The health club was nearly deserted as Tari sat at the juice bar sipping a tall glass of orange juice.The place was so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop. She found herself once again thinking of her freind Maggie. She had disapeared weeks ago.God only knew to where,or if she was alright,safe. It was times like this that made Tari miss her freind more than usual. They had spent maney a quiet evning here,sipping fruit juice and talking,nights when nither of them felt like going home to an emptie apt. yet as much as they enjoyed one anothers company,it was thier joyce to live the life of the loners that they did. Nither had had any intrest in relationships each with thier own reasons. Both for the most part enjoyed and relashed thier private lives. Emersing them sleves in thier work. It was this simalarity that seemed to draw the girls into thier close freindship. Tari missed her freind,she missed thier talks and discusions on life in general.Most of the time both having the same out look. It seemed latley more and more people were starting to disapear.Tari guessed they had left on thier own accord fearing the unknown. Jack from the aqarium hadn't been to work in two days. No one knew what had happened to him.Jim and Marla had gone to visit relatives weeks ago and there had been no word from them either.

Tari had recieved a call from her nephew only a few days after Mike had gone to visist him. The boy had been so excited with the gift his father had brought him he'd called his aunt to tell her about the *Real* visiter thing Mike gave him him that had come from the mothership. Sean had no idea what it was,nor did Mike for that matter.But it was a gift from his father,and it was an actual somthing from the visiters ship and that was all that mattered.The boy was overjoyed with it. Tari smiled to herself and made a mental note to visit Sean herself soon.

Finishing her drink Tari set the glass aside. "Want another?" Mac the helath clubs bartender asked.

"No thanks." She politly refused. "Why don't you finish up here and we'll call it a night."

"Sure thing Miss Donovan." Mac answered obligingly.

Tari returned to her office and retrieved her bag. Then after doing some picking up around the front area Tari fallowed Mac out the door and locked it behind them.

"Would you like me to walk you to your car Miss Donovan?" He asked concerned for her saftey.

Tari smiled."No thanks Mac. I'll be fine.It's not far,Just around the corner infact."

Mac gave her a nod. "Alright then,but becarful."

Tari smiled at his protectiveness. "Goodnight Mac."

Once home Tari absently turned on the TV then went to the bathroom and began to draw her bath for a nice long soak.

Half an hour later comfortably clad in her nightshirt and tericloth bathrob She sat infront of the telivision with a hot cub of tea to realx and watch the nightly news before turning in. What she herd on the news report though was anything but relaxing.

"Scientist conspericy!" she said alowed as she almost spilled her tea when she sat up so quickly.

Her eyes glued to the screen,Listening unbelivingly to the newscast. Tari set her cup on the coffie table in front of her.

She watched as Dr.Leopold Jankowski from the Brussels Biomedical Institute began his shocking statment.

"I have called this press confrence today to reviel a shocking discovery. There igsists in this world an organizatied conspiricy of some our best scientific minds. The aim of this concpeiricy is to harm, possibly distroy,the visitors."

Tari's concern automaticly began to center on Martin with that last stament.She hadnt seen him today at thier usual afternoon meeting spot in the park and it had worried her. She was concerned that somone might try to harm him,but she stayed fixed on the news cast becoming more freightened with each word Jankowski spoke.

"Others of my colleagues here in Belgium have also been approached".He continued. "Primarly those scientists of biomedical and Anthropaliogical studeis seemed to be involved. But we cannot be sure how far this contagion has spred."

Taris heart pounded,fear waved threw her as she listened and saw Jankowski sign some sort of stament about the events that had supposedly traspired.

The news cast had evedently taken place earlier in the day.What she was watching was the recap as a more recent telecast produced itself. Scores of other scientist from around the world had come forward saying they to had been appproached by representatives from the so call"conspiricy"

Tari nearly jumped out her of skin when the ringing of her telephone brought her from her shock at what she was hearing. She fumbled for the reciever as she reached the phone and picked it up.

"Hello"

"Tari!" Randolphs anxcious voice responded on the other end.

"Randolph,what is it?"

"Have you seen the news?" He asked.His tone still uneasey.

"Yes I was just watching.It's freightning."

