brother and her fiancé continued to not think much about the fact that the group Heidecker belonged to knew too much about the Pierces. Both men assumed that since the group was somehow connected to the U.S. government, they were privy to that information. Yet Nikita believed it was more than that. Something else was going on with that group, and she didn't like it. The people who had made killchips shouldn't know about her family. That was the kind of thing that'd only hurt them.
"I call them the Shop. You know, like that place in the Stephen King books? They make cool tech that kills people," Birkhoff injected himself into the engaged couple's conversation. If they were going to have it in his area, then he had the right to share his thoughts and feelings about the matter. His main issue was that Michael shouldn't be digging into the Shop. Birkhoff had tried to warn Nikita about them before Kosovo. But, of course, she hadn't listened, and then she had almost died. Michael couldn't put himself in the same danger. Who knew if anyone would survive that time, "Mikey, please tell me you're not messing around with these guys."
"I've been following every lead I could find about these guys since Kosovo. One finally paid off," Moving to show off his evidence, Michael explained. He could admit that since going home with Nikita, he hadn't been as obsessive about getting a new hand. However, his quest to have something better had never ended. He simply didn't devote a lot of time to it. That was why it had taken him a while to eventually find a solid lead. Now that he had it, he wasn't going to let it go; he'd follow wherever it led.
"I really hope you're not talking about your new lover Darlene," Despite her feelings about Michael involving himself with the Shop (were they seriously calling them that) Nikita couldn't stop herself from making a quip at her fiancé's expense. He deserved it for going off on a mission alone after they had stressed the importance of sticking together as a team. Even if it was just a reconnaissance mission, he should've told the others about it. They couldn't keep making the same mistake of doing things on their own; that was why they kept getting hurt. The team needed one another. Then more than ever.
"I found parking stubs in the evidence we took from Heidecker's plane, and I followed them to an office building in Cincinnati. Darlene got me into the surveillance room," Michael went over his findings and how he had acquired the new intel. He hadn't done anything dangerous, nor had he crossed any lines; he didn't even flirt with Darlene when he had purposely matched with her on the dating site. She was only a means to an end. Unfortunately, his phrasing didn't accurately portray that. When the words caught up with him, he stumbled to correct himself, "Her um… her I.D card got me into the surveillance room. She… she wasn't there."
Fighting a smirk, Nikita shared an amused glance with Birkhoff. Later, she'd have so much fun continuing to tease her fiancé about Darlene. She knew the other woman was just his way to access the building. He would never actually cheat on her. But knowing that just made it so much easier to tease him and get that flustered rise out of him. It took Michael a moment to bounce back from it. The information he had laid out helped, "Okay. So, this is Heidecker in Kosovo. And this is him in Cincinnati. He visited the same floor twice a month for six months. The floor has offices belonging to Bellfar Systems."
"What does Bellfar do? Creepy science shit?" Nikita easily assumed. If the Shop created spy-fi pieces of technology (she really hated that Birkhoff's terms for things were catching on) and if Heidecker frequented the building, then the company had to have been some sort of shell company for the group of creepy science nerds. She couldn't picture Bellfar as a real company with its own interests; it had to be Shop run, or Shop adjacent. It was possible that if they knew what exactly Bellfar was, then they'd have more information on the group of scientists- and maybe even on how they knew all about Nikita and her family.
"I don't know. Maybe. I can't find anything on them- besides the fact that they have military-grade encryption on their servers," Highlighting that specific piece of evidence, Michael answered. Bellfar really did look like a front when he first started investigating. He had believed he had followed another deadend and that he was nowhere closer to getting a new prosthetic. Then, he found the military-grade encryption. No company should have that level of encryption unless they were a part of the government or up to no good. It was unclear what exactly the Shop was. Yet Michael had already made up his mind regarding the hand.
"So what are you gonna do? Just walk up to their door, knock on it, and ask them for a new hand?" Staring at all the intel Michael had dug up still didn't convince Birkhoff that they should be messing with the Shop. Like he had told Nikita, he wanted Michael to have a better prosthetic. But those creepy scientists were not the way to do it. Look at the cost of Bechiraj's leg. If the Shop had been willing to traffic children in exchange for their tech, then what else could they ask for in exchange for Michael's hand.
"More like I'm gonna knock it down and take what I want," Michael negated. He wasn't going to strike a deal with the Shop like Bechiraj had. There was no way he could work with people who harmed children (the fact that he continued to work for Percy after Pale Fire still grated on him). But he would steal from them and maybe destroy them in the process. The latter would take some time to pull off. But the former could happen soon if he had help, "Birkhoff, if you hack their security, I could be in and out tonight. It'll be that simple."
"It'll be that simple if I tag along," Despite her desire to not engage with the Shop again, Nikita agreed to follow her fiancé's lead. Whatever he wanted, she would help him get it; she was happy if he was happy. Also, she couldn't leave him to go on a mission against the Shop alone when she had been the one to open that path for him. What was happening was her fault, and she still had to make it right. Stealing a prosthetic from a shady organization with her fiancé was the least she could do.
"Okay. Great. I'll start mission prep," Grateful, Michael rushed to prepare the three of them for the mission. He didn't forget to appreciatively kiss his fiancée on the cheek before leaving. Nikita shot him a small smile before turning to Birkhoff with a concerned expression. With their combined skills, it was possible to steal Michael what he needed for a better prosthetic. But they continued to not know enough about Heidecker and the Shop to gauge their reaction to their efforts. Nothing had happened regarding them after Kosovo, so maybe it would be okay. Thinking about the plane of kids, however, Nikita doubted it.