"Cammie's in trouble," Grace's voice seemed nervous over the phone. "We know the Circle is after her, and we have suspicions about who might be behind it."

"Who?" If anything happened to Squirt…

"I'm sure you're familiar with Joseph Solomon," I wasn't sure whether it sounded pointed or not. I mentally blamed her accent for the ambiguity.

"Very familiar with Joseph Solomon," I answered, to clear up any lack of knowledge on Grace Baxter's part.

"Abby," he said my name like he cared. I was terrified so I clung to the only thing I could: the man standing right in front of me. His hands settled at my waist, pulling me closer.

"What if something happens?" I asked.

"Nothing will happen to Cammie-"

"I wasn't talking about Cammie," I told him. "What if Rachel finds out about this?" I kissed him. His grin was goofy.

"We're spies," he informed me like I didn't know exactly who I was, "We're good at keeping secrets."

"Rachel and I are also sisters," I retorted, "In more than one sense. Sisters aren't good at keeping secrets." He kissed me on the mouth, and I wondered if it was just to shut me up. I looked under my bed, just checking that Squirt wasn't there to witness the kiss. Luckily for me and Joe, Cammie wasn't hiding under my bed tonight. Otherwise there might have been trouble.

"They have your sister."

"I know. Where?" I didn't even wait for the answer. I knew they had Rachel, I just needed to hear it again. Before I hung up the phone, I was racing through the hotel lobby in my socks and pajamas, towards my ride to Langley. What they would want with Rachel, I didn't know, but I had to see her. Just had to see her.

"Hello, Ms. Cameron," a robotic voice said.

"I'm here to see Rachel." I responded coldly.

"I'm afraid that's not possible at this time," the voice responded, "She's currently being interrogated."

"I can wait." I told the machine, knowing full well that the person operating that machine heard the 'I refuse to wait' in my voice. I heard a sigh, and a human voice replaced the robot.

"Come in, Agent Cameron."

"Thank you," I snipped. As it turned out, Rachel wasn't in interrogation. She was in a 'detention pen' (jail cell). "Rach!"

"Abby!" She looked far beyond bewildered to see me. "How did you get here?"

"I wanted to know," I told her simply. "What's going on? With Joe, with you…?" My voice faded away. I was at a loss for words for the first time since the sixth grade (I've been counting).

"Joe's a traitor," Rachel whispered hoarsely. I wondered if she caught the same cold that was going around. "A double agent working for the Circle. He was lying all along."

"No," I refused to believe it.

"A week ago, the guy who," Rachel motioned towards my still-healing bullet wound, trailing off, "He started talking. He doesn't know much. Doesn't know why they want Cammie or… or really anything except who he was recruited with."

"And who may that have been?" I asked my sister, though I knew what answer was coming.

"Joseph Solomon. Abby, you have to believe me. For Cammie's sake."

"I'll try."

Next thing I knew, I was in London racing through the snow in boots that totally weren't meant for racing through the snow. The high-heels sunk into the mud beneath the white snow, making awful squelching sounds that I wasn't a fan of at all.

"Oh, lord." I looked up at the drawbridge. I was just a little too late. Joe gripped Cammie's shoulders. His lips moved, and I cursed myself for being too far away to read them. All I knew was that he was telling her something. Something that was very important to him. And I knew I was too far away to know what he was saying, since all I could make out was 'pigeons' and I knew that couldn't have anything to do with what he was telling my niece.

My eyes moved to the right, and I saw Grace, Abe, and Bex standing behind Cammie, with about a dozen other operatives close at hand. Joe looked around desperately. My heart hitched a little as I could have sworn he locked eyes with me. I was way too far away to be able to tell, but a part of me hoped…

He jumped. The crazy bastard jumped and plummeted towards the dark, churning Thames.

"Joe!" I called. I watched him hit the water and then… nothing. Nothing at all happened after that. I wondered briefly if the impact from falling from that height would be enough to kill a man. I reconsidered. Most men, yes, but not a man like Joe Solomon.

I drove to the Baxters' as quickly as possible.

To find it empty.

Great.

Of course they would have gone to some official! The squirt would need to be brought in for debriefing.

"Baxter!" I whispered harshly over the phone. I was starting to catch a cold, probably from Rachel, a prospect that didn't make me too happy. One more thing to make me feel like crap.

"Abigail," Abe said on the other end.

