A/N: Thank you for staying with me all this time! The story has come to an end… I really hope this doesn't disappoint you…

And no, I don't own them.

Chapter 19

"It had to be someone from the IMF," Brandt stated as soon as the three agents had made themselves comfortable in Jane's living room. Of the three of them she lived the closest to their favourite bar, and the recent event clearly needed a more private discussion.

"But it wasn't," Ethan argued. "Besides, we are not the only people who can do things like that. Remember Stevenson?"

"Stevenson was killed by Lovett, who had everything the IMF had to offer at his disposal," Jane reasoned. "The moment Stevenson Broke Benji out all the needed treatment was being prepared for him".

"True," Ethan agreed reluctantly. "But Humphries had Lovett at his disposal, meaning he could have had access to everything within Lovett's reach. And we can't say for sure whether he used that power or not. For all we know, the entire contents of the IMF's laboratories can be in his 'partners'' hands now".

"Yeah…" Jane sighed. The mere thought about the IMF being so exposed made her feel unnaturally vulnerable, as if someone had been breaking into her house and watching her in everyday life without her realising for months.

"Come on, Lovett wasn't that stupid!" Brandt threw his arms in the air, exasperated.

"But Luther hacked the databases," Ethan reminded him. "None of our agents had received the job".

There was an uneasy silence, as the three agents stared blankly into the empty space in front of them, not daring to say a word.

"Unless…" Jane's voice made her teammates jump. Both Ethan and Brandt had a feeling they knew what she was going to say next but weren't sure they wanted to hear it. She cleared her throat before moving on. "Unless it does have something to do with the IMF… but the person who did it is not in our databases…"

Ethan nodded silently.

"It had to be someone prepared," Brandt added without any expression whatsoever. "Someone who knew what to do and how to do it. Maybe a former agent…"

Ethan nodded again. He didn't like to think about it, even though this thought had occurred to him during his phone conversation with Luther a couple of hours before.

"A disavowed agent," Jane's voice was dull and monotonous, "who's had nothing to do with the IMF in a long while so wouldn't raise any suspicions or lead anyone to its trace".

"And who had been involved with this case more than any of us," Brandt concluded, shivers running down his spine.

Ethan let out a deep breath. He still wanted to believe the other option but didn't say anything. No names were called in that conversation and no statements were made for sure.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Time passed. Days, weeks. Months even. Soon there was a new mission. Their first mission as a team without Benji. But not the first celebration of its completion without him.

"Any news from Benji?" why the hell did Brandt keep asking that? It had been a year. That question seemed to have become some sort of a traditional greeting. He would ask it, Jane and Ethan would shake their heads and they would go on talking about random current things, never coming back to the matters of their friend's disappearance.

"Will you stop asking that?" Jane growled this time, having grown tired of this. "If there was anything from him, we would have told you that very instance," she fell silent for a few seconds. "He could have at least told us whether he's okay…" she suddenly added, feeling a lump in her throat. She knew she sounded like a mother of a teenage kid who had left home and never came back. But she was worried, and she knew Brandt and Ethan were, too. She kept telling herself that Benji was a grown man and could take care of himself. However, she also knew he was a troubled man. Back when they had left him he hadn't been completely in control of his emotions, still haunted by nightmares and flashbacks. Maybe they shouldn't have let him go alone.

The agents never got back to their conversation about Humphries' death. Had it really been Benji, he could have been back by that point. Now they had no idea if he was even alive.

"Still…" Brandt put his elbow on the table and supported his chin with his hand. "If these mobs had access to our labs, we would have found out about it by now".

The other two nodded, unable to disagree that there was a point there. Silence fell upon them, as it had often done these days. They just sat, each of them in deep thought, somehow knowing that the other two were thinking something similar to their own thoughts. It felt like they didn't need to actually say anything to be in this odd conversation.

"Can I take this chair please?" a voice broke them all out of their trance. They all looked up simultaneously and stared at the man who was now standing by their table, his hands resting on the back of an empty chair. The man had long-ish black hair and his chin was covered in slight stubble. A wide grin was decorating his face, and it kept growing wider the longer the agents stared at him.

"So…?" he asked, since the three people around the table remained silent.

"Benji?" Brandt croaked, his throat feeling all sore all of a sudden.

"Where have you been?" Jane's voice was reduced to whisper. Her eyes stung but she didn't let the tears fall.

Ethan just smiled as his gaze met the Brit's.

"Visiting an old friend in England," Benji replied, sitting down after having shaken Ethan and Brandt's hands. Jane was still drilling holes in his head with her glare.

"What's with this look?" there were a lot of things Brandt wanted to ask and this was hardly the most important one but it escaped his mouth before he could put any thought into it.

"I had to look… different," Benji's smile faded for a tiny bit, a shadow crossing his face for a second, but it was gone very fast. "Just… felt like I needed to".

"So you were visiting a friend?" Ethan asked in the most casual tone possible.

"Yeah, he lives in the country, in Gloucestershire," Benji replied, looking away.

"A whole year in the country?" Brandt asked carefully. "Isn't that a bit… boring for you?"

In his head Brandt had a slightly different question, but he just didn't know how to ask it. Isn't a year a bit too long for just a visit of a friend?

"I really needed this," Benji looked down, avoiding meeting his friends' eyes with his gaze. "So what's new here?"

"Humphries is dead," Jane spoke up finally, feeling a huge boulder being lifted from her shoulders. Benji was there, with them. And, most importantly, he was alright. Despite all the things they were now trying to figure out.

"I know," Benji swallowed and looked away again. It was clear that this conversation was making him feel uncomfortable. But that didn't prove anything because it was absolutely understandable for him to feel that way regardless of whether he had anything to do with Humphries' death or not.

"So what are you going to do now?" Ethan suddenly asked, changing the subject in an a bit too obvious manner. "Are you going to going to come back to…" he lowered his voice, "… to your old job?"

Benji smiled, finally looking up at his friends again.

"If you guys want to take me back," he grinned again. "I have already talked to the Secretary".

The smile they hadn't seen in over a year was way too contagious for them to not join in. And despite the question was still bugging the three agents, they felt like asking it wouldn't change anything. Some things are better when they remain secret.

The End