AN: So here it is the epilogue. It's been a long time coming and I might have completely changed what I had initially planned but I'm pleased with how it turned out in the end. Hope you guys have enjoyed this story, enjoy this final chapter, and the sequel when I get around to actually publishing it. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Kallie x
Epilogue
Frank's PoV
I've had a few teams over the years since Oscar, Rose and Carrie left and became full time spies. Of course I still saw them now and again, Oscar and Kittie especially. They continued to be a big part of MI9. Rose moved up departments to MI17 the science department and while she was still a good field agent, she excelled in the medical and scientific breakthroughs that changed our organisation. Carrie also changed departments moving to MI7 where she rebooted the whole program with the help of Blane. It was a little bit of a surprise but then judging by the files the two had a lot in common and they ended up being a great partnership. Thanks to them MI7 is operational again and better than ever.
Kittie and Oscar, well they stayed together like I thought they would. After Kittie's year at MI6, she came back to us for a bit and helped bring down SKUL once and for all. Of course there were a lot of people involved and things definitely went wrong, but finally after years of battling them and foiling their takeover schemes, they were brought down. I think the final push for a lot of people was Kittie being captured and tortured immensely. Even the Grand Master admitted that was too far and was the turning point for them. Of course they lost the colonel during that incident although she didn't have a big effect on the company at that point. One by one the kingpins of SKUL fell and soon even General Flopsy and the Grand Master were captured.
After that things were fairly quiet for a bit until we heard rumours that KORPS were rising again. The rumours turned into fact and it was suggested by Agent Stark nonetheless that we should try the M. project again. Even he admitted that every group we'd had had been a success. He grew up a lot even if he was still a stuffed shirt and thought he was better than everyone else. We didn't end on good terms but I shan't bore you with the details.
So I changed schools and got a new team. Low and behold, Mr Flatley also changed schools and became the new head of the school he renamed St Hearts. I found that a little surprising until I was finally made aware (3 years later) that he was in fact under deep cover keeping a senior eye on me and my team in case anything ever went wrong. So all those unexplainable solutions were him. I was rather surprised to say the least considering the man acted like an idiot most of the time. Kenneth is actually a lovely man with a flair for storytelling but is an incredible operative.
At St Hearts I got my new team: Dan, Neish, and Tom. Straight away it was a different dynamic and none of them had any proper training. That was until Zoe came along. Zoe had been a 'failed experiment' created by KORPS to find a new body for Mastermind along with her sister clones who had also been rejected. She had no concept of life and it was like raising a child again minus the crying and constant naps. She only stayed with us for a short time before setting off to find some of her sisters after Mastermind failed to download into her properly and take control of his/her new body. I'm not quite sure on the correct terminology for that. Dan was the most upset of my new team. He and Zoe had grown very close, into the relationship status even though they weren't really together that long. They reminded me of an early Kittie and Oscar stage before the Honey reveal.
Not long after that, another clone turned up, Keri. Keri was different, more natural and more in tune with life. She had escaped KORPS a couple of years before and had been fostered, living in a normal family it at least that's what she told us. Turned out she was homeless and had just been moving around place to place. She had the instincts but needed a lot of training just like the others so when she decided to join us, we made sure she was looked after like Oscar had been by an agent. The two got on fairly well and are still in contact from what I hear. As you can imagine, Dan soon got over Zoe. Once again the dynamic of the group changed, especially now with 2 boys and 2 girls. The sea of hormones was rather strong. Stark left, not wanting to cope with another group of kid spies and Stella came back.
She wasn't the only one. Not really coping with their slow level of progression and Dan's insubordination on my own, I enlisted the help of Oscar, Kittie, and Lexi in their training. Things were a bit more awkward at this point as pretty much all of them had moved off to university at this time, but with sessions once a week in Winchester, my new team got to experience working in a different environment following the orders of senior agents. Some in particular were a little resentful at first but eventually the two groups began to work well together and their progression increased at a much better rate. They looked at training them physically, working on stances, fighting techniques, and ways to neutralise the enemy quickly, as well as mental improvement. Through games and puzzles they were taught about thinking tactfully, ways to handle surprising situations, and the more finesse of being a spy. Thankfully they had learnt to listen by the time it came to teaching them the more covert skills even if Dan did still argue a bit. Kittie did as well, what with them all studying for degrees and with a bit of negotiation and dubbing my new team spylets she carried on.
Despite them not having the background, Kittie was determined to make it so they had all the skills, getting them involved in the bigger missions but only where deemed acceptable. There was an incident during Keri's early days where a shipment of our weapons went missing and a lot of the previous junior spies including Rose, Carrie, and Daisy went to retrieve them. My new team weren't allowed to participate in the field as it was deemed too dangerous for them. They soon realised they did need to be more experienced. When it came to them planning their own mission not long after that there was more complaining but Kittie and Oscar sorted it out. They always seem to. It was good for my new team to plan and go through everything with someone other than me. They would have to get used to that when they were no longer junior spies.
It went fairly well, up until the point where another old enemy from SKUL turned up, and this time tried to turn Oscar and Kittie. They didn't have much success with Oscar. He was too focussed on protecting Kittie, more determined than fearful. Kittie however had been through a lot towards the end of SKULs downfall and was more influential. In the end it saw Kittie's cover Honey Harper being retired after 10 years. Unfortunately they had worked out that she was in fact a spy and that Honey was just a cover. But that in the end was a bit of a relief to Kittie who had wanted to end the cover by that time. She just wanted to get on with her life.
