Author's Note: Welcome to the third and final story of Flint and Lady Jaye trilogy. I'm sorry about the long delay, but I decided to change my approach with this story and wait until it was completely written before I started publishing. It's still in the editing stage, but updates should come faster than the previous stories. Thanks in advance to those that are still curious as to how this story ends.

This story picks up directly after he end of For You.

For most people, the start of a new year means resolutions and promises to change their life for the better. For Dashiell "Flint" Faireborn, this was especially true. He, Alison and Marissa had rung in the new year with his family in Kansas, and had then returned to DC the following day. Flint had spent most of the flight deep in thought contemplating the future.

Flint's immediate concern was Alison's upcoming hearing. He had tried to follow his own advice to not dwell on something he had no control over. And for the most part he had been successful. But now that the Christmas holiday was over, and they were returning to work, he couldn't help but worry about it. He still had total faith in his wife's innocence, and he knew no long-lasting harm was going to come from the hearing, but he still hated the idea that she had to go through the ordeal.

And to make matters worse, there was still the possibility that he might end up being recalled to the Joe team when the hearings were scheduled to start. His temporary orders to the Pentagon were set to expire in mid-January. Flint had held off finding a unit to transfer to, because there had been talk of starting an off-shoot branch of the GI Joe team in the DC area. It would have been perfect for him. However, he had received a phone call from Hawk a couple of evenings after Christmas that the Jugglers had shot down the idea.

"They claimed it didn't make financial sense to start a second GI Joe unit. However, they have come around to the idea of the Joe's team usefulness. So in a complete reversal from the last couple of years, all future transfers out of the Joes are put on hold."

Flint contemplated the implication. He was glad that the Joes would be the leading the fight against the Red Shadows, an adversary with a fitting name. After the attack that had led to bloodshed at the Pentagon, they had disappeared back into the shadows. But everyone believed it was only a matter of time before they attacked again. And as much as he wanted to be on the team that was actively hunting those bastards down, he felt just as strongly about protecting his family. All he had to do was remember the panic and dread he had felt as he had stood outside the burning Pentagon knowing that his wife and daughter were still inside. He was not going to let the Red Shadows or any other terrorist group attack his family again.

"Flint, are you still there?" Hawk asked.

"Yes, sir, I'm sorry." Flint sighed and decided to voice his concerns. "Sir, you know I would never shirk my responsibilities. And if it turns out that I have no choice than to return to the Joe team, I would perform my duties to the best of my abilities. But, if I have any say in the matter, I still want to try to stay in DC with Alison and Marissa."

"I figured that was what you were going to say. So I took it upon myself to have a chat with General Bradshaw. The Jugglers may have put a freeze on any Joes leaving the unit, but they also haven't agreed to an increase in personnel. Along with Duke and Falcon, Anvil needs a fourth person in the leadership chain. If it can't be you, maybe it could be Beachhead."

Flint once again lost himself to his thoughts. Hawk was basically offering to let him and Beachhead switch positions. It would mean that Flint would have a lot less time in the field, but he would be helping out the intelligence unit in their search for threats. It was the perfect compromise.

"I'm in. What did Beachhead say?"

"I haven't talked to him yet, since I wanted to run it by you first. He hasn't gone on leave, so I can talk to him in the morning."

"No, sir, if it can wait, I'd like to speak to him once I get back."

Hawk had expressed a few concerns about the two discussing the matter, but he had eventually relented with the caveat that he needed an official answer as soon as Flint returned to work. Flint agreed and had put it at the top of his new year to-do list.

On January 2nd, Flint, Alison and Marissa drove together to the Pentagon. Flint and Alison had struggled with the decision about whether to keep Marissa in the daycare on-site of the Pentagon. They had spent the time Alison was recuperating going over the pros and cons. A few days before she had returned to work in early December they had decided to keep her enrolled there. They figured that even though the Pentagon was always going to be a potential target, the fact that it had been attacked actually made it less of a risk. Plus, the idea that she was close by and easily accessible in the case of a future emergency, outweighed the negatives.

During the drive, Flint and Alison sat in silence, both lost in their thoughts. Flint silently ran through the conversation he wanted to have with Beachhead. Alison sensing his thoughts asked, "Are you sure you should be the one talking to Beachhead?"

Flint smiled. "Hawk asked me the same question."

"I'm not surprised. We both know, as well as most of the Joe team, how the two of you have a habit of bringing out the worst in each other."

Flint's smile grew. "And that's exactly what Hawk said. So I'm going to tell you what I told him. If I expect Beachhead to make a career sacrifice on my behalf, then I need to be the one to talk to him."

Alison went silent for a few moments. "What do you think he's going to say?"

"I think he's going to fight me at first, but eventually his desire to rejoin the Joes will win out."

"And if it doesn't? What's Plan B?"

"To be honest, I don't have one. I don't think I have another option."

