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THE 6:00 AM ALARM ON JOEY'S PHONE PAINED HER, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY.

Her eyelids were heavy as she lazily flicked the light on with her powers, and she allowed the newfound brightness to warm her up to being awake. When she could finally muster it she sat up, and just like the past two days, she shot her mother a text.

Morning. I hope you aren't awake right now because that would literally suck so bad. Speaking from experience.

She didn't bother with a trip to the bathroom for tooth-brushing or face-washing, because if training was anything like it used to be, she'd need both plus a long shower afterward. Instead, she brushed her hair into a high ponytail and changed into a blue tank, black leggings, and some beat-up peach-colored Nikes.

With only 40 minutes to spare now, Joey made her way out of her room and into an elevator, down one floor. Through the glass back wall of the elevator, she looked down at the track to the side of the building, where an assembly of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were running laps and doing various endurance exercises. She was grateful for a moment— though she dreaded being awake this early, she was glad to have something in common with Meg, and Jane, and the other agents.

The elevator chimed and opened, and the hum of several voices was coming through the hall in the direction of the kitchen; one of which she could distinctly recognize as Natasha.

"Why would you say that?!" Peter.

As she rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, she took in the picture of Steve spreading peanut butter on a bagel, Nat flipping an egg at the stove, and Bucky and Peter sitting behind the island on stools, each with a bowl of Kellogg's.

"She's joking," Bucky told Peter, though he was laughing along with Nat and Steve.

"Morning." Joey smiled, bringing all four people's attention toward her. Their laughter fizzled out, but their smiles didn't.

"Little Stark," Steve greeted in return. "Training this morning?"

"Wouldn't miss it," Joey replied, and Nat threw a knowing look over her shoulder; one that said yeah, right. When she looked over at Peter, he was giving a similar look, having heard hers and Tony's entire squabble last night.

"You train, kid?" Bucky asked as Joey walked to the fridge.

"My dad used to make me, when I was growing up," she confirmed.

"The same may be said about her reasons for participating this time around," Nat added.

"Cut it out, Natasha," Joey suggested casually, flipping her off from around the fridge door. "Are we out of protein smoothies? Damn!" She sighed and shut the fridge, and leaned against it to finish talking. "He wouldn't let me spar when I was younger," Joey confessed. "But now that I've been out of practice from my karate and boxing that I was doing when I was younger, he won't let me not spar. I have to get back in shape and back on guard, 'cause of everything that's happened in this world since I was last here.

"I'm not tripping though," Joey decided, turning around and shuffling through the cabinets above her. She picked a protein bar, seeing as a smoothie was not an option. "I've got my powers this time around, so that will be fun."

"What a nice attitude to have," Nat commented, in her signature teasing-Joey tone.

The five of them spent the next six-and-a-half minutes scarfing down their respective breakfasts, and when the dishes were in the sink and the garbage was in the trash, Peter and Bucky were the first ones out.

"Meet you guys down there," Bucky said, saluting to the remaining three with his metal arm— his metal arm, which Joey was just now realizing was metal— and following Peter out of the kitchen and down the hall.

"Water bottle?" Steve asked, pulling Joey and Nat's attention to where he was crouched down by the fridge.

"Yes, please," Joey replied simultaneously with Nat's "Sure, thanks." Steve tossed a couple of bottles their way, before walking back around the counter to meet them.

"Let's," Nat said, gesturing forward, in the same direction that Bucky and Peter had just disappeared to.

When they made it in and out of the elevator, they were immediately hit with the strong scent of cleaning fluid and Febreze. Joey followed Steve and Natasha past the lap pool and the basic weight and cardio rooms, and into the second largest room on the floor. Inside, Peter and Bucky had fallen into a conversation with Clint, Scott, Sam, Pietro, Wanda, and Eris, while Dr. Banner, Tony, and Rhodey were doing their own thing in the corner. Thor and Loki were nowhere to be seen— but it made sense that gods wouldn't need to physically train.

Nat and Joey stayed by each other's sides when they joined the crowd, and Joey was thankful, despite how she could tell that Nat wanted to go and join Clint's conversation before training started.

As the clock finally rolled around to seven, Steve gave a rundown of what the next two hours would look like. His directions were simple— and exactly like they were every morning, according to the reactions of everyone else in the room. Strength or cardio for the first hour, and switch during the second hour. The third hour is when Agent Carreli would join in and lead combat practice.

