What is this strange story? I don't remember seeing this for ages! Oh, wait, it's the one that I made you all think I'd finished by not updating for 5 months! I was intending to upload the last chapter all as one but it was very long and I'm having trouble with the last bit. Oh, and thank you for the very positive reviews last chapter.

Also, this chapter is dedicated to my friend Bee – whenever I had a problem with this story, she was on facebook, so I asked her for help, and she gave it to me. She may never read this, but I regret nothing.

"Lovely," Carrie remarked, opening the door of the caretaker's storeroom.

Rose was intrigued and came over to the entrance to HQ to see what Carrie had been commenting on. Unfortunately, she ended up confused as Carrie's voice had literally sent Blane crashing into the other side of the storeroom to Daisy, so vicious was Blane and Daisy's attempt at hiding the fact they had been kissing.

"What's lovely?" Rose asked. The fact that Blane and Daisy were looking round awkwardly and Carrie was grinning like a buffoon gave her a pretty good idea but she was asking anyway.

"I don't know," Carrie started. "I was just going to collect my communicator, which I so foolishly left in HQ." (Rose could tell Carrie was enjoying this) "I didn't expect to be greeted by two people chewing each other's faces off!"

Rose's face showed laughter, although none issued from her mouth.

"They were kiss-"

"No." Rose was interrupted by two people in insistent denial.

"Nice."

Next Day

Avril's absence that morning went unnoticed by everyone who had not been involved in the recent recovery of the country's current monarch. Five of those not included in that group, however, flinched with varying degrees of intensity when Mrs. King read out her name in the register.

As usual, when work was set, the class failed to comply. The two agents who were to leave the school and return to their usual jobs at the end of the week were no exception.

"Strange, how the only person I remember from when we were at school here is Rose. Everyone else seems to have moved," Daisy remarked to the boy sitting beside her.

"They were probably trying to get away from you," Blane responded, listlessly flicking through the text book in front of him. "Shame about the effort they wasted."

Daisy turned a ha-ha-very-funny face on Blane. There was a comfortable pause, during which Daisy's pencil lead her hand on a pointless excursion over a piece of paper and Blane stared aimlessly at the whiteboard. Then-

"We kissed," Blane reminded her in a hushed voice. "Are you just going to let that slide?"

Daisy glanced around, as if to check whether anyone was eavesdropping.

"I have a reputation to uphold," she hissed. "We're supposed to hate each-other."

She glared at Carrie and Rose, who had turned round to look at the two of them. They looked pointedly at her until she blushed and made a show of 'getting on with her work'. They giggled and turned back round. Daisy sighed.

"I'm bored of you," she told Blane, and stood up, smoothed her skirt, which gave Blane ample time to appreciate her legs, and moved to sit in the empty seat next to Oscar, who had almost relieved his pencil of its eraser by stabbing it frustratedly into his desk.

Blane knew the jealousy roaring up inside him was just a case of habit. He didn't care that Daisy had gone to sit next to someone tall, blonde and handsome as he leaned back in his chair with a smug look on his face.

Because he had kissed her.

And she had kissed him.

Oscar did not acknowledge Daisy's presence immediately. It was only when she leaned towards him that he began to pay attention, even though his face remained like thunder.

"I know as well as you do that Avril didn't deserve what she got."

Oscar grunted derisively.

"She kidnapped the Queen. That's a pretty big offence."

But Daisy did not miss the bitterness that dripped from his voice so much that she was surprised there was not a pool on the table.

She hesitated, then put a hand on his arm. She took it as a good sign that, other than tensing slightly at first, he made no move to throw it off.

"She did it in an Avril way though. No personal gain. Just a rather extreme charity stunt."

Oscar turned away from Daisy at this point and began boring a hole in the nearby filing cabinet with his eyes.

"Not like it makes a difference. She's gone and got herself locked up now."

Daisy let out a long, shaky breath.

"So we rescue her."

Oscar's neck pointed his head towards Daisy so fast that she recoiled slightly.

"How?"

Daisy considered.

"Well-"

"If she escapes it's going to be obvious it was us."

"Avril kidnapped the Queen. I'm sure she could feasibly break out of a prison cell."

Daisy licked her lips nervously as Oscar contemplated this.

"You do realise that if we get caught this will cost us our jobs."

Unsure whether to be pleased because Oscar had agreed to her plan or scared because he had voiced what she had not wanted to think about, she gave a grim nod.

There was a silence while Oscar smiled at Daisy. Daisy nodded again, to show she had understood that the small change in the position of his lips had been conveying utmost gratitude.

"Any idea how we're going to get into M. I. 9 without permission?" Daisy then asked.

"I thought you'd have that covered!"

As the bell rang, Daisy and Oscar made a beeline for Rose.

"So, if a criminal escaped from their cell, what would be the procedure that was followed with regard to catching them?" Oscar asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"There would be an initial search, and then for the next six months, the criminal would be on 'Hawk Alert'."

"And in English..." Daisy prompted.

"If they were seen or any knowledge of their whereabouts came to the surface during that period, M. I. 9 agents would be sent to recapture them," Rose elaborated, although there was still an edge to her tone that suggested she regarded those who needed explanations to terms such as these as beneath her.

"And after that?" Oscar pressed.

