Disclaimer: I do not own the 39 Clues or any of its characters.

Once at the station, Amy lost sight of Ian and went to get herself a ticket home. She bought food for the upcoming train ride, and changed clothes. She found that the next train going out into the country had only one seat left, and it was scheduled to depart in less than twenty minutes. She bought the ticket, thanked the ticket man, and ran to board her train. She quickly got on, and just in time too, because as she was walking down the aisle searching for her seat the train began to pull out of the station. She continued to walk down the aisle and her eyes finally rested upon her seat, the only open seat. It was next to a man dressed entirely in black, with a hat lowered over his head. At one time, she might have been nervous to sit next to a man in black, but this one almost reminded her of her Uncle Fiske, the original man in black.

She walked up to the seat and quietly asked if she could have it. She didn't really look at the man as she said this, but he must have heard her because he responded with a grunt, then moved his bag. She hastily sat down. As she sat, she was bumped by a rather large couple, with rather large bags, heading to their seats at the front of the train. Amy dropped her bags, and fell clumsily into the empty seat. She crushed her bag of chips and spilled her soda all over the man seated next to her. He jumped up when the soda and ice began to rain down upon his lap, and erupted in a suave British accent, "How could you be so clumsy?" As he stood his hat had fallen off and they both gasped in surprise, recognizing one another now. It was Ian, the man from the first train ride. Amy was always prepared and rummaged through her belongings until she found what she needed. A towel. She picked Ian's hat off of the floor and began to clean the soda off of it. She began to stutter an apology. Then, she stopped; she hadn't stuttered in years! Ian began to laugh. She turned bright red. Why did this man she had only just met, Ian, have such an effect on her. She hated that he was laughing at her clumsiness. He was harsh and cruel. Amy looked up at him, and handed his hat back. He continued laughing as they sat down. She didn't find it funny and decided to try to ignore him. Then, she looked at him and saw the humor. He had been inviting her to laugh with him, not laughing at her clumsiness. Amy felt a moment of deja vu. She was taken back to a time in the clue hunt. She and Dan were in Korea with Uncle Alistair, a boy named Ian, and a girl named Natalie. That Ian had won a race and began to laugh. At the time he had been inviting her to laugh too.

Amy looked up at this Ian. She studied his face, his clothes, his hair, his eyes. Finally, the puzzle pieces neatly clicked into place in Amy's mind. The Ian from her past, and this one sitting beside her were no different. Were they? Amy, barely able to contain her excitement and wonder whispered, "Ian". He looked at her and asked, "yes?" confused. "Ian", Amy took one long shaky breath, "Ian Kabra.", she continued. He moved farther away from her, towards the window and tilted his head to the side, now observing her in a new light. His eyebrows, which had first risen in surprise, were drawn together tightly. He seemed to decide something, and answered again, "yes." He asked, "Who are you?" he asked, remembering the photo she had had in the hotel. He was becoming more and more concerned for the family he was headed to see. They now turned in their seats to face one another. He continued to study her. She smiled, and tilted her head ever so slightly. As she did so, a few strands of hair slipped from behind her ear and cascaded down her face. Suddenly, he relaxed, and his eyebrows returned to their normal position upon his face. He no longer sat tense, like a wound spring, ready to act at any minute. His eyes sparkled once again with that same knowledge. Amy knew he knew her identity now. He leaned back and grew comfortable in his seat, closing his eyes. She smiled teasingly and asked, "Who am I?" He laughed, and lazily opened one eye, "Amy Cahill, it has been quite a long time, hasn't it?" Soon, they were laughing and chatting like old friends. The remainder of the train ride was quite short now that they had each others company to pass the time.

Ian explained he had planned on surprising them. There had been an opening in his ever-busy schedule and he remembered the reunion and the friends he hadn't seen in ages. He had attempted to remember the last reunion he had been at, but had had quite a lot of trouble. Natalie had asked him to attend this year, and to her surprise he agreed. Ian had decided to give family another chance. Amy asked what he had been doing the past several years. He leaned in close to her and whispered that he had become a private investigator, but the details of work were secret, as was his company. Keeping his business a secret was a difficult way to get clients, but made obtaining classified information easier. He then asked Amy what she did now. She proudly answered that she was recently appointed leader and coordinator of the Madrigal branch. She ran a small library on the side. Ian laughed, he knew that she would rise to the top. Amy said she had searched for a status update for each of their friends, (Ham, the twins, Sinead, Ned, Ted, Jonah, even Natalie). Finding information on them was quite easy, they had all been fairly active, but when she had searched for Ian, she found that he had become almost untraceable and had all but nearly dropped off of the radar all together. He smiled, but this particular smile was full of pain, and that pain didn't just live around the corners of his mouth, but spread all the way to his eyes. He lost all of his jovial light. Amy frowned and asked if everything was alright, or was there more to this visit than he had let on?

Sorry this took so long. I will write more when I get the chance. Feel free to comment.