A/N: ...Nope, you're not seeing things. This is a real update!

I know, I know. I've been gone waaay too long. I really have no excuses, I just got lost. I started doubting my story and my creativity. I suffer from pretty bad depression so that usually plays a big part in killing my creativity and passion. It comes and goes, some waves bigger than others, and this past year was a pretty big wave. I stopped writing and I hated everything I had written. But I'm starting to feel like myself again, thus getting back to the drawing board! Anyways, getting back on topic.

I made a promise when starting this story that I was going to finish it, and I am. I was finished with this story and had it all written until my laptop met its demise with a rather large glass of lemonade, but I was able to salvage the skeleton and am now working on building everything back up again. I can't promise my updates will be close together, but I have my own goals set.

I know I left you guys on a pretty big cliffy last time! So there's a short recap before getting back to the present.

Thank you to Fran & Brittlyn for taking the time out of their day to edit for me! They are lovely and amazing.

CHAPTER 13 THE KING DEBACLE

As soon as the plane lands, my phone is already buzzing with an incoming call from Jasper.

"That was fast." I laugh standing and waiting for the other passengers to make their way to the exit.

"Bella. I need you home now. Emmett, too."

"Huh?"

"Just catch the next flight out, okay? I can't discuss it over the phone. You need to be here as soon as humanely possible."

"What's going on?"

"Just DO IT, Bella!" He shouts impatiently, making me jump in shock. "And don't watch any TV on your way here."

"Okay, okay..." I answer uneasily. Jasper's never yelled at me my entire life—in fact, I don't think I've ever seen him yell at anyone. "No TV. Home ASAP. Got it."

"Thank you." Click.

I shakily put my phone back in my pocket and look over at Emmett. "Jazz said he needs us home ASAP. Didn't give any details."

Emmett quirks an eyebrow at me, but still stands firm on his silent treatment.

I'm too anxious to roll my eyes at him, so I just file out of the airplane and book the next flight out to DC, which thankfully is in thirty minutes.

We have to pay extra, due to the fact that they only have first class seats left, but I don't bat an eye as I slide my credit card. I'm too preoccupied with what awaits us in DC. Jasper's findings must have been something terrible... Did Carlisle fake not knowing we were there and make us?

I wonder if the mission has been compromised because of our slight mishap.

When the flight attendant gives me the two tickets, I begin walking towards the terminal, but don't see Emmett anywhere in sight.

A light tap on my shoulder causes me to turn and see him holding up two cups of coffee.

He must have caught onto my nerves. I give him a small smile that he doesn't return, but I'm still hopeful. The fact that he's even offering coffee is progress in my eyes.

When we start walking together, the big screen TV at the sports bar catches my eye.

I glance at it, reading the headline quickly. I do a double take and suddenly my feet are cemented into the ground as my body forces my focus completely on the TV.

TWO CIA DEPUTY DIRECTORS MURDERED! CIA TAKING OVER INVESTIGATION...

I don't hear the coffee cup hit the ground or Emmett call my name. I don't feel the hot liquid as it burns the front of my calves or my brother's grip on my arm.

None of that matters to me as the news reporter notifies me that my father is now dead.

PRESENT

I stare out through the tiny circular window, feeling completely numb.

Emmett holds my hand tight on the armrest between us, neither of us offering any words of comfort to each other. There's nothing to say.

His tight grip keeps me grounded. It keeps me from breaking down, from calling Jasper and shouting a slew of questions at him, from pulling myself out of this mission and hunting down the man who did this.

I only let two tears slip out of from my eyes during the entire flight. Emmett gently wipes them away when he sees, just like he and Jasper always do on the rare occasions I cry. Just like Charlie did when I was a little girl ... I clenched my jaw, squeezing my eyes shut as I will those thoughts away, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other as we exit the airport.

Kate and Jasper wait outside, a black SUV for us, giving only a slight nod of their heads as a greeting.

