It was Wednesday night in Wing City, and Gambit's Bar was (as per usual) a hub of talking, drinking, yelling, cuddling, and a host of other activities that SCD Special Agent Liesha Kennicot didn't really want to think about at this point.

The witch limped up to her usual spot at the counter, letting the usual chatter just wash on by. Every other faux-leather stool was occupied, so she didn't have as much room as she'd like to stretch out her bad leg, which was throbbing uncomfortably as though it knew that something was brewing in the air.

"Dom. Beer, pl -- "

Thud. Liesha blinked, and glanced up. There was Dominick, and there was her drink. That old man never made a beeline for her. He hardly pretended she existed, unless he wanted to chide her on how poorly her team was doing its job -- but tonight? Tonight there was a foreign look in the bartender's eyes. Concern.

"He's here," Dom grunted, hunkering down low. "Behind you. Watching. He knows, you idiot. He knows."

Shit.

There were a few he's that Dom could have been talking about, and none of them were pleasant company. Liesha held Dom's gaze for a half second before nodding imperceptibly.

"You damn people comin' in here all the time! Stirrin' trouble!" the moment was released; Dom surged backwards in full-on temper. "I outta kick you out, you know. Y'don't even pay!"

Dom's catcall was lost to the dull roar of the other patrons, and Liesha didn't even bother replying. She did take up the bottle of beer in her hands, however, but instead of twisting the cap off and bringing it to her lips, she began to pick at the label of the bottle itself, flicking her fingers whenever they became too sticky with the adhesive. Soon, shredded bits of paper began to litter the floor.

This process continued for what must have been ten minutes before Liesha now had a naked, full bottle in front of her. She set it at arms length on the counter, and let it stay there, untouched. The witch laced her fingers together, and rested her chin on them now entranced with the bottle sitting so primly on the counter.

The SCD Agent now had a murky brown (but clear) reflective view of everything that was happening behind her in the bar. Her leg gave another painful twitch when she caught sight of the man Dom had been talking about, and she chewed the inside of her lip.

Why'd it have to be tonight? Why'd it have to be here?

But she knew why here, and she knew why tonight. This man wasn't an idiot -- in fact, he was smart. Probably smarter than her, and that was something that the youngest SCD Field Agent in history didn't like to admit.

As though thinking nothing of it, the witch casually plucked her phone from her pocket and sent a text. She closed her hand around the device, palming it with one fist -- the other curled and resting on the thigh of her bad leg. More words, vowel sounds from around her. Time was running short. What if she didn't get that ret -- bzzpt

Liesha's eyes flashed. This wasn't a text, but a call.

"Yes?" the witch whispered. Her expression cycled from worry, to irritation, and then to confusion; her eyebrows drew together, and her fists unclenched. "No. I'm not kidding. Put her on the line."

Taking a call in this place was stupidly difficult. Liesha slid from her spot at the counter, leaving her bottle where it sat. She limped over to the side door that lead out to the alley -- there were fewer booths here, and as such less people to drown out her conversation.

"Let me talk to her. Are you listening right now? I'm not having her down here unless she can handle herself. If this thing gets out of hand, there will be a lot of bodies at Gambit's to deal with. And I so do not have the patience for that. Get here when you can. No, he doesn't realize yet. Does he see me? I think so, b-but .. "

Gabriel Shaheed lounged back in his corner booth, looking more comfortable and at home than any of Wing City's most dedicated residents. His dark eyes were half-closed, but Liesha could still feel their focus was on her.

Liesha flipped her phone shut, lowering her arm to her side. She had been made. The witch crossed the room slowly, as though in a dream until she stood directly in front of Gabriel.

"Evening," the witch said stiffly.

"We have only brief moments, in my estimation, before your violet-eyed woman punches through the glass window, or some such nonsense. Please, sit in the meantime. I would like to speak with you," Gabriel lifted a hand and gestured most graciously to the seat across from him. "It would be good for you to rest your leg, at the very least."

Liesha curled a lip at the mention of the leg, but she fell into the opposite seat anyways. She sat erect, ready for anything; blonde hair practically sparking. Gabriel still appeared mellow, tanned-dark and relaxed.