Rhodey and Tony kept chatting while they worked out with a collection of weights in the corner they'd been in since they got here, and beside them, Steve and Dr. Banner were completing exercises with the medicine balls. Both sets of twins paired off with each other— Wanda and Peter, Eris and Pietro— and completed circuit workouts on the floor. Bucky and Clint each took a punching bag, Sam and Scott each took a bench, and Nat and Joey took treadmills beside each other.

The room filled with heavy breathing and the occasional blubber of laughter from someone, and the hour passed in no time before Steve was calling a switch in activities. Without regard for what others were choosing, Joey made her way to one of the bench presses.

This hour did not pass as quickly; Joey was struggling as she benched a steady 90. When she truly could not complete any more reps, she sat up, stretched out her arms, attached a runner shoulder pad to the barbell, and went at some squats for the rest of the hour. These were significantly easier.

When Steve finally called the second hour's end, Joey couldn't help but chug her water. Dr. Banner opted out of the next hour, for good reason, while Rhodey and Tony made their way outside to do some battle practice in their suits.

It was nearly ten past, and when Carrelli still hadn't arrived, Steve decided that he would watch over the first few combos, or however long it took for her to arrive. Typically, agent training ended before the Avengers' training, but occasionally, there was other business to tend to afterward. This was one of those times.

Steve gave yet another one of his famous, repetitive soliloquies, and when no one had any questions, he clapped his hands together.

"Alright," he announced. "Anyone who wants to go first, you can go ahead. Joey, if you want to sit back for the first few since you're out of practice..." he trailed off.

Did he seriously just single me out on my first day back?

Peeved, Joey shook her head. "That's OK," she said humorlessly, taking a step toward the area of the floor that was matted and specifically marked in the manner of a boxing ring.

"Alright," Steve repeated, chuckling. "Who's gonna take her?"

Joey shared a look with Peter, who took a step forward, fully prepared to have his ass handed to him, but he was cut short when Wanda announced, "Pietro's up."

Joey looked away from Peter and at Wanda. What the hell? She thought. Wanda quirked her head to the side slightly, narrowing her eyes. Confused, Joey shared a look with Eris, who raised her brows and shrugged. Part of her thought Wanda had to be joking, until Pietro sidled up to the floor while everyone else cleared it.

"I will go easy on you," he offered, squaring up. Joey didn't know why he was pushing the "nice," "funny" persona after everything this weekend, but whatever the reason was, it pissed her off.

"Don't," she said flatly, before going in for the first swing. Pietro caught her fist easily, just as she had expected he would.

He twisted her arm and prepared to fling her over his shoulder and onto the ground, but she was quick to manipulate the gravity around her and lower herself at a less rapid pace— she landed on her feet, and buckled his knees in with a powerless kick between the back of his thigh and calf. He fell, but before Joey could get another move in, he was up again in a flash.

Pietro was right behind her, and she knew it because she couldn't see him. His fist passed by her right ear in an attempt to get her into a headlock, but she encased his hand in a small, bluish force-field attempting to push his attack away.

The sound of the gym door opening and falling closed tempted Joey into glancing and seeing who left or arrived, but Pietro's enhanced speed and force-generation made her powers slightly less effective than they would have been on someone who didn't have those qualities, and she didn't want to risk a loss of focus. Despite her struggle, she was still able to spin out of her vulnerable position— she mentally praised herself for the success, especially since her back was to him the entire time.

She dropped the force-field once she was free, and he went in for another punch. Through a few more exchanges, she finally got a feel for his fighting pattern; she blocked and locked his punch with one arm, restrained his free hand with a weak force-field, and hooked her foot behind his ankle— if she wanted to, she could've forced him to yield right then.

"Not bad," Pietro remarked, slightly breathless.

Joey smirked despite herself, and a bead of sweat rolled down her temple. "Upside to growing up with a superhero for a parent."

Time seemed to slow for a second as Pietro's expression shifted and paled. Before Joey could even register that this was exactly what had happened before he left her at the party, she was suddenly pinned to the ground by her shoulders, the wind nearly knocked right out of her.

Her hands weren't restrained, but she had absolutely no way to get out of this position under his weight. She had no choice when she looked him square in the eyes and said, "Yield." Her tone was dark, a mixture of several emotions.

He let her go, and a million things made their way through her head as she stood and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She stood next to Eris, who had thankfully moved away from the side of the room where Wanda and Peter still were as Nat and Clint stepped up to the plate. While she watched the two of them spar, she recounted her own match in her mind.

