A/N: Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter. The general view seems to be that reviewers were pleased that spy action was starting. Too much fluffy before?


Caribbean Retreat

Chapter 10


Quinn was as useless as Sarah had predicted. Chuck tracked his movement using the GPS in his phone, the one that had received his call from Graham to come to his office. This meant that Chuck didn't have to do anything to send him looking for Sarah in the wrong direction. He was doing that himself.

Chuck continued to monitor him as Graham brought another enforcer onto the hunt. He was obviously frustrated with Quinn's lack of progress.

Alexandra Forrest was a more skilled hunter, but she was frustrated by Sarah's phone being undetectable. Sarah had disabled the GPS as soon as she'd left Langley.

So, Chuck was now monitoring two enforcers. Of course, this was just in his time away from the café, but that was ok. They didn't need to know any movements instantly.

Sarah was now feeling somewhat stir-crazy. Her love-bubble had been burst, and she wasn't good at waiting without acting. That was another difference to how she was when an agent. She'd often had to patiently wait for targets to act, back then. This wasn't caused by her deciding to become a civilian. It was because she was the target and could do nothing about it. When enemies were after her, she would evade or attack. Here she was just immobile and waiting.

After a week, she was starting to really consider going after Graham Langston. She knew she'd decided to give up the whole assassin role. In fact, she'd decided she didn't want to kill at all, but this was different. And it wasn't just her that could be attacked. Or taken in. She worried about Chuck, the original planned Intersect-recipient.

However, she knew that her boyfriend didn't want her going out killing again, and she didn't want to disappoint him.

It was so hard.


Chuck was fascinated at how these enforcers worked.

He'd managed to tap into their calls which enabled him to listen to what they told Graham, but also the other calls they made.

Nicholas Quinn obviously had a few screws loose and his failure to find his target was really getting to him.

Today, Graham had told both of the enforcers that they were in competition to become his main enforcer, Sarah's replacement. That seemed to spur Quinn on but not how Graham probably expected. Quinn became even more frantic and desperate.

Alex Forrest, on the other hand, just laughed about competing with Quinn. She obviously had the same opinion of him that Sarah did. She continued her meticulous investigations. She was obviously the far more worrying agent.

When he told Sarah about this, she started to get worried, but not about themselves.

She had to explain after making a call. "I'm sorry I haven't told you this before, but my last mission, the one that really pushed me beyond what I was willing to do, was to retrieve a package from a mansion in Budapest. I had to kill a lot of men to get that package out. It turned out to be a baby. I had to hide her from the CIA and ended up leaving her with my mom."

He gasped at that. "You've not mentioned your mom before."

She looked embarrassed. "I try not to even think about her myself. Now, I'm worried that Forrest might track my movements before and find them." She looked at him sorrowfully. "I can't let that happen. I'm going to have to go and make sure they're alright."

That panicked him. "You can't go! They'll find you!"

She gripped his arms and stated very clearly, "I am not letting my mom and sister get hurt. This is happening, whether you and I like it or not."

He shrunk back from the intensity of her response. "Are you going to kill her?"

She shrugged. "I can't see any way to avoid it."

"Won't that alert Graham that she was onto something? In the right place?"

She stared at him silently. "I have to lure her away and then end her somewhere else."

He hated what she was saying, but he could at least help here. "What airports did you pass through to get here?"

She was puzzled, but answered. "I skipped around airports, using different identities. So, after leaving DC, I flew to Chicago, then Denver, then Atlanta, before flying to Jamaica."

"That's good. If you give me the dates and approximate times arriving and departing each, I can tap into the airport security feeds and capture some footage."

"Why do that?" Sarah was genuinely confused.

He grinned. "I'm going to create a false trail. Choose which location you want her to go."

She decided on Chicago, and provided the details of when she was there. Chuck got started.

He told her what he was doing as his fingers flashed over the keyboard. "You need to have arrived from abroad, let's choose the UK, so you need to have had a seat on a flight from there. The cameras in the airport will be malfunctioning around that."

She grinned. "And I go there and make the sloppy mistake of looking up?"

He shook his head. "That would draw too much CIA attention."

She frowned. "So why do all this?"

"You aren't really going there, but I'll use the footage from before to create something to send to her, as if from the CIA."

Her mouth gaped. "You can do all that?"

He nodded.

She shook her head in amazement.

He twisted in his seat. And stood up. Walking over to where she was seated, he pulled her up and embraced her. "Be careful, my love."


Sarah had never worked with Alex Forrest, but knew of the woman's reputation. Cold and cruel. She herself had been seen as cold, but efficient rather than cruel. She knew what the woman looked like and expected her to turn up at the airport, making enquiries about a blonde that arrived the day before.