Alison frowned and went quiet again. Marissa, though kept up a chatter of incomprehensible babble during the rest of the ride. Flint reached over and patted Alison's thigh. "I can't wait until I can understand what she has to say."

Alison smiled and turned to look at her daughter. That got a squeal of delight from Marissa. "Yeah, I think she's going to be quite the talker."

The two went together to drop her off at the daycare and then walked to their office. Flint didn't waste any time, and went over to Beachhead and asked him to take a walk with him. He tried to catch Alison's eye, but she was engrossed in a document she was reading.

Once they were in the hallway, Flint decided to ease into the conversation. "Did you have a nice holiday break?"

Beachhead stopped walking. "Look, Flint, cut the crap. I know you don't care about my holidays, and you need something from me, so why don't you get right down to it?"

Flint nodded. "Wayne, you're right, I do have a favor I need to ask of you. I'm not expecting you to answer right away, but I am asking you to put aside any personal issues and just consider the offer on its own merit." Flint again paused as he thought about his pre-planned well-rehearsed speech. But he decided just to be blunt. "I want to transfer to DC. Hawk already spoke to Anvil about it, and he's on board as long as they get someone to replace me in the leadership department. So I want to know if you would be interested in transferring back to the Joes."

"Yes," Beachhead answered.

Flint blinked and he wondered if he actually heard Beachhead correctly. "Do you want to take some time to think about it?"

"I don't need to think about it. I've wanted to get back to the Joe team since practically the day I arrived here. I appreciated the opportunity that Hawk gave me, but I've been itching to get back to where I belong, and that's on the Joe team."

Flint grinned. He came close to hugging Beachhead, but the Ranger put an end to that idea. "No you don't. If you need to get touchy-feely with someone, your wife is waiting for you back in our office."

Alison sat at her desk, trying to keep her simmering anger in check. She had assumed that her first day back at work was probably not going to go very well. She just hadn't expected to receive the proverbial kick in the gut at the very beginning of the day. She took deep breaths as she stared at the single piece of paper laying there. It was telling in two ways. It informed her that she had been assigned council for her upcoming hearing. Even though Alison had held on to the shred of hope that the hearing would be canceled, she knew it was extremely unlikely. The fact that she was going to have someone coaching and advising her was actually welcome news.

What wasn't welcome news was the fact that the stack of intelligence documents that normally greeted her workday was missing. Which meant to Alison that the brass had already decided on her guilt ahead of the hearing.

Hawk walked over to her desk and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't read too much into this. It's a temporary measure done out of an abundance of caution. Supposedly everyone that is being called to testify have been put on limited duty."

Not trusting herself to speak, Alison just nodded. A loud bang echoed from the hallway, and Alison jumped to her feet. She looked towards Hawk, who calmly waved for her to relax. "It's okay. They're rebuilding the offices, so you're going to hear those noises on and off for the near future."

Alison grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I guess I'm still jumpy."

"Don't apologize. I did the same thing the first time I heard it. In fact I didn't believe it until I checked it out for myself."

That sounded like a good plan to Alison. "If it's okay, I'd like to do the same, since I don't exactly have any pressing assignments right now."

"Take your time," Hawk said.

Alison walked out into the hallway. Normally, she would make her way over to the daycare to peek in on Marissa, but since it was her first day back from vacation, the staff had cautioned Alison and Flint to keep their distance during the day, to give Marissa a chance to reacclimate to her routine. It had seemed like a reasonable suggestion a short time ago. However, Alison started giving serious thought to the idea of getting Marissa and bringing her home, since she apparently had no reason to be at work that day.

But just as quickly she talked herself out of the idea. She was never one to run away and hide at a problem, and the last thing she wanted was to give the Jugglers that satisfaction. She decided on a route that would take her towards the reconstruction project.

As she made her way to her destination, she came to the belated realization that both Flint and Beachhead hadn't been in the office when she had left. She guessed that Flint was having his heart to heart talk with the Ranger, and Alison hoped that his day was going better than hers. The last thing she wanted to find out was that Flint was being forced to return to the Joes.

She knew if that was the case they would again find a way to make it work. But Flint had been her rock the previous few months, and neither of them wanted him to return to his role as part time husband and father.

And she couldn't help but wonder what would happen if she was found guilty of conspiring with the enemy. She would be sent away to prison. How would Flint handle the role of single fatherhood, especially if he was sent back to the Joes?

Her thoughts abruptly came to an end as she reached the cordoned off section which had received the most damage in the Red Shadows attack. A makeshift memorial had grown since the last time she had been in the area. She went to it, to look at the names and photographs. Her tears began to fall as she looked at the lives lost and thought about all of the families destroyed.

It clarified her thoughts of the morning. Her fears for their future went beyond dealing with a long-distance relationship, or the thought of losing her job. She still carried and believed the deadly premonition from the old Scottish woman, and her greatest fear of the moment was losing her daughter or husband.

