Justin sat in his room; well, Michael’s room to be precise.  His year was about to be over; he was turning eighteen tomorrow.  Three days ago, he would have been willing to give it all up and stay with the love of his life, Brian Kinney.  He would have been willing to live this boring, “normal” life just to be with his man.  He would have been willing to not see Michelle, his partner, his big sister, and his best friend, ever again.  He would have been willing to give up the life he had been destined to lead and was trained for…

But last night, an argument had made him see everything differently.  Brian hadn’t changed; he was the same Brian he had met a year ago. He thought he had been getting somewhere; that Brian’s walls were finally starting to come down, but nothing had changed.  Brian didn’t care about him.

First Justin had been confused; now he was just angry and disillusioned. 

He remembered the last conversation he had had with Michelle the night before he had left to try living in the “real world:” 

Flashback…One Year Ago…

“Sooo – are you nervous?” She asked him, sitting cross legged on her bed as he had peered over at her from his place on the mattress, his arms crossed in front of him.

“Um, no,” he answered, trying to sound confident, but she saw right through him.

“Liar!” Michelle responded, poking him in the side of his stomach as he had flinched with a soft laugh.

“Ok, Ok, I'm really nervous!” Justin admitted readily.  “What did YOU do on your first night?”

She smiled impertinently at him.  “Well... what do you think?”

His eyes widened in disbelief.  “Really?! On your first night?”

She grinned.  “Well, sure! I wanted to get it out of the way.”

He laughed.  “If you were so anxious, why you didn't do it while you were here? It's not a woman’s prison, you know!”

“Come on, Blue! You know I only choose a man based on their fighting skills... and it just happens to be that the only man who's up for the job is shorter than me…”

“And gay,” he quickly reminded her as he laughed.

Michelle winked at Justin.  “Yeah! I forgot about that little detail!” Her voice softened as she added, “I’m going to miss you, Blue.”

He smiled wistfully at her.  “I’m going to miss you, too, Michelle.” 

She looked at him tearfully.  “Promise me that you’ll come back when your year is over.”

“I promise!” He told her as her face brightened in response.  “I mean, what can ever keep me away from my best friend AND the joy of killing bad people?” 

“Good!” She answered him, looking relieved.  “Then I'll be here to greet you when this awful year is over.”

Justin reached for her and hugged her tightly as he vowed, “It's a date!”

End Flashback….

Who knew, though, that on the first night he would meet the person who would change everything? Brian…

But how could he stay after what had happened last night?

Last Night – Liberty Diner

Justin had just finished his shift at the diner; walking into the loft he was tired from a long day and he had really missed Brian.  He had called his lover an hour before the end of his shift to make sure Brian was going to be there when he got home.  

Home….

He really felt like the loft WAS his home… too bad that statement had echoed in Brian’s ear, too, but had taken on a different sort of meaning. 

Justin wound up returning to an empty loft; after showering he called Brian’s cell, but there had been no answer.  After a few hours and six unreturned calls, Brian had finally stepped into the loft, high and very drunk.


Justin had gazed at him in confusion.  “Brian? What's going on?”

“Well, hello there, Sunshine! I see you came **home!** (He remembered Brian spitting out the word like it was a curse.)

“Yes, I'm here... just like we planned, and… “

“Planned??” Brian had retorted, cutting Justin off before he could finish.  “Hell, no, Sunshine; I didn’t plan anything!”  He had told him to Justin’s dismay, turning to walk into the kitchen as he turned his back on him.

Justin had been so fucking angry; Brian was lucky he loved him so much because he thought about how he could have hurt him so bad he’d be begging for death.  Fuck knows he had been there, done that before, more times than he could count by now.  He had found himself struggling to keep his assassin side at ease because he knew if this beast was awakened, there would be no stopping it. He remembered fighting to remain calm before he had replied, “What are you talking about?  I don’t understand.”

To his surprise, Brian had retorted harshly, “I told you before; stop trying to make me into a lesbian!  I can see right through you, do you understand?”

All Justin could do was blink, stupefied, as Brian had continued, “Let me make this straight.”  He had laughed at the irony.  “I’m NOT your boyfriend and this is not your "home," so would you please just for once stop acting like we’re some bullshit fairytale couple?  You're not Cinderella and I'm no fucking Prince Charming!”

Silently Justin had blinked again as he finally took Brian's words in.  Looking at the floor he took a deep breath, feeling Brian watching him as he raised his head and looked at him with a weird sort of angry stare.  He could remember the fear reflected back at him for just a second, knowing Brian had never seen such a look before in his eyes before he had stated simply, “Clearly.” 

With a glare at Brian that could have burned a hole in his face, Justin turned around and left.

Justin woke up the next morning, not even remembering when he fell asleep; the thoughts about leaving Brian were driving him insane… and then he remembered TODAY was his birthday.

“Happy birthday, Sunshine!” Debbie cried out exuberantly as she stormed into his room.

“Hey, Deb… thanks,” he replied, smiling at her.  His smile didn’t go all the way to his eyes, however, a fact that she instantly picked up on.

“Why are you looking so sad, sweetheart?” she asked with a frown.  “It's because of that asshole, isn’t it??

“No, no, Deb. I'm fine; I just didn’t get much sleep last night, that's all…”

She pointed one red-lacquered fingernail at him as she warned him, “Well, then you’d better get happy real soon because everyone is on their way! We’re having a big party in the yard for you!”

He smiled at her in amusement.  “A party…now? It's morning, Deb.”

She smirked at him.  “Actually, it's lunch time... you slept all the way through morning, Honey.”

Justin had the decency to reply sheepishly, “Well, okay then, um… I'll be ready. I just need to run an errand first.”

She eyed him curiously for a few moments before she nodded.  “Sure, Sunshine.  Your mom is down stairs waiting for you.”  I nodded in understanding before she turned around and left.

Mom.  That's a funny word… Jennifer Taylor is nothing more than a cover up. Justin’s unit had paid a whole lot of bucks so the perfect couple, Craig and Jennifer Taylor, would be his cover for a year.  Too bad Craig had turned out to be a homophobic prick.  Jennifer had actually been grateful to be freed from the asshole when she saw his true colors, but Justin betted that she couldn’t wait to be freed of him and his gay ways… especially from Brian, who she absolutely hated.

When Justin went downstairs a few minutes later, Jennifer’s smile was so big that he knew she was just waiting for the moment he’d be forced to tell the truth.

As soon as she saw him, she dropped the huge plate of meat she had been holding and put her arms around him.

“I can't believe this day is finally here,” she whispered in his ear.” I can’t wait to see the look on his face,” she said with entirely too much pleasure.  “Can I be the one who tell him?”

Justin pursed his lips tightly together in irritation.  “I don't get it, Mom,” he replied, finding the endearment way too sour for his tongue.  “Why do you hate the man so much?  I mean, it's not like I'm your real seventeen-year-old son!”  He had to laugh at the absurdity.  “I'm not some innocent kid… I was trained to kill! I've killed in the worst way you can imagine... I can kill you right here right now if I feel like it,” Justin couldn’t help pointing out, taking inordinate pleasure in the way that Jennifer tensed at his words.

She stammered in her defense, “I... I... I just thought about the other teenagers who got seduced by this animal.”

Justin’s eyes flashed as he snarled, “Get away from me, Mom!”  Glaring at her, he walked out of the house to run his “errands.”

Walking a few blocks, he stopped in an alley and pulled out his phone…He dialed the number he had memorized since he was three…

“Hello, you have reached "Starbucks Coffee Company," the mechanical voice said.  “For customer service please press 1 now.”  Justin punched in his identity code.

After a few minutes his supervisor picked up on the other line.

“Hello, Agent.”  A calm, male voice said.

“Hello Thomas, I… it's… I….”

“Well, I think we'll start by wishing you a Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Agent,” was the response.

“Thank you, Sir.”

There was a pause before Thomas asked quietly, “Now, did you make a decision?”

Justin bit his lip for a moment as he hesitated.  “Sir, I was wondering if I could propone my answer for a few hours.”

He was relieved when he heard the other man’s response.  “No problem, Justin. I'll be expecting your call.”   And then Thomas hung up.

That was weird, Justin thought.  In all his life Thomas had never agreed so easily to anything! Something is up… I'll have to keep my eyes open.

Justin returned to the house just as Michael got there, where they met at the door.  Justin wanted nothing to do with this whining poor excuse of a man.  He tried to ignore him and was just about to go in when to his annoyance Michael called out to him.

“Wonder Boy, I think I've got some bad news for you,” he told Justin with a smug sort of expression.  “Now that Brian doesn’t have to worry about being thrown in jail, I think he's done with you. You see, Brian likes the danger of hooking up with a teenager… and now that you're legal the magic is gone… oh, well… Happy Birthday, anyway!”    

Justin was just about to grab and break the little man’s arm when Debbie opened the door and swept Michael into a hug.

Lucky bastard, was all Justin could think at the moment…

When Justin walked in Emmett and Ted wished him a Happy Birthday.  Lindsay and Melanie, of course, gave him a kiss on the cheek.  He was just picking up Gus to say hello when he heard Michael’s whiny voice once more, the cacophonous sound grating on his nerves once more.

“Hey, Bri!” was the surprised reply.  “What are you doing here?”

“It's Sunshine’s birthday, Mikey.  I was invited,” Brian responded with his typical, tongue-in-cheek smirk as if nothing had happened. 

Justin turned around slowly.  Their eyes met across the room and he felt his heart racing. He was the best assassin in the world, and yet when he looked at those deep, hazel eyes he felt like he was about to collapse.

 He put Gus back down and went upstairs; entering the bathroom he looked at himself in the mirror.  What was he going to do? A tear went down his cheek when suddenly he got very angry at himself.  He was the most lethal man in the world and all he could do is cry like a little girl because a man told him that he doesn't care about him? Get a grip, Justin! With that he left the bathroom and rushed into Michael's room, a smile devilish developing as he entered.

He stood in the middle of the room before he spun and kicked the chair, breaking it into a million pieces.

Let's see you handle THIS Justin, Brian Kinney, Justin thought.  

Brian watched as Justin put down Gus and went upstairs.  He knew he had fucked up the other night, but it was too late to change it; besides, he knew Justin would understand.  He would come back to him... he always did.  Sure, he's hurt right now but it wasn’t his fault. Justin knew from the very beginning that he doesn't do love.

Yes, he wanted Justin around, but that didn’t mean he needed a reminder during every conversation that he was changing; when you think about he had changed a lot for Justin.  Didn’t he deserve some credit for that? Yes, he does, he decided silently.  Justin knows that… He'll be back… he always comes back.  That was the last thought that went through his mind as Justin reappeared in the living room with a strange look on his face, determination mixed with something else that he just couldn't quite put his finger on.

