What Comes After Alone

Author: Eternity in Seconds (Originally posted under Secret Agent 006)
Rating: T
Pairings: Liz/Grant
Summary: Its Liz's last semester at the Gallagher Academy. Cammie has been missing for two years and Zach is dead. For safety, Gallagher and Blackthorn must become one. Welcome to Darkwood School. For thefrostedros' Noire Mouton Noir Challenge.
Authors Note: Updated on 14.10.2013 because I re-read it and the grammar and spelling frustrated me. So, this is a quick update. There may still be mistakes. Oh well.

Everything below is the ORIGINAL positing (with editing, of course).

For the Noire Mouton Noire Challenge.

Story: Darkwood Academy

Author: Secret Agent 006

Pairings: Liz/Grant

Summary: Its Liz's last semester at the Gallagher Academy. Cammie has been missing for two years and Zach is dead. For safety, Gallagher and Blackthorne must become one. Welcome to Darkwood School.

Disclaimer: The wonderful Ally Carter owns these amazing characters. I have just played with them.

Elizabeth Sutton

"Liz, hurry up!" Macey called to me through the door. I ignored her and turned the heat up. Our last CoveOps assignment had been hectic. I didn't even like CoveOps, but the teachers had decided that once a week all the students would take part. Us deck jockeys could practice working information and communication in the field. Get used to the pressure of being the backbone of the mission or something like that.

"Liz!" Macey screeched again, pounding on the door. It shook with the weight of her fist and I took that as my cue. Sighing, I turned off the water and opened the shower door. Shivering, I reached for my towel and pulled it around my skinny body.

The mirror was fogged up and I rubbed my hand over it to clear a place in the mirror. What looked back at me was pathetic, to say it nicely. She was short, dainty, pale, skinny, wiry muscled and all legs (not a good thing in my case). An overall disappointment. Elizabeth Louise Sutton was colourless; her skin was the colour of milk, her face was all sharp angles with a button nose. Her hair was white-blonde and hung limp around her shoulders as the water started to curl it and make it frizz. I dropped the towel and it puddled around my feet. She was best described as nearing-anorexic, even though her body had been hardened into wiry muscle.

I ate a lot, but being a vegetarian lowers your choices when you go out. Small breasts (14A). My stomach was flat, but luckily my rib cage wasn't showing like Anne, one of my older sisters. The Sutton women all were naturally skinny and we couldn't change it. Catherine, my other older sister and Anne's twin, escaped the curse. She had curves, breasts and boys. Anne and Catherine both had creamy skin, white-blonde curls that didn't frizz and deep-blue eyes. My eyes were grey.

"Liz! One minute or I am coming in there!" Macey screeched. I winced and hurriedly picked up my towel and wrapped it around my lanky-frame. I unlocked the door and slid out past Macey. She exhaled happily and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Wincing again, I turned around and went to my bed. I grabbed my uniform and other necessities.

Macey, Bex and I had one of those fabric room dividers and I slipped behind it and quickly changed. Always the same thing over and over again – plaid skirt, white blouse, jacket and a tie which we all had to wear. Tie knotted and tightened just so. Hair styled to be serious and classy. I wouldn't stand out and that was all that mattered.

Done, I went back over to the bed and attempted to dry my hair. I was staring out the window, looking over the astonishing grounds of Gallagher and a tiny slither of happiness crept into me. I had a home and that was all that mattered. But a home is where my family was. Without wanting or meaning to, I looked over at the picture frame besides my bed.

Bex was happy. Macey was happy. I was happy. Cammie was happy. We all were happy. We were all together. But now, my family had separated. Cammie had left in the dead of night, at the end of our junior year.

"I love you guys, you know that, right?"

Bex, Macey and I looked at each other like maybe Cammie had banged her head a little harder than we had thought.

"Cam…" I started towards her but she waved me away.

"I mean, school's going to be out, and no matter what happens this summer I just have to say it… I love you. It's just something I had to say."

