Mila walked a long the sidewalk, the bitter cold stinging her cheeks as a gust of wind blew through the air. Adjusting her scarf, she glanced down the street, a tall, shadowy figure of a man catching her eye, his face obscured by the darkness of the night sky. Her stomach clenched with a sudden feeling of panic, though she didn't know why. Picking up her pace, she glided around the street corner, turning down a dimly lit alleyway. Peering over her shoulder, the shadowy figure was following close behind, closing the distance between them with each stride he took. She slipped off her heels, clutching them in one hand as she turned to make a break for it only to slam into the cold, damp surface of a brick wall that had seemingly materialized out of thin air ... A dead end. The shadow continued his approach, the glow of the street lamp above casting a hue of light on his face.

The knot within her stomach tightened as her eyes locked with a familiar pair of green ones. The officer who had attacked her was standing before her, his piercing green eyes glaring at her as they had that night in the alley. Bright red blood stained the front of his uniform jacket, though the way he was stalking towards her now, it didn't seem like he had suffered any injury at all, let alone a gunshot to the abdomen.

Unclasping her bag, she pulled out her handgun, pointing it at the soldier's towering figure. Wasting no time, she pulled the trigger ... click. She pulled it again ... click. The man was mere feet away now, his eyes filled with a fiery rage fixated entirely on Mila.

"Come on!" She cried, pulling the trigger a third time, but it was no use. The gun misfired again just as the soldier reached her, grabbing the pistol from her hand with ease and tossing it to the side. Her back hit the wall with a harsh thud as the soldier gripped her throat, squeezing until her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen.

This wasn't real ... This couldn't be real. He was dead ... She had watched him take his last breath. She clenched her eyes shut, willing herself to wake up from this nightmare. How was this happening? She opened her eyes, her gaze locking with the terrifying glare of her attacker. She needed to fight ... Needed to get away, but her body seemed paralyzed under the soldier's grip. She couldn't lift her arms ... Couldn't move her legs.

Her vision blurred as unconsciousness threatened to overtake her. She blinked fiercely, trying to clear the haziness, the silohuette of the soldier slowly coming back into view as her vision cleared. She fixated her gaze on the glinting green of the man's eyes, but was met with a piercing blue instead.

The brutish, burly frame of her attacker had morphed into the lean, muscular frame of Josef, his hand still firmly gripping her throat. His blue eyes bore into hers, not with the warmth she had grown accustomed to associating with his gaze, but with a fierce rage as his grip tightened around her neck. She watched, still paralyzed, as Josef raised his other hand, the glint of silver flashing in the glow of the street light as cold metal pressed against her forehead. Click ... She squeezed her eyes tight as he cocked the gun, bracing for what was to come.

Bang! - Mila jolted upright in bed clutching her neck, the feeling of a hand clenched around it still fresh against her skin. Her chest heaved, gasping for the air her nightmare had starved her of. It was just a dream .... "It was just a dream," She repeated aloud, trying to calm her racing heart. Just a dream...

~

"Are you alright?" Catherine's voice pulled Mila out of her thoughts.

Mila nodded, feigning the best smile she could muster. Though exhausted from sleep deprivation, she had managed to pull herself out of bed with just enough time to make it to her scheduled meeting with Harvey and Catherine. It had been a relatively quick meeting. She had given them the information on the transports she had gotten out of Josef and that had been about the extent of it.

Harvey had been quite pleased, grumbling less than usual, which would have brightened Mila's day if it hadn't been for visions of the dead solider, wet with his own blood, still playing through her head ... Or the sound of Josef's gun firing still reverberating in her ears.

Harvey had left for a meeting with his superiors nearly immediately after she had finished her report, wanting to waste no time in relaying the newfound information, leaving Mila and Catherine to finish up with pleasantries.

"It looks like something's on your mind," Catherine pressed.

"When you first started..." Mila trailed off, thinking hard on how to proceed. "Did you have nightmares? About things you'd seen ... Things you'd done?"

"I did," Catherine nodded, her eyebrows furrowing in subtle concern.

"Do they ever stop?" She asked, willing her voice to remain steady.

"I'd be lying if I said they did," She sighed. "This job takes a lot out of you, but it gets easier. Harvey would call it compartmentalizing ... I call it learning to cope," She continued, flashing a sympathetic smile. "If you want to talk about it-,"

"I'd rather try and forget about it," Mila cut her off, averting her eyes to the window, focusing her gaze on the men and women walking along the sidewalk outside.

"Our line of work is hard, and not letting it drive you to insanity is half the battle ... But we're not machines Mila," Catherine spoke slowly, as if she was choosing her words carefully. "You can't keep going on pretending like nothing is amiss ... Trust me, I've tried."

"Its the soldier," Mila spoke after a long pause, keeping her eyes on the street outside. "I see his face everywhere ... And it seems I can't even escape him in my dreams now."

"You were defending yourself," Catherine replied, reaching out, placing a gentle hand on her knee. "You can't agonize over the decision to take his life when it was your own at stake."

"I know I did what had to be done ... That doesn't change the facts of what I did," She shook her head, turning her gaze back to Catherine, biting back the tears she thought had already been cried. "The fact I killed someone ... The fact my finger pulled the trigger that stopped someone's heart."

"You can't think about it that way," Catherine shook her head. "It will eat away at you until there's nothing left if you do."