She was sure he was going to let her win— and even if she was totally wrong in that, and there was no case that she came out of the match as a winner, she couldn't help but think that her yield could have come a little more fairly, and a lot less... whatever that was.

As Joey flipped through each possible reason for the outcome of the match in her head, she felt a pair of eyes on her. She looked to her left, at Eris, but they were staring intently at the spar going on in front of them. When she looked beyond, it was none other than Agent Carrelli who was looking at her— she must've been the one to come in during her round.

While she didn't stop thinking about her spar, she did drop her angry thinking face and offered a small smile to Agent Carrelli, who offered one back, though it seemed that, like her, Carrelli had something else on her mind, too. She looked at Joey for a moment longer, and then picked a small device off the belt of her uniform, punched something into it, and as it beeped once, restored it onto her belt. Joey looked away then, back at the match in front of her, and back into her thoughts.

*

A chill ran through Joey's body.

She pulled the blanket on her lap closer to her chest, huffing at how damn cold this compound god— her newly-showered wet hair wasn't helping her case. She wasn't typically one to let her hair air dry, but with nowhere to go, blow-drying seemed like an unnecessary luxury today.

In the den behind the bedrooms, Brave was playing on the TV. And though it was one of Joey's favorite movies, she wasn't paying attention— she didn't need to see the screen to know what was happening on it. For now, it was more of a comforting background noise as she scrolled through her phone.

She realized, as she replied to a text from Pepper, that her mom never responded to her good morning text earlier. It wasn't necessarily unlike Heidi to miss a text from Joey, but, especially when Joey's away from home, her mom practically waited by the phone for updates from Joey.

Training's even more brutal than it used to be since Dad won't let me opt out of sparring anymore. Did you know he thought my highest karate rank was green?! He's cuckoo.

She sent the text, hoping that it would maybe jog her mom's memory to respond, or let her know that she was available now that it was the evening. She moved on, catching up on a group message from Nora, Emmett, and Claire.

Nora: Is Joey alive? She hasn't replied to me in days!

Emmett: She's probably fine. Relax.

Claire: She's upstate visiting her dad. She's just busy.

Nora: OMG. I saw your guys' pictures at that party you went to this weekend. You looked so good.

Claire: Thanks queen

Nora: Wait. Joey's visiting her dad??? I thought they didn't talk anymore!

Claire: It's complicated. But yeah.

Joey sighed. She typed out a quick response— I'm fine, sorry about the late reply— and clicked off her phone as the sound of humming approached the room.

"Nice song choice," Joey told Peter as he entered. He stopped in his tracks and flushed.

"I did not expect anyone to be in here," he admitted. "Nice job in training this morning."

Joey sighed, but she caught herself before it could turn into a scoff. "Thanks, Peter."

"'Course," he replied, before continuing on his way, leaving Joey alone with her phone and movie.

Her phone buzzed with an incoming call— Nora.

"Hey," Joey answered.

"Hey! I'm so glad you answered. I miss you."

"I miss you, too," Joey said, smiling. "Sorry about my texts being all over the place. I've just been adjusting."

"I bet," Nora sympathized. "You don't talk about your dad much. Claire says things are complicated."

"Yeah." Joey played with a loose thread on her sweater sleeve. "So far things have been pretty good. I missed him a lot. But it's still a little weird."

"Well, at least things are good so far. What have you been up to?"

"Nothing special," Joey fibbed. Then, truth, "I'm watching a movie right now, though."

"Brave or Up?" Nora asked. A laugh erupted out of Joey— it caught her off guard how well her friends knew her, sometimes.

"Shut up," she laughed. "Brave."

"I knew it!" Nora laughed, too. "I swear, no one loves that movie like you do."

"Somehow," Joey agreed. "It's underrated," the two of them chorused.

"Shut up!" Joey laughed yet again.

"Your responses are getting predictable, Ally," Nora teased. A wave of emotion came over Joey for a moment at the use of her nickname from home— Ally, short for her mother's last name, Alameda. Until this moment, Joey seemed to have forgotten that being here, upstate, with her dad and this team she knew a couple of years ago, didn't mean the other side of her life ceased to exist while she was here. With her friends back home, she'd spent so much energy trying to pretend like this side of her life didn't exist, that without meaning to, she did the same thing, now, with the side of her life that she knew as her whole life for two years.

"Whatever," Joey played off. Just then, Agent Carrelli came into the room. Joey cleared her throat. "I have to go, Nora. But thanks for calling. I'll try and be better about texting you guys while I'm here."

