Hey all!

Been a little bit eh?

I didn't forget this story, I just wanted to get it right before continuing. Also still battling the stubborn writer's block + other issues *sigh* BUT I have a new computer now so at least that is dealt with!

Disclaimer: Totally Spies is not the property of myself however I wish it was so that I didn't have to write these dumb disclaimers no more.


A hand gloved with red spandex was held tightly over a badly panting mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle the sounds of uneven wheezing that came from it. Every inch of her body ached as though all her limbs had been pulled apart piece by piece by a particularly sadistic psychopath toying with her voodoo doll.

Her calves scorched with fire, sweat poured from every pore, and her oxygen level sank to critical levels. She'd been running for what felt like hours on end all in an effort to escape even though by now she was starting to understand that it was futile.

Collapsing from exhaustion and no longer able to move on her feet, she forced herself to crawl on all fours like an animal to give herself some more distance. Two minutes later tears of pain and frustration burst from her eyes when she could no longer even do that much and her body gave out as she fell face first with a muddy puddle cushioning her fall and absorbing the sound of her anguished cry.

And as she lay there in her pitiful state, once more she began uselessly praying for a rescue. For the sky to light up above her as a ladder unrolled down to pull her up from a hovering blue helicopter with a telltale "W" stamped on its side.

Even though she knew help was not going to come. After all they'd been sent on a rescue mission too hadn't they? What had happened? They'd become captives too just like every other agent, every other person that had dared try to end this nightmare for the others.

Sitting up but keeping her head down low, she clamped a hand to her lips while with the other she hastily picked away the strands of bright blonde hair that were prickling her soggy face all the while feeling anxious every time a beam of light from the lighthouse nearby tore through the pitch darkness and hit her head.

Never in her life had she wished to not have her precious hair, to be bald as much as she did right now. Never had she wished this badly to not stand out, to be invisible.

Tired and defeated her mind wandered back to the days of the past which were recent but felt like a previous birth to her now, to the life she'd once had and the very one she feared she'd never be able to return to now.

And while she was wishing and wishing to just wake up and find this all to be a bad dream, for her to be anywhere but here, suddenly her state of panic, weakness, and blind terror grew to impossible levels when she noticed that she was alone. They were not together as they had been when they'd slipped away from the watchful eyes of the guards assigned to contain them.

Alex ... was not with her anymore.

"Please God!" Clover prayed as more tears began to form in her once bright blue and full of life but now lifeless-looking eyes. "They didn't get her. No, they didn't get her!" She begged inside her head while straining her hearing to catch any sound that might be of her, any sign that she was not restrained yet again.

But her heart sank into a dark ditch deeper than the one she was currently in when somewhere just in the distance she heard the sound of a tormented scream in a voice she knew all too well.

And when she heard the crackling sound of the steel whip that followed, she moved to fly into action and try to save her from those monsters regardless of her dismal chances and her best friend's yell for her to keep running and save herself.

Biting her chapped lip, Clover tried to formulate a plan but knew she had to give herself up or they'd just punish Alex even more; a thought she could not bear. But before she stood up with her hands raised in surrender, she knew she had to make one more attempt to do something she'd been failing to so far while she was still free.

Reaching into her boot she drew out her X-powder that she hadn't allowed to be discovered despite being severely tortured and trampled. The once useful gadget now had wires sticking out of it, broken glass where it used to have a faux mirror, and a completely dead dial done in the place of its normal electric hum. By all means it seemed totally broken beyond repair still she jammed away at the call button over and over with the broken and bleeding nail of her index finger hoping to this time somehow make contact with WOOHP Headquarters.

Where their veteran spy leader Jerry might still have a hidden trump card up his sleeve. Have someone left that he could still send ... to rescue them from this hell.


Disentangling himself from her, Tim slowly pulled himself away from Sam. For a long moment he just sat there staring at her speechlessly before he finally croaked out a word. And that was the name of the man she'd just mentioned to him.

"... Jerry?" He stated, albeit in a questioning manner as if he wanted this to be any other Jerry than the one his mind was painting him a familiar picture of being: a late sixties going on seventies, gangly, balding, and thinly moustached man wearing a black and white suit.

It was a sad, last ditch effort at trying to convince himself that this wasn't happening but soon enough he was forced to accept that it truly was when she meekly nodded her head and started to move her mouth to say the last name of the man in question, one that he heard loud and clear inside his head before she even finished saying it.

