Afghanistan, 2010

Dani's head snapped in the direction of the tent when she heard commotion inside. From where she had been talking to JJ, she rushed into the tent, slipping inside just in time to see Askari taking a step back with a shout when Nadia spat straight at her face. Dani frowned when she noticed Askari reaching for his weapon.

"What the hell is going on?" She demanded, stepping in between the two of them as she pushed Askari's weapon away.

"She just went crazy on me." Askari defended, as Dani rolled her eyes, but looked around the room to assess the situation. "I don't know where it came from."

Dani turned to look at Nadia. The woman sat in a chair, sobbing, probably in fear of Askari, but Dani wasted no time in noticing what was missing: a doll. The one she had been holding ever since she had been brought into the camp and that she never let go of. Well, never until now because, try as she might, Dani could not find a single trace of the doll around anywhere.

"Where's the doll?" She asked, as Askari frowned.

"What doll?" He asked.

"The doll." JJ said, stepping inside the tent and understanding what Dani was talking about in a second. As Dani dealt with a still very much angry Askari, JJ walked over to Nadia as she tried to calm her down, even if for a little. "We need to find the doll. It's ok. Calm down. Where is the doll?"

Emotions were high now and JJ was already yelling a little, but before anything could get too out of hand, Hastings, of all people, walked inside, Nadia's doll in his hand as he softly approached the group.

"It was on the ground outside." He said, trying to sound calm in contrast to everyone else around him.

Dani kept a careful eye on Askari still, but also watched as Hastings approached Nadia with the doll, kneeling down in front of her as he offered her the doll, speaking softly to her in a language Dani didn't know. Still, Nadia calmed down as soon as the doll was back in her hands and she sobbed quietly, holding the doll as close to her as she possibly could. Dani noticed how JJ watched the scene and when she turned to look at her, as if asking for some kind of permission, Dani nodded.

"Translate, please." JJ said, looking at Hastings, who frowned as he looked up at her.

"Me?" He asked.

"That was your first step at developing rapport." JJ explained. "We need to build on that."

For a second, no one moved. Hastings and Askari turned to look at Dani then. They didn't particularly like each other, but, still, they knew Cruz had put her in charge of female interrogations, so they waited for her instructions. Deciding to trust JJ's instincts - especially considering the fact that she was going further than she ever had on building rapport with Nadia -, Dani decided to take the risk and nodded. She noticed how Hastings and Askari exchanged looks, but neither argued. Nodding at Dani, Askari left the room and JJ turned to look at Hastings instead, silently asking him to translate for her what she said next.

"My name is Jennifer." She said, pointing at herself before pointing at Dani. "This is Daniella and this is Michael."

Hastings translated her words to Nadia then, as the woman watched the three of them with wide eyes, clearly still scared.

"Was that your child's?" JJ asked, nodding at the doll. Hastings repeated the question, causing Nadia to nod. "Where is she?"

"Quetta." Nadia said, after Hastings translated the question.

"She's in Pakistan." Dani said, as JJ nodded, weighting her options before turning back to Hastings.

"Ok, hum, tell her if she gives us the names of the men that dealt with her husband, we'll reunite her with her daughter." She said.

"We can't tell her that." Hastings argued, as JJ frowned. "Ok, we can, but we can't actually do it."

Hastings looked away from JJ and toward Dani instead. He sighed when he noticed the way Dani seemed all too willing to comply to JJ's wishes, so, standing up, Hastings pulled JJ along with him to stand closer to Dani instead so they could talk alone, despite the fact that Nadia didn't even understand what they were saying in the first place.

"Jareau... You understand, we can't launch a mission to rescue one prisoner's daughter, right?" He asked, his eyes flying from JJ and then at Dani. "Moreno, you know that."

"Agent Jareau has gotten further with Nadia in five minutes than any of us have in days." Dani said.

"Still." Hastings shook his head. "We can't."

"That is for Cruz to decide."

"Moreno..." Hastings shook his head again. "You can't be serious."

Dani bit her lip then, taking a deep breath as she peeked over Hastings' shoulders to look at Nadia behind him. Her eyes found JJ's for a split of a second and, logically, she knew Hastings was right. But, still, she was too and JJ was clearly good at what she was doing. So, if she had managed to get to Nadia so easily, heading to her advice couldn't be all that bad, could it?

"Let's talk to Cruz." She said, turning around to leave, JJ hot in her tail as Hastings sighed, but followed them around camp as well.

"Moreno." He called, but Dani didn't stop. Instead, she kept making her way to the main tent where she supposed Cruz would be. "Moreno, stop."

She didn't, walking a tad little bit faster when she finally spotted Cruz. He was talking to Strauss as well. All the better, Dani thought. They were exactly who she needed at that moment.

