MISSING LINK》t. briggs & v. stirling

Chapter 《01》

It was wrong; it was stupid; it was dangerous, and the girl known as Abigail Jones almost certainly knew she was gonna get yelled at by her court marshal for it. But no matter how much Agent Ross would lay into her for making contact, she just couldn't help it. She'd wanted to get their attention so badly for so long and now she finally had a legitimate reason to do it.

She logged off of the public computer in the school's library, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it now. Regret it or not, she'd sent the email. Within the hour they would read it, and then they would decide. Decide whether or not to come, whether or not they'd work the case. It's possible they would send someone else. It's possible they wouldn't do anything at all. She knew enough about the inner workings of the FBI to know that team liaisons received thousands of calls every day from PD's across the country asking for insight on different cases. Calls that—the majority of which—went unanswered because the FBI simply didn't have the manpower to send agents across the country every time someone called. So the chances that they would respond to her? Slim to none, only, she hadn't just sent the message to some random team liaison.

She'd sent it directly to her parents.

It had been anonymous, of course. She wasn't stupid. If they showed up, Agent Ross was already going to be up and arms trying to usher her away for safekeeping. But if he found out that she'd sent the email? She'd be out. You get three chances in the Federal Witness Protection Program, and the girl who'd once been called Felicity Elizabeth Briggs had already blown her cover twice.

The first time had been an accident. After all, she was only twelve-years-old when she'd first been put into the program. No matter how many times they told her it was for her protection, she just hadn't been able to understand why her parents had sent her away to live in a strange city, with strange people who insisted on calling her Sarah. She'd been confused, upset. It had been an accident.

The second time wasn't.

Gone was the scared little girl who hadn't known what was going on. In that town when they called her by the wrong name she hadn't been confused; she'd been angry. She picked fights with the other kids at school and with the kids her fake parents made her pretend were her brothers and sisters. She'd fought, and fought, and fought until they couldn't handle it anymore. It was easier that way, she'd thought, fighting until they chose to kick her out. Better to make them reject her. At least that way she knew it was coming. If her real parents hadn't wanted her, then why should some random family want her either? No, that time hadn't been an accident.

Which left the present. Now she was stuck in a boarding school in upstate New York, hidden away among 350-some trust fund kids and wearing the label "Abigail Jones". It was easier to stay here. No fake parents or siblings to ask her how she was doing everyday as if she could ever be anything other than irreversibly screwed up. No fake family with fake smiles who would serve as nothing more than a painful reminder of what she'd lost. Of what the monster called Nightshade had taken from her. Here she was hidden; here she was safe, and here, she was left alone. She could keep to herself. She didn't have to talk to anyone, to pretend like she was ok, or like she was normal. Here she didn't really have a reason to be angry anymore. So instead, more than anything she was just desperate.

Desperate for them to see her, to acknowledge her, to show any sign that they remembered she existed. To show her that, despite everything, they still cared.

It had been five years since Felicity had last seen her parents and now more than anything she just wanted them to see her, to see what she'd become. She knew it was stupid. She knew it was dangerous, but more than anything she just wanted to go home.