Grace raked her hand through her hair frustratedly. She'd been trying to sleep for hours and it was already four o'clock in the morning. It was that strange time of night when her emotions were torn between themselves. Part of her brain was occupied with thinking about the meeting tomorrow...she'd have to do it by herself and if she didn't succeed the whole operation would fall apart. More people would be killed and the world would be overrun with terrorism.

Then the other part of her was caught between being angry with herself for kissing Nolan and wanting to do it again.

What about all those sleepless nights crying in her room, thinking about the empty way Grace's mother looked at her father?

But growing close to Nolan—or even Toby and Maddie—had shown her how long she'd pushed everyone away. How long she'd been alone. How nice it was to have friends. The same loneliness she'd seen in Nolan's eyes were just a reflection of her own.

Grace rolled her eyes at herself and sat up on the plush mattress, turning on the television.

The news coverage was temporarily on a group of cats saved from a house that had collapsed during an earthquake, but it quickly turned to the news of interest: the Russian airport shooting.

Grace rubbed her thumb across the remote's buttons, her face grim. The footage showed the same clips as before, people running outside and police swarming the building.

The news anchor on the screen wore a bright pink blazer that clashed with her red hair. "The attackers seemed to have come into the airport after cutting off electricity, open fired, and left."

The other broadcaster, an older man, nodded. "It would seem that killing as many people as possible wasn't their goal, which is quite odd for these kinds of attacks. The death toll is now up to twenty-five, which is a considerable number...but not as much as you'd think, would that be right, Jennifer?"

The woman agreed. "Yes, police officers suspect that they were equipped for a much bigger attack."

"And the suspects are still unaccounted for," the other anchor added, "We'll be sure to keep you updated, this has been—"

Grace turned it off and sighed.

If we hadn't left, we wouldn't be here right now. She kept telling herself...but the guilt persisted. Twenty-five people dead.

And they could've stopped it.

"You need to do something productive," she muttered, throwing back the covers and getting dressed. It was almost 5:30, so she decided to make a plan.

When she came back from the store, it was nearly 6:30. Toby had sent them a message the previous night to meet in the lobby at 7.

Grace packed up her things and decided she could wait for everyone downstairs instead of stewing in her room for another hour.

She jogged down the stairs and stopped.

Nolan was sitting in the lobby, but it was too late to retreat back to her room.

She stared at him, feeling incredibly awkward and not saying a word.

Nolan raised his eyebrows, as if he'd been expecting something. "What? You're creeping me out."

Grace shook her head, heat creeping up to her cheeks. "Uh, sorry. Good morning."

"Morning."

She took a seat next to him, dropping her bag on the floor. "Sorry about hitting you last night," she said quietly.

"It was worth it," Nolan replied with a sly wink.

Grace bit the inside of her cheek. "I could tell that was the first time you kissed someone other than your mom."

"Hey!"

"Anyway, I hope you know that you still annoy the crap out of me."

Nolan chuckled. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

She smiled. "Good."

"You ready for your big conference?"

Grace hesitated, running a nervous thumb across a crease in her pants. "I hope so," she said quietly, "I know if we don't get those troops..."

"Yeah," Nolan finished. Everyone knew that if they couldn't get the government on their side that Colossus would win.

"What about you?" Grace asked.

"Toby's coming with me to scout the area. We know Colossus is suspicious about us attacking London now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're planning a counter-measure as we speak."

"Cool,"

"You don't have to go by yourself," Nolan said abruptly, "I know what we said last night..."

"No," Grace said firmly. "I've seen it all before. When people care enough for each other in battle, they take stupid risks to protect them. Even when I was being held hostage in Kavala, Jonathan and Ben were best friends, they'd been working together for years, even their kids went to the same school..." her voice faltered before she continued, "Ben took a bullet for Jonathan...both of them ended up dead." She bit her lip, "I don't want to lose you, Nolan. If we go into this together, one of us is going to make a move that will get one of us killed. You know that."

Nolan took her hand and interlaced their fingers. "Yeah...I know."

They sat there quietly for a while, deep in thought. There was still a high chance of one of them dying anyway.

This whole thing is messed up, Grace thought. CIA agents shouldn't have to be the only ones trustworthy enough to stop a maniac from taking over the world. The CIA was treating it as if it were all a giant terrorist attack when it was something much larger.

They quickly dropped their hands when they heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Collin, Jim, and Toby appeared.

"Good morning early-birds," Jim said.

"Morning Jim," Nolan said with a nod as he and Grace stood up.

"Well, I think Collin and I have a plan,"

Collin nodded.

"We can't sit around knowing that we could've done something to stop Colossus," Jim continued, "But I'm too old to be running around, so I'll set up surveillance around town to give Maddie and James some better intel from afar."

"And I'll assist Grace, Nolan, and Toby in whatever way I can." Collin said.

"Perfect," Grace said. She drew in a breath before saying, "I'll be going to speak with the UN while Nolan and Toby prepare for our attack on the EMP. So maybe you can come with me to the meeting?"

Collin lifted a suspicious brow. "Well, I guess that works. Are you sure you don't want any backup?"

Grace shook her head. "I think we can do it ourselves."

"The meeting's at eleven o'clock," Toby informed.

Grace nodded. "Well, I guess we should be going, then."

"I'm ready." Collin said, turning to give Jim a firm handshake.

Grace gave Toby a quick hug and clasped hands with Jim. Then, she turned to Nolan, not daring to meet his eye.

She hugged him tightly and whispered, "Please be careful."

When she pulled away, Nolan cocked a grin. "Give 'em hell, Miss Evans."

She winked. "I'll get those troops if I have to hang Howard from the ceiling."

She scanned each face around her, her throat tightening. They'd all been through so much together. Would she ever see them again?

A strange sense of pride welled up inside her, mixing with the pain. These people were her friends, these brave, selfless bunch of idiots...and they were going to win.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a short  chapter for you all this week; sorry about that! But I'm hoping to be back on schedule on Wednesday (which isn't too far away???) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little tidbit because we're right at the climax, so things are about to get exciting!

~ What do you think of Nolan and Grace's separation now?

~ How much trouble do you think Grace is going to be in once she crashes Howard's meeting? ;)

~ What are your thoughts on the chapter?

Thank you SO much for reading! {Don't forget to comment, vote, and share!}