"Don't worry about it, silly, you're with family," Nora dismissed. "Talk when you can. No pressure."

"OK. Thanks."

"Love you, girl," Nora said. "Bye."

"Bye."

Joey looked at Agent Carrelli expectantly. "...Hi."

"Hi! Is this a bad time?"

"No," Joey told her. "Just catching up with a friend. What's going on?"

"Nothing bad," Carrelli assured, shaking her head slightly. "I... actually," she looked over both shoulders, "I don't think I should talk about this here— again, nothing bad. Would you mind coming down to the second floor with me?"

Joey blinked for a second, as she computed the request. First of all, for all the times that she'd been downstairs, she'd never been past the labs— to be perfectly honest, she had no idea S.H.I.E.L.D. even operated on the same floor. Second of all, what could Agent Carrelli possibly want with Joey, let alone on S.H.I.E.L.D. turf?

"Um, sure," Joey managed. She pulled off her blanket and stood, shoving her phone in her back pocket without bothering to pause the movie— it was almost over, anyway. She followed Carrelli to the elevator, and Joey did a once over of Carrelli's uniform, and then her own black jeans, bright blue Midtown High sweatshirt, and the cherry on top: her still damp hair. God, she thought. She needed to step up her game here, for real.

They stepped out onto the business level, as Joey had done so many times before, and as they passed it, she couldn't help but peek into her dad's lab. A series of empty office-looking rooms made up either side of the hall as they walked through until they reached what seemed like the end of the room, save for the single hermetic door that stood before them.

Carrelli punched a code into the pad beside it, and after a series of beeps, the door cracked open, the sound of many voices flooding Joey's ears. "After you," Carrelli said, gesturing inside. Joey stepped through, and quick to follow, Agent Carrelli was closing the entrance behind her.

Most of the conversation around them sounded like spy jargon, though she overheard someone say, "We can get Wilson and Lang on that. Friday, send these coordinates over to Fury, and then to Ant-Man and The Falcon once we get the clear. Thank you."

"Sending to Director Fury now," Friday confirmed.

Joey's curiosity piqued at the assignment of Scott and Sam, but her shoulders also relaxed slightly as she realized Fury wasn't in the room.

"You can come this way," Agent Carrelli told her, jarring her out of her awe— but based on Carrelli's expression, she was more than happy to give Joey a moment to take things in.

They turned a corner into a cubicle-style meeting space; though it was quieter in here, it wasn't exactly a separate room, and a few agents were already inside; one who Joey remembered from dinner the other night, Lincoln— Agent Campbell. He smiled at her, and Joey waved back before he got back to whatever he was working on.

"You can sit down," Carrelli offered, walking around the table to sit across from the chair that Joey was standing behind. When they were both seated, Carrelli pulled a notebook and pen from a drawer and went on. "OK. At the party on Friday, Agent Romanoff mentioned to you my work with the Enhanced, and also that you, yourself, are Enhanced. Is that correct?"

Joey's response was delayed as she took in not Agent Carrelli's inflection, but her word choices. Agent Romanoff. Is that correct. Joey couldn't tell if this was just because of the other agents around them, or if they were being recorded for some kind of protocol, or what. Either way, she couldn't help but glance over at Agent Campbell again— who, granted, wasn't paying attention to Joey but instead his assigned task— and feel the need to go along with it, if only to uphold whatever image she needed to, as Iron Man's daughter. She held back a cringe as a droplet of water from her wet hair landed on her hand. Some image.

"That's correct," Joey confirmed, and she didn't feel as stupid as she felt thinking it.

"I know we haven't gotten to have an Enhanced training session yet— we usually have those on Tuesdays and Fridays, so we're due for one shortly— but I noticed you using your powers in training this morning. Would you mind telling me about them?"

Slightly weirded out again by agent-mode Carrelli, who was now at the ready with a pen to her paper, Joey nodded before answering.

"Sure, um... well, I got them when I was 16. I'm sure all the gory details of the accident are in my file somewhere— that's what my dad told me when it all happened. He was working on something in his lab with Dr. Banner. Some experiment with radiation and gravity— I don't know if that project ended up going anywhere, or— whatever. It was a wrong place, wrong time sort of thing.

