"Don't make me laugh," Abby said, shaking her head.

"I'm being serious Abby."

"Rachel, I won't work with him." Abby lowered her voice. "I can look after Cammie myself, I don't need help. Especially not his help." Rachel sighed, with her head in her hand.

"What's your problem with the guy?" Abby scoffed.

"Oh, I don't know, his whole deal? Everything about him? I don't need his help."

"No, you don't need his help." Rachel grasped her sister's shoulders. "But you need backup. Our best operative is in a coma," Her voice cracked on the final word and Abby couldn't look her in the eyes. She knew the pain was still fresh. "Townsend is one of the only people we can trust."

"Is he?" Rachel's eyes narrowed. "Are we sure we can trust him, Rachel?"

"Do you have a reason to suggest we can't?"

"I don't know Rachel!" Abby took a step back and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I don't trust anyone anymore." Rachel opened her mouth to speak but whatever words she was about to say Abby would never hear because there was a knock at the door. Rachel shot a quick warning glance at Abby before heading over to open the door. A tall, broad figure stepped into the room. He swept his hair out of his face and then decided to run his hand through his dark curly hair. Abby hated it when he did that, he had stupidly good hair. He smiled politely.

"Abigail."

"Townsend." He walked closer to her, sticking his hand in his pocket. The suit he wore fit his figure perfectly, the dark blue colours brought out the deep blue of his eyes. Abby made herself look away. Townsend turned to look at Rachel.

"How is Ms Morgan?" Rachel struggled to find the right words.

"Confused." Townsend nodded and he turned back to face Abby. There was a strange expression on his face, it almost looked like he cared about someone other than himself. The concerned look was then removed from his face as he yawned. It was then that Abby realised he had come all the way to the Gallagher Academy on a moments notice and that it was ridiculously early in the morning. "Thank you for agreeing to help us, Agent Townsend." Rachel said while staring at Abby, Abby rolled her eyes.

"Yes, thank you," Abby said begrudgingly. "Have you been to Rome before?" She asked him. He raised his eyebrows and breathed out a no. They made eye contact and again Abby couldn't help but look into the blue, they were a lot warmer than the last time she had seen him and he seemed happier as he looked at her and that was when her breath caught in her throat. She thought about another man with eyes just like Townsend's. A man who needed her in Rome. A man she could have saved. A man whose daughter was in danger and couldn't remember the past few months of her life.

Abby only realised she was staring at Townsend when Rachel cleared her throat.

"Abby, can you go get Cammie ready? Please. You're leaving in thirty minutes." Abby nodded and headed up to Cammie's room. What would they do if this plan didn't work? If Cammie never remembers where she was or what she did in Rome? The whole plan was pretty farfetched anyway. She pushed the thoughts from her mind as she slowly eased open the door to the girls' room, she knew that being too loud would stir the others and they were not something she wanted to deal with at the moment. She picked up the empty duffle bag she had placed in the room earlier and opened up Cammie's wardrobe. She heard movement behind her and turned, half expecting Bex to be there or Macey preparing to throw a Louis Vuitton suitcase at her head. Luckily for Abby, and her nose, she saw Cammie looking at her with an extremely confused look on her face, she was probably trying to figure out if Abby was real or not. Abby threw the duffel bag at her feet.

"Get packed," she whispered at Cammie. "Get dressed. We leave in twenty minutes." With that, Abby walked out of the room. She silently sighed when she heard Cammie's footsteps behind her.

"Abby-" She started.

"Come on, Squirt. Clock's ticking. Spies are fast packers. Consider it your CoveOps lesson for the day." Abby gestured her hand towards the door. "Now, go." She looked directly into Cammie's eyes when she said, " And be quiet. We don't want to wake-"

"Us?" Abby closed her eyes and quietly prayed for the strength to not strangle Bex. "What do you think, Macey? I think she's talking about us." Abby glared at Cammie.

"I said pack and dress quietly."

