She'd never forgive him for going off on his own this time. * We're supposed to be partners damn it!* Sending her off on a fool's errand and leaving behind an envelope marked 'Only to be opened if I don't come back' was NOT how partners were supposed to deal with an assignment.

When the e-mail first came in this morning, she should have known something was wrong, all the color drained out of his face as he read it, and he'd deleted it before she could see anything on the screen. Sending her out to buy some blank computer diskettes was the lamest excuse he'd used yet, but she'd fallen for it.

She looked in the closet, he'd only taken a 2 suit garment bag for luggage so apparently didn't plan to be gone long, but she couldn't just sit back and wait. The last time he'd gone off solo, he'd nearly gotten himself killed. This time, if he gave her the "it was for your own safety" line again, she was going to deck him.

Opening the cover of his laptop, she scrolled through the assorted mail entries but all the remaining messages were either old or junk mail. He'd remembered to erase the deleted files section. Luckily, he hadn't yet found the folder of special utilities she'd hidden on the hard drive in case of emergencies like this. Typing in the command line for her custom-mutated version of a salvage program, she searched the files deleted within the last 12 hours, finally finding his flight confirmation and an address.

Setting up a secure relay system so that any calls to his flat would forward on to her cellphone took only about half an hour and there was another flight leaving at 4pm. The doctor had said she was grounded for at least a month after the concussion, 21 days would have to be enough. By the time they were airborne, Julian had a 6 hour headstart on her, but at least Arianna knew where he was headed - Thailand.

After the flight crew had cleared the dinner trays, most of the passengers settled down to watch the movie, read, or sleep. The pressure changes caused by the altitude hadn't bothered her head at all, but her wrist ached. Her hand was swelling and the cast felt very tight. Bangkok was a long flight so maybe it would be worth taking a pain killer to get some sleep instead of worrying about Julian for the next 10 hours. Rummaging through her purse to find her bottle of pills, she came across a small box wrapped in Florentine paper and tied with a red ribbon.

A gold tag read simply, 'For Ari - J.' He'd been leaving little surprises here and there for her to find since they'd first come to London. The small Liberty print bear he'd bought at the airport now had a frog for a companion, as well as other London souvenir type trinkets. Julian must have slipped this one into her bag before he left this morning.

Inside the wrappings was a black velvet ring box that opened to reveal a wide, polished, white gold band engraved with a palmette leaf design around the outside. Her eyes misted over on reading the inscription 'semper amenus' engraved around the inside. Looking out the plane window and trying to blink back the tears, she tried to understand how he could go off without her if he really meant 'our love forever'.

She felt a light touch on her arm and looked over to see the smiling flight attendant waiting for an answer. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Can I get you something to drink?" the smiling, auburn haired woman repeated, as she noticed the wrapping paper on the empty seat and the ringbox in Arianna's hand. "That's lovely, is it a gift from a special someone?"

"Uhm, could I have just some water please, and yes, it is, from a very special someone." The attendant brought back a glass of water and left a pillow and blanket on the empty seat next to her.

She'd worn her college ring on her left hand for so many years it took a bit of a struggle to get it off, but the band from Julian was a perfect fit. Taking 2 of the pills and reclining her seat, she wedged the pillow between her head and the wall next to the window. As she slowly turned his ring round and round on her finger, the drug took effect.

Thanks to the Cabal addendum Julian had managed to have added to her passport, customs clearance a snap. In no time she was in a compact rental car with directions for the approved hotel.

Handing the desk clerk her company identification card, she told him her partner had come in ahead of her but the clerk reported no-one had checked into those reserved rooms for the past week. And he'd not seen anyone that fit Julian's description all day. Once in her room, she tossed her overnight bag onto the chair and quickly unfolded the city map on the bed. The address she'd found in Julian's computer was in the warehouse district down near the docks. As she was sitting on the bed staring at the lower corner of the map, the cellphone in her purse rang and startled her. The call was coming in on the relay number from Julian's Chelsea flat.

"Yes?........ Joe! am I ever glad to hear from you, ..... no, no he's not here, .... Joe, I think he's in trouble..........I'm ashamed to admit he did, this time it was computer disks...... Bangkok, I've found an address where I think he was going ........ hold on while I get a pencil,....... okay .........15 Chang Mai Lane........ well, I hope we won't need him but thanks Joe. I will."