Jazz takes one look at my face and can tell I already know. Although Emmett and I share a connection two people can only achieve by sharing a womb for nine and a half months, Jasper and I have always been attuned to each others' emotions far better than Em and I are with one another. Jasper takes one look at my face and can tell I already know. We have always been attuned to each other's emotions, far better than I am with Emmett, even though the two of us shared a womb for nine and a half months.

We drive for so long that eventually I fall asleep on Emmett's shoulder until three hours later when he lightly jostled me awake.

"We're here."

I expected to have been taken straight to Langley. After we passed that exit, I knew that wasn't our destination. Looking out through the window, I see we've arrived at a large ranch with a two-story home settled atop a hill, and a small barn a couple of hundred feet away.

"Where are we?" Emmett murmurs.

"Wytheville, Virginia," Kate answers, her tone much softer than I'm used to but still brusque.

We all get out of the car, and Kate leads us up to the house. She enters without so much as a knock and leads us to the country-style kitchen. Walking up to a large, wooden pantry cabinet, she easily moves it out of the way, as if it were on wheels.

A small elevator door is revealed to us from behind the cabinet. The stainless steel, high tech doors, and keypad look completely out of place in such a rural home.

With a swift slide of a card, the doors slide open.

The four of us shuffle in, leaving behind the other two agents that had accompanied us on the drive. I vaguely remember one of them from the first briefing Kate and Charlie had with us when assigning Em and me this mission.

The doors reopen to a stark, white hallway that reminds me of a hospital. We quietly shuffle down to the last door where Kate again slides her card.

When my eyes adjust to the bright room, I gasped at the sight.

"Mom!" I rush into her arms.

"Oh, Bella!" She cries, "I'm so glad you're here, and you're safe. I've been so worried about you two."

I pull away from her, and Alice doesn't waste any time jumping me.

"What are you two doing here?" I murmur, still shocked.

"Some agents came to pick us up a couple of hours ago, after..." The words stick in Renee's throat, and she looks to Jasper for help.

He clears his throat before continuing. "Come on..."

Leading us to the room a few doors down, he types in a code before opening it.

A large glass window and door separates us from the secondary room.

There's a doctor, along with three nurses, performing surgery on someone. I take a few side steps to get a look at the patient.

"Dad..." I press my hand up against the window. My eyes are glued to my unconscious father, who barely resembles the man who raised me. "How?" I ask, tears streaming down my face in relief.

"Our agents acted fast after the attack. Two choppers came within minutes to escort Charles and William Black to the nearest hospital..." Kate answers. "We lost William on the way and decided it's best to announce Charles' death as well, rerouting the chopper to the ranch here.

"Jasper called two agents to pick up your mother and his wife." On her last statement, Kate's shoulders stiffen as she casts an unimpressed look towards my older brother. "I'll give you two a minute alone with your family. Jasper will let you into the briefing room to let you know our next step."

She glides out of the room and shuts the door behind her.

Emmett strides over to Renee and scoops her up into his arms while Jasper walks over to me with Alice tucked under his arm.

"I couldn't let Mom go through it again," Jasper whispers, his eyes red and slightly puffy. "I couldn't let her believe she lost another husband. I had to keep them safe ... Kate's pissed I broke protocol, but fuck that, I did what I had to do."

"I'm glad you did. I wouldn't want Mom to go through that again, either." I agree quietly, wrapping my arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you over the phone, the Agency is doing a full audit on everything now. They said not to trust any line as being secure until they verify."

"I understand, Jazz ... Is Charlie going to be okay?" I ask, pulling away and searching his eyes for some shred of hope.

"They think he will be ... He got run off the road by a white van on his way to work, and his car flipped. He must have been okay after the crash, they found—they found him a couple of feet away from the car with two bullets wedged in his back and a wound from one that grazed his head."

I clench my fists, my jaw hardening at this. Whoever did this to Charlie is going to pay, I'll make sure of that myself.