"I want you to stay put,gather some things and I'll be right there to get you." He ordered.

"What?" Tari asked astonished. "Why?"

"Dont ask questions Tari,your in danger.We all are now." He told her agitaed.

"Randolph! We arn't in any danger. you herd the news cast.They are biomedical and anthropologist. We're Marien Biologists,we studie ocean life. Stop being so over dramatic."

"Tari Wake up!" Randolph growled . "This isnt the end of it, it's only the beginning. It's gonna get worse!Now lets get before they start to turn on us to!"

"Stop it! That's not going to happen,thats rediculous." Tari spat back.

"Nothings rediculous when it comes to those martiens.Now Damn it girl I'm on my way!"

"NO! Randolph! I'm not going anywhere,just calm down,it doesnt affect us." She tryed to rationalize with him.

"What the hell has that guy done to you girl?!" Randolph yelled across the reciever.

"Martin has nothing to do with it Randolph!" Tari spit angrily. "Your over reacting!"

She herd Randolph heave a heavy sigh."Fine! stay then."he grumbled. "You'll see, these spacemen arnt what they seem. I can feel it." He slammed the phone down.

Tari set her phone reciever back in it's cradel. Staiering at it,unbelieving of what she had herd from her assitant and freind. She she shook her head sarowful that Randolph felt as he did.But he was wrong. This was somthing to do with the scientists, not the visitors.They were the ones being targeted. He was just plane wrong. She hoped he would see this, and soon.

Calming herslef after a few moments Tari shut the telivision off. It was nothing to worrie about She told her self. Everything would be fine. People just could not accept beings from another planet. It was human nature to be suspicious.Scientist in particular would be overly curious. This was not going to affect her.

Maggie stood huddled in the darkened door way where Leary had ordered her to stay until they came back for her. Her hands clenching and unclenching as she waited nervously for Leary to return, for him to tell her everything would be okay. Waited for him to tell her that the government would take care of the Visitors, to make life go back to the way it had been before.

As the minutes slowly ticked by and Maggie still didn’t hear any sounds of anyone coming for her she felt her nervousness increase. To take her mind off her worries she thought of Leary, * Daniel * as he’d asked her to call him. Thinking of him caused her blood to heat as desire flowed through her veins.

Leary had not wanted to leave until they’d found the rest of their team. Each day he’d sent out, or gone out, on recon missions to see if they could find Curran and Graham. The others had decided the third member of the missing trio, Hawkins, was the one to have been killed. But even that didn’t make Leary stop searching, one of the motto’s the Seals lived by was never leaving a man behind, and Leary had been determined not to leave without his men. But as the days had gone by, and they’d found no sign Curran or Graham were even at the base, Maggie had wondered what they would do. Finally, after nearly two weeks, Leary had decided that they would head into their base camp and see if their superiors knew anything.

In a way, Maggie was glad, she hoped they would go and get help and life would return to normal. But in the deepest part of her heart, Maggie hoped things wouldn’t change, that she could still see Daniel everyday. Over the last week and a half, she’d spent hours with him as he’d trained her in how a knife. When she’d told them she was a sculpture he’d insisted she learn to use the knife as a defensive measure, incase they’d been discovered by the aliens. It was during this time that she’d learned the touch of his hands, the comfort of his smile, and the strength of his character as he’d spent hours going over and over the principles involved. He taught her the steps needed to use her knife, the care she must take for her weapon, along with the respect that she should have for it. But in that time they’d also talked, he’d told her of his life as a Seal, he’d talked of his skills as a medic, and he’d asked her about herself. Drawing her out of the shell and make her more comfortable in her surroundings.

It hadn’t been easy either, she thought as she waited for them to come for her. She’d had to not only adjust to sharing living space with four men, but she’d had to learn what it meant to be part of a team. Something Maggie had never really had to do before, her natural tendency being that of a loner. But she’d learned, she thought with a smile, and a large part of her success was the Seal’s patience and good humor. All of them, not just Daniel, had made her feel comfortable, even Dane, who to be truthful scared her more than the Visitors did.

Click, click, click.