LEWIS.

"... What uh ... What does he want?" Scam asked, his state of dazed confusion evident in his hushed tone.

He'd called her last night Sam had said. The night right before their wedding day yet he highly doubted that the old man had done so to congratulate them and offer his blessings for them having a wonderful wedded life as man and wife together.

"He said that he needed me," he heard her say and immediately asked what on earth for. Unable to help it, his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he tried to pinpoint what Jerry was up to. What twisted game was he playing with Sam now? What new scheme was this to break them up? It had to be that he knew, what else could it be after all this time?

Clearly he'd been keeping tabs on her despite firing her, laying in wait for years hoping Sam would come to her senses and dump him but now that she was to become his wife in mere hours, he hadn't been able to just sit quiet anymore. Of course he felt he had to protect the agent he no longer had any claim over but still thought he could control like a puppet on a string from ruining her life by marrying him. Marrying a man that he didn't feel was anywhere near worthy for her and never would be.

It was Sam's worried voice that pulled him from his private, unhappy thoughts. "Tim, something terrible has happened. Everyone at WOOHP is gone. They've vanished."

Hearing her words Scam's head couldn't help but spin as his eyes widened. "Everyone?" He repeated the word quietly as he tried to make sense of that. How was the even possible?

Having worked at WOOHP once he knew the spy agency had hundreds of agents in the Los Angeles Headquarters and even more worldwide that could be used as backup in the event of some catastrophe. How then could everyone just … disappear?

Suddenly he paused as another worrisome thought came to him. Everyone was missing and that meant Clover and Alex too. And judging by how stressed out Sam had been seeming and how pale she was now after confessing this to him, he was almost certain the two were involved.

Sure Sam had cared deeply for WOOHP once but after she'd been so dishonourably discharged from duty, he didn't believe she'd be in this much turmoil over just it being in danger. It had been five years after all, and WOOHP had to have gone through many threats by now being the spy agency it was, Sam didn't freak out over its daily risky operations while she'd been living her life with him the way she was palpably distressing over this right situation now.

"… Your friends too?" He asked anyway, still referring to the duo as her friends for two reasons. One, because it hadn't been Sam who had ended that long-lasting friendship that day when she'd left WOOHP for him but them who had screamed at her that they were done. And two, because he wanted to gauge Sam's reaction to it.

He wanted to know if he was right that although Sam had said to him so many times that she'd forgotten about them, that she still saw them as her sisters as she once used to and that was why she was so worried at this calamity that had befallen them via WOOHP.

"Yes everyone," Sam replied, easily failing his test and never noting how Tim bit his cheek to suppress the need to frown just then because she was too busy telling him what little she knew about what was going on.

"That's why Jerry called me. He has no one else to turn to so he needs me to return to WOOHP to try and help. Tim ..." she described. "I'm the only agent available that can—"

"But you're not an agent anymore," Scam thought as his gaze grew dark with disappointment the more he listened to her, realizing that despite building a new life with him that was miles away from WOOHP that she had never really let go of her old one. Some part of her had never stopped being a WOOHP agent despite no longer wearing a badge.

What more proof did he need of that than this? She was still referring to herself as an agent when she'd retired ages ago and turned to a normal civilian life.

"I can't believe this is happening," He said to himself as he felt everything he'd worked so hard for crumble away into nothingness and his Samantha slip further and further away, the fears and anxieties he'd kept locked away in a back corner of his brain now roaring loud and drowning out the voice of his beloved fiancée.

He couldn't even hear what she was saying anymore as panic overtook him. This was it wasn't it? This was what his nightmare had been trying to tell him all long. He was going to lose Sam. WOOHP was coming in between them yet again.

She finally seemed to notice the horrified look on his face as she stopped talking about WOOHP and said his name in sweet, affectionate manner. But he didn't respond which left a small pout to form on her face as she reached for his hand trying to hold it in her own, something he didn't let her do as he stood up and started pacing back and forth right there in the plane corridor all the while frowning deeply.

Sam blinked sadly as she watched him and she could tell even though he hadn't said anything that he was overwhelmed and badly struggling at processing this. And another thing that she could tell without him saying it was that he wasn't happy. The frown on his face was deeper than she'd ever seen it and it scared her.

"Tim?" She tried bravely getting his attention again, sliding off the small couch and standing to intercept his path. She wanted to comfort him and to tell him things were going to be okay even if she didn't know just how right now. They'd figure this out together just like always; all she needed was him by her side.