As Justin walked back into the living room he saw Brian looking at him; now, however, he couldn't care less, he was himself again… cold blooded killer.

It was done; he was going back to work in a few hours.  But not before he tells Brian just what he thinks of him… and of course do something he wished he have done for a whole fucking year…. Kick Michael's ass!  He started to make his way to Brian slowly but surely… not breaking eye contact for a second.

Brian just stood there and watched Justin walking toward him.  The almost feral, wild look in his eyes started to really freak him out, but frankly it also turned him on a little.  He just waited; he knew when Justin got to him that it was going to be a new experience.

Justin was just about to reach him, however, when Jennifer unexpectedly pulled Justin's arm and dragged him outside.  When they were on the porch Justin swiftly surprised her by quickly pinning her body to the wall of the house with his hand tightly wrapped around her throat.

“Justin!” she gasped out in alarm, shaking as she tried to get his hand off her throat.  “Please calm down! I'm begging you!”

Justin leaned in close to her and whispered, “What the hell do you want, bitch? Can't you see I'm in the middle of something?”

Jennifer scrambled frantically to reply, “I saw you!  Justin, please let me go!  I just wanted you to think about what you’re about to do.  Please, Justin, calm down! Do you really want to hurt them?”  As she spoke, she felt Justin’s grip loosen a little.  “Debbie is like a mother to you; if you hurt anyone in there your unit will kill everyone!”

Justin continued to hold onto her throat for a few moments longer, until he freed her from his grip, stood there and just blinked; he couldn't believe what he had been about to do.

"I'm sorry,” he mumbled with atypical softness, trying to calm down his rapidly beating heart.

Jennifer let out a shaky breath of relief before replying, “Just don't hurt anyone.  If you choose to go back to your life, your unit will probably fake your death and no one in that house will be hurt.”

Justin frowned at her words.  He had never been told that. “Fake my death? How do you know that?”

“It's in the contract Craig and I signed... if you choose your real life, we need to act like our son died,” she explained.  “They prepared us for that option before they let us be your cover.”

All Justin could do was breathe deeply… he never thought that his family would have to deal with the grief of losing him; it was just too much for him.

He sat on the porch as Jennifer rushed inside, his mind whirling.  Now his choice was even harder.  Could he bring so much pain and suffering to these people?

 He was thinking so hard he never heard the door opening and someone sitting beside him…

 “You know, for a birthday boy you don't seem all that happy,” was the soft drawl.

“Wh…what? Brian? What the fuck? How long have you been sitting there?”

 “Long enough,” was the enigmatic reply. 

“What do you want?”  Justin had meant for the words to come out much more harshly than they did, but right now he was feeling simply exhausted; instead, his words emerged tinged with frustration as he averted his gaze downward toward the ground.

Brian struggled to explain.  “You were looking kind of angry before, Sunshine, and I just…”

“And why would I be angry at you, huh?” Justin pressed as he looked over at him, both knowing the reason why already.

Brian almost looked uncomfortable as he replied, “Listen… I know I've been an ass.  But I, well…”

Justin had had enough.  “Just stop it, ok? You never promised me anything, Brian. It was all in my head.”  His voice rose as he almost screamed out the last part.  “It's my fault I fell in love with a PRICK!!!!”  He couldn't deal with him anymore.  He was about to stand up when Brian stopped him.

Justin eyed him expectantly as Brian met his gaze evenly.  “Justin… I told you; I want you around.”

Despite what he had just said, Justin's heart was melting.  It was a relatively small declaration, but Justin couldn't deny it anymore; he loved this man more then he would ever know…He opened his mouth and was just about to answer when he heard…

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLUE!”

Brian watched as a tall, beautiful woman with extremely long, black hair stood there staring knowingly at Justin.  Who was she? Brian looked from her to Justin; from the surprised look on his face, it was obvious he hadn’t been expecting her arrival.

"Michelle? What... what are you doing here?" Justin asked nervously.  Was this what Thomas had been planning?  Was that why he had let him off the hook so easily? He didn’t know how to react.  He was happy to see her, but on the other hand he was scared to death.  If she knew he was undecided about returning to the unit, she would be so angry; so angry that she might just kill everyone in the house.

"I came to take you home," she told him quietly, confirming his fears.

"But... I… I can't,” Justin stammered uncharacteristically.  Just as he started talking to his friend, Brian approached them with a curious look on his face. 

“Well, Sunshine, I thought I knew all your friends,” he joked as he eyed the newcomer intently.  Brian looked at Justin expectantly, making him feel a little uncomfortable under the intensity of his stare.

"Um... this is Michelle."

“Michelle? And how do you know the birthday boy?” Brian inquired politely as he placed his hand around Justin’s shoulders.

Michelle looked at Brian and then to her best friend who had a fearful look in his eyes, a look she wasn’t accustomed to seeing.

"We were friends when I was younger,” Justin told him; he lied so easily that he wondered if he had been kidding himself when he thought he could have a real future outside his unit.  “She was our neighbor until she moved away,” he explained.

"But we stayed in touch, of course," Michelle added with a smile.

“And you are…?” she asked politely, offering a hand to the tall, handsome man.  

“Brian Kinney,” he responded smoothly with a smug smile as he shook her hand.  “I'm sure Justin told you about me.”

"Yeah, of course; it's nice to finally put a face with the name,” Michelle covered just as smoothly, looking over at Justin to observe a guilty look on her best friend’s face as she wondered exactly what was going on.

Justin freed himself from Brian’s arm and smiled at him, hoping that it he would take the hint and go inside the house.  "Um... Brian, can you tell everyone that Michelle and I went for walk? We need some catching up time."

Brian looked at Justin and Michelle with suspicion but did as he was told.

Michelle was able to keep her composure until she and Justin were a few blocks away from the house, but once they were definitely alone she couldn’t control her curiosity or anger any longer.

“What the hell is going on, Justin?”

Justin knew the minute Michelle called him by his name that she was pissed.

“It's nothing, Michelle... did Thomas send you?”

“Of course he sent me!” she replied brusquely, verifying his suspicions.  “Come on, Blue! What is wrong with you?  You look so... Innocent! Where is my partner?  Is he in there?” she asked as she eyed Justin with scrutiny.  She paused, noticing how uncomfortable Justin looked before she asked bluntly, “It's that Brian, isn't it?

“No.  Brian is just a friend… nothing more.”

The lie poured from Justin’s lips, a lie that would work on anybody out in the real world – after all, he hadn’t become as good as he was without knowing how to tell a ‘proper’ lie – but Michelle was not fooled.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. 

“You love him! I can see it! Come on, Justin just admit it! You're in love with him!”

Justin didn't say anything but from the way he looked at Michelle it was obvious that she was right.  “Does he love you back?

“No,” Justin whispered painfully.

“So what's the problem then?”  She pressed.  Justin didn’t answer her, but merely averted his gaze down at the ground.   “Justin, I just don't understand.  If he doesn't love you back, why can't you just come back with me?”

“I don't know what to do, Michelle!” Justin admitted with almost a cry of anguish.  “I just don't!”

Michelle looked at Justin with her mouth slightly agape.  She couldn't believe it was him.  Sure, he looked like her best friend and sounded like her best friend, but everything else was so much different:  the way he was standing, the way he nervously touched his hair, his stutter. If you had told her a few days ago that her Blue, her best friend, her partner, would be standing in front of her so weak and insecure, she would have never believed it! And yet here he was and it was happening right in front of her eyes.   Her eyes flashed as she chided him, "I think you need a reminder; I think you’ve been playing the innocent little teenager so well that you’ve forgotten who you really are!"

Justin bristled at the reproach.  “I know exactly who I am; all the killings we did…”

"Killings? Seriously? Blue, don't you remember how much you LIKED it? Come on Justin! We were so good that Thomas let us pick our own jobs!  We got a free hand at killing the true evil of this world!  And I'm not talking about the sniper shot from far away at a dirty politician’s head, or the fake heart attacks we caused by lethal injection.  Don't you remember that Russian mob lord who raped and beat to death 23 women?”  Her eyes begin to twinkle as she remembered all their previous ‘jobs.’ “You cut off his fingers and fed them to him!”  

She smiled as Justin just blinked.  “And how about that Japanese child molester? The way you broke his arm and his leg in a single kick!  And you finished him off by wrapping a metal wire around his throat, kicking him so hard from behind that you almost knocked his head off! That was classic!" She said with total admiration.

As she spoke, flashbacks rushed into Justin's mind as he saw and felt everything all over again.  "We… I… I didn't…"

Michelle couldn’t believe her ears; was this really her partner or a poor substitute?  “Would you stop with the fucking stuttering already?  What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Debbie glanced up as Brian walked into the house.  "Where's Sunshine?" she asked.

 "He met an old friend and went for a walk."

"An old friend?"

Brian nodded, still unable to quite figure out who the dark-haired woman was that appeared to make Justin so uncomfortable.  "Yeah… Michelle something…"

“Oh, Michelle!” Jennifer piped up, having heard their conversation from her place nearby on the couch.  “She grew up with Justin; she was our neighbor until her family moved away.”

As he walked toward the couch, Brian listened to Jennifer going on and on about Michelle and Justin’s friendship, but he couldn't believe that Justin would keep a secret like that from him.  She had been such a good friend and he had never mentioned her even once?

This day is just getting weirder and weirder by the second, he couldn’t help thinking as he sat down in an overstuffed chair of Debbie’s with a multi-colored, crocheted blanket draped over the back.

Jennifer finished lying her ass off as she looked at Brian with a self-satisfied sort of smile.

This is the end, she thought to herself smugly.  Soon I'll be free of that horrible man.

She couldn't help herself as she rose to walk over to where Brian was sitting.  Bending over, she leaned in close to him and whispered simply, "you lost him."

Michelle looked at Justin as he remembered his real life and suddenly realized something.  "I have an idea that will make your decision very easy,” she assured him.

“What?” He asked with extreme trepidation, somehow already knowing what she was about to say.  His blood ran cold as she answered him.

“I will kill him.” 

Brian snapped his head to look into Jennifer’s eyes; what the fuck did THAT mean?

Jennifer walked away, however, before he had a chance to ask her, feeling very amused and satisfied as he looked at the confusion and uncertainty in his face.

Brian let her words wash over him; did he really lose Justin?  This was a very strange day… could this be the answer to all that's being going on?  But maybe he was overreacting since it wasn't the only weird scenario that had happened since he had met his lover…

**Flashback**

Brian was in his jeep heading to the loft; he knew Justin would be there since he was working the late shift in the diner and it was only 3:30.  Nursing a bitch of a headache, he decided he would leave work and let his Sunshine pamper him back to health. 

