Chapter 54: Baby Daddy?
Luna*
There was only one thing on my mind.
Thank god, Commander Ryder made us wear bulletproof vests.
"Mothertrucker dude, that hurt like a butt cheek on a stick." I groaned.
"This is no time for references, Luna," Raven said not the slightest bit amused, "I shot her in the leg so she mustn't have gone far."
So that was the second gun shot.
She helped me up onto my feet and I followed behind her when she lead the way as I picked up our discarded guns.
We followed the trail of splattered blood and the curses that was said in a feminine voice. I didn't dare to breathe when we came to a dead end with only one small archway into a secluded room. Hayley was sitting against the corner biting on her red jacket while trying to fix her wound.
"The bitch actually shot me," I grunted quietly, "I'm gonna rip that weave right of her head-"
The sound of footsteps made me freeze in my spot. Raven and I looked at each other with the face of utter confusion and fright.
We pressed our bodies against the wall as our best effort to be out of sight when the suspect came closer to the corner we were hiding in.
"Is anyone here?"
I instantly knew who the voice belonged to.
I slammed my hand over Ace's mouth and I saw him jump like one of those cartoons on tv. I put my index finger up to my lips to signal to be quiet while Raven carefully checked to see if Hayley heard anything. She shook her head, she did not.
Another set of footsteps approached, I pushed Ace behind me and held my gun in front of me.
"Ace?.." the voice whispered.
Oh my god. Noah.
He moved in front of us and put his hands up when he saw my weapon, "I swear I tried to stop him, he told me he was going to buy pop tarts from the store so I was like 'why would you do that in the middle of lunch break' then I went with him...so could you please put down the gun?"
I shook my head and put my gun back into my holster, "Next time, remember to tell me not to leave you alone with the target."
I saw Ace flinch at the word 'target' but I just brushed it off.
Abruptly, a shuffling noise came from the room. We quickly and as quietly as possible moved Ace from his spot, surrounding him. We located the nearest exit and got him out of the building and hid behind an old dumpster just in time to see Hayley limping out of the front entrance on the phone with someone while getting into her car.
"How can she drive with that leg? Poor girl." Noah mumbled to himself.
We all turned to him with the same 'why are you an agent?' look on our faces.
"What? It was a completely appropriate question!" My brother shrugged.
We focused back on the car, which was driving slowly, that drove out of the parking lot.
I made sure she was actually gone before signalling for everyone to come out from behind the dumpster.
I tapped my foot on the floor repeatedly while the others waited for me to lash out or have a complete hissy fit.
I tossed that idea out the window and got straight to the point, "How the hell did you know we were here?"
"You didn't think I would notice if you left?" Ace looked a little hurt, "Well it's not like you did last time."
My mouth parted a little.
"We followed your car." Noah interrupted instantly, noticing the unsteady atmosphere.
"We have to go to back to base..." Raven looked between us then ushered me back to Noah's car as I looked back and Ace whose soul gaze was locked onto me.
I sat in the passengers seat while Raven started the car and drove us out of there when Ace and Noah went to his famous Lamborghini.
***
After a long silence, Raven spoke up, "What was that all about?"
"I don't even know." I bit my lip.
"Do you think he knows we're leaving?" She pulled up to the HQ but we both remained in the car.
"No..he couldn't..unless Noah told him but he knows better than that."
"Well it's not normal for him to say that-"
"I know," I snapped, "I'm sorry...it's just today isn't the best day for me."
"It's fine, I get it." She smiled supportively.
"Thanks, I don't think you know how much I appreciate you." I hugged her.
"Don't worry, I do." Raven said cheekily.
We untangled ourselves before stepping out into the cold air as the seasons were beginning to merge to winter. We rushed into the warm building and sending ourselves straight up to Commander Ryder's office.
She knew it was us the moment we entered and dropped the files she was reading to focus on us, "How'd it go?"
"Well I was shot at." I unzipped my sweater and pulled of the bulletproof vest to through it onto her office couch.
She eyed it, "That couch is new."
"And I'm not dead." I flopped onto the opposite couch with Raven following my actions.
"What exactly happened then?"