"Congratulations," was the first thing out of the witch's mouth. "Your English is as good as they say. It must be, because you managed to convince everyone you're not who you actually are."

"Oh, Miss Kennicot .. " smirked the ex-Mossad operative, "I ensure my life upon it."

"In less than ten minutes, my people are going to be swarming this building and you won't have anywhere to go but with me. Are you going to make it more difficult than it needs to be? Because I'm really hoping you won't make it more difficult than it needs to be. I've had a rather long day, you see, Mister Shaheed, and the last thing I want to deal with is a man who is in way over his head, and thinks just shooting people is going to get him out of it. Let me help you."

Liesha said this all in a very low, very scathing voice leaning in closer to the Israeli man.

"Ten minutes?" Gabriel nodded in agreement. "Then we do not have much time!"

The ex-Mossad leaned in as well until he and the witch were mere inches apart.

"And for the record, Miss Kennicot .. shooting people has worked quite well in my experience. Except in your case. You are different."

Liesha felt cold steel against her leg. Gabriel's arms were both under the table; he had pulled a small caliber pistol from nowhere and was now pressing it to the woman's knee.

"Different is good! Do not mistake that, but I think it may also be a disadvantage. This is your wounded leg, yes? I do not think shooting you from this distance wool kill you, no. But even for all your regenerative capabilities, were I to pull the trigger .. "

Even in the crowded, noisy bar Liesha could hear the tiny click of the hammer.

" .. The terms of our meeting would change a bit, no?"

There was a clock running in the back of Liesha's mind, counting down the time 'till the rest of her team would be arriving on the scene. The risk of her current situation weighed in heavily as well. Liesha swallowed, and continued to play her usual card.

"You think I haven't been shot from this close before?" she scoffed, but her voice wasn't full of its usual confidence. "Yeah. It'll hurt like a bitch, but by the time you're up and rolling, there'll be four slayer darts growing out of your skull. Gina doesn't take kindly to people shooting folks she hangs around with, you see."

The Israeli chuckled humorlessly. "Gina? Yes. What a fine, delicate, terrifying flower. I don't relish having to deal with her, but I seemed to manage fairly well against your people early this week, no? What were they, wizards? Spellcasters? Something of that sort, much similar to yourself, I imagine. Sorcery. Were they witches?"

Gabriel spoke with an uneasy, apathetic cadence as though he were very, very tired of this child's play. The pistol did not lighten from Liesha's knee at all.

"Your magic does not intimidate me, Miss Kennicot. I am a cursed man. I have seen what the true power of my homeland can do. Your paltry magicians tricks cannot turn me to the side, and neither can your paltry magicians."

It wouldn't be long, now. Liesha licked her lips, stuck to the book, and kept her eye contact

"I understand that you want answers, Mister Shaheed, but if you'd stop for a second and let me give them to you, then none of this would be necessary."

The ex-Mossad nodded sagely. "You are right! None of it would be necessary at all. Give me your gun and your wand for safekeeping, then. Call off your team, and we will all speak like sensible, reasonable people."

Liesha's mind buzzed. Sensible! This, from the man who had singlehandedly taken out the entire Reception Team from LaGuardia by driving a Taxi into a crowd of people. Reasonable? This, from the man who had calmly threatened to blow out her kneecap as a small favor?

"I keep my gun. You keep yours," the witch said firmly after a pause. "But I make a phone call, and call the dogs off."

Gabriel's other hand was suddenly in view. He uncurled his fingers in the woman's direction, obviously waiting to be handed something.

"Very well. You keep your gun, your wand. But I make the call."

A few more prickly, uncomfortable seconds passed. Liesha swallowed. He's not gonna budge on this, and he still has the gun to me.

She handed over her phone, and was quite dismayed to find that her hands were shaking.

Why can't this guy be on our side?

The Israeli smiled brilliantly, almost warmly at Liesha once his fingers closed around the cell phone. The pistol did not let up from her leg, however, even as Gabriel scrolled idly through her contacts. He hit "call" on what was presumably Gina's number, and brought the receiver to his ear.

