Sorry for the long update time. Haven't felt too inspired lately. But enjoy this chapter. Puck will be back in the next one :) Oh and of course thanks for the reviews :-)


Chapter 8

Sitting back in her seat again, Rachel pondered her options. It was pointless crying but what was she supposed to do without Noah? He was the one who had been in charge on this and she had just followed him like the helpless puppy she was these days. Now she was to lead this. But where would she go? Her fingers deftly moved to fiddle with his phone. Fishing the black iPhone out she told herself she was merely looking for any kind of information that would give her a clue about what to do next.

She let her eyes run over the small item. There was nothing distinct about it. Sleek and shiny. The only thing that attested its owner's use was a multitude of small scratches and a chip missing from the top. Maybe he'd fallen as he was running from someone? Just a trip from being clumsy as he was chewing his breakfast and crossing the street?

Pressing the middle button and pulling the bar to the side unlocking the device she found, to her surprise, he had a picture of her on his desktop. She furrowed her brow trying to figure out where he'd taken it. She looked so happy. It had to be an old one. Then again she probably always looked that happy when she was with him.

Discarding her thoughts and speculations about the picture and the meaning of it she pressed to see his texts. There weren't many. Some old ones from Finn, his sister, mother, a few friends. The ones that were longest and clearly went back for a long time were from herself and Scully. She wasn't interested in what she herself had exchanged with him. She knew that well enough.

She wasn't sure if it was a need to have information that might give her a destination to go to to find Gracie or if she was driven by curiosity to find out what kind of partnership he had with this Scully. Were they more than partners? Did he have feelings for this Scully person? She didn't for a moment doubt he had feelings for her but considering her relationship status for most of the time they'd known each other it wouldn't be strange if he had found someone else to love. Was it perhaps Scully and they had to keep on the low because of their very important jobs?

Flicking through the texts they had a variety purposes. Most were very short exchanges of information or agreeing to meet somewhere, get coffee or the like. Nothing of much interest or to wake any kinds of jealous feelings. A few texts about this and that but Rachel figured they mostly talked and exchanging information over text would be rather stupid considering their jobs. As well as have proof of a potential sexual relationship.

She returned to the main menu looking at the applications. He didn't have many. A man of few things and without the need for much in his phone. She sighed and put the phone down. All she could do was wait.

She looked around the niche they had been hiding in. It seemed a lot bigger now. She sighed again and then got up. She felt like wandering around the airport to get moving. Gathering her things she left their shared spot to wander around thinking over her new situation. The one question that took up her thoughts were what to do? She had already wasted so much time. Clearly Finn had help from Adrian where they had none.

She had money but they were no use against a system where money and power was in abundant. She entered a shop without really seeing the items on the racks as she wandered through her mind to come up with a solution. She hated that it all depended on another women she didn't really know. This Scully was putting herself on the line for Gracie and Rachel without any reason but her loyalty to Noah. It was an odd connection, Rachel thought. Not that she'd in any way stop this for the sake of Scully. She'd do anything to get Gracie back. Then she'd deal with the repercussions after.

She'd do whatever she could to get Noah out of where ever they'd put him but right now she needed to focus on Gracie. She felt sure he wasn't in any real danger and putting her faith in the legal system of her country, she felt sure it would all work out in the end. For Noah anyway.


The hours ticked by so slow Scully was sure the world had ended as her flight set down on the tarmac of Bangor airport. She had been left with no choice but to flee Washington. It had not been the best move to threaten Rebecca as the woman had called her husband the second Scully was out of sight. A quick update into the system and she knew she was a hunted criminal. She'd somehow expected less. This would quickly turn into a farce involving the media and God knows who.

Adrian clearly wasn't thinking too tactical about this whole scenario. Scully held the files and therefore the power. Why didn't he get that? Did he really want to end up on the cover of ever newspaper in the US and beyond? She shook her head. He had to have a plan that she couldn't foresee right now. Or maybe she didn't dream big enough? What would a man like him do to them given the freedom he was clearly allowed within the government? That wasn't a very calming thought, she mused.

