Angie twisted her coffee cup between her hands. It smelled amazing. She'd always had a thing for the smell of coffee, something that might have to do with where her first dates with Tom took place.

The thought would've usually made her scoff, but over the past few months, she'd found that the memories were pleasant. He'd been right. She couldn't turn back time and undo anything.

And what she'd had with Tom didn't deserve to be undone. The more time she spent without him, the more she realized how special it had been, how much it meant. No matter where she went and what she did, nothing compared to the life she'd left behind. Which was exactly why she was sitting here in the open for once.

Come on, where are you? I actually do want to talk this time.

Even if she kept looking over her shoulder, she hadn't spotted him in months. At first, it wasn't anything abnormal. He was, after all, very skilled at blending in and going unnoticed, which was very impressive given how tall and good-looking he was. Also, she'd moved closer and closer to Chicago to give him the chance to go and see his family. Then she'd just assumed he was there, maybe enjoying a few silent weeks.

It had never crossed her mind that he may not come back. What if he'd just stopped after their last interaction?

Impossible. It was the one time she'd actually showed him that she still wanted him around. That kiss still made her shudder, fueled her imagination. Kept her warm in the coldest and loneliest of nights.

She leaned back into her chair and stared out the window. People hurried past, none of them sparing her a second glance.

Where are you?

Her stomach tightened with nerves and she returned her attention to her mug. It all felt pointless now. Tom had been right. She'd run away hoping she could pretend none of the bad things in her life had happened. But she couldn't be sixteen again. Couldn't truly care about making a living when she didn't need to. Couldn't make real friends when she already had the best ones she could hope for and who she missed.

Truth was, she missed her old life. She even thought about the time Kay was over all the time and suffocated her as being better than all she'd been through since she'd walked away.

Yes, she'd had a rough year with her entire family being killed and her and Tom falling apart, but so had everyone. And not until she spent so much time away from them did it come crashing down that the support among them made everything bearable.

Tom doing what he did, leaving her, it pulled her out of grieving for her family. Then, when she found out he'd cheated on her, she stopped suffering over him leaving.

One giant pain to replace another. At least until he told her he still loved her and wanted to be with her, if she'd take him back.

It was in that one moment when something good came her way that she cracked under the weight of all the bad. She'd thought space and isolation would help her figure it out. It only made her more confused, flipped her priorities, who she was. So much so that she'd used Tom for her own selfish desires.

The thought still made her cringe and sent an uncomfortable knot into her stomach. What she'd done at Sam's wedding had been inconceivable. The jealousy, the pettiness...The sheer lack of any care or consideration for the people she loved, who loved her back. The only family she had left.

And with those new mistakes weighing her down, she'd ran again. Tom had found her immediately, and even if she'd been shocked, thrilled, she'd sent him away.

Months later, after he approached her the second time, she finally saw what everyone else was seeing. She was running. What from, she wasn't exactly sure, but it wasn't for some noble reason like she tried do tell herself. It wasn't to make a better life for herself, like Tom so kindly pointed out.

And even if she didn't listen and kept up her nomad lifestyle, ever since their kiss, it finally began to sink in untill she had no choice but to accept it.

Tom was right. This wasn't helping anyone. Not her friends, not her dead family, not her aching heart. Not her. All it served was to create a rift between her and the people she cared about. And that was what she wanted to tell Tom.

This was it. If he still wanted it, she was ready to come home. She guessed she did find herself during this ordeal, but what she found was that her heart had never left Chicago. It didn't want to leave the place she'd been happiest. It didn't want Tom to give up on her.

Please come.

By now, she knew she didn't deserve it. But she deserved it more than last time he came to her, so that was something.

What if he'd actually given up?

She pulled out her phone and lay it on the surface of the table with care. This was an option. Contact him herself. Take the first tiny step. He'd know how much it cost her to do it, how much it meant.

The only thing stopping her was that she wasn't sure where she wanted this step to lead. If there was one thing she knew, it was that she didn't want to play with Tom anymore, give him anything but the truth. They'd been through too much, and these last silent months had served to drive that point home. There was no other reason she could remember things so vividly.

First meeting him in the tiny Tucson club when he fell off his chair and ended up on the floor. Climbing in his lap in the swing, the first time she'd ever done something like that. Fitting on his tiny skateboard so that they could both ride around town. The time he punched the teacher who had been harassing her and ended up in jail for it.

