There were so many decisions that needed to be made. But there was so little time.

Especially since this was the hardest thing he had ever asked Nikita to do.

"No, no, no. I'm not listening to any more of this."

"Do you trust me?" Michael demanded.

"What a bloody stupid thing to say," Nikita snapped back, but the telltale sheen of tears in her eyes told him that she knew exactly what was at stake.

"We have to leave, doucette. We have to. As soon as possible."

"Just like that? Leave everything we've worked for behind? Like it doesn't matter?"

"It *does* matter, Kita. And it's precisely because it does…that we have to move on."

"You couldn't have thought this through, Michael—"

"I haven't thought about anything else since Carlos left," Michael retorted. "We have to split up."

"You're asking me to give up my children," Nikita whispered.

"They're *our* children, doucette, and I know how much this hurts—"

"Stop," she wept.

Michael's own eyes glistened, but he forced himself to think like an operative, not a father, and he wasn't surprised at how painful that was.

"Small groups. No larger than four. Someone we trust…implicitly…leading each one." Michael tore himself away from his wife's conflicted gaze with a visible wrench.

"You make us sound like a bunch of terrorist cells," Nikita scoffed.

"Something like that," Michael nodded. He reached out to clasp his wife's hand, but she pulled it from his grasp with a hiss.

"It's the only way we can survive, Kita. I wouldn't ask you otherwise."

"I know. But that doesn't make me hate you any less right now."

Breaking the news to the extended family he had come to cherish was even harder. But he wasn't disappointed in any of them.

"I'll take Nick," Adam asserted, briefly wondering why assuming the mantle of control felt right.

"Of course," Michael agreed. "You can take two more with you."

Adam glanced around the living room at all the people he considered more family than friends. He was about to speak when Sasha stood up and came forward. "I'll go with you. But only if Skye comes."

Adam looked at his father, and Michael nodded. This, then, was the way it was going to be. Michael knew he held the ultimate power, but he wanted to give each of them the consideration they were due.

Chris cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'm not going anywhere without Em." Then he crossed his arms across his chest and stared defiantly at his father, as if daring him to contradict him.

"Or me," Faith declared, setting her lower lip mutinously. "That means Connor has to be in our group."

Michael almost smiled at the way his children rose to the occasion. If they hadn't been facing the most difficult challenge of their lives, he would have.

"Very well."

Declan tucked his gun in the small of his back and pretended that stripping his kids away from him hadn't hurt one bit. "Jamie and Pete are coming with us," he said finally, the huskiness of his voice giving him away. Sey looked so tortured for a moment that Michael was forced to ask, "Are you going to be okay with this?"

Sey shook his head and studied the ground for several seconds before saying, "I don't think any of us are okay with this, Michael, but I know…this is the only way."

Michael sighed, the only outward sign that this wasn't just another mission to him. "Dav?"

Davenport pulled at his chin and struggled not to look as desolate as his wife at the prospect of turning over the twins to someone else. "Neil and Ned will be with us. That leaves…"

"Walter?"

"Oh, sure, now you remember who I am," Walter said gruffly. "Last but not least, huh?"

"Walter," Michael said softly. "You and Honey have the most important job of all. Taking care of…our little ones."

"I get to go with Gran'pa? Yay!" Luc exclaimed. Michael couldn't look at Nikita. He knew what he would find there. Utter heartbreak.

"And Kady. You'll be with Kady and the twins," Michael assured his youngest child.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Walter's wife Honey snorted.

Michael edged closer to the older man and whispered, "Are you sure you're up to this, Walter?"

"You ain't asking anybody else to take these kids and you know it, Michael," Walter said fiercely.

Now Michael knew he was making the right decision. But that didn't make it hurt any less.

Parceling out his children and friends like so many packages was beyond his comprehension. Emotionally. But the analytical part of him, the part he thought long buried and forgotten, rose up and took over without so much as a backward glance.

"We'll be going dark in one half hour. That means absolutely no contact with each other—"

"Till when?" Faith asked.

"Till never, what do you think?" her twin brother growled.

"You'll be given a code to use in an emergency—"

"Wow, just like a real secret agent." Faith said sarcastically.

"Fee…"

"Yes, Connor?"

"Shut up."

Chris raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. However, his admiring glance in Connor's direction told Michael what he most needed to believe.

They would be all right. Without him.

"Four. You said *four*, Michael," Nikita erupted. "Why does Dad get *six*? Why can't Luc come with us?"

Michael blinked at the suddenness of her attack, gearing himself up for yet another argument that they didn't have time for, when Chris stepped between them.

"Mom," Chris said, his tone so like his father's that Nikita was momentarily startled. "You and Dad are the experts. That goes without saying. But you're a little close to the situation to see what the rest of us do."

"Which is?" Nikita inquired archly, evidently more than perturbed by having her son lecture *her* about being professional.

"You and Dad have to be able to move at a moment's notice. We're depending on you to protect us. That's what you do. That's what you're good at."

Chris stopped for a second, almost breathless with the idea that he was actually challenging his mother on something that he basically knew nothing about.

"And?" Nikita's voice had softened. Clearly Chris had inherited his father's persuasiveness.

"You can't do that with a little kid—"

"I am *not* little!" Luc interjected.

"Sorry, kiddo," Chris apologized. "But you are," he added, bracing for one of Luc's temper tantrums.

"The fact is, Mom," Chris continued before Luc could interrupt again, "Luc's diabetic. He needs to be someplace safe. Besides, you can't do what you have to do if you're worried about him."

Nikita nodded thoughtfully at her son. "You're right," she admitted.

"Anyway…" Chris' voice drifted off as if he had suddenly become shy.

Which, of course, drew everyone else's rapt attention.

"Yes?"

"Em and I were thinking…"

Chris hesitated, but no one, least of all his mother, broke in. "Luc's my brother. We think he should be with us—"

"Chris—"

"Before you say no, listen. Em and I are practically married. We can pass him off as our kid."

Nikita frowned. "I dunno if I should applaud your creativity or wonder how the hell you came up with that."

"It's up to you, Kita. But we're running out of time."

Nikita turned to her adoptive father who seemed content to sit back and observe for once. "Dad?"

"He's *your* son, Sugar."

Nikita knelt down in front of Luc and framed his face with both hands. "Well, Luc?"

Luc swung his head around and looked up at his older brother. "Do you promise not to laugh if I get scared?" he asked in a small voice that reminded all of them just how young he really was.

"Absolutely," Chris vowed.

"Okay." Luc looked back at the other children before returning his gaze to his brother. "But what about Kady?"

Faith's mouth took on a determined line. "We'll take her. I've always wanted a little sister."

Connor snorted. "You're already got one, Fee."

"Well, another one, then."

"Kady's *my* sister, Fee."

Kady drew herself up to her relatively inconsequential height and studied her older brother. "I'll go," she said with almost grim resolve for such a little girl, "but I'm not pretending to be something I'm not."

Faith seemed nonplussed by the younger girl's absolute lack of gratitude, but Connor simply grinned. "Love me, love my family."

"Oh, all right," Faith said gracelessly, finally concluding that her badly concealed attempt to curry favor with Connor had backfired. Now she had traded off what little privacy they were likely to have…for nothing.

Kady sat down next to her brother with such an air of possession that Faith shuddered. "Hey, be nice to her," Connor whispered urgently.

"I will if she will," Faith retorted childishly.

"What do you think, K?" Connor asked.

"Daddy said…if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all," Kady recited with schoolgirl precision.

It was going to be a bumpy night.