Here we go! Please tell me what you think! X
Joan sat in an uncomfortable hospital chair, head in her hands. To her left, Auggie sat stiffly with his cane across his lap and on her right Danielle spoke quietly with her daughters on the phone, causing Joan to miss Mackenzie even more. She and Arthur had agreed they'd try to disrupt the baby as little as possible, so he'd stayed home with him while Joan remained at Georgetown.
"How did you two meet?" Danielle asked suddenly once her call had ended. Joan started.
"Sorry?"
"You and Annie. She said you already knew each other before she found the adoption certificates. How?" Danielle elaborated.
"We work together." Joan told her.
"Yeah- Annie said you worked at the art dealing company she's with at the moment. But you don't act like an art dealer. You're CIA too, aren't you?" Danielle asked. Joan winced at her casualness, while Auggie immediately shushed her. A silent apology swept across her face.
"Yeah, I am. I was her boss- I was also the one who bought her in early." Joan explained quietly. Confusion crossed Danielle's face.
"Early?"
Joan frowned, while Auggie's head swivelled towards them more fully. "She didn't tell you?" Asked Joan. Danielle shook her head.
"Annie... Was and is one of the best operatives I've even come across. I needed a certain type of agent- Annie fit the requirements so she was pulled from the farm early and assigned to my division." Joan spoke softly.
"She's that good?"
Joan smirked softly. "She's better."
Danielle blinked, shocked. Before they could say anything else however, Joan's phone rang.
"Joan Campbell."
"Joan, it's Calder. I'm at the warehouse where we found Annie... I think you need to see this."
Joan frowned. "I'm at the hospital, Calder, what is it?"
There was a silence, before Joan got a request for video chat on her tablet. She clicked answer, found Calder staring back emotionlessly at her.
"You really need to see this." He told her, holding up the screen. Joan gasped.
"Joan?" Auggie reached hesitantly for her. She caught his hand in her own, eyes fixed to the screen where she could see hundreds of pictures of herself plastered to a wall.
"Calder..." She began, but trailed off helplessly.
"Joan, what is it? What's happened?" Auggie asked urgently.
"They're... Pictures. Of me. Some with other people, some by myself. They span months- some of them are from before Jai died." She explained to him, shivers running down her spine.
"Why?" Danielle looked from one to the other. Joan met her eyes, pale.
"Nothing good." She murmured. "Calder, I need authorise a protection team for Arthur and Mack, and get protection for Annie on her room."
"Already done, Joan. They're on their way as we speak." Calder informed her. Joan frowned. "Joan, you can't touch this. It's your family- every move you make will be scrutinised." Calder reminded her warningly. Joan scowled.
"You're not my boss, Calder." She spat. He stared back at her calmly.
"No- we're the same level. Joan- think with your brain instead of your heart. You'll see what I'm saying is right."
Joan opened her mouth to shout, but realised that he was actually making sense. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "Sorry."
"Don't mention it. The girl means a lot to everyone, and so do you. Nothing's going to happen to your family." Calder nodded at her.
"Thank you." Joan whispered sincerely. Then paled again as another thought occurred to her. "Oh, god. Annie…"
"Joan, this wasn't your fault!" Auggie said sharply, somehow reading her mind. Joan clenched her fists.
"Tell that to Annie." She stood abruptly, pacing to the other end of the room. She felt sick, nibbling her nail as she tried to organise her thoughts so she could think clearly.
Danielle watched her, this woman who was her sister. Joan was faintly familiar, like when you met a childhood friend you hadn't seen for a while.
The morning before
Joan drove off home after dropping Annie and Danielle at her house, leaving the two sisters in a strange silence.
"You wanna come see the girls when they wake up?" Danielle asked hesitantly. Annie beamed.
"Yes please." She'd missed them. They wandered into the kitchen where Michael sat tying his shoe laces.
"Hi." He greeted. Danielle leaned over to kiss him while Annie just nodded to him awkwardly.
"Hi Michael." She said softly. He nodded back.
"I gotta go- the office is expecting me. I'll see you when I get home." He kissed Danielle's cheek and sped out the door, barely remembering to grab his briefcase as he went.
"Pancakes?" Danielle called over her shoulder as she bustled around the kitchen. Annie nodded with a grin, grabbing the ingredients from the fridge. They worked in relative silence, until Danielle suddenly spoke.
"Tell me about Joan."
Annie glanced at her. "What do you want to know?"
Danielle shrugged as she stirred the batter. "Anything."