When he walked into his loft a few minutes later, he saw Justin wearing only his low rising jeans, dancing with a big headphone around his ears.  Despite his headache, Brian couldn’t help laughing a little at the sight before him.  Walking over quietly, he approached his lover from behind and stealthily put a hand on his shoulder; the next thing he knew he was flying in the air and landing on his back on the cold floor with Justin on top of him and his forearm on his throat.

 "What the fuck, Justin???" is all Brian could get out of his mouth as he gasped for air.

 "Oh my God, Brian! I'm sorry! It's just… You startled me," Justin said as he let him go and got up, offering Brian his hand.

 "Yeah, no shit!" Brian groused a little defensively as he rose to his fee unaided. "Where the fuck did that came from, Justin?"

 "It's nothing, really," Justin mumbled as he looked away.  

"Nothing? You went all freaking Matrix on me!"

 Trying to deflect any suspicion toward him, Justin smiled and stepped closer to Brian as he replied soothingly, "You’re overreacting.  I learned it in a self-defense class, that's all.  Aren’t you happy that I can defend myself?" 

"Yeah, well, that must have been some class,” he replied as he rubbed his neck where Justin had been gripping it only moments before.

 **End of flashback**

  "You want to kill Brian?"  I could barely get the words out of my mouth.

Michelle smiled like it was the most natural thing in the world.  "The way I see it he's the only reason you can't come back with me,” she stated reasonably.  “If he’s gone, everything would be back to normal." 

Justin just looked at her shocked, his heart pounding with fear for the man he had fallen in love with. "Just like that? You want to kill this man just because you think I feel something for him?? This is a human being were talking about! Don't you have any feelings??”

She stared at him incredulously.  Why would he even ask her that?  "Well, no; and you don't have them, either.”

Justin’s mind drifted back to the first night he had met Brian… when everything had changed.

*Flashback**

 Justin had just finished unpacking; Craig and Jennifer looked like a nice couple, so he decided to go and check out Liberty Avenue.  Michelle's words echoed in his mind as he smiled in recollection. 

 "Don't you dare come back a virgin, you hear me?" She had admonished him. 

Well, he thought, he'll just need to get this shit over with, as she would say….

A short while later he stood under a street light, watching the circus of people walking past him.  Most of the men were kind of average at best; hell, in his unit there were certainly more attractive men, but it was a tradition to lose your virginity on your "year off,” so he just stood there waiting for someone he could feel at least a little attracted to.

 And then he saw him. **GOD** was walking toward him; he was slick as a cat with the smoldering eyes of a predator that had just seen his prey, and his heart began to pound in anticipation.

 Justin looked at him and knew… the innocent scared little boy act would be perfect on this man…

Let the game begin! he thought.

 **End of flashback**

All Justin was going to do that day was lose his virginity to this perfect looking Greek god.  But then he kissed him, and it was the most intense feeling of his life.  He had opened his eyes as the kiss had ended, and as he looked at Brian’s eyes he saw that he felt it, too.  There was something there; something that was more than pure, unadulterated lust.  He fell madly in love in that second… Brian was all that he wanted. Every kiss he had shared with Brian had made him slowly believe that this is where he was supposed to be… this was the life he was meant to live.

He couldn't go back with Michelle…He wasn't the man she knew anymore.

While he contemplated what to do, Michelle left him alone for a while to make a phone call.

 "Sir?"

 "Yes, agent, did you successfully complete the mission?"

 There was a pause on the other end before Michelle admitted, "It’s harder than I thought it would be, Sir; he's totally hooked on this little boy crap. If we don't act fast we’re going to lose him!"

 She could almost feel the disapproval oozing through the phone as her boss answered tersely, "No, I won't accept that, agent; your mission was to bring Justin back to us.  He's too valuable.  You have a free hand to do whatever is necessary to bring him back, understood?"

"Yes, Sir."  And with that the conversation ended.

 A free hand, huh?  Michelle thought. I'm not giving up on you, Blue… you belong with me. I'm completing this mission even if it's the last thing that I do!

As Michelle returned to Justin she was pretty sure he had decided to stay here and not come back with her; she suspected she would have to move more quickly than she had thought.

"Michelle, listen, I've decided to…." Justin began, but she didn’t give him a chance to continue.

She smiled at him disarmingly.  "Hey! Hey! Where's the fire, huh? No one said you had to make your decision today.  I just got off the phone with Thomas and he's giving you a few more days to make your decision; isn't that great?"

Justin eyed her warily. "I guess…"

She continued to smile at him with her most engaging smile, hoping he would decide she could be trusted.  "So how about you go back to your little party, and I'll pick you up tomorrow for a fun day together?"

Justin was a little suspicious about what Michelle's idea of a "fun day" would mean; but he really had missed her so he replied, “Sure, that would be great."

“Good! Well, I have to run; I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” she responded as she gave him a hug.

"Bye."  Justin walked slowly back to Debbie's house.  He felt so guilty; he shouldn't put these people in so much danger.

Agents in their free year were supposed to be in close contact with their cover parents and basically party all night long, seven nights a week, but all he did was get a job… a family….real friends, and fall in love with Brian. And now that this year was about to end he had two choices, both of which had a bad outcome:  protect his loved ones by going back to his real life and never seeing them again, leaving them to deal with the ‘death’ of their eighteen-year-old friend.  Or he could stay and have to lie for the rest of his life, putting his family in the line of fire, because he knew Thomas would never give up on him, not that easily anyway.

He walked into Debbie's house and was immediately greeted by her, not giving him nearly enough time to contemplate everything that was happening or what he would soon have to decide.

"Sunshine!  You're just in time for the cake"! Debbie screamed happily, oblivious to his turmoil.

Justin forced a smile on his face as he replied as enthusiastically as he could, "great.”

Before he knew it he was sitting in a chair with everyone surrounding him and singing Happy Birthday and a big, round cake with 18 candles was thrust in front of his face.

As everyone stared at him expectantly, he closed his eyes and pretended to wish something; after all, he doubted if wishes come true. If they did, the man he killed would be alive right now…

He blew the candles out and smiled his perfect sunshine smile as everyone clapped.

Brian looked at Justin, feeling a rush of emotions; he needed to talk to him about what Jennifer had said.  He couldn’t get it out of his mind.  He decided there was no better time than the present to do just that.

He walked up to Justin and said quietly, "Can we talk?"

"Um… sure, Brian," Justin answered, flushing a little at the intense look on his lover’s face.

"In privacy? Upstairs?"

Justin gazed up into his eyes before he nodded and scooted back from the table.  “Lead the way."

They went into Michael’s old room as Justin panicked a little, hoping Brian wouldn’t notice that the computer chair had been tossed out the window… literally!  After he had smashed it earlier in a fit of anger, he had thrown the pieces outside…

While Justin was worrying, Brian just looked at him, watching the emotions filter across his face.  He couldn’t figure out on Justin’s birthday of all days why he would be so stressed out?

"Justin,” he called out softly, silently urging him to look at him.

"Yeah?" Justin replied, walking over to the bed to sit down on it.

"Jennifer told me something when you were out…"

Justin’s mind began to race; what the hell did she say to him? Did she tell him the truth? If she did, she was good as fucking dead!

"What did she say?" he asked, his heart pounding with anxiety.

Brian swallowed hard before he told him, "She said… That I had lost you.”

Justin looked at Brian then; he was amazed not by what Jennifer had said, but by the genuine look of concern he detected in Brian’s eyes.  Brian was worried that he had lost him!

But he had to be reassured; he had been hurt before by this man.  "Since when do you care if I'm in your life or not? All you do is push me away… it's like I’m dating a character from a fucking Katie Perry song…!!

Justin started softly repeating the words of the song as he stood up and began to pace slowly around the room, moving his hands from left to right as he pointed out the opposites mentioned in every sentence:

You're hot….Then you're cold

You're yes….Then you're no

You're in…Then you're out

You're up…Then you're down

He stopped to whirl around and face him to say, “It's like you have two personalities, Brian! I don’t know which one I'm going to get! It’s like I'm playing an emotional Russian roulette when it comes to you!"

And then it hit him:  DATING BRIAN WAS LIKE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE!

But that’s when he realized why he didn't miss the thrill of his job; Brian kept him on the edge all the time.  Did that mean if Brian changed and loved him back the thrill would be over?  Would he miss his job after all?

Brian didn't know what to say as he stared over at Justin.  Words were never his way of expressing himself; action was.  The only thing that seemed to make sense to him right then was to take Justin in his arms. Walking over to where his lover stood, he put his hands around his waist as Justin lifted his gaze to peer up into his eyes. 

Leaning forward, his lips brushed his as he whispered against his mouth, “Let me show you how I feel about you, Sunshine.”

No further words were necessary at that moment as Brian pushed their bodies closer together while their lips met for a deep kiss; his tongue slid out to slide across the full lips of his lover’s and he heard a soft moan of acquiescence as Justin’s mouth opened enough for him to press inside to deepen the kiss.  His heart leapt as he felt Justin slide his own hands up his chest, palms down, before he began to unbutton his denim shirt.  Brian dropped his hands to his side as they continued to kiss, allowing Justin to silently push the material off his torso and his arms, the shirt dropping softly to the floor beside them.  Breaking their kiss for just a moment, Brian gave Justin a soft smile, his eyes telling him what his heart felt, as he reached down to the hem of Justin’s shirt to pull it up and off his body, Justin obligingly raising his arms up to allow easier access.

They begin to kiss again in earnest as Brian backed him up toward the bed; Justin fell easily onto the mattress as he felt the back of his knees bump up against it, Brian falling on top of him as they continued to kiss uninterrupted, both men needing, craving more.  It was almost as if the intensity of the emotions from this day was fueling their desire as Brian broke off the kiss to begin unsnapping Justin’s jeans to slide the garment and his snug, white briefs down the pale legs as Justin raised his hips to help him.  

Justin swallowed at the almost feral look of need in Brian’s eyes as they traveled down his chest and to his cock, hard and full with desire for him.  “Brian,” he whispered out in a jagged breath; his heart pounding in his chest in reaction.  “I... I want…”  He was unable to completely formulate the words; his love for this man, the depth of it, threatened to render him speechless with just one look from him.

“Tell me, Justin,” Brian implored softly as he finished pulling off the rest of Justin’s clothing and shoes to discard them onto the floor nearby.  “Tell me that you want me as much as I want you.”  Justin’s heart almost stopped at the almost plaintive tone in Brian’s voice, so unlike the normally confident man he was used to hearing. 