"Any word on the suspect?" Emmett asks, having overheard. He holds my mom close to him as she weeps quietly.

"Not yet. But believe me when I say, they have plenty of agents on the ground looking." Jasper confirms.

I shake my head. We should be the ones out there looking. "How the fuck did they figure out where he lives? Where Billy lives? How did they know their route to work? Fuck, how did they even know where to fucking look for that kind of information?" I can't ask the questions that pop in my head fast enough.

I'm angry that we've lost an old family friend and might lose our father over a slip of the Agency. The identities of all their agents, even the higher-ups, are highly protected—or so I thought they were.

"It's that mole, isn't it?" Emmett growls.

"We think so ... Everyone's being investigated all over again, even the janitors. Every agent has to take mandatory polygraphs and have a psych evaluation. We have to account for every second of our lives for the past three years, no exceptions." Jasper replies.

A thought crosses my mind, and I utter the words before my mind can finish processing it. "Has Charlotte been through this?" I inquire.

"Charlotte?" Alice questions, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise at the mention of Jasper's ex.

Jazz narrows his eyes at me while I roll my own. "I've been through a lot today, forgive me... Besides, the cat's out of the bag now, Jazz. We're pretty much rolling in it's hairballs." I remark smartly.

"Sorry, Alice. We can't talk about it. But it's nothing to worry about." Jasper murmurs to her before he pulls me out of the room.

"Did she?" I ask impatiently.

"Yes. She did. Twice ... What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying we can't trust anyone right now, J. That's all. I want to make sure we cover our bases properly."

"You're right." He sighs, roughly rubbing his eyes. "Don't worry; I put in a request to have her put under the microscope when all this shit hit the fan ... I feel bad now that she's cleared, but you can never be too careful. I thought a lot about it after you pointed out what I've been doing, that could make anyone a little spiteful."

I nod in agreeance. "Go grab Emmett so we can get this briefing over with."

Before meeting with Kate, Emmett, and I endure an hour with an Agency psych. Mine lasts a little longer than his does, due to the fact that I have to talk about what happened at the warehouse. But I must admit, after talking it out with a professional, I feel exponentially better.

I walked away nearly unscathed from my encounter with Marcus Volturi; not many agents survive any encounter with the Volturi. Being at the mercy of Marcus made me question how good of an agent I really am, but Dr. Reynolds assured me even the best can be caught off guard.

"Jasper gave me an update on what you two have managed to gather from the Marion location. You will continue with the mission as directed; this attack gives us another reason why we need to close this case as fast as possible.

"Emmett, you leave tonight. Isabella, you'll leave tomorrow in the evening. As soon as you land, you'll both need to get to the Bookkeeper's secondary office and grab what you can find.

"We need to find that Volturi file. Do anything you have to do in order to get your hands on it, understood? I don't care if you have to seduce it out of the Bookkeeper himself, get me that damn file." Kate barks.

Emmett chokes on the coffee he's drinking at Kate's last comment.

"Something funny, Swan?" She arches a sharp eyebrow at Em.

"No... No, ma'am. Hot coffee..." He mumbles.

Kate stands, abruptly ending the briefing and exits the room without a goodbye.

I briefly wonder what it would be like to have her and Rosalie in the same room. That's a thought.

"Come on, let's go check on Dad." Emmett offers.

I wake with a stiff neck, having slept on a chair next to Charlie's bed, leaving the plush couch to Alice, since she is carrying another person inside of her and needs as much comfort as she can get.

She refuses to leave Charlie's side, along with the rest of us. I could see how hard it was for Emmett to leave last night. He wanted to stay with his family but knows we're involved in something much bigger than us that needs our attention.

Paul, one of the agents that rode with us on the way here, brings down breakfast. I barely manage to thank him before I shove half an omelet into my mouth.