Ever since they'd met, even before they were together, he'd taken it upon himself to protect her from all the evil in the world. Poisonous darts, explosions, handsy henchmen, bullets... So many bullets. Even now, during their last adventure, he'd braved a sandstorm to come and find her.

Yes, their lives were difficult, but up until she'd up and left, they'd made it work. He might have been obsessive, but she'd also treated it like a quirk, something he'd grow out of.

"You don't grow out of abandonment, Angie. That's a thing that will haunt him for the rest of his life." 

Skye's words spun around Angie's head. She'd refused to give them much thought at the moment, but the more time she spent without Tom, the more they came to the forefront of her mind.

He wasn't perfect. There were a lot of cracks in his armor, and he'd counted on her to help him mend them. She'd just pushed him in front of the train.

"Please..." she whispered, her fingers trailing the edges of her phone.

No. No please. 

You need to make a decision already.

Let's start over. I know I'll do it right this time around.

Her skin crawled at the memory, but it was with disgust at herself. For using him, for leaving. It was true that she couldn't resist him, but that should've been a clue. A big ole clue to the fact that she never wanted to be with anyone else but him. One year. She'd been on the run for one year and all she'd wanted was to see him, maybe touch him one more time even if it was with pretend anger.

She didn't want anyone else. She hadn't even considered trying to move on, to fall in love again. How could she when he was always there, one step behind her, just waiting for her to finally turn around and jump into his arms?

Tears ran down her cheeks. And now that she'd stopped and turned, he wasn't there anymore.

One day I might not want to be your safety net anymore.

He'd warned her. And maybe that day had come. If it had, she deserved it.

She wiped her eyes and picked up her phone. How hard could it be? She should stop being so dramatic about it. So she sent him a message.

Hey. Are you around? I want to talk. If you want to, of course.

Almost panting, she put her phone down. Why were stupid little things like this so hard? She managed not to look at her phone for one full minute before she checked for an answer. There was none. Maybe he was doing something else. Or maybe he just didn't want to talk to her.

She checked the message and noticed it had sent, but he hadn't received it, as if he had no signal. With a frown, she tried again.

Are you okay?

Once again, it didn't appear as delivered. Huh. The area had good reception which meant he either had his phone off or he wasn't there. Or both. She had no idea why this little detail worried her so much.

She should call. She should definitely call.

But as soon as she picked up the phone again, a zap of current ran from her left wrist to her elbow. Even if it hadn't happened in such a long time, it was impossible to forget the feeling.

Her watch started blinking a red light, Kyle's name filling the screen. Angie's heart jumped into her throat as she waited. Waited for other names to join his. Waited for the light to turn green. When it didn't, she accessed the GPS for the location. The watch only displayed coordinates which meant Kyle was too far away to appear on the tiny map the watch could display.

She quickly wrote down the numbers, her entire body shaking. The moment she put her phone down, the watch stopped blinking. It had never turned green.

"Shit," she mumbled. "Shit, shit, shit." She picked up her phone again and this time didn't care about her stupid nerves or doubts. She dialed Tom. It went straight to voicemail.

Mumbling curses under her breath, she called Kay next. Then Sam, Jerry, Sarah and Skye. Jessie, even Jimmy. No one was picking up. Every phone was switched off.

"Fucking hell," she said under her breath and got up.

In a sort of weird rage, she hurried to her currently rented place and packed her bags, all the while trying to call Tom every five minutes. In less then twenty minutes, she was all packed and in her car.

With a twinge in her heart, she dialed the person she swore she'd never call again. But even Herrison James wouldn't answer. What the hell happened? Had the Agency blown up or something, taking everyone with it? That didn't explain why Jessie wasn't answering. She was on the other side of the country.

Angie's mind spun as she drove the little distance to Chicago. Thank God she'd been close, so in two hours, she was already entering the city. Her mind refused to process more, just like it had when she'd rushed off to try and save her family.

It was the same thing all over again. Heading for her family, expecting to find death.

Please don't be the same, please don't be the same.

The moment she pulled in front of her old apartment building, there was some relief that it was at least still standing. Finding her way to her door was so easy, it felt like she'd never left. She had the key, knew the code. It was home. And when she opened the door, it felt more like it than ever. There was a blanket draped over the couch, a bottle of water left on the kitchen table, and Tom's jackets were in the hallway hanger, his sneakers by the door.