Now that she knew where to find another of Dawson's no questions asked medical men, she only prayed they wouldn't need to find him. On a morbid second thought, she considered it would be better to need him than if she was already too late. Checking that her gun was loaded and ready for use, the hotel phone rang. No-one knew she was here except the registration desk clerk. She picked it up cautiously to hear a gravelly voice on the other end.

"Stay out of it or you'll follow him to the grave," was all the voice said, but in the background she heard a thud and a muffled groan, then a gunshot. Someone knew she was here. Her heart was racing as she grabbed her keys and left to find the warehouse address. As urgently as she wanted to get there, she still made several wrong turns just to be sure there was no one following her.

The alley was deserted when she turned off the headlights and engine, letting the car coast to a stop. Universal Import and Export was painted with sloppy letters on the side of the corrugated iron building. She climbed the wooden steps that led up to the office door and tried to peek through the filthy glass window. There were no signs of life as she picked the lock and entered the seedy office. The place had an odd smell, a tangy combination of salt water, spilled oil, rough wooden crates, and cheap cologne. Her tiny flashlight cast just enough light to check the items on the desk. Flipping over the last page of the calendar, she saw a cryptic entry on yesterday - 'Adios OS' and several assorted doodles but it didn't mean anything to her.

Turning to look out the windows at the back of the office that overlooked the semi-dark warehouse, she suddenly felt a familiar chill run through her body. Julian was close, and hurt. Silently she crept down the stairs into the storage area, winding through a maze of stacked crates until she could hear muffled voices.

Carefully making her way through the darkness toward the sounds, she spotted a group of 3 men, all of them armed, surrounding a last man, sprawled on the ground. She couldn't see his face, but didn't need to. The tight feeling in her chest, and the ragged voice informing them he was not about to tell them anything, was unmistakable.

When the man standing at Julian's right hauled off and kicked him hard in the side, she could feel the pain and exhaustion in him. They must have been at this for the last few hours. The man on the other side kept his gun trained on Julian's back as the leader continued demanding an answer to his questions.

The leader's husky voice was vaguely familiar, and when he turned his head and she saw the evil smile on his face it made her skin crawl. She remembered that face from the afternoon she'd left the university hospital. After Dr. Morris had said she could leave, this man had come in and said he was there to check the cast on her wrist. He'd ordered a special waterproof top coat that had delayed their leaving the hospital by 3 hours.

When he raised the pistol, preparing to fire, she recognised it as Julian's Sig Sauer, the twin to her own. She stepped closer behind him, still mostly hidden in the shadows, and concentrated as hard as possible *I'm here to help*. As Julian raised his head and looked around blearily, she could see a gash on his forehead. When he saw her, his eyes widened with sudden fear - not for his own life, but for hers. In her mind, she heard him yell *Get out of here now!*

Panic overtook the pain in his side when he saw her. He'd never been so glad to see anybody in his life, or as frightened, not for his own life but for hers. Though pleased to see she'd managed to smuggle her gun through airport security, the main problem remained the cast on her right wrist. He had no idea what her aim would be like firing left handed, it was something they'd never thought to test. If she missed, these three were not the type to be scared off easily, and at the moment neither of them was up to much of a struggle. When the pain regained its lead over his panic he recognised the feel of cracked ribs, and bloody hell, now it was getting hard to breathe. Silently he prayed he didn't have a punctured lung to go with the cracked ribs like the last time, and implored her to get out before they realised she was there.

Arianna shook her head, once, to tell him he should stay still and silent. Ignoring the look of desperation in his eyes, she carefully aimed for a point on the floor halfway between the leader and the one who had kicked Julian. She squeezed the trigger and everyone started in panic. Their leader spun toward her and found himself facing the barrel of her weapon.

"Drop the gun," she said, coldly. He looked back toward the other two as she stepped into the light and put her gun against the back of his skull. "Now!" she nudged him.

He did as told. Keeping her eyes on him, she carefully kicked the weapon in Julian's direction. "Now you two, drop it and move away from him." She prayed the other two didn't know she wasn't left handed. Standing where she was, slightly behind the leader, her right side could remain hidden from view and they wouldn't see the cast on her wrist.

