20 JUNE
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
10:56PM

There was not much that Cammie didn't like about New York City. For someone who originally came from a small town with a population of 2563 people, Manhattan's millions were a welcome change. She'd gone from the clean suburban streets in Roseville with their perfectly pruned bushes to grimy grey stone buildings and as much as she hated to admit it, a permanent foul smell following her every move. The alleys between the buildings were the perfect escape for those who did not want to be seen, and the immense crowds of people were so easy to get lost in. It was perfect for what she had trained for her entire life, and the irony was not lost on her.

Situated in a grimy stairwell on the Lower West Side, Cameron Morgan recalled the time in her head, eyes aimed closely on the window of the building right across the road. A sliver of light escaped through the almost completely opaque curtains, and she concentrated harder to make out the silhouettes behind the fabric.

"Sigma is arriving," she murmured softly into her comms unit as she watched a sleek black car pull to a stop in front of the town home. The light in the upstairs room flickered off as the driver opened the door and offered his hand out to assist a woman getting out of the car. She lifted a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, and a small buzz in Cammie's earpiece alerted her that a new channel had been activated within her unit.

"I've got eyes on the target," she watched carefully as a man exited the car after the woman, his hand pressed to the small of her back as he led her up the stairs of the building.

"Copy that," a new voice sounded from her ear, the deep calming tones belonging to her tech guy who was currently watching the scene from the back of a van parked a couple of blocks away. Cammie nodded to herself before settling behind the eyepiece to the sniper rifle, the barrel aimed at the men standing on the sidewalk.

In a split second, the woman had torn away from the man, her arm going around his neck as she held him in a headlock in a position that, given the right move, could snap his neck instantly. The driver didn't even have a chance to pull out his gun before he too was compromised – this time by Cammie herself. The tranquiliser dart had barely lodged itself into the side of his neck in a perfect shot before the burly man was on the floor, immobile.

A scuffle sounded from inside the house as the woman subdued the man with a sedative and shoved him in the back of the car she'd arrived in. Taking the chance, she glanced up towards the window where Cammie was, and with a nod, disappeared into the house.

21 JUNE
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
9:23AM

"This was a job very well done," Joe Solomon said as he sat at his desk reading through the report carefully. Cammie sat across from him, her hands folded in her lap as she waited with bated breath.

Three years in the field had earned her an unusually high level of clearance within the agency, and she was always excited to see what would come next for her. So far, no two jobs had been the same and as a field operative, she was glad for the spontaneity.

"I am very impressed with your work as of late, Agent Morgan." Nodding his head, he closed the file and settled his fingers beneath his chin, seemingly pondering a thought. "I think you'll do well in your next task."

Cammie perked up, straightening up in her chair and watching him expectantly.

"The mission last night was not only a pivotal step in the disbandment of the Kings but it provided highly valuable information that's helped plan our next move. From the intel we gained it's been identified that this little crime syndicate is only a pawn in Richard King's empire. We've been under the impression that the Kings and their members were located here in the United States only. But it's a lot bigger than that. King has connections all across the world, in every single continent – this is more than just a national security issue. We're going to have to work internationally with this one."

He paused, giving her time to absorb the information before continuing.

"The Kings have the potential to turn into a full-blown terrorist organisation, and the CIA needs to stop the chances of this happening at all costs."

Cammie barely dared to breathe as she waited for him to go on.

"Together with MI6, we are placing you undercover in our biggest operation of this decade," he announced, pulling out a file from the drawer in his desk and sliding it over to her. "You'll find everything you need in that file there. Read it, learn it, live it. I'll see you tomorrow for a full briefing." '

"Thank you, Sir."

With that dismissal, Cammie picked up the file and left the office, closing the door quietly behind her. She had no words; it all felt surreal to her, like she was surrounded by water and everything was blocked out – her first real undercover mission. Cammie thought back to the countless years she'd spent training for this very moment, glad that it was all finally happening.