The whole place smelled like him, so it was obvious he'd been there not long ago. As she stepped deeper inside the apartment, she noticed his Playstation was plugged in, still running. She hadn't been wrong. He'd come home and appeared to have left recently. But where was he?

Her stomach once again clenching with worry, she dropped her luggage there and headed for Kyle and Kay's place. No one answered the door, but she had the security code to get inside. It also looked as if someone had been there recently. Their mugs were still in the sink, as if they'd just left them there and headed to work. There was no indication that they'd packed and left.

Sarah's place was also empty, and no one answered at Jimmy's. The more she searched, the more terrified she became. It had been five hours already since her watch had gone off, and it was now dark.

For a second, she wondered if she should go to the Agency. The idea freaked her out, so she just drove by to make sure the building was still there. Since Herrison was a no-show, she didn't want to go in. Not when what she'd done could be perceived as going rogue by the wrong people.

So she did the next best thing. She drove to Tom's parents' house. The breath wooshed out of her lungs when she noticed the lights were on. She parked the car in the driveway and hurried to the door. The moment she reached it, she started banging her fist against it, forgetting all about being polite or that there was actually a doorbell.

It took Maxi Grant a full minute to open the door. Angie's mouth dropped open. Maxi's usually perfect hair was disheveled and her light blue eyes had dark rings under them. But it wasn't her haggard appearance that had shocked Angie, but the baby she was holding.

"Angie?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Hello, Mrs. Grant." Angie wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure what.

"What are you doing here? Okay, forget that. Do you have any idea where Sam is? Or Christine for that matter?"

"Christine?" Angie couldn't compute this, her eyes fixed on the baby. Whose baby was that?

"Yes, she's not picking up."

Maxi Grant holding a baby and asking for Sam and Christine. "Holy shit! Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just a little..."

Maxi narrowed her eyes at her, apparently unimpressed with her language and how ignorant she was. "When's the last time you spoke to any of my kids?"

Even if that was maybe the least relevant question at the moment, heat rose to Angie's cheeks. Maxi seemed to get the memo because she let out a tired sigh and pulled out of the doorway to let her in. The baby giggled as Angie followed Maxi. She was so cute.

"This is Sam's daughter Sammy," Maxi said on her way to the kitchen. "You obviously don't know that. And if you don't know that, you obviously have no idea that Skye died."

"Skye what?" This couldn't be happening. What had she missed? "When? Why?"

"About three months ago. She got sick and there was nothing they could do for her." Maxi let out another exhausted sigh, moving the baby to her other hip. "And Christine has been helping Sam look after the baby. I was supposed to meet her yesterday and hand Sammy over. She never came."

Angie had the sense to curse to herself this time. If Sam hadn't come to pick up his baby, it was obvious something terrible had happened. Then the mere idea of Sam having a baby fascinated her. She had to touch her to believe it.

"Can I hold her?"

Maxi didn't look convinced, most likely resenting her for abandoning them all and breaking Tom's heart, but exhaustion seemed to have won out because she passed the little girl to Angie.

She was so soft and smooth. She smiled at Angie, revealing two tiny teeth in her lower gum. Then she sunk her pudgy fist in her hair and pulled.

"Ouch. She has some strength on her. How old is she?"

Maxi smiled indulgently, for the first time actually looking like a grandmother. "She's six months old."

"Six months?" 

Angie did some quick math and realized Skye must've been pregnant at the wedding. Why didn't she say anything? How could no one notice? But that also meant Sam had only enjoyed his family for three months and it was just incredibly unfair. It couldn't end like this.

The fear inside her heart was replaced with a determination she hadn't felt in years. Maybe just at the moment when she'd decided finding Tom who was presumably dead in India wasn't impossible. Nothing was impossible if she believed hard enough. She'd found proof of that again and again.

So this time, she was going to figure this shit out and solve it. Because she could, and she'd be damned if she didn't.

"Can I use your computer?"

Maxi looked a little surprised by her request, but nodded and reached out to take Sammy back. "It's in the home office."

Freider's home office. Trying not to find the idea too morbid, Angie wheeled around and headed for the room in questions. Once there, she pulled her phone out and searched for the coordinates on Kyle's watch. The moment she got the results, her jaw dropped.

Japan. Kyle, and potentially everyone, was in Japan for some reason. Most likely captured, definitely in danger. Why?