She directed another round into the floor near the feet of the man still holding his gun, before he dropped it and moved away. Both weapons were now within Julian's reach. "You'll never be free of us," the leader snarled.

"We'll see about that," Julian hissed.

In the eerie silence, she caught snatches of what was going on from him. These three were a fringe element of some committee that was part of the blanked section of his memory. The kicker made a sudden move behind Julian. When she saw the flash of a knife blade, she fired out of instinct and he fell backward with a bloody stain on his chest. In that instant, Julian grabbed his own weapon from the floor, and shot the other man, then quickly turned toward her and fired again. Trusting his aim, she froze and held her breath as the bullet hit it's target, the center of the leader's chest, less than a foot away from her own. When the dust settled, only the man she'd shot remained barely alive.

Julian struggled to his feet holding his right arm tight against his ribs. With the gun aimed at the wounded man's head he demanded, "Who else is left from the committee?"

"If you hadn't killed Cassandra, you might have found out, she was your only hope of reaching the inner circle," the man coughed.

"What circle, what do you mean," Julian demanded. He wasn't at all steady on his feet, but there was a coldness in his voice she'd only heard once before, the night in Paris just before Cassandra had tried to kill them both. "Tell me the truth, or you'll die here and now."

"You're a fool Sampson, I'm dead either way. Don't you know there is no truth?" He coughed once, twice, and was gone.

"Let's get out of here," he murmured as she carefully put her arm around his waist to try and help steady him. They were both shaking by the time they'd made their way out of the dark warehouse into the rainy night air.

"This wasn't your fight, why didn't you stay out of it?" he snapped at her as she tried to help him into the car.

"And exactly where would you be now if I had?" she stepped back, trying not to let him see how much his words had hurt.

"You could have gotten yourself killed," he hadn't meant to yell, but it came out that way.

"So could you, damn it!" She slammed the car door and ran off down the alley. He painfully got back out of the car to follow her slowly, glad that it was a dead end, there was no chance of his running after her. When he finally caught up to her, she was sitting on a wooden crate with her head in her hands sobbing.

"I'm sorry," he gasped, out of breath and off balance from pain and the exertion of walking the length of the alley. He reached for her shoulder partly to comfort her and partly to steady himself.

"That won't cut it this time," she squeaked out between the sobs and tried to bat his hand away from her shoulder. He winced when her hand hit his arm.

"I couldn't put your life in danger over something from my past."

"You bleeding idiot, don't you know by now I don't want a life without you?" When she looked up at him, it scared him to see in her eyes she was dead serious. He pulled her to her feet and with his arms around her waist, held her close.

"I do now." He said weakly. "Now can we please go back to the car before I pass out?" He tried to laugh but the pain in his ribs was too great. When she turned, he put one arm across her shoulders and quite willingly let her help him back to the car.

It was after 11pm when she knocked on the door at 15 Chang Mai Lane. It looked like a large mansion from the outside but when the door opened, inside was a small private sanitarium. She explained to the nurse on duty that Joe Dawson had given her the address and she immediately called for assistance. Julian was barely conscious when the doctor helped Arianna get him out of the car and into a wheelchair.

"Are you alright miss?" The nurse asked her as the doctor wheeled Julian through a door marked X-ray in English and 3 other languages.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a bit shaky."

"Come this way, you can wait in my husband's library. I'll get you something to drink. Would you like coffee, tea, something stronger?"

"Tea would be lovely, thank you. Black with extra sugar."

The engraved brass nametag pinned to the woman's crisp white uniform read Christine. She was average height, of thin but muscular build with sandy brown hair trimmed in a neat pageboy. From her accent, Arianna knew she was another New England raised American. In a few minutes, Christine returned with the teapot and a tray of sandwiches and biscuits.

"How did you break your wrist?" she asked, pouring a cup and handing it to Arianna.

"I was thrown off a horse."

"You're lucky that's all that was broken. My family raised horses when I was a girl back in Connecticut. Help yourself to the food, I'll go see how they're doing. And don't worry, you're both quite safe here."

When the nurse had left, she sat down on the small sofa. Her hands were shaking as she set the cup down and looked suspiciously at the fibreglass cast. One corner of its top layer was lifting slightly but was not loose enough to pull off.

