Lily sipped at the warm coffee, letting the slightly bitter taste wash over her tongue. She put it back down and delicately stirred another spoonful of sugar into the liquid. She liked her coffee almost like black syrup. As she gave it another sip, she looked across the table to her colleague, who was stirring her own plain black coffee and staring straight back to her. The older woman's dark, arched eyebrows were drawn together above her piercing gaze. She seemed to be searching for something in Lily's face, and her eyes kept flicking down to the left hand that was carefully hidden beneath the table. Lily was quite familiar with those quick green eyes, although she loved them best on another person.

Lily gently cleared her throat. "You were right, Miss Macleod. This place makes a swell cup of coffee." Kates snapped out of some well of deep thought, quickly recovering with a smile. "Oh, yes. And if you're at all hungry, may I suggest their streudel?" Lily smiled and nodded, giving a cursory glance over the menu before shrugging. "I had a nice breakfast already, actually. Got up early and made some apple blintzes. My cook just doesn't seem to know how to make them right, you know?"

Kates gave her a smile and brief nod. "Oh, yes, I know exactly."  Lily sipped her coffee again. She probably didn't know and was just being polite. Kates had never come across to her as the domestic type. Lily gave an internal shrug and slipped the menu back into its holder. As Kates began to speak, Lily perked her attention back to the older woman with a replenished smile.

Kates reclined in the cafe's chair and willed the late morning sun to dim. Back when she was Lily's age she'd have already shaken off yesterday's bottle of whiskey. It still didn't impair her efficiency- if anything, Kates soaked in alcohol only sharpened the blade. But it was getting more and more difficult to shake off the aftereffects when she wasn't focused. Blinking her emerald eyes twice in rapid succession, she clenched and relaxed her mind as she'd been trained, shutting out the outside world for a few seconds. When her eyes opened again, the world was once again keenly perceived by the formidable intellect, with any weaknesses or discomfort buried well underneath. There was, after all, business to be done. But as she began to speak, her eyes narrowed.

A man walked by to the right of Kates with his hands in his pocket, slowly turning towards Lily as he passed by her. The younger woman was shocked to hear the sharp metallic sound from the table where Kates rested her hands, as her old blade mechanically shot forward from beneath her wrist and locked into place six inches from the man's stomach, hidden deftly beneath a napkin. But he was just a waiter, and he soon exited the area. Kates quickly released the blade from its locked position as it snapped back into place under her wrist. She coughed as the younger woman stared at her with bug eyes.

"Well... can't be too careful. You should hear the story about how I got THAT little toy. Had to throw a guy off a building because I didn't have my gun..."

Lily was still staring, now with even wider eyes.

Kates sipped her coffee calmly.

"You know, I always thought that a boy was supposed to go off and fall in love with a girl like his mother. But it strikes me that we're quite different. Not that that's a criticism, of course."

"Well...Perhaps not so different." Lily gave her a slightly cryptic smile, stirring more sugar into her fresh coffee as a flurry took over her memory: shooting a sweaty policeman off of her, shoving bloodstained corpses into lakes, greasy hands reaching out to grab her, the surprised look on a man's face when his date became his doom. Lily nervously laughed the seedy memories away. This wasn't the place to get lost in those kind of remembrances.

The redhead flashed another smile to Kates before glancing quickly around the room. The café had been veritably packed when they entered, and although many of the patrons had since trickled out, there were still only a few unoccupied tables. Having been a people-watcher for many a year, Lily watched the faces of several of the patrons briefly. There was a woman talking in a low, fast voice to a man much older than she...probably her father. There were two men talking furtively together, a mother trying to get her toddler to behave, and a couple of raucous soldiers off in a corner. Lily's smile stretched more genuinely around her face. She turned back to Kates.

"I mean, we may appear to be different in a number of ways...but really I think we share a rather...straightforward way of thinking. Determination, sort of thing. Confidence, maybe."

Kates raised the coffee cup to her lips to hide her smile.

Touche, Miss Evans. Although it's not all we share. How is Jack doing with this new operation you're running? I've been hearing quite a lot about you and him. A mother, especially one in my position, has her sources.

Lily tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a small, proud glitter in her eye.

"Oh, he's been doing just great! I must thank you once more for letting me borrow him.  It's really allowing me to work on getting a nice rapport with my members right now, you know?  Get to know them, their strengths, build us into a cohesive family unit."

Kates gave her a slightly taut smile and nodded.  When she had asked how the two were doing, she wasn't talking only about their professional relationship.  And Lily knew it too well.  Kates had not yet been enlightened of the fact that Lily and Jack were engaged to be wed.  Not that they didn't intend to tell her.  On the contrary, they'd been trying to tell her for the last couple weeks, but the opportunity had just never presented itself--the busy schedules of the three never intersected at a good time.  And in the meantime, the gossip mill seemed to be churning into Kates' s ears, and she was getting suspicious.  After a short, subtle staredown between the two women, Lily cracked slightly.