She left that night when we slept. She just left us alone. No note, no good bye, no explanation. She just left to go after Cavan by herself. Bex and Macey tried to get answers from Zach, but he didn't have them. I never felt so helpless in my life...

Now, we had finished our examinations and were waiting for the first semester of our senior year to end.

I sighed and picked up the frame and ghosted my fingers along Cammie's face. I remembered every little detail about Cammie like it had been written in a book that my photographic memory had captured and branded into my mind forever.

"Liz?" Bex's soft voice broke me out of my trance and I spun around, hand clutching my heart. She smiled at me gently, Macey right behind her. They had been getting closer lately. Bonding over Cammie's sudden departure and abandonment. Or, that's what Tina the Gossip Girl of Gallagher decided on anyway. I had to go to Tina now. Bex and Macey refused to tell me anything.

"Are you coming down to dinner? Headmistress Morgan has an important announcement, remember." Macey threw an arm around Bex's neck when I didn't respond and led her out of the room.

I was alone again.

"Welcome, ladies of Gillian Gallagher!" Rachel Morgan spoke with an air of power and humbleness that made me idolise her. She was beautiful, protective, talented and powerful. A deadly combination in any well taught spy. But she was also worried and heartbroken. Her only daughter was gone, just the way her husband went as well.

Missing. In. Action.

"Tonight is a special night, and it will go down in our secret history." Her face clouded over and her eyes darkened. "Today, I received word from Central Intelligence. The Gallagher Academy and the Blackthorn Institute, until the crisis that is upon us has passed – will become a multi-gender school."

In most schools, the students would either be angry or extremely happy. They would create an uproar that would be hard to control. But not in this school. Not the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.

"The Circle of Cavan is growing more and more dangerous as each day passes into the next. Our superiors have decided that Gallagher and Blackthorn will become prime targets because within each school lies the future of espionage. So, until further notice – we are moving to Washington DC, into a building called Darkwood. It has its own grounds and with the CIA's help, it has the best security in the world.

"The Students of Darkwood School – you – are talented young people. They are not a rich school, but cater to the young and extremely gifted students of America. It is the perfect cover for a spy school and in the shadow of Washington, we will not be noticed. It is our only option.

"But know this – We are still the sisters of Gallagher. We will still learn her skills, keep her secrets and honour her sword!" A cheer erupted from my fellow sisters. Headmistress Morgan was probably the best one to do the job in the history of Gallagher. She was doing so much for so, keeping us safe even though her daughter was out there.

Headmistress Morgan raised a hand and silence fell again. "Do not pack any uniform you have. Only the casual and civilian clothes you have. On arrival at Darkwood via Blackhawk's, you will be given a pack that has everything that you will need. Dismissed."

The Darkwood School, my new 'home' was a big revolution era building, and a happy place. I had done my research and had found the not-so-nice History of the Darkwood House and surrounding grounds. Built in the early nineteenth century by Henry and Georgiana Darkwood, it was there home until they both died in a carriage accident in 1840. They had no children of their own. The property passed to Frances Darkwood, Henry's second to youngest brother. He held the house until his mystery death in 1859. He died in his sleep. It was only later on, towards the turn of the twentieth century that it was discovered that he had been poisoned by his younger brother, Rupert. Rupert inherited the house and transformed it into a very popular brothel.

During the civil war, Rupert was killed. He died from twenty-two dagger wounds in his back. If a person died of dagger and knife wounds, it usually meant that the attack was done in an heightened emotional state. A prostitute called Maria de'Ath was last seen in his room. She was a popular, ah, whore? Whatever, but the point is she was in love with Rupert's business partner, Christian Harrington. Christian was angry because Rupert was getting seventy percent of al the prophets made and their agreement had been fifty-fifty.

Maria and Christian became engaged and later married. But a week after there marriage, Maria Harrington was found dead in her room, strangled. Christian was free to marry his mistress, Helen. Unfortunately, Helen was found dead two months later. She died from a gun shot wound. Christian, who was in New York during both deaths, was never convicted.

Christian died three years after Rupert in mysterious circumstances. From here, his son by the, ah, whore – and his mistress - Anne Darling took over. Infortune followed Peter his entire life.

