Part One:

Everyone in CLHQ was on edge due to the upcoming evaluations. Marco walked through the corridors of CLHQ noting the crankiness of its operatives. Thank God that he wasn't worried but he knew that no matter how much Aries tried to hide it from him, she was on edge as well. This was the time where they evaluated the impact of the relationships that were allowed in CLHQ on the operatives' performance in the field. No one knew exactly who performed the evaluations but it was pure hell.

Marco walked up to Aries' office and keyed in the code that she'd authorized for his entrance and entered to see DeLeah and Aries sitting there talking. They got quiet when he entered and thought it was odd. What exactly was it that those two were up to now?

"Hey beautiful!" He said cheerfully.

"Hey yourself!" DeLeah said immediately joking with him. He looked at her and laughed softly. She did this to him once in a while and neither him nor Aries took offense knowing where the girl's loyalty truly lied.

"Hey DeLeah." He said and then leaned over and kissed Aries. "Hey beautiful." He repeated once they'd broken the kiss off.

"You know, you two could go get a room for all of that!" DeLeah joked.

"Now why would we want to do that? We could just kick you out of here and turn the surveillance off and have a good old time!" Marco remarked leaning back onto Aries' desk. Aries swatted at him playfully. DeLeah simply rolled her eyes.

"What's up?" Aries asked looking up at him.

"Just wondering how you were holding up with the evaluations coming up and all." Marco replied and stroked her cheek. He knew that she hadn't had a problem with the evaluations when she was seeing Michael because even though she loved him, she hadn't been "in love" with him so she wasn't distracted by him on missions.

"I'm holding up fine. There's nothing to worry about as far as I know of." She replied and smiled at him.

"Yeah, we do just fine around here!" DeLeah interjected, not one to be left out of a conversation.

Marco nodded his head in agreement.

"How about you? How are you holding up? You know the guys are evaluated as well during this period." Aries asked him a bit concerned.

"I'm doing fine. I haven't been on many missions lately and my performance on them has been the same if not a bit better than before." He replied and smiled.

Just then there was a beep from Aries computer. It was her secure e-mail system that had been installed for each of the CLHQ mommies. Marco moved from behind the desk and sat down in a chair next to DeLeah so that Aries could read it knowing that she was the only one authorized to read it. He watched as she clicked open the e-mail and began reading. He saw the look on Aries face go from relaxed to very tense in a matter of seconds and it worried him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" DeLeah asked not being able to hold her concern for Aries in.

"It seems that my evaluation has come back and I'm to report to Madeline in conference room 4 immediately." Aries responded in a low tone. Marco and DeLeah both knew Aries well enough to know that tone in her voice was fear. They looked at each other and then back to Aries. Aries stood up from her desk and had to grab onto it for a bit of support.

"Do you want me to walk down there with you and wait for you?" Marco offered softly. He was prepared to offer her all of his support through this.

"No. I'll go alone. You guys had better go check your e-mail just to make sure that your evaluations haven't come back yet." Aries replied and the three filed out of her office. Marco kissed her while saying good-bye and DeLeah gave her a hug lending her support.

***

Meanwhile, Sherry had just entered her office when she saw the flashing notice of new secure e-mail. She quickly sat down at her desk and opened the e-mail. Her face paled considerably when she read what was written there. It said:

Your evaluation has come in. You are to meet Madeline in conference room 2 immediately.

Sherry immediately stood up and headed out of her office towards the conference room. She only hoped that her evaluation had come back positive.

***

North entered her office with a bright smile plastered on her face. She'd spent the weekend with Operations and was quite happy from her downtime. She looked at the computer as soon as she'd seated herself at her desk and sighed when she saw that she had e-mail on the secure channel. She opened it and sighed again when she read its contents. It read:

Your evaluation has come in. You are to meet Madeline in conference room 1 immediately.

North closed the e-mail and shut down her computer. With any luck she'd be back at her desk to try and get caught up with her heavy workload but who knew around this place. She headed out of her office towards the conference room she was instructed to meet Madeline in.

***

Rita had been lounging in the sun for a bit trying to decide which dress that she wanted to buy from the little boutique in town. It was a tough decision but Roarke had given her the chore of deciding between them. She was weighing the options on both of them when her laptop let off small beeping noises that could only mean one thing, secure email. She quickly picked up her laptop and opened the email. She gasped at what it read:

Your evaluation has come in. You are to meet Madeline in conference room 3 immediately.

Rita quickly gathered her things and rushed to her apartment to get dressed. Madeline would look down on her appearing wearing her two-piece bikini to something like this. Once she was dressed, she headed down to the conference room wondering if anyone else's evaluations had come in yet. She hated this time of year.

***

When all of the CLHQ moms were in their designated conference rooms, Madeline smiled. She would deal with the rest as soon as she was done with the mothers. They were the hardest to deal with around CLHQ besides the males. She exited her office heading towards her first victim.

Part Two:

Madeline entered one of the conference rooms and looked at the mommie sitting inside. She was lounging in one of the chairs at the huge table waiting for Madeline to arrive. Madeline noticed the sombre expression on her face and let a small smile appear on her face. Intimidating others was one thing she loved doing. She stepped in and let the door slide shut behind her. At the sound, the mommie perked up to full attention as Madeline moved toward the table and sat down in the head position.