"Anyway, I walked into his lab, right as something was going wrong. I was never really told exactly what happened, if they're even sure about what happened. But I was knocked out for two days after that. When I woke up— which was an entire event in and of itself, since I woke up floating, midair— it was over the course of my recovery, which was about a week that we— Dr. Banner, my dad, and myself— figured out I came out of it all with telekinesis, gravity manipulation, and force-field manipulation. After I was physically better, it took me another two weeks before I had my powers under control and could like... I don't know, turn them off? There was a lot of involuntary floating at the beginning."

Agent Carrelli was scrambling to write down everything Joey was telling her, and she felt bad for a split second for laying it all out like that, before she reminded herself that Carrelli was the one who asked; Joey was simply answering.

"Well, I'll definitely be getting my hands on your file at some point," Carrelli broke the silence. Putting down the pen, she added, "Tell me about your history in self-defense."

"A lot less to explain there," Joey joked. "I don't have much real-life experience. But I was in boxing and karate classes from age six to eighteen."

"How high did you rank?" Carrelli pushed. Joey noticed that as the questions went on, Carrelli's interest increased, while her professional vocabulary decreased.

"Second-degree black belt," Joey answered, not bothering to fight her twinge of pride when even Agent Carrelli, a seasoned emissary, raised her bros at the fact of Joey's skill.

"That is not bad at all, Joey," Carrelli told her, nearly laughing. "I am going to go out on a limb here and say that, perhaps, today's spar between you and Agent Maximoff was just a moment of getting back into the swing of things?"

Joey's eyes widened. "Yes. Yes, definitely." Joey didn't add the fact that she was a year out of practice, if that much wasn't obvious by her epic fail earlier, anyway. She didn't know why she was so hellbent on proving herself, let alone why Agent Carrelli was even asking her to.

She looked down at her notes before meeting Joey's eyes again.

"I'm going to scan this and send it to Director Fury— don't be scared, it's really OK— and then you and I can head to his office. I have a feeling he'll have a few questions for you."

*

Joey followed Agent Carrelli back through the S.H.I.E.L.D. quarters, and down the hall until they reached one of the offices closer to the labs— one that read: Director Nicholas J. Fury.

Carrelli knocked on the door, and as she waited patiently behind her, Joey's nerves were through the roof— so much, in fact, that when she looked down to see why her fingertips felt numb, she noticed small blue sparks coming from them. Despite that fact that that had never happened before, and that made her even more nervous, she took a few deep breaths, and her hands slowly went back to normal; in perfect timing, as Director Fury opened the door.

"Agent Carrelli," he greeted. "Miss Stark. Please, come in."

Inside, Fury took a seat behind his desk, and Agent Carrelli gestured for Joey to take a seat at the chair on the other side of his desk, while she remained standing beside her. Joey reminded herself to breathe.

"It's come to my attention," Fury began, "courtesy of Agent Carrelli, that your skills in self-defense are advanced. Not to mention, you've managed to incorporate your powers into a fight, even against another Enhanced. For someone who hasn't been around, or in practice, for a while, that's impressive."

"Thank you," Joey managed, keeping her face blank. She had no idea where this was going.

"You told Agent Carrelli earlier that you've been in self-defense training for the majority of your life. In regards to your powers, have you had any consistent training?"

"No, um, sir," Joey said, unsure how she should address him. Mr.? Director? He technically wasn't her director. "Thor and Loki took a couple of weeks to teach me how to at least control them in a basic sense. But other than that, no."

"I can work with her," Carrelli interrupted, and both Joey and Fury looked at her; Fury with interest, and Joey with confusion. "I have time in my schedule right now to train her more than the twice a week I'm training everyone else. She has a lot of potential. If what I saw today was her without any training... I can't imagine how great she'll be with time."

Joey fidgeted slightly as the two agents talked about her, right in front of her. "I'm sorry," she cut in. "Work with me? Train me, for what?"

"Your powers are unlike anything I've seen from Enhancement, and not Mutation," Carrelli explained. "If you could strengthen your skill in controlling magnetic force-fields and gravitational pulls, I think there could be a lot more to your powers than we think. And with a high level of control over that level of powers, with your level of skill in self-defense— once you're back in practice with it, that is— you could be... you could really be incredible.

Joey swallowed and looked away from Agent Carrelli; not at Director Fury, not at anyone or anything in particular. How could this be happening? They were trying to recruit her. Her. This is exactly what she just told both of her parents would not happen.

"Once you're trained past the basic control of your powers that you have right now, we could look into sending you on missions. Never anything that you weren't ready for or comfortable with, but missions, nonetheless, if you were interested. You'd be surprised what kind of threats could be taken out like nothing, with the energy-manipulation powers under your belt," Fury added.