"Gina Tedrick. This is the man you have been hunting so vigorously for. I have reached an agreement with your Agent, and we are all going to speak like civilized beings. My finger is on a trigger, right now. If anything sudden happens, I cannot quite guarantee what I might, on accident, do. Keep that in mind. Shalom."

Beep. Thud. Gabriel ended the call, and set the phone back on the table. He slid it back over to where the witch sat, motionless.

"There. This was not so difficult, eh, Miss Kennicot?"

Liesha's hand flew down to catch her cell. Her eyes were hard, cold chips of ice even as she felt the barrel of the pistol leave her kneecap ..

.. The lovely Gina Tedrick chose this moment to swing into the bar, opening the door very slowly, cautiously, as though not sure what she might find on the inside. For all physical purposes, she did not seem very intimidating at all wrapped in her gray peacoat and scarf, but her tousled hair and bright violet eyes gave her a wilder, more vicious appearance.

Those purple eyes found Liesha and Gabriel almost at once. Gina turned on her heel and strode slowly, cautiously, fluidly over to their table.

"I want him dead," the slayer stated flatly, in way of greeting.

Gabriel smirked. "Is she always this forward?"

Liesha glanced over to Gina, who huffed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Usually she doesn't ask about it. Usually she just makes it happen."

"Her restraint is well-received, then. I would hate to be murdered before I understood completely the world that I was being murdered by," Gabriel said wryly.

"So let's talk!" Liesha leaned forward again, wishing fervently that Gina would keep her head and not do anything idiotic. "Your name is Gabriel Shaheed; former Mossad Officer, forced into an early retirement by an untimely .. curse."

The Israeli tapped his fingernails on the counter. "Right so far, Miss Kennicot."

"Your government considered you a massive danger to any and all Mossad operations given the parameters of the curse, and contacted the United States SCD requesting a liaison credit until the curse itself wore off. You were not pleased."

Gina gave a definite pout as she fell into the other table's chair.

"Why can't I kill him?" the slayer scowled, folding her arms over her chest.

Because he put a gun to my knee. Because I was unprepared, because I underestimated him. Because I was stupid. Because he was smarter.

There were a lot of ways that Liesha wanted to reply to Gina's simple, almost childlike question. Instead, however, the Agent within her won out.

"Diplomatic reasons," Liesha held her head high. "There've been some new developments."

"Why can't I kill him?" Gina repeated loudly.

Gabriel Shaheed did not spare the violet-eyed slayer a second glance. His attention was fully, completely on Liesha. "Go on .. "

"Right. When I said you weren't pleased? I guess more specifically, you weren't informed. You were put on a plane bound for New York with no understanding of what it was hanging over your head like a thick cloud, what it was trying its hardest to make you go insane -- or even what you were going to do once you got to America. Through this, you ended up, uh, completely destroying the Reception Team that was meant to greet you off the plane at LaGuardia. Is that correct?"

"Oh, Liee-eesha!"

"The Special Cases Department did not -- Gina, shut up a second -- did not take well to this. You were branded as Wanted straight off the plane because your government didn't tell the SCD the full extent of the curse, its side-effects, everything else that might have been relevant to the Reception Team. None of that. It just looked like the magical relations between Israel and the United States were up in smoke because of one single taxi cab."

"Everything you said has been right thus far, Miss Kennicot, which confuses me. If you understand why a man in my position is so confused, so wounded, then why attempt to apprehend me?"

The witch set her jaw, and continued her monotone despite Gina's wheedling.

"Because you killed seven United States citizens, members of the Special Cases Department, no less. There are going to be repercussions from this, extenuating circumstances or not. In fact, I wouldn't even call those circumstances extenuating. There are clauses for demon possession, but you were you in your right mind. Those men didn't have to die."

"There are no half blows in Krav Maga. They came at me; I defended myself. What happened was regrettable, but it cannot be undone," the Israeli hardly batted an eye. "They died honorably."

"They died unnecessarily."

