As he'd said, Will arrived at Julia's house promptly at nine. He wasn't surprised to find her waiting for him. They exchanged pleasantries, and Will held the door to the sedan for her.

She was silent as he directed the car toward the bed and breakfast, and Will wasn't sure whether to be grateful or not. He knew what he had to do, but determining the best way of doing it was a challenge, and he'd hoped that she'd follow up on the hint he'd dropped yesterday, but so far she seemed to be focused on the scenery.

Which meant it would be up to him to broach the subject, and Will had no idea how best to do that. He'd observed the woman beside him for three days back in Rovinj, but she and Ethan had been on holiday - never the best time to truly understand someone, in his experience.

"Just tell me."

"What?"

Julia's lips quirked. "Whatever it is you're thinking so loudly."

Will gave her a dubious look. "You can hear thoughts?"

"No, but it's pretty obvious you have something on your mind. I can almost feel how hard you're thinking about it."

Will silently cursed himself. He'd once spent ten minutes standing in a dark corner while three trigger-happy terrorists paced a ship deck not five feet from him and gone completely unnoticed - unsensed, even, thanks to years of training and practice. Was everything he knew doomed to failure when this woman was around?

At least this time, I'm not playing strategy games against Ethan Hunt. He hoped.

Beside him, Julia gave a sharp sigh. "Okay, I'll start. Why did you choose the term 'impossible mission' yesterday? Hyperbole? Or something else?"

That one was easy. "Something else."

"Thank God." Her words were barely more than a whisper. Then, "Is Ethan in danger? Am I?"

"No," Will said, then corrected himself, "Not that we know of."

"How did you know who I am?"

"That's a long story."

"We still have at least half an hour before we get to the bed and breakfast."

"True enough." But just what should he tell her? He couldn't tell her everything. Will took a sip of coffee from the cup he'd brought while he ordered his thoughts. "I was there when you and Ethan were in Croatia."

"You were?" She sounded surprised. "But -"

"But things went wrong, and you died, and the day they found your body was my last day in the field."

Julia studied him for a long moment. "But you're back in the field now," she observed. "What happened?"

"Ethan."

"Ethan?"

"Ethan. I can't tell you the details, but I ended up helping him and his team on a mission - back in the field despite myself." Will still couldn't believe that particular mission had ended successfully. He chalked it up to dumb luck plus a combination of Ethan's hunches and his own planning skills. He and Ethan complemented each other that way. "After that, he asked me to join his team full time. I told him I didn't think he wanted me on his team, and told him about Croatia. That's when he told me you were still alive."

Julia was silent when he finished, and Will glanced at her. She appeared to be absorbing what he'd said, and Will understood, at least partly, why Ethan had fallen for her. She didn't react with extreme emotion, but instead an openness and consideration that boded well for her understanding of a difficult situation.

"You're still working with Ethan?"

Where was that question leading? "Yes."

"So he knows that I'm getting - about Martin?"

"Yes." Then, because he knew what her next question would be, Will said, "He asked if you're happy."

"Not as happy as I would be with him."

Will was still trying to decide what to say to that when Julia spoke again. "Are you going to be able to pretend to be a wedding planner? No offense, but - well, most guys don't get into it the way girls do."

The question made him laugh. "I wasn't expecting that kind of question."

Julia smiled. "We're almost at the bed and breakfast - assuming you're playing the charade out."

"Absolutely. Made the appointment and everything. If anyone asks, you have to be able to give them your honest impressions of the place." Will took the turn off the highway that would lead them to the building. "But to answer your question, my little sister got married last year, and she dragged me around to everything - venue, caterer, photographer, the works."

"Sadistic sister?"

"Close. Really," he added to her skeptical expression. As close as they could be, when he had to lie about his job.

"If you say so. I still have … other … questions for you, but they can wait," Julia added as Will pulled into a parking space.

"I'll tell you what I can." And hope Ethan doesn't kill me when he finds out.

=X=

Two hours later, Julia had to admit that if she hadn't known Brandon Williams wasn't a wedding planner, she wouldn't have had a clue from his interactions with the owners of the bed and breakfast. He asked appropriate questions, got them talking, and didn't promise anything beyond, "We'll get back to you. We do have several other venues to look at."