Composing herself before she walked out of the lift, Cammie snapped back to her full attention and tucked the file under her arm before setting off down the hallway to her office that she shared with her friend and fellow operative, Macey.

"Call me a princess, but a broken nail does not make for a happy girl. Which is dangerous when said non-happy girl single-handedly detained five people twice her size last night," Macey said when Cammie stepped into the office.

"That was so badass last night, Mace. Don't think I've seen you so invested in a takedown since Budapest," she replied, collapsing on the chair and spinning around to face her friend.

"Budapest was the mission of dreams," Macey sighed happily. "Did you just meet with Solomon?"

"Yup. When are you getting debriefed?"

"In about 23 minutes," she replied automatically. "I wonder what's going to be next on the cards."

"With the way last night went, it's bound to be interesting," Cammie assured her, spinning around to face the file burning a hole in her desk. She knew that what was in the file could be a life-changing moment for her career at the CIA, and if she was being honest, she was pretty terrified at what she might find.

Sensing that her friend wanted to be left alone, Macey got up to leave the office. "Let's hope so," she replied distractedly, muttering something about brunch under her breath and waltzing out of the door.

When the click of the lock sounded, Cammie took a deep breath before flipping the cover.

22 JUNE
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA
3:23PM

"I can't believe this," Macey complained as she sat on the floor, wrapping her hands in the thick elastics. Cammie was stretching beside her, their boxing gloves beside them on the floor.

"You can't believe what?" she asked, confused.

"That you got a new case file and I'm stuck doing paperwork for the next week," she sighed.

Cammie couldn't help but giggle. True, her fellow agents were strong and smart and have dodged more bullets than a normal person will see in their lifetime, but any mention of paperwork would send them all spiralling. "Yes, but you're the one who got to take down five guys last night while I sat behind a sniper's rifle on the rooftop of a completely different building."

It had been months since she had been cleared for service after finishing up rehab, and more than a year since her last injury, but Cammie still felt like her body wasn't up to its usual standard. She had been through vigorous training sessions with her trainer and she knew that physically, she was fine. Ask her to scale a five-story building? No worries. Rappel down a cliff? Sure, no hesitation. But to willingly walk into a situation where she knew there was a possibility of having to actually fight someone? She hated to admit it but there was a small part of her that hesitated.

Not that she would ever willingly admit that out loud.

"Next time, we're switching," Macey said definitively, moving into a deep stretch.

"You tried your hand at sniping when we were in Rome. Look how well that turned out," Cammie pointed out. Macey rolled her eyes.

"You were compromised! I had to step in!" she defended herself before pulling herself off the floor and jumping onto the treadmill.

Cammie followed, setting the machine to a slight jog as she began to warm up. "I was not compromised," she laughed. "Everything was fine until you rappelled through that roof and took out the Asset."

"Ok, but I didn't hurt him... That much."

"He suffered from three broken ribs, a broken leg and a concussion. He was bed-bound for three weeks before we could interrogate him," Cammie pointed out and Macey had the sense to look somewhat remorseful. But only for a little bit.

"That's practically nothing," she brushed it off, "we've suffered through worse."

"If you think that's nothing, Macey, then I'm obviously not working you hard enough," a new voice had joined them in the gym.

"Kai," Macey grinned tightly as she set her treadmill to a light run. "How're things?"

"Going well, thanks. Yourself?" he replied. Cammie turned to look at him as he fell to the floor in a stretch. Kai was one of their personal trainers, and the one who had personally supervised Cammie's recovery to ensure that she didn't accidentally cause any more damage to herself - which meant that he was one of her favourite people in the world. The fact that he also resembled Adonis made it easy for her to like him.

She also knew that Macey had been in love with him since he had started working with them two and a half years ago.

"Been good. Macey kicked arse the other night, by the way. She took out five guys on her own and didn't even break a sweat. You've trained her well," Cammie told him, grinning over at her friend who blushed and shot her a warning look.

"It was nothing," she tried to brush it off.

"It sounds impressive," Kai grinned, heading over to grab the pads. "Maybe I'll even go easy on you today."