“Yes,” he couldn’t help replying sincerely.  “You know I do.”  Brian’s eyes bored into his as he rose up from the bed and quickly unbuttoned his jeans and toed off his shoes to hurriedly discard the rest of his clothing in a heap next to Justin’s, taking just a moment to grab a condom and a small tube of lube from one of the pockets and place it down on the mattress.  Now standing naked before his beautiful, blond lover, he couldn’t help taking just a moment to gaze upon the amazing site of Justin sprawled out on the dark blue sheets waiting for him before he crawled back onto the bed and draped his longer body on top of his, feeling Justin’s heart fluttering like a caged bird beneath his chest.  Taking Justin’s hands in his, he pinned them above Justin’s head and stared into the expressive, blue eyes as he reached in for another, even deeper kiss, hearing Justin moan as he wriggled his body in pleasure underneath him; angling his head, he pressed their lips even more tightly together. 

Releasing his grip on Justin’s hands and reluctantly breaking off their kiss after a few minutes, Brian rose back up onto his knees and reached for what he needed.  He knew form the throbbing in his cock and the rapid beating of his own heart that he would not last much longer, but he knew where he wanted to be when he came; firmly imbedded inside the most wondrous place on Earth. 

Never taking his eyes off Justin, who silently gazed up at him, he took a moment to rip off the corner of the condom with his teeth before he pulled the latex out of the small package and held it up for Justin to see.   “Put it on me,” he told Justin, his voice ragged and raspy in anticipation.  He had never considered it a major turn on to have a lover place the condom on him, but with Justin somehow it made the entire act that more intense.  He loved it when Justin took control and slid it down his shaft, his warm hands lightly brushing against his cock as he pulled the material all the way down to cover him. 

Justin nodded as he swallowed hard, feeling the jolt of electricity as their hands briefly came together as Brian handed the condom to him.  He had the latex in place in no time, even with his hands shaking with desire.

A thrill coursed through him, much like the same feeling he used to get when he killed some low life, as Brian quickly popped open the small tube of lube and, taking a moment to rub it around in his palms to warm it up, smeared some on his cock and around his hole before he grabbed his legs to help him link them behind his back. 

“No,” Justin protested as Brian began to press his fingers inside him.  Today, he didn’t want too slow or too easy.  He wanted reassurance of Brian’s love for him, he needed his reassurance.  “I want you,” he pleaded, knowing that Brian would know what he meant.

Brian stared into his eyes for a moment longer before he nodded in understanding.  “Ready?” He whispered out, his breathing shallow as he thought about making love to Justin once more; of course, he shouldn’t be surprised.  He always felt something incredible whenever he and Justin were together. 

Justin nodded as his lover lined himself up with his body and slowly pushed in, feeling the initial burn give way quickly to an indescribable pleasure as he felt Brian hit that one spot again and again that drove him wild.  He moaned loudly as Brian began to rain kisses on his neck, his cheek, his eyelids, and then dove in once more to kiss him deeply on the lips as his own hands came up to grasp his lover’s biceps to hold on tightly as their pace began to pick up to a rapid, almost frantic boil. 

He thrust harder and harder, his movements matched perfectly by his lover’s as felt his entire body tensing with uncontrollable passion and he neared climax; reaching down he grasped Justin’s hot, heavy cock in his slick hand as he began to stroke it in time with his thrusts, hearing Justin panting and moaning beneath him while he writhed in the throes of ecstasy.  “That’s it,” he grunted out in encouragement as he felt Justin’s body tensing beneath him.  “Come for me, Justin; do it,” he urged his lover as they mutually built toward a precipice of their desire.  He heard Justin let out an even louder cry and call out his name just then just before he felt the hot, sticky, milky liquid spurting onto his hand, chest, and belly; moments later, his own pleasure overtook him as he, too, released his load into the condom and then fell, exhausted and sweaty, on top of his lover. 

Afterward, Justin lay there with his head on Brian's chest as his mind raced and a song echoed in his head:

Eyes

Like a sunrise

Like a rainfall

Down my soul

And I wonder

I wonder why you look at me like that

What you're thinking

What's behind

Don't tell me

But it feels like love

I'm gonna take this moment

And make it last forever

I'm gonna give my heart away

And pray we'll stay together

Cause you're the one good reason

You're the only man that I need

Cause you're more beautiful than I have ever seen

I'm gonna take this night

And make it Evergreen

Brian found himself deep in thought, too, as he cradled Justin in his arms, feeling the steady beating of his heart against his:

Touch

Like an angel

Like velvet to my skin

And I wonder

Wonder why you wanna stay the night

What you're dreaming

What's behind

Don't tell me

But it feels like love

I'm gonna take this moment

And make it last forever

I'm gonna give my heart away

And pray we'll stay together

Cause you're the one good reason

You're the only man that I need

Cause you're more beautiful than I have ever seen

I'm gonna take this night

And make it Evergreen

Angling his head after a few minutes so he could look down into Justin’s eyes, Brian slowly stroked Justin’s shoulder as he asked quietly, “Sunshine?"

Justin turned his head just enough to gaze into Brian’s eyes, wondering if he could tell what he was thinking and feeling at that moment.  "Yes?"

"You're coming home with me tonight, right?"

Justin’s eyes clouded over with regret.  "I can't, Brian; Michelle's picking me up in the morning."

And then he came back down to reality.  Michelle was picking him up; but just what the hell was she planning?? 

"Have fun, you two!" Debbie called out to Justin and Michelle from the doorway of the house as they walked toward the car.

"So... are you gonna tell me where we’re going?" Justin asked as he buckled himself into the passenger seat.  His found that his palms were sweating slightly in nervous expectation.

"You always lacked patience, Blue,” Michelle chided him.  “Let's just say I have a surprise for you," she replied mysteriously as she pulled out into the road.

"Let's say more," Justin insisted as he tried again to find out what was going on.  But to his frustration, Michelle merely shook her head and smiled as she turned on the radio.

With each minute that passed while they were driving, Justin noticed the area becoming less and less populated.  After one hour, the buildings were getting fewer and fewer in number; by the second hour of the drive they were in a totally deserted area.

"We’re here!" Michelle said happily as they stopped near an abandoned factory.

What the hell are we doing here? Justin thought as he got out of the car to stand next to the dilapidated, looming building.

Despite his trepidation, he followed Michelle and entered the building, noticing there was nothing but a huge, open space with junk leaning against the only wall still standing intact; the other three walls were crumbling and partially collapsed.  By the time he finished looking around the place Michelle was no longer at his side.

Suddenly a gun was sliding in his direction on the floor, and he heard Michelle's voice from far away. "I suggest you pick up the gun, Blue; you’ll need it,” was the stern directive. 

Justin picked up the gun quickly; what the hell was going on?!

He walked slowly into the next room when he saw papers on the floor; as he got closer to them he realized they were photos of young boys and young men.

What the fuck was Michelle planning? There must be hundreds of photos on the floor. A cold chill swept through his body as he lifted his gaze and turned slightly around, his mouth gaping open in shock.

In the middle of the room were two man strapped into a chair, each of them were their mouths duct taped and looking like they had been beaten.  The moment they saw Justin they started screaming, their sounds muffled by their mouths being taped shut.

Justin dropped the gun and ran over quickly to try and free the two men.  The sound of his partner’s voice, however, stopped him dead in his tracks.

"You shouldn't drop your gun, Blue," he heard Michelle say from behind him.  He could almost feel her gun pointing at him from behind as he slowly turned around to face her…

"I mean they taught us that in the first grade," she put her hand on her waist, smiling, her gun presently pointing at the floor.  But for how long?

"What the fuck is this, Michelle? Have you lost your mind? Let them go!"  Justin demanded.

"Aren't you curious as to who they are, Blue?" she asked, now waving her gun at them.

Justin could see the men’s eyes widen with obvious signs of fear as he replied urgently, "No! Now let them go before I…" Justin said, beginning to warn her.

"Before you what? You dropped your gun!" she reminded him, pointing at his gun on the floor with the muzzle of her own.

"You know very well I don't need a gun," he told her evenly, an evil smile of his own beginning to spread across his face.  He may not have made his decision yet, but one thing he was sure of was his abilities.  There was a good reason why Thomas wanted him back so badly.

"Yes, I do" she admitted, seeing the familiar look in his eyes.  "Very well,” Michelle said, walking toward Justin and the two men who were tied up to their chairs; her eyes, though, were strictly on her partner’s.  "I think that after so many years of friendship I deserve a few minutes to explain before you kick my ass, though." She smiled again, now standing on the opposite side of the victims.

"Shoot," Justin half-teased, half-challenged her with a very evil and dangerous smile.

Michelle beamed smugly at him; so far her plan was working.  He was already looking and talking like her old Blue!

She leaned down to the closest victim next to her, moving the trembling man’s sweaty hair away from his face with the tip of her gun as she said, “Say hello to Ethan Gold."

She swaggered over to the other side and put the gun to the other man’s crotch as she advised, "And this wonderful guest is Chris Hobbes."

Michelle reached into the back and took out her knife… she cut the ropes that tied Ethan to Chris as Ethan fell to the ground; he started to crawl away but with his hands and legs tied together it was extremely difficult.

"Where do you think you’re going?" Michelle growled, stepping on his back to immobilize him.  His cheek touched one of the photos on the floor as she pressed down tightly to hold him in place.

"Are you scared?" Michelle taunted him from above.   "Feeling like you want to cry?"

Ethan struggled to twist himself from her grasp, but she stilled his movements by putting her gun to his head… "Stay put, bitch!" Preoccupied with her captives, Michelle lifted her head just then to observe Justin walking away from her and Ethan.

"Where are you going?" she asked

She asked Justin as he walked back to where he dropped his gun earlier… he bent over and picked up the gun. 

Justin walked back over to her, the gun clutched firmly in his hand now but pointing at the ground.  "Well? Are you going to tell me who the fuck they are?" he said.

She smirked.  “Well, I wouldn’t want to be rude now, would I?  Let’s start with this motherfucker, shall we?”  She reached down to wrench the duct tape from Ethan’s mouth as, seizing the opportunity, he immediately started screaming.  “Help me!”

"Shut the fuck up!" Justin warned as he pointed his gun to his head in irritation; he knew his whimpering and carrying on would not help the situation.

Michelle smiled in satisfaction; she was fucking brilliant!  Her plan was working like a charm. She pulled Ethan up so he could sit on the floor and sat beside him; Ethan stared at her in terror as she talked to him like he was some old friend.

"Mr. Gold, would you care to tell my very good friend about yourself?” she said as she cradled her gun in her hand, leaving no question as to whether or not Ethan could actually leave.  But to his credit, as terrified as he was, Ethan didn’t say a word. 

