Deiket was just returning from the stables, muttering to herself about how she was going to make whoever dyed her horse purple pay, when she had an idea. She remembered receiving a communiqué weeks ago from Michael's Harem about Glam Names. All she had to do was fine the generator and voila! All of CLHQ would have new Codename....

She hurried back to her room and shut the door behind her, a mischievous grin on her face. She set about making herself a cup of tea (she was a self-proclaimed herb junkie, after all) and booted up her laptop. She'd been smart enough to hide it in her secret compartment, so she was pretty sure no harm had come to it.

She smiled triumphantly and let out a loud "HA!". Nothing seemed to be amiss.

She hopped up and poured a bit of sugar into her tea, then sat back down. "Now where is that Generator....." She worked steadily for an hour, having to use a little of her hacking skills to get past Birkoff's security, but it was finally done. All of the operatives, including North and Operations, Madeleine and Michael had Glam

Names in the place of their code names. Chuckling to herself, she reread some of them. North's Codename had now become Opulence Silversex, Rita's was Kitschy Sugarponce, Sherry's was Poxy Glitterplume... the list went on and on.

Snickering to herself, she put on the finishing touches. Closing her laptop, she reached for her now-lukewarm tea. Taking a sip, she made a strange face and spit all over her rug.

"SALT?!?!" she screamed, "WHO PUT SALT IN MY SUGAR JAR!? Oh, this means WAR!"...

*******

...Nabiki was checking her e-mail once again, but she was having problems. Her computer said that her Codename was incorrect.

"What is going on?" she thought. "This must be one of the girls", suddenly she heard a screaming voice. It was Deiket and she wasn't happy.

Someone knocked on her door. It was North laughing her nubbins off! "Seems that Deiket just had her tea with salt" North said.

"North, you seems really happy with yourself. You did that didn't you?"

"Me? Little innocent me? Come on Nab, you know me better than that".

"Yep, I know you, so maybe you can help me with this problem. I'm trying to access my e-mail but it says I have the wrong Codename", Nab said as she tried to access everything once again.

"Let me see... now that's strange. Even I can't access my e-mail. Ummm, seems someone has been playing with the Generator", said North calling Birkoff.

"North, I don't have time. Someone has been playing with the main computer and now everyone has a new Codename", he said really upset.

"That's why I'm calling you. Nabiki and I are trying to access our e-mail and we can't".

"Tell Nabiki to try this Codename: 'Irridescent Hotplanet'. I think that's her new Codename for now".

"Oh, oh, Nab isn't going to be happy", North thought as she typed the new name.

"My Codename is... WHAT?!!!"

*******

~~~~~~Hours later

Having walked out on Michael while he was awaiting an explanation for the Corelli mission, and then having had another run-in with Rita by Curlly's room, this day was going from bad to worse. Sherry sat on a downed log in the woods trying to make sense of all this. Why would Michael have talked about her like that to anyone, much less Rita? Why would Rita write such things about her? Who told Rita about the

Corelli mission?

"What am I going to do?" she asked herself. Everything was turned upside down. She knew eventually somebody would come to find her, but she didn't care. She needed this time to herself. She was finally beginning to calm down a bit. Then all of a sudden she heard footsteps heading her direction.

"Well, so much for peace and solitude," she muttered.

Turning she saw him come towards her. Her first instinct was to get up and walk away, but she knew that wouldn't get them anywhere. She simply waited until he reached her and sat down. She kept her eyes trained straight ahead and waited for him to speak. She could play this game as well as he could. He was the one that came looking for her, so he could speak first.

Sighing, he reached over to take her hand, which she quickly removed from his grasp. "Sherry, please."

"Please what, Michael? Please understand why you spoke to Rita about me that way? Understand why you laughed in my face ... okay, I'll give you that one. That was Curlly's fault. And let's see I don't recall you coming to explain yourself at all since that episode in Comm. So what exactly do you want me to understand? Just spit it out and I'll do my darndest to comply, sir."

"Stop it," Michael commanded.

"Yes sir. Right away sir," Sherry retorted. "I think I'll go for a walk. It's a little crowded here." She stood up to leave, but her arm was grabbed and she was seated on the log once again.

"Sit down and listen to me," Michael commanded.

"All right, Michael. Talk."

Michael sat there silently for a few moments. She was just about to get up and leave when he turned to her and spoke.

"First, I want to say I'm sorry. I'm not sure what is going on with you and Rita, and I'm not sure what I did, but I know I've upset you. I'm sorry."

Sherry snorted. "That's helpful Michael. You're apologizing but you don't know why? Well, apparently you didn't hear anything I said last night in Comm."

Michael nodded. "Yes, I did. I thought you knew me better than that by now. You know I would never speak of you like that to anyone. And it is not true and you know it."

Sherry sighed. "I thought I knew you, Michael. So where have you been? We've been together a long time. Why are you taking her side?"

Michael shook his head. "I'm not taking her side. If I was, would I be here?"

Sherry laughed. "Of course you would, Michael. You have to try and fix things so no one gets in trouble. That's the kind of man you are."

Michael sighed. "It's obvious you're not ready to talk about it."

Sherry sighed. "Didn't I tell you that? Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me."

Michael paused, thinking. He was treading too close to the edge right now. He had to back off on that one or he was afraid she would take the suitcase sitting by her door and leave. He couldn't let that happen.

"I'm ready to listen. Tell me about the Corelli mission."

Sherry jumped up. "What? You want to talk about that now?"

Michael nodded. "Yes. Why did you keep it a secret?"

Pacing back and forth, Sherry wanted to scream. "I kept it a secret because I was trying to spare your feelings Michael. I know how you get about those things. I know how we both get. It's not something

I'm proud of, so can we just drop it, please?"

Michael felt ashamed. He knew she was right. He'd had a problem handling it the few occasions when Sherry had been used as a Valentine op. As she did when he was used that way. She had been trying to spare his feelings.

"Doesn't that tell you anything, Michael? I tried to spare your feelings. Rita just plain blurts it out and threatens to tell you. I think that says a lot right there. Now, if you will excuse me, I want to be alone."

Michael watched her for a few minutes, knowing she was in pain and helpless to do anything for her at the moment. "Okay, I'll leave you alone. But please, come back soon. And again, I'm sorry."

Sherry walked further into the woods with tears streaming down her face. This was just awful. Could they ever get past this mess and get back to where they had been?

