A/N: I wasn't sure if I was going to keep Ryan Pierce in my story. But after thinking about it, he's an important part of my storyline, so I'm going to leave him in here! It's always nice to be able to add your own characters and spice things up a bit. Thanks again to my fans, who are always so supportive!

-Charahfan44

The club had certainly started attracting more and more people, getting louder with each body that entered. Emma had lost all train of thought while talking to Ryan Pierce. She had far surpassed the demanding art of seduction when it came to training purposes, but here she was failing miserably in person.

"Emma huh? Fits your personality." Ryan said to her. The blonde snapped back into focus.

"Emma! What did you just do?" Jessie blurted through the earpiece.

"I don't really know." Emma mumbled to her partner.

"What'd you say?" Ryan looked at her. Why was she forgetting all of the rules?

"Uh, nothing." She recovered. "You don't know anything about my personality."

"I can read people. Call it a gift if you want." He smiled, and Emma felt herself melting.

"Well then, what does your gift say about me?"

"That you definitely don't want a martini." Ryan said as the bartender set it down in front of Emma.

"Oh really? Then what do I want?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Probably a coke." He raised an eyebrow, searching for approval.

"Maybe I'm a Pepsi girl." Emma teased.

"Are you?"

"You'll never know." Emma started to get up from her seat at the bar.

"You're leaving already?" Ryan asked. Her hold on him was already strong.

"I have to go before you find out too much about me."

"Why is that?"

"Because what fun would it be for you to know everything all at once?" She winked and left the bar, not looking back once.

Sarah paced in front of the main door to the house. She had ordered Chuck to use his hacking skills, and tap into Emma's security system. She had it wired all around the house to monitor her family, but she also had synced it to her phone as a tracking device.

"Sarah, honey, would you please stop pacing? You're going to make me dizzy." Chuck laughed.

"Why the hell would a general send her to a club? This woman needs to be fired! Emma isn't of age!" Sarah flung her hands around angrily.

"I'm guessing it was pretty important to the mission." Chuck tried to reason with his wife.

"Important to the mission, my ass." Sarah grumbled. Suddenly, the door opened.

"You guys waiting up for me or something?" Emma asked as she entered.

"You bet." Chuck replied. He and Sarah were now standing side by side, directly in front of their eldest child.

"Uh, okay." Emma closed the door. "Am I in trouble?"

"The answer to that question would be yes." Sarah narrowed her eyes.

"Can I ask what I would be in trouble for?" Emma looked genuinely confused.

"You were at a club! And you're only eighteen!"

"How did you know I was at a club?" Emma frowned.

"Uh..." Chuck wouldn't answer.

"Did you hack into my system?" Emma yelled at her parents.

"Of course we did." Sarah smirked. Emma hated smirkers.

"You do realize that you broke into government property." Emma ran up to her room and immediately checked her computer. "And you changed my password." She stated, her parents now behind her.

"Yeah, have fun with that." Sarah laughed. Emma looked up at her mother condescendingly.

"Please mom," She typed away, "Done." She unlocked her computer within seconds. Chuck's eyes widened. "I'm half nerd, half spy. You really think that would've been hard? Especially since I'm more towards the nerd side." She scoffed. Sarah glared at her husband and left the room.

"Wha-? Sarah!" Chuck yelled to her as she left. He turned back to his daughter. "I'm going to be in trouble just for passing my genes on to you."

"Well, she picked you dad. She knew what she was getting herself into." Emma smiled. Chuck smiled back.

"Promise me you weren't drinking." He raised his eyebrows.

"Scouts honor." Emma put her hands up innocently. "Unless you count a Coke as drinking."

"Your mom's just worried about you."

"I know, but she needs to learn to trust me. I'm a spy, not an irresponsible teenager."

"Maybe you should talk to her, clear the air?"

"I'll let her sleep on it and talk to her tomorrow."

"Get some sleep, would you?" Chuck smiled at his daughter.

"I'll try my hardest." She smiled back as her father left the room. She had a feeling that she wouldn't be getting much sleep, for once she had someone on her mind.

The Pierce household wasn't anything special. A light blue outside with fading gutters and paint, with an inside that was clearly inhabited by men. No clean dishes, an overflowing garbage, and dirty clothes all over bedroom floors. Ryan knew that his father wasn't the most angelic man alive, but he was his father and he loved him no matter what. Rick Pierce was a hard man to get emotion from, but Ryan knew that the love was there. Just like this morning, Ryan was always woken up by his father.

"Where were you last night?" A rough voice woke Ryan up.

"The club." He replied through his pillow.

"Why were you back so late?"

"I'm always back late."

"Not that late. So tell me the truth."

"I met someone." Ryan rolled over to face his father.

"Who?"

"God dad, take a chill pill." Rick Peirce got in his son's face.

"Tell me who you met." He said through clenched teeth.

"Some girl named Emma."

"Emma what?" Rick wasn't the best dad in the world.

"I didn't catch her last name." Ryan groaned. He had drunk a little too much, and his father wasn't helping.

"Be careful around the people you meet, son. They could be the ones who killed your mother." Rick left the room. Ryan was pretty sure Emma hadn't killed his mother. But he was sure that he hadn't gotten a number, so he was making it his mission to find her.

"Really Jessie, give it a rest." Emma sighed through her iPhone6.