"If the criminal had just been jailed for their first offence, they would be added to M. I. 9's list of known criminals. Otherwise the criminal receives another six months under 'Hawk Alert' for each previous offence." She paused. "Why are you suddenly so interested in this?"

Daisy and Oscar tried their best to grunt noncommittally and not look shifty. Whether or not this had worked, Rose's eyes widened.

"You know you can't! It's against the law and you're job is to catch people who don't stick to it, not join them for goodness' sake! The amount of trouble you'll be in if-"

"In case they get suspicious when they discover her cell is empty, could we rely on you to provide an alibi for us? Thanks," Daisy brutally ignored Rose's spluttering, choosing instead to pat her arm and move away as Carrie sauntered up. Oscar followed.

"It could be worse," Daisy concluded.

"But we've still got the problem of what to do with Avril for six months," Oscar retorted.

Daisy bit her lip.

"She could always stay at my house," she suggested.

Oscar stared at her.

"Why not? M. I. 9 aren't gonna suspect it and my parents are never in, so the only person who would be around to ask awkward questions would be the butler-"

"The butler?"

"-And if I tell him not to be nosy he won't be, I mean, he knows his place. My parents are loaded so food won't be an issue and there'll definitely be a spare bedroom and en suite she could have. I guess the only problem would be she might not like any of my clothes."

It was a few seconds before Oscar realised she had finished. He was too stunned by this proposal to properly thank her - if it was not for him, she would never have considered this - but he managed to say:

"Why are you being so nice?"

"I'm a very nice person!" Daisy said, as if she had been deeply offended by this question. Then she hesitated before saying:

"I get lonely sometimes."

It was all Oscar could do to stop himself from hugging her. He pulled himself together, however, and turned his sympathy into wit.

"I'm sure that problem could be solved by making tearing Blane's tonsils out a hobby."

Daisy gave him a look that clearly said 'shut-up-or-I-will consider-punching-you-in-the-face', then muttered something about Carrie needing to learn to shut up. Oscar watched her gleefully.

"Me and Blane? Please. That's sadder than knowing the names of all the underground stations in alphabetical order."

Oscar chuckled as, as if he was attracted to the mention of his name, Blane came to demand what was going on. Before he had got further into the conversation than 'hi', however, Frank sidled up to them, with Rose and Carrie following, and said:

"It may interest you to know that the head of M. I. 9 wishes to offer you formal congratulations for your success on the mission."

"Which one's the head of M. I. 9?" Blane let the words fall out of the corner of his mouth so that only one would hear them.

"The scary one with the big hair and too much make-up," Daisy replied.

Blane grimaced slightly.

"She's really nice to us," Oscar commented.

"Well then."

"You'll be going to the M. I. 9 headquarters tomorrow," Frank continued. "I'm afraid you'll have to miss your morning lessons."

"I was just wondering what I was going to do about that History essay," Carrie said happily.

"You haven't done it yet? It was set weeks ago!"

But as Carrie rolled her eyes at Rose, Oscar and Daisy were hi-fiving as subtly as possible. Avril suddenly seemed a lot closer to freedom.

"Oh, and Blane and Daisy, the Head of M. I. 9 also wanted me to remind you that the annual review on project alpha will be held tomorrow also."

Rose smirked.

"Is project alpha the thing that we're in charge of?" Daisy asked, looking somewhat scared. Blane's confusion cleared.

"I believe so."

Blane and Daisy looked at each-other and swore simultaneously. Frank raised his eyebrows and took that as his cue to leave.

"We're going to die."

Daisy had thrown herself at the lockers. Carrie wondered whether she was hoping they would swallow her up.

Oscar, who had previously been laughing at the misfortune of his teammates, decided to offer his advice.

"Surely you just need to make up some rubbish about how co-operative your trainees are and how well they deal with the tasks you give them and that you think they've got the makings of great spies thanks to the innovative training programme you've had the pleasure of teaching."

"Seriously? That's obviously a lie. This is the head of M. I. 9 we're talking about. We've got to tell the truth or we're gonna get fired."

"Also, she hates us."

"What did you do to make her hate you?" Carrie asked, intrigued.

Daisy and Blane exchanged glances. It would shame them, but not too much to stop the telling of a good story.

"Well it was Blane's fault mainly," Daisy began.

"In what way was it 'my fault mainly'?" Blane interrupted, indignantly. "It was totally Daisy's fault," Blane assured Oscar, Rose and Carrie.

"We'd just been briefed on our training thing and when we were leaving we somehow decided-"

"She decided."

"Blane decided that she once dated Lenny, our old mentor, and they'd shared tips on how to make your hair so ridiculously big."

"Not altogether surprisingly, she had followed us out and walked past us with a very reprimanding look just as we voiced this. She's never quite forgiven us."

Blane and Daisy insult of the chapter:
S02 E03 – Evil By Design

Lenny: *Hands Blane deodorant* A deodorant that will dissolve through an inch of metal.
Daisy: That's funny. His BO does exactly the same thing.

So, yes, there will be one more chapter. Then this will be finished. Oh, and for those who put me on Author alert, I will probably write some Harry Potter fics soon, or other fandoms, so be warned that your emails might not be announcing a new M. I. High story.

^.^