Recently I've found myself wondering about Townsend. Like what was he thinking or how was he feeling?
Looking at the woman he hates, his son's mother. Looking at his son who looks like him but has the eyes of that terrible woman. Looking at his son whom he doesn't even know. Looking at his son who is already an adult. Standing inside the house where that horrible woman should've raised his son but where his son ended up raising himself. Standing inside the house where his son had been afraid and alone while he had been totally ignorant of his son's existence.
Here is everything I've written, everything I'm currently working on, and the ideas I've got planned for the future if I ever get around to them.
If there's ever anything you want me to try writing, just ask and I'll see what I can put together!
WIPs:
A Sister’s Vigil - 5 times Rachel visited her sister in hospital and 1 time she didn’t.
Completed:
Abby/Townsend:
Warm tequila - Set about 5 years after the events of UWS, Abby and Townsend explore the Christmas markets in London. (2,121)
Mismatched socks - 6 and a half years after UWS, Abby and Townsend face an early winter morning with the twins (3,491)
Lips against a hipbone - The winter before the events of LYKY, Abby and Townsend are a couple months into an op in Buenos Aires when years of tension finally comes to a head. (3,690)
Silent films - Set in between OSOT and UWS, Townsend and Abby are doing surveillance on the Winters in Rome when they start talking about the past. (3,243)
Doctor’s orders - A year before the events of LYKL, Abby and Townsend’s assignment in Buenos Aires ends in disaster, and they wind up having an argument in her hospital room. (2,668)
Ursa Major - Half a decade before the events of LYKY, Abby and Townsend are completing a mission in Dubai over Christmas with Abe Baxter in tow. (4,527)
Last call - While in Rome between OSOT and UWS, Abby and Townsend celebrate The New Year together in a bar. (2,712)
Catherine/Townsend:
A hotel bar - Shortly before the events of OGSY, Catherine tracks Townsend down for a long overdue catch up. (2,949)
A necklace knotted around a fist - Over 15 years before the events of LYKY, Townsend discovers that Catherine isn’t all she claims to be and tries to confront her about it. (2,710)
Cammie/Zach:
An attic - Zach and Cammie are spending the Christmas after the events of UWS at her Grandparent’s ranch in Nebraska with the rest of her family, and they manage to find a moment of peace away from the adults together. (3,836)
Joe/Rachel:
Bitter coffee - About a month after the events of DJGC, Rachel turns up at Joe’s cabin for a catch up before she plans to fly to London. (2,569)
A brown leather belt - Towards the end of OSOT, Rachel tries to get Joe alone for a chat. (2,457)
A wax-sealed envelope - Only a few weeks before the events of LYKY, Rachel makes one final attempt at convincing Joe to step out of the field and into a teaching role at Gallagher. (2,884)
Matt/Rachel:
Knees pressed into soft carpet - Over a decade and a half before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Matthew get distracted while on an assignment. (1,388)
Saltwater - In her first winter as headmistress of The Gallagher Academy, Rachel takes a moment to remember warmer and happier times. (1,882)
Abby & Cammie:
Rusty nails - After rediscovering her father’s grave in OSOT, Cammie finds her aunt outside and catches her in a rare vulnerable conversation. (3,315)
Abby & Joe:
White silk - Set during Rachel and Matt’s wedding, a decade and a half before the events of LYKY, Abby and Joe meet properly for the first time. (3,337)
Weathered boxing gloves - Not long after Joe wakes up in OSOT, he goes for a walk around the school grounds at night and comes across Abby in the P&E barn. (3,949)
Abby & Macey:
Bodyguards - Set during DJGC but before the adults learn that Cammie is the target of The Circle, Abby keeps Macey from leaving the Academy one October morning. (3,700)
Abby & Matt:
Overprotective - Nearly two decades before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Matthew discover an intruder in their home when they get back from work. (2,557)
Abby & Rachel:
Red wine - 10 years after their father died, Rachel has exciting news for Abby. (3,135)
