Crossing the line

(Martin and Emily's apartment, Brentwood, 6:30am)

Martin woke up pretty early and went out to the kitchen. He didn't want to wake up Emily, so he closed the kitchen door while making coffee. Martin rubbed his sore back and looked at the blisters on his hands. So much had happened since they got back from Boston, and it had only been three days.

On the way back from the airport, their real estate agent had called and told them she had a lovely apartment in the Brentwood area, perfect for a young couple. She still referred to Martin as young, despite the fact that he out-aged her by at least 10 years. Martin and Emily hadn't planned on moving in together so soon, but when opportunity came knocking, they jumped at the chance. The agent was right, it was a great apartment, less than 5 miles away from their workplace, the J. Edgar Hoover Building.

Then came the moving part: Martin was surprised when he realized how much junk he had collected over the years, and how much it weighed. Emily helped of course, but he had to carry all the heavy stuff. For a moment he contemplated calling Leo and Jim to help him out, but decided against it. They had their own lives. As a result from being so stubborn, he almost threw his back trying to carry two speakers at the same time. The surround system was quite a bitch to move from one place to another.

Neither of them wanted to live in boxes for longer than necessary, so they worked hard getting everything in place. Late last night, they had emptied the last box. There were still a few things take care of, like installing the alarm system, but they both decided sleep was more important. Besides, Martin had to swing by the office and fill out some forms the next day.

The coffee maker beeped twice, indicating the coffee was ready, so Martin poured himself a cup. They hadn't had time to re-route the paper, so he had to settle for the TV Guide.

he thought to himself, Jack Nicholson was one of Martin's favorite actors and he knew Emily liked him too. He browsed through the rest of the TV Guide and found little of interest. They both enjoyed watching sit-coms, like 'Mad About You' and 'Friends', but this week, they were only showing re-runs. Martin tossed the magazine aside, finished his coffee and walked over to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Emily was still asleep, but she had moved over to his side of the bed. For some reason, she preferred that side. Martin had offered her to switch sides, but she had refused. Martin thought,

The warm water felt great on his sore muscles and after a few minutes, he felt almost completely human again. He had remembered to lay out his gray suit last night, so getting dressed only took a minute. After a thorough shave and some Van Gil's aftershave, he was ready to face the world again.

He kissed Emily lightly on her lips, and she smile.

"Drive safely, honey," she whispered, still half asleep.

"I will," he promised her. "I'll be home in a few hours."

He kissed her again, before leaving the bedroom. He clipped on his handgun and grabbed the cellphone. Then he locked the door behind him and rode the elevator down to the parking garage. Emily's Saab was standing next to his TransAm. He smiled, it was almost as if the cars had moved in togehter too.

After what happened at the Hard Rock Caf� in Boston, he always checked under the car for any signs of explosives. The car was clean, no one had tampered with it. He slid a CD with The Corrs into the CD player. Then he suddenly realized he had forgotten his wallet in the apartment.

he thought.

The elevator reached the top floor and he got out. He was just about to unlock the door, when he saw that it was slightly ajar. He unholstered his gun and gently pushed the door open. Then he heard a crash, followed by a groan and a thump.

"Emily!" he called out, as he ran into the bedroom.

The first thing he saw was a pair of brown leather shoes. They belonged to the man sprawled across the bedroom floor. He was unconscious and bleeding from a cut on the left side of his face. Emily was sitting up, still in her nighties and mad as a hornet.

"What happened?" he asked her.

"I was just going back to sleep, when I heard someone at the door, trying to pick the lock. I realized I didn't have time to get my gun from the safe, so I grabbed the first thing I could find, the bed lamp." She was still clutching the brass bed lamp. It was slightly dented from where it had hit the would-be attacker. Emily continued her story:

"I pretended to sleep, and when he was close enough, I smacked him over the head, knocking him cold. Then you came running..."

"Are you alright?" Martin was a bit concerned about her mental health, what with it being so soon after Israel.

"I'm fine," she said with a confident look. Hitting someone was just what she needed, after being knocked around so much by Docker. He had been especially rough, attaching the explosives to her ancle. She had the bruise to prove it, too.

"What are we going to do with this guy?" she asked Martin.

"Help me tie him up and then call the police. I'm going to look for anything that can identify him"

The tied the man to a radiator and then Emily went into the living room to call the Washington PD. Martin searched the man's clothing and eventually found a piece of paper. It said: "Target: female. Adress: 42 Adams St. NE, Apartment 701." The note was signed: "R C".

"I wonder who R C is?" he asked Emily when she came back.

"I have no idea," Emily replied. "The police will be here in 10 minutes. I need to get dressed before they do." She left for the bathroom.

The man was still unconscious when the doorbell rang 12 minutes later. Two uniformed police officers were standing in the hallway. Martin let them in, identified himself as an FBI-agent and explained the whole situation. Emily came out of the bathroom in a pair of jeans and a USD sweater. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail.

The police officers asked her for her version of what happened. She gave it to them, while keeping a close watch of the man she had KO'd. By the end of her story, he started to come to.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Emily's eyes spat fire at the man.

The man looked very uncomfortable. "No habla," he said.

"Sure you do," Emily said. She was about to hit the man again, but Martin stopped her.

He calmed her down. "Let the police take care of him."

He untied the man and handed him to the police officers. One of them gave Emily his card, and asked her to call him later in the day. Then they hauled the man off for questioning.

"I knew I should have installed the alarm," Martin said.

"Don't even think of blaming yourself," Emily replied. "I think I handled this situation quite well, without an alarm. Don't you?"

"You're right. You probably handled yourself better than I would have, under the same circumstances." He was very proud of his girlfriend. There were few things she couldn't handle.

After discussing what had happened thoroughly, it was decided that Martin should go down to the office, to try to see if he could find any leads as to the identity of R C. He told Emily to be careful, in case they decided to try again, and she promised him she would.

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(Team Zulu Office, 9:00am)

The office was empty except for Jenny, who greeted Martin in her usual pleasant manor.

"Good Morning, Agent Reed. I'm surprised you're not at St Vincent's too."

"St Vincent's?"

"Oh, you haven't heard. Agents Lee's boyfriend was attacked last night. Someone threw him off a fire escape."

"What's the quickest way to St Vincent's?" he asked her. He had lived in Washington D.C. for less than a year and he still had some difficulties finding his way around the city. Jenny gave him directions, and he was off.

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(St Vincent's Hopital, 9:32am)

The first person Martin saw when he arrived at St Vincent's was Jordan.

"Jordan, I just heard. What happened?"

Jordan explained what had happened to Vanessa's boyfriend. He continued by telling Martin about the firefight at the Sunset apartments, where Zenya's boyfriend had been injured by a bullet from Leo's gun..

"Who do you think is behind all of this?" Martin asked Jordan.

"An old enemy of ours, Rebecca Cross. She has had it in for Team Zulu, ever since we put an end to her murderous plans, a couple of months ago."

"So that's who R C is..."

"What's that?"

"Emily was attacked this morning, by someone working under orders from an R C. It must be Rebecca Cross."

"Is she OK?"

"She's fine. It takes more than one man to get to her." Martin told Jordan about the lamp and about how angry she was, that someone had the nerve to try and attack her.

"Let's go up and see how the patients are doing," Jordan said.

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[NRPG] Rebecca should be aware that Emily is tough as nails, and not someone to be toyed with. After all, she is an FBI-agent.