Kendall felt a thrill of revulsion wash over her as Emmanuel emerged from the bathroom clad only in a pair of black boxers. She tried to quash down her nerves and subdue her quivering, she had to be calm. Emmanuel paused at the foot of the bed and regarded Kendall like she was a prize he had won. She was lying on his bed, head slightly propped up with two pillows wearing only her underwear. His one gripe was that the underwear was simple, lilac cotton pants and a matching bra, no silk or lace. He moved down onto the bed, crawling up it on his hands and knees like a tiger seeking out its pray. Kendall gave a shudder and Emmanuel felt himself harden with the gesture. She was utterly helpless, exactly how he liked his women, a few whimpers out of her and he would be ready, the only thing that could have made it better was if he had the American watching. He had contemplated it but considered that the stench of the Texan might be off-putting and besides, he could always do it another day.

Kendall tensed, waiting and waiting as he drew closer, putting himself in her shadow, crawling closer until his face was above hers. He leaned down without warning, kissing her forcefully, his tongue pushing hard at her lips until they gave way.

Slowly her right arm moved, her hand slinking down and under her waist. She felt his arms move too, they were trying to move under her as well, reaching for her bra, she would have to be fast. Quick as lightning Kendall struck out.

When the blow came Emmanuel was dumbfounded, bathed in shock before the pain set in. By that stage Kendall was already moving on, extending her attack.

The kama, seized from the weapons box she had picked the lock of, was burrowed deep in Emmanuel's groin, tearing up through it to his waist. He let out a strangled choking sound as she yanked the blade up through his stomach, cutting as deep as she could and soaking herself in blood before she tugged it out. As Emmanuel started to slump forward the blade moved again, slicing through his throat to ensure death, blinding Kendall temporarily with blood as she delivered the final blow.

James looked at his watch and cursed, he had just under ten minutes to go. He was heading up through chaos and carnage to Emmanuel's private headquarters. Three men he had beaten and killed before being informed that the boss had dragged Kendall up to his room. He had only three bullets to spare for his gun, his left arm had been penetrated by a bullet, his right leg was grazed, he had a cut above his right eye from a knife wound that was dribbling blood into his eye every five seconds and he was out of knock out cannisters and down to his last smoke bomb.

With relief James reached the door to Emmanuel's room with a pant. BANG! He eliminated a guard with a shot through the chest. Two bullets to go and then he was going to have to use the Browning. He pressed up against the wall sideways, listening for signs of Emmanuel or Kendall. He heard nothing. He decided it to risk it and kicked the door hard, entering with his gun raised and ready for firing.

James froze up as for a precious moment his mind tried to spare him the atrocity before him and attempted to blank it out. He blinked twice and rubbed the blood from his right eye. Kendall was sitting upright in the centre of the bed barely clothed and soaked in blood, at first he had thought she had been injured beyond belief but then he finally took in the form limp beside her.

James moved forward slowly, his gun still raised as he willed the girl to look at him and take him in. "Kendall is he dead?" he queried calmly.

Kendall tensed as her eyes darted over to James in surprise, two turquoise irises burning vengefully before they snapped back to reality and filled with horror. Kendall shook and let the kama in her right hand drop limp to the bed. "Felix needs help," she said calmly.

James was unnerved by her calm and wondered when the shock would come. "Felix is alright," he retorted, "we got him out. Come on, we haven't much time." James felt empty all of a sudden as he half-reached for the girl, reluctant to touch the blood. He had been so determined to kill Emmanuel Trevino that he hadn't considered that someone might beat him to it. Hell he even felt cheated though God knew the girl deserved the kill.

Kendall stood up slowly and stared about the room with a vacant gaze.

"Kendall come on," James urged her. He glanced about the place before striding up to the bed and determining it was as good a place as any to set up an explosion. He hurried with it whilst Kendall dressed, setting it for just under ten minutes.

Kendall reached for her clothes, tugging on her knees, shirt and scuffed shoes, though she didn't bother to button her shirt. She looked back to the kama and plucked it up again. "Okay," she said hoarsely, "let's go."

