<_Quit hovering, Kitt ordered. <_Agent Tanner will do his best. Your worrying won't hurry him up any.

<_I'm not worrying, Karr denied sharply.

Kitt snorted in disbelief. <_Sure you aren't. That's why you're not staring at that signal. If you were a cat, your tail would be twitching. Can't you try and relax? he urged. <_We've done all we can.

Neither Alex nor Michael were pacing the halls. They were even managing to have a pleasant, if stilted, conversation with Mr. Tanner's teammates. Kitt took it as a good sign, and had been trying to draw his recalcitrant brother out as well. He wasn't having much luck.

Karr took a moment to respond. <_I don't like depending on someone else to rescue my partner, he finally admitted.

<_I know. But Nick asked for this guy. Surely that means he trusts him to succeed?

<_Yes, Karr answered noncommittally.

Kitt nodded sympathetically, a flash of understanding flowing through the link to the dark AI. <_But that doesn't necessarily mean you trust him.

The icy presence drew in on itself. <_What I believe is irrelevant.

Kitt frowned. <_No, it's not. You are entitled to your feelings, Karr.

<_Yes, but there's… The black presence rippled, then suddenly stilled.

Kitt perked up. <_What?

Karr didn't respond. He was too busy translating the influx of vibrational data as the signal flared into life. The black mass of his soul shifted and uncoiled as the incoming information reassured him greatly.

Kitt waited impatiently. <_Well?

<_Mr. Tanner was successful, Karr said in relief. <_They are on their way to the primary retrieval coordinates.

He'd already started his engine.

<_Nick? Kitt asked quickly.

<_Injured, but awake and aware.

<_Wait for us, Kitt requested but Karr wasn't listening anymore. The young AI started his own engine, simultaneously alerting his driver. Karr wasn't going to give them much time.

"Michael!" Kitt called excitedly through the commlink, breaking into his driver's conversation. "Vin has Nick! He's hurt, but alive! Hurry, Karr's going after him!"

"Right, Pal, we're coming. Okay, folks!" Michael called, shooting to his feet and loping for the door. "Mission accomplished. We're on."

Nathan was seconds behind him, his black medical bag clutched tight in his hands. Slightly slower, but no less determined, Alex limped on their tails.

Karr was already in motion, turning the Stealth around. Kitt sat in his parking spot, his powerful engine revving at the ready. Michael and Nathan raced over to Kitt, reaching for the doors just as Karr suddenly accelerated and shot past them. Alex took one quick look, yelled at the retreating Karr, then stormed over to Michael.

"I'm going with you." She declared vehemently, daring him to refuse her.

Nathan froze at the passenger side door, glancing uncertainly between the injured woman and stern man.

Expression as impassive as Nick's ever was, Michael waved the medic into the Trans Am. "No. You're not, Alex."

When she glared harder, opening her mouth to argue, Michael gently laid a hand on her arm. His eyes softening, he spoke gently, "It's too dangerous. Nick wouldn't want you to get hurt." He caught her eyes. "You can do more for him by being here when he gets back."

Sighing, beaten by logic, Alex nodded. She stepped back, allowing Michael to climb into the custom driver's seat. The Trans Am pulled out, speeding down the road after Karr. Alex watched them go.

A youthful voice brought her attention back to the men she'd been left with.

"We go could go after them, couldn't we?" JD asked, gesturing to Ezra's stylish Jaguar. The Southerner merely blinked, discomfited at the thought of subjecting his expensive roadster to danger.

Alex took in the shiny status symbol and shook her head in disgust. Sneering, she balefully corrected their ignorance. "Those two 'cars'," she said sarcastically, pointing in the direction the Stealth and Trans Am had gone, "can travel at upwards to 300 mph for days on end. Do you really think you can catch them with some flashy heap of junk?" She stomped off, ignoring their shocked expressions.

Quietly, almost unheard, Standish looked at his beloved automobile and whined indignantly. "Junk?!"

