A/N: We are almost there Bravers. We will know our fate by end of the week. Hopefully we have a new season to look forward to and hopefully more inspiration for new stories. Thank you all for the amazing updates.
Chapter 11:
McG stood watch over the school through the day and watched as Andy interacted with the kids. As far as missions went, this one had been one of the easiest in a while. Their previous deployment had been rougher than any other deployment he had ever had previously. Truth be told, he was enjoying watching Andy interact with the team and wondered what it would be like if she were around more often. It would certainly make Amir squirm. He grinned to himself thinking about the look on Amir's face when he had called him out for being in love with Andy.
McG refocused on the classroom when he spotted the door opening and someone carrying a bouquet of red roses. He watched Andy's face register surprise and then curiosity as she pulled the card from the center. Then he saw very briefly the rage on her face. He was so startled he thought he had imagined it, but then he saw her bawl her fist with the card in it, and then she smoothed her face back into a smile. He watched as she turned to the back of her classroom and walk to a cupboard. She pulled out a stack of plastic cups and a pair of scissors.
He looked on confused as he watched Andy fill several cups with water and then proceed to pull roses from the bouquet, cut them and distribute them amongst the cups. Then she called a few students up to the front of the room to take a cup back to their group of desks. She then took the now empty vase to the back of the classroom and set it in the sink.
"Any idea who the flowers were from?" he questioned over comms. Andy's reaction had been smart, but he caught her glancing towards him and opening the windows wider.
"Couldn't make out the card," Noah answered already reviewing the footage to find out the answer.
"Whoever it was, she was not happy. Although, the girls in the classroom are pretty excited," Jaz observed with a slight smile. She glanced over at Top sitting next to her in front of the monitors.
Top frowned as he watched his sister. She was disturbed by whoever sent the flowers. He had a feeling it wasn't Adrian though because her reaction was off. If it had been Adrian, attempting to apologize for the night before, she would have been prepared with a reaction. He could tell that was who she had been expecting them to be from, but when they weren't she hadn't been able to fully mask her reaction.
"Anyone know who delivered the flowers?" Preach questioned from his spot down the road from the school. He hadn't seen the flower delivery van or anyone walking in with the flowers.
"Andy, we need to see the card," Hannah informed her while she had her back to the classroom.
"Class we are going to head out for recess," Andy announced turning around. She glanced at the students slightly confused faces because they knew it was early, but eventually gave in to the change in schedule. She moved to her desk as the last student left the room and held up the card that had been lying facedown on her desk.
There was no name, no flower company logo, just a plain white card with a printed statement on it.
Adrian is a lucky man.
That was all that was on the card and it had spooked Andy. There was nothing overtly threatening but given the lack of logo and no information to track the flowers, Andy knew it was from whoever hired her tail. She couldn't shake the feeling that whoever had sent it was trying to get under her skin. They were succeeding.
Andy followed her students outside and dropped the card into her pocket. She sat on the picnic bench that she always occupied while the kids played and casually glanced up at McG. Her nerves were frayed, and still, she remembered McG's advise to prop her knee up. It made her smile to herself a little and she refocused on the students running around playing tag and laughing. She took a breath and forced herself to focus on the students and what their needs were, pushing the rest to the back of her mind.
Jaz and Adam picked her up a couple hours later and she slid into the car and handed the card to Jaz. She leaned her head against the back of the seat and took a deep breath. She felt Adam put the car in drive and pull away from the school. He drove to her apartment and they were silent as they climbed the stairs and entered the apartment.
Andy moved to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee and grabbed a bag of ice for her aching knee. She sat on the couch and waited for one of them to say something. They had been having conversations with DC, but she had closed in on herself to analyze the clues she had to figure out what was going on around her. She knew that she needed to confront Adrian and ask him about this mysterious friend. She was going to have to leave for the mansion eventually. They were going to have to hash out what had happened and putting her foot down about hiring security of her choosing.
"Talk to me Andy," Adam ordered sitting across from her. She had been silent since they picked her up and, in the years, he had known her, she was never this quiet. It was kind of scaring him.
"I have to go back, hash it out. I'm going to tell him about the roses and tell him that I've hired McG as my body guard. He took too long. He won't like it, but I will tell him that he was on the short list anyway for hiring according to his security company. I'm going to have McG follow me back, so he needs to get prepped and DC needs to get his cover settled. School is not happening the rest of the week, I can't keep putting those kids in danger. This needs to end and I need to focus on what my actual job is," she laid out with clarity and focus. Adam looked at her with calm blue eyes and she wondered what he was thinking, but she had been doing this long enough now and she knew how to make it work.
