Sorry it took so long!
Fifteen minutes later they were taking off with Mr Kilt, knowing he can't leave due to having to run his school, waving them off.
"I do believe its story time." Macey commented sitting next to Preston and glaring at the SAS soldier.
"Where from?" Fletcher asked curious,
"Try... How she is alive?" Alex commented,
"Ah, Abbey if you would be so kind?" Fletcher passed the story,
"You all know the Morgan story, all were kidnapped by the COC nearly seven years ago. I know nothing of what happened to her in there, Fletcher?" Abbey asked, her comment caused him to raise an eyebrow,
"Cammie Morgan, trust me, a person she has only known for a mere five years! Be serious." He replied scoffing,
"I had hoped she trusted someone." Abbey sighed, Edward slipped an arm around her,
"She doesn't trust you?" He asked curious, "You are family."
"No. Eddie, remember your mission in Taiwan five years ago?" She asked,
"Yes, it almost failed but was saved at the last minute, it was all accredited to me, but wasn't. Why?" He asked in response,
"That was me." She murmured, "I had to make sure you were safe, the COC were furious at loosing us and I altered facts and then left it to you, you sorted it out and then I went home. I had been gone for seven weeks. Cammie was gone." She sounded guilty as hell.
"It wasn't your fault." Fletcher tried,
"She hasn't trusted me since, I should have trusted Eddie to not get caught, I shouldn't have left so soon after everything. Two weeks wasn't enough." She buried her head in her hands. No one knew what to say to that.
"So when the COC caught me all the family were already dead and after I arrived two days later they shot her. She died, then through Zach, bandages, CPR and sheer luck she survived, we escaped, the security was lightened due to the fact she was dead and we started planning the future. The next thing I know I've lost her again." Abbey finished, "Four years later she turns up on the cove ops ex alive and well."
Fletcher took up the story,
"What she went through I don't know and what she did between the time she left Abbey and found me I also can only guess at but we met first in her cell. She was half dead and I thoroughly confused. She explained where I was and I was just coping when they released me. The next time I saw her was when she was eleven years later. She had changed." He took a deep breath and saw everyone listening fascinated,
"Two months after we met again she left in the night and the next thing I know I am face to face with my family that I haven't seen in years. That is what I told her specifically not to do. They were watching my family and caught her, even Cammie cant beat twenty five fully trained COC members on her own. Three months later she escapes again from them. We travelled a little more. She helped me build a new person and I joined the SAS. From what I understand she kept the same person she had made as an eight year old and started at Gallagher. Though the time lines don't match up." He ran a hand through his hair.
"What did she turn up at Gallagher like?" He asked the group in general,
"At the end of the academic year she met me and told me who she was, I agreed to help her. When she turned up late for the start of the year I was confused but didn't question it, supposing she was tying up loose ends in covers or suchlike, she seemed more withdrawn, nothing like the Cammie I knew." Joe replied,
"She was thin, very thin, we saw that through her uniform. She was always awake in the mornings before us, never looked like she'd slept a wink." Macey added,
"If you raised a hand she flinched as if she expected to be hit or something, she was averse to hugs in the beginning." Bex added, Fletcher cursed,
"I thought as much." He muttered,
"What?" The planes occupants demanded,
"They had her again. In between talking to Solomon and turning up at the school. Did she shiver at times?" He asked, the three girls nodded, "Did she always keep her sleeves down and never bare legs?"
"She refused to wear shorts, skirts without tights no cardigan or jumper, claimed she was always cold." Macey put in,
"Did she hold herself as if in pain and act as if she was waiting for the penny to drop and the dream was living in to go away?" Again three nods, "They had her."
"Jesus Christ." Will muttered running a hand through his hair, "How could we not know something like that?"
"She was good at hiding, and not only herself." Fletcher replied, "But the international phone call, that could have been what led them to her this time." At this Edward paled,
"No!" He gasped, Abbey gripped his hand tightly,
"You didn't know." Abbey consoled him,
"What did she mean by, 'what I told you last time'?" Alex asked shifting and crossing his arms in an almost protective movement.
"You know the conversation we had?" He checked, glancing at the adults, they shook their heads, "Cammie had the conversation with Edward, then took a photo of all of them looking shocked. She sent it to me. I replied asking what she had done. It having not sunk in yet, as there was no hesitation in the text, she told me."
"It hadn't sunk in, she collapsed in shock soon after that text, then you phoned." Will contributed,
"That wasn't so much of a conversation as an argument, we heard most of what you both said." Preston commented,
"No, that was a conversation with marginally raised voices, and now I know you heard me I understand her final comment." He rubbed his eyes, "'What I told you last time' relates to the time she told me she had informed my family of my living. That is how she phrased it." He laughed humourlessly.
"She looked me straight in the eye and simply said; One of the best feelings in the world is knowing that someone is happy because of you. Especially that of a family member." He sighed, "That is the reason she told my family, she wanted both parties happy, that's why she phoned Edward, she saw Abbey was unhappy, knew Edward was and decided she wanted them both happy again, easiest way to do that, let them meet one another again." Abbey looked pale, Edward wasn't much better,
"She has been kidnapped again because she wanted to make us happy." Edward murmured, Abbey buried her face in his chest beyond words.