Vin was wrapping bandages around Nick's mangled wrists and ankles. He'd already wrapped the ribs and put a brace on the broken arm. Disinfectant ointment was smeared across the wire lashes, sealed under the same tight gauze that held firm the damaged ribs. Anything else would have to wait until they could get farther away from the obliterated mercenary camp. Though the injured man probably wouldn't enjoy the journey as much as his rescuer would, the Texan realized with a grim smile. Peso could be hard on anyone's bones.

Finished with his task, Vin sat back. "I reckon that'll hold ya until Nathan can get a look at you."

"Great. Now can I have some clothes?"

Tanner looked at the naked man sitting on a rock with his back carefully braced against Peso's saddle. Neither man had really registered his state of undress during the tension-filled escape. Only now that they were relatively safe did such trivial things as clothing, or the lack thereof, get noticed.

"Since when did you get a sense of modesty?" the Hunter chuckled darkly, handing the Ghost a set of stolen BDUs.

Nick took the uniform with his undamaged hand and glared as he thrust his legs into the pants.

Vin's eyes lightened as he began to relax. He surveyed the mottled bruises adorning the spy's chest, contrasting sharply against the stark white of the bandages. Blood still coated most of the older operative's skin, and the beginnings of a black eye were starting to show over the busted nose. He looked like a week's worth of roadkill. Smelled like it too.

"Might not be a bad idea to cover up," Vin shook his head in mock sadness. "Wouldn't want to scare Lexi with the sight of your ugly hide." He grinned.

Nick paused in the midst of struggling into a shirt to slant a sly grin at the Texan. "Haven't heard any complaints from her yet."

Vin threw back his head and laughed.

"How badly is he injured? Do we know?"

Michael spared a look for the dark-skinned medic sitting tensely in the passenger seat. "Kitt said Karr sounded more relieved than upset, so I doubt it's anything too serious. Are you worried you can't handle it?"

Nathan Jackson shook his head. "Nah. I get a lot of practice with Team Seven. Can't none of them stay out of trouble for long." He turned to face the man driving the Trans Am. "It's amazing. I had no idea anything like this ever existed. Talking cars, a secret network of government sanctioned underaged spies and assassins... Even working with the ATF for the last three years, even working with the bunch of misfits that I do, we've never encountered anything remotely resembling the strangeness of the past few days. Don't you ever wonder how you got involved in something like this?"

Michael chuckled wryly. "I know exactly how I got involved. I got shot in the face and left for dead on a Nevada highway. Wilton Knight, the head of Knight Industries, picked me up and remade me into Michael Knight. For me, this life may be strange but it's completely natural. I've been a FLAG employee for eleven years and Kitt's been the best part of that the entire time. I can't imagine living without him anymore. Even if being with him means I learn about the more unsavory aspects of our world."

"But it's so…," Nathan searched for the perfect word, "extraordinary."

"You don't know the half of it," Michael confided, grinning at the massive understatement.

Then they were turning a corner and their wayward partners came into view. Michael's lips tightened as he got his first look at his abused friend, and his hands squeezed the steering wheel in response. Kitt was already running his medical scanners over his brother's battered driver, the report of information flooding down the open link into his mind as he parked the Trans Am beside the Stealth. Thankfully, Kitt's scans assured him it wasn't as bad as it looked, because it sure as hell looked horrible.

Nick was draped bonelessly over Karr's driver's seat, his bootless feet hanging out the open door. Tanner stood nearby with a black horse, the animal trying to stick its head into the car to sniff at MacKenzie only to be yanked back by his owner.

Nick looked up as they approached, and Michael grimaced as he took in the beaten features. "Jesus, Nick. You look like crap."

Nick rolled his eyes -- well, his one good eye -- as Vin's lips quirked in amusement. "So I've heard. Repeatedly. Seems to be the first thing everyone says."

"Yeah, well. It's true. Are you okay?"