"Liesha. Why. Can't. I. Kill. Hii-iim?"

Gabriel tilted his head to the side. "Then it seems we are at an impasse, Miss Kennicot. I will not let your people take me for something that I had to do, and you will not make a case for my .. curious predicament. Where do we go from here?"

"Lie. Sha."

"Well," the witch said softly. "You have two seconds to make a decision .. "

"Lieshalieshalieshaaaa .. "

Gabriel slowly clenched his fist around his pistol ..

" .. Because I don't think I can hold her back much longer."

"Lieeeeeshaaa .. "

The witch's name dissolved into a high-pitched warcry. The slayer howled, upstarted from her seat with a fistful of slayer needles. Liesha jerked for her wand, but saw a flash of light from Gabriel's pistol before her fingers could close around the thing. She felt the bullet tear through her right shoulder; she screamed from the pain and lurched forward.

Why the right shoulder .. he could kill me. He, if anyone --

Liesha was sure she heard the sound of crashing wood and two more harsh shots before she was swallowed by that momentary, blissful black.

Beep.

"Doctor, if you can't seem to .. "

Beep.

" .. You have an answer for me, Agent?"

Beep.

" .. Regenerative. You're sedating her for nothing. She's perfectly .. "

Beep.

" .. But covered in her own blood!"

"She'll heal. She's piecing together what we're saying right now .. "

The first thing Liesha grasped upon swimming back to consciousness were the sounds, the voices, the machines. Carter? Yes, that was him, probably just in from Chicago after her call. What the hell. The witch's eyes flew open. Sterile white walls. Scratchy hospital sheets. Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

Mind reeling, Liesha cured her fingers and yanked her IV out of her arm. The doctor (some dark-haired, pretty-faced attending) yelped and jerked forward, whereas Carter simply smiled, unfolding his arms from his chest.

"Morning, Liesha."

"Agent Kennicot! You can't just -- "

"Get these fucking things off me."

The censors on her chest and and temple were next to go. Liesha balled up the tape, the wires, and threw them behind her. She ignored the bleating machines, the bleating doctor and sat up, attention only on SCD Special Agent Carter Fleetham.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"I don't know," the Extractor said calmly. "I only just got in."

"How long was I unconscious?"

Liesha's voice rose in pitch and volume, clearing her head but still making it hurt. The witch pushed frazzled, frayed strands of blonde out of her eyes. Her shoulder ached. Carter shook his head slightly, imperceptibly, but she could have cared less. "Hey, doctor. Why the hell did you bring me here? Where am I, even?"

"Y-You're at Wing City General. You were shot at point-blank range, Agent Kennicot. You were unconscious!" the doctor sputtered. "Luckily, we found your badge and we contacted -- "

"Unconscious? Like hell I was!" Liesha's voice nearly cracked in her frustration. She reached up with trembling, furious fingers and yanked down the collar of her hospital gown, baring her shoulder. "Look."

There was nothing there but creamy skin.

"Does that look like a bullet wound to you, doctor? DOES IT NEEDS -- "

"Liesha," Carter insisted, and the witch fell silent.

As though on cue, another doctor suddenly stepped from around the partition of the next room. She carried a clipboard, and wore a small, pert frown -- having been summoned, perhaps, by the alarms and shrieks and flatlines of all the disconnected machines.

"Thank you, Doctor Matthews. I will handle this," she said smoothly to the dark-haired man who wasted no time making a beeline out into the hall. She stepped fully into the room, taking in Liesha's wild appearance. "Agent Kennicot. I must ask you to lower your voice. Please understand you are not the only patient in this ward, and I can't have you disturbing the others."

This new doctor's tone had a soothing, calming quality about it almost like Carter's. Liesha's hackles fell. She rubbed the raw patch on her arm where the needle's teeth had nipped her before replying. "My apologies, doctor .. ?"

"Doctor Sara Marrow, Neurologist on clinic duty. I'm sorry about Doctor Matthews, there. Can I help you with anything?"

"Yes, actually. You can answer my question. Why was I admitted to the hospital?"