James let the way out and down. He used up the last two bullets of his Walther PPK on the way and swapped to the Browning. He paused at several pointed to set up the bombs hastily and earned himself another grazing by a bullet for his efforts. He wondered how long it would take the doomed minions to realise there were explosives littered throughout the building or that their boss was dead and about to be blown into tiny little pieces.

Hand in hand, panting, soaked in blood and sweat, Kendall and James finally made it to the basement with only three minutes to spare. There was no time for a reunion with Wai and Felix. The four of them hurried down a narrow sewage tunnel, ran down a slope with a waterfall of sewage and filthy water between the cement paths, and then dodged down and to the left as the explosions began.

The air behind them turned warm and the walls began to shake and crack as explosion after explosion went off. James urged them on, his shouts drowned out by the bangs that called behind them. Felix stumbled and yelped before James grabbed him and dragged him on, almost tearing his arm from his socket.

On and on through sewage and darkness, they ran with their ears ringing, heads banging and hearts pounding. They ran for what felt like hours but could only have been a few minutes before they exited mercifully to the golden light of dawn. Exhausted and relieved, Felix and Kendall collapsed beside one another, groaning in a shared pain as they huddled together leaving it to James and Wai to take out their phones and maps, work out where they were and call for help.

Felix slipped into unconscious almost immediately to his relief, his agony was unmanageable and the only reason he wasn't screaming was because of how hoarse he was. His last thoughts before oblivion took him were wondering and worrying why Kendall was soaked in blood and how badly injured she was.

When Felix awoke he was surprised first to actually be awake and second to not be in chains. He realised a lot of things had suddenly improved for him- his soiled garments were gone, his injuries were clean and bandaged, and his pain was a little bit more manageable. He became conscious of the soft mattress and pillow beneath him and then suddenly aware of the warm arm wrapped loosely over his stomach. He turned to his right, following the source of the arm and his pale grey eyes widened at the sight of Kendall McKenna's unconscious and surprisingly tranquil face resting on a pillow opposing his as she lay on a bed pushed up beside his.

"It took hours persuading her to sleep," James' voice remarked calmly.

Felix almost jumped at the voice as his eyes darted to his left side where the English spy sat on a wooden and cream padded chair holding a vigil.

"She hasn't let you go the whole time, silly, sentimental woman," James chided.

"Woman?" Felix echoed. "Don't you usually call her girl?" he quipped teasingly.

James sighed. "Girls don't kill their monsters," he commented darkly.

Felix raised his blonde eyebrows at that, his grey gaze darting back to Kendall. "Last I saw of her he was taking her to his room...Did he...I mean I suppose you don't know..." He trailed off and swallowed hard, wincing as the gesture caused a throb of pain.

"No," James assured, knowing what Felix was getting at. "He beat her several times, bruised her and cut her but that was the worst I'm told."

"No," Felix argued quietly, "he did a hell of a lot worse to her, just not that time. So she killed him." He smiled. "Good."

"Yes but no one else knows," James murmured, "she's still a civilian, she would be held up in interrogation for months. It's best everyone thinks you shot him and I sent him up in smoke."

"I shot him?" Felix echoed in bitter surprise. "Like this?"

James shrugged. "You fought through your pain and seized the opportunity. Take the credit Felix, your ass is on the line otherwise."

Felix sighed and sagged back against his pillow. "Alright," he muttered. "Thanks James." He cast his friend a serious look. "Thanks for coming too, you and Wai, for getting us out." He winced. "Shit I couldn't have taken another day of that."

James frowned before glancing away from his friend, putting his stare on the Styrofoam cup of coffee on the plastic table beside him instead. "I can't take another day of this poor excuse for coffee so get well soon," he joked awkwardly.

Felix gave a laugh in response, which quickly turned into a painful, gasping cough.

Kendall shot up in alarm with the noise and looked to Felix with immediate concern.

"I'm okay," he assured her, "it's just James telling poor jokes." He cast a critical glance at James. "It's his way of dealing with his feelings," he added pointedly.

James shrugged in answer.

Felix reached out a bandaged, trembling hand to Kendall and she immediately linked her own with it and looked down at him tearfully. "God Felix I'm so sorry," she said softly.