"Like that's ever going to happen," Macey replied, rolling her eyes and began slowing down on her treadmill, getting ready to spar with him.

"You're right," he replied, laughing lightly. "Maybe I'll buy you a coffee before the next session," he frowned, "I hope you haven't been drinking them on the daily."

Macey hesitated, looking slightly guilty. "Uh…"

Kai chuckled, shaking his head. "You know how I feel about those mochas. Black coffee only, please."

Macey and Cammie rolled their eyes, both looking like they'd rather single-handedly carry out a mission blind than give up their daily coffees. Kai started their session, directing Cammie over to the floor and Macey into the ring. They were about an hour into training before they were interrupted by a couple of voices making their way into the gym.

Cammie and Thalia looked at each other.

"Aaron and Simon," the chorused, rolling their eyes though with wide grins on their faces.

Aaron and Simon were the technical geniuses behind each of their missions. They handled all of the camerawork, security systems and access codes required before, during and after and ensured that each of them had an escape plan if anything were to go wrong. In short, Cammie regularly entrusted her life to those two and so far, she hadn't regretted it.

"Hey guys," Aaron said, setting his bag down on the floor and pulling out his bottle. "What're we up to?"

"Kai's killing us," Macey groaned, grabbing a towel and dabbing her face with it. From behind her, Kai grinned cheekily.

"So the usual then?" Simon asked, smirking. He plopped down to the floor and began to stretch.

"At least it's not HIIT today," Cammie shrugged, pulling the training gloves off of her hands and setting them to the floor. She also began her cool down stretches.

"I heard you have a meeting with the Director tonight," he said to her as the others chatted amongst themselves. "Apparently it's a good one."

"How would you know?" she asked curiously. She'd read through her legend, but she had no clue what her mission would entail.

"I just finished my briefing. You'll like it. It's… different."

"Yeah, that makes me feel so much better," she said sarcastically. "Speaking of, I'm going to be late if I don't get ready now. I'll talk to you tonight, ok?"

"Yeah sure, Cammie. Have fun. Don't choke."

She stuck her tongue out at him, wiggling her fingers in goodbye as she left the room.

"Do you have any questions for me about the file I gave you last night?" Joe asked, unbuttoning his suit as he took a seat behind his desk. Cammie had quickly showered and changed, though she found out too late that the hairdryer in the gym bathroom was no longer working. As a result, she'd had to dash to the gym on the other side of the building to dry her hair before her meeting with the Solomon and had almost been late. Almost.

"No, I think I've got everything pretty much absorbed," she replied easily, watching as Joe pulled out a larger file from the fingerprint protected drawer in his desk.

"Are you aware of the danger of this particular assignment?"

"Yes, Sir."

"You know, Agent Morgan. It took me a while to convince the board that you were the person most suited to this job. A lot of them wanted Macey McHenry to do it but instead I personally vouched for you. I know your injury had impacted your performance both physically and mentally but I believe that you have the drive for it and I trust you to be able to complete this mission to the best of your ability."

"I understand," she replied easily, not even flinching when he'd mentioned her injury. She knew that it had impacted her more than she would let on but it was because of that that she was determined to prove herself to the CIA.

"Good. Now this mission is incredibly time sensitive so we're going to have to get you on a plane to London tonight. Someone will meet you at Heathrow to transfer you to MI6 headquarters where you will receive the full details of your assignments and any necessary documentation for you. Tomorrow morning, I'll be sending Agents Simon Halloway and Aaron Golding over to assist with the setup of your new place including introducing any and all security measures necessary for the premises. During your time at MI6 you'll also meet your contacts, Agents Rebecca Baxter and Grant Hughes. I believe you've worked with Agent Baxter before?"

"I have," Cammie confirmed, feeling glad that there would be a friendly face in London. She and Bex had met on a mission on the West Coast in June the previous year and they'd immediately hit it off. Bex's sarcasm and easygoing attitude was a nice change from the coldness that was usually exhibited from other agents.