Nick shifted as the medic probed his ribs, the black man following Kitt's quiet medical report despite flicking a startled glance at the AI. "I'm fine. I think I got more bruises riding Tanner's goddamn horse than I did from Nash."

"Good. I'm glad Agent Tanner was able to get you out okay. But maybe next time you'll realize you can trust me to come for you, too."

Nick raised expressionless eyes to meet Michael's stare. "I trusted you not to come for me this time," he said quietly.

It took the FLAG operative only a moment to work out the implications of that, but slowly a touched smile spread across his face as the meaning sank in. "Thanks," he answered just as softly.

Peso broke up the tender moment by shoving his head past Jackson to snuffle at MacKenzie's blood-dried hair. Nick tried to push the determined beast away, while Vin pulled on the reins. Finally, Karr had enough and loosed his temper on the available target.

"Back off," he growled viciously, and no one was more surprised than he was when Peso jerked and backed up obediently.

Vin snickered. "And on that note, I think I'll load up and get out of here. I need a bath and some decent coffee. See you back at the ranch?"

"Yes," Michael agreed for all, getting the healer's okay for his patient to travel. "Come on, Nick. Alex is waiting."

Alex met the two sports cars as they pulled into the drive. She barely waited for the Stealth to roll to a stop before she was pulling at the driver's door. "Nick!"

"I know, I know. 'I look like shit.' Nice to see you too, Alex."

She hesitated to touch to him, unsure if there was anywhere not hurting. Nick reached out himself and wrapped his good arm around her waist. She leaned gently against his shoulder. "You look gorgeous to me," she pretended to simper, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously.

Michael rolled his eyes as he climbed from the Trans Am, but he was smiling. "Oh, get a room," he teased.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Nathan said, coming up on Nick's other side. "You need to rest and I need to get that arm set since you refuse to go to a hospital. It's a miracle you didn't break any of them ribs and nick a lung riding Vin's fool horse. And the blood loss!" he shook his head incredulously. "I have no idea how you're still standing, the condition you're in. Miss," he turned to Alex, "your bandage could probably do with changing too."

Nick narrowed his eyes as his lover. "You're hurt?"

"It's nothing, just a little cut. You're in much worse shape. You need to get cleaned up and you could probably use something to eat, too. I doubt Nash fed you. When's the last time you had anything to drink?"

Nick followed in bemusement as Alex tugged on his arm, Michael ushering him from behind as his friends discussed his health regimen for the upcoming weeks.

Vin, who'd arrived minutes after the two AIs and used the time during their reunion to get Peso out of the trailer, watched the interaction silently. He couldn't help recognizing the similarities between he and the older operative. Both had been orphans raised to be killers, able to rely only on themselves, now with people who cared about them and would fight to take care of them. And neither he nor Nick knew how to deal with it, how to respond when under the influence of that selfless caring.

Vin looked at his own friends. Chris and Buck were unhitching the trailer, JD had taken Peso to be brushed and watered, Nathan and Ezra were escorting the visiting trio into the house and Josiah was waiting patiently at the door. His teammates, his friends, his partners. Each and every one would have gone to the ends of hell and back for him. Each and every one had trusted him enough to let him go alone when he asked, had trusted him to come back to them.

"Vin? You with us?"

The sharpshooter met his friends' gaze. "Yeah," he smiled, widely and honestly, "I'm with you."

"There," Nathan said, smoothing down the last roll of gauze. "That's the best I can do. You got lucky with those cracked ribs, but the welts on your back have me concerned. They're already puffy, which means you got an infection. I'll give ya some of the same widespread antibiotics I gave your, uh… " he trailed off, unsure exactly what the lady's relationship was with the surly man. "… I gave Miss Alex. You really ought to have a cast on that arm, but if you keep it bound tightly and use the damn sling, it will be fine until you can get one."

"Thank you, Mr. Jackson."