* * *

The x-rays showed quite an assortment of injuries, some new, most old. Butterfly adhesives were enough to close the gash on his forehead, no stitches were needed, and after a shot of Demerol, Julian felt just a little better. As he watched the doctor examining the film against a lighted box on the wall, the nurse came into the room.

"Ah, Christine, good, can you get me a large rib support please?" Going to the cupboard, she brought back something that looked like a fabric corset. The doctor helped him to sit up and then wrapped the stiff padded fabric around his ribcage.

"You've got 2 cracked ribs, try to take as deep a breath as you can" he instructed. Julian winced as they fastened the support snugly with Velcro straps. "I see from the x-rays you've been through this before, so I don't have to tell you to try not to move around too much."

Julian added "Or cough, or sneeze, or yawn - yes, I remember all too well."

"We have plenty of room and you're safe here. Christine will take you to one of our guestrooms while I go talk with Miss MacDuff."

* * *

Arianna was pacing the library floor and looking at the bookshelves as the doctor came into the room.

"Dr. Tanannone, how is he?" she asked anxiously.

"Please, call me Baw. He's resting, but I can't honestly say comfortably. Please sit down and join me for a cup of tea." There was a warmth in his smile that was somewhat reassuring. His oriental skin colouring and jet black hair framed warm yellow-gold eyes that reminded her of the Siamese cat her friend Ann kept back in New York. "It looks like he was badly beaten. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Would you believe me if I said he was hit by a car?"

"Okay," he laughed, "I've learned whenever one of Dawson's friends says that it means don't ask. His x-rays showed 2 cracked ribs and a bruised hip, both on his right side. The best we can do is wrap the ribcage for support until the bones can knit. The bruises will just take time. I've given him something for the pain and my wife is taking him up to one of our guestrooms. He's lucky you found him when you did."

"I wish I'd found him sooner," she murmured.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. Judging from the scars and healed injuries on his x-rays, I'd say he's been through a lot worse in the past. When did you break your wrist?"

"About 3 weeks ago - can I ask you to check something for me?"

"Of course, what?"

"Can you x-ray this cast to see if there's anything unusual about the top layer?"

"Come with me - what sort of unusual are you looking for?" he asked as they entered the x-ray lab.

"It may be nothing, but I'm suspicious." It only took a few minutes to photograph all sides of the cast. When the films developed, they showed a network of fine wires ending at a tiny circuit board embedded at the underside of her thumb.

"I've never seen anything like this in a cast before," the doctor muttered.

"I think it's some kind of a tracking device, that must be how they knew I was here. Can you replace the cast for me please?"

"Actually, looking at these x-rays I'd recommend removing it anyway. You must heal quickly, the bones are quite well knitted already. You can switch to a removable cast if you'd like, it would be a bit more comfortable."

"Thank you, that would be a welcome change."

"It'll only take a few minutes to get that one cut off and destroyed. I'll get my saw, and then you can go see if he's still awake. Would you prefer blue or green for the new one?"

"Green thanks."

The removable cast fit over her hand like a fingerless glove. Made of a slightly spongy material it felt almost like a wetsuit. A small plastic plate stiffened the underside and it fastened with three black Velcro strips. The doctor said she should make a fist before fastening it so as not to get it too tight. Explaining the same applied to the rib support he'd put on Julian, he showed her how to help him get it properly fastened as well.

"The guestrooms are at the top of the stairs, take your pick. And don't worry, Dawson is a good friend, you're perfectly safe here."

The only part of the sanitarium that actually looked like a hospital was the front entry and the labs on the first floor. The second floor was an assortment of medium sized bedrooms, all very nicely furnished. She saw the nurse, Christine come out of a room at the end of the hallway.

"He's down here," she waved, "I thought you'd want to be together, so I put him in our double room, I left some things for you on the bed."

"Thank you," she smiled wearily. This room was larger than the others to accommodate the two colonial style mahogany beds that were unusually placed side by side. Julian was sleeping quietly in the bed nearer the windows. On the other, the nurse had left towels, and a set of mint green scrubs. Arianna was exhausted but still wound far too tight to be able to relax. After a long hot shower, she put on the scrubs to sleep in.

