A/N: I hope you guys saw my edit at the end of the last chapter. I feel tons better this week, though (FINALLY).
That being said, I really wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for reviewing the last chapter like you did. I literally said, "Aw!" aloud to nearly all of them, because you guys are just so sweet! Big thanks to my lovelies, nrdhrd3, evincis, SpeakFabulously, Midgardian Avenger, kwisteria, Guest (1), alara alyona (WHO I LOVE SO MUCH), jvbbh12, Zmrzlina763, meghan398, RuthWriter, Janna18, byLunaA, Blue Obsidian Butterfly, NCISRookie33, Ally, KTaylorCSI, Modern Kassandra, USNeshama, irishcaribou, and clay cowan!
Btw, miss/mister irishcaribou, you give me such a beautiful review and I find out I can't PM you. This is a major bummer, but I wanna tell you I love you… Too forward?
Disclaimer: I'll laugh if you think I own these characters. They're too good to be mine.
Rating: T
Chapter: Secrets
Gabriel was having a sleepless night.
He could have blamed it on the fact that the couch was uncomfortable (which it wasn't), or he wasn't accustomed to sleeping on anything but a bed (also a lie), but he knew his troubles were attributed to the sleeping beauty lying down the hall instead of his arms.
He was never more frustrated that Lillian was doing her job. What he wanted – no, what he needed was to have more time to spend with Riley before they had to go back to headquarters. Lillian wasn't doing them any favors by making them spend possibly their last night in the cabin separated from each other.
He had half a mind to just open Riley's door and join her there, having his wicked way with her despite the danger that the woman across the hall from them posed. The two weren't making it any easier on each other by having impromptu make-out sessions whenever the opportunity presented itself and they were in each other's personal space.
Oh, but those moments they shared were pure ecstasy for Gabriel. When Riley had teased him at her door earlier, he hadn't been kidding when he told her he'd be able to "handle it."
Leaving her there and not following her into the bedroom had sucked. They were both alone, and Gabriel was hardly able to stand it. He needed more time with her, and that was that. If Lillian was going to make them go home the next day, he was going to have to prevent that. Instead of sleeping, this was the reason why Gabriel decided making up excuses in his head that were plausible enough and would allow them to stay at least another night.
After all, he was sure it was in Lillian's plans to bring the agents back. She'd actually fallen asleep before telling them the information that was apparently top secret, and that wasn't like her. He guessed that the impertinent news was that they'd probably caught the guardsman or had incapacitated him, meaning it was safe enough to head back home.
He was shocked by how much he just wanted the guardsman to escape. But how long could they really keep this up? How long did he really expect to stay in the cabin? Forever?
Forever would be nice, Gabriel caught himself thinking. He sighed and realized he didn't even care how wistful he sounded anymore.
A few hours later, everyone was sitting at the dining room table. Lillian had set up her laptop and was accessing a few files to show to her agents. She sat across from an alert Riley and a half-awake Gabriel.
While their boss was still organizing her things, Riley nudged Gabriel. His hand had been supporting his head and when she knocked it he lost his balance for a moment. While on the receiving end of his glare, she whispered, "Wake up. What's wrong?"
"Didn't sleep much," he grumbled. It looked more like he wasn't able to get any sleep at all. He tried to sit up more, though, and reached for Riley's coffee cup out of habit.
She just let him for about half a second and realized she would normally care more about Gabriel's annoying habits. Because Lillian was in front of them, she pretended to hit Gabriel's arm for stealing her drink. He obviously wasn't getting that she was trying to act natural, and just gave her a confused look as he downed the contents of the mug. Riley shook her head.
Lillian didn't notice anyway, though. She began to present her information to the pair. "As you both know, Cyber Command has had agents tracking the guardsman, and he was seen following the second car we sent out with you when you first left Angel's Bluff. Traffic cams outside the city confirmed he was in a black sedan following our decoy vehicle."
"That's good, right? He fell for the trap," Gabriel observed. Lillian wasn't returning his smile, though.
Lillian continued without answering him. "After a while, the cars ventured out to a more rural part of the state where we could only track the vehicles by satellite images. A team was sent out to track the guardsman as he kept following the decoy car, and yesterday they were finally able to catch up with the sedan at the far border of West Virginia."
"What happened?" asked Riley, finally noting with concern how Lillian wasn't looking the least bit relieved.
"When they stopped the vehicle, the guardsman was nowhere to be seen and another man was driving the sedan. When he finally calmed down enough to allow us to interrogate him, he told us he'd been approached and taken hostage by a man whose description matches that of the guardsman," Lillian told them.
"How did he manage to grab a hostage without Cyber Com noticing?" Gabriel asked in confusion.