Adam had been worried that she was losing focus and that had been his first mistake. He knew that when she was backed into a corner she became deadly focused and apparently that held in the field too. He glanced up at Jaz and gauged her reaction.
Jaz sat with a cup of coffee listening to Andy lay out her plan. She could see it going wrong in fifty different ways, but it was simple and put her back in control of the situation. It also got them someone in the house with more latitude to explore. It gave them more insight into the security around the house and its surrounding facilities. She looked at Adam and felt his concern for his sister, but also the mission. With a nod of her head, she agreed to the plan.
Andy looked at her brother and felt him agree to her plan before he nodded. She nodded back before leaning her head back to rest for a minute longer. Pulling her phone from her pocket she called the security company that Adrian used, and asked for an email of the candidates that Adrian was considering. He was supposed to interview candidates the next day, but she wasn't waiting. She set a meeting to interview the candidate of her choice for an hour later and moved to start getting ready.
Andy moved to the bedroom to change into jeans and began the process of shedding the school teacher cover. Jaz came in the room without knocking and sat on the bed observing the change with curiosity. Andy slipped a knife in her boot and slipped a gun into a holster at her back. She then moved to twist her hair at the back of her head and slipped a very sharp looking set of chopsticks into place to hold the knot.
"Man, you don't mess around when arming yourself," Jaz observed with a note of respect. Andy stopped moving around and looked at her with a smile.
"When you work alone, you have to be your own army," Andy stated simply as she slipped another knife up the sleeve of her leather jacket. She then tied another scarf around her neck to hide the bruises that were already beginning to fade from the night before.
"Did you ever think about working with a team?" Jaz questioned watching Andy transform into a different person before her eyes. It was like watching Amir change into a different person whenever they sent him in solo.
"The closest I came to working with a team was working with Amir. It was nice having a partner, but after he was reassigned, I preferred to work alone," she answered before closing the bag she had been packing.
Jaz nodded and followed her out to the living room where Adam had been on the phone with DC working on McG's cover. Adam looked up at her and knew he was asking if his sister was okay. She nodded with a smile. His eyes moved to his sister as she moved around the living room and it was like he was seeing her as an agent for the first time. There was a confidence in her step that he hadn't seen and a determination that she could get the job done. He knew she was good, had observed it since their arrival, but this was the person that reminded him of Jaz when she was in a sniper's nest. She was focused and lethal.
"Is McG ready for a meeting?" she questioned, and Adam nodded his assurance. She nodded in return and began to clear the apartment of anything personal. He watched as she reached behind the tv and pulled out a packet of files and tossed it out on the coffee table. She moved to the kitchen and reached behind the refrigerator. She pulled out yet another packet and tossed it out on the table. She pulled out a second one and it joined the other two.
Adam moved to stand next to her, watching as she pulled open one of the brown envelopes. Inside were her multiple passports and different currency. Adam flashbacked to clearing out Alex Hoffman's go bag and had to force himself back to the present. He watched as Andy stuffed a bag with a couple of burner phones, extra weapons, and the third envelope that she hadn't opened.
"You planning to take off?" he questioned as she zipped the bag closed.
"Makes for a quick get away when Sunday rolls around. I don't plan on coming back here," she answered before dropping the bag near the door. "My letter of resignation will be delivered at the school Monday morning. My asset here will sell the car, the apartment will be handled by the agency and I will be back in DC by the time anyone realizes I've disappeared."
"What if this all goes sideways?" Adam questioned looking over at Jaz to see what she was thinking.
"Then it goes sideways, I have plans in place to get out of here, but either way this ends Saturday," Andy answered looking her brother in the eye. Gone was the scared teenager he knew, the quiet twenty-something, and in their place, an operative willing to make the sacrifice that he had been willing to make since he was eighteen. He felt the big brother in him protest, but the soldier in him respected what she was saying and accepted it.
"We all make it back to the safe house and we leave together," Adam ordered staring at her before looking over at Jaz and fixing her with the same stare. Jaz nodded in agreement and Andy nodded before her cell phone rang. It was Adrian.
"I have a meeting in half an hour, I will be home after," she answered in a clipped tone. She wanted to get the hint across that she was irritated and mad, but not saying it. She wrapped up her call and they left the apartment to meet McG at the restaurant near the mansion.