As she kissed Julian's cheek, and softly touched his hair, he murmured dreamily, "There is - no - truth."

"Yes there is," she whispered, and crawled into the soft warm bed.

In the morning, he woke early and lay there watching her sleep. She was laying on her right side, facing him with her left hand reached out toward him. For the first time, he noticed she was wearing the ring he'd put in her bag.

He'd loved other women, or at least thought he had. Now, looking back on the past, he could see through the years how his heart had stumbled, too many times betrayed. For the all too short time they'd had together, he'd adored Mei-Ling, and she him. It took him a long time to get over her death. Next had been Alex, but she'd disappeared without a trace. The Committee man had mentioned Cassandra, if she was one of them, then she was just using him, and he'd been a fool not to see it.

With Arianna it felt different, not just because they could read each other's feelings, but more like she was a part of himself he'd lost long ago. As much as he'd wanted to keep her out of this, leaving her behind yesterday was one of the hardest things he'd done. She'd put her own life in danger to come after him, and when she'd looked up at him in the alley last night, he could feel the depth of her love, given freely with no strings attached. No-one had ever cared about him like that before. He could never repay Alistaire for arranging his assignment as her liaison.

He smiled when he saw her waking up. "Now Dr. Klaus will be after both of us," he said quietly.

"Well, maybe I can put her off for awhile, she doesn't have to know everything." She stretched her arms over her head and then folded the covers back across her chest.

He tried to laugh, but groaned instead, the shot of painkiller had worn off earlier. "What happened to your cast?"

"It's a new one. Julian, that man who was asking the questions last night was at the hospital in England."

"No, that's not possible."

"When you went down to have my prescription filled, he came in pretending to be another doctor. Remember we had to wait for the new top layer to be put on the cast? I had Dr. Tanannone x-ray it and he found some sort of wiring inside it. Do you think they've been watching us all this time?"

"It's possible, but I think my trip to Cambridge started this. Someone sent me part of a locked file to read that involved those three men. How good are you at hacking into secure computer systems?" He struggled to sit up and grimaced.

"From here, not very good - I'd need my utility programs that are back in London." Kneeling on the bed, she helped prop an extra pillow behind his back so he could sit up. She had a furtive look on her face when she sat back on the bed as he thought about what she'd just admitted.

Raising one eyebrow he looked at her. "I wondered how you found out where I was going. Next time, I'll have to remember to take the laptop with me." He settled more comfortably against the pillows.

"Please Julian, give me your word there won't be a next time - whatever the assignment, we face it together," she pleaded.

Catching her hand in his, he softly kissed the band on her ring finger.

"I wanted to put this on you in person," he murmured.

"Don't try and change the subject," she persisted.

"Alright Mrs. Peel, I promise," he smiled. Now that he'd found the missing piece of his puzzle, he'd never let go again.

She got off the bed and opened the door to the hallway. "I'll go see if I can find you some breakfast, don't go anywhere."

* * *

Downstairs, she followed the smell of coffee to a large kitchen at the back of the house. Baw, Christine and a young man with shoulder length dark hair were sitting at a round table. When he saw her in the doorway, the man jumped up and disappeared into the next room. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Arianna asked.

Dr. Tanannone stood up and put his empty dishes in the sink. "Not at all, he's one of our permanent residents and a bit nervous around strangers, that's all. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Much better thanks, and Julian's awake. Could I perhaps take him up some tea and toast?"

"We can do much better than that." Christine smiled as she got up and opened the refrigerator, reaching for a pitcher of orange juice.

"I'll go check on him while you two make some breakfast." He dried his hands on a clean white towel and moved to the back stairs leaving them alone in the kitchen.

"You can man the toaster if you wouldn't mind, it tends to make burnt offerings if not carefully watched. How do you both like your eggs?"

"Scrambled would be fine, thanks." Arianna dropped a slice of bread into each of the four slots in the white enameled toaster and pressed the lever down. "I know it's none of my business, but do you have many permanent residents? The house is so quiet, I hadn't realised there were any others here."

"We only have two at present. The young man you saw and his companion. You won't see her around the house, the poor thing has been in coma for almost three years."

"I'm sorry I startled him, we'll be out of here as soon as your husband says Julian can travel. I'm anxious to get back to London." She pulled the lever back up forcing the toaster to give up it's contents prematurely and lightly buttered the golden brown slices.