Then he suggested that they have a picnic lunch on the grounds. "I have a cooler with sandwich stuff in the back of the car."

Julia couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the suggestion. "Trying to be romantic?"

"Trying not to be overheard while we talk."

Julia didn't understand why he'd prefer to talk over lunch than in the car, as they had on the drive here, but said only, "What can I carry?"

Minutes later, they were sitting in the shade of a tree, assembling sandwiches. Well, she was assembling a sandwich. Brandon - if that was his real name, which Julia wasn't willing to bet on - paced the small clearing, scanning the horizon in all directions.

"Safe enough," he concluded eventually, sitting so that he could see the bed and breakfast. "We weren't followed here, and I don't see any signs that we're under observation."

"You said that I'm not in danger?"

"That we know of," he corrected.

"Then why are you here? What's going on?" Instinctively, she offered him the sandwich that she'd made, so that he could maintain his alertness rather than be distracted by making one himself.

"Thanks." He took a bite of the sandwich rather than answer her question, and Julia willed herself to patience, focused on making a sandwich for herself. If Brandon were much like Ethan, pressuring him would do no good, and might even convince him not to say anything.

"Bryce has been working with the government on certain projects," he said finally. "Somehow, word of one of his deliveries got out. The delivery convoy was attacked en route, and the product stolen."

"And you're trying to find out where the leak is and stop it," Julia guessed.

"In a nutshell."

It was her turn to take a bite of her sandwich while she thought. Not that it took her long to reach a conclusion. "How can I help?"

"Excuse me?"

Julia tried to hide her smile, failed. "Why else would you tell me you're here, if you didn't want my help?"

"Because I won't fail you again."

Julia felt her eyes widen. "Fail me? I don't understand."

"In Croatia, we got word that someone was planning something - an actual threat, not just the alert we'd been on." Brandon seemed to be choosing his words with care, Julia thought. "And I couldn't shake the feeling that I should warn you, get word to you or Ethan, somehow. But I didn't. Orders were orders, right? And then -"

"Then I was taken," Julia finished for him. She remembered the rest of his earlier story, how that failure had made him leave the field.

"When he told me you were still alive, I promised Ethan I had his back, that I would help him keep you safe." Now, finally, he focused solely on her. "I also promised myself that I wouldn't make the same mistake again, that I'd trust my gut and do what it told me, orders be damned."

Julia swallowed, suddenly uncomfortable at the intensity of his expression. It was the same intensity she'd seen in Ethan while they were in China, just before she'd killed him to save his life. Of course it is, the rational part of her mind told her. They're alike in a lot of ways.

She forced herself to meet his gaze. "You said you have no threat against me or Ethan."

"We don't," he conceded. "But I have the same feeling that I had in Croatia. You need to know."

"All right." Julia couldn't argue with that, not after what he'd told her. But she couldn't just sit back and watch him and his team handle a problem that might involve her fiancée, even herself, either. "So I ask again, how can I help?"

Brandon shook his head and started to speak, but she spoke first. "I know, I know, you don't want my help. But now that I know there's a problem, I can't just sit on the sidelines. And I have access to Martin that nobody else does. Tell me what I need to watch for, and I will."

He regarded her silently for long moments, and Julia met his gaze without wavering, though she wondered at her own insistence. For those few months between China and Croatia, she'd done her best to allow Ethan the freedom, both physical and emotional, he needed to do his job. She'd never asked about his work, had tried not to hover when he came home injured, hadn't clung when he'd had to leave. So why was she now offering to help this man who wasn't Ethan, whom she barely knew, in ways she'd never even thought to help Ethan?

One answer came easily: Because this time, I'm personally affected.

But was that the only answer? She didn't know, and she wasn't certain she wanted to know. Still, the offer was made, and she wouldn't take it back.

After some silent time, Brandon blew out a sharp breath. "We don't know whether Bryce is involved. There may not be anything for you to find, even if you looked. Looking could be dangerous if he is personally involved."

"Let me put it another way. How would you stop me from doing it anyway?"