The EMT met the cool blue gaze. "You're welcome, Mr. MacKenzie," he answered formally. "You've got some good friends, including those two cars. Hope you appreciate how lucky you are. Now then, Miss, soon as you're ready you come on out to the kitchen. I'll change your bandage there." He nodded politely at them, packed up his medical kit and left the room.

Alex sat on the bed beside her mate. "He's right you know. You do have great friends." She leaned down carefully, planted a kiss on his bruised lips, then exchanged a glance with Michael before following the healer from the room.

Michael looked with concern on the younger, but more experienced, man. "Kitt tells me Karr is still holding the block between you."

Nick sighed, sinking back into the pillows. It felt good to be clean, fed, and thankfully warm. The only thing that could make the experience better would be if he had his partner hovering in his mind.

"I gave Karr an order not to drop the block until I told him it was safe," he explained.

"So why haven't you done that?"

"It's been almost five days since the block went up, Michael. I'm exhausted, wounded… Alex is wounded… When the shield drops, I'm not going to be able to focus on anything else. Neither will Karr. And we're on foreign territory."

"It's not 'foreign territory', Nick. It's a secluded ranch, filled with good people who are willing to fight to protect you. Neither you nor Karr are vulnerable here, Nick. Not while Kitt and I are here, not while your friend Tanner is here."

Nick, half-asleep already, cracked open the eye he'd not even noticed had slipped closed to squint at his best friend. Michael was holding his wristwatch out before him, the faceplate opened to reveal the commlink he'd used to keep in contact with his AI partner before his neural link with Kitt had developed.

"He's waiting, Nick."

Ambivalent, Nick hesitated before reaching out to wrap his good hand around the watch. The bandages on his broken arm pressed against the fracture as he pulled the commlink closer, but he focused on the device instead of the pain. Michael patted him on leg, smiled at him, then slipped soundlessly from the room, pulling the locked door closed behind him. He knew without asking that he would stand sentry on the other side until Nick was able to protect himself. The Ghost could also guess that the Hunter was likely keeping a watchful (and armed) eye on him as well. Either way, he was protected.

He stared at the silent commlink, then determinedly pressed the button that would open the channel. "Karr?"

"Yes?"

"Drop the block," he gave the order.

The reply was instantaneous. The wall between them dissolved into nothing and Nick collapsed into his partner's mental embrace. The dark presence of the AI surged around his own dulled blue, wrapping his very soul in a layer of affection and fierce protectiveness. No words passed between them as the two presences, one icy black and one a cool blue pockmarked with shades of gray, wreathed and wound around one other until no outside observer would ever be able to tell them apart.

At such a level of closeness, words were meaningless as everything felt by one was automatically felt by the other. What could be a dangerous threat in the wrong situation, the very fear that had led to the block being raised in the first place, was a priceless gift now that they were safe and secure. For a long moment, all they did was revel in the feeling of being together, united and whole once again.

< Welcome home > Karr whispered, curling tighter to his soulmate.

Nick didn't bother to voice a reply, the meaning of his gratitude floating naturally with a thought. Swathed in the security of Karr's presence, he was powerless to stop his slide into sleep. Just before he dropped off completely, he managed a thought. < Don't let me sleep too long… >

Karr stood warch over him as he sank into unconsciousness. < Don't worry, > he vowed. < I'll take care of you. > And he settled in to do just that.

"I'm tellin' you, darlin', what you need is a man who can show you a real good time. None of this life and death spy stuff. Someone who'll treat ya like a princess, take you out to fancy dinners and buy you flowers. Someone who'll--"

"Buck," Vin tried to interrupt. The first half-hour of this had been entertaining, but it was getting on to be an hour and the sleeping Ghost would be waking soon. Vin didn't really want to the see the consequences if he did before Buck was finished. "Buck, I think that's enough…"

The big man didn't even look at him. "Not now, Vin. I'm on a roll." He picked up the woman's hand and caressed the back of her fingers. "You're a geologist, right? Reckon that means you love the outdoors. Well, lucky thing, so do I! I can show you all sorts of nice rocks in these mountains, sweet thang. All sorts of one-of-a-kind, bea-u-tiful sights you ain't gonna see no where else." His voice deepened until it practically dripped sexual invitation, lending credence to the insinuation that what he wanted to show her had nothing to do with rocks at all.

