*** PART SIX ***

The following evening found most of CLHQ's occupants seated in the large den. Aries and DeLeah had managed to coerce Nahla into coming, assuring her that it wasn't a setup to get her and Jace back together. Technically they weren't lying since Jace had declined their invitation, twice.

"Gee Nahla, I think you need to put a little more butter on that popcorn,"
Aries joked.


"Oh come on Aries, popcorn has to be finger-lickin good."

"Yeah, Aries. I'm sure O'Brien will help you lick that butter off." DeLeah said, winking at her closest and best friend.

"Hmm.maybe you're on to something."

The three girls dissolved into laughter. Nahla had to admit she was having a good time, even if seeing everyone paired up was a bit of a downer. But the happiness she felt for her sisters having found good men outweighed the way she missed Jace.

"Ok girlies, let's go watch a movie!" Nahla said, indicating for the other two to grabs the other two trays holding multiple bowls of popcorn.

DeLeah and Aries nearly ran into Nahla when she suddenly stopped in the entranceway into the den. "Hey, what gives girl? Get some brake lights!" Aries cried out, nearly dropping her tray.

"Nahla, what is it?" De asked, seeing Nahla's face drain of all color.

The two best friends followed Nahla's line of vision to the other side of the room. No wonder she had gone pale. Jace had decided to show after all. And he wasn't alone. Janet was with him.

The room suddenly went quiet as they realized what was going on. Jace and Nahla stood for several long moments, staring at each other. Unable to believe what she was seeing, Nahla quickly turned and returned to the kitchen. Haphazardly setting her tray on the countertop, she literally ran up the back stairs to her room, completely humiliated.

Jace watched her go, and immediately regretted his decision to bring Janet. He wondered now what in the world had possessed him to do such a thing, knowing it would more than likely hurt Nahla. But perhaps that was his motivation, to hurt her as much as she had hurt him that day by the pool.

Sherry stormed up to Jace, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into an adjoining room. "What the hell are you doing here . with her???" She whispered venomously, purposely keeping her tone low.

His defenses shot up. "I don't have to explain my actions to you.'

"When it comes to my sister, yes you do!"

"Look Sherry, she made the mistake when she fooled around with another man. You've got no right chewing me out for looking at other possibilities."

"Oh that's right Jace, I forgot you were perfect. You've never made a mistake in your life. Forgive me, I'm just a humble human, unlike the god-like Dr. Jamison. Just where do you get off anyway! She didn't know what she was doing! She had an accident, she had amnesia. You're a doctor, you should be able to understand that!!"

Jace struggled to control his temper. Part of him knew what Sherry was saying was true, but he didn't take kindly to being reprimanded like a petulant child. "Not that it's any of your business, but Janet is only a friend. Someone outside your all's little clique that I know I can talk to without it going any further. Nahla did a little more than talk with that Gino fellow .

Sherry was nearly seething. "What you are doing is so completely different, she wasn't out to purposely hurt you. And if you can't see that, then I feel sorry for you. You had a great thing and you're willing to throw it all away because you can't get past your hurt pride. I used to think you were a good man, but right now I ..."

"You what?!"

"I can barely stand here and look at you!" Sherry spat.

"Well that makes two of us!" Jace exclaimed as he turned and stormed out of the house, slamming the door in his wake.

Hearing the door, Janet rounded the corner. "Did Jace leave?"

"Yes," Sherry answered with deadly calm.

"Is he coming back?"

Sherry stepped menacingly close to the shorter, smaller redhead. "No, and I suggest you follow his example."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Do I need to?"

The two women stood nose-to-nose, one waiting for the other to move. "Ladies, is there a problem?"

"No Michael, there isn't. Janet was just leaving, weren't you?"

"This isn't over," Janet hissed, following Jace's example after all and slamming the door on her way out.

When Sherry and Michael returned to join the others in the den, the room broke out in applause and whistles.

"Way to go Sher, you tell 'em!!"

"Maybe we should rename you the Spanish Hurricane!"

