Plan of Action

When Jack finally pulled up to his house and parked in the back alley, they all got out and headed inside. Fueled by wanting to finally put an end to all this madness, as soon as they got inside they immediately began to devise a plan. "So how are we going to go about this? Since we really don't know where any of these people are," Johnson asked. "Well I guess we can asked the police to help us find them, since they probably know a few locations they could be at," Jack said. "I have a number that Harrington gave me, after he left me for dead," Sarah said annoyed. "Do you think that number is real or even works?" Ashley asked. "I don't know I haven't really had the time to call it. But he did tell me to reach out to him when I was ready to talk and find out the truth about everything," Sarah stated.

"Maybe you should try calling it and see if he answers," Ashley suggested. "I mean I can, but shouldn't we hold off until we come up with a better plan to take him down first?" Sarah asked. "You're right. How about once we come up with a plan and we head back to the police station, you can call him then," Jack said. "Okay since that's settled, how about I fix us all something to eat, so we can all get settled in, since we are gonna be here for a while," Sarah says, getting up and heading towards the kitchen. "That sounds good to me," Jack says as everyone else shook their heads in agreement. "Hey where is Mike?" Ashley asked. "Um I don't know if he is home, but you can check my office and see if he is in there since that is where he has been staying," Jack said.

Ashley headed down the hallway towards Jack's office. Once she reached the door she contemplated on if she should walk in or knock. *Knock* *Knock* "Who is it?" Mike asked angrily. "It's Ashley," she said nervously, as she was taken aback by his attitude. "Oh. You can come in if you want," Mike replied. Ashley stood at the door for a few seconds with the doorknob in her hand, debating if she should go in or not. After taking a deep breath, she entered into the room. "Hey Mike, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I just wanted to see if you were here since we were all in the living room conversing and Sarah is about to cook dinner and I wanted to see if you were hungry," Ashley said nervously. "Nah I'm good thanks tho," Mike said coldly and dismissively. "Are you sure?" Ashley asked

"Yea," Mike responded. Ashley just nods her head and walks towards the door. Just as she placed her hand on to the doorknob, she stopped in her tracks and turned around to see if Mike was really okay. "Are you okay Mike? Because I feel like you should be rejoicing and celebrating with all of us since Sarah was released from the hospital, but you are just locking yourself in this room like you are trying to avoid something," Ashley said as she pulled up a chair to sit down right across from him. Mike looked up at Ashley and debated if he should confide in her or not. Mike took at deep sigh as he laid back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know what to do man," he said as he placed his arm above his head. "Don't know what to do about what?" Ashley asked a little confused.

"About Sarah," Mike responded. "What about her? Are you scared for her safety? Or is it because she's not the woman you use to know or thought she was?" Ashley asked. "I guess you can say it's all of the above and then some," Mike replied. "Hm?" Ashley says, as she cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Man I saw her kissing him," Mike said as he shot up in anger, causing Ashley to slightly jump back. "You saw what!? Who did she kiss?" Ashley asked intrigued. "I saw her kissing Jack earlier when I came to check on her at the hospital," Mike replied. "And all I could was stand in the doorway in shock and in silence. I brought her balloons, flowers in this beautiful vase, that is broken by the way, since I dropped when I seen that shit. It really broke my heart, because I would have never thought she liked him or he even liked her. They were just supposed to be friends. What the fuck happened in these past months that lead up to this," Mike said distraught.

Ashley jaw dropped, "Yo..yo.. you.. What?!" Ashley said still in shock and not knowing what to say. "And that's not even the half of the shit," Mike said. "There's more to it than just this," Ashley said in astonishment. "Yes. After I caught him, he wasn't even apologetic about the shit either. He just proceeded to confess his love for her and went on about how he's loved her for years and some other bullshit," Mike said trying to dismiss Jack's feelings. "Wha-" "And then he left the room for us to talk and all she could say was she doesnt know right now and she still is trying to figure things out," Mike said as he cut Ashley off.

"And I get it, we haven't been together for a while now, but come on man, why him out of all people," Mike said as he scoffs in frustration. Ashley sat in silence, as it felt like her world was crashing in on her. She has loved Jack for a while now, but she just never got the chance to tell him and now the person he is choosing is HER! Ashley got immediately angry, as she just couldn't believe it. I mean she realized it a few months ago at the safe house, because she seen how he looked at her with so much love and passion in his eyes, but that's how she wanted him to look at her. "Hello? Ashley did you hear me," Mike said waving his hand in-front of her face, snapping her out of her trance. "Hm," Ashley said coming back to her senses.

