They'd finished searching Amboise a few hours before dawn. It took more covering their tracks than doing the actual searching, but by the time the weak December sun rose  over the grey clouds, they were already in Blois, their next destination.

Kay was exhausted, and not just because of the lack of sleep, but because of the tension and pressure she felt every second they spent together. She couldn't remember ever feeling this uncomfortable in the group. Even if their previous mission had been spent in silent mourning because they'd all thought Tom was dead, it had been much easier to bear than this.

She wished she could just have a few moment of peace and quiet with Jessie and maybe talk it out, but Tina was an ever present shadow in their room, in the car, everywhere. And now, for some reason, she was a moping shadow, subtly ignoring Kay as well, as though her lack of propriety in her relationship with Kyle had made her a target of Tina's scorn as well.

At this point in her thought process came the guilt. She and Jessie should talk to Tina and leave aside petty dislikes. There was no way that was happening because Jessie was pissed. And worried. Because as much as they all tried to act normal, like it wasn't there, it was getting hard to ignore the signs.

Jimmy was getting sick. His voice turned rough, he sniffed a lot and sometimes winced out of the blue as if something hurt. Of course he said he was fine. He was a Grant. And if there was something that defined these boys Kay had grown to love so much, it was their ability to walk things off. Even Jerry.

Once they reached Blois, they drove straight to the castle. No hotel would take them in before two in the afternoon anyway so they killed time by taking the tour.

The castle of Blois was a fascinating mixture of four completely different architectural styles merged around an inner court yard. This at least ensured a part of the castle had windows pointing where no one could see. Because just like Amboise, the complex castle of Blois was also uncomfortably placed on top of a hill. Fortunately,  a large square stretched in front of the entrance, making just one side of the castle truly problematic.

As they took the tour, dragging their feet, Kay resented being unable to see past the practical aspects of their visit. She was so tired and her mind chose to focus only on where she'd have to return in the evening.

And it seemed like no time at all. After a quick lunch and some sleep, they were back in front of the castle, the lonely frigid wind of December blowing past them. The day night switch was really not doing it for her.

"I think we should split up and..." Kyle started, sounding as tired as she felt.

"Well then," Jerry interrupted, clapping his hands together. "We should indeed.
Kyle, you and Kay take the Louis the XII wing."

“Alrighty then.” Kyle backed off instantly which was a bit surprising.

Even if Kay didn't mind going with Kyle at all, Jerry's behavior was a little unnerving, as if he only wanted to spite them. When they wanted to be together, he always interfered, and now when they agreed it was best to spend some time apart, he kept pushing them together.

“Tina and I will take the François I wing and Jimmy Jessie and Billy get the Gaston d'Orléans wing. So we’re settled,” Jerry continued assigning teams as if he did it daily.

“How come you get the cool wing?” Jessie asked, a slight edge to her voice. Kay deduced it had something to do with Billy joining her and Jimmy rather than the wings Jerry had assigned to everyone.

“Oh, sure, Jimmy goes with Billy…” Jimmy mumbled, confirming Kay's suspicion.

Jerry waved him away. “stop complaining. It's very fair. Let's go and get this over with so we can meet in front of the fourth building and search it together.” And with those said, he and Tina walked towards the entrance, all the while discussing some architectural detail of the spiral staircase.

“Those two geeks are so made for each other," Billy said, rolling his eyes. “I don’t even know which wing I'm supposed to be searching.”

“It’s that one,” Kyle said, pointing over his shoulder.

Billy just nodded and headed that way together with a very disgruntled Jessie and Jimmy.

Kay watched them for a second then hurried after Kyle. This time, they'd settled for cutting the power to the castle. It had amazed Kay how easily Jimmy had found and cut the right wires. They didn't even have to be in the castle to do it. And with the backup generator also disabled, all cameras and alarms were off.

She hurried after Kyle across the inner courtyard and inside their building. It was the oldest, smallest and least interesting out of them, and she knew it. From the tour, she'd gathered it would be the easiest to search. Most of it was taken up by an enormous entrance hall, while the rest of the rooms were mostly a display of stones, crests and old fireplaces.

“A bummer about Jimmy,” Kyle finally said as they crosses the hallway and headed for the rooms.

"Yeah... We should go with Billy next time."

"Jerry and Tina should go with Billy," he retorted. "It's not like they ever do anything that shouldn't be interrupted."

She agreed, but she still found the saltiness in his tone a bit unnerving. "Does it bother you that we're paired up?"

"Of course not. It's actually doing me a lot of good because I can talk to you without anyone else around. Which I know for a fact Jimmy and Jessie want to do. They haven't had any privacy since we started searching castles."

He had a point. Not being able to talk to Kyle in private would have made here even more tense and unhappy than she was now. Not that she was trully unhappy. She pondered on her feelings as they put on their latex gloves and started turning stones over and frisking fireplaces.