“Aww… It seems our guest is a little shy, Blue!  Fine; I’ll Justin all about you,” she said helpfully with a sneer as she stood up, still taking care to keep her gun aimed in Ethan’s direction.  She glanced over at Justin, who stood silently nearby as she began to explain, “You see, Ethan here was a child prodigy.  He learned to play the violent when he was just four years old.  Impressive, isn’t it?  Can you believe it?”

But Justin’s sense of humor was quickly leaving him, as well as his patience over his partner’s subterfuge.  “So you brought him here just because you hate classical music?” he commented dryly.

"Well… don't get me started on that,” she said with a laugh as if they were old friends discussing the merits of classical music versus other types of music.  “You see, Ethan is very versatile; he’s a private violin teacher.  In fact, he LOVES to teach.  Especially little boys.”

Justin’s face turned red with anger as Michelle explained all about her dark-haired captive. She bent down to touch Ethan’s cheek with her gun.  “Of course, no mother would ever suspect that this pretty little face was, in fact, helping to hide a pervert…”

Ethan felt the cold metal of the gun against his skin as he cried out in desperation, “"I didn’t do anything! I swear, you’ve got the wrong guy!"

But his pleas fell on deaf ears as Michelle continued her narrative and looked Justin in the eyes.  "He’s molested 17 boys so far, Blue... and he’s just 23."

The more Michelle told him, the angrier Justin got; to him, child molesters were worse than scum on his shoe.  In a fit of rage, he grabbed Ethan by the hair as the man cried out, “Wait!  Please!  I’m sorry!  I’ll never do it again, I swear!  Please!  I have a boyfriend!” 

Boyfriend….. Justin blinked in realization of what he was about to do as Brian’s face appeared in his mind; he fought to control his harsh breathing, holding onto Ethan’s hair by his fist until finally he unclenched his hand and backed away.  “No… No!” he told Michelle as he stared over at her.  “I can’t do this!”  As much as he despised the man that was staring up at him in wary relief, he just couldn’t do it. 

Michelle had anticipated this possibility, but had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.  She bent down and picked up a few pictures from the floor to up the ante, knowing he wouldn’t be able to ignore them.

"Look at this, Justin!" she commanded as she shoved the photos in front of his face.  "These pictures represent all the boys he'll hurt over the years.  All the boys who could be saved if you just intervene."

Justin closed his eyes briefly in agony, torn over what to do, before he opened them back up to glare at her.  "Stop it! I can't, Michelle!"

His partner’s eyes flashed in fury as she demanded, "Look at the floor, Justin! Look at how many kids he's going to hurt! He’s evil! We have to kill him!!  It’s the only way to prevent any more innocent lives from being hurt!”

"I said no!" Justin clipped out, meeting her eyes unflinchingly.

Michelle pursed his lips tightly together in aggravation.  "Fine!" she spat out at last, turning around to observe Ethan a few feet away, once more attempting to slink away from them unnoticed… Picking up her gun, she turned her head to look at Justin and smiled – a sickly sweet smile – just before she turned and shot Ethan exactly where she wanted to shoot him; in the leg.

Ethan screamed in pain from the impact of the bullet as her other captive started screamed as well, his cries of horror muffled by the duct tape still over his mouth.

Justin didn't say a word; he just stood there unable to move.  He didn’t know what to do.

Walking slowly over to Ethan – knowing there was no way he could get away now – Michelle grabbed him by the hair as he lay there screaming and crying from the pain of the gunshot wound and began to drag him back to where Chris was held prisoner in the other chair; there were tears of fright in Hobbes’ eyes as he wondered if he was going to be next…

"Don't you want to finish him off, Blue?" Michelle asked as she finally let go of his hair and Ethan slumped to the ground in agony.

Justin could feel the old, familiar blood churning in his veins, the powerful magnetic pull as he stood there in indecision.  God, he wanted to finish the bastard off so badly!  It was almost like he was a heroin junkie, craving another fix and knowing he was within reach of it.  But as he stood there, he called upon an even bigger addiction he now possessed to combat it:  Brian.  He had to fight this.  He had to be a better man – for Brian. 

He took a deep breath before he simply told her, “No.”

Michelle, however, was disappointed and angry, but not deterred.  “Okay, I’ll tell you what,” she told him stubbornly.  “I will hurt him so much that you can’t take the screaming any longer and he will BEG you to kill him!  How about that?”  And without any further preamble or consideration, she turned and promptly shot Ethan in the other leg.

Ethan screamed so hard then his screams of torment echoed loudly off the warehouse walls.  “Stop it, Michelle!” he yelled at her, enraged at her.  “I’m not going to kill him, no matter WHAT you do!”

Michelle’s eyes flashed in fury and aggravation; this was not the way she had intended for this to go down.  “You sure about that?” she challenged him before she turned and stomped out of the room toward her car.

Justin seemed immobilized, unsure what to do as he stood there, Ethan wailing in agony as Chris begged for help with his eyes.  A movement out of the corner of his eye caused Justin to turn his head after a minute or so to observe Michelle returning, this time with a suitcase in one hand; and a Samurai Sword clutched in the other.

Shit, was all Justin could think.

Michelle put the suitcase she was holding in her other hand down next to Ethan; temporarily placing the Samurai sword beside her, she took out some small, rubber tubes to be used as a tourniquet and tied them around Ethan's legs.  "We wouldn't want you to pass out from loss of blood and miss out on all the fun, now would we?" she told him with an eager sort of smile as she stood back up.

"No... Please," Ethan whimpered through his pain in terror, seeing the look of detached hatred on her face.

"Are you ready for some fun, Blue?" she looked at Justin as she hefted her sword in preparation.

Justin didn't know what to do; he was afraid that he if tried to stop her, his life would start a free fall from which he would never recover.  He stood motionless as if in quicksand as he watched Michelle swing the sword over her head and bring it down to efficiently cut off all of Ethan's fingers on his left hand.

"No more violin for you," she said with a smirk as Ethan screamed and slowly began to lose consciousness.

"I fucking told you to stay awake!" she demanded as she pulled out a syringe from her suitcase; she roughly stabbed it into Ethan's heart, causing him to regain consciousness as he screeched in torment.

"Pure adrenaline... always does the job," she said smiling as she repeated the same motion of the sword and cut off Gold's right fingers.  Incensed when Justin didn't make any reaction, she proceeded to cut off both of her captor's hands; still Justin just stood there and didn't move an inch.

Hardly able to believe what he was seeing, Chris began to mumble incoherently beneath his duct type and cried his eyes out in stark terror that he would soon suffer the same fate.

Hearing Hobbes began to cry loudly, Michelle looked from him to Ethan and leered.  "You know what? I think you could use a break, Mr. Gold."

Hearing what she said, Chris started to panic as he began to struggle in his chair and toppled over onto the floor, causing Michelle to laugh in delight at his reaction.

"Come here, Blue... I'm going to tell you a little story about Chris Hobbes," Michelle told him, dropping her sword temporarily to the floor.

"You see, our little Chris here comes from a very important family.  His dad is a U.S. Senator... Do you know what Chris did when he was fifteen years old, Blue?"

"He burnt down a house - and I know what you're thinking.  What's so bad about burning down a house? Well, this wasn't a just a regular house..."

She leaned over Chris who was still lying on the floor helplessly strapped into the chair.

"It was a shelter, wasn't it, Chris?  A shelter for young gays who were thrown away by their parents like so much trash," Michelle informed Justin as she looked up at him.  "Twelve people died, all between the ages of 13-20."

Justin felt his anger start to simmer toward a boil.  Surely, Chris would have been punished somehow, even if it was just through juvenile prison.

"How many years do you think he did in prison?" Michelle asked him as if she were reading his mind.

Justin stared over at her before he shrugged slightly, half-dreading her answer.  Somehow, he knew what her answer would be before she said it.

"None," she verified flatly.

Justin's eyes widened with surprise and anger.  How is that possible for what he did?

"You see," Michelle told him.  "How could a judge send the son of his golf partner off to jail?  That would be SO rude." Her face darkened as she retorted, "Wake up, Blue!  His father is an American senator! And the victims were just homeless children that nobody loved or wanted.  They were homosexuals.  The scum of the earth.  He did the world a favor by burning them alive!  So obviously his actions only warranted community service and probation, right?"

"What?!" Justin spoke for the first time in disbelief.

"Yeah, you heard me right," Michelle verified, a small smile spreading across her face at Justin's reaction.  At last...

"... And that's not the end," she told him with almost a tone of glee as she stared down at the look of terror on her captive's face.  "You see, last year little Chris took a baseball bat and went down to Liberty Avenue to bash four people in the head.  Killed two of them and permanently maimed the other two.  Aren't you proud of what he did?"

Justin's mind was racing; that could have been Emmett or Ted that had gotten hurt! Flesh and blood men; friends that he cared about.  Or worse, it could have been Brian... This man was pure evil!

"And again Daddy to the rescue!" Michelle told him, one side of her mouth lifting in derision.  "Thanks to dear old Dad, he just got released from a three-month stint in a mental hospital..."

"No..." Justin couldn't take it anymore; he started to make his way over to Chris as he pointed his gun at Chris' head...

"You fucker!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he shot Chris right in the head and blood sprayed onto his cheek.

Ethan shrieked as Chris lay motionless and still nearby; as if coming out of a trance, Justin stood there for a moment before he dropped the gun and fell to his knees, putting both hands on either side of his face in horror.  As he kneeled there, Michelle took her sword and, as Ethan's eyes widened in terror, she deftly swung her weapon one last time and cleanly cut his head off; the body crumpled to the floor as his head landed nearby and rolled a few feet before coming to a grisly stop, the eyes still wide and unstaring even in death.

"That was fun," she commented matter-of-factly as she wiped her bloody hands off on the thighs of her jeans while Justin began to cry.  "We should do this again sometime."

All of a sudden, a sound caught their attention and made Justin's heart lodge in his throat... 

"Justin, are you in there?"

Brian sat in the loft; he had been trying to talk to Justin all day with no luck. He had been no use at  work, unable to concentrate on anything because he was too worried about Justin, so he had finally gone home.  He knew that no matter what Justin always answered his phone or called him right back. He had called maybe 60 times since early morning; no answer.

It was that "friend" Michelle that concerned him greatly; there was something off about her.  And now she had taken Justin for a surprise fun day and he had just disappeared?

A sudden notice that he had received a text jolted him from his concern as he quickly glanced down and read the message:  I’m busy – talk to you later.

Rather than easing his concern, however, it merely heightened it as his stomach churned; he knew something was wrong.  He began to pace back and forth in the loft, thinking that there must be something he could do…. He couldn’t just sit here, fretting over what was going on.

