"Mom," Matthew whined, clearly embarrassed at the topic of conversation.

"Sit," I said, pointing at the bed in the centre of the room. Whinging, he complied. "Now what is her name," I demanded to know. My question was met with silence, and the mysterious smirk he'd so inherited from his father. I knew they hadn't taught him interrogation tactics yet, but this kid was still seriously hard to crack… without actually using force. Because I could totally crack him if I used force, but he was my son so that kinda ruled that out. "Her name?" I repeated. His resolve remained steely so I decided to bring out the big guns. Not literal guns, although I was totally tempted. "I'll tell everyone about the time you threw up on the director of the CIA; in front of the whole organisation."

"No!' he yelled. "I mean," he stuttered.

"Go on," I said, raising an eyebrow and smiling gleefully. Matthew coughed and mumbled a few words that ended with "Suzie", coincidently the name of Bex's extremely gorgeous 15 year old daughter.

"I knew it," I yelled as I pulled him up and danced around the room with him. He blushed and we laughed, spinning ourselves back onto the bed.

"You're so immature Mom," Matthew teased.

"You love it," I smiled back at my son who was growing up way too fast. I observed his tall and lanky frame, how his longer hair framed his striking face, those piercing eyes that were neither blue nor green.

"How did you know," the spy in my son asked, "I was careful, I altered my patterns, used practically every trick in the book!"

I pointed to myself and said, "Spy".

"Besides," I elaborated, "I had a similar adventure of my own when I was your age. I know the signs when I see them."

"Really?" he asked. "But you and Dad were so young when you met each other, I just…you know, presumed."

"It was the semester before I met your Dad." Matthew nodded, his curious green eyes signalling for me to continue. "I was in town for a CoveOps exercise and I was, am, practically invisible, no one ever notices me when I don't want them too. This boy saw me, his name was Josh, and he was sweet and I was flattered and I fell in love. I snuck out of the school practically every weekend for a semester."

"He was a civilian!"

"Yeah. He was. It didn't end well," I shrugged, "well, it depends if you call him crashing my CoveOps exam, literally, with a forklift, an unhappy ending."

"No way!" Matthew exclaimed, his eyes wide, his cheeky grin returning.

"Way," I said. "And the moral of that story is don't date civilians kiddo."

"Don't plan to. I'm not that stupid," he retorted. I stood and walked to my dresser, feeling his gaze follow my movements. I opened the second draw and dug around in the back left corner, finding exactly what I wanted.

I retraced my steps to the bed. "Here," I said handing him a black jewellery box. I watched his face crumple with confusion.

"These are….earrings?" he said, baffled.

I sat on the bed next to him. "Josh gave them to me," I sighed referring to the most delicate pair of silver earrings I'd ever seen. "I want you to give them to your first love, whether that is Suzie or not." I stood and walked towards the door, leaving him in thought.

"Mom?" Matthew called.

"Yes," I said turning around.

"Don't tell anyone please?"

"Relax kiddo, I won't tell your sister."

"I wasn't talking about Joesephine Mom. I was talking about Bex."

"Oh I have no doubt she already knows," I sang with a grin as I left the room.

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-MMC Gang :)xx