A/N Second chapter. Thank you to GallagherGurl4eva, cheeky-monkey-hehehe, collabkk and lilyroselilac123 for being my first 4 reviewers! Other than that, enjoy, favourite follow and please, please, please, review.
I fume all the way home. I mean seriously? My husband is AWOL, my Aunt and her boyfriend who happens to be a particularly frustrating British spy with whom I have more than one issue with are staying at my house until my husband gets back from Paris, France and I'm due in two weeks and haven't worked in five months. Oh and did I mention that Zach didn't get grocery's before he left so now I have to get those too? We have been married for three years and in that time both of us have left the other for missions without an explanation or warning many times, but in the past three months it has happened five times. Five! I am extremely pregnant, extremely hormonal and all I want is my husband but he is in Paris. Two weeks ago it was Venice and the week before that was India. First of all why is he in Europe so much? They have their own marginally secret service; actually, they have multiple secret services. Second of all, I specifically asked the Director to keep Zach at home until I have the baby at the earliest and you'd think he'd have listened since I saved his life three times last year and he owes me. Third of all, it is August, I am very pregnant and it is hot out. I want Zach.
But I can't have Zach so instead I settle for a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino from Starbucks and a pretzel. I decide to go through the drive through because I don't feel like exerting myself and am in the middle of ordering when some whack job runs up to my open window with a gun.
"Give me your purse and anything else you've got that's valuable." He says.
I look in my review mirrors and see that nobody is in line behind me and then to the side to see the girl taking more order standing frozen like if she doesn't move, he won't see her. "Okay, just give me a sec." I tell him, and then to the girl at the window, "could I just get my Frappuccino please?"
"Hello? Purse and valuables, now." Say the very confused looking guy with the gun.
"Do you really want to do this?" I ask him.
He looks at my belly, than at my face. "You don't look like much of a threat to me, so yeah."
I sigh. "Your fault." Then I grab the barrel of his gun and twist it out of his hand well simultaneously grabbing his neck, twisting it to the side then pressing the gun against his head. "I am nine months pregnant, very hormonal and so not in the mood for this right now." I tell him angrily. Then I lean over and grab a pair of hand cuffs from my glove box, unbuckle my seat belt, open my door and slap them on his wrist. I then proceed to open the back door of my car and push him onto the seat. I take my drink from the very scared looking girl at the window and then take my pretzel from the counter. As I drive away I look at the guy in my backseat. "You're under arrest for attempted robbery at gun point and have the right to shut up and stay that way because I'm having a really bad day and you just pissed me off."
When I get home, Abby is on the couch watching TV. I drag the guy I took into custody into my living room.
"Who is that?" Abby asks, alarmed.
"No idea, we didn't really get around to introductions when he pointed a gun at me and asked for my purse and valuables."
Abby laughs and looks at the guy in handcuffs. "You sure pissed of the wrong woman."
"Could you take him to the police please, I was going to but I need to pee."
"On it," she answers. "Which station is Tina at?"
"The one beside the playground." I say, not being able to remember the street. After we graduated Gallagher, most of us went to work for the CIA, with the exception of Bex who went back to England and MI6. Tina decided to become a Police Officer which has really benefited me because I don't have to explain when I bring in some idiot I caught in the act.
"I know where that is," Abby says after a moment's hesitation. Then she gets up off the couch and takes John Doe's arm. "Go pee," she orders.
I decide to go up to Gallagher, then go grocery shopping. I wish I could just take a helicopter but I'm not supposed to fly so instead I take the one hour drive to Roseville. The whole way there the car feels silent without Zach's happy bantering. I miss him. When I finally get to Gallagher, I have to pee again and my back hurts. I want this baby out of me. Instead I look at the camera on one of the gates and wave. The gate swings open and I drive through, sinking back into my seat and finally feeling good for the first time all day. It's been about two weeks since I've been up here and I've missed my mom. Before I visit her though, I head to the P&E barn to work out for a bit. I can hear my Obstetrician grumbling in the back of my mind about over exertion and not listening to her when she told me I wasn't allowed to do anything that even slightly relates to field work or training. Well screw it. I want to train and work out so I will. There is a class of eleventh graders in the barn but I'm not paying attention to them. I'm paying attention to the tall black woman in cropped yoga pants and a pink sports bra with her curly black hair pulled back into a ponytail that swings over her shoulder as she demonstrates a flip on one of the students.