And then it hit him; Justin had one of those apps on his iphone that let you trace his whereabouts if the phone was ever stolen! He rushed over to his computer and typed in a Google search for “app stolen iphone" and quickly found the name and company that produced it. A few minutes later, the information in hand, he grabbed his keys and rushed out the door…

He arrived at the company building shortly afterward; as he entered the lobby, he noticed a young blond woman sitting at the reception desk…

Ok, Kinney, it's time to use what God has been given you.

Swaggering up to her, he smiled at the young woman; secretly pleased that she was clearly very attracted to him as she smiled shyly back and blushed as she fidgeted in her seat.

"Hi, there… Mindy," Brian greeted her as he looked at her name tag.

"Hi… hello, Sir, what can I do for you?" she stammered, trying to sound professional which was pretty hard since “God” himself was talking to her; she couldn't stop trying to push her boobs in Brian's direction in a not-so-blatant attempt to get his attention.

"Well, Mindy, I have a huge problem and I'm praying to God that you will help me," Brian drawled as he leaned over her desk and stared into her eyes with the look he knew would normally get him anything he wanted.

"Anything you need" she responded to his delight, subconsciously leaning forward so she could be closer to him and thinking how beautiful this man was; it was even hard for her to breathe at the moment.

"Well, you see my wife of two years is cheating on me," Brian whispered with a depressed look in his eyes. "I finally thought I had found the right girl, but then she broke my heart,” he explained to her with a sad look on his face.

Mindy was totally mesmerized and immediately felt sorry for him; if it had been HER, she would have jumped off a cliff if this man had told her to.  Was the other woman an idiot?

"She left me last night,” Brian added as Mindy reached for his hand.

“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry.” 

Brian gave her hand a little squeeze and nodded solemnly, inwardly thrilled that she was buying his spiel, hook, line, and sinker.  

"What can I do to help you…?" she asked with concern in her eyes, her hand still tingling from where he had grasped it.

Brian sat on the edge of her desk as he stated, "Well, you see I left my phone in her car and I was wondering if you could maybe tell me the location.  I mean, I just want to know why she left and what I did wrong.  I always treated her so well!”  He sighed heavily.  “Why am I so unlovable?" he asked her mournfully, having to bite his tongue over his cheesy lines.  It was necessary, though, to accomplish what he so desperately needed.

Mindy heart broke over the tone in this man’s voice; how could she not help the man? "What's your number?" she asked him with a sympathetic smile.

In secret jubilation, Brian recited Justin’s number to her; when she wrote down the location a few seconds later, he thanked her by giving her a hug, leaving her totally in love with him and with no way of knowing she would never see or hear from him again.

Brian smirked as he left the building, secretly congratulating himself on his Oscar-winning performance. As soon as he entered his car, his hurriedly put the coordinates into his GPS, his heart beginning to pound in anticipation.  Finally, he would be able to know what was going on. 

"I'm coming, Sunshine, just hold on," Brian murmured as he quickly drove away.

Brian drove for two and a half hours until he arrived at an old, abandoned-looking building.  Normally he would have thought he had probably arrived at the wrong place if he hadn’t seen the car parked by the front entrance, looking decidedly out of place next to the weeds and other signs of neglect.  Frowning, he emerged from the car and slipped inside.  He saw pictures on the floor and a lot of blood splatters, instantly increasing his fears anew; what the hell had he just walked into?

"Justin?" he called out loud.  “Are you in here?”

His heart began to pound when suddenly he heard someone running; Justin appeared seemingly out of nowhere as he quickly grabbed his arm and began to drag him toward the entrance.  His lover’s eyes were wild with panic as he screamed, “Oh my god, Brian, you have to go…NOW!"

"Justin, what is going on?" Brian demanded, freaked out not only from the look Justin was giving him but the sight of Justin’s pants covered with blood; his cheek had blood splotches on it, too, and in his free had he was holding a gun!

Brian freed himself from Justin's grip and stopped dead in his tracks, forcing Justin to look at him and answer his question.  A multitude of other questions were beginning to swirl around in his head, also.

"Well, well, well, look who joined the party!" Michelle exclaimed as she appeared and quickly held her gun to Brian's head.

Justin immediately countered her action by placing his own gun to her head.  “Leave him alone! He has nothing to do with this!"

Brian’s mouth gaped open in disbelief; had he landed on another planet?  Was he really standing there with a gun being held to his head?  And Justin; what the fuck?  As he looked over at Michelle partly covered in blood and Justin holding his own gun to her head as if it were the most natural thing in the world, however, he knew it was all painfully and horrifying real.

"Nothing to do with this?!" Michelle cried out in insult and hurt.  “He has EVERYTHING to do with this!” she screamed at Justin; she was so angry, her hand shook slightly as she continued to hold her gun against Brian’s temple.   “You’re standing there, pointing your gun at me! Me!! Your partner!  I've known you since the day you were born! They put us in the same crib even! For sixteen years we’ve shared everything! We played together, trained together, ate together, and KILLED together!  And now you're choosing him over ME?!? Him?? A man you’ve known for a year?!  A man that doesn't even know you?”  She sneered.  “Do you really think he’ll still want you after you tell him the truth?” she asked with tears in her eyes, her voice a mixture of disbelief as well as derision. 

"Tell him, Justin" she pressed him.  Justin didn't reply verbally, but the tears started running down his cheeks as he looked at Brian who had a very overwhelmed look on his face.

"Tell him the fucking truth!!!!!" Michelle screamed now as if she were trying to shake Justin out of his trance.

"Jennifer and Craig aren't my parents,” Justin began as he looked over at Brian with tears in his own eyes; the hurt and confused look on Brian’s face was breaking his heart.  "My real dad was a hero soldier who died when my mother was pregnant with me… and she died giving birth to me…"

Brian stared into Justin’s face, still trying to come to grips with what he was being told; his stomach was tied up in knots as he began to listen to his lover’s story.

"I was taken from the hospital and raised in a secret unit of the Government where I was trained to be an assassin,” he continued now almost in a monotone, knowing if he stopped to think about what he was saying he wouldn’t be able to get it all out.  “My… my first kill was when I was ten.”  He took a deep breath and paused before he revealed, “By the time I was sixteen, I’d killed hundreds.”

Brian felt like someone had punched him in the gut; his life with Justin had all been a lie! This man he had fallen in love didn’t really exist; it was all part of a big, fat joke. 

Justin watched Brian’s face fall in both misery and horror as he desperately tried to explain.  "But all that changed when I met you, Brian; when you kissed me," he told him frantically as the tears continued to stream down his face and he stepped closer to Brian. 

But Brian’s face contorted into anger and hurt as Justin told him "I wanted to stay with you!   I wanted to be with you forever, you changed me" He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  His voice dropped to almost an incredulous whisper as he added, “But you aren’t the man I thought you were, are you?”

No, no, no…. Justin’s heart began to pound.  “Brian, I LOVE you!  Please, don’t do this!” he begged in desperation.  He reached out with his free hand to try and touch him, but Brian instantly shrunk back in reaction.

“Don’t touch me!” Brian snarled.  “I don't even know you. The man I.. I love doesn’t even exist.”

“Brian, please…"

Brian continued to back away from Justin, uncaring that Michelle was still pointing her gun at him.   "Don't you dare touch me! I'll break your freaking arm!!!" Brian screamed in anger.  “I don’t ever want to fucking see you again!  I’m OUT of here!”

He had just turned around when he cried out as a Taser gun hit him squarely in the chest; his body contorted as he began to fall, unconscious, to the ground a few feet away.  Only Justin’s quick thinking prevented him from falling into a heap as he dropped his gun and caught him in his arms to slowly lower him to the ground and cradle Brian in his arms, uncaring at that moment for his own safety. 

Seemingly out of nowhere Thomas and 20 other agents appeared. The distinguished-looking man seemed totally unaffected over what was going on or the fact that there was blood everywhere.

"Hello, Agents."  He greeted them as if they were at a board meeting.

"What are you doing here, Sir?" Michelle asked him as she hurriedly wiped the tears off her face in embarrassment.

"I see you really used the free hand I gave you," he told her, looking around to observe what she had done to Chris and Ethan.   The grisly scene didn’t really surprise him; it would have expected nothing less from one of his top agents.  

Still holding a limp Brian in his arms, Justin told his superior, "I'm not going back, Thomas! I'm out!"

Thomas masked his disappointment quickly as he looked over at Michelle to reply, "Well, Agent, "I see you didn’t successfully complete your mission."

"I'm sorry, Sir," Michelle mumbled as she averted her gaze downward in mortification.

"Don’t do that, Agent," Thomas told her surprisingly as he stepped up to Michelle. "We train our agents to be proud no matter whether they succeed or fail.  As long as you did your best, you can hold your head up high."

“Yes, Sir,” she responded as she did as she was told, standing up to thrust her chest forward and straighten her shoulders and back as she lifted her gaze to at her boss, just before a flicker of awful realization hit her and he placed his hands on her neck and gave it a horrific but efficient twist to break it cleanly.

“No!” Justin cried out in shock and pain as his eyes widened.  No… This can’t be happening…  He tried to rise with Brian still in his arms, unable to let him go, but another agent behind him quickly stuck a syringe of some unknown substance into his neck; he felt the sharp pinprick for just a moment before his eyes soon began to blur…

"You see, Justin,” he heard Thomas say through a haze.  “Agents that are not useful anymore are given a painless, quick death."  He felt Brian being ripped away from his embrace, but he was unable to resist. 

“No…” he whispered. 

"…But you’re not an agent anymore,” Thomas said, smiling, as he bent over Justin so he could see his face.  “So that means you'll get to die a horrible death instead."

It was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness and slumped to the floor.

Justin awakened slowly; his head hurt and he was dizzy from the medication he had been given. Still sprawled on the ground, he turned his head toward the left and any hope that he was just experiencing a nightmare immediately vanished as he saw Michelle’s body lying next to him.  His heart dropped as he realized that Brian had been here as well and that Thomas had taken him away, evoking a memory from four years ago…

*Flashback**

Justin ran into Thomas’s office without knocking.  "Thomas!!" he yelled enthusiastically as he flung open the door.  He was startled to find an unconscious woman tied to a chair inside with his superior and an unfamiliar woman standing nearby. 

"Oh, sorry,” Justin greeted them apologetically.  “I didn't mean to disturb you, Sir.  And ma'am, of course,” he added as he peered over at Abigail curiously.  “But Jason told me you needed me in your office ASAP to be debriefed."

Thomas nodded and smiled at him nonplussed.  "Justin!  Come on in. I want you to meet the chief of this unit, Abigail Shaw." Thomas turned to Abigail and advised her, "This is the shining star I've been telling you about."

Abigail smiled warmly at the young man.  "It's nice to meet you, Agent Justin," she said as she extended her hand to shake his.