"Did you hear what I said?" Mike asked. "Uh.. oh yea I did," Ashley said still in shock. Mike side eyed her a little as he continues to speak, "I can't let him have her, because after being brought to the brink of death I realized that she is the only woman for me and that I shouldn't have never let her go," Mike said possessively. "Why did you guys even break up?" Ashley asked curiously. "If you don't mind me asking," she said immediately after, kind of retracting her question. "We just grew apart. I wanted more things in life and at the time it seemed like she didn't, so we decided that it was best that we parted ways," Mike said sadly. "I can understand where you're coming," Ashley replied. "But I also don't know if I could be with her. She's not the same Sarah. Her face has completely changed, she has these hidden abilities, she's working with government, and she's going on all these life threatening missions," Mike explained.

"I don't want to sound like less of a man but how can I protect her? Hm? I couldn't even stop myself from being kidnapped and being almost killed. How could I save her from all these evil people," Mike said sadly. "I know Mike I completely understand how you feel. This is a completely different world than what you know and there is no way you could ever understand it or survive in it," Ashley stated trying to comfort him. "Also her face is not Sarah. Don't get me wrong she is still beautiful and somewhat looks like herself, but she's not the same woman I feel deeply in love with, but I also don't want to lose her, especially not to Jack," Mike said possessively. "I know, I feel the same way," Ashley said. "Same way?" Mike asked confused and intrigued. "Yes same way," Ashley says as she slightly laughs.

"You feel the same way about Sarah or Jack?" Mike laughed. "Well obviously it's Jack," Ashley said smiling. "I've loved him for a long time. You see I was very shy back in navy boot camp and I didn't have many friends or people to talk to. But Jack made that change overnight," Ashley explained. "What do you mean? What happened?" Mike asked. "Well one night I snuck out my barracks to go cry alone. I was extremely home sick and I felt ostracized by everyone there. You know navy boot camp is so hard on a person physically and mentally. As I was having my little crying session, Jack came out to get some fresh air or use the bathroom I really don't remember, but as soon as he saw me, he quickly ran over to me to check on me." He tried to asked me what's wrong but I was so distraught that all I could do was cry harder. And you would think me wailing like a baby would send him away, but nope he stayed with me until I got all my emotions out."

"Damn, what is this man GOD?" Mike says as Ashley laughs "why does he seem so damn perfect?" Mike asked rhetorically. "No he isn't GOD," Ashley responds as she laughs. "He has his faults too, but the good definitely outweighs the bad," Ashley states. "So what else happened?" Mike asked very in tuned with the story. "Well when I was done crying he gave me some tissue and asked me what was wrong. I explained everything I was feeling and holding in that whole time at boot camp and he listen intently, until I got everything out and when I was done," Ashley pauses, as she smiles brightly, while reminiscing. "Then he looked at me smiling and said I know you felt alone before, but all that ends today, because I'll be here for you. I know this life is hard, and so is boot camp, but it also gets just a little better when you have people around you that truly love and care about you. And starting today I'm going to be one of those people," Ashley told Mike while smiling hard.

"Then he stood up, dust his clothes off, and held his hand out to help me up. It was just like my world became a little more brighter after that day. And he definitely kept his promise. Immediately after that, he brought me into his friend group and his life and my life drastically improved. I gained more friends, more confidence, and I became more happy," Ashley says. "Wow that sounds like something straight out of a romance novel," Mike says while laughing. Ashley playfully hits him, laughs, and tells him to "Shut up." "What I'm just saying," Mike says as he continues to laugh. "Stop it. It's not that funny," Ashley says still laughing. "Ok ok I'll stop," Mike says as he tried to hold in his laugh but immediately burst back into laughter after looking at Ashley. Ashley and Mike both laughed for a few more minutes. They laughed so hard that they had tears running down their face and their stomachs started to hurt.

"Whew ok ok let's get serious," Mike said trying to stop laughing. "Ok let's," Ashley replied as she tried to suck back in her laugh. "I really needed that laugh," Mike says as he wipes the tears from his face. "Since we are both in a one sided love. What should we do?" Ashley said wiping her tears as well. "I think we should try to devise a plan to get them to see that they should choose us, and not each other," Mike answered. "Oooo I think that is a great idea," Ashley says. "What is the plan?" Ashley asked. "I don't even know yet, but we both need to work closely so we can execute our plans together," Mike says. "Okay let's do that," Ashley said smiling, as she shook Mike's hand, sealing their agreement. "Let me get back before they think I went missing," Ashley says as she laughs and exits the room, while Mike lays back down on the bed and silently laughs as well.

Ashley walks back into to the living room, as she continues to laugh to herself. "What's so funny?" Johnson asks as he looked up at Ashley from the couch. "I wanna laugh to." "Oh it's nothing," Ashley says as she quietly laughs and sits down next to him. "Yea what's so funny I want to laugh as well," Jack says with a smile. Ashley perked up because his smile just lights up her world, but she couldn't let him in on their plan, so she just says, "Oh I seen something funny on my phone. That's all," Ashley says as she smiles at Jack. As Jack was going to respond, Sarah came out the kitchen and said dinner is ready and they can go sit down at the table. Everyone hopped up eagerly to eat Sarah's food. "Hey Ashley did you check to see if Mike was home?" Sarah asked while setting up the table. "Oh yea he's back there," Ashley said a little dismissive.