"Seriously Emma! He was totally into you!" Jessie's voice echoed through the other line. Emma entered the kitchen, still in her purple plaid pajama pants and white tank top. She hadn't done anything to her hair, yet it was still perfectly curled and it hung just beneath her shoulders. She even reminded herself of her mother.

"I doubt that." Emma laughed. Jack and Jenny were pretend fighting with plastic swords, and Sarah was standing over sizzling bacon with a spatula in hand. "Look, I gotta go Jess. And I'm off today, so leave me alone." She added with a smile. Sarah turned around to look at her.

"You got it boss." Jessie hung up. Emma turned her phone off, and set it on the marble island counter in the middle of the medium sized kitchen. The twins blew past her, stabbing each other as they went.

"Morning." Sarah said to her shortly.

"Mom, really? Can we skip past the whole I'm-pissed-at-you-and-will-give-you-the-silent-treatment-until-you-apologize routine?" Emma asked with a whine.

"You shouldn't have been at a club. Spy or not, you could've gotten caught."

"With a government ID, it's hard to get caught up in much." Emma laughed.

"It's not funny, Em."

"I know you've been having a hard time with this, I really do, but I need you to trust my judgment a little more. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize my life or my career. I also know that you don't totally love the fact that I'm a spy, but you're gonna have to get over that, because I'm going to stay a spy. I'm good at it."

"Please don't let it take over your life. It took over mine for a long time, and it took me even longer to find myself again."

"That's what you're worried about? I'm always going to come back home to you guys, mom. Family is the most important thing."

"Promise?"

"Promise. No matter how many aliases I get or how many missions I go on, I will always be Emma Bartowski and you will always be my family." Emma hugged her mother tightly and sighed.

"I love you, and I don't want anything to happen to you." Sarah murmured.

"It won't."

"You can't guarantee that."

"But I can guarantee that your bacon is burning." Emma let go of her mother and nodded to the red pan on the stove.

"Oh!" Sarah exclaimed and turned each bacon strip over. "Thanks."

"No problem, I have to eat that too." Emma laughed.

"Your father told me that you didn't drink last night." Sarah jumped straight to the point.

"Well, my father happens to be right." The teen sassed.

"The rest of your team did though, didn't they?" Sarah already knew them too well.

"Kylie, Sierra, and Jessie did, yeah. Clara and I were the designated drivers of the evening."

"Good." Sarah replied as she placed the cooked bacon on a plate. "You can tell your brother and sister that their breakfast is ready." Sarah smiled. "But make sure they don't stab you." She winked. Emma laughed.

"Aye aye boss." The morning went by fast; Emma was 'killed' multiple times by Jack and Jenny. She eventually went upstairs and changed into a loose t-shirt, her grey Nike basketball shorts, black Nike Zooms, and put her hair up into a bouncy ponytail. She hadn't played for a while now, and she hadn't talked to anyone on the team. She was supposed to go back to school tomorrow, and she wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Even shooting hoops in her own driveway seemed to be a traitorous thing to do. As she shot, she couldn't help but think about how her teammates would treat her when she returned to school. She missed almost every shot, but didn't give up. She took another shot, chasing after her ball as it hit the rim and rolled behind her down the driveway. Two hands grasped the ball in front of her at the end of the cement, and her eyes widened as she recognized the face.

"No way." Did he bug her? Did he have surveillance? "Emma no last name." Ryan Pierce smiled. He was wearing a blue and white plaid elbow-length shirt, dark blue jeans, and white vans. His hands were tucked into his pockets, as he slowly walked up to Emma.

"Why are you at my house?" She asked. Her gun was inside, so she was defenseless. And she really hated screaming.

"I live a block down and I was just going for a walk. What're the odds, right?" He let out a laugh. She wasn't going to admit that she loved his smile, and tried to keep her facial expressions hidden.

"Right." Her voice was monotonous.

"It seriously is a coincidence."

"So you aren't just a creeper?"

"Definitely not a creeper." He was her mission, and she remembered that it was her job to get close to him. She needed to eventually be close enough to enter his household, and find his father's files.

"Well the I guess I can keep talking to you." Emma smiled.

"Mind if I shoot a few?" He asked, gesturing for her basketball.

"No, go ahead." She watched him make every shot he took. She was definitely impressed. "You play?" She asked when he returned her ball.

"A little bit."

"A little bit? You looked like a miniature Pao Gasol!" She laughed.

"Yeah, but I'm much cuter." He smiled again.

"Have you ever played on a team?"

"Not really. I'm usually just bored and take shots in my own back yard."

"I'm impressed." Emma blurted.

"I better get going." He said as he checked his watch.

"Yeah, you probably should." She played it cool.

"Well, I'll see you around Emma..."

"Bartowski."

"Emma Bartowski." He nodded and walked off. She watched him until he disappeared. Her brother and sister erupted from the back door, and tackled each other in the yard.

"You two better careful!" Sarah yelled from the back porch step. She was wiping her hands off with a dishtowel. The sunlight caught her face perfectly, and her long, curly blonde hair exploded into the color of a lion's mane. Emma stared at her mother, hoping that she would be as beautiful one day. Sarah walked up to her daughter, following her gaze to see the boy leave her driveway.

"Emma, who was that?"

"That was my mission." Emma replied.