Shortly after that Oscar proposed to her and they did indeed begin their life together. They live just on the outskirts of Winchester with 5 children, all with their determination and natural ability. The oldest Danny is living up to his name sake and is being... troublesome. He's started training already because of this and he's only 9. His younger brother Reuben is quieter and blond like Oscar, with the temper to match although not really the anger. Then there's Emilia a miniature copy of Kittie complete with brown curls and grey eyes. The change in Kittie's eye colour has not been hereditary seeing as it wasn't a natural one. She and her aunt Sophie get on famously, the girl among the boys. Not long ago Kittie had twins, a boy and a girl which in a way was a relief to her as there is 4 years between them and Emilia. They're too young to really have much personality being a couple of weeks old. They've asked if I can be godfather to both Peter and Jessie which is a little daunting and rather flattering.
Oscar is now working in his mother's old position (without the treachery and turncoatness) as a liaison between us and several other countries league of spies including their friends from Gallagher. Kittie tends to be a stay at home mum right now but is eager to get back into the office and work alongside me. She also works in a complete school tending to work in class with the primary age children and then being a spy teacher to the older ones. It's working well except for when she's not in because of the little ones. She's hoping to get the twins in the nursery part along with Emilia so she can get back to work. The rest of the time might be in the office with them either in the nursery she got set up or maybe in with her. She did use to put Emilia in the bottom desk drawer when she was a baby. Maybe she would do that again with the twins.
The others have all done well too. Carrie is still a rather influential figure in MI7 but also runs a gym club at a school. She followed in my footsteps and is continuing the M. project in MI7 under the guise of a P.E. teacher; a step up from my day. She and Rose are still very good friends, often meeting up at lunch here to go over paperwork and to catch up. It was actually Rose who introduced Carrie to her partner Holly, a forensic pathologist working in the same department as her. Of course when she's not working and protecting our country she's off training, aiming for the Olympics. I'm guessing she will take a break from teaching if she gets in. Whilst she is very determined she can't do everything. Hopefully she knows that. I'm sure Holly will look after her though and make sure she doesn't overdo it.
Rose has pretty much stayed with MI17 since she left us and things have been good for her. Scoop or Timothy as he goes by now tends to do the stay at home bit while she's at work looking after their little girl Maisie. Things changed a couple of years after I got my new team when Timothy having remembered pretty much everything from the Smarteez tracked Rose down at uni. Turns out he was smart enough to get into Oxford to do 'Fine Art', while Rose studied 'Material Science' which she then followed with 'Human Science'. Despite being at the same college somehow they had missed each other for a couple of years until just before he left and it all came flooding back. He then spent the next month and a half tracking her down and talking to her. Old feelings stirred up for both of them and they actually tried a relationship. Things worked out and I was there at their wedding. It was sweet and a really lovely day. He doesn't mind her working for the government especially as she's not really a field agent any more. So while she's off working, he's a stay at home dad painting, drawing or working on a commissioned piece. Sometimes there's play dates with Emilia and even I attend sometimes, help out and see how everyone is doing.
They're not the only ones who moved on with their lives either. Dan and Keri despite odds with Zoe have been together for a couple of years now. When Zoe came back about two years ago she had rather a big argument with Keri about stealing her boyfriend saying how he only liked her because she was a copy. Keri didn't react well to that and while she didn't have the training provided by KORPS she had been trained by Kittie and Oscar. The two of them had to be pulled off of each other and it took a long time to calm them down. Even Dan was shaken by it and left them to sort it out. He chose Keri but to give him some credit he was a gentleman and talked through it with Zoe. She was just a bit miffed but it turned out that was because she had met someone else and hadn't expected the same of Dan, especially one of her sisters. In the end they patched things up and they do talk now and again and double date, or at least that's what they've told me.
As for myself, after Horatio I didn't think I would ever find someone. I was wrong twice - the first time with Stella who showed me that just because someone breaks your heart doesn't mean it's over. She helped me mend but that too ended even if we parted on good terms. It just wasn't meant to be. We still see each other now and then, and unlike with Horatio we are civil and work together quite well still. I left the dating world alone for a bit, just being with the ginger kitten Copernicus I rescued all those years ago. He's old now and slower but he's still fairly active, attacking my slippers and lounging about in the sun on any windowsill he can find regardless of the things that are kept on it. Of course I moved out of the flat in the base and found a real house for me and Copernicus. I couldn't stay there after I left St Hopes so with the help of my friends here at MI9 I found a place of my own. It's small but comfortable with plenty of space to turn a spare bedroom into a library complete with a cat bed for Copernicus.
I don't just share it alone with Copernicus either. A couple of years with just me and my cat, I met someone else. He's a lovely chap and for a while I couldn't open up fully. He was nothing like Horatio but I was still a little wary. But he understood and was patient with me, giving me the time I needed. Now we live in peace together, comfortable our shared lives together. Thankfully he is a far better cook than Stark was and we have nice meals just the two of us, oh and Copernicus. Henry understands about work and how I can't always be around. There are times when he puts his foot down especially for the big events but normally he won't argue about me having to rush off to save the world. But I'm happy and despite the challenges over the years so is everyone else. Life is complicated especially a spies life but overall, things do work out, for the good guys at least.
