Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Means the world to me! This next chapter hopefully conveys Jane and Ethan's first plan to finding the Syndicate, and hopefully answers a few questions from the first chapter. Enjoy!

Ethan awoke from his deep sleep when a blinding ray of sun cut across his face. He grumbled and sat up, opening his eyes to the living room of the small house.

How did I end up on the couch? Oh, right, Jane. He looked around the room, but she was nowhere in sight. There was a glass of water and a small paper bag on the coffee table next to him, with a note. "New meds- take 2, drink lots of water. –J"

Ethan tossed the note aside and reached inside the bag, pulling out the small pill bottle. Jane must've run into town already; had he been asleep that long? He looked to the blinds that were still pulled shut, where sunlight was definitely dancing through the small gaps, making light patterns across the room. Ethan guessed it was sometime after 10am. Lord, he hadn't slept at all since coming to the safe house. Realizing he had had such a good sleep, he remembered his wound and the lack of pain he felt. He examined around the clean bandages: the skin was still red and a little puffy, and there was still a dull, throbbing pain but it was much more manageable than the night before.

The sound of the backdoor opening made him turn around. Jane walked through the threshold, carrying what looked to be a radio.

"Hey, you're awake! How'd you sleep?" she asked, coming to sit in the armchair across from him.

"Best I've slept in days. I take it those pills were to thank?"

"Yep. The new ones will help more with the infection. How's it feeling?"

"Feels fine. Bandages are still good."

"Perfect. I pulled my Porsche into the garage if that's fine."

"Yeah. You got a Porsche for your op?"

"Pulled a few strings, got a Carrera 911 GT," she replied with a smirk, setting the radio on the coffee table.

"Why the radio? Is it from the shed outback?"

"Figured I'd do a perimeter check, but yes, I found it in the shed. It's a little too quiet in the workout room for me."

Ethan just nodded and leaned back into the couch. Sure, the pain was manageable, but it had taken a toll on his body. It would take a while for him to recover, and he hated that thought. Not be able to do anything useful for weeks or even months until he was his normal self again.

"So, who else knows about this safe house? Perimeter check was good, I think we're still clear."

"Just the team. It's one of the seven I have hidden around the world, I don't tell anyone about them just in case something like this were to happen." Ethan replied, his hands coming to run down his face.

"Brandt got me your coordinates when you activated the internet. It's a good thing he knew to check this location, good thing he knew about it."

"To be honest, I wasn't going to share the location of this house until that time Benji got shot in the arm during that mission in Liechtenstein last year and we needed an emergency meeting point."

"But Brandt instead got us that dodgy motel, and Benji got loopy on pain meds," Jane said with a grin. Ethan dropped his hands to his lap and smiled at that. God, the four of them made a good team.

"What happened to us?" he asked, looking her straight in the eye.

"Guess we got so good, we were needed elsewhere," she said with a sad smile. Sure, the four of them worked ops together every now and then, but during the past seven months, they hadn't seen much of each other. Jane got called away to her heavy cover mission, Brandt got promoted to work right beside Hunley, Benji bounced from team to team working tech, and Ethan found himself working with more and more new agents.

"The Syndicate- you think you're close?" Jane asked after a moment, apprehension on her face.

"Yes. I know I can catch him, I just don't know where to start," Ethan muttered, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. He bit back the small burst of pain that shot through him.

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Ethan just starring at the floor while Jane watched him closely.

"I think we need to start by finding out which other agents are actually still alive," Jane said, rising from the armchair and moving to the small desk in the corner of the room. "I'm going to cross reference the agents who've died with whatever street cameras I can get my hands on without triggering any alarms." She sat down and flipped her laptop open before shooting Ethan a glance. "I made you breakfast, but you'll probably have to warm it up now, sleeping beauty."

Ethan scoffed. "What, you aren't going to warm it up for me then cut the pancakes into tiny pieces?" he said with a smirk. She just gave him one of her signature 'I can kill you 12 different ways with a knitting needle' looks before turning back to her laptop. Ethan smiled and grabbed for the pill bottle, slipping out two pills and swallowing them with some water. He took a deep breath and stiffly stood from the couch, making his way slowly to the kitchen. His legs felt like lead and his head seemed to be swimming through a foggy lake. Never in all his years did he think a single gunshot wound would have this effect on him, after everything he'd ever been though. Ok, driving a car off the side of that parking garage in Dubai was worse than this, but he'd been able to recover in the IMF hospital with all their advanced technology and snooty doctors. Now, he just had Jane. Which was much better than being alone, for he did have considerable blood loss before being able to stitch the wound and it was a wonder he had even been conscious when Jane came to him.

It seemed to take forever to get to the kitchen, but he opened the fridge and pulled out the plate of pancakes, bacon and sausage from the top shelf. His eyes scanned the bottom shelves and drawers; Jane had definitely gone shopping.

"Thanks for stocking up on groceries," he said, placing the plate into the dingy little microwave.

"You needed healthier choices than Spam and canned peaches."

"Cut me some slack, I haven't been here in almost a year, and I haven't stayed here since some four years ago. You already probably knew that though, since you were in the workout room."

"Yeah, there was a good layer of dust on everything. I'm just glad it hasn't hit snow season here yet."

"I wouldn't want to be here at that time, too many people around for the skiing," he muttered. The microwave beeped and he grabbed his plate, moving to the small dining table beside the desk.

"I was going to suggest we only stay here a few more days. I'm afraid someone will find out who Brandt was helping."

"And where do you suggest we go?" he asked, cutting into his pancakes.

"France. We couldn't go to my original apartment in Paris, too risky. I set up a safe house in Chantilly, it's just thirty minutes outside of Paris, but it's a quiet town. No one knows of it, it was to be for emergencies only. I classify this as one of those emergencies."

"What about your undercover op? Did you just ditch out? You were there for a few months, you had to of been in fairly deep."

"It was coming to a close. I may have to finish some business when we get to France, but I'm no longer totally immersed in it. Which works well for us, as the IMF predicted I wouldn't be finished until later this year, meaning I wouldn't be aware of the call to go in."

"Ok, say we pack up and head to France. How will I get past the boarder? I'm sure Hunley has people posted everywhere. And I take it you don't have one of Benji's favorite mask machines."

"You'd be surprised," she said with an excited smile. "The trunk in the Porsche is pretty roomy, and the mask machine is now just a bulky briefcase."

"Alright, let's get to work then."