Grace ran upstairs when she heard the distinct ring of her cell phone. 

 

“What the hell is singing the Mexican Hat Dance in your room?!?”  Cassidy yelled.  She had recently moved into their father’s old room downstairs.  Easier to sneak in and out of, and far easier to keep her eye on her mother.

 

“Nothing!” Grace yelled back, picking up the phone.  “Hello?”

 

“Took you a few minutes.  Don’t put this thing down, if you ever got it switched with your sister’s phone or something we’d have problems,” Bryce Callahan told her.  “Ready for your first assignment?”

 

“I’ve been ready and waiting.” Grace replied, shutting her bedroom door.

 

“Good.”  He gave her the details.

 

“How will I know when to leave? The flight number you gave me doesn’t leave until later tonight, and more importantly, how will I get there? I don’t exactly have a car.”

 

“One of the agents on your team will come by.  Black car.  You’ll know it when you see it.”

 

“Alright.  Anything else I should know?”

 

“Yeah.  Don’t die.”  And with that, he hung up.

 

“Thanks for the advice, dad.” She muttered to herself, putting the phone in her pocket and pulling out her bag to get ready.

 

On the second floor, in the room just below Grace’s, Cassidy had just grabbed her own cell phone and called Garrett.

 

“Hey Cass.” Garrett greeted, answering the phone.

 

“Hi.”  Cassidy flipped a switch.  The main reason she’d chosen her father’s old room was because of all his old IMF equipment, and that would keep her from being overheard.  “Grace is working with the IMF.  Her first mission’s tonight.”

 

“How do you know, and do you have proof? This could be a problem for us.”

 

“I sort of bugged the house.  I have the recording.  She was just on the phone – I’d assume with the head cheese – but from what she said and the fact that I know it wasn’t her usual cell, it’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

 

“How do you know it wasn’t her usual cell?”

 

“She left it on the kitchen table.  Also, her cell phone doesn’t sing the Mexican Hat Dance.”

 

There was a moment’s pause.  “I don’t think anyone’s used the Mexican hat dance as proof before.”

 

“So glad I could be the first.”

 

“I’ll talk to my father and call you back.  See if we can find out any details about this mission.”

 

“You might also need to mention this to Gavin.”

 

Garrett paused.  “I’ll do that.  You must really hate your sister, Cass.”

 

“I don’t hate her.  But I do realize that she’s just become part of the enemy.”

 

“Enemy or not…she’s your sister and you’re blowing her cover.  I’ll call you back. Love you.” Garrett said.

 

“Love you too.”  Cass hung up.

 

~*~*~*~

 

Grace and the other agents sat in the conference room back at IMF headquarters.  Their cover had been blown and their mission had been scrapped because they’d been prevented from getting on the plane.

 

“Who could have found out?  Who’s got the link to Spencer’s people?”  One of the other agents muttered.

 

Grace thought for a second.  Spencer.  Cass had been the only other person in the house.  She must’ve overheard her conversation and then called her boyfriend, Garrett Spencer.  Suddenly, it seemed to make sense.  Her sister’s extended disappearances, Garrett showing up at all hours of the night and day.  Which meant…she had found the leak.

 

Her sister, who was conveniently dating Grace’s boyfriend’s brother.  Uh-oh.

 

“No one’s made any outside calls on their phones, have they?” The lead agent asked the room.  The group shook their heads.  “Alright, go home, get some rest and we’ll contact you.” 

 

Grace walked home and checked to make sure Cassidy was gone before she went into the room she used to be terrified to go near.  Leaving the light off, Grace began searching the room, finding all of their father’s old IMF equipment up and running.  Cassidy must’ve bugged the entire house.  Grace knew she wanted to keep an eye on mom…but even Cassidy wasn’t *this* paranoid.

 

A door opened and closed.  “Hey Grace, you home?”  Cassidy called, dropping her backpack on the floor.

 

“Shit.” Grace muttered, hurrying through the door into dad’s old study before Cassidy  made it to the room.  “Yeah!  I’m back here.” Grace said, thinking for a second, she began searching through the drawers in the desk for any missing IMF files.

 

Cassidy entered the study only a moment later.  “Looks like my little secret’s out too,” she said casually.

 

“Yeah…looks like we both know things about each other that we didn’t want the other to know.” Grace replied.

 

“You and Gavin have to split up, you know.  Before Callahan orders you to kill him.”

 

“Or Spencer orders Gavin to kill me.” Grace finished.  “How did you know about the mission?”

 

“You left your cell on the table.  So it was a special phone.  And I know a lot about the IMF infrastructure.  Plus it wasn’t Gavin’s car that picked you up.  And I also have the whole house bugged.  It wasn’t too hard to put all the pieces together.  I guess you figured it out because I was the only one home to hear you.”

 

“Yeah, it wasn’t that hard when we got taken back because someone blew our cover.  Now I know who it was.”

 

“Now you know,” Cassidy agreed.  “I think we need to make some arrangement to deal with… all this.  A couple ground rules.  ‘Cause I don’t think either of us wants to kill the other.”

 

“No, I wouldn’t want to do that either.  Something to the likes of you don’t blow my cover, I won’t blow yours?”

 

“Agreed.  I’ll take the bugs out of your room.  But if Mom talks to you about something up there, you damn well better tell me about it.  If it concerns me.”

 

“Deal.  And you can’t tell Gavin.   I have to do that myself.”

 

Cassidy simply nodded.  “Yeah, you do.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

Grace hesitated before picking up the house phone and dialing Gavin’s number. 

 

“Hey, what’s up?”  Gavin sounded slightly… distracted.

 

“Can you meet me somewhere?  I think we need to talk.” Grace picked up on the change in his voice.

 

“Yeah, we do.  I’ll be at your house in ten minutes.  Promise, my car’s not bugged.”

 

Grace paused.  Did he already know?  “Okay.”

 

“See you in a few.”  He hung up and sure enough, eight minutes later he was pulling into the driveway.

 

Grace walked down and got into the car.  “Where are we going?”

 

“Don’t think it’s safe for us to be seen together.  We should probably stay in the car.”  In answer to the unasked question, he simply said, “I have access to our records.  And now you have access to IMF files.  We both know what this is about.”

 

She nodded and the ride was a long and silent one.  When Gavin parked the car, Grace looked at him.  “It means we can’t do this anymore…”

 

“Yeah.  Yeah, I know.  Trust me, Garrett made that pretty clear.”

 

“So did Cassidy.” Grace sighed.

 

“I just… I don’t know why you’re with them, and I’m sure there’s some perfectly valid reason, but…” He looked at her.  “Damn, I wish it was different.”

 

“So do I, Gavin.  I don’t want…I don’t want to break up.”

 

“But we both are pretty painfully aware of what’s gonna happen if we don’t.  One of us is gonna wind up with a gun to our head, and as much as neither of us wants to be holding the gun, we wanna be on the business end of it even less.”

 

She nodded and stared out the window.  “So…is that it?”

 

“I guess it’s going to have to be.”  Gavin leaned over and placed a hand under her chin, kissing her for just a moment.  “Damn, I wish it was different,” he repeated.

 

“But it’s not.”

 

“I know.”  He started the car once more and drove her home.

 

When he pulled into the driveway, Grace hesitated and turned to him before getting out.  “Gavin…”

 

“Don’t say it.”

 

She got out of the car and barely made it into the house where she came face to face with her sister.  “Don’t talk to me.”

 

“Sorry it had to happen that way,” Cassidy said simply, then headed for her room.

 

“No you’re not.” Grace called before going up to her room where she sank to the floor and started to cry.

 

~*~*~*~

 

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