A safehouse - While on an assignment in Bahrain, 8 years before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Abby disagree on the group’s next move after one of their cover’s is blown. (3,035)
Catherine & Joe:
Old friends - A decade before the events of LYKY, Catherine needs help with her son and knows just who to go to. (2,364)
Catherine & Zach:
Tall evergreen - After one term at Blackthorn, Zach spends the Christmas 3 years before LYKY trying to get through his mother. (2,130)
Cammie & Matt:
A sous chef - Almost a decade before LYKY, Rachel is feeling under the weather, so Matt and Cammie try to make her feel better (2,399)
Cammie & Rachel:
A gold tooth - 3 years before the start of LYKY, Rachel and Cammie find a quiet escape during Matt’s funeral to have an important chat. (2,600)
Joe & Matt:
Sawdust - Two decades before the events of LYKY, Matt brings Joe to Nebraska on a pre-Christmas get away (2,793)
Joe & Townsend:
Figs - While spending the Christmas after UWS at the Morgan ranch in Nebraska, Joe and Townsend try to clear the air between them. (2,897)
Rachel & Townsend:
Spiral stairs - Set between Cammie and the girls’ graduation and Rachel and Joe’s wedding, Townsend is met by Rachel when he arrives to take Abby out for dinner on her birthday. (4,870)
Townsend & Zach:
A broken teapot - A year and a half after the events of UWS, Zach joins Townsend (and Abby) for Christmas at his parents house back in England. (3,241)
A breakup - 6 years after the events of UWS, Zach goes running to Townsend after a fight with Cammie. (4,196)
Upcoming:
Codenames - Chameleon. Bookworm. Duchess. Peacock. To anyone with less than level 4 clearance level, those four words mean nothing more than what they mean. But to anyone who knows what truly goes on behind the walls of The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, those four words tell the story of the teenagers who banded together to help take down a terrorist organisation before they even graduated high school. These are the stories of how they became known as such.
Red wine - 3 times a Cameron woman let slip that that they were expecting.
It hurts to miss you, but it’s worse to know - Matthew Morgan had two funerals. Joseph Solomon attended them both.
A safe house - Abby is dedicating all of her time and strength to casing the entire continent of Europe for her brother-in-law. Rachel is dedicating all of her heart and soul to bringing what was left of her fractured family back together to grieve as one. These two states cannot peacefully coexist for long. Of course it all comes to a head in Rome.
Overprotective - 4 times a Cameron woman revealed their boy troubles to the someone who loved them dearly.
Walking away with your kiss on my cheek and a bruise underneath - Abby and Townsend are not perfect. It isn’t love at first sight or a slowly developing affection that binds them to one another. Their relationship is carved from spitting venom and blazing fire, from tearing through one another’s cracks and crevices with vicious words and scathing accusations, from holding one another close in the fallout and vowing never again. Somehow, what holds them together is fighting tooth and nail against one another and basking in the familiar wreckage that this leaves. They wouldn’t have it any other way. Or, the fights that made Abby and Townsend’s relationship what it is.
Cammie does a lot of thinking about the future. Set between killing Max Edwards and the school burning down in United We Spy.
This is specifically for the person who asked for a scene in that in-between period in the sixth book after they take down the Circle. Originally was going to be a platonic fluff between the four girls but I am nothing if not Zammie trash so…here's some Zammie.
Things That Happen When You Finish Off a Terrorist Organization, Get Shot Twice, and Return to Spy School After Being a Fugitive For Three Months
A list by Cameron Morgan (with assistance from Rebecca Baxter, Elizabeth Sutton, Macey McHenry, and Zachary Goode)
Catch up on all the assignments you missed while you were gone. It doesn’t matter if you were taking down an ancient terrorist organization, because the CIA still wants to see all your midterm grades (made difficult for Operative Morgan because she was still catching up on the previous semester.)