"Cruz!" She called, as the man stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her, frowning a little when he noticed Moreno walking toward him with JJ and Hastings. "We need to talk."

"They're insane." Hastings said, before either Dani or JJ could even say anything.

Dani rolled her eyes then, but chose to ignore Hastings as she turned to look at Strauss instead.

"Chief Strauss." She said. "I think we might have a plan to try and gather more information on OBL."

"It's an awful plan." Hastings said, as Strauss turned to look at Dani instead.

"Go on, agent Moreno."

Dani nodded then, turning to look at JJ for a brief moment. Dani could tell the blonde woman was nervous and, truth be told, so was she. But she knew JJ was stressing over being a new addition and already causing discord among the team, so Dani decided she'd be the brave one this time. If not for herself - after all, she had been trying to get herself heard for a long time in this damned team anyway -, then, at least for JJ.

"We want to launch a mission." Dani said, as Cruz frowned.

"A mission for what?" He asked.

"They want to launch a rescue mission for the daughter." Hastings practically spat. "Nadia Mubari's daughter."

Cruz turned from Hastings to Dani then and she could see it in his eyes that he thought she was insane too.

"Moreno..." He started, but before he could even continue, Dani shook her head.

"Just listen, okay?" She pleaded as Cruz sighed but nodded anyway. "If we do that, we might just break into her. She might actually trust us and she might give us all she knows."

"We can't risk people's lives for a maybe, Moreno." Hastings pressed.

"But she's already given us the names of two high-level terrorists." JJ spoke up, causing everyone to stop and turn to look at her instead. "To assure her family's safety, she'll be even more willing to cooperate."

"We can't risk U.S. casualties trying to save a terrorist's daughter." Hastings insisted.

"Well, she was married to one, but Nadia is a mother first." JJ insisted. "Look, she's clutching that doll as if her life depends on it. We put her daughter in her arms instead, she'll tell us everything."

"Agent Jareau has a valid point." Dani said, pressing their plan onto her superiors when she noticed they were actually starting to consider it. "The child's definitely her achilles heel."

"What if she's already given us everything?" Hastings asked. "Two terrorists her husband knew, ok. But neither provided tangible leads to OBL. She could be stalling."

"And what if she's not?" JJ retorted. "What if she has one more name that gets us bin Laden?"

After that, there was a moment of silence as everyone stopped for a moment, turning to Cruz and waiting for his decision. Cruz looked over his team and sighed gently.

"Well, that's a risk worth taking." He decided and Dani had to stop herself from breathing out in relief too loudly.

Hastings shook his head then, but turned to look at Strauss, possibly expecting her to stop this madness. Strauss hesitated for a moment, but she had three of their best FBI agents agreeing to a new plan of action so, who was she anyway to argue?

"Ok." She nodded. "I'll contact secretary Jackson."

And with that Strauss walked away, leaving the other four adults in a weird, awkward silence. Hastings took a second to glare at Dani and JJ again, but, soon enough, he was walking away as well. Cruz didn't seem all that pleased with the outcome of the conversation, but he was definitely more open to trying it than Hastings. Still, Dani could see JJ was nervous, so, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, she silently asked if she wanted to leave. JJ barely nodded her head, but Dani understood, excusing them both from Cruz before walking away with JJ and back to her tent that the two women would be sharing whenever JJ was around.

"You did a great job today." Dani complimented, holding open the flap of her tent so JJ could step inside.

"Did I?" JJ sighed, moving toward one of the beds as she sat down, shoving her head in her hands. "Maybe Hastings was right. I mean... We're sacrificing american lives here."

"We're sacrificing american lives everyday." Dani argued, moving to take a seat in front of JJ on the other bed nearby. "And I know you're right. If we manage to get Nadia's daughter, we can get information from her. And who knows the type of information she could give us. I mean, her husband was a high-ranked man. Maybe he knew stuff - maybe she knows stuff. Stuff that can end this whole thing. Stuff... Stuff that can send us all home."

"But the soldiers..."

"They'll know what their mission will be." Dani said. "They won't be forced to go. If they don't want to, they can refuse."

"I don't know..." JJ mumbled, clearly conflicted. "It still seems like too much of a risk."

Dani sighed then. This was JJ's first week on the field and she wasn't used to how things worked there. Hell, Dani had been there for months now and she wasn't either - she missed her office-job. She missed just travelling around, talking to people. There, she needed to keep a gun nearby at all times, she needed to be alert, she needed to fight for life all the time. She had grown used to it, but it didn't mean she liked it at all. She wanted to go back to D.C., she wanted her desk back and her files and God, the paper-work days... She would always complain about those, but what wouldn't she give for one more day, locked away in her office from nine to five just reading over file after file for the Bureau... But she couldn't. Not while Cruz's mission was still going.