"Nice to meet you, Ma'am,” Justin responded politely as he reciprocated the gesture, his eyes glancing over at the unconscious woman seated nearby.

"Abigail has a mission for you, Agent,” Thomas informed him in a business-like manner.

“This is Kylie Durant," Abigail told Justin, pointing at the woman in the chair as her smile faded.  “She's a problem we need you to eliminate. You see, she made one of our agents compromise everything we do here… by disclosing to her the truth about our operation."

"Oh,  my God!” Justin exclaimed in surprise.  “Who was the agent? And why would he do that?" Justin was shocked that anyone would commit the ultimate disloyalty and betray their unit.

Thomas declined to identify the agent as he merely informed him, "We cut him loose, Justin, don't worry.”

"But why did he sell us out?” he persisted, unable to contain his curiosity.

Abigail stared over at him thoughtfully.  “Well, that's hard to say exactly,” she told him.  “I suppose you could say it was love.”  She spat out the last word as if it made her nauseous.  "As a result, this woman will have to die, but not before we set her up as an example for the rest of the young agents.  They need to understand that you can fall in love, but you must never divulge the truth about your real life; that is a choice you make when you choose not to return to the unit.”

"So, what Abigail is saying, Justin, is that we need you to take care of her... In front of all the other agents."

"Consider it done," Justin replied politely, never questioning the command.  After all, it was the way he had been trained; he was never to question authority, and this would be no exception.

**End of flashback**

Now he realized what that other agent must have gone through; the torment he must have endured.  This was personal now; this involved the man he loved, just like that woman had loved that other agent.  How could he have been so wrong? 

 I won’t let Brian end up like that; he vowed silently.  I have to find a way to save him

He knew that Thomas had only left him alive so he could die here suffering; no food, no water.  But even worse – he would die from guilt.  It was solely because of him that Brian was in this mess.

He looked around; the only thing left was Michelle's body on the ground.  From the open doorway, he could tell that Brian’s jeep and Michelle's car were both gone. The agents had even taken Ethan and Chris’ bodies… his cell phone was gone and the nearest landline phone was undoubtedly miles away.

Struggling to his feet and still trying to shake the dizziness that threatened to overwhelm him, he searched the cavernous space of the warehouse, trying to find anything that would help him. He had to think about something, anything… He was about to give in to panic and despair when it hit him. He DID have one lifeline, something he and Michelle had agreed upon without Thomas’s knowledge; a hidden phone to help them in case the other one got into trouble with the agency.  He ran back to Michelle's body and to his amazement inside her left boot he found the tiny "call device" he was looking for that had been planted there.  You could hardly call it a phone; it would only dial one number, a number that was both dangerous and freeing at the same time, the only number that could help the both of them if they ever needed to turn on their unit, but it would have to be enough.

Lifting the device to his ear with shaky hands, he dialed the number and waited impatiently for it to be answered.

"Who the fuck is this and how did you get this number?" the voice growled in response as the line was picked up.

"It's Justin."

"Mother fucker…"

"You got my location; now come and get me, bitch!" He challenged the other party as he laid the device down on the ground.  He knew it wouldn't be too long before he would be picked up; the problem was that he knew he was risking being killed in a much worse way than starvation when they came for him, but for Brian it was a risk he had to take.  The only thing left to do, then, was wait.

After a few hours, Justin heard a helicopter getting closer and closer; rising from his seated position by the door, he rose to his feet and walked outside to put his hands up in the universal signal of surrender. 

Three man soon jumped out of the helicopter even before it landed and ran over to grab Justin and  rustle him none too gently to the ground, placing two sets of handcuffs around his wrist behind his back and tying them with nylon rope.  For good measure, they finished the job by winding a couple of plastic ties around his wrists as well. 

Someone here is worried, Justin thought silently as he smiled to himself. 

They dragged him to his feet and put him in the helicopter where five additional men held a gun to him, although he had to admit with just a hint of smugness that they looked more frightened than he did. 

Despite being trussed up like a curing ham with seven guns pointing at his head and knowing he was on his way to meet his worst enemy, Justin felt optimistic for the first time in a long time.  "Hakuna Matata," he whispered quietly to himself as he giggled.

 
Justin was hustled into a room, still tied up with four guards watching him closely; soon a door opened and a woman curtly instructed them, "Leave us alone, please."


Justin smiled just a little smugly at his visitor as they departed and she closed the door.  "Hello, Nikita"


"Are you going to tell me why you called Michael's phone, Justin?" she asked without further preamble. 

"I need to talk to you... now could you untie me, please? If I wanted to kill you we would probably be kicking each other asses right now."


Nikita came up behind him and freed his arms.  She gave him a half-smile as she confessed, "I'm surprised you didn't kill me already..."


Justin rubbed his hands where they had been chaffed from the confines of the ties and his face sobered as he told her, "Considering what you did maybe I should have."


"What about YOU?" she countered, one elegant eyebrow arched upward.


Justin huffed in irritation.  "Listen, I had NO idea that woman was one of yours when I killed her; Thomas and Abigail told me she was the reason why one of our agents betrayed the unit... I had no idea that you had taken over the division and she was your agent."


"Fine," she told him as she crossed her arms across her chest.  "Let's say I believe you; what are you doing here?"


Justin stared at her intently for a moment before he advised her, "I'm here to end the division and the unit war, Nikita; once and for all."


Her mouth gaped open in surprise.  "You're surrendering? Just like that?"


Justin smiled in amusement.  "Not quite.  I have a better idea.  You help me kill Thomas, and I'll let you take over the unit."  He personally had no desire to take control; his priorities had shifted dramatically during the past year. 


Nikita stood there considering it; she'd be lying if she didn't admit the idea was extremely attractive to her. 


"You could have them both," Justin suggested, trying to sweeten the pot even more.  "By combining them."


She eyed him skeptically.  It wasn't like Justin to be so ‘accommodating.'  "And what do YOU get out of this?"


Justin didn't hesitate.  "Freedom," he told her softly.  "And... The man I love." Justin looked in her eyes, noticing a flicker of emotion cross her face at the mention of the last word.


"And that's it?  All you want is your freedom to be with this man? You are willing to leave all of this behind for that?"


"Yes," he told her simply, because it was true; to him, Brian was everything.  Please... he silently pleaded.  Let him still be alive...


Nikita stood there in contemplation for a moment, before all of a sudden in without warning she swung her leg up and kicked Justin in the head, knocking him to the floor.


 "I guess I deserved that," Justin said wryly from his supine position on the ground as he rubbed the side of his skull and stared up at her.


"That was for Alex," she said as she stared down at him with her eyes flashing.  "Now that I've made that clear, what's your plan?" 


"Nothing too complicated," Justin told her ruefully as he rose to his feet to face her.  "Just going in there and killing everyone until I get Brian back."  And to him, there could BE no other option; he wasn't leaving until he and Brian were reunited and he knew he was safe.


"I like that plan," Nikita said with a grin; the unit's agents and the division had been at odds for years, so it would be a sort of sweet payback.  So many of her friends had been killed, and the unit's agents were getting far more brutal and skilled; after all, unlike her subordinates they had been trained from birth and could practically kill in their sleep.


"They should have let me go when they had the chance," Justin told her, his jaw set with grim determination.  "Now they're going to pay!" he vowed.


Nikita smiled coyly.  "Oh, you mean the ‘year off' thing? They didn't let you choose after all?"


Justin's eyes narrowed in suspicion.  "What do you know about the unit's "free-year" option?"


She placed her hands on her hips as she revealed, "Well, everything they promise is true if the agent is a medium level operative.  But if you possess a higher level of expertise, it's all a big farce.  They have been told to do whatever it takes to get you back into the fold, or if they fail they're commanded to make sure you never see the light of day again.  So you see, my friend, your fate was sealed from the very beginning if you refused to return." 


Justin was so pissed at Nikita's words that he couldn't wait to carry out his plan; it was definitely time for some retribution; and if Brian should have already been harmed... He would see that nothing or no one was left behind untouched.  It wouldn't bring Brian back, but it would be a start toward justice for him.


"Then let's get on with it," he growled as she nodded.



Nikita left the room and returned soon with two guns modified with silencers, Michael following closely along behind her.


"Hold on a minute; I'm not sure about this," Michael told her hesitantly as he grabbed her arm just before she could give Justin the guns.  He didn't appear surprised at all to see the other man, but eyed him warily as he looked over at Nikita.


"It's alright, Michael, I trust him," she tried to reassure him, but Michael wasn't totally convinced.


"After what he did to Alex?" Michael growled, looking into her eyes.  Justin merely glared back at him unflinchingly as he met his gaze.


"You know what the unit is like, Michael" she reminded him sternly.  "He was just a pawn in the game.  Do not fear - I will get appropriate revenge for Alex.  When I get done, the unit's highest authority will be destroyed.  But I can't do it without Justin's help, you know that." 


Michael scowled over at Justin as he asked, "What makes you think he's trustable? After all, he's willing to betray his own unit.  Why would you believe anything he says, then?"


"Because of love," was all Nikita said as Michael released her arm, at last understanding the reason all too well.  It was not too long ago that he had made a similar decision.  Nodding in resignation, Nikita gave him a slight kiss and turned around to focus on Justin.


"Here," she said giving him the two guns.


Justin nodded, peering over at Michael warily.  He, too, didn't quite trust the other man, but at the moment there were more important matters to consider.  "Let's go, then," he urged, knowing time was critical if he was to save the man he loved.

After three hours of driving they arrived at the secret unit offices where the operation's management was hidden away; nobody knew where it was, except for a few agents on a need-to-know basis.  Fortunately, that information had been revealed to Justin earlier; a fact that his superiors obviously weren't concerned about anymore.  After all, they assumed he was as good as dead now.

From the relative security of their vehicle, now hidden behind some heavy vegetation, Nikita peered over at the entrance and asked, "How are we going to make it through the gate?  You know it's heavily fortified." 


"I guess killing the five guards and just walking in isn't an option for you?" Justin asked, his lips pursed tightly together.  He was still furious over the unit's secret intention of never giving him the freedom to decide what to do with his life, although he shouldn't have been surprised by their duplicity. 
Nikita looked at him, feeling she'd better take the lead on this because she knew Justin was pissed, and also desperate to save his man; a dangerous combination that she was hoping to put to good use later.   "I have a better idea."



A few minutes later, the guards standing watch at the building's entrance observed an attractive, slender woman running out from behind some heavy bushes, desperation on her face as she screamed out, "Help; please, I need help!"


Two of the five agents ran over toward her, leaving the remaining contingent still standing watch at the gate just as she hoped they would.


"I found him here; I think he's dead," she reported to the guards as they approached, pointing at Justin who was lying still and motionless on the ground.