Annie bit her lip as she thought. "Well... She's ten years older than me- seven more than you. She's married- you knew that though- and has a baby son named Mackenzie who is much too cute for his own good. She lived with a foster family after we were adopted- stayed there until she was eighteen when she went to Penn State university." Annie reeled off.
"And she's your boss..." Danielle broached tentatively. Annie froze.
"At the art dealer's where my cover is at the moment." She lied, internally wincing. "She used to work for the World Bank though."
"Oh." Danielle poured the mixture into the pan. "Is she nice?"
"Yeah, she is." Annie smiled. Danielle nodded, but before she could ask anything else Chloe and Katia appeared in the doorway.
"Aunt Annie!" They ran over and hugged her tightly. Annie embraced them happily, quickly shepherding them to the table and changing the subject from Joan.
Present day
Danielle realised now that Annie must have lied, but strangely she didn't mind. Maybe she was more accepting of this spy-lark than she thought, she grinned internally.
"Joan?" Joan looked up to see Danielle hovering a few steps in front of her, hesitance written on her face. She attempting a smile, sure it came out more like a grimace. "I… i'm not going to pretend like I know what you and Annie do, or that I understand it because I don't. I'm sure I have no idea what any of you go through on any given day, but I do know Annie. And I know that no matter why or how this happened, she wouldn't blame you and she wouldn't want you to blame yourself either." Danielle stared at her earnestly.
"Your sister is lying in that hospital bed because of me. Unless there's a miracle in the next few days, she's going to die. Because of me." Joan said, tears burning in her throat. She turned away, hiding her face by staring out the window.
"Our sister." Danielle said quietly. Joan frowned, glancing back at her.
"What?"
"You said 'your sister'. It's ours. Annie is your sister too. So am I for that matter, but i'm still trying to get my head around it so we'll bypass that for now. My point is, I can't do anything but hold Annie's hand right now, but you can go and you can try to stop whoever's done this. Not because it's your fault, or because you're her boss or because you owe her, but because you're our sister. And Annie needs you." Joan stared at Danielle in astonishment. Over her shoulder, she could see Auggie doing the same.
"I... You're right." She acknowledged. She glanced at the tablet in her hand, where Calder was remaining uncharacteristically quiet. "Tell me what else is there."
So Calder showed her everything in the room using the tablet, describing aloud what she couldn't see. "Did you find a liquid of any kind?" Auggie interjected at one point, having to rely on Calder's descriptions to build a picture in his head.
"... There's a couple of water bottles?" Calder suggested.
"Don't touch them!" Joan and Auggie both yelled at the same time. Calder stopped reaching for them, raising an eyebrow.
"The poison can be transferred through touch." Joan explained. "Annie wouldn't have had to drink anything- just touching the bottles would have been enough."
"Presuming the bottles contain the poison." Agreed Auggie.
"Especially of you have a cut or anything on your hands." Joan finished. There was a pause.
"You two are a hell of a double act." Calder told them, but he took his hand away from the bottles and called over the technicians. "I'm gonna take this all into Langley to be processed- keep me updated?"
He signed off once Joan had sounded her affirmation. She slid down to sit against the wall, using both her hands to push her hair back and sighing heavily.
"Joan? Try this- who knew you and Annie are sisters?" Auggie asked, feeling his way closer and sitting on a chair nearby.
"You mean apart from the whole of Langley?" Joan pointed out dryly. He grimaced.
"Yeah."
"Arthur, Rosie, Meagan. Possibly Eyal." She listed monotonously.
"… Meagan?" Auggie inquired, no recognition on his face. Joan explained quickly, aware of Danielle listening quietly from where she sat.
"Oh." He remembered. "Could anyone have found out?"
"I don't think so. I guess, theoretically, someone who dug deep enough could've, but the agency's background checks didn't even pick it up, so who knows?" Joan sighed.
"Then who did this?" Danielle asked. Neither Joan nor Auggie could answer.
Two days later, Joan walked back into Langley for the first, painfully aware of the stares and whispers that surrounded her. Annie was steadily declining, and the doctors weren't sure if she would wake up even with the antidote. Joan strode through the halls, pointedly ignoring the surrounding agents.
"Joan!" Calder caught up with her and fell into step, scowling at a couple of agents who openly stared at the blonde woman. "How's Annie?"
"Worse." Joan said quietly, anguish colouring her tone. Calder shot her a sympathetic look, and they travelled downstairs in silence. The contents of the warehouse were spread out across tables in a large room, and agents were combing over every piece in an effort to find out as much as they could.