So she did her best. She did her best to do her job and she did her best to stay alive. Now, she was doing her best to try and help Cruz with his own assignment, but she needed JJ and she needed JJ to believe in her and in herself and, especially, in what they were doing there. She needed JJ to believe that, getting Nadia talking, was the main priority now and, if they didn't want Askari and Hastings enforcing their methods on her for the answers she could give them, they would need to try other things.

And, right now, a new rescue mission was the best they could do.

"Do you play chess?" Dani asked, so suddenly JJ frowned in confusion and lifted her head to meet her eyes.

"I... What?"

"Chess." Dani repeated with a small smile, reaching over to one of her bags laying around beside her bed and pulling out of there a small, foldable chess board. "Do you play?"

"I... I know the rules." JJ admitted, watching, half-confused and half-interested as Dani opened the board and started to place the small pieces over it. "I know how each piece moves, but I don't actually know how to play. A friend of mine once tried to explain it to me, but he's far too smart and this game is far too complicated."

"It's not, actually." Dani shrugged, looking up at JJ once the pieces were all in their starting positions. "I mean, at the start, sure, but once you get the hang of it... It's mostly a strategy game."

"How did you learn it?" JJ asked.

"My dad was a chess-lover." She said. "He taught me when I was really young and we play all the time. It's a good way to keep the mind occupied. Do you want to try it?"

"Not now." JJ shook her head. She was still a little lost, trying to understand what was happening, but, for whatever reason, she couldn't really take her eyes off of Dani and, when she smiled at her, JJ found herself even more drawn to the woman sitting in front of her with a chess board on her lap. "Why?"

"Well, since you know how the pieces move, I'm gonna show you a little trick that I really like." Dani winked at JJ, before dropping her gaze to the board on her lap as she started moving some of the pieces around - white first, black next, just like Spencer had told JJ the game worked. "This is an opening. It's what you do with your pieces during the first move. This one in particular is called the Bird's Opening."

JJ watched as Dani's fingers moved over the board expertedly, moving every piece to the exact place they should be until she stopped, lifting her eyes up to meet JJ's again.

"It's a very aggressive one." She continued, as JJ just nodded, somehow fascinated with the knowledge Dani Moreno seemed to have over the game. "My dad says it's risky so it's not that commonly used during high-level chess tournaments or whatever, but it's one of my favorites. Some of the most beautiful chess games were played with a Bird's Opening. Still, it is risky, I won't lie. You see, because in this, white starts out weakening his king side and starts a flank attack on the center with a pawn."

JJ frowned, she didn't understand much of chess, but she did know the rules and the main one was this: the king is the most important piece - it is what ends the game, after all. If the king is put in a check they can't escape from, it's checkmate, which means the game is over.

"Why would you weaken your king in your first moves?" JJ asked, as Dani chuckled.

"Ah, that is the question I suppose, right?" She smiled, as JJ frowned at her, watching as Dani started to move the pieces again, playing by herself with both white and black pieces. "Why risk the king? Well, some people, like my dad, might think that it's stupid. He has his favorite moves - ones that usually work - so why change? But some people... People like you and me... We like to try something different. Something risky - not careless, just risky. Because sometimes... You see, sometimes, I found, it's only taking risks that we manage the results we want."

And after moving some of the pieces around, Dani managed to arrange the plays so that the black king was now caught in a checkmate. JJ smiled, reaching over the board to lay down the king - Spencer had told her some people did that when they lost - and looked up at Dani, who was already watching her with a smile.

"You're right." JJ nodded, finally understanding why this whole conversation about chess had started in the first place. It was all an allegory, JJ realized. The war was the chess game and the Bird's opening - reckless and aggressive - was the new strategy the two of them were trying to use. So, if the king's safety could be put at risk for a while in the game, they could try and launch a rescue mission for Nadia's daughter as well, couldn't they? "I like this."

Dani smiled then, knowing, with one look at JJ's eyes, that she understood what she meant to say. She watched as the blonde woman stood up from her bed to sit down beside Dani in hers instead. Grabbing the board from Dani's lap, JJ placed it on her bed in between the two of them as she started to move the pieces around to place them on their initial place again.

"Will you teach me?" She asked, as Dani chuckled, shuffling a little on her bed so she sat cross-legged in front of the board.

"You want to learn the basics first?" Dani asked.

"Sure." JJ nodded. "But before that, show me that again."

"Show you what?"

"The Bird's Opening." JJ said. "Show me again. Walk me through it."

"Okay." Dani nodded then, smiling at JJ and noticing the way the woman kept her eyes fixed on the board in front of them, as if scared of missing a single move. So, reaching for the white pawn, Dani moved it forward. "So, this is how you win the game."