Michael was staring in fascination. "Is he insane?" he whispered in an aside to the tracker beside him.

Vin smirked. "Nope, he's just powered by pure hormones. Buck," he tried again, "you really don't wanna be doing this."

Alex cast a coy glance at the other men from under her eyelashes. "Don't ruin his fun," she teased.

"Ain't his fun I'm worried about," Vin drawled. "I'm more afraid of what Nick will do to him when he finds out. Guaranteed it won't be pretty. Might be fun to watch though," he said brazenly.

"Jealous husband?" Buck queried, not looking too put out by the possibility.

Michael's lips twitched. "Something like that."

Buck looked at Alex's hands. "No ring," he observed.

"Does there have to be one?"

"Ah. So... not married?" He bobbed his eyebrows, his leer growing wider beneath his mustache as he leaned in towards her.

"But very much spoken for," said someone behind him.

Vin and Michael laughed as Buck jumped in his seat and scooted reflexively away from the woman he'd been relentlessly flirting with. "No need to go sneaking up on folks! We were just talking, anyway. Pretty lady like this," he flashed a wink at Alex, "deserves a little attention from the males around her. It's all in good fun," Buck added defensively.

Nick's lips pulled back over his teeth, making his face look all the more ghoulish when combined with the impressive bruising. "Oh, absolutely," he agreed softly. "All in good fun. And yes, Alex is a very beautiful woman, she deserves plenty of attention. I'm sure she appreciates it. I've always liked her skin tone," he continued conversationally, painstakingly lowering himself to the sofa on Alex's other side.

He ran his bandaged fingertips across his lover's chin. "She's part native, you see. Gitskan. She inherited her mother's coloring. It's very flattering on her."

Buck was nodding, smiling as he happily commiserated with a like-minded male about the fortunes of feminine beauty. "Oh yeah," he sighed. "Goes great with those lovely dark eyes of hers. It's like starin' at the night sky, with the way the light of her soul just sparkles out them ebony pools."

Alex, polite smile fixed plastically to her face, was struggling not to break out laughing as the ATF agent waxed poetic about feature after feature. Nick encouraged him, smiling and nodding and pointing out a certain curl of her hair or the mole hidden by her ear. She dared not make eye contact with either Michael Knight or Vin Tanner, whom she could just see out of the corner of her eye. Both men, standing side by side as they watch the show, wore big grins and frequently shook their heads in disbelief. Michael's chest occasionally heaved, as if on the verge of losing control of the laughter trapped in his diaphragm. Vin, on the other hand, seemed to be more in awe than anything.

Buck, however, remained completely oblivious to the danger he'd walked blindly into. He was still blathering on, this time about her fine-boned (if callused) fingers. "… such long, delicate things. So gentle, but strong. Meant to be wrapped around something--"

Vin couldn't take it anymore. "Goddamn, Nick! Put him out of our misery already!"

Nick flicked his gaze to meet the Texan's. "Hmm?"

But the Hunter recognized the feral glow the Ghost's icy blue eyes and knew he was right. "Quit toyin' with poor Bucklin. Yer lucky these boys don't know you like I do, or they mighta been tempted to draw their guns on you. It's downright terrifyin' watching you do that. Playin' with the man like a cat with a mouse. Just chew him up and spit him out or leave him alone."

Nick's mildly pleasant expression dropped instantly. "Ah, Hunter," he said magnanimously. "It's all in good fun."

Buck looked stunned, and that was it for Alex. Her control shattered and she almost popped her stitches with the force of her laughter. Michael quickly joined her, and even Vin let out a few sniggers. The other ATF agents smiled as well, realizing their lady-chasing teammate had finally met his match.