Silence fell, but not for long. "What do you say?" Carrelli asked.

Silence fell again, but this time, Joey was the only one who could break it.

"I don't... I don't know. Can I think about it?"

"Yes, think about it," Fury told her. "Tomorrow will be your first Enhanced training with Agent Carrelli. The rest of the Enhanced we have here at the compound will be involved, too, plus some of the folks from Xavier's. And depending on how you do tomorrow..."

Fury trailed off before taking a breath and starting again, using his hands now to gesture for emphasis. "I'm not going to ask you to do something you don't want to do," he explained. "But I'd hate to waste your potential. Is there anything, in particular, you're hesitant about?"

Yes. "I'm not sure. I will definitely think it over. And thank you for– for thinking so highly of me, I guess."

"Sure," he said, neither here, nor there. "You're dismissed."

Joey stood then and made her way to the door, Agent Carrelli taking her now empty chair.

"Um," Joey managed at the door, just before cracking it open, "does my... does my dad know about any of this?"

"No," Fury answered slowly, his brows coming together ever so slightly as he pieced together why Joey was asking.

"OK... well, maybe, don't mention this to him? That's all. I'll, um. See you around."

And with that, she was practically bolting to the elevators and back upstairs.

*

"Ciao," Joey greeted, coughing away any nervous tremor in her voice.

It was hours later and Joey found herself in her father's lab, and while it was late, it wasn't quite late enough that Pepper would come knocking anytime soon.

"Hello, daughter," he responded, smiling up at her before looking back at his computer. He wasn't working on the suit-defense as he had been for the last few days— instead, he had a weird-looking headpiece beside his eye, and he was staring at his bulky laptop that was displaying a screen so blue that Joey's brain was starting to hurt just looking at it. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Joey lied. And to her favor, her voice didn't come out as shaky as she was feeling. She walked over to him where he was seated and set her chin on his shoulder. "Just felt like bugging you."

He chuckled, and while he tapped out a few more things on his laptop, Joey closed her eyes for a second, opening them again at the sound of his computer closing.

"Tired?" He joked, and she stuck her tongue out before pulling a chair over to sit beside him.

"Exhausted. And it's your fault, for making me train."

"Wow. That's terrible," he deadpanned, before tousling her hair.

"Dude! I just washed this!"

"Dude!" He mocked, before resting his elbow on his table, and in turn resting his head in his palm. "Got any lit plans for the night?"

"Lit? What year is it, Dad? Also, it's Monday. Am I even allowed to leave?"

"It's the year of the tiger. And of course you're allowed to leave. Why wouldn't you be?"

"I dunno," she said with a shrug. "What're you working on today?"

"Boring programming and bug fixes for my Iron Man interface," he replied, yawning. "Your exhaustion is contagious. Get out of my office."

"This is a lab," she told him, and he gave her a pointed look. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out of her jeans to see who it was from— and as she typed out a reply to Natasha, she wondered, "Have you been able to get ahold of Mom at all today?"

"I haven't tried," he said, sitting up. "Why?"

Joey shook her head, clicking off her phone and turning it around in her hands. "I texted her a couple of times today. She just hasn't replied all day."

"Let's call her," he suggested. Joey nodded.

She pressed on her mom's contact and put the phone on speaker as the line rang, and she and her dad stared at the phone while they waited for the Connecting... symbol to replace itself with a time-stamp stop-watch. When it finally did so, Joey's system flooded with relief.

"Hey, Mom. I'm on speaker with Dad, I've been trying to reach you all day."

The line was silent, until it was taken over by a crackle and a breath. Finally, someone spoke.

"Miss Alameda cannot come to the phone right now."

The voice was low, and its words came with a thick accent. Joey's eyebrows pulled together, confusion and worry taking over her again. She looked to Tony for some explanation, only to see that he shared her expression. Before either of them could say something in response, the phone sounded again. Only this time, it was in some European language she didn't understand— but when her father paled, she knew he did.

He took the phone out of Joey's hands, and she let go easily. Before he could get another word out, the call terminated, a sequence of beeps sounding out of the phone following.

"Dad," Joey said, alarmed. "What did– what did they s-say?"

"Joey—"

"Dad," she repeated, less alarmed and more sternly this time. He was going to tell her what was said about her mom on her phone.

He gulped, and when he answered, his voice could barely make it past a whisper.

"'Come and get her.'"

***

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