"What for?" he quipped with a small grin. It hurt too much for him to smile, his mouth and jaw both protested at the gesture. "Kendall this wasn't your fault."

"He wouldn't have hurt you if not for me."

"He was an evil bastard, all he did was hurt people," Felix grumbled.

Kendall dipped her head slightly. "But he hurt you to get at me."

"And you killed him and now it's done," Felix said firmly.

James gave a pointed cough at this.

"Ah, well I killed him apparently," Felix remarked awkwardly. "Makes the paperwork easier and all that, civilians shouldn't really be killing people." He winced when tears started trickling down from Kendall's eyes and glanced over at James. "James help me up."

James sighed before he leaned forward and helped Felix into a sitting position, adjusting his bed with a button and earning several curses and winces from the blonde for his efforts. "If the nurse asks you did this yourself," the Englishman remarked dryly.

Felix glanced down at his bandaged torso and bandaged left arm. "Sure I did," he grumbled. He fumbled with his injured right hand, cursing to himself as he fidgeted with his blanket.

"Now what are you trying to do?" James quipped in amusement.

"I'm trying to lift this stupid blanket so that I can put it around myself and Kendall because she is clearly distraught and I'm trying to be nice," Felix grumbled to the blanket in his lap, "and fuck this isn't easy!"

James chortled quietly, ignoring Felix's fierce look of ire before he leaned forward and lifted the blanket up and draped it around Felix's shoulders. He extended Felix's right arm out slightly and said, "now, think you can manage and I'll go back to pretending I'm not here?"

"Pretend better," Felix snarled. He managed to slowly put his right arm about Kendall's stiff form and attempted to tug her close, which caused another squeal of pain as his injured fingers tightened.

Kendall looked at him with distraught eyes.

"Come on Kendall," Felix murmured gently, "this is the best I can do but I know you need to cry and damn it I ain't letting you sit there crying to the wall."

Kendall's lip trembled before she pressed her head lightly against Felix's chest and started sobbing.

Felix sighed as he bowed his head down to her and felt like crying himself. He didn't, he blinked hard instead and twitched slightly before closing his eyes.

James leaned forward just once to quietly fix the blanket about the pair before helping Felix to settle back against the bed with Kendall. Then James sat back in his seat, rigid and quiet, once more pretending that he wasn't there. He glimpsed a stray tear slink down his friend's left cheek and knew that the Texan was traumatised from what he had been through, that only with Kendall's grief and shock was his own coming out. James felt guilty for spying Felix's moment of weakness and looked away.

Kendall sobbed herself into hoarseness and then that awful, woeful keening noise came. The bestial noise drew James' attention back to Kendall and he watched, transfixed in horror, as she made the noise while awake, suffering not from a nightmare but from the horror of a memory, the memory of murdering a monster and briefly becoming one herself.

Felix didn't say anything, he hadn't the words and his body was too stiff and sore to offer anything in the way of consoling gestures for the girl. Instead he remained quiet, biting back his own whimpers of pain as she burrowed too hard against his wounded chest and gripped his broken fingers too tightly. He waited and waited until she fell silent, then he kissed the top of her brow and murmured reassuringly, "there now, the worst is over."

"Just like that?" she queried hoarsely as he knew she would.

Felix smiled. "Just like that."

Three Months Later- Hawaii

James Bond and Wai Lin shared a smile as they caught each other's gaze across the table. A giggle drew their attention to the left where an occupied bubbling hot tub was starting to see a little more action than it was probably intended for.

"Maybe we should go to the beach," Wai suggested lightly before taking a sip from her cocktail glass. The raven haired beauty wasn't sure why she had come here. Perhaps it was because she felt she had earned a vacation. It was a fantasy played for real, for a temporary time period anyway and it wasn't like Wai to give into those but as James had pointed out, as news coverage had shown, his explosion of Emmanuel Trevino's house had been pretty spectacular. Wai had only agreed to a night but really who could turn down an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii? Plus it had been three months since she had seen James and she had been wondering about him despite herself. She had wondered about Felix and Kendall's welfare too, to a lesser degree, she hardly knew them after all, but it was nice to see them well and happy.