She felt uncomfortable and couldn't really pinpoint a reason. Sure, there was her desire regarding Kyle, but that should be easy to handle. And she was worried about Sam, Tom and Angie. And Christine. But other than that, they were more comfortable than they'd ever been on a mission, even with the loopy sleeping schedule. Then what was it?

The Tina thing? This big secret Jerry was trying to sweep under the rug which had led to a change in his general algorithm? Jimmy and Jessie and how annoyed and frustrated they were?

Or maybe it was Kyle losing control.

The thought made her shiver as they sat on an old wooden staircase in the entrance hall, their searching over in just a few hours with zero results.

What scared her most was that she couldn't tell if she should be scared but was just ignoring all the signs and pretending everything was fine. Kyle seemed fine now, a lot more like himself but... as she looked up at him, she realized that he'd been just as quiet, just as lost in thought as her.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

He jumped, startled out of his thoughts. "I was actually wondering how much longer this lie is going to hold up. In front of my parents, I mean," he clarified.

"Oh." She had  nothing else to say to that.

It shocked the hell out of her that Kyle had been out of the house for almost a whole week and no one had caught on. Harry was reporting daily, letting him know how it went. Apparently, great so far.

"Your parents are so stupid," she said before she could help herself. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

He huffed, but it sounded bitter rather than amused. "Don't be sorry. You're right. I've never seen more careless, self-sufficient people in my life. They claim they give us freedom. This is not freedom. This is commodity and carelessness. What Max gave me was freedom. Do whatever I want but still report to him at the end of the day."

Kay couldn't agree with him more. Sure, the agency helped with Sam, Tom, Jerry and Jimmy's covers by sending texts regularly to the parents and even engaging them in conversation over IM. But Kyle was supposed to be home. How had they not figured out that he wasn't?

"I'm still sorry," she said.

"Again, don't be. It's not like your folks are much better."

"They'd talk if I answered their calls," she muttered. But she'd decided long ago that she wanted none of that.

He glanced at her sideways, but didn't comment on her choice. Because it was her choice. The only member of her family she talked to regularly and didn't want to push out of her life was her brother, William.

"How's William doing?" Kyle asked, as if guessing her thoughts.

"Much better. His recovery is spectacular. He's actually thinking of returning to work for the agency." She wasn't very happy about that, but it wasn't like she could stop him. And she honestly understood.

"What are you doing for Christmas?"

His question gave her whiplash. She hadn't even thought about it in a good long while seeing as they were on a mission and Christmas was in five days.

"Are we even going to be done by then?"

"In case we are."

"Staying with you, of course."

He turned to her this time. His eyes shone in the little light coming from a distant streetlight. "Don't you want to go home?"

He was her home. Didn't he get that? "Kyle, I'm never going back to my parents. Or at least not until they accept you. They don't even know we're together."

"They don't?"

"I never told them. It's the only reason they're still talking to me. But I'm seriously considering just changing my phone number and getting rid of them once and for all."

"Don't say that." He looked away again, his gaze lost in the distance. "I know they're not the greatest parents. Hell, look at mine. But I think you should give them a choice and a chance to be a part of your life." He turned to her again. "Because as much as my parents drive me up the wall and as much as Dad and I fight, I could never imagine my life without them."

"It's not the same thing. Your parents aren't that bad. They didn't basically kidnap you."

"No. They dumped me on an unsuspecting relative. Your parents raised you and they did a great job. You are who you are partially because of them. Just like mine made me what I am."

That was was, but her stubborn mind didn't want to accept it. Her parents had forced a druggy on her. They'd made her miserable for over a year. But she could see his point and respect it.

"Okay. I'll just tell them the truth and let them decide."

He wrapped and arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "Trust me, it's not easy pushing parents out. You don't want the regret that might come with later."

Now this she could understand and agree with. She raised her face and planted a light kiss on his lips before she could think it through. He pulled back and looked at her with wide eyes. Then he leaned over her and kissed her properly. Not just an absentminded peck, but a real kiss which promised so much more.

Her body instantly caught fire and she wrapped her arms around him, climbed in his lap, curled around him. How could he make her lose it so fast? And why couldn't she control herself when he'd asked her to?

Yes, you can.

She broke the kiss and pulled away. God, that look in his eyes made her want to damn her better judgement. But no, she'd prove that he could count on her.

"You said we shouldn't be doing this."

"Huh?"

He was so adorably confused, but she knew better this time so she climbed down from his lap. "I'm doing my bit and stopping you right here and now before things get out of control."

It took him a few seconds, but he nodded. "Right. Thanks." He gave her a small smile before looking out the window again. "Thank God we're meeting Sam and Tom tomorrow."

