The flight had taken freaking forever and Kyle wanted to bang someone's head against the wall. Preferably Herrison's. Or whoever made the decisions for Herrison. It was already turning into a habit that their tickets would be issued and presented to them the day they left. It was also turning into a nasty habit that they didn't end up where they wanted to.

First Malta instead of India and now Lyon instead of Paris. Just what the everloving hell were they doing in Lyon?

"What was so important in Paris?" Jimmy asked, looking warily at Jerry who sat on a plastic chair in the luggage claim area, his arms and legs crossed.

The girls had wandered off to find a map or something to help them navigate outside the airport and it left Jimmy, Kyle and Billy facing Jerry and trying to come up with some sort of strategy. Jimmy had apparently chosen denial while Billy stood in I'm-going-to-kill-you-if-you-talk-to-me silence. Not that Kyle could blame him. Billy had even less information than the rest of them.

"The Louvre is in Paris. Versailles is next to Paris. These are the two most important castles in the history of France. The residences of the kings. That's why we should have gone to Paris!" very huffy Jerry answered, actually making a lot of sense.

Not to mention that Sam and Tom were in Paris and Kyle really wanted to find them. He'd ignored the danger they were surely in for long enough. And he also wondered if they'd actually managed to find the girls. But Jimmy's words also held some truth.

"Yes, Jerry, but think about it," Jimmy continued. "The Louvre is a museum, it's full of stuff. It's probably been searched hundreds of times. And considering the fact that the rest of the crown jewels are there, it's pretty improbable that the stone is there as well. And Versailles is once again too big and too obvious."

"Fair point about the Louvre, I'm not so sure about Versailles. But if not there, where should we..." Jerry started.

"Loire Valley," Kyle said, the lack of Paris suddenly making sense. At least sort of. "It's full of castles which were used as private or summer residences, so the jewel could be there. Though that doesn't really explain why Lyon. We should've flown to Tours."

Silence greeted his words a everyone stared at him.

"Where did that come from?" Billy asked, in shock.

"You missed out on the French side of the family," Kyle mumbled. "Max and Maman wanted to drill some French culture into me. They mostly failed, but I remember liking the idea of a whole bunch of castles following a river."

"I think I know what sort of explains Lyon," Jimmy said. "How about Avignon?"

"Fair point," Jerry said, thoughtfully. "It is possible that one of the kings may have given the jewel as a gift to one of the popes. We should go, just to make sure we don't miss anything."

"I think Avignon is actually closest to where we are. We should go there first. Tours is miles away and coming back afterwards would be a total waste of time," Kyle said and Jimmy and Jerry both nodded. Though he wouldn't usually give it much thought, since he was technically leader, he turned to Billy for his approval.

Except Billy didn't seem to be listening. His eyes were fixed on one of the luggage belts where a tall, curvy redhead was waiting for her suitcase. It took him precisely five seconds to ditch them and go to her.

"Um, what?" Jimmy asked in disbelief as he watched Billy striking up a conversation with the girl.

"What is he doing?" Jerry asked. "Do we know her?" He turned back to Kyle and Jimmy with slight panic in his eyes. "Should we know her?"

Kyle just shook his head, certain they'd never seen that girl before and that Billy, geeky, video game obsessed Billy, had just randomly gone off to pick up chicks.

"Should we... should we say something?" Jerry asked.

"I have to admit I'm a little stunned," Jimmy said.

Kyle didn't know what to say either. A big part of him just wanted to laugh that Billy decided now was the best time to go woo a girl, but the other part was a bit worried about his cousin's switch from severely pissed to lovey dovey. Plus, it was very unlike him.

It didn't take him long to skip back, a big goofy grin on his round face.

"Billy, what are you doing?" Jerry asked the moment he reached them. "In case you haven't noticed, we're on a mission."

He just shrugged. "I don't see any pointed guns yet. And maybe you're ready to die a virgin, Jerry, but I don't want to and neither should you..." He faltered as he turned to point at Kyle and Jimmy.

Jimmy raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms while Kyle did his best to stifle his laugh. And not because of what Billy was saying, because it was actually kind of sad, but because of the mortified look on Jerry's face.

"Anyway," Billy continued, "you're here with your girlfriends and I've had it with being seventh wheeled."

"There's no way in hell she's coming with us," Kyle said, because this was turning stupid rather than funny.