He smiled slightly. "You're almost as stubborn as Ethan."

"More."

"Maybe," was all Brandon would allow before he took another bite of his sandwich. He chewed and swallowed, then set the sandwich aside. "If you're going to do this, you'll have to wear a tracking device. Just in case. Is there a piece of jewelry you never take off?"

Julia simply extended her left hand to him. The diamond on her third finger glittered in the afternoon sun.

Brandon took her hand and slipped the ring off her finger to examine it. "I can fit a device under the setting."

"That's awfully small."

"But effective. I don't have one with me. Please don't do anything that might rouse anyone's suspicions until the device is installed."

"You haven't told me what I'm looking for." Julia took the ring back from him and settled its weight back on her finger.

"And I won't until you're wearing a tracking device."

"You're pretty stubborn yourself."

"Have to be, in this line of work. Only we call it determined." He wrapped the remains of their lunch and returned them to the cooler. "What time are you available tomorrow?"

"Not until noon, at least."

"Then I'll be there at one. You can say we're going to look at dresses."

"And you'll tell me what I need to be looking for?" Julia pressed.

"I will." Though he didn't look happy about it at all. Then his expression cleared. "There is one thing you can help with."

"What?"

"We're very thorough in what we do."

He looked at her, and Julia felt that he expected some kind of response. She swallowed and said, "Of course. You have to be."

"One part of my assignment is to get a listening device into Bryce's home office."

Julia's instinct was to protest the invasion of privacy, the assumptions behind such an action, but she clamped her mouth tight before she spoke.

Ethan used to do this - still does this, she reminded herself. Would he, if he didn't have a good reason? And you don't know that Martin's innocent.

Where did that statement come from? Julia thought back over the months she'd been with Martin, the nagging feeling that he hadn't told her everything about what he did.

Of course not, she responded automatically. Nobody ever knows everything about anyone else, even after a lifetime together, and we've only been together a few months.

Still, the truth that she couldn't assume Martin's innocence would not be denied. She let out a breath, and made herself ask, "Do you want me to do it?"

"Just get me into his office, and I'll do it. A tour of the house?"

She smiled. "So you can get a feel for the styles we like, after the bed and breakfast you suggested wasn't a good match."

Brandon blinked. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing," Julia assured him. "It fits me perfectly. But Martin … Martin likes things a certain way, even if he did tell me I could have whatever I want."

Was that because he truly wanted to indulge her, Julia wondered suddenly, or because he didn't care enough to have an opinion?

The question lingered while they returned to Brandon's car and then to Martin's mansion and through the tour. She suspected it would linger long after she saw Brandon to the door when the tour ended.

=X=

Ethan Hunt wasn't the only crazy-ass son of a bitch in the IMF, Will decided as he pulled away from Bryce's mansion. What was he thinking, dragging Julia into the mission?

You're not dragging her. She's butting in, the rational part of Will's mind reminded him. But he was letting her, even when he knew he shouldn't, and that was the one thing he couldn't analyze, no matter how many times he turned the question over, nor how many angles he considered.

Still, she'd taken him through the ground floor of the house, talking about its history as though she'd lived there all of her life, not missing a beat when he'd slipped the bug in place, which made Will wonder just how much time Martin Bryce had spent talking about it. Julia didn't seem the type to care much about such things, though Will had only known her a few days. Hours, really.

Will turned from the mansion's driveway back onto the street. By now, Benji's spyware should've provided the rest of the team with something - some piece of data, some scrap of email or recorded conversation - to follow up on. He'd be glad to leave this part of the mission behind and take a more direct role.

Movement in the rear-view mirror caught his eye, and Will focused on the reflection of the car that had pulled away from the pavement behind him. It was just like any other car, he thought, except something about the driver made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

The driver's face was mostly covered, thanks to sunglasses and shadows, but still Will thought he - and how was he certain the driver was a he? - looked familiar.

For the next five blocks, Will watched the driver behind him almost as much as he watched the road in front of him. Then the driver took a left turn, and for the briefest of moments, sunlight illuminated the driver, and Will scowled.

What the hell was Ethan doing parked outside Bryce's mansion?