"Look, I'll take my phone next time, but I needed some time alone."

Erica and Hobbes had spent the short ride back from the church chastising him for leaving his phone in the basement. Well, it was mostly Erica, but Hobbes added his two cents occasionally. Chad just looked vaguely uncomfortable and Jack couldn't figure out why.

"You could have left a note," Erica said from the front seat and then she blinked as though realizing the fact that she'd made a more than vaguely patronizing statement.

Shaking his head, Jack just hopped out of the car, or at least hopped as best he could after spending so many hours on his knees. It was more like a pained slide and he planned on icing his aching joints once he got some privacy.

The stairs were not pleasant, but any thoughts of his throbbing limbs fled when he saw the two people standing by the computers. Sid wasn't too much of a surprise, but Lisa had never come down to their HQ before. That wasn't what gave him pause though.

Both of them looked scared, angry and vaguely nauseous. Not the most pleasant expressions by any means and it served only to make them both look even younger than they usually appeared.

"Lisa?" Erica said, stepping towards the girl, concern in her eyes. "What are you doing here? Is everything all right?"

The girl looked from Erica to Hobbes, who was hovering behind her shoulder, then over at Sid, who touched her arm and began creeping towards the side of the room Jack and Chad had drifted to. Lisa allowed him to lead her, but her eyes were refocused on Hobbes and her odd mix of expressions settled firmly on anger.

Holding up a small object, she demanded, "Why do you have this?"

It seemed an innocuous thing, Jack thought. Actually, it looked a bit like the compact he could remember his mother carrying in her purse when he was a boy.

But clearly, it was not a make up case.

Hobbes tensed, his shoulders squaring and the tendons in his neck popping out in to prominence. He knew what the object was and he was not happy to see it in Lisa's hand. Erica was puzzled and she took a step forward.

"What is that?" she asked, peering at the object for a moment and then turning back to Hobbes. "What is it?"

The mercenary looked a bit trapped, and Lisa continued, "This is a detonator. One of V design. It can be used to trigger any explosive within 100 yards. Did you know, Mr. Hobbes, that this keeps a record of each time it's used? And this particular detonator has only been used once."

Hobbes finally reacted. "It's not mine. You're the one who said it's V tech."

He was lying. Everyone in the room could tell, even Lisa, new to reading emotions as she was. Sid, not generally the most confrontational person, said, "I found it in one of those boxes under your bed."

Focusing a glare at the scientist, Hobbes said, "Why were you going through my things?"

"I wasn't!" Sid replied defensively. "I dropped my phone and it slid under…not the point! Why do you have a detonator that was used to set off explosives two weeks ago?"

"The day I heard my mother and Thomas discussing using an asset to do their dirty work," Lisa added, her voice shaking. "The day Tyler's father died."

Erica's head whipped around to stare at Hobbes in disbelief. "Why do you have that?" she demanded sharply, suspicious but hoping her assumption (all their assumptions) would prove wrong.

"Obviously, someone planted it." He turned to Jack. "You said Ryan survived the explosion, yeah?"

Jack nodded, but he somehow doubted that was the case.

"Mother ordered Ryan killed," Lisa said briskly. "He has outlived his usefulness to her. One of the things I wished to speak to you all about was him. He's on our side once again."

Oh, please God, for Erica's sake, let them be wrong.

He had a feeling God would not be answering that particular prayer.

"Hobbes," Erica said slowly, staring at the mercenary with penetrating intensity, "Tell me you didn't have anything to do with this."

She couldn't bring herself to put into words the 'this' she was talking about. Killing Eli and who knew how many others. Joe's death included. Sending Tyler running into Anna's waiting arms.

"I…," Hobbes began, then he cleared his throat. "They have my Sarah. I told you about her, Erica. I thought she died, but they have her…."

It was like someone punched Erica in the stomach. She stepped back, face paling to rapidly and a slew of emotions flitting over her pale features.

"Oh…Fuck," Sid muttered, accurately summing up everyone's thoughts.

Hobbes glared, but, in taking his eyes off of Erica, he made a mistake. Shocked and betrayed or not, she was Erica Evans and she lashed out, balled fist connecting with Hobbes's jaw. His head turned at the impact, but he didn't fall. He caught her fist before the second blow landed and she didn't even bother trying to yank free from his grasp.

She pulled her gun…at the same moment Hobbes drew his.

To echo Sid's earlier sentiment, fuck.

No one could accuse Sid of lacking survival instincts. As soon as the guns came out, he snagged Lisa's arm again and tugged her into the shelter of an alcove. Jack shoved Chad in after them, grabbing a handgun from where it was taped under the table top and moving into position to back Erica's play.