James followed Wai's gaze to the hot tub as Felix undid the purple strings of Kendall's bikini top and abandoned the garment to the edge of the hot tub. Mercifully for Kendall the bubbles kept her breasts from view, not that she seemed to mind as she giggled and allowed Felix to embrace her close and kiss her hard. James had wondered about the pair on a daily basis, he had left the hospital in China after three weeks, summoned back to England to make a report in person. Felix had been taken back to America to resume his recovery, escorted by Jack Wade who had promised James that he wouldn't let Kendall get abandoned through the cracks.

Of course James had had contact with Felix since via phone calls but the CIA agent had been coy about his status with Kendall. James had known the American wouldn't give her up, whether it was because of all they had been through, sheer stubbornness on his part, a fear that she couldn't rehabilitate without him or because, heaven help him, he actually had strong feelings for her, whatever the reasoning James had been certain Felix would stay with Kendall even if it meant risking his job.

Felix was still CIA, he had confided that to James, and now living with Kendall in a quaint house in Texas with a white picket fence. It was a disgusting cliché and neither he nor Kendall liked the area particularly but it was better being in a safe neighbourhood and all that, and a place where the CIA could feel assured of his presence and hers. Washington wasn't happy about it, nope not one bit, but they couldn't go around telling their agents who to date now could they? It wasn't like she had been willingly working for Trevino and she wasn't working for him now.

James had quipped innocently about Kendall's forgotten boyfriend whom Trevino had taken her from over two years ago. Felix had grumbled back with several curse words that yes she had met the man, course she had to do that to see that he was okay and reassure him that she was, but there were no feelings there, hadn't been to begin with, he'd just been a fling.

So for Felix and Kendall it wasn't just a romance for the time of the mission, a moment of heated passion to be forgotten when reality kicked in. It was a jarring thought for James that Felix now lived with her, that he had a girlfriend, a woman at home to think about when he went on his missions, a woman to worry about, to be threatened with. Nope James, Felix had reassured him, it wasn't like that at all. Kendall could handle herself, hadn't she proved that umpteen times? She was a woman to come home to, a woman to worry about him, to assure him that someone would care if he didn't make it back, a woman who he knew would welcome him with a honeyed kiss and a warm embrace and yeah that did feel good.

James had been fascinated by it, it was an almost alien concept for him. Yes there had been that one time when he had dared to dream and hope and imagine the house with the fence and the dog and the kids. He shuddered, even now he couldn't think on that time or the name of the woman he had pictured that life with. His cerulean gaze darted over to Wai Lin and he wondered if she had ever had that dream, if she had ever come as close to touching it as he had or closer. Now it was Felix's turn to brush up against that golden bubble and hope to God that it didn't burst. James wished him well, he did, but still he wondered how long it could last. Would the novelty wear off? Would you not grow tired of the same person? Would they not start to resent you for darting off around the world for unknown time periods? Well at least Kendall knew what to expect with Felix, his job was no secret to her.

James looked back to the pair again, they seemed to have forgotten James and Wai entirely. Hands wrapped around each other, lips locked together, it was sickening and yet sweet. James tensed slightly, sweet until the underwater thrusting started on Felix's part. They really had forgotten about James and Wai.

James turned back to his vodka martini and drained it. "Yes let's go to the beach," he murmured.

Kendall still got the nightmares, worse than ever, it was rare for her to go a night without that woeful wailing sound but Felix didn't mind. He understood. Some nights she would awaken him shaking and sobbing, screaming about bloody hands, shrieking and shrieking over and over about the red stains like Lady Macbeth and that damned spot. Those nights Felix would get up irregardless of the hour and sleepily run her a hot bath or a shower, it just depended, and then he would take her into it and embrace her close in the water until she felt clean again. He didn't mind that either, sometimes that ended with a soft, quiet moment of lovemaking in the water. Kendall liked sex in the bath or shower best, it didn't hurt her as much. She was still healing, old wounds and new, mental and physical. She had a therapist but Felix had no idea if that helped or not, he didn't pry and she didn't volunteer, he wanted her to feel free to have her secrets. Hell he just wanted her to feel free.