~~~~~~~Back at CLHQ

North was sitting in her office when Operations came bursting through he door.

"What is going on around here, North? All of your people are walking around on eggshells. Walter is distracted, as is Birkoff. And Michael is completely useless at the moment. I want answers and I want them now!"

North explained that there seemed to be a problem between Sherry and Rita. She explained about the fight over Michael and that it was PJ Day and everything was just getting way out of hand.

"Well, I suggest you get your people back under control. And this business with Michael has got to stop. If they can't figure it out for themselves, I will transfer them to different sections and that will settle the problem. Do you understand?"

North nodded.

"Good. You have until midnight. If it's not taken care of by then, one or both of them is gone."

********

Message from the CLHQ Kitchen

Hello, Ladies, Gentlemen and Others Lurking in the Shadows!

WAR here, in the turret, with Rita and Lisa, hiding out from the direct line of PJ fire (yes, I gave Miss Rita sanctuary here in the Kitchen, and for medical reasons you CANNOT engage me in the hijinks, Mommy North, make them leave me alone or NO COOKIES!!!) and we're eatin' cheesecake and watchin' Scoop, and guess who's here with us... and he's not leaving until I feel better.

Seriously, we're having a nice time up here, could you please KEEP IT DOWN!

By the way, Christopher will soon have his own special on the Food Network --"Cookin' with Love and Lots of ROY" -- and you are all to leave them alone while they work on their recipes, or they will never make it on

Iron Chef.

Man, I missed you guys. Send a Mission Van with more pizza, it's gonna be a LONG screening...

Love, Wendy (put clothes on, Brenna, geez, you and yer jammies)

*******

Sherry finally decided it was time to head back to CLHQ. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't spend the night out in the woods. As she walked back into CLHQ, she realized that she wasn't quite up to dealing with everyone just yet and it seemed everyone was tracking her down in her room. So, she decided to head for her office and lock herself in. At least she could try and do some work and get her mind off everything else for a while.

She got to the office and pulled some files to start reviewing. A short time later her computer beeped notifying her of email that needed to be read. Leaving the files for a few minutes, Sherry pulled up her email. There were a few friendly messages of encouragement, and a few routines notes from Birkoff and Madeline. She noticed one from North and decided she'd better check it out. She read it and couldn't believe her eyes. She read it again and then again.

Jumping up from her desk, she almost knocked over her chair. She threw open her office door, knocking a whole in her office wall with the doorknob, and marched into North's office which was right next door.

"HOW COULD YOU?" she yelled as loud as she could.

North, who had been startled by Sherry's barging into her office, was momentarily confused. Then it hit her.

"Just calm down, Sherry. I can explain," she began.

"CALM DOWN? You've got to be kidding! You know what she's done to me.How can you expect me to work with her? Have you lost your mind? Or are you really trying to drive me out! Were those kind words last night just a pretense? I guess it's a good thing I packed that bag this afternoon. It's ready and waiting. All I've gotta do is grab it and I'm outta here."

North stood up and walked around Sherry and shut her office door. "Sherry, please sit down. You aren't going anywhere."

Sherry looked at North like she'd lost her mind. "Well, I'm certainly not working with Rita."

"You can't leave. You know Michael will come after you. And if he doesn't, Operations will track you down and cancel you."

Sherry huffed. "Michael will be too busy congratulating Rita to even know I'm gone. As for Operations, well, I've got friends. He won't find me unless I want him to."

North knew what she was saying was true. She had friends that could make her disappear without a trace, or could protect her against anything Operations threw at her. Some of them North had never met, some she had.

"Listen, Sherry. You guys have got to work this out. You're not only hurting each other, you're hurting everyone here. We are all your friends .. both of you. And think of how this is affecting Michael. You've gut us twisting ourselves in knots trying not to offend either of you and trying to keep you from physically hurting each other."

Sherry sighed. "Oh? It's all my fault? Did Rita get that heart-tugging speech too? You know, I've been here a long time. You'd think I'd at least get a little respect."

North sighed. "Sherry you are getting respect. If you could just calm down a little and think about it, you'd realize everyone here respects you. You're a friend to everyone and you're one of their leaders. They all look up to you."

"Well it sure doesn't feel like it right now. And how can I face them all after what Rita wrote about me? It's so embarrassing! And Michael hasn't done much in the way of supporting me either!"

North grinned. "Oh, you might be surprised. Now, that that's settled..."

Sherry jumped up again, angry all over again. "What do you mean it's settled? I told you I will not work with that ... that ... woman! I mean it, North! Now either get someone else or I'm outta here." Then she turned on her heel and slammed out the door. A few seconds later, North heard Sherry's office door slam as well.