Anne Darling was murdered on January the first. A year later, on February the second another woman, Jane, was murdered. On March the third, Charlotte Granger was murdered. Twelve years after the murder of Anne darling, on December twelfth, Peter's wife, Catherine, was found dead in her room. Peter killed himself as soon as he saw the body by jumping out the third storey window.

Peter had a brother, Arthur Darling. Arthur and his beautiful wife, Elaine, took control of the manor. They transformed the brothel into a boarding house, and during Arthur and Elaine's time, the house became successful. Elaine Darling died in 1949. She was murdered by Arthur's best friend and business partner, Charles Grange. Charles was sent to jail with three life sentences.

From 1949 until the boarding house closed in 1969, thirty young girls were murdered. Darkwood closed down in 1970 and hasn't been used in forty years. As legend goes, the ghosts of Maria and Helen Harrington, Anne and Catherine Darling, as well as all the other murdered girls haunt the halls of Darkwood, seeking their murderers.

Very happy indeed.

"Ladies, welcome to your new home," Professor Buckingham announced as the bus pulled into the driveway. On either side of the gravel road, a wood grew. A sort-of canopy had formed over the road, keeping out most of the sunlight. The occasional beam shone through the leaves, making the road look like a patchwork quilt. You couldn't hear the sound of the other cars, the avenue was that long.

The bus had gone silent as all my sisters looked out at the thick wood. Some of the trees had flowery little things growing from them, adding something over the shadows and green to the scenery outside. Bex and Macey's mouths had dropped open.

Finally we came to the end of the driveway and got our first glance at the 'house.' It was incredible. Made of grey stone, it looked marvellous and mysterious. The window frames were also the grey stone. The front doors were made of wooden oak and had been cast in bronze. On either side of the front door, were huge windows. Then, on the left side, the building jutted out. It was the same on the right.

Macey, Bex and I came off the bus last of all, silent and mesmerised by the house. The silence was broken when Bex saw the god-like teenager leaning against the open door, watching her.

"Grant!" Bex screamed, running towards him at full pace. She flung herself into his arms and started sobbing. Grant put his arms around her, patting her back in soothing circles. He made hushing noises and murmured over and over again 'its okay... everything's going to be just fine...' His voice was a warm, seductive, velvet lullaby.

He looked up from Bex and his eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on Macey and I. I felt heat flood into my cheeks and bit my bottom lip. His eyes burned into mine; seeking out answers and something else I couldn't place. He crooked a smile at me and my cheeks grew even warmer. I had forgotten what Grant looked like. He was tall, six-three at the least, and was all ripped muscle. It was lean and hardened muscle, from hours of hard work and sweat. Walnut coloured skin, a perfect tan. His buzz cut had grown out a little bit. His eyes still hypnotised me. The ice-blue colour enthralled me. He was the best looking guy in the world.

"Macey! Liz!" Bex called out, still wrapped around Grant. Macey smiled, brightly and ran up to Bex. She hugged both Bex and Grant. I waited for my bag. When it finally came out, I lugged it over my shoulder and tried to stand up straight.

"Let me take that." I started, spinning around and tripping over one of Eva's many bags. Grant's arms snaked out and caught me inches from the ground. His grip on my waist was hot. My blouse had ridden up and he was touching bare skin. I held back the shiver that threatened to expose me.

"Oopsie Daisy," I breathed, hypnotised by his eyes.

Grant smiled at me, roguishly. He steadied me and let go of my waist. I missed the touch immediately. "Bex did tell me how accident prone you are; I just didn't believe it up till now."

I blushed again. He laughed and the sound sent shivers up my spine.

"Thank you," I spluttered as Grant picked up my bag like it was weightless. He raised a hand in acknowledgment and continued on walking. I hurried to keep up, tripping over nothing. Inside the house was even more spectacular than the outside. Huge, marble pillars split the entry into thirds. A huge staircase is at the end of the hall, leading up to the second storey. A long table has been placed a few metres in front of the firsts step, on it are our packs. On either side of the staircase, I see a door.