She had arrived the day before, during the camera blackout, and waited for it to lift before catching a taxi into the city, where she disappeared.

A woman of similar build with black hair caught a taxi to the airport shortly after, and stayed at one of the hotels there.

So, today was the long stake out, waiting for Agent Forrest.

Sarah was now a redhead with green eyes. She'd been here from very early in the morning, just in case Forrest had set off overnight, although she'd thought that unlikely, as the agent would want to talk to taxi drivers that operated during the day.

It was now midday, and the flight from LAX had landed recently. This was the flight Sarah expected Forrest to be on.

A few minutes later, she was proved correct and watched the tall, stiff-backed blonde walk out of arrivals and walk past her to get to the taxi rank. Forrest checked the license plates of the taxis there and waited until the one that Sarah had used the day before turned up. As she walked to it, Sarah did the same with the one behind, instructing the driver to follow. He did, thankfully without asking questions.

As expected, the driver dropped Forrest where she had alighted in a rather seedy area. There were no street cameras around. Forrest walked into the first hotel she found. Sarah waited for her in the shadows.

A very frustrated Agent Forrest stormed out and stopped, looking for the next likely place for Sarah to have gone. She was an easy target for Sarah. The crack on her head with the mini wooden Chicago Cubs baseball bat knocked her out. Sarah dragged her into the shadows and proceeded to add further 'injuries.' The woman would probably suffer concussion, but certainly wouldn't walk again or hold a gun.

Sarah left her there. She could at least tell Chuck that she hadn't killed the agent.

She called for a taxi and anonymously notified the CPD of the unconscious and battered woman.

The trip back to the island was as tortuous as the first time, but she felt less confused.


Graham sent mad Quinn to Chicago when Forrest was retrieved by the Company. Retrieved was the word Bryce used. When Sarah quietly told him what she'd done, he winced. "Mashing her knee will have been her exit ticket from the CIA," he said, as he remembered his departure. "She's not analyst material.""

"I wanted to remove her as a threat," she replied.

"You know she'll hold a grudge," Bryce said.

"The message I left on her phone told her that if she came for me again, she won't survive."

Bryce was surprised that Alex Forrest had this time. He looked at the blonde sitting across the table from him on this quiet morning in the café. The lunchtime rush would start soon, which was why Chuck wasn't with them. They were both talking so quietly that no one would overhear them.

"You're a curious mixture, Sarah. I can see the deadly agent that I remember. This threat has brought that back. However, letting her live feels like the one I've seen here with Chuck. I'm guessing his influence caused the leniency, if we can actually call it that."

She looked down. "I don't want Agent Walker back, but this is hard, you know."

He placed a hard on hers. "I know."

Sarah looked up again and he could see her eyes were watery.

"I guess Chuck is pleased that you didn't kill her," Bryce said.

She nodded. "But upset at what I did, at the same time."

"He wouldn't want your mom hurt," he said.

"I know. He wants what's best for everyone, but that's not realistic."

Bryce nodded. Then he asked, "Has he told you what he's been doing while you've been away?"

She blushed and shook her head. Chuck had quizzed her on what she'd done and after the discussion, she'd asked if he would forgive her for her actions. He'd said that was never in doubt and then picked her up and carried her up to their bed. They made love until she couldn't even think clearly and had fallen asleep.

Bryce grinned. "I guess you were otherwise occupied. You should ask him. I'm impressed and I think you will be too, as long as you don't start worrying about him."

"What has he done?" she demanded.

"Not my place to tell you," he replied, and refused to talk.

Then some people came in and he went to serve them.


After lunch, Sarah virtually dragged Chuck back to their apartment. He assumed they were going for more sex, so went happily. When they got there, she demanded to know what he'd been doing while she was away.

His shoulders slumped. "Oh! Bryce told you?"

"No. He told me to ask you."

Chuck sighed. "I wanted to complete it before telling you," he said.

"Tell me now," Sarah said as she stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"I've been hacking into the CIA records to get evidence of Graham's illegal activities." She looked shocked. "All the non-redacted stuff seemed clean, so I had to dig deeper."

"My god, Chuck! You could've been caught!"

He shook his head. "I'm too good."

Sarah looked dubious, but asked, "And did you find anything?"

"The best stuff he stores away from all the rest. In his own file store."

"You hacked into his private records?" She obviously found this hard to believe.

Chuck nodded. "Everything about you is there. I'm sorry, I had to read it."

She hadn't thought about that being a possibility. It sent her into a panic. "And- and you still want to be with me?"