Bolting from the plane as fast as she could without attracting any attention to herself, she made it past luggage claim and started her search in the airport. She needed three tickets fast but she didn't have that kind of money and letting the CIA pay wasn't an option. She needed to find Puck to get to Rachel and her money. Leaving the country was of the essence. Rebecca had inadvertently given up the location of her daughter but she hadn't exactly given Scully an address. The last pieces still needed to be put into place before they could return with the girl.

Fishing out her phone, she sent Puck: " M3 $ +S "

As the text came through she almost jumped out of her skin. The small cricket sound was like a horn blowing hope into an encampment of soldiers. Her pulse picked up the pace right away and she fumbled to get the phone out. Her heart skipped beat as Scully's name was written on the screen. Opening the text she furrowed her brow. What the fuck? It was a code the two obviously had but what was she to do now that Noah wasn't there to tell her what it meant? She stared at the symbols till her eyes were blurry and she had to blink. This was the most important message of her life and she had no idea what it meant. Was she to go somewhere? Was this some code for the UK? Some other place in the world? Or something less significant?

She wondered if she should text back telling Scully that Noah wasn't with her but if Scully wrote in code there was probably a reason and texting back requesting the information translated would make the coding pointless in the first place. Rachel sighed in frustration. She had to break the code to get anywhere and if they were being monitored she was probably racing against some genius from the FBI. She could almost picture him frown at the easy code and snigger at his opponent.

Feeling a lost sadness inside of her welling up as if it was the root of her soul brought frustrated etars to her ees. How could she win this game when the players on her team hadn't taught her the rules? Looking around and half expecting the black suited men to stand and watch her fail, she bit her lip. Worried it twitchy as her brain was working in overdrive to try and penetrate somewhere in there where this code made sense.

She started walking around peering for someone that might look like a Scully, regretting that she'd never asked Noah about the woman. She didn't know the first thing about his partner; neither her hair color, height, build, nothing.

She worked over the code again and again. It looked like a math piece all tumbled up. Passing a computer shop her eyes searched blindly over a flyer; "Having trouble understanding your kids' typing language?" There was a picture from one of those online games Finn used to play and then an idea popped into her head; could this be gamer code? She didn't hesitate entering the shop and going straight to the counter. A lanky boy of about 19 with a face filled with so many pimples Rachel considered tipping him with a gift certificate to Clearsil. He looked bored until he saw her. The shop didn't have that many customers, mostly kids looking at games.

"Can I help you?" She nodded eagerly and put up the phone in front of him.

"Can you make sense of this?" The boy looked at the text and smiled.

"You have to buy something in here. This is a shop where you pay for the services." Rachel huffed annoyed.

"Look, young man. This is a matter of me finding my 4-year-old daughter so just fucking tell me what this means." The boy raised an eyebrow at her but didn't comment.

"It's something about Starbucks. Pretty easy." Rachel turned the phone in her hand and looking at the symbols it was like they swam into place in front of her eyes; *$ = Starbucks. Of course!

"Of course," she said a smile spreading over her face. "Thank you so much!" She didn't take the time to tip the poor lad but ran out of the store as fast as she could. She remembered where the Starbucks was as they'd been there least 3 times today to fill out their boredom with coffee. Letting her eyes scan the small crowd there she felt nervous. What if they'd picked up Scully, too? It would make sense as it had been Scully who'd done all the illegal stuff and passed it on rather than Noah. Stopping Noah only meant they had half the duo. Would they want the other part as well?

She figured standing in line here would seem less like she was stressed and close to panicking so she took up a place in the queue trying to be discrete about looking around. Letting her eyes wander over every person near her no one stood out looking like a CIA agent. Half the people here were looking around like herself she notice; looking at other people, a partner, a child. Looking around she didn't stand out at all. She made it through the queue and placed her order without anyone letting their eyes stay on her for more than a few seconds. It felt odd. People always looked at her yet here no one did. She had to look terrible.

Waiting for her order to be served she stood looking into the seating area. No one was there alone. Receiving her hot coffee she turned away from the coffee shop and faced into the crowd of people. What if the young guy was wrong and '*$' wasn't Starbucks at all? Could it be something with money? She looked around for a bank or the like and she almost dropped her coffee when she saw the word "Exchange" on a sign. The * was also when you corrected a spelling mistake. Could it mean to correct your money? Change the currency? Glancing one last time as the bustling Starbucks and hoping someone looking like a Scully would be standing there waiting for her. No one was. She turned towards the bank.

