"Lucky on my count. Three...two... one...go. Deera wait four seconds I'll tell you when. Lucky you're going right, up the stairs, right again and then geography is the fourth row in. Axel?"

"On it."

"You've got three minutes before the guard change. Deera go now. Blitz it's your play."

"Meteorology section. The camera is top left. Two and a half minutes to pick the books up."

"Yes. Get the angle right. It just has to be loud, the books don't have to go far. Cal where are you?"

"I'm on West End and 73rd. Five miles an hour because this is Manhattan. Someone wanna do that math?"

"Lautaro?"

"Trying to diffuse a bomb guys, don't push my limits."

"How long until you're done?"

"40 seconds."

"Can you make it 35 seconds, I've got your next one in my hands."

"Don't fucking drop it Deera."

"You think?"

"Axel where'd you leave it?"

"Two seats in from the third table when you come in through the door."

"Make it subtle."

"I practiced the pick up a million times guys, picking up a security badge from the floor isn't nuclear chemistry, wouldn't you agree Quinn?"

"I can personally vouch for that."

"I've got it. Camera loop on in the elevator?"

"Yes. You're taking it three floors down, Lautaro is through the first door on the right. Lucky slow down you've got to give her a little more time."

"Where is the guy I'm taking out?"

"Right around the corner."

"Take down time?"

"Two minutes."

"Make it one, I got this."

"We've all got this guys."

-

"I kinda have to have a life for you guys to uproot, you know," Jinx stood in the middle of her apartment while we packed up our bags all around her. "I'm glad your mission was successful and, you know, no one got blown up."

Zach cleared his throat and gave Harrison a promoting look.

The younger agent zipped his navy blue sweater up to his chin. Then he walked around the couch and put his hands on Jinx's shoulders and tilted his head down a little to look her in the eyes. "Jinx, listen to me carefully. You may think what we just did was some easy fun and games, but it's serious. The original plan was to get by without killing, but unfortunately we had to. I was actually the one to pull the trigger. That's seven people whose lives I've ended now." He took another breath and watched Jinx's eyes grow wider. "I saw you staring at our guns whenever we had them out. You're a little too inquiring for your own good, and I think you know that. So you have to promise us that you won't get caught up in any of what we leave behind. Guns are very real and they rip through flesh and kill people. Do you understand me?"

Jinx balked for a few seconds before she smacked his arms off her shoulders. Her green eyes blazed beneath her dark glasses frames. "Do not speak to me like I'm a child Hot Head. I may not have seen the horrors you've seen, but I have a very active imagination."

"It doesn't matter how strong your imagination is, it's that you physically can't understand—"

"Let me fucking finish," she said firmly. Harrison clamped his mouth shut.

"My imagination is pretty vivid. And do you know why? Because I live in the same world you do Hot Head. I haven't seen the horrors firsthand, I just deal with the ripples of after effects. The news. The press. The TV coverings. The YouTube videos of school shooters shooting kids. The security tapes of innocent black people getting beat by white cops. I am one of the billions of people who are left in the dark when it comes to the violent acts in the world. I'm one of the ones who has to piece together the loose facts and try not to let my mind drift to my worst nightmares. Harrison," she swallowed wide-eyed, "I've studied history. I know how selfishness, racism, discrimination, torture, and ferocity echoes into today. And it is terrifying to chart how little we have evolved. We still kill. We still maim. I might not have physically heard the gunfire, but I do know of it. So don't you fucking dare talk to me like I'm sheltered and innocent."

Harrison's dark eyes dropped to the carpet. "You're right," he swallowed. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me to assume like that."

"It's okay. Not your fault you're a sexist narcissist," she grinned fiendishly.

Harrison's jaw dropped. "Excuse me, I am neither of those! At least not the first one."

Jinx shook her head with a smile, then watched the 11 of us begin to gather around her doorway.

"Don't suppose you'll ever be coming back?" She asked quietly.

"Our Director doesn't like us making pit stops," Blitz said. "The mission is usually more imperative than stopping by for tea and biscuits."

"Well," she smiled, "I'm moving to Boston in about a week and a half for the spring term at Emerson, so if you're ever there and have time to catch up with a lowly fangirl, hit me up."

Cal came over to her once he'd put on his backpack and Jinx stood on her tiptoes to hug him back. "Thanks for letting me stain your carpet with blood," he said.