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her fears away. "You're my everything, Sarah. Of course I do."

He spent the next hour-and-a-half showing her what he'd found. It wasn't just her illegal recruitment, or the assassinations that she thought were sanctioned, but weren't because they were just Graham eliminating personal threats. There were other unsanctioned assassinations including several by Alex Forrest and Nicholas Quinn, as well as other enforcers. Most were by Agent Walker, though. However, elimination of other senior CIA men and women were not by her, but usually by another enforcer, Clyde Decker.

She was genuinely shocked at all that he'd found. "So, what else are you after?"

"I want to create a timeline of the events and other activities at the same time to see if that explains his actions. Then, we need to work out who to inform to get him removed."

"We'll work on this together," she stated.

He agreed. They now had a course of action… together. It felt good.


Five days later, Sarah and Chuck had decided to take a break and spend some time on the beach. They'd not had time for this since the start of their relationship. They'd just been too busy.

Sarah headed there an hour before Chuck would get there, so that she could get some sunbathing in.

She took off her sunglasses and lay down, closing her eyes. As she listened to the waves lapping on the shore, she remembered how relaxing this place had seemed on her first day here. It still was, but other things had changed, and mostly for the better.

The light on her eyelids darkened as the heat of the sun on her face and neck disappeared. Chuck must've got away early. She opened her eyes as she said, "You're blocking the sun-" She froze when she saw who was standing over her.

"I could've been anyone!" Carina said. "For someone being hunted, you're not being very careful."

Sarah was instantly alert and stood to have a better chance. Then, she noticed Carina was also just in a bikini, a more daring one than she was wearing. Apart from a towel in her hand, she had nothing else with her and there was no way that she could hide anything in that costume.

Carina nodded her head in approval at Sarah's posture, fully alert and dangerous. "That's more like it, Blondie, although not really necessary with a fellow sunbather." She laid her towel down and then opened her arms. "Got a hug for your friend?"

Sarah didn't move. "How d'you know I'm being hunted?"

"Z told me. She was in the hospital being treated when a broken Alex Forrest was brought in. One of the guys that did that has a shine for Z and she managed to get the story from him before his partner dragged him away."

Sarah only relaxed slightly. "And you came looking for me?" How the hell did Carina even know where to look?

"I'm on a mission on one of the nearby islands. I remembered you told me once you fancied coming here and I guessed you followed up on that."

Sarah dropped her defensive stance and hugged her friend tightly.

As they separated, Carina said, "But seriously, your situational awareness used to be much better than this."

Sarah nodded. "I guess that leaving the Company has changed me."

Carina looked at her friend. "I heard that you had, but found it hard to believe. I thought you were a lifer."

Sarah shook her head. "My last mission pushed me too far."

Carina sat on her towel. "Tell me about it."

For the next twenty minutes, Sarah told her about Ryker and Budapest, but made no mention of bringing the baby back to her mom.

"Wow! Killing that many men, and then finding out it was for no good reason, must've been hard."

Sarah nodded. "It was. After that, I couldn't continue. Graham gave me six months to think it over, but then demanded I return. I'd already found out why and refused. He didn't take that well and threatened me. I reacted badly and threatened him back."

"Hence the hunt by assassins."

"Yeah."

"So how long will you stay here?" Carina asked.

Sarah smiled. "The rest of my life, I hope."

Carina's jaw dropped. "This island can't have enough to interest you! You'll get bored!"

Sarah noticed Chuck walking toward them and grinned. "I've found something that makes me want to stay."

Carina noticed Sarah's eyes were looking beyond her and twisted around, then looked back. "You've hooked up with a man?"

Sarah smiled. "More than just hooked up. We live together now."

Carina was speechless.

"Hi, Sarah," Chuck said as he got close. "Who's your friend?"

Carina leaped up, grabbed his shoulders and looked closely at his face.

Sarah replied, "This is my friend, Red, but her name is Carina."

He smiled. "Hi, Carina. Care to let go? I need to kiss my girlfriend."

Carina released him and was pushed aside as Sarah jumped into his arms. She was proud of him for the open mouthed kiss, something he would never have done in front of anyone earlier.

"Wow! Such passion!" Carina said in disbelief. "I didn't think I'd ever see that in you, Blondie."

Sarah pulled away from him and said, "We're in love."

Carina looked shocked again. "Spies don't fall-"

Sarah cut her off. "That's bullshit, but, anyway, I'm not a spy anymore."

Carina looked him over in the way she always checked men out. Sarah didn't feel threatened because she knew she could trust Chuck. Carina then looked at her. "I can see the attraction, but I still think this is crazy."