Practice your bow and arrow skills. Being on the cautious practice roster in P&E (again) seriously gives a girl enough time to practice her archery skills, to the point where she can kind of feel like Katniss Everdeen (Note to self: Ask Liz to figure out how the Operatives can watch Catching Fire)
Watch a lot of Glee. The Operatives missed an entire season over the last year, with the whole kidnapped slash missing slash tortured slash amnesiac slash chasing terrorists slash fugitives on the run thing. Besides, the New Directions were totally going to win Nationals this go around.
Explain to your boyfriend what Glee is, and why he should care about the Blaine and Kurt (affectionately named Burt by Mick Morrison) plot line.
Fill out college applications, because even genius teenage superspies need to write personal statements.
Decide what college you want to go to (Currently pending on Operative Morgan’s list.)
Life is never boring at spy school, but the few months after Max Edwards was killed were some of the most hectic in my young government operative life. All missions, even the super need-to-know and potentially illegal ones (like running away from school and breaking the former Ambassador to Italy’s son out of prison) required looping in the CIA. Eventually. So there was paperwork.
A lot of paperwork that I still had to do, even when I complained to my mom that my arm hurt and I didn’t want to write it. Unfortunately, I am right handed, and I’d been shot in my left arm, so I couldn’t get out of any paperwork—homework or CIA related.
So I was spending a lot of time writing. A lot of people wanted to know what we’d done on our little cross country road trip, and how exactly a group of teenagers had been integral in killing off the members of the Inner Circle. But there were still moles, my mother had warned me as I wrote my reports, there were still moles, and until this was all really over, I still had to be careful about what I wrote. I had learned the power words can have, the way they can transcend the pages they’re written on, the way they can bring down movements and bring tears to lovers and children and old friends. So, yeah–I was spending a lot of time writing.
While I’d been let out of the hospital wing fairly quickly, I was still sitting pretty in the Gallagher Academy’s PT wing multiple times a week, so there was a fair bit of alone time, too. I didn’t hate it. Much like Princess Amirah, I was starting to appreciate being alone amidst the chaos.
Being alone, I learned, was not the same as being lonely. I knew after the events of the previous year, I’d never be alone again. Even when my best friends and I split up across the globe. Maybe it was silly, but I knew that even if Bex was dodging bombs in Lithuania and Liz was solving the world’s problems at MIT, and Macey was protecting the President’s daughter, they’d still be with me. They were part of me, beyond the walls of my sisterhood. I was never going to be alone again.
And then there was Zach.
In his defense, he was taking the whole “being the only male student” thing in stride, and as far as I knew, had begun to join in on Macey and Courtney Bauer’s discussions in the senior common room on whether or not Fall Out Boy or My Chemical Romance had better angsty songs.
The five of us had been spending a lot of late nights in the library, poring over makeup packets for Studies In Terror (which seemed like a slap in the face of a class to have to do makeup work for, to tell you the truth), and missed tests in Advanced Encryption. We were usually the last out, leaving long after the night owls were done wandering the halls. Most of the time, my roommates would head off to bed, with Liz wanting to wake up early to be back in the labs, Bex wanting to get in the P&E barn early, and Macey wanting to go back to catch up on all her missed issues of Vogue Italia.
So that left Zach and I, alone, a lot of the time, and I realized that at some point in the last two years, he’d become one of the people I could share a comfortable silence with. With my roommates, I could lay next to Bex on her bed while the two of us read our textbooks, or curl up with Macey on a couch as she put in headphones and I wrote my reports. I found myself not being too terribly upset at this change in my life.
Besides, he managed to smell really good, even though I knew for a fact he used the same brand of soap everyone else at the Gallagher Academy did. It felt kind of unfair, but I didn’t say so.
That night in particular, I’d been finishing up yet another one of my personal statements for a university. Georgetown’s prompt was to talk about an experience that had hardened my sense of self, and I couldn’t exactly talk about anything classified that had happened over the last six years of my covert education, so I was…stuck.