"It's not Cam's fault," Abby finally looked over at Bex. "We rigged her bed so that if she gets up, I get an electric shock." Bex shrugged as Macey said that Liz designed it. "We told you we were taking precautions."

"So we're leaving?" Macey asked, falling in step behind Bex.

"We're not going anywhere," Abby snapped, glaring at Macey. "Cam, you now have ten minutes to get ready. Bex, you and Macey have ten seconds to go back to bed."

"No," Macey whined, in the pathetic voice of the Macey McHenry that she wasn't.

"Yes," Abby responded with the same tone. As she did she saw a shift in Cammie's expression in the corner of her eye.

"Go to bed, guys." She said her voice scarily calm and steady.

"But-" Bex when to retort but Cammie cut her off.

"But no one else is getting hurt."

"Abby?" Abby turned to face her sister. Obviously, she was finished filling Townsend in and she didn't seem the least bit surprised that everyone was up and at each other's throats. Figuratively, of course. Well at least for now. Abby gave her a helpless shrug.

"They hotwired Cam's bed,"

"Of course they did," Rachel said with the tone of a woman who had just about had enough of the young girls' antics.

"You've got to take us with you," Macey said matter-of-factly, stepping in front of Bex.

"And why is that?" Rachel asked in her headmistress voice.

"We know Cammie, you need us to help you figure out where she went and what she did."

"Yeah," Bex said. "And you're not going through official channels on this, are you?" Abby glanced at Rachel who now stood next to her. "Of course you aren't. You can't risk telling Langley. The circle has way too many moles in the CIA. And the more people who know, the more likely you are to have a repeat of what happened at the cabin, so you aren't telling anyone, and you aren't taking any backup. We're alone now. We are all alone."

"I wouldn't say that girls," Abby said, thinking about Townsend who was probably at the bottom of the stairs listening to this entire conversation. "I'll have some backup."

"You're not taking enough," Bex countered, and Abby couldn't help but feel impressed. She sure wasn't backing down without a fight. "If we were juniors, sure. Maybe. We would have argued, but we would have been wrong. But now we're a term and a half away from being field-qualified, and we've already seen more real-world ops than most new graduates see in five years."

"You need backup," Macey said, sounding a lot like Rachel had when she was trying to convince Abby to trust Townsend to come along. "We can be backup. Don't make us stay here like we're... helpless." Her voice cracked and Abby felt a twinge of guilt for not letting them help with finding Cammie. All that time with no idea where their best friend was, it must have been terrible for everyone Abby reasoned. But she saw Rachel shaking her head.

"Girls, what about Liz?" Finally, a question that Bex and Macey had to stop and think about.

"I'll stay." A small but firm voice said from behind Bex. Abby raised her eyebrows, Liz stood there in quite possibly the pinkest nightdress Abby had ever seen. "Bex and Macey should go, but I can stay and help with ground support and research and... Bex and Macey should go." She took a deep breath and looked at Rachel. "The odds of bringing her back alive increase by twenty-seven percent if Bex and Macey go."

Abby glanced at Rachel again, and they both shared a look although the two looks couldn't be more different. Abby's look said 'we can't let them go, it's too dangerous' whereas Rachel's was more a 'the girls have excellent points' look. Abby eventually gave in when Rachel shot her that look that only mothers seem to be able to pull off. A look that just cannot be argued with. She spun back to Bex and Macey.

"Fine. You two can come." Bex smiled.

"Awesome," She turned and began to run down the hall. "I'll get Zach and-"

"Not Zach." Rachel said firmly. "Cammie isn't the only person the Circle would like back. Zach stays here." Abby felt a small smile appear on her face and looked to Cammie.

"Don't worry, Squirt, we have you covered."

Abby watched as Cammie looked at Bex and Macey and then turned back to her, face filled with scepticism. "Who exactly is we?"

"That would be me, young lady." Abby felt Townsend walk up behind her. She turned slightly and followed his gaze to the heavy bag that sat at her feet and he proceeded to pick it up and swing it over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. His smile morphed into a smirk. "Let's go."

Abby rolled her eyes. Showoff.