"Hayley took us to an abandoned building, talked trashed, tried to kill us, failed, Raven shot her leg, Ace showed up with Noah, Hayley left then so did we." I did a quick rerun.
"Ace showed up, huh?" Ryder furrowed her eyebrows.
"Yeah but-"
"No buts, I hate butts." She cut me off, "You let him unattended?"
"No we left Noah with him." Raven spoke first.
"And how did he manage to follow you?" It seemed like she was getting angrier by the second.
"H-he knew what would make us let him go?" I answered more like a question.
"This was what the agency was talking about, No Attachments is all they ask and this is one of the results."
"How could we forget.." I mumbled.
"That," she slammed her hand on the table which made Raven and me jump back, "You have lost the basic rule of respect for higher ranks. This was a mistake, I should have never sent you on this mission. I am pulling you out of it now."
"No, no, no." I begged along with Raven, "We just had a little bump in the road, I promise you we are fine. We apologise and we will do better...please."
I sighed, "Just don't take us out...not yet."
We held our breath as Commander had a poker face when she looked between both of us, "Fine, but if you ever mess up again, even if it's tiny, I will not hesitate to get you out."
"Thank you." Raven and I breathed out.
"Dismissed." She waved us off, "but not you Prescott."
Raven gave me a meek thumbs up then disappeared behind the door.
"I swear I didn't do anything..." I paused, "It was probably Noah."
"Last time I remember, Noah wasn't the one kissing the President's son." Ryder pointed to the seat opposite her desk.
"Oh yeah, that was me." I sat on the seat.
"Have you seen since what's happened now?"
"Since what?"
"Since you quite literally attached yourself to Ace, and what's going to happen due to the fact that you have drawn in other rival agencies that want every single one of our agents dead."
"I don't know what to say, I don't know why I've let it be able to go that far...this has never happened to me before." I slumped down in defeat.
"Which is why I wanted to pull you from the mission so it won't happen to you and you won't have to deal with it."
"Then Theo will have to deal with it, he doesn't know the information or people there like I do. What if Theo doesn't know how to deal with it either?"
"Trust me he knows, I've scanned his mission reports." Ryder confirmed.
I raised an eyebrow but didn't push the subject, "Then tell me what I'm meant to do because it seems like every decision that I make turns out wrong."
She pitifully sighed at me, "It's not your fault, kid, it's a hard mission...you've already attached yourself to Ace and now I think it's time to, you know...detach yourself."
My head snapped up to stare at her dead in the eyes, "What?"
"I know it seems like it's the hardest thing in the world but trust me, it's the right thing to do," She never broke eye contact, "Not only will it save your mission but it will keep him safe and then with Theo coming here, nothing will ever harm him."
I slumped my head back down and whispered, "I don't know if I can do that Commander."
Ryder stood in front of me and gently lifted my chin up, "You can, I know you can," but her grip became hard and her voice solid, "because you're Agent Prescott."
She let go and sauntered back to her desk as if it didn't happen, "And if you can't do such a simple thing like that then I don't think you can be on the mission now, can you?"
"No, Commander." I straightened posture.
"Good," She pointed towards the door, "Dismissed."
I walked to the door, gave her one last look before leaving the room to see Raven standing there waiting for me with a curious face.
"What happened-"
I cut her off by pulling her into a hug and let out an exasperated breath.
My best friend hugged me back in an instant, "What's this for?"
I pulled back, "Nothing. Everything."
"I take that it was much needed?" She raised an eyebrow as I nodded back, "I also take that Ryder asked you to do something you don't want to do?"
"I don't want to." I complained like a kid while we began proceeding down the corridor, "But I have too."
"I'm guessing...it has to do with a specific brown haired and blue eyed boy?"
"Yes, but I don't get it, how come they let you and my brother be a couple?"
"Because he's an agent too, he literally comes with us in every mission and he also isn't a 'mission'."
"Ace isn't a mission!" I hissed, "He's my...whatever we are, dating? Boyfriend? Soulmate-"
"Baby daddy?" Raven smirked.
"No!" I pushed her shoulder while we got to Noah's car and got in, "He's just not a mission. He's more than that and I don't know if I can let him go."
"Okoye was willing to kill her love for wakanda and Scarlet witch had to kill vision to save the universe so I don't know what your excuse is." Raven jokes as she started driving.