“So, Georgetown?” Zach was the one who finally broke the silence. He’d been doing that a lot recently, too, since I didn’t really have much to say other than Ow and This hurts my stitches.
I looked up from the piece of paper in front of me, the words my dad’s death and changed my perspective jumping out back at me. “Yeah,” I started, and chewed on my lip. “Maybe, I guess. If they let me in.”
“Cam. Let’s be real here.”
“Okay fine, when they let me in. I don’t know yet, though. It’d help to be near Langley, I guess, and my mom, but she’ll be busy with Joe now that they’re getting married, and they’ll both be here at the school so maybe it’d help if I went to like…Stanford or Wash U or—” I was rambling. Totally, unattractively rambling, but Zach just listened. I had spent the last few weeks far too quiet for him to pass up when words did find their way out of me.
“Your mom’s not going to forget you just because she’s marrying Joe, Gallagher Girl,” his voice was gentle, and when he reached for me, I pulled away. It was one of the things on my mind, but I would be lying if I said it was the biggest issue on my mind regarding my future, and the fact that, until three weeks ago, I didn’t really think I’d have one.
But even the greatest spies can’t outrun time, and now I had to face that.
“That’s not it,” I said, then shifted on the small loveseat we were on, afraid I might sink into it and never come back up. “I just…Lizzie thinks she’s going to MIT or Harvard, Bex said she’s going into MI6 for sure, and Macey is going into the Secret Service. My mom is getting married. It feels like everyone is just…scattering. I don’t even know what you’re doing, Zach and I just don’t really know what to do if we’re all scattered.”
“Cam, you’ll still see them,” his voice was gentle, but there was a sense of urgency to it, as if he could sense where my mind was starting to spiral.
“I mean, sure, but it won’t be the same as living in the same room as them, or seeing them in classes. I’ll see them for the holidays, maybe, and maybe I’ll see Liz a bit more since she’ll be at school, and maybe Macey if I stay in D.C., but Bex is going to London at Six and we’ll never work together again.”
“Well, from how much your Aunt Abby complains about working with,” he choked out the next word, “Townsend, MI6 collaborates with the CIA a little too much, so I don’t think you won’t ever work together again.”
I wheeled on him. “Maybe, but I don't know what you’re doing, either, Zach. Are…are you going straight to work, or do you want to go to school? Are we breaking up or are we figuring out long-distance or whatever it is couples do when they graduate from high school? How do we even do that, Zach?”
I felt my pulse quicken and my heart race as the words that had tumbled out of me really took effect in my mind. I hadn’t really considered it up until the moment they were out, but my subconscious, apparently, had been running wild with those thoughts. It didn’t feel fair that this was all happening now, when we finally got to actually be together and not breaking into Alaskan prisons, or jumping off moving trains, or running away from bombs deep in the tombs of Blackthorne.
It. Wasn’t. Fair.
I saw his eyes widen at my words, and he went horribly still. “I don’t want to break up, Cammie,” he said flatly. He ran a hand through his hair, and looked at me as if he were temporarily conversing with a stranger. “Do you want to? I mean, I think we’ve figured out the whole long-distance thing before, if you catch my drift. I want to be with you, Cam. Do you not want to be together?”
His voice was measured, but I had learned that the way to Zach lay in his eyes. They gave away far too much, or maybe they just gave away too much to me. “I do want to be together,” I admitted, “I’m just not sure what that looks like if I’m at school and you’re…where are you going, Zach?”
“About that,” he started, then it was his turn to shift on his side, and reach for my hand. This time, I didn’t push it away as he continued, “I’ve been talking to Townsend, I guess.” It hadn’t even been a full month since his mother had dropped that bombshell, and while we were all giving the two of them space to sort it out, I would be lying if I said it didn’t pique my curiosity.