Nick looked disappointed that his game was up. "You couldn't have given me five more minutes, Tanner? I was just moving in for the kill."

"I know," Vin said unsympathetically. "I've seen you do it. Makin' small talk with yer target seconds before ya slit his throat. Ain't natural how ya can do that."

"Skill," Nick asserted.

"Lunacy," Vin countered.

Nick quirked an eyebrow, or tried to anyway. "You just have no respect for your betters," he decided.

"Betters?" Vin scoffed. "I don't think so. M' elders, maybe."

"You'll think it when I shoot in you the ass, Hunter," the Ghost growled, narrowing his one good eye to glare balefully at the ex-assassin.

The Hunter shifted his weight to stand hipshot directly in the line of fire, then crossed his arms without a care in the world. "Gotta catch me first, 'old man'."

Nick's glare upped to full intensity, the icy gaze of death only minimally hampered by having one eye sealed shut against it.

"Oooh!" Hunter snickered. "Big bad Ghost is givin' me the 'evil eye'. Reckon I'm feeling scared now!" He shivered theatrically.

"Irritates the hell out of ya, doesn't it?" Larabee commiserated when Nick sighed in resignation. "Tanner's refusal to be properly intimidated by a glare that sends most folks running for cover."

"It's a sign of brain damage," Nick revealed gravely. "He took one too many hits to the head when he was a kid."

"Only 'cause ya kept trying to take my head off!" Vin accused hotly.

Nick smirked at him. "Just because you couldn't learn how to duck…"

"Don't you blame that on me, Nicholas! You had 60 pounds 'n almost five years on me, not too mention three more years worth a trainin', ya lyin' snake! Y'all was just pickin' on the little kid and you know it!"

"We were following orders," Nick claimed levelly.

"And havin' a damn fun time doin' it too!"

Watching the by-play, Michael couldn't help feeling amazed as his usually serious partner degenerated into a juvenile game of one-up-manship. He turned his regard on the other men positioned about the room, all of them watching the verbal tennis-match in bemusement.

"Is it just me," he commented to the room at large, "or are they bickering like children?"

Instantly, the 'children' broke off their jousting to swivel round to face him. Michael gulped, suddenly confronted by twin lethal blue-eyed glares promising no end of imaginative pain to his person. He knew they could deliver, too.

"Nevermind," he backtracked quickly, and slammed a block in his partner's face when Kitt laughed at him.

Vin sat on the porch steps hours after everyone had gone to bed. The cloud cover had finally parted and the night sky glittered with stars, so many more than he would ever be able to see from his own apartment. It was one of the reasons he felt so comfortable out at the ranch; being so close to nature, feeling like a part of it. The other was the man who owned the house and made it feel like a home.

It was good to be home.

"Just gonna leave without sayin' goodbye?" he asked softly, not looking behind him.

"Thought we'd head out," came the equally quiet reply, not really an answer.

Now Vin turned his head, meeting the shadowed gaze of the man who moved soundlessly down the stairs. Behind him, not quite so silent but trying, were two others.

Vin smiled humorlessly. There were a dozen things he could say, a dozen things he would have said were it anyone else but the Ghost standing before him. He said none of the them.

Nicholas MacKenzie nodded, face expressionless despite the bruises, and raised his unbroken arm out before him. He curled his taped-up fingers into an awkward fist and rotated the arm at the elbow until his hand was level with his opposite shoulder. He held the position rigidly, eyes on the Texan.

Vincent Tanner watched impassively, then flowed fluidly to his feet. He copied the gesture with his own arm, took one step forward, and touched his forearm to the other man's.

Forearms crossed, the two ex-operatives locked cool blue eyes to cool blue eyes.

"Anytime," the Hunter said.

"Anywhere," the Ghost answered.

"Anything," they finished together.

And Vin stayed on the steps and said nothing more as he watched three people climb into two matching black sports cars, powerful engines running muted, and drive away as inconspicuously as they'd arrived.

THE END!!!