She also realized that the anger she felt at the Jugglers and the upcoming hearing, was not because she knew they were wrong, but because she was afraid they were right. Alison knew that she wasn't directly responsible for the Red Shadows attack. She had never been in contact with the group. She also had never withheld any evidence that the attack had been imminent.

What nagged at her, though, was the fact that there hadn't been any signs. Alison had become convinced that she must have missed something. It wouldn't be the first time that had happened in the intelligence community. There was so much information out there, that to find the credible threat in a sea of harmless noise was like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.

She was afraid, though, that her negligence was to blame. The best chance of seeing the Red Shadows fingerprints would have been around the time of the blackout. For obvious reasons, she hadn't been able to fully investigate the event due to Marissa's birth. But she should have when she had returned to work. Those first few weeks were a haze due to many sleepless nights, and she knew she hadn't given her work the full attention it deserved.

Alison looked at the memorial again as her thoughts wandered. It reminded her of the one that was at Joe HQ. She wondered if Snake-Eyes' name had been added even though he hadn't been killed in a Joe battle. If so, he would have joined Grunt, Clutch and Steeler. Nobody knew for sure if the three men had actually perished in the alternate world, but since it seemed unlikely they would ever return, their names had been put on the Joe memorial.

That ill-fated mission and the absolute devastation that had occurred in the parallel universe had consumed her thoughts the first few weeks after she had returned. Even though she had seen it first hand, it had been hard to comprehend that another world, or timeline actually existed. But eventually, as she had done with several of the other bizarre and supernatural missions, she had found a way to move on.

She wondered if Clutch, Grunt and Steeler were still alive or if they had died in the civil war against Cobra. She was hit with a familiar sense of guilt since she had voluntarily walked away from a brewing battle in that other world, and left her friends to fight it practically alone. She stayed lost in her thoughts until she heard a set of footsteps behind her.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you." Flint joined her side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He then exhaled sharply. "That's a sobering display."

"It is," Alison said simply. They stood in silence for a few moments. "Do you ever think about the people who were affected by actions we took?"

"I do. Most of the time I wonder If Clutch, Steeler and Grunt were given a death sentence when I left them behind."

Alison couldn't help but smile. The fact that Flint had an uncanny knack for echoing her own silent thoughts was one of the many reason why she loved him. "Those were the exact three I was thinking about. I know they chose to stay in that world, but I can't help but feel guilty that I didn't also stay behind to help them."

Flint put his hand on her arm. "You didn't belong there. None of us did. I was their CO and I should have made sure they returned with us."

Alison was going to try and soothe Flint's conscience, but she realized he was proving her point. Instead, Flint continued. "I guess I think about them the most because I actually knew them. In my darker moments, I do replay past missions and wonder about the multitude of unknowns that were in buildings destroyed, or cars that were crashed while we were battling Cobra."

Alison nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if we've done more harm than good."

"You should never think that. Yes, there has been collateral damage, but use that alternate world as an example of what life would be like if Cobra had been allowed to run rampant. You have to believe that even when things go terribly wrong, something good comes out of it."

Alison waved her hand towards the memorial. "What good can come from this?"

"I don't know," Flint answered. "But if we can get to the Red Shadows before they act again, we can prevent other people from going through this pain."

"They should have been stopped before this attack. I can't help but feel that's my fault."

"Al, don't do this to yourself. You're letting this hearing get to you. You're not a mind reader, and you don't have a crystal ball to tell you the future."

Alison shuddered as she was once again reminded of her final Joe mission to Scotland and the cryptic, haunting message about their future. "Let's hope nobody has that kind of power," she mumbled. Flint asked her to repeat herself, but she ignored the request. When she had finally told him on Christmas night about her encounter he had been skeptic at best.

Instead she continued the current conversation. "Maybe, but I haven't been at my top form this past year. Not only was I exhausted, but Marissa had most of my attention, so I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I missed something."

"In the unlikely case that's true, no one can hold you responsible. You're a new mom juggling family and a career like millions of other women out there."

Alison pointed to the memorial. "I think the loved ones of these people would. And I wouldn't blame them if they did."

Flint squeezed her shoulder. "Before you totally convict yourself, go back over the records. I bet you'll find out that there were no indications of the attack."

"I would if was allowed to, but as of now my privileges have been taken away. So despite your optimism, it looks like the Jugglers had already made their decision. Which means that we might need to at least be prepared for this outcome not going my way."

"I'm sorry they did that. I'm sure it's just a standard procedure." Flint grabbed both of her hands in his as he turned to face her. "Listen to me, no matter what happens, I'll be here for you. Beachhead agreed to my request, so I'm not going back to the Joes."

Alison felt a sense of relief as she processed the good news. She hugged him. "Thank goodness."

Flint hugged her in return. "We're going to get through this. And then we're going to find a way to make these bastards pay for this."

Alison nodded. She said a silent prayer for the victims, and then turned to walk back to their office.