Sherry blushed under all the attention. "Alright, are we here to watch a movie or not?!" She called out. "Roarke, you installed all this fancy equipment, dim the lights and hit the play button already!"

"Yes, mam!" he replied with a salute.

"Aren't you going to go up and check on Nahla?" Michael whispered in Sherry's ear as he settled an arm about her waist and pulled her close against his side.

"No, I saw North sneak out a moment ago, she's in good hands." Sherry replied, laying her head on Michael's shoulder and tilting her head to look up at him expectantly.

Quickly glancing around to make sure they weren't being observed, Michael leaned down to nuzzle her nose with his before kissing her tenderly.


The next couple of weeks passed by with little change. Nahla continued working the odd shifts, when interaction with other male operatives would be at a minimum. Jace was pouring himself into his work, leaving little opportunity for free time.

Nahla arrived for her shift in Munitions one afternoon to find a message waiting for her from Walter.

"Hey sweetness. Be sure and check your panel when you get in. There's a mission going out tomorrow morning and you're on the team. I know this a first for you, but I'm confident you can handle it. Stay vertical."

Making a note to check her panel later, Nahla got down to business. She was in the middle of a new project when she heard someone calling her name.

"I'm in the back."

Michael walked quietly in the back area of Munitions. "We're waiting on you."

"Huh? Who's waiting? And for what?"

"Briefing was supposed to start five minutes ago. Didn't you check your panel?"

"Oh crap, I forgot. Operations gonna kill me?"

"No, this is my briefing. But I don't appreciate having to come and find you."

Nahla hung her head. "Sorry."

"Let's go." He replied, leading the way out into the Commons.

Grabbing the only open seat at the table, Nahla didn't have time to check out who else was there before Michael launched into his speech.

"This is Saareste, he runs a high class brothel in Tallinn, Estonia. We've received intel that he is on the verge of releasing a new weapon he himself has developed. Section was able to secure one of the prototypes, which Walter and Nahla have had time to analyze."

"This is an extremely volatile situation, mandating that an entire team consisting of tactical, comm., munitions and medical be on site for the duration of the operation." The young leader of Comm explained. "Andrea is already in place inside the brothel as our contact. Once the rest of the team arrives, the mission will be completed over a week's time.

"Endgame is retrieval of the original blueprint along with the remaining prototypes. We'll leave tomorrow at 0600, until then everyone is on closed quarters standby. Any questions?" Michael asked, cutting back in. "Dismissed."

It was as Nahla was standing up that she saw Jace seated at the other end of the table. He didn't even look in her direction as he stood and left the briefing table.

"You ok?"

Nahla jumped as Rita laid a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, hey Rita. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you going to be able to handle working with Jace on this mission?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really, but I could talk to Michael and see if the uppers will let you step down?"

Nahla shook her head. 'No, this was bound to happen sooner or later. Not to mention we've all heard how Ops and Madeline used to not condone relationships between operatives. This would give them perfect opportunity to prove their point."

Rita smiled. "OK. Then I'd suggest you go try and get some rest. It's going to be a long week."

"Thanks, Rita."

"Sure, see ya in the morning."

Nahla managed to find a quiet spot in the back of the transport plane where she could keep to herself. Or more importantly, keep away from Jace. He seems to be of the same opinion because he was seated all the way in the front.

Several of the ops tried to engage her in idle conversation, but she managed to keep them at arms' length. Part of her really hoped Jace was taking note of this. It was because of him she had isolated herself from nearly every male operative in Section, the only exceptions being Michael, Roarke and a couple of the other guys that were well known to be in serious
relationships.

They arrived in Estonia during the middle of the night and quickly progressed to the dive that could be misconstrued as a motel. Their home for the next 4 days. They only had two rooms, which meant it was going to be a tight squeeze. Thankfully Nahla and Jace were split and didn't have to stay in the same room with the other. Michael had agreed with Rita that it would only complicate matters.