The small clicking sound startle Maggie so much she almost screamed when she heard it. But something, fear more than anything else, locked her throat and prevented the tale-tale sound from escaping her. It didn’t prevent her hand from reaching for and grasping the knife strapped to her leg. Holding her breath she awaited the sound again. Nothing. Minutes, that had been dragging by, slowed to molasses as her body stood poised.

Click, click, click.

It came again, closer, louder. Maggie waited tensely in the dark. Silence descended once more.

Then where there had been a leisurely clicking sound, came the clatter as a group of Visitors came running past Maggie’s hiding place, heading toward the room where the Seals were.

Maggie held her breath as they past, sure one would turn and see her at any moment. But none of them stopped, and Maggie began breathing less rapidly as silence descended once more.

Her breathing began to increase, though, as she realized the small troop of Visitors meant there was something terribly wrong, and that the Seals were in trouble. Not only that, but it’d be up to Maggie to save them this time.

Slowly she crept down the hallway toward the room she’d seen the troopers enter. She could hear the sound of her breathing, she wondered why no one else did, it was so loud. She could feel the sweat on her skin, the slipperiness of the knife in her shaking hand. * CALM DOWN! Remember what Daniel taught you! * she admonished herself, * You have to do this! No one else can! * She lectured to herself as she got closer and closer. Finally, she was close enough she could see into the room, and what she saw made her blood turn cold.

For there surrounded by four troopers pointing their laser’s at them, were her Seals. Their hands were up behind their heads and all of them bore the marks of fighting. Maggie felt a frisson of anger when she saw the welt forming on Daniels’ cheek, the blood dripping from Dane’s lip, and both Rex and Ramos were sporting various bruises to there faces. She could also see that not only were their Visitor troops in the room, but three other men as well. All of them, except for the Seals, had their back to Maggie.

Maggie could hear one man start to say something to the other, when a fourth person revealed himself. He too was another Visitor, but from the brief glance she got of him, it was one she knew. CARL!

Her heart began beating so loudly it drowned out whatever they were saying. It was all she could do to breath as fear held her immobile. She tried to move, tried to think, but all she could do was feel his skin ripping under her hands, see the green flesh underneath, and then pain and darkness descending. It might have been Daniel catching her eye, sending a look of understanding to her, it might have been seeing the wounds on her friend’s faces. Hell it might even have been a surge of courage, but whatever it was it freed Maggie from the bonds of fear that chained her, letting her walk slowly toward the room as she realized that only a surprise attack from her would save them all.

Maggie suddenly appeared in the room, throwing herself at the nearest trooper’s back. She didn’t think as she shoved the knife into his back, feeling it slide through flesh and bone, as she heard the troopers final shout. As she pulled the knife out and she was jerked into a standing position and then thrown down again as the trooper who’d grabbed her was hit and laser shots came flying over her head. A minute or two later, she pushed herself up and realized that the trooper who’d fallen had saved her, for the Seals had reacted the minute she’d entered the room, grabbing weapons and using them with an efficiency that was deadly.

It had only been a few minutes since Maggie had entered the room, there wasn’t anyone standing except for the Seals, and Maggie who was slowly making her way up off the floor.

“What happened?” she asked as she stood.

“You saved our hides, is what.” Rex said, he and Ramos where searching the bodies to see what they could find. It was obvious there were no survivors.

It was at that moment that Maggie looked down and saw that she still carried the knife. In fact, her fingers were curled tightly around it. Both the knife and her hands were covered in blood. Seeing the blood and the body from which it came, Maggie felt her own blood rush from her head. She turned and tumbled as she began puking, unable to control her body's reaction to the carnage she'd created.

It took her several minutes before she was aware Leary was holding her, keeping her hair out of her face as she lost the contents of her stomach. He didn’t say anything, just held her. Several minutes went by and then he helped her to stand.

“You okay now?” Daniel asked, pushing her hair out of her face.

“Yeah, but I need . . . Can we just get out of here please?” She asked refusing to look at anyone or anything but him.

He looked around the room and seeing that there was really nothing to be gained in it, nodded and started leading them out the door. They left the building the same way they’d entered, quietly and with stealth. Several times passing groups of Visitors obviously hurrying to the room they’d just left.