She couldn't agree more. With Sam there, they'd be sure they were doing this whole castle raiding thing right. “It’s kind of frustrating searching around and never finding anything.”

Kyle turned to her. “I wasn’t expecting to find anything here. If there’s anything interesting in this castle, it’s surely in the wing Jerry is searching.”

“Yeah, he made sure of that. Do you think the others are done? Should we go out?”

“Yeah.” He stood and reached out his hand to help her up.

She took it, the heat of his skin making her feel safer than anything in the world. When they stepped outside, the courtyard was empty, but it didn't take the others long to show up. As and added bonus, Jimmy, Jessie and Billy had already searched the last wing as well.

“Anything?" Kyle asked, though Kay was pretty sure there would have been a lot of screaming and partying by now if anyone got the jewel.

“Well, we didn't find the jewel,” Jerry said taking his backpack off and rummaging inside it, “but we did find this in Catherine de Medici’s chambre de secrets." He took out what looked like an old, battered notebook. "The room is supposed to hold her poisons, but we found what seems to be a diary instead. Unfortunately, it's not in French so I can't read it. We should give it to Sam tomorrow. Maybe he’ll manage to sort it out.”

There was a long pause. Kay looked from Jerry to everyone else, and her own shock was written on every face except Tina's. She couldn't believe they'd actually found something.

"How did you find this?" Jimmy asked, his voice even rapsier than when they'd entered the castle.

"It was inside this massive cabinet with so many drawers," Tina said.

Kay fought the impulse to roll her eyes, because that was not what Jimmy meant. What he meant to ask was how Jerry had thought to look where no one else had when inspecting that massive cabinet.

"It was a trick opening," Jerry explained. "I'm guessing no one forced the stuck compartment because they didn't want to damage the furniture. It was all about a combination of drawers around it. If you opened all of them, the stuck one came loose."

"That's genius," Jessie said, honestly impressed. "I can't believe we found something."

"Let's just hope it's useful in finding the jewel," Billy pointed out the obvious. "I bet anything Sam will figure it out."

“Or maybe you should give it to me,” Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

All eyes turned to him this time.

He shrugged. "Jerry said it's not French. Catherine de Medici was Italian. So my guess is her diary is in Italian."

"Oh, that's right," Billy siad excitedly. "I forgot you took italian. And to think I mocked you for choosing a useless language."

“You speak Italian?” Jerry asked, shocked.

Jimmy just shrugged again. "Tom and I do know foreign languages as well, you know. Let's just get out of here. If we leave now, we'll reach Chambord in the morning and get more time to rest." He winced a little at that last word, his voice even raspier.

Jerry nodded in a agreement and headed off with Tina, immediately followed by Billy and Jessie. Jimmy stayed behind a little, rubbing his temples. Kyle hurried to catch up with him and Kay lingered next to them as well.

"You okay?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah..." Jimmy didn't sound okay at all. Even his tone was hesitant. "I just feel like I have two tennis balls for tonsils and it's a little hard to swallow."

"That sucks. I hoped you'd get better by now."

"Apparently ibuprofen is not doing its job," Jimmy mumbled. "But I'll be fine. That notebook might hold some clue so I'm pretty sure it will all be over in a few days."

Kay tensed. She noticed Kyle and Jimmy did as well. Because they all knew it couldn't be over that fast. If they found the jewel, Snitch Gravel would surely be there. If they didn't, they had to come up with another theory. There was no easy outcome for this.

"You and Jessie okay?" Kyle muttered.

"How am I supposed to know? We haven't talked properly in days." Jimmy winced again and cupped the back of his head. "But I guess we are. We have no reason not to be."

"We get Billy next time," Kyle offered.

"Don't be an idiot," Jimmy snapped. "You know what you have to do. Until you sort your shit out, Billy's mine."

Kyle gave him a weak smile. Kay opened her mouth to ask what they were talking about, but they'd already reached the car and she was exhausted. As she settled in the back seat, she tried to ignore Jessie's worry and Tina's scoffing and settled for looking out the window.

As they drove through sleeping towns, Kyle's words swam around her tired brain. She'd been trying to hard to escape her family, but it still tore her apart to spend Christmas away from them. Kyle had been right. She couldn't bare the guilt of cutting them out of her life. She'd talk to them, tell them the truth and let them either accept it or do the cutting themselves.

Either way, she would be free.

❄❄❄

Yay update. Once again seriously unedited and written on my phone. I'll try to go through it and clear the typos later. Just want to put it out here.

Also, this is the last transition chapter. Going into full swing starting next part and I'm actually excited about what happens. Hope you still enjoyed this one and that it's clear how everyone is feeling at this point. Right before the danger starts 😅

Please give me your thoughts because I have no idea if the story is flowing or still interesting at this point.

Fingers crossed for another update next week.