Fragmented Lies

Chapter 7: The Gold Castle

A/N: moving along to the final climax here, not yet the finish line though, that will happen in chapter 8, then a wrap up chapter 9 + one fluffy christmas themed epilogue of sorts. So almost at the end here. I'm blown away by the reception of this story and how fast the hits seem to grow in numbers and the reviews ticking in. I'm beyond grateful for each and everyone of you reading this story. In my 18 years of writing fanfic I don't think any other fic has grown so fast, both on how fast I've managed to write so many words out, but also how fast the stats grow. This makes me super happy, I hope to have the last two parts ready for you soon... I can't promise it will be before New Year, depending on my lovely beta reader SnowBelleWells, (We've encountered a few snags with how Google docs chose to throw away some of her comments in some chapters. Hopefully it won't happen in the last chapters here.)

Enjoy this thrilling chapter and note that I have no friggin' idea how rules and regulations are with MI6 and CIA working together, nor do I know anything about weapons and biotoxic waters etc.

Chapter 7: The Gold Castle

Emma flipped through the files she held in her hand, then she glanced over at Killian, driving his Aston Martin all rigged and approved by MI6. He seemed relaxed, despite it having only been 24 hours since they landed in London. Now they were heading up north. The road trip would be split with a layover just before they reached Scotland. Right now they used the time to catch up on everything they had found yesterday.

David and Ruby were driving with the rest of the MI6 team in the large truck along with M and Q. It had been a bit of a crazy morning, waking up with jetlag fuzzy minds, going to MI6 and meeting up with the disgruntled M, who kept a sour look on her face all morning while they prepped for their trip. Not even when her son, Q, or Henry as Emma learned was his real name, showed up, had her mood improved. The young man seemed unfazed by his mother's behaviour, so Emma assumed he was used to her having mood swings.

A few hours into their drive, Emma began dozing off; she leaned her head against the headrest, closing her eyes. Jetlag sucked, and she hoped a nap would be what she needed. Past noon, they stopped for lunch, and the group sat scattered around various tables at the rest stop. Emma kept an eye on M and how she acted around everyone; the only person she seemed to be civil with was her son. He seemed to be a fairly smart kid. His young age was a surprise, but hearing him speak with Killian about the gadgets he'd brought along showed her that he knew what he was doing.

Killian asked Henry if he would mind driving his car until they reached their small hotel further up north. Emma slipped into the cramped back seat, but shifted around so her legs rested on the seat beside her. Killian slept for most of the trip, so Emma engaged Henry in some small talk.

"So how long have you been working at MI6?" Emma asked.

"Oh about a year now I think," Henry shrugged and glanced at her in the rearview mirror, giving her a small smile.

"That's nice," Emma replied and shifted up a little in her seat. "You seem young for having such a high level position in MI6." When Henry chuckled, she hurriedly added, "I mean, I hear from Killian that you know what you're doing, but not many your age would be able to be so cool about all the high tech stuff you work with." She tried to sound casual, but secretly she hoped he would give some inside information about his mother.

"Yeah," He gripped the wheel a little tighter and explained, "I was one of the smart kids," he pursed his lips and added wryly, "you know, the too clever kid the others never really liked to hang around with."

"Aw, I'm sorry—"

"Don't be," he interjected and added, "I was never great with socializing anyway," He shrugged, "so I guess it all ended as it should have after all."