Felix didn't have nightmares, he wasn't one for dreaming and if he did dream he never remembered. He showed his mental trauma in other ways- he still smiled, he was still happy go lucky and confident but he was a little sharper at times, a little bit warier and edgier and sometimes, without warning or explanation, he would fall into a sombre quiet, his eyes would burn at the edges and his hands would twitch a little. In those moments Kendall would stroke his blonde curls gently with her hand, weaving her fingers soothingly in his scalp and down about his brow, and she would take whatever handle trembled the most in her free hand and squeeze it tenderly. Then she would kiss him gently on the mouth, give him a look that said she knew and murmur quietly, "I understand."

Felix had cried only once over what had happened to him. After he had left the hospital and gone through a dozen reports and reprimands and meetings with Washington that managed to be equal parts scolding and praising. Good job Felix but you shouldn't have been over there asshole. You got wounded on the job, Hell you could have been killed. In the end it was decided that he was to be neither punished nor rewarded, no demotion but no promotion either, no pay raise but paid vacation time instead. The meetings and constant recollections of events had worn him down. Kendall had found him one evening on his knees sobbing erratically. She hadn't said anything, she had just got him up, brought him into bed and hugged him close until he fell into a deep sleep.

Kendall climaxed first, giving Felix an impressive cry of pleasure prompting him into his own grand finish. He ended it with a close embrace and a kiss before leaning back against the edge of the tub with a tired but blissful sigh. This was paradise, to hell with the gorgeous scenery over the balcony behind them, this was it right here. He shut his eyes and let the sun warm his face briefly as he tugged Kendall close to him with his right arm.

Kendall wrapped her own arm around him and shut her eyes as she pressed the side of her head against him sleepily.

Felix suddenly opened his grey eyes sharply feeling a moment of sheepishness. He sat up slightly to look at the round table just a few feet away from the tub. There were four vacant seats and two empty glasses. "God I hope they left before that," he murmured aloud.

Kendall gave a giggle at this, she had quite forgotten about James and Wai and felt a prickle of guilt. The holiday had been James' idea after all and he had picked the hotel and arranged the bookings. Two double suites beside each other sharing a hot tub between them with a view of one of the many spotless golden beaches Hawaii was famous for.

Wai at least made a better companion that Celestine, she matched James in the game of wits, keeping on his toes at all costs and she was pleasant, humorous and always outgoing. What Kendall knew of her she admired and liked, she knew they weren't going to become good friends or anything like that but she could appreciate her company for the time being.

In two weeks time this would all be over, James would go back to England, Wai would go back to China, and Felix and Kendall would return to Texas. Then the next mission would come, they might be together or they might be separate but it would come for all of them and their events with Emmanuel Trevino would fade to a footnote, another day at the office as Felix liked to jest. There would be villains worse than Emmanuel to face, Kendall knew that and she accepted it and could only be glad that her role with that world was done. Felix had asked her once if she wanted his role in that world to be done too but she had told him no, that at least if he was out there with James then a difference might be made.

Woo three for the price of one, I guess cause the weekend's over and I'm back to work so I'm pleased to get this done. And it really is done, wow, I have to say I didn't see it ending like this when I started it. Hmm what can I say? This really was the Felix Leiter show, he gets so little love so I'm pleased with that. Many thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favs, special thanks to Si1verEye and saye0036, you guys definitely kept this fic going!

Gosh it got really dark didn't it? Sometimes I can't help myself with that, I like to make my characters really earn that happy ending and hey they got didn't they? I know, sickeningly sweet but it's done so I'm not bothered. It was my first venture at any kind of James Bond fic and I have wanted to do one for so long so I'm definitely pleased with it even if it was more of a Felix Leiter fic. Gosh I absolutely loved writing Felix Leiter's character, I do hope I did him justice! I love him and James as a team and yeah I'd like to write more of them but who knows if I will. I don't know how that would work with Kendall and for all her ups and downs she is my OC and I'm pleased with her too and I don't know, I think if there was a sequel she'd have to be in it somehow so I really don't know. Maybe some oneshots or something, I've often thought about writing from Felix's POV so who knows...

Again many, many thanks!