Jasper goes upstairs to get some orange juice while Alice helps herself to nearly three meals as she quietly sits on the chair. I've only just noticed how big her belly has grown.

"How's baby Swan?" I ask with half a mouth full of pancakes, ashamed at what a terrible aunt I've been by not asking about my niece.

She smiles lazily at me, and absently rubbed her stomach at the mention of her daughter. "She's good. Healthy and active. She loves to keep Momma up all night by kicking my bladder."

"Can I?" I raise a hand and stand.

"Of course, silly." Alice giggles. "She loves food, so right now, she's pretty happy."

I kneel in front of Alice and gingerly placed a hand on her stomach. As soon as I do, I feel a hard push.

"Oh!" I laugh. "Wow, that's one tough cookie."

"She's gonna be a fighter, just like her granddad."

Alice and I both look back at Charlie, who's smiling weakly at us.

"Dad, you're awake!" I burst, running over to his bedside.

Renee stirs and wakes from her sleep, new tears in her eyes when she sees Charlie's regained consciousness.

My hands hover uselessly, as I try to add some sort of comfort or fix his bedsheets. Charlie grabs my hand, and my eyes snap to his as he gives me a small smile.

"I'm all right, Bells. Gonna take a lot more than some coked-up bastard to take this guy down." He rasps.

"You saw who did this?" Jasper asks, having come back.

Charlie gives an apprehensive look towards Alice and Renee.

Alice catches on a lot faster than my mother does, "Come on, Renee. Now that Charlie's awake, we can get some food in you."

Renee nods quietly, standing to give Charlie a quick kiss on the cheek and taking a minute to push his hair away from his face and whispers something to him. Charlie smiles and gives her a slight nod while wiping a tear away.

Alice slips her arm around Renee's waist and leads her out of the room.

"Royce King," Charlie growls once the door is closed. "One of my agents reported he's gone off the rails. All of his henchmen have disbanded and now work for others ... It seems his drug empire came crashing down around him, and now he's forced to work for the Volturi from the looks of it."

I give Jasper a meaningful look and nod my head towards the door. "Let's go get the doctor to come in here," I say before walking out abruptly, not wanting to stress Charlie out any more than he is.

"What's up?" Jazz asks once we're walking down the hall.

"During my first night at the Cullen's when I broke into Carlisle's home office, I noticed a file in his desk with the name Ronald H. King ... It had records of nearly two dozen accounts that added up to half a billion dollars. They were all drained—every single one of them."

"What? How come you never told me?"

"I don't know; I didn't think anything of It ... Why should we worry about empty accounts?"

"You think Ronald King is Royce?" He arches an eyebrow at this.

Exchanging theories on cases has always been a favorite for the both of us, so I know he's eager to discuss this one.

"I think any criminal hotshot with a name like Ronald would jump at the first chance to change it. It's not exactly intimidating..."

"Yeah, but why would the Bookkeeper drain those accounts?"

I shrug, unable to come up with an idea. "I don't know... Maybe King didn't want to do business with them anymore?"

"Hmm ... That's a thought. Or he pissed them off? That would warrant retaliation. Especially since they are in complete control of his finances."

His reply sparks an idea inside of me, but I keep it to myself. "They don't really seem like the vindictive type," I argue.

"People aren't always what they seem to be, Bella."

"I know that. They seem like levelheaded people who don't go around plotting vengeance on others. They do their job and go about their lives normally."

"I'll look into Royce's file and see what I can find about a name change or something. Maybe his parents aren't as clean as we've observed them to be."

"Maybe ... Dad does have a point, though, about him now working for the Volturi. No one in their right mind would go after CIA Deputies, and no one else has a mole in the Agency, either."

"I've brought a lot of my work with me; I'll get to decrypting those new files you found and see what we've got to work with. If you can, get me those King files when you get back to Chicago."

I open my mouth to reveal my plan when we are interrupted by the doctor approaching us.

