Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

Next Stop...

"The next flight to New York is in an hour," Nikita sighed, walking into the room with Alys' laptop balanced on her forearm.

"Why do you always hack into my things?" the blonde whined, causing Nikita to snicker.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I technically haven't done that in years, unless you count me using the shellbox," Alys pointed out, wrapping herself further in her blanket. At this point, she just wanted Nikita gone. She was expecting to hear from someone in Division soon, she still had a job that needed doing and especially didn't need Nikita prying into.

"Well, that's gone so don't count on it. Nerd found it." Alys shook her head and closed her eyes.

"It's about damn time. Sorry." Nikita chuckled but set down the laptop, going about the room and picking out the clothes that were actually hers and not pilfered from Alys' dresser.

"Don't you worry about me, I'll get by without it." She really didn't want to, but Alys smiled beneath the blanket.

"I know," she softly replied, leaving it at that. Nikita seemed to get it, though, because she was quiet as she collected her things. When she was done, she returned to the bed where Alys purposely kept the lower half of her face hidden by the blanket.

"Take care of yourself, Aly." The way she said it, Nikita seemed to know the mood she had put the girl in, and gave her a simple kiss to the forehead before leaving. Nikita had always been terribly in tune with Alys' thoughts, they could come together on the same page without either speaking a word. She probably even knew last night.

"You, too, Niki," Alys tacked on before she could leave the flat. She was responded to by the door closing and a long silence afterwords, her whole body heavy and sinking into the bed. By the time her computer beeped, it was only an email from Birkhoff, files attached of her target. After a long moment of ignoring her priorities, she opened it up and swallowed hard when she learned the men she would be looking for were working for Gogol.

Grabbing her bracelet off the nightstand, she took a moment to examine it. It was a charm bracelet, sure, but the only charm it ever held was the one containing Noah's ashes. Now, it also held a sunflower. With a soft sigh, she laid back in bed, smoothing her fingers over the metal charm as she contemplated if she was sure she was ready to give Nikita up, at least romantically.

◇A month and a half later◇

Alys sighed and poured herself a drink. She'd supplied herself with more than just what Division had stocked her with, some things stonger. She had barely taken a drink of her vodka before there was someone knocking on her door. She had had run-ins with the neighbors before, but she made it pretty clear to them her schedule didn't allow for freetime. No need for another Noah. She took a quick look through the peep hole before groaning and opening up the door. "Get inside, what the hell are you thinking?" she almost growled as she let Owen in.

"You said you didn't want me just sneaking in," he pointed out, a light smile to his face. "Was that not the best alternative?"

"You could have called me first," she sighed, locking the door and taking a deep breath, she needed to keep the rhythm light. "You do know Division agents have been known to just randomly pop up here?"

"Then I'll make it quick, I found the Black Box," he announced as he turned around. His blue eyes followed Alys as she moved back to the bottle of vodka, grabbing another glass to pour another drink.

"Congrats, what now?" Alys asked, he wouldn't have come here for no reason.

"Now, I go get Nikita and we take down the Guardian and get the Box." Alys frowned and nodded.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain while you're here." She handed Owen the glass with an almost sarcastic smile, moving to sit in the livingroom again.

"My flight out of London leaves in a few hours, thought you'd appreciate the company." Since when did this flat become Air Alys?

"Everyone just loves dropping in before their flights, don't they?" she chuckled, the sarcasm becoming more prominent when she brought her glass back to her lips. From him, to Nikita, to Michael, to other Division agents with information for her, everyone seemed to like to hang out here before they had to leave.

"Would you rather it just be you and me out there?" Owen tested, a skeptical look on his face. Alys turned it over a moment and decided she was nowhere near fit enough to go up against a Guardian with Owen as the only back up. When the blonde shook her head, he chuckled a simple, "I thought so." He looked her over a long moment, noticed how she nursed her glass a bit protectively. "How're things going with the Bratva?"

Alys held her glass to her lips but didn't take a drink just yet, letting her accent drop from a British one to Russian as she muttered, "Excellent." She then chuckled at herself and took a drink. Though she'd talked some about it with Birkhoff, she never told anyone her father was the current head of Gogol, who had poisoned her ex lover, and was chasing her around without more than a name to go on.

She wasn't about to spill that bit to Owen, but that's not important anyway. "I love ghosting about," she added, her accent defaulting to British again. "What about you and the Black Boxes? It took what, three months to find it?"

"I know the signs of a Guardian, I was one for years. It didn't take much to find out where he could be, it took the most time actually pinpointing everything." Alys took note of the way he still looked guarded, his eyes darting over the windows quickly. That recognition had returned more obviously to his eyes, it started creeping onto his face when he'd look at her. "Their movement is easier to track than they are, a certain routine they set for themselves," he mumbled this distractedly, still not looking at her just yet.

Alys looked down to his glass and found the contents untouched despite the way he rolled the cup between his hands. She also noted how he hadn't really answered her questions earlier. "Are you alright, Owen?" she asked a bit slowly, able to draw his blue eyes back to her. He took a moment then before answering.

"Yeah, but I gotta get going." He stood and looked down at his hands, if only know remembering the vodka she'd offered him, and decided to down the maybe two shots, leaving the glass on the counter on his way. "Oh, wait," he mumbled, shaking his head as he went over to the whiteboard she had on the fridge. Alys never stood, just watched him from her perch on the sofa as he wrote down an address. "Meet me here tomorrow morning. I'll warn you, it's not as nice as this place."

Owen gave her a polite smile and nod before leaving, no room open for debate as his steps receded from earshot quickly. With a sigh, Alys finished her own drink and stood, loving the instant lightheadedness that came over her. Taking a second for her body to adjust, she walked over to the fridge and studied his curvy handwriting.

Forcing herself to remember, like she had done with so many command keys, she wiped away the black marker and made sure that no residue kept a hint of it there. After cleaning out both glasses, Alys put away the bottle and laid in bed, repeating the numbers and street name to herself as she went to sleep.