"The lab confirmed that the water bottles weren't contaminated with any type of poison, so we're still looking for what Annie came into contact with." Calder explained. Joan stared around at her surroundings.
"That's gonna take a while." She stated. "Can we narrow it down any?"
"We already did- this is the narrowed down room. Everything else is next door."
Joan groaned. "Wonderful." She muttered. She walked through the room, trying to guess what Annie had done.
"…Joan?" Calder questioned, watching her worriedly.
"Annie is a lot like Rosie and I, and I've spent four years watching over her operations. Most of the time, I can guess how she's thinking." Joan answered distractedly, putting herself in Annie's mindset.
"I walk into a warehouse." She murmured, absentmindedly pulling on latex gloves. "I'm expecting a terrorist cell, but instead I find a room with pictures spread across the far wall. What's the first thing I do?" she paused, staring at the floor plan that was pinned to the wall. "I clear the room." She deduced. She traced her finger around the path she would've taken. "Something catches my eye?"
She paused, glancing at Calder. "Was there anything along this path that would've?" Calder shook his head, and Joan traced her finger in the opposite direction, raising a questioning eyebrow in Calder's direction. He hesitated.
"Maybe." He confirmed, crossing to a nearby table and pointing. Joan gave a triumphant grin.
"A photo frame in an abandoned warehouse. Anyone would be curious."
They exchanged a smile, and called over a tech to test the frame. "Yep. Traces of the substance we found in Annie's blood-work." He confirmed.
"Thanks Mitch." Joan smiled at the man, just as another shout went up.
"Found it!" Joan frowned in bemusement, and Calder looked much the same. They rushed over to the tech.
"Found what?" Joan asked the woman. She held up a bottle.
"Traces of poison on this perfume bottle." She explained.
"Two sources of the poison?" Joan muttered. "Why?"
"Because they were meant for different people." Calder called. He'd turned the frame around to reveal a picture of Joan and Seth Newman.
"What the hell?"
"And I'd be willing to bet that perfume is the same one that Annie wears." Calder continued. Joan read the label.
"Jo Malone grapefruit." She confirmed. "Although I don't think Annie's worn it in a while."
"Annie got poisoned with the source- presumably- meant for you." Calder watched he reaction.
"Why would they use this picture? Seth and I haven't been together in years- he was a traitor. They'd have been better off using a picture of Arthur or Mackenzie." Joan frowned, trailing a gloved finger over the glass.
"Unless it was symbolic." Suggested Calder. Joan raised her eyebrows.
"Symbolising what?" she asked. He shrugged.
"Did you and Seth Newman ever work anything together?"
"He was a lawyer, Calder! He never saw field work- at most we worked in the same division for a couple of years." Joan leant tiredly against a table. She jumped as something behind her fell over, stood to find another perfume bottle. She frowned, picking it up and realisation flashed across her face.
"What is it?"
"I only know one person who wears type of perfume… Seth's ex-girlfriend, Cora Smith." Joan explained.
"She still around?" asked Calder.
"I have no idea- she'd be on file somewhere." They both left quickly, heading towards the nearest computer terminal and pulling up Cora's file.
"She lives here in DC." Calder read. "There's an address too."
Joan smiled in relief, hope sparking that maybe Annie would be ok. "Let's go."
They pulled up at the address. "I am not getting a good feeling from this." Calder stared up at the tall, imposing building.
"That would make two of us." Joan climbed out, and they walked in through the front, apprehension building in both of them.
"Good morning. How may I help you?" a chirpy woman with a southern drawl at the reception desk beamed at them.
"Hi there. My name is Joan, this is Calder and we're from the Washington Times. We're doing a piece on ordinary people and their lives, and we've received permission to talk to Cora Smith?" Joan smiled sweetly, flashing a business card.
"Well, honey- I think somebody was having a joke with you. Miss Smith can't talk to you."
"We were given permission…" Joan started.
"Oh, you misunderstand me honey. It ain't that she won't talk to you, it's that she can't! Here, I'll show you." The woman slipped from behind the desk and led them upstairs, opening a door and gesturing them in. Joan felt her heart sink as she saw the hospital room, the monitors and the woman lying still and pale on the bed.
"What happened to her?" Calder enquired.
"Poor lamb tried to hang herself, quite a few years ago now. Her brother found her and cut her down, but she was declared brain dead by the time she arrived at the hospital. He refuses to turn of her life support though, so she ended up here with us." Sympathy ran through the woman's voice.