"Uhm okay," Sarah said a little taken aback by her tone, as she was just her bubbly self a few seconds ago. Ashley knew she was a little rude, but she couldn't get the image out of her head of them two kissing and it just made her uncontrollably angry. "I'll go get him and tell him dinner is ready," Sarah said as she walked away. Sarah walked down the hall to Jack's office where Mike was currently staying and knocked on the door. *Knock* *Knock* "Hey Ashley I think we sho-" Mike tried to say as he answered the door but immediately stopped mid sentence, as soon as he seen Sarah standing there staring at him in confusion. "What are you and Ashley trying to do Mike?" Sarah asked slightly upset and confused. "Oh it's nothing. Just trying to do something special for you and Jack that's all," Mike said with a smile and nervous laugh. I'm mean it's not like he wasn't completely telling the truth. "Oh okay," Sarah replied still a little stand offish as she doesn't quite believe him.

"Well dinner is ready. You should come sit down and eat," Sarah said as she turned to leave but Mike grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Look Sarah, I love you so much and want to be with you forever but I can't lose you to him. I just can't," Mike said as he pulled her in closer into him. Sarah pushed him off of her and walked back to the table without saying a word. "Is Mike coming?" Jack asked. "Yea he should be here soon," Sarah said a little upset. "Are you okay?," Jack asked, sensing something was wrong. "I'm fine. We can talk about it later," Sarah said smiling at Jack.

Mike took some time to gather himself before heading out to eat dinner. As soon as Mike reached the end of the hall and was approaching the table he could see Jack and Sarah smiling at each other and he looked on in disgust. Ashley also peeped how Mike was looking at Sarah and Jack and when he came to sit down and they made eye contact, she stuck her tongue out and pointed her finger at the back of her throat pretending to vomit, while Mike quietly laughs. Once the table was all set up, Sarah sat down, so they could all eat, and she said a quick prayer before digging in. "Mhmm Sarah this is more delicious than that breakfast you made for us a few months back," Johnson said.

Sarah blushed, "thank you Johnson I'm glad you are enjoying it," she smiled. "Yea Sarah this is exceptionally delicious," Jack said smiling softly, as Mike rolled his eyes. Sarah made smother pork chops over rice with some sweet corn on the side and a small side salad for everyone with a homemade vinaigrette. Sarah placed her hand on Jack's and said "thank you," as she smiled brightly. Mike grew more and more agitated as he sat and watched Sarah and Jack flirt back and forth with each other. Ashley watched Mike's every move feeling exactly the same way he did. "How can they blatantly just flirt with each other right in front of us? Do they not see us sitting here? What are we chopped liver?"Ashley said to herself in disbelief.

They all just sat and talked while they ate. Once they were all finished eating, Sarah and Jack cleared the table. "I can wash the dishes," Jack said as he took the plates from Sarah. "Are you sure because I can do it," Sarah said. "It's fine since you cooked, the least I could do is wash the dishes," he said. "Okay. Well thank you," Sarah replied. "No problem how about you go sit down and when I'm done we can all come together and devise a plan. Sounds good?" Jack said. "Yea sounds good to me," Sarah responded with a smile, as she went to go sit down. As soon as Jack was done washing and putting up the dishes, he headed back into the living room and sat down.

"Ok so what is the plan," Johnson asked as soon as Jack sat down. "I think we need to use Sarah to contact Harrington and set up a meeting. If he agrees we will have her go in wired up, with the undetected recording device we used when she met with the Russians. While she is meeting with him, us and a few police officers will stake out the meeting place and when Sarah gives us the signal we will move in to capture him," Jack explained. "That sounds like a good plan, but what about the other mafia gang, his rivals?" Ashley asked. "We will need the rest of the officers to head to their location to take them down as well. Considering that they might have located them," Jack replied. "True true," Ashley said.

"But what if he doesn't answer or doesn't agree to meet up with me," Sarah said nervously. "Well then we will be back at square one, but I'm banking on him wanting to meet up with you, considering he offered to do so in the first place," Jack replied. "Well yea, but that was months ago. He could have changed his mind by now," Sarah said. "Well that's true but we won't know until we try," Johnson added. "Once we finally take these people down, we will finally able to put all this craziness behind us," Jack said as he slightly laughed. "I hope so because I've had it up to here, with the needing to fight for my life consistently," Sarah said as she laughed.