Because most of the prep work had to be done from the inside, Nahla found herself completely and utterly bored. She was only there in the event that something happened to the prototypes they were after. Only she knew how to disarm it should its' self-destruct mechanism activate.

For two days she sat around the musty motel room. Finally on the second night Andrea contacted them. The sale would be taking place the following afternoon down near the waterfront. That night the group sat together over some kind of hot meal they didn't want to think about was made of and finalized plans.

Since the motel was close to the waterfront, Nahla, Birkoff and Jace would stay behind. Michael, Rita, Davenport and the remaining operatives would proceed to the sale to intercede and retrieve. Even though it meant being in the same room with Jace, Nahla sat on the bed behind Birkoff to listen as the mission proceeded. At first it seemed that everything was working like clockwork. Then all hell broke loose.

The mission van returned with everyone including Andrea aboard, however, several had gunshot wounds or burns from explosives. Jace quickly took the injured into the adjoining room and began patching them up. Nahla had a bigger problem. Michael and Davenport had retrieved the three prototypes, however one was counting down to detonation.

Gathering the tools she would need, Michael led her to the room's only bathroom. He then ordered everyone else in the adjoining room's bathroom. That way they were as far away from the potential blast as possible, but weren't exposing themselves outside. When Nahla tried to shut Michael out with the others, he wouldn't let her.

"Why not?"

"We don't have time to argue. If you don't get that timer stopped, I'm pulling you out of here before you get killed. I don't lose operatives unnecessarily on my missions. Now get started, we're wasting time." Michael ordered.

Nahla had less than three minutes to kill the time switch. However, the device was so damn sensitive it would take her almost two just to get the cover off, she was going to be cutting it very close. Setting the prototype on the sink counter, she went to work. Michael, thank goodness, didn't hover, but gave her the space she needed to think.

At least he didn't hover until she was down to 30 seconds. "You're not gonna make it, are you?" he asked.

"No, give me 10 seconds." Nahla replied, thinking that he was probably right.

Fifteen seconds went by and the timer was still counting down. "Nahla."

"I've almost got it."

"We have to go, now."

"Just one .more . second . DAMN!"

His gut instinct kicking in, Michael knew they wouldn't make it out of the bathroom in time. Grabbing Nahla, he threw her into the bathtub. Chucking the prototypic through the single bathroom window, he rolled into the tub on top of her as split seconds later an explosion rocked the building.

The blast had blown in the exterior wall, showering both Michael and Nahla with fragments of cement and glass. As the debris settled, Michael lifted his head to survey the damage before turning his attention. "Nahla?" he asked, lightly tapping her cheek. It was useless. She was out cold, a bruise already forming on her right temple. Lifting her in his arms, he opened the bathroom door to find a couple of the other operatives slowing coming in from the other room.

"Are you two alright??" Rita asked.

"Yes," Michael replied as he walked over to lay Nahla on the bed.

"What happened to her?" Birkoff asked.

Michael didn't reply but concentrated on waking her up. After a moment she groaned and blinked several times before her focused on Michael's face. "What hap..oh, my head."

"Lie still, you hit your head."

"Yeah, no thanks to you." She muttered, testing her temple with a light touch.

"What?"

"When you threw me in the tub, I think I hit the spigot."

A few titters could be heard from those standing close enough to hear. Not one to be embarrassed in front of the others, Michael started to stand.

Nahla grasped his wrist. "Don't get me wrong. Thanks."

He merely gave a nod and turned himself lose from her grasp. He then went into the other room to see what Jace could tell him about the injured. It surprised him a little that Jace hadn't come into the other room with the others to investigate, but then again.

Because most of the gunshot wounds were superficial, the team was ready to transport within twenty. A couple of the guys tried to assist Nahla, as she appeared a little wobbly, but she refused to be helped.

Jace was one of the last to leave the motel and therefore saw her shrugging them off. He wouldn't admit it to anyone but himself, but when the explosion had occurred, his heart had literally stopped beating. It wasn't until he heard Rita asking them if they were all right, that he blew out the breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding.

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