Grant watched me. "Those doors lead off into what we have christened the Dining Room. It's where we will be eating our meals and holding parties." He winks at me. I flush.

Grant led me up to the table, where an attractive woman I had never seen before sat, twirling hair around her thin finger. It was auburn, and fell in loose curls around her face. Her face itself had a pixyish quality to it, like mine.

"What's up, Professor D?" Grant asked. The lady smiled at him, transforming her face into something that could only be described as angelic.

"Well, if it isn't my best student at Blackthorn! I haven't seen you since you took your last Covert Operations course!" Professor D pouts at him. "I've missed your stupid comments. Class just isn't the same without them."

Grant and the lady laughed.

"Professor Dante, this is my friend Liz Sutton. She needs her pack," Grant introduces me and Professor Dante shakes my outstretched hand. She raises an eyebrow and a smirk graces her angelic face.

"Your friend, Grant?" She looks at him and he fidgets uncomfortably under her gaze. I can only stare in confusion. "I didn't think you had many female friends, dearest. Besides the one that stay the night. And only the one night." Grant looked as stunned as I was embarrassed.

As if Grant would date me!

Professor Dante laughs again and shakes her head. "So serious." She pushes back from the table and her chair rolls to the left. She stops herself and starts to shift through some of the packs, mumbling my last name over and over again. She makes a sound of success and rolls back to us.

"Elizabeth Louise Sutton?" I nod hesitantly. "Seventeen years of age, born in November. Struggles with asthma as a child…" I nod, wordlessly, as she rattles off more facts from my file. "Two older sister, twins, Anne Clarissa and Catherine Amy. Neither work for any intelligence agency, both attend Stanford." She chances a glace up at me and my cheeks flame as I realise the next part of the file. "Virgin…" My head jerks this time and I reach out my hand, panicking slightly. She analyses my face, flickers a glance at Grant, and hands the folder over. "You are on the third storey in room 113. You'll be sharing with Macey Alice McHenry and Rebecca Natalie Baxter."

She pulls out something from her pack. It's a layout and I memorise it in a second. "The first storey is dedicated entirely to classes. The second storey is mostly Blackthorn and the third storey is where all the Gallagher Girls are staying. There is a basement underneath this storey where all the more… secretive classes are held. Breakfast is at eight sharp and classes start at nine. They finish at four. Get it?"

"Yes, Professor."

"Good." She rolls down the table towards Eva, Tina and Mick.

Eva and Tina are staring wide eyed at Grant and me. I can see the wheels turning inside Tina's head as she's formulating another rumour and all the questions that she will ask me later tonight. Grant touches my shoulder and I shiver at the contact. He doesn't seem to notice. Grabbing my bicep, he leads me up the staircase on to the Blackthorn Storey. Eva and Tina still haven't taken there eyes off Grant and I. Feeling over-confident, I grab his hand.

"No way!" I hear Tina from the table and I can't help blushing. Grant doesn't push my hand away. He squeezes it, grasping it tightly.

"Don't min Professor Dante. She just likes making an impression and asserting herself as Top Dog." I give a small inclination of my head, refusing to look at him.

Each room we pass in silence is orderly and neat. Exactly the way it was up at Gallagher. Unlike at Gallagher, I knew why they looked like army barracks. The Blackthorn Institute cover storey was a boot camp for troubled young men or something.

The strange buzzing, foggy feeling overcomes my mind as Grant brushes a finger along my arm.

Why couldn't I remember anything today?

I felt a pressure on my hand and was startled to see that Grants hand was still linked with mine. It was large, warm, and calloused from all the training we spies get. I felt his thumb rub circles on the back of my hand. I instantly relaxed and enjoyed the contact. Electric currents moved along every inch of skin, originating from Grants hand in mine.

We came to another staircase and started up. "So, what did Professor Dante mean about you not having many female friends?" I instantly grimace at my own words and try to slip my hand out. He grabs it harder making it impossible.