He took a deep breath, and when I met his eyes, he smiled softly. “I’ve been talking to him, and he offered me a job. With the CIA, I mean. It’d be under him directly, so I guess it’s technically a nepotism hire, but when you mentioned you’d applied to the CIA, too, I figured I should talk to him and see if he could write me a letter or something to help me get in somewhere, and he said he’d love to have me on his team, and that he had a junior agent who’d need a partner and—”
Then it was his turn to ramble, so I did what girls (and spies) have been doing for centuries—I shut him up with a kiss. He didn’t seem to mind that much, but he did seem a little breathless when I pulled away. It was nice to know I could have the same effect on him as he had on me.
“Wait. Are you saying you applied to the CIA because I applied to the CIA?” His words had finally sunk in, and I held him at arm's length as I looked back at him. Then I immediately felt myself blush at the words. “Oh gosh, not that I think I’m entitled to you following me or—Wait, you’d be paired with another junior agent? Who?”
In that instant, we switched places, and it was his turn to kiss me, the hand that had been in mine sliding to the back of my hair, his other one coming to rest on my waist. I felt my hand creep up his chest as he deepened the kiss like we had all the time in the world.
For a second, I forgot about time. Forgot about the CommonApp deadlines, and the essays, and graduation, and whatever pretty blonde girl he’d probably be paired with at the CIA. To tell you the truth, I kind of forgot how to breathe in general. With his breath heavy on my face, his lips trailing down my neck, it felt silly to think that something like graduating from high school could end us.
I was still a little dizzy when he pulled away, smirked, and said, “That’s cocky, Gallagher Girl.”
Boys.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I said, once I’d gotten feeling back in my fingers (mostly), and my breath back (kind of.) I felt the clock in my head strike eleven p.m., and it felt like we were the only two people in the world as he leaned closer, as if he was about to tell me some great secret, another piece of Zachary Goode.
“Well, if you say yes, the other junior agent is you.”
Oh. Oh. I could practically feel Macey’s voice in my head, asking me if I was sure I could call myself a genius.
“Wait. You…you’re joining the CIA? And…Townsend wants us to work together?”
“Yes. I mean, it’ll be a little complicated since you’ll be in school, and I’ll be full-time, and you still need to actually say yes, Cam, but yes. He does,” he ran a hand through his hair, and I had another realization (something I’d been doing a lot, to tell you the truth), that I was no longer staring at the boy who had kissed me in the foyer of my school, or the boy from the tombs. I was staring at Zach, who at some point in the last two years, had become a man. Who would be joining the CIA. With me.
“I–Are you asking me to be your partner?”
“In another sense of the word, yes. So, what do you say, Gallagher Girl? Do you want to take on arms dealers and rogue diplomats in Daga or Marrakesh together?” He smiled and it felt like the most romantic statement in the world, coming from him at that moment. We’d be partners. I knew, better than anyone, that your partner was your lifeline, that they had the potential to make or break your missions, the experiences you had as an Agent at Langley. I knew, thinking about my father and my soon-to-be stepfather, that partners had the potential to completely and totally flip your life upside down.
“I do,” I breathed the words out, quieter than intended, and to tell you the truth, there aren’t really any words in my fourteen languages that could describe the smile that broke out on his face at that moment. Relief. Joy. None of them really did his expression justice.
Then I paused. “So does that mean you’re moving to D.C.?”
He glanced down at our joined hands, the pad of his thumb running along my hand. “Probably. I guess it depends on where my partner ends up. Ideally, I’d like to follow her.”
He met my eyes again, and I found myself smiling back. I stood up, gathering the books and notes and pens scattered throughout the table we’d been sitting at for the last several hours. “Well, in that case, I guess I’ll need some help finishing my personal statement for Georgetown. Know of anyone who might want to help me out?”
He slipped his hand into mine as we slipped out of the library, wandering towards our favorite secret passageway, and in the quiet, dim halls, he whispered, “I can think of a person or two.”