"Perfect. Your flight leaves at 2310 tonight. Here is everything you need," he handed her another file. "Your cover starts as soon as you leave headquarters."

"Thank you for this opportunity, Sir," Cammie accepted the file graciously, moving to get up.

"Good luck, Agent Morgan."

23 JUNE
VAUXHALL CROSS, LONDON
11:30AM

"Welcome to MI6," a voice greeted her as she stepped out of the elevator after the tedious security clearance process. Cammie turned to look at the person who was talking to her, the grin broadening on her face when she realised who it was.

"Bex!" she said, pulling the other girl in for a hug. The past year had not affected Bex's good looks one bit; she looked as tanned and goddess-like as ever. "How are you?"

"I'm doing great, especially now that you're here!" she smiled in reply, pulling Cammie down the hall. "I'm so glad it was you assigned to this case and not some other snooty CIA Agent."

"Me too. Are you ready to meet the other agent?"

"Agent Hughes?" Cammie asked curiously.

Bex snorted. "Agent Hughes," she chuckled. "I've never heard someone else call Grant by that title except for maybe the director."

"Grant then?" Cammie replied, a smile playing on her lips.

"Someone called?" a new voice joined them. Cammie glanced over to what looked like a meeting room off to the side where a tall guy with disheveled blonde hair stood leaning against the conference table with his hands in the pockets of his pants. He had on standard MI6 uniform comprising of black slacks, a button down and tie. His jacket was hanging across the back of the chair to his right. Cammie studied the rest of the room with interest. The conference table took up the majority of the room, leaving the walls quite bare save for a little table at the end stacked with a jug of water and a few glasses. The table was littered with files relating to their case and a blueprint of a building occupied the majority of the space. Cammie could see a plain black folder with the official MI6 and CIA seals stamped to the front which she recognised as the case file she had received back in Langley.

"Hey Grantikins," Bex greeted, directing Cammie into the room first and taking a seat. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Say that again and you'll lose a finger," he warned, rolling his eyes when Bex stuck out her tongue at him. He moved to pull out a chair for Cammie, "Agent Morgan, my name's Grant."

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you," she greeted him, taking the seat offered to her. "Please, just call me Cammie."

"Cammie then," he grinned, also sitting down. "How was the flight over here?"

"Enough of this small talk," Bex interrupted his questioning from across the table. "Flight was a red-eye so obviously shit, am I right?" she said, shooting Cammie a knowing look. She nodded, chuckling lightly.

"You're right. Let's get into this."

"Ok then. Cammie, in front of you is a compendium of every single document you'll need for your mission over here including personal documentations, such as license, birth certificate, tax reference numbers etcetera etcetera. You'll also find the keys to your new residence in there and that will hopefully be ready for you tomorrow. For tonight, Bex has kindly offered to let you stay at hers."

Cammie shot a thankful glance at Bex who grinned. "Thank you!"

"Of course. We can go drinking," she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Grant rolled his eyes, continuing on. "From the intel we've gathered, the Kings have a headquarters based here in London. We're nowhere near being able to infiltrate or even locate it so that's our number one priority."

"Do we have any idea who the power players here are? We took out some of the ringleaders in New York not too long ago but they didn't know enough to convince me that they were high enough to really know anything about the cell," Cammie said, shuffling through some of the documentation.

"We understand that the ring is led by Richard King himself," Bex answered her slowly. "He's untouchable here in London. Owns a massive electronics corporation which is what we think he's using to transport all his goods in under the radar. We had Jonas, our tech manager, look into it and there are no signs of criminal activity within the company. We think he's operating under a different trading name with the possibility of multiple offshore accounts to hide the goods."

"Goods like what? Weapons?" Cammie asked, referring back to her brief. It hadn't gone into this much detail about Richard King so this was all new to her.

"We think it's something along the lines of that. I wouldn't say it'd be guns and ammunition only because those would've gotten picked up during customs clearance checks. We think that because his company is predominantly electronics focused, it might be something along the lines of that," Grant explained to her, leaning back in his chair loosening his tie slightly.