She was attempting to wrap him in a hug when he halted her by shaking his head no at her and putting her on the spot with a firm and direct question.

"What did you say to Jerry? What answer did you give to his request? Yes or no?"

"Nothing yet," Sam admitted with honesty. She hadn't even texted Jerry since that phone call even though she knew he had to be waiting with baited breath to hear from her again. Because as much as she cared for her friends and once place of employment, Tim came first. He was going to be affected most by this by default of being her husband and she'd wanted to tell him her decision before she told anyone else including Jerry.

Letting out a deep breath of relief, Scam began to relax a little for the first time since learning about this. Good. Sam had been wise and hadn't promised Jerry anything yet. That meant that he couldn't hold her to it and he could still talk sense into her and get her to realize that even thinking of agreeing to do this was a really bad idea. Maybe their wedding wasn't going to be ruined after all. Perhaps it was all going to be okay.

But what Sam said next, made him lose all hope that anything was going to be alright anymore between them anytime soon.

"I've already decided though because there isn't really anything I need to decide. Obviously, I have to help them. It's the right thing to do," she declared unwaveringly before drawing in a deep breath as she addressed him again with a mixture of nervousness and optimism in her tone while smiling at him.

"You think so too right? Darling, you understand that I have to do this?"

Dead silence was all she got out of him as he stood there frozen in place as his expression slowly but surely morphed into a livid one. His tanned skin turned red with rage and his sea green eyes flashed with what she could only perceive as disbelief. His mouth opened and closed a few times as he geared up to ask her if she was kidding him. How could she make this big of a decision on her own without even asking him how he felt about it? How could she just blindly take the words of a man who'd caused her so much suffering in the past as gospel and make a snap decision based on them to just toss their entire future into jeopardy without first consulting him?

Didn't she find even the timing of this suspect at all like he did? How was she not stopping to think of the impact that this would have on them? How could she announce that she was turning their world upside down with so much carelessness? On their wedding day no less?!

His joyful, soon-to-be groom aura now completely dissolved he took a step closer to Sam, his jaw twitching while his hands moved to grab her shoulders and shake her out of this tunnel vision daze she'd developed where all she could think of was WOOHP and her ex-friends and not her family, her current friends, and the man she claimed to love, to make her reassess her priorities like she desperately needed to but he was stopped short when Sam's parents returned to them from the kitchen bearing snacks.

They took one look at his and Sam's disturbed faces and immediately grew very concerned. Especially when they picked up on the heavy tension hanging in the air that could be cut with a knife.

Had they two of them had a lover's spat while they'd been away, they wondered while exchanging surprised glances because from what they knew, these two lovebirds never, ever fought with each other.

"Everything okay, you two?" Gabriella finally asked unable to take the suspense any longer.

Sam didn't say anything having entirely forgotten about her mom and dad as she'd been talking to Tim about WOOHP. Thank god the cabins of this private jet were sound-proof was all she could think as she plastered a large, fake smile on her face to try and lie to them that everything was just fine and there was nothing for them to worry about regarding Tim and her while Tim didn't help the situation by moving even farther away from her than he was already standing.

He managed a very small nod towards Gabby and Shawn before very stiffly, very wordlessly making his way over to a seat in a far corner of the plane and sitting down. He stared hard out of the window and a moment later he reached into his pocket and drew out a red, velvet box that she knew held the rings they were meant to exchange during their wedding ceremony that he was holding onto until he could hand them to his best man.

He opened the box and started to slowly run his fingertips over the delicate, white gold bands, a process he did over and over as if trying to work something out to himself in silence.

Then just ten minutes later, Sam watched how his handsome face fell when the clouds parted and the city of Cobh came into view down below. A frown etched itself on his lips as he snapped the box shut and tossed it away letting it land on the seat next to him with a soft pat.

And Sam became afraid that just as she had, Tim had also made a crucial decision in the spur of the moment that was going to change everything.


To say she was scared was a massive understatement. She hadn't seen or heard from Tim once they'd checked in at the front desk. He'd promptly stomped along and made his way to the suite he was meant to get ready in and locked the door without so much as even greeting their guests, making zero effort to mask his stormy mood for anyone he encountered.

And by now Sam was very afraid that there wasn't even going to be a wedding.

Trying to tell herself she was being a pessimist, she did her best to hold herself together but inside she was falling apart. She just had to talk to Tim, right now before he did something rash that they'd both regret.

