>>33 If you want to go along with the pattern of flashbacks. It doesn´t need to be a world/lifechanging flashback one. It could easily be a scene which doesn´t give much away from Spy, but to the same time may let us have a look in his character. I don´t know how to really describe it. Maybe him visiting a museum the previous day? Reading a paper with news and some of his thoughts to the headline? Him interacting with a random woman/man. If you want him and the woman to have a conversation, why not their last one? Their first one? A random one who shows how far their relationship went, a turn in their relationhsip (good, worser, friends, companionship, accepting each others skills, this one crack which can´t never be healed and looked over...) A flashback doesn´t need to go back all deep down in the past. It also can just be a few days prior, before she goes to him. What i liked about your flashbacks are not how far in the past they are, but rather that they showed a side of the character which makes him THIS character. They explained a bit about him or adopted a feature and went along with it. Even if Spy is a mysterious figure in the shadows, we all know he has some features which makes him Spy. (Good taste in suits, a rather childish attitude sometimes not far behind scouts, preparing children to stab christmasfigures with a icicle and so on.) I hope i gave you now some ideas for the story. If not, than just post the one without flashback, please.