"Is there a chance she'll wake up?" Joan asked. The woman shook her head.
"She's gone, poor thing. Her brother is simply delaying the inevitable."
"What's her brothers' name, please?" Calder questioned.
"Well now, I ain't sure I'm technically supposed to tell you that…" she began, but Calder grinned charmingly.
"Aw, c'mon. We're already gonna be in trouble with our boss for wasting an hour- can't you just give us his name?"
"Oh, well, I suppose it couldn't hurt. His name is John. John Smith."
Calder and Joan walked back to the car. "John Smith? Seriously?" Calder muttered.
"It might not be an alias…" Joan pointed out. He shot her an incredulous look.
"Nobody calls their kid John Smith. Nobody."
"Still- it can't hurt to check." She grabbed her laptop and signed in to the secure network, quickly running the name through the database.
"How many hits? Two, three million? Four?" Calder asked sarcastically.
"Three hundred and two John Smith's with a sister named Cora." Joan read out.
"Well that doesn't help at all!"
"Hold your horses Calder. In the DC area, there's just three. One of those is an air steward- he wouldn't have time to do any tailing. One of them is African-American, so it's not him. Which leaves John Edward Smith, born 1971 in WashingtonDC." Joan grinned and shot Calder a triumphant look. He held up his hands.
"I take it back."
"That's strange…" Joan peered closer at the screen.
"What?"
"John Smith is married to a woman named Marion Samantha Smith, born Marion Rodgers. She works in the acquisitions department of the Smithsonian."
"Annie's old cover? Is she one of ours?" Calder leaned over to look at the photo.
"No- there isn't a flag on her file. But she began working there the same time as Annie's cover started." Joan pointed to the date.
"Got an address?"
They pulled up half an hour later in front of an old townhouse. "We reporters again?" Calder asked. Joan looked amused.
"No. Architects, looking at the houses in the neighbourhood."
"Where do you come up with this stuff?" asked Calder exasperatedly.
"I always have half a dozen different business cards in my bag, just in case." Joan knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
"Hello?" she called. Calder peered though the window.
"Oh shit. Call an ambulance." He yelled to Joan. She frowned.
"What?" she looked through, saw John Smith lying on the floor.
"Crap!" She cursed. Calder braced his shoulder against the door and heaved, breaking through. Joan followed, kneeling by the body and checking the pulse. "We're too late."
"Joan." Calder caught her attention, and she found him staring at a note lying on the side.
"To whom it may concern." She read aloud. "I know there will be speculation and questions on why I have done what I've done. The answer is simple. For love. I met my husband John through his sister, Cora, who I met in college. I married him, but I loved her. I watched as she fell in love with Seth Newman, and I watched as she had her heart broken when Joan Campbell stole him away, only to discard him as soon as something better came along. Cora bared her heart to Seth, but he laughed and sent her away.
She tried to commit suicide the next day.
And now Joan Campbell has a family of her own. A son, and a husband. The sisters she lost when she was a child have reentered her life, and she spares no thought for the lives she and Seth destroyed along the way.
My husband prays that his baby sister will wake up- I am much more practical. It was the actions of Joan Campbell that took John's sister from him, so I've taken hers from her. She took the love of my life from me, so I will take hers from her. But I am not so cruel as to leave a baby with no parents- they'll all be together, as will I be with my beloved when this is over.
Somebody must pay for Cora's death.
Marion Samantha Smith."
Joan was pale by the time she'd finished reading. "Oh, god."
"Joan, this isn't your fault." Calder assured her, seeing her expression.
"No?" Joan stalked out, and began searching the house. With a sigh, Calder did the same, sticking on his headphones so he could listen to police scanner and check nobody had seen their unorthodox entry to the house.
An hour passed, then two.
"I've got it!" Calder shouted. Joan flew down the stairs, eyes wide. She deftly the dodged the items strewn across the floor to arrive at his side.
"It's Man… um, Men… er…" Calder tried to pronounce the name on the bottle he held. Joan snatched it from his hand.
"Doesn't matter- let's go!" they rushed to the hospital, calling it in on the way and raced to Annie's ward, hailing the doctor as they sped in.
"We have the antidote for this." He confirmed, sending a nurse to sign it out.
"Joan?" Auggie appeared, hope written on his face. Joan stepped forward, placing a hand on his wrist.
"We know what poisoned her, Auggie. They've gone to get the antidote now." Joan told him, shooting a small smile at Danielle, who was listening from the doorway. After what seemed like hours the doctor hurried back with a syringe in his hand, and didn't waste any time in injecting it straight into Annie's arm.