Jasper tell him about Charlie and he follows us back to the room, effectively ending our brief conversation.

"Bella?... Isabella?"

I shake out of the haze I've slipped into and try to refocus my attention on Kate.

"Sorry. What were you saying?" I blink.

She sighs, offering what she thinks is a sympathetic look, but to me her body language is only conveying that she is just barely tolerating the situation at hand.

"I know this is difficult for you." She places a hand on my shoulder, causing my eyes to nearly bug out of my sockets. The only time Kate's ever touched me was to shake my hand when we first met. She chuckles at this, rolling her eyes. "I'm only a hardass at work because I have to be, Isabella. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a robot. I have parents, too. I wasn't made in a factory—or in Hell like some like to think."

I laugh, thankful for the joke after a tough past hour. The doctor was spouting off medical terms faster than any of us could keep up with; words like 'spinal cord,' 'lesion,' 'paralysis,' and 'traumatic injury' stuck in all of our minds. Renee has not spoken since.

"I'll have Paul and Sam drive you to the airport around eight tomorrow evening. Get some rest; you're gonna need it. I want you focused. You have done exceptionally well with this case, advancing a lot faster than any of us could have expected. Keep up this momentum, and continue doing whatever you're doing." She walks away without so much as a goodbye before heading towards the elevator.

"Actually, Kate..." I call, rushing over to her. "Can they take me now? I have a lead. I think."

She contemplates this for a moment, checking her watch to see it's close to midnight, before giving me a short nod. "Anything you need, Swan."

I watch her step into the elevator, letting my mind go blank for a moment to relax all the tense muscles in my body. I need to be on my A-game if this is going to work.

A warm, small hand grasps mine tightly, pulling me from my thoughts. I look down at Alice, giving me a worried look.

"Please tell me you're not going back out there." She pleads quietly.

"I have to, Alice." I sigh. "Charlie needs there..."

She shakes her head, tears brimming around her gray eyes. "Is all of this because of that Mr. Platinum guy?" She whispers.

My head jerks around, making sure there are not any agents down here. "How do you know about that?" I hiss, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards a more secluded corner of the hall.

"I'm not that heavy of a sleeper, you know ... Don't worry, all I heard was a name. From the way you all were talking that night after dinner, it seemed pretty serious. Then all this happened."

"Alice, please." I murmur low enough for only her ears. My voice calm and low—a contradiction to my face, which holds nothing but a frantic expression. "Don't ever repeat that name again, okay? Charlie, Em, Jazz, and I are all at risk of more than just losing our jobs if the Agency finds out you know more than you're supposed to. Our boss is about ready to crawl up a wall because you and Renee are here; we're already in deep shit and piles of paperwork. Do not poke the bear—and I don't mean the figurate bear, Alice, I mean Kate, she's a fucking grizzly when it comes to classified information."

"I won't, I promise. I'm just worried. Can you blame me?" Her forehead creases as she looks up at me.

"I know, I know ... I'd be the same way. I'm sorry you have to be kept in the dark, but it's for the best, trust me."

"Just promise me you'll stay safe. Promise me you'll come home as soon as you can."

"I promise. Promise me that you'll stop eavesdropping. Just worry about staying healthy and calm for the baby, okay?"

She gives me a nervous nod. "Okay. Promise."

I wrap my arms around her and squeeze as hard I can, keeping in mind the baby in between us.

"I love you, Iz."

"Love you, too, Al..." I whisper back.

"You'll be here for the baby shower?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world. Plus, I don't think you'd let me." I chuckle.

She giggles lightly, pulling away. "Damn right! I'll see you in about a month? I'm finalizing all the details and will have a date in the next week or two, depending on how Charlie does."

"Sounds like a plan." I smile.

I say goodbye to Jazz, Renee, and Charlie before heading back upstairs to meet Paul and Sam.

I skip sleep on the plane, and instead, finalize the plan I'll need when I land.