"She wasn't supposed to know."

He's angry, she'd anticipated he would be, but she isn't afraid. The quiet, barely contained rage rolling beneath the surface would terrify most people. Jack Bristow angry is a fearsome thing but Lauren is not afraid. She respects his anger but she does not fear it.

Fear, she has found, is a useless emotion which encumbers and inhibits. She has no time, or use, for fear.

"She would have found out anyway." Lauren reminds calmly. "It's folly to think she would not. Better now, in the midst of a maelstrom when the impact will be minimal than later, Time is an enemy to secrets."

Jack accepts her reasoning with a curt nod and a slight lessening of anger. He does not like having decisions taken out of his hands and Lauren did well by reminding him she had only sped up the inevitable. He does not protest as she helps him with his coat, does not pull away when she ghosts a kiss across his lips. He has not let the subject die but beneath it all, she can sense a faint trace of relief. It's out now. Just another variable to be dealt with. Compensated for. Jack deals well with variables and strategies. It is, she knows, why she occupies his bed. Why she is still alive. She presents both challenge and dalliance. Form and function. A clinical description of it but Lauren does not fool herself. This is not about love. She is neither Laura nor Irina. She has been a pale imitation of both to a pale imitation of him and she despised it.

She is herself now, so is he, and that is all they need.

He takes her chin in hand, says very deliberately, "Don't ever do it again," and now it is done. He needs to say no more. She understands him and he, in turn, understands her.

She will not do it again. She is not that foolish. She has accomplished her goal. Sydney knows what she needs to know. Her knowledge is a new variable for Jack to contend with and deal through. Lauren is free of Vaughn, she has what she wants.

She has no need to do it again and if Lauren has no need and no reason...she is content. For now.

But everyone knows...variables change.

fin.

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