Madeline swung the laptop computer that was attached to the table towards her and pulled up a file. She looked up and began to speak knowing that the mommie certainly wasn't going to initiate the confrontation about to come.

"Well Sherry, it seems that you've been entirely too preoccupied as of late and your performance levels are dropping considerably. The results of our evaluation show that Michael and Travis are the cause of your dropping skill levels. I'm sorry to say this because you have been one of our best operatives. I'm sorry to have to assign you to Petrosian for 3 months of retraining. You are to refrain from seeing Michael or Travis during this period of time. Your quarters will be relocated and you will be notified of where you will be staying for this 3-month period of time by the end of the day via e-mail. You will also be notified of when you are to meet with Petrosian for the first of your retraining sessions." Madeline looked at Sherry closely examining her reaction. Sherry reacted the way that Madeline had figured that she would.

"That can't be! All of my missions lately have been successes even if we did have to modify the profiles on-sight!" Sherry protested violently.

Madeline said nothing. She let Sherry vent her anger and frustration, which would make the transition into retraining that much easier for her. Sherry went on to several other reasons that she felt her results were invalid.

"I'm sorry Sherry. Our source for the evaluations is very reliable. The decision stands." Madeline said and then stood up taking her leave. She had three other CLHQ mommies she had to deal with. She headed to the next conference room and entered.

North was sitting there quietly when Madeline arrived. She entered and sat down at the computer terminal and pulled up North's evaluation. She reviewed it quietly and then looked up to North.

"Well, it seems that your evaluation scores have dropped a bit. The evaluation shows that your preoccupation with Operations love interest of Andrea has caused you to concentrate less on your duties and more on them. You are to report to me tomorrow
morning to begin your 3 month retraining schedule of which I will be retraining you. You seem to have a fancy for all of the older men around CLHQ so I have been assigned the task of retraining you. Also during this period of time, your things will be relocated to a temporary location where you will be residing with no contact with Operations. If you are to go out on missions, you will receive private briefings from me rather than attending the usual ones with Operations. Do you have any questions?" Madeline watched North's reactions closely as she briefed her on the results of her evaluation. North sat there stone-faced.

"No." North replied simply not conveying any emotion. At this moment, North reminded her of Michael. It was uncanny. Madeline stood up and exited the room relieved that North didn't go overboard on some emotional reaction. That was a good sign.

Madeline immediately headed into the next conference room. It was better to get this all over and done with and done with as quickly as possible so that she could get on with the other evaluations at hand. She repeated her routine of entering, sitting at the
computer terminal, pulling up and reviewing the evaluation and then looked to the next mommie on her list. She saw that Rita was sitting tall and very tense watching her very closely for some preview sign of what was in store for her.

"Rita. Your evaluation has come back. I have reviewed it carefully and have no choice to assign you to a 3-month retraining period with Perry Bauer. You are to have no contact with Michael or Roarke seeing as how they are the reason why you are being placed into retraining in the first place. They distract your concentration immensely and your numbers have dropped dramatically. You will be relocated to another location effective immediately where there's no chance of you making contact with either of them. You are also to report to Perry immediately so that he can give you your retraining schedule and the list of rules that you are to follow while under his control. Do you have any questions?" Madeline knew that the hurricane was brewing but she also knew that Rita knew better than to vent to Madeline. Rita just sat there angrily.

Madeline stood and exited the room quietly noting that Rita refused to speak with her at the moment and that was probably for the best.

Madeline headed for the last conference room and entered repeating her routine and then looked up at Aries who sat there rather calmly. Madeline admired her for being able to bring herself to a calm to face this ordeal.

"Aries. You have not been back from Mandatory Refusal for very long so we've done an evaluation based on the time that you have been back and your previous numbers from before you left. At first your numbers were better than the previous numbers even though you got yourself entangled in the Michael, Sherry and Rita triangle making it a square and more complicated event. Yes, Michael has feelings for you and you for him but they never interfered with your work. When Marco came into the picture, things however changed. Your numbers dropped and the evaluation shows that the reason behind that is your preoccupation with Marco. It is understandable since it is a new relationship but it's no excuse. You are hereby reassigned to a 3-month retraining period during which you are to have no contact with Marco. You will be relocated to a temporary living space and notified of where that will be by the end of the day. Your retraining will be conducted by David Fanning. You are to report to him in the morning for your schedule. Do you have any questions?" Madeline watched as Aries calmness faded and fury began.

"David Fanning? You can't be serious! The man almost raped me a few weeks ago and now you want me to spend 3 months with him in retraining? I don't mind the retraining bit, but isn't there someone else that could do it?" Aries fumed at Madeline.

"That is a problem that you will have to work through yourself. I am sorry for that incident but it has no bearing on what is happening now. Do you understand your instructions?" Madeline informed her coldly.

"Yeah, I understand." Aries muttered and left the room before Madeline stood up. Aries knew that this was going to be a very long 3 months if it didn't end sooner by her canceling the creep herself.

***