"At least she told us where she is." Joe tried,
"No, the only reason you got that text is because Zach was with her. It was her phone so his phone had a tracker." Fletcher replied,
"So wouldn't that make them... worse on Zach as he had a phone?" Alex asked,
"No." Bex's voice was quiet,
"They know no teenager in this day and age is without a mobile. They will be... worse as Alex so nicely put it, on Cammie as they will want to know where it is. They know we know about this. And for that they will make her pay." Fletcher's comment left everyone in a state of shock.
"She had scars." The voice was quiet yet everyone heard it. "Where were her scars from?" Liz had spoken for the first time since take off, Macey and Bex turned to her relieved,
"I thought it was a trick of the light, well hoped is more like it." Macey sighed,
"Ditto." Bex agreed glumly,
"It's not your fault you wanted to not think they were actually there." Edward consoled them the first to recover,
"You are a gentleman and a scholar Edward James." Bex flashed him a half hearted smile,
"I was waiting for a single British saying to come out between you two." Will teased trying to lighten the mood.
"Why..." Alex put his head in his hands,
"Where?" Preston asked a better question, Fletcher looked interested,
"I only saw them here," Bex gestured to her middle, "When she face planted on her bed after a long day or something and her jumper rode up."
"Same." Macey agreed, "When Bex grabbed her around the middle to stop her stealing her chocolate and carried her to the bathroom and locked her in, then her shirt rode up."
"Wouldn't you see them more often?" Will asked curious, "You share a room." He pointed out additionally,
"No." Fletcher was the only one who spoke, "She could hide in an empty field, do you really think she couldn't hide scars?"
"She stood at the front of the entire of Blackthorne and no one saw her." Liz added, Edward and Fletcher raised eyebrows while the boys blushed,
"She also hid in a group of boys. Abbey was glaring at her and no one noticed the girl standing next to them until she spoke." Bex added with a smirk. "Harsh glare."
"You talked yet?" Joe asked,
"Be realistic." Everyone else replied, even Edward.
"I know them both, the are both unbelievably stubborn and neither wants the other to know what they went through." Edward stated shrugging off the shocked glances,
"How to you know she's stubborn?" Preston asked, Edward smiled faintly,
"When Matt and Rachel promised they'd be home by nine they both, Cam and Jack, sat on the stairs and watched the door until they came home. Nothing we bribed her with helped, if she was dozing off Jack nudged her, if Jack dozed off Cammie nudged him. We offered pancakes, whipped cream, early birthday cake, anything, they wouldn't move." He sighed,
"They got back at two in the morning, we all woke up and had a party in the kitchen, Cam and Jack's fifth birthday." Abbey finished, "I still remember her face when she got her present."
"Same. You would have thought she'd been given a country." Edward laughed lightly,
"What was it?" Liz asked,
"A locket." Abbey smiled slightly, "A silver oval locket on a chain, engraved on it was 'Pour mon petit Chameleon, il y a longtemps que je t'aime, Jamais je ne t'oublierai. Mum, Dad, Michael, Helen and Jack.' To this day I don't know where it is." Abbey sounded upset.
"I looked in the house but couldn't find it." Edward added, the students looked shocked, be it for two different reasons,
"Chameleon?" Will queried,
"Matt's nickname." Abbey replied,
"You don't know?" Macey sounded shocked,
"Know what?" Abbey and Edward asked confused,
"I think I know where the locket is." Bex added,
"Around her neck." Liz finished.
"We've never seen it, hell she never admitted it was a necklace until a few weeks ago but whenever she is stressed or worried she grasps it, never takes it off even for a second, its never out from underneath her shirt but its always on her, you can normally see the chain." Macey finished, the reality of the situation seemed to hit home and a quiet descended over the plane, only broken by Fletcher getting everyone a cup of tea half way through the flight and having a quiet conversation with Midge about the situation over the phone.
"You are all aware Russia is a large country, there are many COC bases, we need a main base and a plan. If we still can't find them before Monday, you six are going back to school, no complaints." Abbey's voice gave no room for argument, this was probably the only reason they didn't complain. Yet.
"Our safe base of operations will be in St Petersburg. From there will will work with data accumulated by the Chameleon on the location of the different bases." Joe continued, the plane started to descend, "We will travel as needed. If by Monday we have not found them I will return to Blackthorne with you," He looked at the students who looked back, not acknowledging his words at all. "Abbey, Edward and the force of the CIA will look for them. They will have been notified by now, but only a small amount and the Chameleon has had great fun poking holes in our security and pointing out COC members."
"So most of our searching will be based on facts from a legendary, theoretically CIA, agent whom no one has ever seen or has any clue who it is." Alex summed up making a face,
"Yes." Abbey agreed, Edward hid a smirk,
"Oh do MI6 know who it is?!" Bex noticed the smirk,
"Not MI6, but I have an idea, I was always dismissing it as an over active imagination as I believed the person dead but it is possible. However," He paused to look at the Gallagher and Blackthorne students, "I will be protecting their secret until I am certain of its truth."
"Awww! Come on!" The teens muttered,
"Landing in thirty seconds," The pilot called out, they all sat back and waited, seconds later the wheels touched down.
AN: So next time it's Cammie and Zach...