"I went to the car and when I came back she was gone and the cabbie was dead." Jake said, Charlie had spent the better part of the evening sitting in his car waiting on Jake. He wanted to talk to him even though his gut said otherwise, he was supposed to go back and find Zachary. It hadn't escaped his attention that the man seemed less and less jealous as of lately. Charlie should have went with his gut and tracked Zachary but he had been enjoying most of his time with the man. That should have been a warning sign, he rarely enjoyed his time with Zach. He had seen Zach pull up, inject Elizabeth with something, kill the cabbie then speed away. By the time Jake came back with his wallet they were gone.

"I know."

"You know? You know?! What the hell do you mean you know? Did you see what happened? Tell me, Charlie, where is she?" Jake had taken a step with each question until he was standing chest to chest with him, he grabbed ahold of Charlie's shoulders. "What the hell happened to her?"

"A means to an end."

"What? What the hell are you talking about?" Jake asked, his grip tightened on Charlie.

"Zachary used Elizabeth to get to you, and then eventually get to me. He found out things about her clearly." Charlie said, he reached up and applied just enough pressure on both of Jake's wrists and watched as he released him. "They obviously kept in contact and set this entire thing up."

"So this was all... she..."

"Yeah, buddy." Charlie said and patted his shoulder, Jake looked dumbfounded as usual and Charlie hated it. The man had been led on and used again, this time he had a hand in it but hadn't realized it. This had all been set up by Command to drive them apart because agents who could fall in love were of no use to him. Jake was supposed to die in front of him and that meant severing all ties officially.

"If you had anything to do with this I swear to God I will hunt you down and kill you."

"I'm sure you'll keep that promise." Charlie said, "But for now you need to get in the cab with me and leave. You're supposed to be dead and it wouldn't be good for you to be seen alive around here by anyone outside of Zach."

"And what about Huck and Quinn?" Jake asked, "Is he going to-"

"Don't you worry about that. Right now we need to leave." Charlie said and walked towards the cab. "You can leave in the morning if you want."

"Where are you taking me?" Jake asked, he didn't want to follow Charlie but right now he wasn't sure what the hell was going on. The man had saved him and he still wanted to know why.

"My place."

Jake hadn't trusted Charlie to come back, it had been an hour and he sat near the door with a gun in his hand. He expected the place to be raided at anytime but instead Charlie opened the door, removed his keys and closed the door behind him.

"Where have you been?"

"Out getting rid of the cab, you would think it would be easy to find a chop shop in Germany." Charlie said and then laughed, he walked over to the couch and sat beside Jake. "You should get to sleep-"

"Why didn't you kill me?" Jake asked, he had turned away from Charlie as he spoke. "You could have but you didn't."

"I'll level with you-"

"Don't level with me, for once be honest. Just tell me the truth."

"OK." Charlie said and then rested his hands on his knees, "I like you and regardless of the concussion you've tried to give me twice now, I still like you."

"That's it?"

"Were you expecting a parade and a wedding proposal?" Charlie asked, Jake turned slowly and faced him. "I had no idea that Zach was up to something like this, I would have never gotten involved."

"But you would have let him kill me?" Jake asked, he looked exhausted and was barely holding onto the gun. Charlie took it from his hands and placed it down on the coffee table.

"No, I wouldn't." Charlie said, "Besides, that's been handled."

"Handled? Jesus Christ, you sound like Olivia."

"I don't think you should be comparing me to your ex-girlfriend." Charlie said and patted him on the shoulder. "I found him hiding out in a little hole in the wall he had already carved the girl to pieces, wasn't that hard. I tied him up and left him as a gift."

"To who?"

"Huck and Quinn."

"Why?"

"Outside of the fact that I hate them, they did save your life when they didn't have to." Charlie said and then stood up, "So they deserve a little treat."

"They're not animals."

"You almost sound like you believe it," Charlie said and then headed back into his bedroom. "We're all animals, Jake, even you."

"Are you going to bed?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, are you going to join me?" He asked while stopping outside the door. Jake remained silent giving him the answer he didn't want to hear. "Goodnight, Jacob."

Jake had put Charlie through the coffee table, it had been another nightmare. One of those odd dreams that seemed so vivid while he slept but by the time he opened his eyes it was a fading memory slipping away from like sand through his hands. At some point in the dream he grabbed Charlie and slammed him through the glass coffee table. It was disturbing how calm Charlie was, he should have been angry or at least frowning but instead he asked him to help him up and pulled off his shirt.

"Check from any glass, wonderboy."

"I didn't mean-"

"I know, it's the nightmares. Remember, this isn't the first time you've put my head through glass because of your nightmares." Jake checked his his back for any glass and luckily there wasn't any. "What was it this time?"

"I can't recall." Jake said while running his fingertips down Charlie's scarred back. "You've got a few new scars."

"Not every kidnapping goes as planned, some of them are prepared." Charlie said and then laughed nervously, Jake had never seen him nervous once since knowing him. Was it him? Had he finally broken through? "I'm going to start charging by the hour if you don't watch those hands."

"Oh... sorry." Jake said, he yanked his hands back placing them in his lap, "Why were you awake?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"You were leaving, weren't you?" Jake asked, Charlie was dressed to leave and out of the corner of his eye he could see a small black bag by the door.

"Yes."

"Going back to the United States?"

"It's not that easy," Charlie said while standing up and stretching. He grabbed another shirt from the bag "There's work to be done over in Thailand."

"I'm coming with you."

"Who said you were invited?"

"I invited myself." Jake said. "Unless this is B613 work."

"No, I'm on a...sabbatical."

"You mean you're leaving again." Jake said and knew what he needed to do. "I'm coming with you."

"If you come with me this time I'm not letting you go."

"That has yet to be seen." Jake said. "I might trust you a bit more if I'm not hogtied by the time we get to Thailand."

"Scouts honor." He said and held up three fingers and tucked his pinky and thumb, "I guess this is kind of like a honeymoon, only with killing and mayhem involved." Jake stood up following behind him towards the door.

"Sounds like paradise to me." Jake said

Author's Note: So this is the end of my story and just the beginning of my crackship. Jake and Charlie need more scenes together, this ship needs to take off.