One of the things Jack had learned after moving into the basement was that Hobbes liked to have at least one weapon within arms reach at all times. He'd thought it a tad excessive, but now, when he needed a gun and his own was tucked away in his bag beneath his bed, he found the paranoia useful.

"You betrayed us," Erica's voice shook, but her hands were steady. "You killed Eli…Joe…and then you…."

Years in the clergy hadn't exactly provided Jack with a lot of first person experience in relationships, but he'd done more than his fair share of relationship counseling. He knew the sound of someone betrayed by a lover.

Jack could admit that he felt a stab of jealousy at that realization, but it was far overshadowed by an odd mix of anger and compassion.

Anger at Hobbes for turning on them, for killing their allies, for hurting Erica in so many ways and compassion for her. She'd lost so much and when she'd reached out for comfort, it had been to the man responsible for the latest of her personal tragedies.

"I waited," Hobbes ground out. "I waited until you were clear of the building. Cohen and his people weren't going to be taken alive, I had to take the chance that Sarah might be…."

"Save it!" Erica practically shouted. "What did you think was going to happen? Did you think Anna was going to let her go if you did her bidding?"

Hobbes immediately retorted, "You're hoping to get your kid back. How's this different?"

"I didn't kill anyone!"

"STOP!" Jack saw them jump when he shouted over both of them. He really wasn't sure what to say, but emotions running high mixed with drawn weapons was never a good thing. "This Mexican standoff bullshit isn't helping anyone!"

When you're a priest, or even used to be a priest, people don't expect you to swear. It always got a reaction. Hobbes blinked and Erica wrenched her arm from his grasp, stepping backwards towards Jack.

From inside the safety of the alcove, Chad said, "We can talk about this, right? I mean, everyone screws up sometimes…."

"Making a mistake is one thing," Erica stated and Jack could see the tension in her spine. "Lying to us, killing people and playing us for fools is something else entirely."

"Does Anna know Erica's Fifth Column?" Jack demanded. He was pretty sure he was already on the V queen's bad side, so he wasn't exactly worried about her opinion of him.

Eyes ticking from Erica to momentarily glance at him, Hobbes said, "No. They don't even know I'm involved with Fifth Column."

"I believe that to be true," Lisa said, peeking around the corner at them. "Mother wished to strike a blow at the Fifth Column in retaliation for Marcus and she saw an opportunity to kill you and Tyler's father, so she took it."

Apparently Anna had overestimated the size of the blow required to send Tyler running up to the V mother ship in a snit. Jack really did not like the boy, but kept his opinion to himself, for Erica's sake.

He wasn't sure if it was Lisa's words or the stress and trauma of the past few months (probably a combination of both), but the white knuckled grip on the anger that had been keeping Erica functioning (albeit in a strange way) failed her. Her shoulders slumped and her gun arm dropped and she sway a bit…before turning and simply walking up the stairs and out the door.

Jack blinked and found himself exchanging confused looks with Hobbes, then shook himself. They were still holding guns…but Hobbes was still aiming at the empty spot where Erica had been.

"Chad, Sid, Lisa," Jack said, shattering the confused silence. "Get your things and go."

The flurry of activity behind him and the feet on the stairs told him they'd quickly complied.

It was just the two of them now.

"So, you lot are going to forgive Ryan on Lisa's say so, but not me?" Hobbes asked, but even he sounded like he wasn't buying into that line of defense.

Heaving a sigh, Jack placed the weapon on a nearby counter and said, "I think you know that there's a big difference between what Ryan did and your actions."

Without waiting for Hobbes to react, Jack turned and gathered up the few of his belongings that weren't already tucked neatly into his bags. When he finished, he turned to the other man. Hobbes had settled onto one of the chairs and looked somewhat deflated himself.

"She won't forgive me for this, will she?" the mercenary asked, surprising Jack.

It made things both better and worse that Hobbes knew what he'd done was wrong, had known even as he'd done it.

"I can't speak for her," Jack said, shouldering his bags and walking towards the stairs. "The question is, do you forgive yourself?"

He wasn't above laying on a bit of a guilt trip, especially since it was deserved.

Once out the door, he saw Chad and Sid lingering by the former's car, Lisa standing nearby, clearly nervous. They were all looking over at Erica's, SUV…oh, okay, she was sitting in the drivers seat. Not moving. With a death grip on the wheel.

"She locked the doors," Lisa said, turning to face him. Her expression, and the hopeful looks on Chad and Sid's faces, read 'fix this!'.

Nodding, Jack approached Erica's car, wondering what he could possibly say. This wasn't something that could be fixed. All he could do was let her know that he'd be there for her.

It wasn't much, but it was all he could offer.

Comments, pretty please? They help fuel the muses and keep me writing!