"I need to talk to you," I told him. "In person."

"I trust you'll be able to track us down," Abe said. Despite all that was going on, I felt like I was up to the challenge. It would be unwise to say where their safehouse was over the phone, where any Joe Solomon could be listening.

"Shouldn't be a problem." I responded.

"See you when you catch up."

When I caught up happened to be five days later, where I met them at a safe house in a location I can't really disclose. It was almost midnight when I let myself in. Not surprisingly, Abe and Grace were up.

"Nice to see you, Abby," Grace smiled benignly at me. "Please, sit down." I did as she said. "Do you want some tea?"

"No thanks." I took off my big sweatshirt. "What have you two been up to?"

"Besides keeping the girls entertained," Grace said, "We've been discussing the Circle's possible motives."

"Cavan," I repeated. Abe changed the subject.

"Have you seen Rachel?"

"Yes," I admitted.

"I'm surprised that was possible," Grace said disbelievingly. She thought I was lying.

"Well, I wasn't in the mood to hear that it was impossible." I confessed.

"I see," Yeah, Grace clearly did not believe that I had seen my sister. I honestly hardly believed it myself, but it had been… easy. I glanced up towards the room where Bex and Cammie would be sleeping.

"Grace, how is she?" Grace knew I wasn't talking about my sister anymore.

"Fine," she responded cryptically. "Should I go get her?" She added.

"No," I sighed, "Let the squirt have her sleep." I heard the shuffle of bare feet on hardwood, then quiet. "God knows I haven't had enough."

"How was Dubai?" Abe asked of my recent mission with the Girls and Jonny.

"Not the same without you," I admitted with a laugh. "Lia passed out from blood loss at one point, but we managed to arrest a few of the bad guys."

"Nice to know," Grace smiled. We sat in awkward silence for a little while (sixty seven seconds, to be exact), before Abe asked,

"Are you sure you don't want some tea?"

"No thanks, Abe," I hated sounding weak and illness-ridden, and I knew I did. But with what was happening to Rachel, and with the news about Joe, not to mention my favorite niece being in extreme danger, I felt I had an excuse to sound weak. Sad. Pitiful. "I haven't been sleeping all that well, to tell you the truth." I made a better excuse, because that's one of the things I do best.

"Neither have we," Grace admitted. The kettle whistled and I wondered briefly if I should just accept the offer for tea.

"How close was it really, Grace? Was she in any danger?" I was worried.

"Cammie is in constant danger," She avoided my question tactfully.

"You saw him, Abe?" I asked. I wanted him to say anything but a simple,

"Yes."

"How was he?" I swallowed down a lump of fear.

"Desperate."

"Do you believe it?" Please say no! But I believed it. Fury bubbled up in my heart when I remembered what Rachel told me. Joe had been friends with the man who had tried to kill me. We had been together and he'd never told me he loved me. Not that I ever returned the favor, but it wasn't comforting to hear,

"This is the way the Circle has worked for more than a hundred years…"

"But, Abe, we knew him!" I knew him! I wanted to cry. There was another awkward silence before Abe spoke again. Joe was the man that I had secretly been with under my sister's nose (after all, secret boyfriends are the hottest, as Macey McHenry had once said). The man that, for approximately nineteen hours, I thought I was having a kid with. One of the only men that I had ever cared about like that.

"I believe Joe Solomon is the sort of man that no one will ever truly know." That wasn't what I had wanted to hear. More silence filled the air, each of us lost in our own thoughts. I heard a scraping noise.

"What do you think, Grace?"

"I don't know what to think, honestly, Abby," she looked at me with sad eyes. Eyes that said she pitied me. I wanted nothing less than pity. A look passed between us, and I knew the subject had changed. "And we can't tell Cammie until we're absolutely certain-"

"We can never tell Cammie!" I interrupted.

"She's almost seventeen, Abby. And the more she knows, the safer she'll-"

"Cammie will never be safe!"

"We don't know that Cammie would do something foolish." The way she said it told me she wanted me to stop arguing with every point she made at least until she'd made her point.

"Of course she would!" I insisted with a laugh. "I would. Trust me Grace, Abe. Cammie can never know-" There was a clattering sound and we stopped. Cammie lay sprawled on the ground.

"What the-"

I almost laughed. I walked over to my niece and leaned over her, marking my presence with a, "Hey, Squirt."