“Okay so what do we do now?” Rex asked after they’d finally made it outside, “You heard General Caterson said, we were the last of the ‘conspiritors’.”

Dane just snorted as he took point and began leading them in a zigzag fashion down a series of small alleys. Daniel just shook his head and motioned for them all to be quiet.

***** a few hours later ****

The men had scattered, as was there routine, leaving Maggie alone with Daniel. The two of them sat near the fire Ramos had built. Maggie slowly sipping water from the canister Rex had found for her, while Daniel just stared into the flames. Her heart ached as she saw the look of defeat, sadness, and just maybe despair, on his face. Not knowing what else to do, she got up and sat down beside him, taking his big hand in her’s.

“It’s not your fault you know?” She whispered, as if to talk of it would bring shame, “None of us could have known.”

He looked at the flames for several more minutes before he turned to look at her, letting her see the rage that burned brighter than all the other emotions she’d sensed. “I’m not mad because I didn’t know. I’m mad because I nearly got you killed. Hell it took you to save us.” He said with a hint of disgust as his hand slipped from her’s reaching up to gently smooth away a lock of hair that tumbled on the side of her face. Then his hand smoothed up and down her cheek, gently and caressingly.

“Daniel, that doesn’t matter. Besides you saved me many, many times. And ultimately it was your training, your belief in me that saved us. Not me.” Maggie replied as she reached up and cupped his hands to her cheek, eyes closing as she savored his touch on her skin.

“You are so wrong Maggie, and you don’t even know why.” As he whispered this she opened her eyes, seeing he’d moved his head down to hers their lips nearly touching. Without thinking about it, Maggie moved her head the few inches that separated them and kissed Daniel as she’d longed to do from the moment they’d met.

The kiss was soft, sweet, lingering, all the things Maggie’d dreamed a kiss should be. His lips didn’t plunder, they stroked. Her lips sipped at his, savoring the taste of him. His hands never left her face, their bodies got no closer but Maggie knew they’d made a promise with this kiss. What kind of promise and where it would lead them she didn’t know, but it was a start and it filled her heart with joy.

Several minutes later they broke apart as they heard the sound of one of the Seals returning. Neither of them said anything, but looking in his eyes, Maggie saw the same joy that she knew shined from hers.

“Ok, so what’s the plan now?” Ramos asked as he set across from them, if he’d noticed how close they set, or sensed the tension between them he didn’t mention it.

“Yeah, boss. What’s the plan?” Dane seconded, he appeared out of the darkness that was descending on the small camp, with Rex behind him.

“Well we need to get help, first of all. We’ve got to let the world know what these Visitors really are and that they are up to know good, secondly. And finally, we have got to get some decent food.” He finished up jokingly, trying to restore their flagging spirits.

It worked a little, Maggie thought as she and the others laughed at him, I see even Dane’s smiling.

“Okay wise guy,” Rex said with a smile “how are we suppose to let someone know? And what help? I thought that was what our ‘bosses’ were for?”

“Well we thought wrong, didn’t we?” Ramos replied before Daniel could. “So once more, what’s the plan?”

“Umm, excuse me,” Maggie interrupted timidly, “I think I might know someone who could help.”

Four sets of eyes looked at her in expectation.

“Who?” Dane asked.

“Well my friend Tari, the one who manages the health club I work at. Well her brother’s Mike Donavan, he’s TV journalist or something like that. Maybe he can help?”

“How Maggie?” Daniel asked, not with scorn but with genuine curiosity Maggie noted.

“Well I think I could convince him that these Visitors aren’t what they seem, he’s a good friend and I think he’d really listen to me.”

“How good?” She thought she heard one of the other’s say, but Daniel spoke before she could be sure.

“You think?”

“Yes. But I have to get to Tari first, if she’s still at the club that is.” Maggie finished with more than a touch of concern in her voice.

“Okay, well it can’t hurt to try. And besides what else can we do?” Daniel asked, as he looked at each of his remaining teammates. The other three looked at each other, then at both Maggie and Daniel, and said as one, “Okay.”

Maggie smiled gently as she realized that she’d somehow become ‘one of the team.’ And a part of her started getting excited as she realized she’d be reunited with Tari once more.