"Who the hell ARE you and how did you get here?" one of the men asked her suspiciously as the other one bent over to check on Justin's condition.


Before the last sentence had even been completed, however, both Nikita and Justin had pulled their guns on the unsuspecting men. 


"The name's Nikita," she told them with a smirk just before she hit one of them over the head with her gun and knocked him to the ground in a formless heap; turning to the other man who backed away slightly, she informed him, "Now you are going to take us in there as prisoners; if you make any unusual moves, I swear I'll kill you before you can let out your next breath," she vowed. 


The guard was well aware of the name ‘Nikita' and what a formidable opponent she was; not wanting to test that reputation, he nodded in resignation as she waved her gun toward the compound.  She grabbed his arm as he began to walk toward the front gate.


"I don't think so," she warned him, suspecting he would alert the others.  "Take us around to the back - quietly."  He nodded sullenly as the three of them crept through the underbrush around the perimeter of the property, eventually arriving at another gate leading into the rear entrance of the building. 


"Don't just stand there," she growled as the guard approached the back door.  "Open it up - and no funny stuff," she warned him as he fished out a plastic key card and swiped it through the slot.  A small click could be heard as he reached to open the back door.


"Thanks for the hospitality," Justin quipped as he cold cocked the security guard and promptly knocked him out.  He smirked over at his companion as she grinned back at him.
"My most dangerous weapon," he told her smugly.

 

She rolled her eyes in amusement.  "Ready when you are, Tiger," Nikita told him as she held her gun at the ready in anticipation. 


The two of them entered into a rather dimly-lit hallway, narrow and nondescript in nature leading into what appeared to be the basement; there were doors leading off on both sides that were closed, not providing any information they might be able to use.  Justin, however, spied something that might be of benefit to them at the end of the hallway as he pointed in that direction with his gun.


"There's the electrical box," he told her as they quickly made their way over to the rectangular-shaped object.  Opening up the slightly rusty contraption, Justin quickly cut all power to the building as he hissed, "Let's go!" 


Together, they took off at a sprint up the steps that they had spied just before all the power was extinguished, using their well-honed skills to quickly ascend toward the main floor; they met a couple of guards coming down the steps, illuminated through two glass-block windows, and shot them dead in their tracks before they even knew they were there. 


"Come on!" Justin urged Nikita as they hurried up the rest of the steps. 


"Where are you going?" she asked as he turned around just briefly to say curtly, "Seventh floor; Thomas' office."

Brian woke up in a room that looked like an office; he tried to get up but then he realized that he was tied to a chair.

"Good Morning,” a pleasant-sounding voice spoke to him from across the room.  “Did you sleep well?” Thomas inquired politely from behind his desk. 

"What the hell is going on here??" Brian growled in shock. 

"Well, I wanted to talk to you for a while,” Thomas informed him as he rose from his sitting position and walked around the desk to lean his body against the front as he faced Brian.   “I’m curious to know what is so damn special about you.” 

"What?" Brian said confused.  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Thomas smiled, a too-slick smile in Brian’s impression as he explained, “You see, you managed to turn my best agent against me.  Justin was the most affective agent I have ever seen in all the years I’ve been heading this unit.  Did you know what his mission success statistic was? A hundred percent!   And he never had to go to any backup plans during his assignments; he always succeeded on his first shot. He was unbelievable! And you know what Justin’s greatest quality was? Loyalty! He was so loyal I would never in a million years have thought he would choose you over my unit."

Brian just blinked back at his captor, trying to take in all of what Thomas telling him.

The other man continued as if he were talking to an old friend.  “You know, we checked on him once in a while without him knowing about it during the year he’s been gone.  And we saw the way he looked at you.   You could tell he was falling in love.  But I never thought it would his love for you would be strong enough to make him want to leave.”  He folded his hands over his chest like he was talking to some client as he shrugged.  “Well, that was my mistake,  And now I have to pay the price."

"What do you mean – love?”  Brian growled, almost spitting out the word as if it were abhorrent.  “Everything he told me was a lie!" Brian added, feeling a lump in his throat at the thought. 

"Well, that's where you wrong,” Thomas corrected him.  “Looking back on everything, I think the unit life was Justin’s lie. When one of my surveillance agents told me that he thought Justin was in love, I didn’t believe him at first.  But then I came to realize it myself.  An agent like Justin doesn't come around very often.  And what I saw made me want to grab him right then and there.  It was true; you could see it.  He was happy, contented, and most of all head over heels in love with you. The second I saw him with you I knew that he wanted your world as his real life, not this one.”

Brian narrowed his eyes in disgust.  “"So you knew from the beginning that he wanted to stay with me?"

"Of course I did!” Thomas replied with a sort of conceited expression.  “I'm the government,” he added simply.  It’s my job to know everything.  But I wasn't going down without a fight. And I was sure that Michelle would succeed in breaking him and would be able to bring him back into the fold.  But now because of you, Kinney, I’ve lost my two best agents."

Brian realized something just then and smiled, satisfied to see a look of uncertainly flitter across the other man’s normally confident face.   "Let me understand this correctly,” he responded, pretending to sound dense.  “Justin was the best of your best, but you just said that he loved me more than anything, right?” 

Thomas actually faltered a little as he replied, “Well… Yes.” 

Brian peered up at the man in contempt.  “Then you should have killed him while you had a chance.  Do you really think he would have just stayed there and been content to just wither away and die?”  He snorted.  “If you do, then I don’t think you know Justin nearly as well as you think you do.” 

Just then the lights went out and the room was bathed in dimness as Thomas insisted, “There's nothing he can do! Even if he DID manage to escape where we left him there are fifty agents out there protecting the perimeter!"

"Oh, yeah? So why do you sound so scared?" Brian pointed out, actually enjoying it.

The sound of gun shots and fighting was getting closer and closer to the door when both they heard a scream. "Thomas!!!"

Thomas jumped in fear and pulled out his gun.  Quickly stepping behind Brian, he put his gun to his head and waited.  After a few seconds, the door was kicked open and Justin stood there, pissed as hell and none the worse for wear; in fact, Brian thought as he stood there looking all hot and bothered and Thomas shook with fear over his arrival that his lover looked extremely sexy.  He rather liked this forceful side of him.

"Why, Sunshine! Fancy meeting you here," Brian drawled as he smiled over at him.

Justin’s heart leapt at the sight of the man he loved, apparently unharmed, but he had to force his emotions down to concentrate on what he needed to do; get rid of some vermin in the building. 

"Ok, Thomas; if you let him go I promise I will take pity on you," Justin told him, not even aiming his gun at the other man; he knew that Thomas would know with his expertise that it wasn’t necessary.

Thomas, however, thinking he had the upper hand at the moment, merely laughed in triumph, knowing he held the ultimate trump card.  "If you make another move, I will kill Kinney."

"Don’t tempt me,” Justin warned him.  “You know you’ll be dead before you even think about pulling the trigger.” I’m only going to say this one more time:  Put down your gun and surrender now and I'll let you live, or face the consequences if you don’t; the choice is yours."

Just as he finished speaking, two agents appeared in the entrance of Thomas’s office; they tried to subdue Justin, but he deftly wrestled one of them to the floor as he placed his foot down upon his neck to hold him in place; he punched the other one in the stomach as he fell back, giving Justin enough time to shoot him and then the other one lying on the ground.

Fuck! Brian thought as he watched his lover in action.  This man is so fucking HOT! He liked innocent Justin, but shit; this Justin was fifty times sexier!

“Enough, Thomas!” Justin demanded, well past his point of tolerance.  "Let Brian go…now!"

But Thomas chose to grasp at one last straw.  "You know you'll never be able to get away with this, right? We have agents all around the world! They will kill you eventually! And your precious Brian, too!"

"Not if I jhave anything to do with that," Nikita replied, appearing in the entrance of Thomas’s office as she swaggered in.

The unit head’s mouth hung open in shock.  “What… You’ve joined hands with the division?" he asked in confusion; he was so focused on Nikita that Justin seized the opportunity to get off a round into the man’s shoulder.

"Nice one," Nikita commented admiringly as Thomas flinched back from the impact, his gun torn from his grip when Justin shot him and now lying on the floor nearby.  “Now leave him to me; that was part of the deal, remember?  He needs to suffer for what he did to Alex," she reminded him, hovering over the injured man to make sure he wouldn’t make any sudden move to escape. 

Sure that the danger had finally passed, Justin ran to Brian and freed him in short order from the ropes holding him in place to the chair.  Before he could utter a word, Brian stood up to sweep him into a very deep, passionate kiss; as they finally broke apart Justin said, “I take it that means that I’m forgiven?” 

"No,” he told him as Justin’s face fell before he added, “That was just a thank you for saving my life; I expect you to work long, hard hours into the night to obtain my forgiveness," Brian said, smiling down at him.

Justin beamed at the idea.  He couldn’t think of a more pleasurable ‘assignment.’  "Consider it done," he told him, smiling. 

"Justin," Nikita said just then, interrupting their reunion. 

"Hmm?" Justin murmured somewhat distractedly; it was hard to concentrate while being held in Brian’s arms and staring up into his eyes. 

"Michael will be here any minute; are you sure you’ve decided?  Are you definitely out? We could use you here; I’ll even let you manage all of the unit’s agents."

"I'll think about it,” Justin managed to reply just before he put his hand around Brian’s neck and pulled his head down for another kiss.  

When the kiss broke, Brian whispered, "Let's go home, Sunshine.”

Looking somewhat sadly at his former superior, Justin nodded as he turned to leave, both men’s arms draped around each other’s waists.  They weren’t letting go this time…

After they made love twice, Justin lay on his back in the bed with Brian next to him on his side, resting his head in his hand.

"So… you can like seriously kick my ass, huh?" Brian asked, his tongue planted firmly in cheek.

"Yup,” was the somewhat smug reply from next to him.

"Should I be scared?" Brian teased him with a smile.

Justin turned around to face him… "Very," he said, but he was smiling all the time he was looking at him.

“Well, then, I have an idea; I’ll let you be my bodyguard!"

Justin than pushed Brian on his back and climbed on top of him, hugging his body tightly. 

“What are you doing?" Brian asked in amusement as he looked into the sparkling, blue eyes.

Justin grinned down at him impishly.  “I’m guarding your body; what do you think I’m doing?

Brian laughed as he turned them around so he was on top of Justin now; he kissed his lover’s neck as Justin whispered solemnly, "Brian, can I ask you something?

"Sure, Sunshine," Brian told him, lifting his head from Justin’s neck so he could gaze into his face.

"Can I please kick Mikey's ass now?"

Brian rolled off Justin, laughing.

THE END