Grant had stopped walking now and was looking at me, open-mouthed. He shut his mouth and closed it again, licking his bottom lip. I couldn't help appreciating his lips – they looked really soft and I imagined that kissing them would be great.

Then what I actually asked processed properly.

"You don't have to answer that!" Oh no, oh no. "I am so sorry! I really shouldn't be prying! I was just trying to get a conversation going to, you know, ease the sexual tension! WAIT! I meant awkward tension! THE AWKWARD TENSION! Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oopsie Daisy!" I slammed into an open door, effectively closing it. "I am so sorry! It's just the way she implied it… you would think I was your girlfriend or something! Like that would ever happen, of course! I'm not saying that I wouldn't be your girlfriend, I just meant that you're you and I'm me!" I was babbling now, saying anything that came across my mind.

"Are you all right, Liz? You hit that door pretty hard." My bag drops to the ground and Grant reaches up to cup my chin. He turned my head left and right, inspecting it for damage. I quietly sighed to myself, wishing that he would just kiss me.

"'S fine," I managed to mumble out, ignoring the chills that ran up my spine. I closed my eyes in exhaustion remembering just who this boy was.

Bex's boyfriend, Grant. Get it together, Sutton!

Grant smirked at me and grabbed the piece of paper in my hand. He scanned across the page and gestured to a room at very end of the hallway. He picked up my bag again and led me to my bedroom.

He opened the door with his shoulder. He turned to me and I walked in, mumbling a thank you for the gentlemanlike behaviour. It was strange, how much each of us had changed since we met at Gallagher back in sophomore year. Zach had disappeared (MIA and presumed dead) while on a mission with Grant. What ever they had done had changed him entirely and Bex didn't like the change. Their relationship had been on the rocks for a year.

"Here you go Liz – welcome to Darkwood!" He dropped my bag on the floor by one of the inbuilt wardrobe doors and turned around. His eyes met mine and my breath stopped. Grant took a step towards me, at the same time as I moved towards my bag. Our bodies were flush against each other and I got a thrill of pleasure imagining what would happen next.

"Macey! The room is here!" I heard Bex's voice drift through the wood of the door and Grant hastily stepped back and walked out without even a goodbye.

He brushed past them both and Macey made a 'humph.'

"What was that all about?" she grumbled, chucking her bags onto the bed furthest from the one I had claimed by the window. Bex shrugged and took the bed next to Macey, on the other side of the room to me. Figures.

Tina came in an announced dinner before I had even started unpacking.

Dinner that night was eventful, to say the least. All the seniors had to sit at one table in alphabetical order so we could 'get to know one another.' Tonight we sat according to our last names. Sutton was right next to a Blackthorn boy called 'Satin, Phillip.'

It started of alright. I sat down next to Phillip and he barely recognised my appearance. He was to busy talking to the much prettier girl across from him, called Hilary Tintern. She was tall, blonde, tanned and hot. I was short, blonde, pale and … well you get the point. I had forgotten all about a certain Blackthorn boy and was talking to Hannah Tintern, Hilary's twin sister who sat next to Hilary (they had swapped seats) on the opposite side of the table.

She and I shared quite a few classes together. I knew her pretty well and we had always been civil to each other. But when a boy sat down next to her she was completely lost on me. I even chucked a bread roll at her chest and she didn't notice.

"You've got a nice arm there, Sutton," I spun around and Grant stood next to me, holding the back of the empty chair next to my own. He lowered his tall person into it and slung an arm around the back of my chair, lazily. "I'm impressed."

I could only gape at him. "You can't sit there."

Smooth.

He cocked an eyebrow at me and smirked. He lent in close to me so that I could smell his peppermint breath (he was a gum chewer). "Oh? Why is that Sutton?"

"Because we have to sit in alphabetical order and your last name isn't…" I trailed off, feeling myself blush.

I didn't even know his last name! He pulled his head back and grabbed a bread roll, smothering it in butter and popping a piece in his mouth. He chewed and I waited. "I'm so sorry; we haven't been properly introduced yet have we?" He offered a hand, smug smile firmly in place. "My name is Grant Sutherland."

Well, I'll be.