"Now what?" asked Danielle.
"Now we wait. It may take a little but to kick in- the nurse will be constantly monitoring though." The doctor walked out, leaving Joan to collapse into a nearby chair as the adrenaline left her.
"C'mon Danielle- Joan will sit with Annie. Let's go get a drink." Auggie held out his arm. Danielle hesitated, glancing from him to Annie's room.
"I'll call the second anything happens." Joan promised her. She nodded, and she and Auggie left in the direction of the lifts.
"I gotta get back to Langley- call me when she wakes up?" Calder checked. Joan nodded with an exhausted smile.
"Thanks Calder." He inclined his head, walking off with a rapid gait. Joan levered herself up and entered Annie's room, perching by her bedside and slipping her hand over Annie's.
"Hey Annie. You've gotta wake up, ok? You and Auggie have a lot more to come, and Danielle is so worried." She stared at Annie's motionless face. "And I've only just found you again, Annie." She continued softly. "We've got a lot more to do together. There's a lot more you need to know, more I need to explain. Rosie wants to meet you- she's grounded by a sand storm at the moment, but she's been trying so hard to get home to see you." Joan felt tears burn in her throat. "You've gone through worse than this- you can beat it, I know you can. You have to fight, to wake up. I don't want to lose you, Annie."
She rubbed a thumb over Annie's hand.
"How sweet." A mocking voice came from the doorway. Joan stood and spun, putting herself between Annie and the mystery woman. "I came to finish off one sister- now it seems like I get to do two."
"Marion Smith, I presume?" Joan asked, stepping closer.
"You presume right." Marion held up a syringe filled with a clear liquid. "You know, I intended for the poison to be inhaled when those perfumes were sprayed. The photo frame was just a test. It was a completely happy coincidence that it just so happened that Annie was poisoned by it."
"How did you know we were sisters?" Joan asked, desperately trying to distract her. Marion laughed.
"I worked with Annie, honey. She was never in the office, always had strange injuries when she was. I'd spent enough time around that boyfriend of yours to figure it out. I just had to dig a little. You've gotta love the internet." Marion advanced towards her.
Joan ducked just as she lunged, spinning and pushing her against the wall. Marion countered by jabbing her in the throat, knocking Joan to the floor and making towards the bed where Annie lay unconsciousness.
Joan flashed to when she was in a similar position with Lena, and the same protective urge she'd felt then washed through her.
"NO!" Joan kicked out, satisfaction running through her when her foot connected with Marion's knee. She shrieked and fell to the floor, the syringe rolling from her grasp across the floor. Joan reached for it but Marion's body rammed into hers and they rolled, kicking and punching. Joan struggled to get her gun from the holster in the small of her back but eventually it came free. She bought it up, pointing it at Marion but the woman batted it away and used to pressure point in Joan's wrist to force her to drop it. It spun across the Linoleum with a clatter, and Marion once again attempted to stab Joan with the syringe she'd now grabbed from where it lay. Joan kneed her in the stomach, but got a kick to the head in return.
She lay dazed, the world spinning around her. Through blurred vision, she watched absently as the brunette woman rose up on her knees, syringe in hand and prepare to jab it into her. She had just enough time to pull up a picture of Mackenzie in her head, and close her eyes as she prepared to fell the prick.
Instead, three shots rang out.
Joan's eyes flew open, and she turned her head to find Annie standing unsteadily, gun in right hand while her left had a death grip on the railings of the bed.
"Told you I'd repay you for Lena." Annie managed, swaying slightly. Joan scrambled up to her feet just in time to catch her just as she fell, knees buckling, the gun falling from her grip and thudding to the floor.
"Annie..."she breathed, manoeuvring the younger woman onto the bed.
"Ow. I feel terrible." Annie murmured, leaning into Joan's embrace. She held her tightly, relief running through her.
"Yeah. Being poisoned tends to do that." She blinked, trying to fight off the unconsciousness that threatened as the room spun and her head throbbed. She barely noticed as doctors and nurses entered and bustled around, concentrating solely on keeping her grip on Annie.
"Joan?" she heard Annie whisper.
"Yeah?"
"Who was she?" Annie asked, resting her head on Joan's shoulder.
"The woman who poisoned you. She was trying to do the same to me." Joan explained in a murmur, feeling the world spin around her painful head.
"Oh." Joan registered that Annie's eyes had slipped closed again, but before she could raise the alarm the blackness overtook her, and she sank into the nothingness willingly.