"He claims that the guardsman approached him at a gas station and forced him at gunpoint into the Sudan. Our victim drove with him until they caught up with the decoy car again, at which point the victim was ordered to keep following our people while dropping off his armed passenger on the side of the road," Lillian paused to take a break. "We lost him after he went on foot."
Riley was trying to process what her boss was saying. "But that doesn't make sense. How was he a hostage if the guardsman wasn't even in the car with him?"
"Apparently, the guardsman convinced him that he'd placed a specialized car bomb in the vehicle, one that would activate if the hostage moved from the driver's seat," she said. "To make sure he kept following the decoy, the hostage was told that some sort of bug was placed in the car and that he was being monitored."
"That's good news, then, right? We can just trace the signal back to the receiving end-" Gabriel started.
"I assure you we've already thought about that. Unfortunately, the guardsman was just a convincing enough for the man we apprehended to believe him, because we found no bug or bomb in the car." Lillian put a hand on her forehead. "The hostage only found that his life wasn't in danger when our people finally pulled him from the vehicle."
"He must have been in that car for days with no food or bathroom break. What did he plan on doing when he ran out of gas?" Gabriel wondered aloud.
"So basically," Riley interrupted, addressing Lillian, "You're telling us Cyber Command has completely lost track of the suspect, the decoy failed, and we had a helpless hostage leading us on a wild goose chase?"
"We're putting some of our best people on the job," Lillian returned with a sharp look at the two. "Besides, we do have one more lead."
The agents patiently waited for her to go on.
"We put an APB out on the guardsman and found a hit. Witnesses report seeing him in a café back near the Virginia border, which is closer to the way he came from. We think that he's going back to the start, retracing his steps."
"I'm gathering that you're not actually here to take us back home, are you?" Riley asked curiously, tamping down the urge to smile even a little. No way would the ever-cautious Lillian bring them back to a situation where Gabriel could be put further into harm's way.
"You would be correct in assuming that, Agent Neal." Lillian frowned. "I left the city before the guardsman would've had a chance to return, so I knew it would be safe to travel up here. I came to give you this burner phone," she said while handing the device she pulled from her bag. "We still aren't sure if or how the guardsman could be tapping our line of information, so we need to be more discreet. No communication unless through this phone, do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am," they chorused. Riley couldn't help but ask, "Do you know at all if we'll be able to go home soon?"
"Sorry, Riley. Until we get a better lead, I can't tell you that for sure," Lillian replied. "I'm sorry that you both have to deal with this. I know it's been hard on the two of you."
Both Riley and Gabriel snuck a glance at each other and looked away just as fast. 'Hard' might not have been the best word to describe what they'd been going through, but they weren't going to tell their boss otherwise.
"Alright," Lillian said, gathering her things and putting them back into her bag. "That's all the information I have for you. How is it going here? I trust everything's going okay?"
"Well, for the most part it's not been horrible," Gabriel started, glancing at Riley. He was debating how much they should tell their boss about their antics in the woods. They'd already handled most all of the problems they'd faced, so he figured it couldn't be too terrible to let Lillian in on what was happening.
"What are saying? I thought you would've called me if something happened." Lillian directed her last statement at Riley, rather accusingly if the agent did say so herself. After all, it was her responsibility to check in with headquarters, not just to protect Gabriel.
"I would've, ma'am, if I was able to," Riley answered sheepishly. She recalled the feeling of the lotion stuck all over her hands, limiting her ability to use them.
"What she means is," Gabriel hurried to explain, "Riley just walked into a bit of poison ivy the other day." He tried to say it with the least amount of concern in his voice as possible, but could already see the tension setting in with his boss.
"Did you get some on you too, Gabriel? Because I didn't hear any report from you," Lillian frowned. Her posture was tight and her stare was stern.
An air of disapproval seemed to settle in the cabin, but Lillian didn't even know the half of it yet.
"I just didn't think it was high up on your list of priorities, boss," Gabriel bristled. "I had it handled – brought in a medic from the ambulance down the road and everything. Besides, I was going to tell you when we got back." He widened his eyes, suddenly aware that Lillian wasn't clued in about the search party, either. When it looked like Lillian was about to go off on him again, he interrupted her with, "One of the hikers nearby took his dog up along an illegal hiking path and got lost. We just helped out with the search party."
"That's when I got the poison ivy," Riley cut in. "Other than that, we were completely safe. We even succeeded in finding them both. The park ranger around here apparently knew we were in some branch of the law department, so she asked us for help."
"She did?" Lillian asked. "I'll have to talk to the agent who organized your stay here and inform him that the USCC likes to be more discreet. He was supposed to give you better covers, especially since you're under protective detail." If it was possible, her frown deepened even further. At least she was no longer focusing her anger towards the two sitting across from her.
"We both thought you organized it," Gabriel said. Just then, a scratching noise came from down the hallway followed by a strange, howling sound.