"And...well, we're getting along just great, too.  You know, on all fronts.  It's...really been better than ever between us.  We get to see each other all day, you know?  I thought for a bit that we might start getting on each others' nerves that way, but it's been surprisingly smooth."  A tender smile crept up the younger woman's face, entering her eyes with the sparkle of a girl in love.  Very faintly behind that, though, the practical businesswoman in Lily saw an opportunity and asserted it.  "You, uh, you should really drop by the HQ sometime while we're both there.  It would...you know, be nice to have you...well, really all three of us together at the same time.  We could tell you...more."

Lily quickly buried her nose in her cup of coffee, trying not to look furtive.  She didn't succeed, but at least she probably looked better than that redheaded guy she had dated when she was fifteen.  What was his name?  Rolland?  No, Ronald.  Ronald O'Connell.  When Lily first heard it, she had been amused by the slanted rhyme in his name.  People called him "Shy Ronnie" all the time, although he had been fairly vocal when he was alone with her.  Really, she wouldn't even be thinking of the guy, except that she could have sworn that she had seen him the other day, murmuring something to her as she walked down the street. 

The waiter returned to their table.  This time, he thankfully arrived from the opposite side, in full view of Kates--and therefore did not elicit a defensive gesture from the older woman.  Lily gave a short, nervous laugh and pulled her hand out from beneath the table to reach for the fresh cup of coffee he had set down.  She immediately froze.  It was her left hand that she had reached with, the one where the sparkling diamonds set in the shape of a lily glittered on her finger.  She gulped slightly, hoping Kates did not notice either the ring nor her hesitation as she pulled the coffee quickly toward her.

Kates sipped on her coffee and hoped, desperately, that Lily wasn't yet good enough at reading her face to detect the minute shift that had just occurred. You'd have to be blind or a moron to miss that diamond, and Kates was neither. While the outward signs were minimal- a slight twitch of the forehead, a flash in the eyes, and a mouth that hung slightly ajar for half a second, the turmoil within her was nearly overpowering. Conflicting emotions whirled and accelerated and crashed into each like, like gusts of wind fueled by the fire in her heart.

Jack. She was losing him. Forever.

But Lily was so talented, had so much potential. He could hardly hope to do better if he waited his whole life.

Why didn't they tell me?

And then the glass window facing the street exploded, sending shards of glass flying through the cafe. Kates reacted with decades of combat experience, grabbing Lily and dragging her to the ground under the table and crawling behind the metal counter. Out of sight, her gun was in her hand within a heartbeat and Lily's soon followed. A smattering of Russian ground Kates teeth together as she quickly popped her head over the counter, immediately ducking back down as bullets slammed into the wall behind her.

"Four or five of them. Tommys and pistols."

Lily briefly felt sorry for the other people in the café, wondering if they were okay. Very briefly. She was a little busy with the problem at hand. She gave a rare curse beneath her breath and raised her gun up toward the shattered window, firing at a bit of flesh peeking just above it. There was a cry of pain, followed by another volley of shots. Lily began to crawl toward a nearby table that had another window next to it. She glanced back, caught Kates's eye, and motioned toward a similar window on the opposite side. As she approached the table, the people crouching beneath it widened their eyes and scurried off to find other shelter. Lily flipped the table over, using it as cover as she peered through the window to investigate the shooters' positions.

McKnighter kicked the wooden table over on it's side for some protection as TBK fell to the ground and hid behind it. McKnighter quickly takes his Colt .45 out of his coat pocket and observes who's still alive in the cafe. An older woman and one with more youth were hiding under the table. One had a gun. He looks up more to see several figures, then flashing appeared again and he dropped down fast as more bullets flew into the coffee shop. TBK was complaining that there was always bad guys with guns shooting everywhere McKnighter went, but he ignored her. Right now he was focus on getting her and himself out of there. He perks his ears up, and catches a few words of the hated language. Russian.

There was too many for himself to take them all on, not at this age. Took a lot of energy to flip that table, he's breathing hard already, he needs help.

"Hey, you ladies over there, it seems we're in the same boat. I counted about 4 flashes, they had one car. More might be on their way, I don't know, but what I do know is that we can't stay here much longer. How 'bout we figure out how to take these guys down?"

TBK watched as the two women tried to shout something over to them, but another round of bullets made it impossible to hear them. This was getting worse and TBK was not a brave soul. Luckily she had a brave man next to her shouting orders into her ear.

"TBK duck your head! You're going to be blown to bits!" He screamed as he ducked. The shooting stopped for a second and it seemed like it was over when a car pulled away making horrible screeching noises. TBK gave a breath of relief and Mcknighter peeked over the table for a few moments before giving her a worried glance. Something was still up. She watched as a waiter ran pasted them into the kitchen door and then to her surprise back out again. She was puzzled but Mcknighter and the women seemed to be aware that something was about to happen in the kitchen.

She opened her mouth as she began to ask what was going on when Mck jumped on top of her and the kitchen door opened. Four Russians came blazing out, and covered by more gunfire from the front, shooting point blank at Mcknighter.