"The paramedics responded to a call at Gambit's Bar. You were involved in some sort of entanglement, and were shot at point-blank range. You fell unconscious, Agent Kennicot. No one was about to leave you there!"

"I think," and here Carter spoke up softly, now that the octane in the room had settled, "what the good Agent means is why she was given a painkilling sedative when on the scene, it would have been very clear to the paramedics that her actual wound had already closed over, and was gone."

"Simply a precaution, Agent Fleetham. According to the report, though the wound had closed up, Agent Kennicot's vital signs were dropping, going haywire. Trauma at that close of a range affects everyone, regenerative ability or not."

"So can I go?" Liesha asked bluntly.

"Well, we'd like to finish the checkup just to make sure everything's -- "

"So I can go!" Liesha swung her legs off the side of the bed, and found that they were quite bare. "Er .. "

Carter stepped forward with a neatly folded pile of clothes. On top lay the witch's wand, gun, phone, and badge.

"There's paperwork you'll need to fill out, Miss Kennicot -- "

Liesha grunted slightly as she slid fully out of bed, and onto the floor. She rolled her right shoulder.

"Forward it to my office, Doctor Marrow. I have a fugitive to catch."

Black SUV. Carter drove. Awkward silence.

About ten minutes ago, Wing City had slipped away and turned back into the tristate area. They were back in America, now. Snow whirled out across the Atlantic ocean propelled by eager gusts that buffeted even their large government vehicle; Liesha took all of this in with her head rested against the window, arms folded, expression dour.

"I don't see why you couldn't have just Extracted us back to the city."

"With your sulky mind all over the place? Hell no. We'd end up somewhere in Taiwan."

"What would I do without you, Carter?"

"Probably end up attacking a medical intern."

The witch gripped her forearm. " .. I don't like needles."

Another five minutes or so passed as the two lapsed again into silence. Eventually, Carter reached out and turned on the radio. The soft sounds of holiday music filled the cabin of the car. "Have .. yourself .. a Merry .. little -- "

Liesha lashed out with irate fingers, turning the volume down and sitting up all in one motion.

"You know, the similarities between you and Scrooge are absolutely -- "

"Shut up a second. What happened really, Carter? What about Shaheed? Did Gina get him?"

"Not hardly."

"Excuse me?"

Carter shifted his hands on the wheel, frowning. "I called Dom this morning while you were still under. They shot up the place but word is he got away. Haven't heard from Gina. She's not answering her phone."

"Word is he got away? Who do you have looking for him? Pursuing the trail?"

"Well, since our consulting tracker is the lovely woman with violet eyes who's gone missing -- "

"Carter."

"Ti's on the job."

"Ti doen't have opposable thumbs. How well is this going to work out for him?"

"He seems to manage fairly well. Beats me how, but he does."

"Shit."

"Liesha. Calm down."

"Calm down?" the witch raised her voice, feeling the feathering edges of a headache starting to close in even as they approached Manhattan. "I'm sorry, Carter, I'm sorry. I was accosted by a wanted fugitive, shot, taken to a hospital and treated by an idiot, taken back to New York by an idiot, and now you're telling me that we have a sentient German Shepherd picking up the pieces."

"That's about the long and short of it."

Liesha buried her head in her hands. "Has Miles said anything?"

"Director Frost wants you to take the rest of the day off."

"Like hell."

"Liesha -- "

"I know Ti is a wonderful, capable agent. I know that. But you didn't see this guy, Carter. He knows us. He knows us inside and out. He's calm, prepared, effective, dangerous, and the fact that the Israeli side and our side isn't helping him is only going to make him seek answers all the harder."

"So, what. You're the only one who can take him on? Because look how well that worked out for you."

The witch pursed her lips. Carter continued. "Trust your team, Liesha."

Liesha rested her head against the window again. "You don't actually think I'm going to stay at home, do you?"

"Course not. You're going to stay at the office, though. I'm making sure of that!"

Carter gave his usual slight, sideways smile. He reached down again, and turned up the radio.

"Through the years .. we all will be toge-therrrrr. If the Fates .. allooo-ooow .. "