Hey. Here’s a totally random short. I love Townsend/Abby. Hopefully I got the vibes somewhat close to cannon hah! @gildengirl I hope I do some justice to your fav pairing!
“Please, Edward.” Abby was not the begging type, but the man in front of her stood stoically, gazing out the window at the dark landscape.
“Abigail. You cannot possibly be asking me to do what I think you’re asking of me. I simply cannot risk my reputation on this.” He sighed in frustration. He clearly was still refusing to face her. He hadn’t faced her all day, all week, for that matter. Agent Edward Townsend was a coward.
“I’m not asking you for the sun and the moon. I’m asking you for time. Can you please, at least, give me time?” She tried to step closer, but he edged backwards. For the first time, his eyes flicked to meet hers.
“Abigail, don’t.”
“Don’t what?!?” She couldn’t help herself from snapping at him. She was beyond frayed and tired. “Ready to snap” was a phrase Abby was living her life by this past week. Even Rachel’s plans were falling to pieces under the Circle’s pressure. Blackthorne had not gone to plan. According to Cam, who was plenty banged up, the journal they were looking for had already been in their possession. They hadn’t been betting on Joe. They were about to lose Joe.
“Don’t beg. It isn’t becoming. It’s not you, and I won’t hear it. I have given you time. More time than I should have. I already have MI6 breathing down my neck. What would you have me do? Hmm? You can’t possibly be asking me to trust him.” He sounded so skeptical. She couldn’t really blame him.
She looked out the dark window down at the campus she knew so well. She had never felt less at home here. Something about that made her want to break something. She had to get him to understand.
“If you do this to my family, Townsend, I swear to you I will never forgive you. I will never talk to you. Whatever this is? You and me? Done. I won’t be able to forgive you for this.”
She meant it. She had stood on the sidelines of her sister and nieces’ lives for too many years after Matt’s disappearance. She swore to herself that she’d never let something get in the way of them again, even him. Even if it would kill her inside to let him go.
Rachel had to let go of Matt because of her: Matt, Joe. She refused to let herself relive those moments after the blast all week. Catherine was gone, her goons with her. She, Rachel, and the Baxters were navigating around the blown-up spots of the tomb. Of course, it had to have been Rachel who found Joe. He looked dead. Pale, thin from being on the run, and absolutely covered in ash from the explosion. Abby never wanted to relive her sister’s silent crying, panicking to find a pulse on Joseph Solomon. If it weren’t for Rachel’s being a mess, Abby would have done the same. Joe really looked gone in that moment.
He huffed and rolled his eyes. “So now that you’re upset with me, it’s Townsend? I seem to remember the beginning of this week when you were knocking at my door. Not so formal then, were you?”
Despite herself, she gave a small smile. “You didn’t seem to mind at the time.”
He grumbled. “You weren’t using our connection to manipulate me into letting Joseph Solomon off the hook for literal treason. He’s a double agent. I know that you all like him, but this is my job.”
“We don’t just like him. You don’t understand. He’s one of my best friends. He’s my sister’s only friend; she really relies on him. He’s my niece’s only male role model after Matt. We love him. I love him.”
Townsend recoiled slightly, and Abby knew that she might have to explain that one further. Townsend threw her for an absolute loop when he asked, “What about Solomon’s little shadow? Zachary? Her son just happens to follow this man around, and you don’t all see that as a potential conflict of interest? He very clearly cares for the boy.”
Abby had considered that too when she’d first heard about Joe’s past. After knowing Joe, reading the journals, and talking with Zach, she knew that the only conflict of interest belonged to Zach. Poor kid’s only parent was part of a terrorist organization. “Joe is helping him to see that there’s a life outside of the Circle of Cavan. He’s a good kid. He’s trying to the right thing.”