Billy narrowed his eyes at him. "Why do you all act like this is fun?"

"Um, what part exactly is supposed to be fun?" Jimmy asked warily.

"This whole agency thing. I know that all of you, except maybe for Sam, were dragged into this because they made you promises," Billy said. "Well, maybe not you and Jerry," he added to Kyle. "You two probably got in just so you could protect Sam. But the rest of us, it wasn't that easy."

"Still not really getting it..." Jimmy said.

"You." Billy pointed at him. "I'm sure you and Tom got in for the money. Just like Angie. Jessie was already running away from home, Kay wanted to escape, too. And Herrsion dangled Sam's safety over your head. None of us were willing."

"What about you?" Jerry whispered. "What did they dangle over your head?"

"Funny it took you so long to ask," Billy replied, the spite in his voice new and unsettling. "My mother."

Kyle cringed. He really didn't want to hear this, but it seemed Billy had had his fill of the agency as well and his breakdown wasn't pretty.

"You keep complaining about uncle Freider, but so what if he's overbearing and wants to butt in? It shows he cares! You know how much my father cares? He didn't even ask why I wanted to move to Chicago. He was just glad to have me out of his hair."

"I'm sure he cares about you, Billy," Jerry whispered.

Billy just let out a bitter laugh. "That's what I kept telling myself for eighteen years. Trust me, you can only lie to yourself so much. So if I'm going to die, then at least I'm going down in style. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be seeing you tomorrow morning in Avignon." He turned his back on them and headed for the girl.

Kyle watched him wrap an arm around her shoulders and lead her out, a knot in his stomach. "Do you know anything about Billy's mother?" He wasn't even sure if he was asking Jerry or Jimmy since both of them knew Billy a lot better and longer than him.

"No," Jerry whispered.

They all fell silent, until the girl joined the party.

"Where's Billy going?"

"He just picked up a chick and went on his way with her, totally ditching us," Jimmy answered, still in shock. "He's apparently meeting us tomorrow, in Avignon."

"We're going to Avignon?" Tina asked, a liveliness in her tone that Kyle had never heard. "I've always wanted to visit. You were right, Kay. This could turn out to be so much fun."

"Let's hope it'll be useful as well," he said, wrapping an arm around Kay's waist. It was more a reflex, but it sent a pang of guilt to his stomach. What the hell? "Found a map?" he asked, and the feeling of guilt faded slightly as if getting back to business made everything better.

It was so strange to feel like this, as if touching Kay, enjoying her presence was... slacking off. Okay, this leadership thing sucked and had to go. Sam was much better suited for this.

"Not really, just a couple of newspapers," Kay said, passing them to Jerry. "Tina said it would be useful to see the political climate of the country. They only had touristic maps of Lyon and I don't think those are useful right now."

"So you handled yourselves alright?" Jimmy asked, a note of hope on his face and Kyle totally understood. Having two people speaking French was a huge improvement over their last missions.

"Of course," Jessie answered. "Tina's French is perfect."

Silence followed her statement, but there was a strange tension in the air as Tina turned away, pretending not to have heard and Jerry glared at her. Kyle wondered if he should say something about it, but it was much easier to just ignore it and hope it would go away or that Jerry would make it go away. He couldn't. He was too bias on the issue.

"The place we'll stop for the night will probably have a map," he said instead, drawing all eyes to him.

"Yes, but how and where are we going without a map?" Jerry asked.

"How about going with them?" Jimmy asked, pointing to a large group of Japanese tourists who were following their guide out of the airport.

Kyle tuned in to what the guide was saying and picked up the magic words: visit Avignon, stop at an inn for the night. Yup, it was perfect.

"You want us to join them?" Jerry asked, surprised. "That's terrible! They'll call us out immediately. Let's go, or we'll lose them." He picked up his rucksack and hurried after the group.

"I'm starting to get a bit worried about Jerry," Kyle said as they rushed after him.

"Don't worry. We're just bringing out the worst in him. He needed that," Jimmy answered with a grin.

They stepped outside and aboard the bus waiting in front of the door and settled themselves in the back. It was a tight squeeze since the tourist group was large enough to leave only three unoccupied seats. Jimmy sat down with Jessie in his lap, Tina and Kay squeezed on one seat, Kyle took the remaining one, blocking the others from view, while Jerry sat on the pile of luggage and disappeared behind one of the newspapers.