Knowing she had to act now as there was just an hour till the time set for the ceremony, Sam once again begged her mother to please let her get ready on her own. And after five minutes of unyielding persuasion, she finally surrendered the garment bag with her bridal gown tucked inside but made her promise to let her be the one who got to put on the finishing touches.

Nodding her head that she would she hugged her mom before at long last slipping inside her hotel room. She paused for a moment taking a long breath to prepare herself before her head lifted as she glanced at the door of the adjoining room a short distance away that she knew Tim was in.

She carefully placed her dress on the bed before mustering up her courage and going over to it. She tried the handle and was saddened but not at all surprised to find it locked to keep her out. The first thing that Tim always did when he was unhappy about something was put up a wall.

"Tim?" She called out through the sturdy wooden barrier that kept him from her. When he didn't say anything back to indicate that he'd even heard her she started to softly knock on the door.

"Babe you in there?" She asked even though she knew he was because she could hear that the TV was on, further evidence that he wasn't getting decked up for their wedding as he was supposed to be at the present.

"I really need to talk to you," she said with urgency, the rapping of her knuckles getting louder and more persistent now and finally heard the television set switch off. She held her breathe hoping for him to speak or better yet, for him to open the door and just let her in but neither happened.

Five minutes passed and Sam realized if she was going to have this conversation with him, it was going to take her taking much more daring measures.

Reaching up into her hair she retrieved a bobby pin from her bun and began picking the lock. It took her some time but her lost skill returned to her readily as it had been page one of the spy training manual she'd once studied inside out. And soon enough she heard a telltale click of the latch giving way and with a light push the door swung open.

She found Tim pacing before her, arms crossed over his muscular chest and lips pursed into a pout. His expression changed from annoyed to one of utter shock once he saw her in his peripheral. His head spun around and he blinked for a moment wondering how she'd gotten in, if she'd asked for a spare key by telling the staff she was his fiancée or something when he saw the pin in her hand and figured out just how she'd pulled it off.

He swore under his breath as he rolled his eyes in a mixture of 5o% disgust and 50% exasperation before shooting her a dirty look for breaking into his room in such a spy-like manner. Turning his back to her he huffed like an angry bull, this latest stunt of hers only aggravating him further.

As he stood there grumbling to himself, Sam gave him a once-over and noticed how he undone he looked. His usually neat hair was a mess with many of the chestnut strands standing up from him having run his fingers through it one too many times to release pent-up stress. He was dressed down in a simple black t-shirt and jeans instead of being dressed up to the nines in the crisp black suit he had chosen for the occasion.

And while she knew Tim was a quick dresser, even he wouldn't be waiting this last minute to dress for his own, so much-anticipated wedding day. This ... didn't look good.

But still she tried to keep her cool because there was still time before the ceremony. If she could just get through to him, they could still get married just as they'd planned for months and she'd dreamed of becoming his wife for years.

"I'm sorry Tim..." she started knowing an apology for invading the privacy he was so desperately trying to get right now had to come first. Once that was out of the way she continued boldly knowing the clock was ticking and she was running out of minutes to sway him before everyone caught onto to the fact that something had mysteriously gone south between them.

The image of her standing alone at their wedding altar waiting for him only for him to never show up or show up, break up with her forever in a public spectacle, leave her in tears and then run off haunted her to her soul but she chased it to the back of her mind as she hustled to appeal to her beloved Tim.

"But I need to talk you."

"About what?" He snapped, not even sparing her a glance from over his broad shoulder as if he wanted to avoid looking at her face in case there was any kind of longing for him to be found there. Which if he had so much as taken a small peek at her, he'd have seen that there was in spades.

"You've already made up you mind, haven't you? " He stated sounding beaten as he raised a hand and then let it drop down dejectedly to his side again. "Then what does it matter what I think?"

"You KNOW that what you think matters to me more than anything Tim," she countered firmly not letting him pretend that wasn't the case for even a second. Over the years they'd been a couple, hadn't she proven that to him already? Every decision she'd ever made had only become finalized after his input.

And as if he had that exact thought go through his mind just then he finally turned to look at her with a half-smirk. "So if I think your decision to go back to WOOHP is the wrong one ... will you change your mind? Well, will you?" He almost sneered with so much doubt that the entire room seemed to drown within it.

