I had made quite the pen-pal of my niece. Though I never sent anything to her that wasn't fully encrypted and on evapopaper, she was my way to vent.

I was doing my honest to god best not to be a ghost to her anymore. The winter in Florida was nice, and I knew the kids would be out on spring break any day now. To admit it, I missed protecting Macey.

It sounded silly, but Gallagher was like my home. And Macey was a lot like me. And I liked seeing Cammie and Rachel. And I really liked seeing Joe Solomon. I contemplated giving him a phonecall or sending him a postcard, but was too much of a coward to do so. Instead, I wrote in a postscript to Cammie,

"Send your Covert Operations teacher my regards!"

Of course, written phonetically in the Siberian dialect of Russian like the rest of the letter.

Cammie was logical. She told me that I should send him a letter, and that he got more and more sour every day without me. That last part made me smile. Maybe I should pay him a visit, for the girls' sake. It was still the first week of December, and I was enjoying my time in Florida, but I was far too spontaneous a person to resist once the idea had settled into my mind. I would pay a surprise visit to Roseville!

So I did what spontaneous people do best: I didn't spend a moment planning and caught the next flight to Virginia. There was a minor issue with the TSA and my pistol before I let them know I was part of the Secret Service (after which, there was absolutely no hassle. Even with a pistol under my belt).

Before long, I stood at the gates of the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.

"Rachel," I called through the gates. They opened for me and I walked slowly up the driveway, admiring the lack of a code red inside the building. My sister rushed out to greet me.

"Abby!" We embraced. "What are you doing here?"

"Cam told me not to be a ghost," I shrugged, "This is me… not being a ghost."

"Winter break is three days away, then Cammie's headed to London with Bex," Rachel reminded me.

"Three days is enough time," I brushed away her worries. "So what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," Rachel grinned, "But I heard you took down a couple pirates!"

"It wasn't just me," I said sheepishly, "I had Lia, Kate, and Jana with me." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Of course you did, Trouble!" She used my school-old codename. My roommates and I had been Trouble, Chaos, Havoc, and Indiana. Lia had insisted on being Indiana even back then.

I'm sure she was remembering all the trouble my roomies and I caused her during her Gallagher days. Though we were in seventh grade when she was a senior, my friends and I had made her senior year a living nightmare. Not only could she barely stand the rule-breaking and the trouble I got into all over the place, but the pranks we pulled weren't ordinary girl pranks. They were Gallagher Girl pranks, which, to say the least, aren't nearly as nice or simple to fix. Nor do they typically feel very good.

"A few people on Sublevel Two have been missing you," She gave me a wink and opened the door to the school for me. I marveled at Gilly's sword for approximately forty-eight seconds before setting off at a jogging pace towards Sublevel Two. The mirror scanned my face and the eyes on the painting glowed green (just like I remembered from every time I've ever visited!). I went down to two, pricked my finger, and breathed in the familiar scent of home.

Was it just me, or was that Joe Solomon's polo I smelled in the air, too?

I walked as quietly as possible down the spiral until I could hear a lecturing (if not very snappy) voice echoing. I leaned against the doorway and watched a film roll from the projector, dust dancing in the air, and waited for somebody to notice me.

"Abby!" Bex whispered to Cammie, who turned around and grinned broadly. Joe scowled at the whispering girls, but followed Bex and Cammie's gaze to me in the doorway. He surprisingly maintained his scowl as he looked me up and down. I frowned, then realized that it was his cover. He was as spy, too, after all!

Class ended and Cammie and Bex embraced me.

"Just wait until Liz and Macey hear you're here!" Bex promised great reactions from her roommates. The dim lights came back on. Tina and Eva approached, too, asking about my adventures. I offhandedly informed them that I had taken down a bunch of pirates (not of the Johnny Depp breed, and definitely not hot in the least) with a bunch of my Gallagher Girl friends (and one boy who really shouldn't have been there). They finally scampered from the classroom, promising to talk to me later. Joe kept his scowl.

"Hello, creepy face!" I teased. "Long time, no see, eh?"

"Long time, no communicate, more like," he glowered. "You couldn't have just said… something?" He looked mad. Uh-oh.

"Wait a second… you're actually mad at me?"

"I'm not going to lie to you," his voice was far too quiet, "I'm a little frustrated. I mean… after all that happened… after… and you didn't have the nerve to let me know that you were okay."

"You were worried?"

"Of course I was worried!" He brushed some of my stray hair out of my face.

"I thought about Istanbul," I whispered, not wanting to really look him in the eye anymore. His anger seemed to have lost its steam with the confession that it wasn't really anger so much as stress and he pulled me in for a hug. I smiled. "That's more the Joe I know." I thought back to what had happened, both before and after the kiss. "I'm in Florida for winter break. Join me," I whispered.

"Can't," He didn't sound apologetic, but he did sound a little disappointed, "I'm doing things."

"What kind of things?" I asked mischievously. He leaned in close with a halfway, come-on-baby smile.

"Classified," he whispered tauntingly. At that, I kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

Thanks for reading! And thanks so much for the nice reviews, guys ;) ILY!