How did I not know that?

"My files are classified Liz – I didn't know your name till Jonas actually told me."

Did I say that out loud? Opps

"Opps indeed." I should stop thinking now.

"Whatever floats your boat, but personally, I love that big and beautiful brain of yours."

Determined not to make an ever bigger fool of myself, I flushed bright red and spun away from Grant and forcibly started a conversation with Philip. As dinner progressed and I continued to ignore Grant Sutherland, more than five different girls shot me some very dirty looks (not that I minded. At all. Because they were only jealous because he was next to me). Grant tried numerous tactics to get my attention back solely on him. He managed with talk of the latest truth serum prototype. As our conversation developed, he shifted, moving closer to me. I did the same. His leg was pressed up against mine, his hand rested a few centimetres away from my own. When dinner was finally served, I made a shocking discovery that turned my all ready fragile and unbalanced world upside down. Grant hadn't been talking to Bex. At all. Since Cammie left.

"What?"

I didn't mean to sound so surprised, but I did. My shout echoed through the room, breaking across all other noise, as Grant's words sunk down into my skin and clung to my bones with a cold, icy fingers.

"Shh!" he hissed, covering his big hand over my mouth. I struggled against the urge to bite him, or worse lick him like I used to do with Cammie before she left us alone at Gallagher. "Not so loud, you idiot!" He glared at me with his fantastic looking eyes, totally nullifying the effect the glare should have had. I tried to reply, but all that came out was a group of very muffled sounds. I narrowed my eyes at him and he slowly took his hand away.

I hated it when people called me an idiot.

"What did you except me to do, Grant? Sit there and act like you and I had been having a very mundane talk about the weather?" I snarled, tightening my hand into a fist. He seemed surprised by my spark in temper.

"Honestly?" I nodded, anger colouring my face at his words. "I thought she had told you already!" he whispered, eyes scanning the room and checking to see if anyone was eavesdropping. This was a school for training spies after all.

That tipped me over the edge. "For your information, Grant, Rebecca Baxter confides in no one but Macey McHenry! For almost a year now, I have been an outsider – an intruder – to the little world they have built for themselves."

Grant's eyes narrowed, turning my rage to confusion. People stared quite openly. He made gestures, telling me to stop making a scene, but I was too far gone. I didn't care what anyone thought anymore. "Did you know that Macey never liked me? That she only, and quote, 'put up with me' because Cammie wanted her too? Did you know that she hated me because she thought I was a 'pathetic nobody who only talked to them because they could help me pass Covert Ops?"

Grant's eyes blazed. "Liz…" He was angry. I hated that. Because he was angry at me, for causing a scene. And that made me angrier, because I shouldn't care.

"Did you know that Bex didn't like me that much either? Did you know that every time they laughed at my jokes, every time they said they would stand by me, every time they cared for me was a lie! No one though to see if little Lizzie could handle her best friend leaving. Oh no. It was 'poor Macey and Bex.' No one even knew that I existed!"

I was done screaming at him now; my body shook with the effort and my hands where shaky. I stood up and wiped furiously at my tears. The next part came out as a strangled sob. "Did you know that six months after Cammie went missing, I was blackmailed by Cavan? Because they wanted a program that I had started creating before she left?" I stopped for a moment to compose myself.

Everyone watched. The teachers looked stunned, calculating, and I remembered in some distant part of my mind that I had kept Cavan's blackmailing secret. But I didn't care anymore. All I cared about was me and Cammie, because no one else did or would anymore. And I was long overdue for honestly and rage. "You know nothing about me Grant – yet you sit there and act like you have me all figured out. You act like you give a damn, but you don't!"

I left the hall amid a hush of surprised silence. I pushed through a group of sophomores and took a left turn. I leant against the wall, shaking and panting. Sobbing salty tears as the hall erupted with noise as they talked about me. But no one came after me. I knew they wouldn't. Without a second though, I ran up the stairs, taking two at a time.