When she neglected to answer him but lowered her gaze from his intense one to look at the bronze and rouge Persian carpet on the luxury's suite's Evergreen stone flooring, he chuckled bitterly finding all the reply that he needed from her in that small action alone.

"Didn't think so," he quipped before raising his hand and proceeding to rub his temples with his thumb and index fingers in circles for a long moment before ejecting a drawn-out sigh.

"Seriously Sammie, you don't find it suspicious at all? ..."

He almost felt stupid saying this because it was that giant of a red flag that even a blind person would be able to see it with ease while Sam had a set of perfectly functional and very beautiful green eyes.

"That Jerry would phone you up on the exact eve of our wedding?"

"He doesn't know that we're getting married," Sam corrected his mistaken assumption, wanting him to believe that there was no sinister plan at play here to rip them apart from one another as there once very well might have been. As unfair as this was, it was just super bad timing and that was all there was to it.

"We didn't talk about it when we spoke," she explained further. "So he has no idea that—"

"Yea right," Tim cut her off with a loud snort, irked at how completely Sam was forgetting who they were talking about here. "The man that tracked down your phone number years later, halfway across the fucking world can't POSSIBLY know that you were going to get married today. Of course."

Sam closed her mouth at his latest comment and as much as she tried not to go there, was compelled to reflect on it nonetheless. Her eyes narrowed as she wondered was Tim right? Did Jerry know? Had he been somehow keeping his eye on her all this time despite her walking away and no longer being officially associated with his agency?

Yet even with the knowledge of WOOHP having so many sneaky ways to be able to arrange that, she couldn't find it in herself to believe that Jerry would make up this horrific of a scenario just to try and put a rift between her and Tim. Pretend that every agent of his was in terrible danger? Had evaporated into thin air? No, even Jerry wouldn't go that far.

But when she voiced that thought to him, Tim only snickered and continued to disagree with her, too caught up in his sour history with the man in question to put anything, even this, past him or give him the benefit of the doubt for even one fleeting second.

"Sure he wouldn't lie about that because he wouldn't want to hurt you right? Well it didn't bother him all that much to hurt you that day when he demanded that you chose between WOOHP and me, DID IT SAMANTHA?!"

His voice cracked on her name and by this point, he was visibly shaking from rage. He honestly shouldn't be having to remind Sam of all this. She could not have forgotten her own pain so this selective amnesia of hers regarding Jerry was really, REALLY bothering him. Maybe she could erase what had happened from her mind and give Jerry a clean slate but he'd never be able to. Never in a million years.

After she'd chosen him and had had to forsake her WOOHP title as punishment, she'd been a mess for months. The loss of her best friends in the whole wide world and a job that had been so integral to her identity for as long as she could recall all at once had taken a toll on her to such a degree that she'd fallen into a deep depression.

It was all so vivid to him the memory of the days, the weeks, the months she'd spent crying in his arms as she badly struggled to accept things for what they were and truly move on. A process that had taken her what had felt like a century.

He still remembered how worried he'd been that no matter how hard he was working to give her the life of a queen that she was worthy of, she'd simply never smile again after losing those that were so important to her when one day, just as he'd been ready to lose all hope, she finally had.

And now for some inexplicable, logic-defying reason for a woman as smart as she was it seemed she wanted to make herself miserable once again.

Their lives, her life was perfect! She'd said so to him a million times that she'd never change anything then why? Why did she want to take a sledgehammer to everything they'd built over WOOHP?! Put their happily ever after in peril over those people that didn't deserve her loyalty anymore?!

Try as he might it was a decision that he just could not fathom but regardless he wasn't going to be one of those men that acted like a woman was his property just because she was engaged to him. Yes he technically had a right on Sam but she had a right on herself much more. As much as he hated that she wanted to do this, he'd let her make her own decisions. Even one as troublesome as this one.

However, he thought as his face bore a dismayed frown this time and his heart tugged inside his chest as he looked upon the face of the only girl, the only person he'd ever truly loved with forlorn eyes.

There was one decision that he was now forced to make as a result of this. One that he thought he'd never have to and one that killed him in so many ways. But he simply had no choice.

If Sam wanted to go back to WOOHP, back to her past then … she couldn't go into her future, their future.

They …

They could not get married.


...

Welp, there we go. Scam's not on board with this AT ALL. Think Sam might still make him her hubbie somehow? Also we finally saw Clover & Alex. Thoughts on what is going on there?

Would love to hear from y'all; review? ^_^

Love,

Cresenta L.