"Thank Blitz for giving me the chemical formula to clear it up," she replied. Blitz gave her a small salute and Cal laughed while he rejoined us at the door.

"Don't let those boys corrupt you," Jinx said, then wrapped her arms around me. I surprised myself and didn't flinch as much as I thought I would.

I hugged her back tightly. "I'll try."

"What the hell are we going to corrupt you with?"

Jinx and I broke apart. We glanced over at the ten boys all dressed in black and all looking at us unamused, with their disheveled hair and various parts of their shirts tucked into their pants and miss-matched lengths of hoodie strings. Jinx and I exchanged a knowing look, and then I retreated to the boys I'd come with.

"You've taught us more than you know Jinx," Lautaro said, tightening the straps of his army backpack.

"Ditto."

"Are you sure I can't keep Percy?" Quinn begged from the kitchen.

"For, what? The fifth time? Barnes --no." Owen shook his head.

Quinn whined, setting Percy back down on the floor and trudging back over to us at the door. "There isn't any way you could convince Flagg—"

"No," Owen repeated.

"Is all the money there?" Zach asked Jinx.

Jinx nodded, pushing up her glasses. "Yeah, yeah, definitely. That's more than enough. You really didn't have to give me that much—"

"Call it compensation." Zach smiled at her.

"For mental and emotional stress," Axel chimed in.

"Oh if it's for that then I think I'm gonna need a couple million," she said. "I hope you guys get all that shit figured out with Director Dick," she bounced her eyes between Owen and James.

"Yeah, us too," Owen sighed.

"And you get there with all those stitches intact."

"You and me both," Cal agreed.

"You know what Jinx?" Harrison spoke up. "I really am gonna miss our little debates."

"Aw," she hugged herself with both arms, "catching feelings there Hot Head?

Harrison cracked up and tucked his dog tags under his shirt. "That's funny."

Jinx grinned, then sniffed.

"Aw, are you going to miss us too?" Quinn teased.

"Yeah," Jinx said honestly.

Quinn's face softened slightly. Then it lit up when Percy came over to him meowing.

"You crashing into me," Jinx pointed Harrison, "and then tending to a broken love-stricken zombie on my couch while discussing terrorism cases is the coolest thing that has ever happened to me." Her bottom lip trembled slightly.

"That can't be true," Lucky said. "You're so smart and determined and driven and you are going to achieve your dream and live a much more secure life than any of us ever will."

The Nez Perce smiled. "Thanks Lucky."

"I think you're going to have to come and actually peel this cat off of him," Blitz laughed as he pet Percy who was perching on Quinn's shoulder.

Jinx came over and did so. "Bye guys," she smiled. Leaving her with her cat in her arms, we all filled out her apartment in a chorus of goodbyes.

"Dude," Axel whacked Harrison upside the head once we'd gotten a fair distance from Jinx's apartment. Harrison shoved him back and the two sort of sissy fought for a moment until I shoved myself in between them.

"Why didn't you hug her?" Axel asked him.

Harrison snorted. His fingers found the chain around his neck "Because you asshole, I didn't want to."

Axel and I exchanged a look.

"Alright fine —she didn't want to hug me, how about that then?" He huffed. The he crossed his arms and avoided our gazes moodily.

"When's the flight?" I called farther down the stairs to Zach.

"6:30," he called back.

"You're sitting next to me?" Axel nudged me with his shoulder.

"We're not on a fourth grade field trip Axel," I smiled at him, "But yeah, I'll sit with you. Planes are cold."

"Oh, so it's just because of my heating superpowers that you want to share headphones and watch a movie with me?"

"I mean," I shrugged my shoulders up to my ears.

Axel fake gasped. "Fine, you can sit next to Lucky. He kicks when he sleeps."

"I heard that!" Lucky yelled from down the stairs.

"It's true!" Lautaro yelled back at him.

I wrapped my arms around Axel's upper arm. "I'll sit next to you because you smell nice, you're warm, and because I enjoy your company, how's that?"

"Fine. But we're watching Pirates of the Caribbean."

"Why don't you just join the mile high club while you're at it," Harrison muttered.

"I will shove you down these stairs Hot Head."

Harrison's dark brown eyes went wide and he groaned so loud Jinx could probably hear it two floors up. "Are you fucking kidding me we're still gonna use that nickname?!"

"Jinx will live on in that name Harrison, you're never getting out of it now," Axel laughed.