Townsend heaved a sigh, dragging his hand down his face. “You love him? Do you have a history with him? Is that why you’re asking me to let him die?” He used his hands to emphasize the question.
Abby stepped towards him again. This time, he didn’t back away. She brushed a curl off his forehead. Looked him in the eyes. “I do love him, as a friend. I think… I think my sister might be in love with him. We have no history worth mentioning, I promise. Just friends. I’m not asking you to trust him. I’m asking you to trust me. Do you trust me?”
He leaned forward. His hand caressing the side of her cheek. She melted a little, even though she shouldn’t have. She had a point to prove. She lost her train of thought when he kissed her softly. She looked into his eyes and said as sincerely as she could manage, “I would never ask you to do something I wouldn’t or couldn’t do. I trust him. I trust this. I’m sure that Joe isn’t the circle member you think he is.”
He listened, playing a string frayed off the neck of her sweatshirt. “How are you so confident? Might I ask?”
“Can you keep a secret?” He rolled his eyes and smirked. “No, Abby. I can’t. I’m a secret agent who cannot keep a secret.” She grabbed his hand, dragging him down the halls.
She walked down the hall of history to her sister’s office. She knew that Rachel always kept it locked, which is why Abby had the second key—just this week—so that Abby could help out while Rachel sat with Joe. She opened the door, flipped on the light, and pulled Townsend inside. She sat on the leather couch and pulled Matthew’s journal into her lap. He sat gingerly beside her.
“Is that?” Pointing at the book.
“Yes. You can read it, but I’m begging you to return it to me and not to tell anyone that I showed you this.”
“It’s Matthew’s, yes?”
“Mmhmm.” Was all that she could choke out. “Edward. I won’t beg you to not turn Joe in, I truly think you’ll look at him differently. I am begging you though that you don’t look at me differently?”
Townsend sighed, “If I do see things differently?”
“I”…Abby almost didn’t want to imagine it. “I don’t know. I would have a really hard time. My family is already a mess. They’ve gone through enough. I’ve….. I’ve done enough damage.”
Edwards blue eyes pierced through her soul. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the last person he was supposed to see.”
He started to tell her something, but she refused to hear it. She stood and ushered them out of the office. He went to take her hand, but she wouldn’t let him. She walked away before she could cry.
She found herself in the passageway leading to Joe’s room. She could hear the machines beeping, and as she rounded the corner, she saw her sister on a chair next to Joe. She was wide awake.
“You coming to visit him or me?” She asked quietly. As if it would wake him. Abby would love to get into a screaming match loud enough to wake Joe.
“Ummm. Him.”
“Were you with Agent Townsend earlier? I thought he’d left.” Rachel sounded cool, but Abby knew better. Her sister was holding a bit of a grudge over Joe’s arrest.
“Yes. He’s working on some paperwork for MI6.”
Rachel sighed, looking at Joe. “We are so lucky that this was off the books. He doesn’t strike me as the type to leave anything out if it were. Maybe he won’t have to include anything about Joe? Just looking for the journals?”
Abby sat momentarily stunned. This wasn’t off the books. Not in the least. Why did Rachel think that it was? “It was off the books?”
Rachel looked at her. “That’s what Agent Townsend reported to me. Is that not your understanding? Agent Townsend is certainly smart enough to know that we would hide him if Joe was going to be turned in.”
Abby hated lying to Rachel and very rarely did so, but this felt like the right thing to do. “No, I was under the impression it was off-book, and Edward wouldn’t do that.” She hoped she was correct with the last part. As principled as he was, maybe he would, if he considered it the “right thing”.
Abby would reconsider in the morning. She left Rachel with Joe, told her to get some sleep, and headed to bed herself.
~~~~~~~~~~~
It was early. Too early for Abby to be awake. She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. She needed to talk with Townsend. She dressed and walked to the room he was in. She knocked on the door. Nothing. She knocked again. Nothing. She opened the door and found the room to be empty. He really was a coward. No sight of Matt’s journals. She would physically kill him if he took those to MI6.