Nobody came after me. But no one ever did. No one ever would, I realised, except for Cammie. But Cammie was gone now. She had left the lies and deceit of Gallagher and gone to find her own answers in the world outside. Zach had followed her and now they were both gone. Cammie had never lied to me. Not once. She was the only one I could trust.

So I made my decision.

I was going. I was running. I was leaving. I was finding Cammie and giving the Circle of Cavan the program they wanted in exchange for her life. And Zach's, if necessary, because I knew that it was both of them or neither of them. They were a package. A set. Two halves to a whole.

I rushed up the next flight of stairs and flew into my room. I dived to the floor and tugged out my backpack and started searching the room for anything I would likely need. The first thing I grabbed was my laptop (naturally) and some of my own gadgets and devices. The CIA and Homeland security were bidding on them and the price had just reached seven hundred thousand.

That money would be all I needed.

I striped out of my uniform and ripped open my suitcase. Jeans went in first along with a few pairs of canvas shorts, followed by t-shirts and tank tops. I took two of my sweaters and stuffed one in, leaving the other one out. Bras and panties went in next. I took three bras and all the pairs of panties I had. I fumbled for the button on the bottom of my case and opened the secret compartment. Inside was all my money. I had been saving up ever since Cammie went missing and had reached a grand total of twenty-two thousand (most of it from the different gadgets I had created and sold) dollars.

I pulled out my most comfortable black jeans and a black long sleeved turtle neck. I stripped off my stockings and pulled on the jeans. I pulled on a black singlet top, then a black tank. Pulling on the turtle neck then finally pulling my only leather jacket on over the top. I had been secretly training and was now made of wiry muscle.

I added a hair brush and other sanitary needs in to one of the outside pockets of the bag as an after though. I pulled my now-curly hair into a high ponytail and applied a little bit of make-up. A silly thing to do, but it made me feel like a real spy. I glanced in the mirror and nodded in approval.

A light glinting in the one little and weak beam of moonlight made me choke. It was the picture. I went to Macey's bag and pulled out a silk scarf from Milan and wrapped it around the frame. The delicate silver heart-shaped locket my mother gave me for my sixteenth birthday also made it. I clasped it around my neck and it shined against all the black I was wearing.

I looked around the room and decided to throw all my other belonging back into the suitcase. I zipped it up and shouldered my back pack. It had taken a grand total of seven minutes and I prided myself on that one mundane thing. With a final glance I turned around…

… and ran into a wall that hadn't been there a second ago.

I landed with a thud and did a commando roll, ending in a low, prepared crouch (all that training had paid off).

"Just where in the hell do you think you're going, Liz?" Grant growled at me from the doorway. I stood up and brushed myself off, carefully considering all my other options of escape, just like Cammie had taught me.

"Away," I answered cryptically.

He growled again.

My temper spiked. "Why do you even care, Grant?" I stared into the pools of his eyes, daring and challenging him to something I couldn't fully comprehend.

He broke the eye contact and placed his head in his hands. He slumped against the door frame and shook his head. Finally he looked up again and I nearly stumbled back when I saw the new light in his eyes. It was bright and it was something that I couldn't name an emotion to.

"Why do I care?" he laughed, but all humour was absent. "Why do I care? God!" I didn't flinch when his dispassionate humour turned into rage. "Why don't I care? How is it that the genius can't see what everyone else can? Bex could see it, for gods' sakes! Fucking Jonas could see it and he doesn't care about anything besides anime and computers!"

The moon slipped in through a gap of the curtains and illuminated Grant as his eyes stared at me, searching my face. His blonde hair appeared silver and ethereal and his eyes shined. He was beautiful. He made a sound and punched the wall. I didn't flinch, didn't make a move.

"You aren't making any sense, Grant." He didn't respond. I wanted to cry. Because he was here and I wanted him to be here, but at the same time I wanted to be away and with Cammie. "If you want to be all cryptic, go do it with someone who has the patience to tolerate it. I have a deadline, you are in my way. Either move or I'll move you myself. Because if you think that I am still the same weak, pathetic and idiotic girl you met two years ago, think again. I don't like to put up with any unnecessary idiots." I made to push past him but it had no effect.