The jewel. Maybe it was there and something had gone horribly wrong. But it couldn't be a regular mission, or Maxi wouldn't have expected Sam to pick his baby up. Though she'd mentioned expecting Christine.

Christine. What did she have to do with any of this? As far as Angie knew, her former friend had given up on Sam and gone on with her life. Unless she decided to come back the moment Skye died. But why would Sam let her?

There was only one way to find out. Though she hadn't done it in over a year, Angie dialed Christine's number. It went straight to voicemail, so she was most likely in Japan, too. Once again part of the group, maybe againsr her will.

That should've been me.

She shook the thought away. No, it was better that she was still free. She could help them. All she needed was a lead. And if Christine was back...

Wondering if things could've actually gotten that weird since she'd been away, Angie dialed Tina next. It actually rang, and Tina picked up fairly quickly.

"Angie, what a surprise to hear you."

Surprise indeed. "Hi, Tina. I was wondering if you've spoken to Christine lately."

There was a pause at the other end of the line. "Christine?" she asked, and even if Angie knew she was surprised by the fact she'd want to talk to Christine, she couldn't help it.

"Yes. Isn't that the name of your sister?"

There was another pause before Tina finally replied on a huffy tone, "Christine and I don't speak much lately. So no, I haven't heard from her in a while."

Which made sense. Tina was twenty-five and hopefully not still living with her father. Ever since the wedding, Angie knew Christine still lived at Sam's old place, so the sisters didn't have to see each other more than strictly necessary. At least some things never changed.

"Thanks. Let me know if you hear from her." She hesitated for a second. "How have you been?"

"You're not required to make small talk with me. I'll call you if I talk to Christine." And she hang up.

Angie let out a long breath. She probably shouldn't have been a smartass. But at least she had some information. Everyone was in danger, so she was left to take care of damage control. She closed the laptop and unplugged it, then strode out into the living room, holding it in her hand.

Maxi was just coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of formula and Sammy bouncing off her hip. Her eyes widened the moment she saw Angie.

"What happened?"

"We need to get you out of here." Because what better leverage against Sam than his baby? She needed to make sure Maxi and Sammy were safe before she headed off to Japan.

"Get me out of here?"

Maxi Grant was the queen of slow, as usual. "Yes. In case you haven't realized yet, everyone's gone missing. Yes. Everyone." She emphasized the word to block any dumb questions. "Sammy is now a target and I need to get you two to safety."

Maxi just stared like a moron and Angie wanted to yell at her to wake up already. She couldn't still be this naive after what happened with Freider, after her house almost blew up.

Angie reached out her hands. "I'll feed the baby while you pack."

Even if she hesitated for a moment, Maxi passed Sammy to her, the expression on her face changing from one of disbelief to one of determination. Not that Angie could blame her. It was probably hard to hear the insensitive words from the mouth of her son's ex-girlfriend. Was she even an ex? Tom was right. Since he took it back, they'd never actually broken up.

Because that's what's relevant right now. Semantics. And yet as she sat on the couch and gave Sammy the bottle, she couldn't help but find solace in the thought that she and Tom were not over.

I'll find you. I'll find you and I'll save you, and after that, I'll never let you go. Him or her friends. She wanted this life back. She wanted to know who was getting married and who was having children and just what the hell Christine's role in all this was.

But she had to earn it. And the first step was making sure Sammy and Maxi were safe. She'd take them out of Chicago, to her rented apartment. No one should be able to find them there. Then she'd call Phillip and make sure someone looked after them from afar.

And once that was settled and she knew there was nothing more she could do for Sam's baby, she'd head out to Japan and find them.

Because there was no way in hell she was letting them go.

And if she wanted back in, she had to prove she was worth it. Especially to a certain someone who gave her more credit than anyone else ever did.

I take you for who you are and do it all over again.

Now it was her turn to do the same. And pray that he would still want to play this game. Because this time, she wasn't quitting halfway in.

So when she loaded her car with Maxi's luggage and Sammy's baby stuff and drove them out of town, she forced herself to believe that she could do this, that everything would be fine.

It had to be. She'd make it that way or die trying.

🏯🏯🏯

I'm sorry that this isn't greatly edited, but I didn't have the time.

Anyway, ready player 3. Did you expect it? Any thoughts on Angie and her thoughts and actions? Do you think she'll make it and actually save everyone?

Well, I guess we'll have to see. Thanks for reading. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.  And don't forget to vote 😁