She started towards Rachel’s office, ready to come clean when she spotted him. Crouched next to Rachel’s door, ever so carefully sliding Matt’s journals under it.
“I thought I told you that you could return those to me,” her patience all but gone.
He didn’t seem surprised to see her there. He rose slowly and walked towards her. Abby liked to consider herself the time of woman who was hard to surprise, but he seemed to be a frequent exception. He wrapped his big arms around her shoulders in what could only be described as a hug. Agent Edward Townsend was attempting a hug. He pressed his lips to her forehead and told her in a hushed tone, “Abby, I’m sure you won’t believe me, but in my professional and personal opinion, you have no responsibility in Matthew Morgan’s disappearance.” Abby felt the wind leave her. Every thought went quiet as she tried to restrain herself from crying. He clearly didn’t understand the full picture.
She distracted herself by landing on one singular thought: “You were leaving without saying goodbye again. Weren’t you?”
He released her from their hug, picking up his backpack and leaning against the wall under the Cavan’s sword. He gazed at it for so long that she started to wonder if she had spoken the words aloud.
“Edward?”
“I heard you. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see me.” He was still looking at that stupid sword. “I always thought it was Solomon who killed your brother-in-law. They normally aren’t above that sort of thing.”
Abby felt a cold, hard sense of dread creeping up her spine. “Did you finish your report?”
“Yes. I did.” Were his only words in reply.
“Why did you tell Rachel this was off the books?” Abby had to know.
“To buy as much time as possible, to sort things out. MI6 I can handle. The wrath of your sister? No, thank you.”
Abby ventured, “You did sort things out? Are you going to turn Joe in?”
“No. Joe Solomon clearly enjoys the Circle of Cavan as much as I do. I had genuinely thought that if he were capable of killing Agent Morgan than he was a danger to anyone. Your brother-in-law however convinced me that Joseph Solomon is not a danger to anyone but himself.”
Abby breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness Matt wrote everything down then. Who knew it’d be Joe’s literal get out of jail free card. Thank you for hearing me out…I….Why would I not want to see you then?”
He laughed without much humor. “You know, love, you aren’t one for sticking around after any sense of emotional vulnerability.”
She decided to let the comment slide for the time being, considering it held some truth.
“So you’re leaving then?” she asked.
“Yes. Off to explain how I’m late on a report for the first time in 11 years. They aren’t too pleased with me at the moment.” He looked at his shoes.
“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be in trouble. I seem to get you into trouble a lot. At least I’m worth it.” She said with a wink.
He smirked at her. “You do. It certainly livens up my jobs…. Admittedly, yes. That’s probably true.”
Maybe he wasn’t as big of a coward as she gave him credit for. He turned without another word, headed down the hall of history. He called over his shoulder, “Do be smart, love.
~~~~~~~~~~
Uhhhh. I feel deep in my soul that Townsend is jaded from Catherine and worried about how convincing Abigail Cameron can be…… maybe that’s part of the reason these two take forever??
If Abby and Townsend didn't first get together with the cliche "Shut up." "Make me." then I don't know what to tell you, because they most certainly did.
How would you imagine a joe-zach-townsend bonding? (Like if the girls pushed them lol)
Joe and Zach seem like the father-son-fishing-trip type so I can see the girls insisting they let Townsend tag along no matter how much the three of them don't want to. Townsend does not seem like camping or fishing type so I'm sure it would be a comical adjustment period for everyone.
I think Townsend's idea of father-son bonding would be going on a good ole fashioned mission together. Which I'm sure would also be a comical adjustment period lol
I am yet again thinking about how in the Out of Sight Out of Time 2016 Declassified Epilogue Zach and Townsend are on page together, in a conversation.
Because in the next book it means that they both, on the fly and without disscusing it, realised Cammie hadn't seen them in the same room together and pretended they'd never met before.