He cringed. They'd both forgotten about Ivy for the time being, and it was going to come back to bite them. Before Lillian could open her mouth, Riley answered her unasked question.
"The park ranger, Officer Sally Bates, didn't know what to do with the lost dog of the hiker's, and we couldn't just send her to jail with him, so…" She ran a hand through her dark hair and stood up to let Ivy out of the bedroom.
"The dog isn't doing anything wrong," Gabriel said in reply to Lillian's scowl that was directed towards the noisy hallway. "The park ranger had us adopt Ivy and we had no choice to accept. We couldn't just come out and say 'By the way, we're Cyber Com agents, we don't have time to care for this neglected thing'?"
"'Ivy'?" Lillian laughed without humor. She turned her back on him and started pacing around her side of the table. She was silent for a long time, watching with a hard stare as Riley came around and let the Golden Retriever out the door.
"Are you going to take her away?" Riley asked quietly. She tried keeping a straight face, appearing calm. On the inside she felt like a young girl whose puppy was about to be ripped from her hands, and she was nearly heartbroken at the thought. Ivy was too lovable to give away and needed good caretakers like themselves.
"It's too late now. It'll look more suspicious if your dog disappears suddenly and with no explanation," the redhead answered.
Gabriel let out a quiet breath of relief. "I'm sorry about the dog-"
"I'm not upset about the dog," their boss cut in. "I'm upset about the fact that you've been hiding all this information and not including it in your reports to me. You could stand to tell me about these things." She took a deep breath, stopping in her actions to place a hand on her hip. "Despite what you may think, I do actually care about my agents."
Riley nodded with a faint blush on her cheeks, embarrassed. "We're sorry Lillian. Both of us." She looked to Gabriel, and he nodded in agreement.
"Well now that I'm debriefed, I think I'm going to start heading back. Thank you for finally telling me how it's been. I expect better updates on that burner phone, agents." At the end of her sentence, a small smile finally appeared.
"I'll help you with your suitcase, Ma'am," Riley said and followed her boss out the door. She wanted a private word with Lillian before her boss. Just to clean the slate. When they approached her car, the agent spoke up. "Before you go, Lillian, there is one more thing you should know."
"Yes?"
Riley cleared her throat. "Just something we might have forgotten to mention. Ah…Officer Bates kind of assumes that since Gabriel and I are sharing a cabin, that we're um…married." It was a bit of a white lie, but Lillian deserved to know the point at least. "We just never corrected her, so…we figured we'd just use that as our cover."
Lillian raised her eyebrows, but said nothing.
"But – it's not like that! We're still being complete professionals, like you said to be." Okay, that was a bigger white lie. Verging on an actual lie. "Neither of us would risk our jobs over something like that. We know we'd get fired for fraternizing, so…" This was going splendidly. Riley cleared her throat again. "Just wanted to clear that up."
"I appreciate it Riley," her boss said, unexpectedly placid. With a happier voice that held a bit of sarcasm, she told the agent, "It's good to know you're following at least some of my orders."
Riley smiled uncomfortably. She was trying to follow orders, she just didn't agree that she was actually succeeding.
"But perhaps you should know," Lillian continued, "I can't actually fire you for dating a co-worker. It's just my preference in general so that my team can work better together. Sometimes it complicates things, and it's easier to separate business from pleasure." She leaned closer to Riley and whispered, "Besides, I know you don't have any feelings for him. The way you two fight, well, it's obvious you don't feel for each other in that way."
"I'm so glad to hear that you know it, Lillian," Riley said through a shaky grin. Was that sweat rolling down her back? She hoped Lillian couldn't hear how loud her heart was beating. "Have a good trip back, boss."
Lillian climbed in the vehicle and waved to Riley out her window. Her car started backing up out of the driveway and puttered down the road, leaving Riley with her thoughts. The realization of what Lillian had said was just setting in. She just didn't know whether it was a good or bad thing that she knew her job wasn't on the line.
The question was, could she allow herself to even defy her boss' orders so blatantly?
She heard the sound of the cabin door opening behind her, but didn't turn around. Riley smelled his cologne before she saw him, and a warm arm came to drape around her shoulders as he waved to Lillian in the distance.
"You alright?" Gabriel asked, concern displayed on his features after he looked into her dark ones. She didn't come back with her usual answer, so he asked, "What did Lillian say?"
After a long minute, she answered, "Nothing important." She neither leaned into his presence nor away, not quite sure what to do. Riley kept telling herself it wasn't any big deal.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A/N: Such a short update, and I'm truly sorry it took so long.
Thanks to irishcaribou for an idea about this chapter, and for Nina542 for an idea about next chapter. That being said, if you guys have an idea about what you want to happen, please let me know in your reviews!