Plan B it was.

I went over to the window and jumped nimbly onto the sill and pried it open with no sound what so ever. I felt a surge of pride again. I pushed it open until I had a gap big enough to fit my thin frame through. The second-storey balcony was just below and I could make it without doing myself any harm.

Just as I was about to jump out the window, I felt Grant's arm snake around my waist and pull me back. He jerked me on to the bed and had my wrists above my head, held in the iron grip of one of his hands. I struggled against him. It did nothing. I stopped and glared into his face, which was an inch from mine. A stray piece of hair stuck to my lips and another fell across my face.

Grant was breathing heavily and it wasn't from the stunt he had just pulled with me. My breathing picked up as I took in the situation, felt the situation for what it was. God please don't let him notice! We lay like that for what felt like an eternity. Everything else in the room slipped away until it was just Grants face centimetres away from my own and his body pressed against mine.

With his other hand, Grant brushed away the hair from my face. His fingers grazed my cheek and I heard my heart increase. His lips parted and I restrained the urge to press my own against them.

"You're so beautiful, Liz Sutton."

I stopped breathing and stared at him. A thousand different emotions came and went within twenty seconds. His eyes burned into mine and he ran his fingers down my face, tracing the line of my neck. I closed my eyes and sighed.

"You have always been beautiful to me."

I opened my eyes again and I couldn't help but say the one thought that screamed inside my mind. "You really think I'm beautiful?"

Grant slid off me and I missed his warmth immediately.

"Of course I think you're beautiful. I have never seen someone like you before. When you smile you only use your lips – it drives me crazy when you bite your bottom lip. Your laugh is amazing and you crinkle your forehead when you're thinking really hard about something," he chuckled, sending me a hooded look, "and I noticed all that just after the first time I saw you at Gallagher." He paused and looked at me again. "When I saw you today, I knew you had changed. You were even more beautiful than ever, but in a different way. Before you had been delicate and now you were strong. Seriously Liz, you were the only one who didn't seem to know the way I felt about you. Do you want me to go on?"

I shook my head, refusing to believe. My heart hammered in my chest. "L-l-liar…" He couldn't be telling the truth. It was an impossibility. Girls like me didn't get the attention of boy like him. Never. Never ever ever.

He sighed, moving to stand in front of me, flush against my body and traced the outline of my lips. "When you yelled at me in the hall, it made me realise how much I cared about you. I wanted to kill everyone who had ever hurt you. I wanted to strangle Bex and Macey. I wanted to leave the hall right them and take on the Circle alone. After you left I ran on autopilot. I got everyone to shut up. I realised what you were going to do and I decided that I was going to do it with you; no one was going to hurt you again."

I looked him over, blinking in my haze; he was wearing dark clothes, like me and had a back pack by the door. His hand cupped my face and I lost all perception of reality.

"If that doesn't clue you in, then look at it this way: I'm in love with you, Liz. I always have been."

Then he was kissing me.

The feel of Grant's lips against mine sent a vicious thrill down my spine. It was beyond wrong for me to feel this way about it. He was a hot boy, for one thing, and this wasn't the type of thing a hot boy did. Kiss a girl like me. He didn't wrestle around on the ground and he didn't just let someone kiss him. He had a girlfriend. He was loyal.

But he was kissing me and fire engulfed me and made my head spin and turn. I was being kissed. It was warm, tender, soft and addictive. As my instincts kicked in, I responded and Grant eagerly deepened the kiss. It felt good and I didn't want this moment to end. Even if this was a dream, the kiss was amazing and I yearned for more. However, all of a sudden, Grant pulled back and I whimpered at the loss of his warm lips.

He smirked. "We have a long time to do that." He pressed a soft, chaste kiss to my forehead and my eyes fluttered shut and I leant into him. His arms were around me. "But at the moment, we have to go."

"Together?" I spoke hesitantly, still unsure. Still disbelieving.

Grant smiled softly, lovingly, adoringly. "Yes Liz. Together."

A/N: So, what do you think?

Read and Review!

- Agent 006