"We spent our honeymoon in London." Christine smiled wistfully. "At a small bed and breakfast near Kensington Gardens. It's a beautiful city."

"Can I be really nosy and ask how you two met?"

"The first time, I was in college in Chicago and Baw was an exchange student. We were assigned as lab partners for organic chemistry and we fought constantly until the semester ended and he went back home. Three years later, I came out here as a student teacher at the American School and we happened to meet a faculty dinner party. Six months later, we eloped and went to London. We've been here now for 18 years."

"That's lovely," Arianna smiled just a little bit envious of what sounded like a peaceful happy life.

* * *

"Good morning, glad to see you're up," the doctor smiled as Julian moved slowly back through the bathroom door. Walking wasn't too bad, it was the process of standing up or sitting down that really hurt.

"Up, but not too readily mobile," he winced as he moved toward the edge of the bed.

"I'll give you some painkillers. Let me take a look at the ribs before you sit down." The doctor unfastened the Velcro and gently touched the purple bruises along his right side, then telling him to inhale, snugly refastened the support. "It looks okay, Arianna will be up shortly with breakfast. If you take it easy, you can go home, or you're both welcome to stay as long a you like."

"Thanks, but I think I'd prefer get back on home soil as soon as possible."

When Arianna came in with the breakfast tray, the doctor said "You can take him home whenever you want," and left them to their food.

On the tray was juice, a pot of tea, toast, eggs and bowls of fruit salad. It was a simple breakfast but they were both so hungry it tasted wonderful. "Are you sure you're up to travelling?"

He nodded, "I want to go home."

"Which one?" she laughed, "The country, London, or New York?"

"London first, and then New York if that's alright with you."

"Anywhere you are is fine with me." She kissed him lightly and went to get dressed for the trip home.

* * *

As the long haired young man stood at the third floor window watching the strangers leave, for just one moment he thought he'd seen a ghost. It just wasn't possible. The night Oliver had arranged their safe escape from the Committee, they'd seen him shot, and thrown into the water. Nobody could have survived a fall from that height. He went back to her bedside convinced that his paranoia was just playing tricks on him again.

* * *

"My car is still in the airport lot, I never got this far," he said as she parked near the hotel front entrance.

"I'll grab my bag and be right out."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere without you." She could tell he was just a bit left of center, the doctor had given him another shot to make the trip home more tolerable, and by now everything seemed rather warm and fuzzy.

She ran up to her room to find someone had been through her bag. Nothing was missing, but after finding the wiring in the cast, she dumped it out onto the bed and went over everything with a fine toothed comb. Quickly changing outfits, she repacked only what she really wanted to keep. Anything that could be replaced, she discarded just as a precaution.

When the cellphone rang, she nearly jumped out of her skin. It was the London flat relay number again. "Yes?......Joe, yes, we spent the night with them, thanks ..... well, he's a bit more beat up than Paris, but no bulletholes this time ....... we're on the way back to London in about 90 minutes ...... I'm sure he'd love it if you could ..... good, see you soon." Once again, she was extremely glad they had Dawson for a friend.

The parking lot attendant had noticed Julian's keys in the door of the rental car early this morning, and had taken them to the office for safekeeping. They quickly retrieved his luggage from the boot and turned in the rental. The clerk looked questioningly at the zero mileage reading but seeing the gash on Julian's head, decided it was better not to ask.

When they passed the airline courtesy desk she paused to consider borrowing a wheelchair, but he would have none of it, so they slowly made their way to the gate 5. Pre-boarding for the flight, they were cheerfully greeted by the red-haired flight attendant. Bringing them pillows and blankets she recognised Arianna from the flight yesterday and smiled. They got Julian settled into the window seat on the left side of the plane and even before they'd taken off, he was asleep. There were only 2 other passengers in the first class compartment so it promised to be a quiet and comfortable trip.

"Can I get you anything?" the attendant whispered, crouching down to pick up a dropped spoon.

"No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Is he the special someone?"

"Yes, he is."

The girl smiled and whispered, "You're lucky," as she turned to see to the other passengers three rows behind them.

"I know," Arianna said under her breath as she settled back in her seat to watch over him while he slept.