The guide stayed in front and the bus pulled away, heading deep into French territory. The elder couple which shared the backseat with them gave them the stink eye.

"What?" Kyle asked in Japanese. "Just because we don't look like you doesn't mean we're not from the same country. Stop being racists."

The two huffed, but looked away. Kyle focused on the guide, who fortunately kept her spot next to the driver, speaking into a microphone. She spoke of the history of Avignon, about how the pope moved from the Vatican to be closer to the French kings. It was all interesting, but after a while, he couldn't concentrate anymore. The flight had been long.

Soon enough, the guide took her seat and pleasant French music filled the bus. It almost lulled Kyle to sleep so he was more than happy when they finally stopped off the highway, in front of what was obviously the inn.

They waited for everyone to get down then made their way inside, through the double doors. Jerry and Tina headed for the reception while Kyle stuck around enough to pick up the departure time the next morning, then headed into the inner courtyard, followed by the others. The less they actually stayed around the group, the better.

The inn was a low, U-shaped building with just one story, with doors lining up the walls, making it obvious that room access was through the courtyard. They stopped in the middle of it, shuffling their feet, trying to rub away the cold. Fortunately, Jerry and Tina returned fast, even if Jerry looked a bit uneasy.

"Well, I have good news and bad news." He sighed, stopping in front of them. "The good news is they had free rooms for the night. The bad news is they are three double rooms and we're an uneven number on each side."

"Failing to see the bad news," Kyle said, wrapping his arm around Kay's shoulders.

Jerry squinted at him, his jaw set in determination. "No."

"No what?"

"Couples do not share the same room."

"That's stupid," Jimmy said.

"Shut up, it's not stupid, it's proper and as long as I'm around, no one is getting any..." He paused in obvious search for the perfect word, but stopped when Jessie and Kay burst into laughter.

"Seriously Jerry, we can keep it in our pants," Jessie said between laughter.

"It's not you I'm worried about," Jerry countered. "Drop it, it's not happening. We should figure out another solution."

"Can't we just pile up?" Kay asked with a shrug.

"And hardly get any rest? This is stupid," Kyle mumbled.

"It's not stupid!" Jerry stomped his foot. "Stop making fun of me and come up with a solution."

Kyle felt like thumping Jerry, but a part of him agreed that he shouldn't get distracted. And Kay was a very big distraction. So he bit back all the inner cursing and tried coming up with a solution. It would be easiest to pair Jerry up with any of the girls since he was everyone's favorite aunt, but Tina's jealousy ruled it out. Also having Tina and Jessie share might end up in a bloodbath, so there was only one possible alternative.

"I'll just share with Jessie, then, if it's okay with everyone."

It was obviously not okay with everyone. Jerry sighed in relief, Jessie, Jimmy and Kay nodded, but Tina still glared at them as if it was the worst idea ever. Kyle was starting to have enough of glaring Tina, but he decided to ignore it once again and retrieved his keycard from Jerry. He really needed a shower and some sleep before he burst an artery or something.

"A bit dramatic there," Jessie mumbled as the two of them headed for their room on the ground floor while the others climbed the outer stairs to the second floor.

"I'm so fed up with all the drama and we've just started," Kyle answered, unlocking the door.

The room wasn't very big, but the bed was a decent size and looked very comfortable. They also had a TV and a tiny bathroom with a shower all to themselves.

"You sure you're okay with this?" he asked.

"Jesus, Kyle, we're normal, grown-up people."

"Almost related people," he added with a smirk.

"Too soon, man, too soon."

They both cracked up laughing, and Kyle felt much better. Jessie really was like a sister to him and he didn't mind the arrangements at all. Of course, sharing with Kay would've been a whole other sort of ideal, but this wasn't bad either.

"Mind if I take a shower first?"

Jessie waved her hand and pulled her jacket back on. "Knock yourself out. I'm going to go check on Jimmy and Jerry." And without waiting for an answer, she let herself out, leaving Kyle alone with his lovely shower.

❄❄❄

Oops. Almost forgot to update. Good thing someone keeps reminding me 😅 Not intended. I just have no idea which day of the week it is anymore.

Back to the chapter at hand. Things are getting fun. Things are also getting a bit weird what with Billy suddenly deciding some action is in order.

Anyway, did I lose you with all the French history and geography or was it easy to follow? Should I go into more detail about it?

Thanks for reading and I hope you're having fun.