"Do you want me to kill Ace or something?" I questioned, "That might be better than seeing him after I hurt him...again."
I mumbled the last part quietly.
"Hm? What was that?"
"Nothing, I just..." my phone beeped, "got a text."
I opened it to see 5 unopened texts: 1 one from Ace, 3 from Noah and 1 from Lucas.
🔥: Hey, can we talk please?
💩: What happened? Are you guys okay?
💩: I found your box of pop tarts
💩: I got hungry and ate 4.
👽: Can I ask a favour?
Better start detaching myself now...
I decided to reply to Noah first then Lucas.
Noah:
🌙: stahp or I will eat your hidden stash of Swedish fish
🌙: yes I know where they are.
Lucas:
🌙: sure what is it?
👽: since you're an agent you're allowed to search and see people's histories, right?
🌙: why..
👽: I just found out I'm not what my parents told me I was
🌙: wdym?
👽: I'm adopted and i want to find my real parents
🌙: oh
🌙: yeah of course, I'll try my best
👽: thanks
"We're here," Raven announced from behind the steering wheel.
"I swear you basically live at our house," I said as she locked the car.
"What can I say?" She smiled as we got into the house, "You always have the food I'm craving."
I shook my head laughing then called out, "Noah! We're home!"
Silence.
He didn't answer with a scream like he normally did. Raven and I looked at each other skeptically before creeping around the house.
I grabbed Noah's baseball bat while Raven took one of the frying pans from the kitchen. We split up with me upstairs and her staying downstairs.
The floorboards beneath me creaked as I tried my best not to make a sound. But that all stopped when I heard a scream then the sound of someone being hit. With a frying pan.
I ran down the steps, into the kitchen to see Raven frozen with her frying pan midway through the air and Noah on the floor with his football helmet on.
"What the hell." Noah groaned as I helped him up onto his feet.
"What happened?" I made a face while carefully pulling the frying pan out of Raven's grasp.
"He tried to jump me!" Raven folded her arms.
"I thought you were intruders!" Noah protested.
"We literally called out your name when we got here."
"Anyone could do that." Noah shrugged.
I rolled my eyes and took a packet of his Swedish fish, "You need to get some sleep."
"No, I don't." He pouted, "You're not my dad."
"Ugly ass fuckin' noodle head." Raven mumbled the last bit in which I shot her a incredulous look.
"I honestly don't even know how you guys survive." I face palmed myself.
"Neither do I to be honest." They said at the same time.
"Before I go upstairs, what did you do with Ace after we left?"
"Well I drove us back to the White House in his lamborghini then talked to his parents before being escorted back here." Noah explained.
"Talked to his parents about what?"
"Safety, assassins, guards," he paused to make a joke, "You know, all that small talk."
Raven and I stared him down with a poker face but it didn't affect Noah since he was snickering at his own joke.
Then he stopped, "But in all seriousness, he seemed too quiet on the way back...I don't know what it was but i know that it wasn't the way he usually acts."
I think Raven knew I didn't have anything to say then so she jumped ahead, "Well I guess I'm sleeping here and we all need to get to sleep, you have a long day tomorrow."
She pointed to me.
"What? What are we doing tomorrow?"
"Going shopping for the Westside Beauty pageant!" She clapped her hands together and jumped up and down.
I stood there dumbfounded.
"It's this weekend dummy."
"Ooh-"
"Yep, you definitely need to go to bed." She cut me off and guided me back to my bedroom.
***
A/N: phew, it's been a while hasn't it...I know you probably want to shout at me for not posting but I honestly had a really long writers block and just recently I started to get my writing back on track so I really hope you understand that I actually could not think of a single thing to write.
also, I entered this book for the #wattys2018 What do ya think? I know I'm probably not gonna win because of the other amazing books that have been written this year but..eh, it's worth a shot.
I'm also thinking of rewriting the first time that Ace and Luna kissed (46) because I feel like she forgave him too easily and that's definitely not what Luna is like. Soooo thoughts?
I just want to say how undeniably grateful I am for those of you who stuck with me even though I left for a longggg time and you have no idea how much I appreciate you <3 thanks so much...
love you all💗
-Kirsten xx