"Bex!" I shout. She abruptly turns around and her eyes widen when she sees me in my workout gear with my big belly. I haven't seen Bex since I got pregnant because she was deep uncover somewhere in Europe. She knew I was pregnant but I don't think she actually realized I was pregnant.
"Cammie!" Bex drops the kid she was in the process of flipping onto the floor and runs over to hug me. "How are you? What have you been doing? Where's Zach?"
"Slow down Bex." I tell her. Then I turn to the class she was in the middle of teaching. "Hi, I'm Agent Cameron Goode, code name Chameleon." I gesture to my stomach. "This is Junior Goode." That gets a few laughs out of the group. "So I am just going to work out for a bit and… Bex help her off the floor." I say, glaring at Bex and gesturing to the student she'd dropped who is in the process of straightening out her now broken leg. "Could I get two volunteers to help her to the hospital wing?" I ask looking pointedly at the group of teenagers in front of me. Two of them scurry forward and each take an arm, pull the girl on the floor up, and throw her arms around their shoulders. Then they help her hobble from the barn. I turn back to Bex. "How many bones have you broken since you got here?" I ask pointedly.
"Six," she shrugs.
"And how long ago did you get here?"
"Yesterday morning," she says sheepishly.
"Yesterday morning?"
"Yeah." I glare at her. "Well it's not my fault they suck," she says defensively. "No offense," she throws over her shoulder.
"Bex," I try to sound reasonable. "They don't suck; you just have a very unorthodox way of fighting and teaching. Speaking of teaching, why are you doing it?"
"The other P&E teacher's cover was blown and she is currently missing. The CIA thinks she has been captured and is being held but they're not sure."
I look around the barn at the shocked faces of the students. "Bex, was that common knowledge?"
She grins. "It is now."
I sigh. "Well that'll be across the school by dinner. Now go teach, then come and fight with me because I need a partner and I'll explain about Zach if you do."
"On it," she says, never being able to pass up the chance for gossip, even if it doesn't really count as such.
After we work out and Bex finishes her lesson, I drag her down to the new indoor gun range in sub level one. After I graduated, I spent months trying to get the CIA to give me permission to have on built, and after seven months of begging and threatening and convincing and arguing, I finally convinced them that it would benefit the students of The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Woman to have a gun range within school grounds where, if they so wished, they could learn to use a gun safely and without the judgment that I was forced to endure when I learned how to shoot. I also wanted to make it clear to these young students that where learning how to use a gun and shoot accurately that they are only to be used in the absolute most life threatening circumstances, not to make life easier, not because you're pissed, only ever because without shooting, you will die. Even so, when I pick up that gun and start shooting I feel better than I have in a week. The warmth of the gun in my hand, the spinning targets, the holes in the center of the papers. I am in control, for the first time today, for the first time in five months, I am in control. The definition of being a spy is not being in control though, circumstances change and you have to change with them. People die, people go missing, but behind that all, you have choices, you are finding out information, profiling people, trying to figure out a way to stop something from happening or make something happen. Although you are not always directly in control, you have a certain degree of it in ways other people would never notice. When I feel sufficiently calm and in control again, I set the gun down and join Bex on a bench behind a wall of protective and soundproof glass to talk.
"Spill," she says, "where is Zach?"
"Paris, he left sometime last night even though I specifically asked the Director to keep Zach off of any missions until after the baby is born."
"Cammie, what is he doing in Paris?" Bex sounds scared. Bex never sounds scared.
"He's working undercover in a cell of assassins that have been killing politicians and sabotaging important political decisions about national security. Why?"
"Cammie, you said he left last night?"
"Yes, Bex what's wrong? The Director promised me he'd be home by Friday."
"Cammie, two days ago, that woman, the P&E teacher, she went missing in Paris. She was doing the same thing Zach is now."
I shoot up off the bench. "Get me in a helicopter. Now."