Sarah nodded emphatically. "Oh, it's crazy alright, but the best thing that ever happened to me."

"And me," Chuck added.

Carina shook her head. "I never thought you'd do this, Blondie. I guess I'm pleased for you, but also disappointed. I'd hoped there was somewhere we could go dancing, but I don't suppose you'll want to now."

Sarah frowned. "Why not?"

"You have him." Carina pointed at Chuck.

Sarah chuckled. "I never went dancing to find a man."

"No, but you did occasionally," and with that, her redheaded friend grinned.

Sarah hooked her arm in Chuck's. "I haven't done that in a long time, and there's no need now." She gave Chuck a kiss on his cheek.

"I don't mind dancing, although I'm not any good at it," Chuck said.

Sarah looked at her friend. "Dancing tonight, then. Have you booked a room anywhere?"

"Not yet," Carina replied. "If I hadn't found you here, I wasn't going to stay."

"Then stay with us," Sarah said.

Carina grinned. "Are you suggesting a threesome?"

Sarah laughed. "No. We have a second bedroom. We'll have to take some things out, but then you can stay there."

Carina raised an eyebrow. "You trust me in the same apartment as your boyfriend?"

Sarah snorted. "You'd have to untangle him from me. But let's get Chuck's opinion."

She'd told Chuck about her friend before, so he knew what she was like and reacted perfectly. He looked up and down the two women who were both clad only in bikinis. Sarah tried hard not to grin. He finally looked at Carina's face. "Beautiful and sexy though you are, Carina, but for me, Sarah outclasses you completely."

"You- you-" Carina stuttered. Then she tightened her lips. "You're only saying that so she doesn't hurt you."

His eyes positively sparkled. "I hope she does!"

Sarah grinned. They weren't into that sort of thing, but he was going to get everything he asked for tonight!

Carina huffed. "I'm going to that café for a drink!" She grabbed her towel and headed up the beach.

Chuck and Sarah grinned at each other. Then, his grin faltered. "Does she know Bryce?" he asked.

She hadn't thought about that. "Red knows of him, but whether she knows what he looks like is another matter." She grabbed her things, and his hand. "We better get over there."


The previous few days had been hectic in the café. Not having Sarah helping had been a strain for Bryce, but he understood why. Graham was a problem. And the two had been working on how to challenge him.

Today, however, had been relatively quiet all day and right now, he was on his own in the café. He didn't mind, he was relaxing and talking to Jane on his phone. She was still considering moving across the island and staying with him. He didn't want to seem pushy, but at the same time, he wanted her over here.

The door opened and he said to Jane, "I'm going to have to go. I have customers."

"Talk later," she replied.

As he ended the call, he looked to see who had come in. It was a surprise. "Carina?"

She focused on him and looked at him oddly. "Bryce?"

Seeing someone from the spy world, Bryce was worried. "What brings you to the island, let alone my café?"

She didn't answer his question, but asked, "Your café, Bryce? What the hell?"

Bryce sighed. "Yes. My friend and I own this place. We set it up after I left the Company." He then asked again, "What're you doing here?"

"I decided to take a look at the island," Carina replied.

He knew she could lie better than that. Seeing him here must've really put her off her stride. Then he remembered that she and Sarah had worked together before he knew either of them, and his concern increased.

He got up and walked to the bar. He had a gun hidden there. If she was after Sarah, he'd use it.

Then the door opened again and Sarah and Chuck rushed in.

"It's alright, Bryce," Sarah said. "Carina's my friend."

Carina turned and stared at her. "You two worked together briefly, didn't you?" They both nodded. She looked at Bryce. "You had a reputation."

Bryce felt his cheeks redden. He was going to reply, but Sarah laughed out loud. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!"

Carina's lips curled, but Bryce responded to her statement. "Having reduced mobility made me rethink my life."

"Reduced?" Carina asked.

"I was shot in both the hip and the knee."

Chuck chose that moment to say, "I'm sorry we took so long to get back from the beach. That was my fault. Sarah's quicker than me. I'm just glad you're ok, Bryce."

Carina looked at the two men. "So, you're partners?" When they nodded, she asked, "How'd you know each other?"

"We were at college together," Bryce replied. He didn't want her to know any more than that.

She frowned. "Before you were CIA?"

"No. I joined before finishing at college."

Carina shook her head. "Small world."

"Carina's going to be staying with us overnight," Sarah told Bryce. From what he knew of the redhead, that didn't sound like a good idea, but he knew better than to say anything.


A/N: Well, I had to bring Carina into this, didn't I?

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