"So like a computer chip?"

Grant nodded, "Something like that."

From across her, Bex spoke up. "Think about it, Cammie. In a world where everyone operates through an online database or system of some sort, it'd be the perfect target for any terrorist organisation who are looking to recruit people to their cause. London is the perfect target for it. We operate on a security system that is largely complex and and hard to manage, and along with that it's incredibly outdated as much as we hate to admit it. Every street corner in the city has a designated camera to it, and the older ones are forced to operate on a more dated system that's harder to secure. In saying that, the only thing stopping domestic attacks from happening is this system. If these guys manage to infiltrate our security system, then London will go dark and I don't think the combined efforts of the MI5, MI6, Interpol or the CIA will be able to stop the attacks that will follow."

Cammie squared her shoulders, absorbing the seriousness of the situation. "What do we have to do?"

"From tomorrow, we will be moving you to a West London residence. Coincidentally, this is in the same building as one of King's most senior officers. He works directly under King and sits in on his important meetings. Your mission will be to gather as much information on Zachary Goode as possible," Grant explained, sliding a photo over to Cammie. It had obviously been taken without his awareness, and depicted two men leaving a corporate building. They both were in professional suits, but one had an air of power to him that chilled her to the bone. The second man, who was much younger, was clutching a file underneath his arm, the other hand holding a phone to his ear. His brows were furrowed, like he wasn't entirely happy with what he was hearing. Cammie couldn't help herself - he was definitely attractive.

"Sounds simple enough," she told the others, who were studying her carefully.

"We have to disclose though, that this isn't going to be easy. Zachary Goode is heavily guarded at all times," Grant continued, pointing out a couple of figures in other shots that he slid over to Cammie. "He has a rotating security detail almost on par with King's. You need to be smart with this; it isn't as simple as breaking into his residence and bugging the place."

"I understand that," Cammie said. "I'll think of something."

"Perfect," Bex said, snapping her folder shut. "Now can we go and celebrate or are you going to keep us here all night, Hughes?"

Grant rolled his eyes, gesturing them away. "Get out of here," he said, though a small smile was playing on his lips. "Behave, Baxter. We don't want Cammie to be compromised before her mission even begins. We need her."

"Yes, boss," she replied rolling her eyes, punching his arm lightly before pulling Cammie out of the room before she could properly say goodbye.

"Bye!" she yelled back into the room before she found herself being tugged down the hallway. "What's the plan, Bex?"

"Drinks first. Clubs later. London's still young, and it has yet to properly greet you. I hope you're prepared for the ass kicking it's going to give you," Bex grinned.

"Oh, I don't know if I ever will be," Cammie laughed, her excitement for the coming night and the start of the mission growing with every step she took. This was going to be fun.

guess who's back, back again

it's been a while friends. or if we haven't spoken before, new friends :)
it's nice to finally write again after such a long time. it's been years since i've even accessed or even read fics for the gallagher girls community so this is pretty much new for me. i know most of the writers from back in the day aren't active anymore so this is like joining a completely new community so i hope you guys will go easy on me! i'm looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you!

so this is an entirely new idea for a story that's been playing in the back of my mind for a really long time. i've been reading/writing for other fandoms but i couldn't seem to make it work for anything other than gallagher girls so i really do hope you guys enjoy this :)

i've also been debating deleting my old stories and starting off with a clean slate so let me know if that's a good idea or not!

all in all, i'm glad to be back and to hear all of your thoughts on this new idea!
- how are you liking the characters?
- this is completely AU! gallagher doesn't exist in this universe so don't expect any of the storyline to be in here!
- characters are mostly OOC, but will retain some of their old qualities
- how are you liking the storyline? if you think it's shit please let me know and how i can improve!

i'll try to be updating at least once a week but if they're infrequent, i sincerely apologise. i've been suffering a block that's been going on for about a year now and have like 0 motivation hahahaah but i'm trying!

lots of love
t