Holding her breath she pushed through a family of 10 people that had walked straight into her surrounding her with all their luggage and chattering in some foreign language she didn't recognize, she felt like being born as she could finally see the small bank with the sign above it. A bored looking lady sat looking down at the computer in front of her clicking her mouse most likely enjoying a game of some kind, Rachel thought. Nearing the bank she didn't see anyone out of the ordinary standing around. Every person around her had luggage piled high on their trolleys clearly eager to get out of this airport. Maybe this was a trap? But why would it be? The FBI could have taken her in to question her easily when they took Noah. And within their right as well. She'd been traveling with a guy accused of extortion and hacking. Thinking about it now she didn't understand why they hadn't taken her along.

She stood there looking around peering expectantly from one to the other of the people passing her. No one stopped and most even gave her a pitying look making her feel desperate. What was she missing here? Did that code mean something else? The first hour ticked on turning into two straight hours of standing there. No reply came to her texts when she tried to contact Scully again and eventually she gave up standing at the bank.

Wandering aimlessly through the airport, she had stopped looking around. What was the point? She didn't even know what this Scully character looked like. She walked back to the secluded little niche where she and Noah had been hiding and sat down with a tired sigh. All she could do now was wait.


She woke with a start as someone sat down next to her. Bright green eyes swept over her face piercing her with a questioning stare.

"This is it. We have to move fast." Scully got up in a rush and Rachel stumbled to her feet trying to gather her things as well a dry a bit of drool from the side of her mouth.

"Wait." Scully stopped and saw the predicament Rachel was in. As fast as a fox she picked up a few of the bags Rachel was dragging alongside her.

"Fix your hair later," Scully mumbled with an annoyed voice. "We have a plane to catch." Rachel didn't argue with that but merely picked up the rest of her stuff and let Scully lead her to the gate. "You owe me some money when this is done," the redhead mumbled as they were waiting in line and Rachel nodded.

"I'll pay you back whatever you like." Hope was rising in her chest as Scully's eyes kept sweeping over the people around them clearly trained to spot an anomaly. She reminded Rachel of a fox; quick green eyes focused and ready all the time, red hair pulled back in a tight pony tail out of her face revealing a narrow and intelligent face with a tight lips and high cheek bones. Scully wasn't your ordinary kind of beautiful but there was something rather striking about her although at the moment masked by a paranoid scowl and frigid movements. Moving along in the queue fast they soon boarded the plane. It was late evening now and the plane was only half full. Mostly of businessmen who had shed their blazers and loosened their tied looking tired and longing to get home.

As the plane left the tarmac Scull finnaly let go of the breath she'd been holding. Rachel turned to look at her.

"What did that code mean?" Scully raised a tired brow.

"Meet me at the exchange office in 5," she answered simply. "But it was meant to divert their attention thinking it mean Starbucks. As you clearly thought as well at first." Rachel nodded feeling a little embarrassed.

"Yes, I'm not good at this spy thing," she admitted with a low voice. "But why didn't you let me know I was at the right place then?"

"Because if it had been Puck he'd have gone for the bank but the FBI would have thought it was Starbucks. You went to Starbucks where they expected you to and they just followed you waiting for me to get you."

"Were they gonna arrest you, too?"

"Why do you think they didn't take you in as well?" Rachel shrugged. She should have known. "They used you trying to get to me. Luckily," Scully said brightly. "I've been at this a little longer than most others."

"How did you know when it was time to come get me?"

"I've got my sources," Scully smiled and leaned back as far as she could closing her eyes. "I need some sleep before we have to outrun the next set of clever law enforcements." Rachel nodded and took to looking out the window watching the world pass her by. They'd find Gracie. She felt sure of it. Maybe this Scully was even better than Noah? A small smile spread on her full lips and she caught a glimpse in the reflection of the glass of the girl she used to look like. It wasn't all lost yet.


Lemme know what you think please :)