"Okay now that we have a plan how about we call it a night and head over to the police station first thing in the morning to go over our plan with them," Jack said as he got up to stretch. "Sounds good to me" said Johnson as he and Ashley got up to leave. "Shit I left my car at the hospital," Ashley said. "How about one of you just use my car to drop whoever off and the person who drops them off can use my car to drive home and before we head to the police station we can just pick up everyone's cars," Jack said. "That sounds good but that also sounds like a lot," Ashley said.

"Or you all could just stay here for the night and before we head to the police station in the morning we could just drive over to the hospital and pick up both your cars. We can also go after we leave police station whichever works best for either of you," Jack stated. "I don't mind staying, considering that we all are going to be with each other tomorrow anyways," Johnson said. "That's very true. Well I'm down with spending the night," Ashley said. "I will cook us breakfast as well," Sarah said smiling. "Oooo yea then I'm definitely staying," Johnson said excitedly. "Okay well since that's settled, Johnson you can stay in the bedroom down the hall from mines, Ashley you can stay in the other bedroom that's right across from my office, and Sarah you could just stay in my room again," Jack explained. "What!" Ashley exclaimed. "Oh and the pjs you wore last time is in the second dresser drawer," he added.

"Oh, thank you," Sarah said as she headed down to his bedroom, to get changed and settled in. "Where are you going to sleep?" Johnson asked. "Oh me? I'm going to sleep on the couch," Jack replied. "Couch?!" Ashley said. "Yes the couch," Jack laughs a little. "How about you just take the room you gave me and I can sleep on the couch," Johnson said. "No it's okay. I enjoy sleeping on the couch," Jack says. "Are you sure?" Johnson asked. "Yea I'm fine," Jack said. Johnson just shrugged his shoulders as he headed towards the room to get ready for bed. "Are you sure you want to sleep on the couch, I don't mind rooming with Sarah and you can just take the other room," Ashley said as she came up behind him, as he was making up the couch to lay down.

"Oh I'm fine. I am truly okay with sleeping out here on the couch. I will also feel more comfortable as well since I can watch the door in case someone tries to break in," Jack said as he gently removed Ashley hand off his shoulder and patted it. Ashley melted at his touch. She could feel the warmth of his skin and the roughness of his hand. She just looked up at him and smiled, "Okay. I'll leave you to it. Good night Jack." "Good night Ashley," he said smiling back at her. Ashley walked back to the room she was given to get settled in. As soon as she got settled in, there was a knock at the door. She happily got out of bed hoping it was Jack, but as soon as she opened the door her smile quickly fade, as she seen Mike standing right in front of her.

"What you aren't happy to see me?" Mike says while laughing. Ashley playfully hits him and laughs. "No im not. I thought it was gonna be my future husband standing on the other side of the door," Ashley said moving to the side and to let him. "I mean I could be," Mike said as he pulled her closer to him and smiled. Mike face was so close that Ashley could feel his breath on hers and she could smell the cologne he was wearing. She would be lying to herself if she said he didn't smell really good. Ashley didn't dare move an inch because Mike face was so close to hers that if she moved she would've kissed him. Mike then pushed her away and laughed as Ashley stood there frozen in shock. Ashley nervously laughs as she says "are you coming in or staying out there." Mike laughs, walks in and sits down.

Ashley closed the door and walked over to the bed and sat down. "So what's up," Ashley says. "I was just coming in to see if you wanted to come up with a plan and talk about how dinner was," Mike said. "I think we should put off the plan until after this mission is complete. I don't want anyone to be distracted by anything and mess up the mission because it could be deadly," Ashley stated. "Yea you're right," Mike said feeling a little bad. "But we could talk about what happened at dinner," Ashley said trying to quickly change the mood. "Could you believe the two of them," Mike says. "I know right. They were flirting with each other in our faces like we wasn't even there and they were the only ones in the room. It made me sick to my stomach," Ashley says, as she turned her nose up in disgust.

"Man, I wanted to vomit, it was so bad. Were they like this when I was gone?" Mike asked. "No not necessarily," Ashley said. "What do you mean?" Mike asked. "Well because Sarah was so worried about you and Jack was trying his best to be her support system they didn't really flirt with each other, but they were over friendly if that makes sense," Ashley stated. "Oh I see, but I really don't get it," Mike says. Ashley laughs, "What I mean is that they would smile at each other maybe touch hands here and there but nothing like how tonight was," Ashley says. "Oh ok. Maybe since I'm alive and well, she now has the time to be flirtatious," Mike says a little annoyed."I guess the both of them do," Ashley laughs. "Welp, imma let you get some sleep and I'll see you in the morning," Mike says with a smile as he got up to leave. "Oh ok then. Good night Mike," Ashley says smiling at him. "Good night Ashley," Mike says smiling right back and leaving.