Well this update came a little bit early so yay! Thank you for all those awesome reviews, thoughts and predictions! I tried to respond to most of them, but if I didn't respond to yours I'm so sorry. Next time for sure! Alright, without further ado, please enjoy!! Don't forget to vote and review ;). We're getting to some of the actual plot this time! Have a great afternoon!

We headed to the airport. We didn't really talk that much, as Erica was still mad at me and I was still mad at her. Poor Mike and Zoe were stuck in between us, like two feuding parents and their kids. Mike, Cameron and his team made a collective decision to throw out all alcohol and drugs in a quest to get Mike off those awful substances. He was already showing some minor withdrawal symptoms. The drive was tense, but everyone was putting their differences aside for the benefit of the mission.

We got to the airport just in time. Downtown Boston traffic was a nightmare. It was only 40 minutes until takeoff and they were boarding. We were waiting in line to board with our boarding passes and luggage when Mike suddenly whispered to me,

"I have an awful stomach ache. I have to go to the bathroom." I looked at him in panic. We were supposed to be boarding now. And I knew this would add to Erica's annoyance. She and Zoe were a few feet away, talking.

"Can you go on the plane?" I hissed at him.

He shook his head vigorously, "It's too small for me to do my business in there. And I don't want everyone to judge me." I already dreaded telling Erica.

"Fine, hurry up. You've better let Zoe and Erica know. And hurry up so we don't miss our flight." He nodded and scurried over to the girls. He delivered the news very sheepishly and I could see Erica's eyes narrow in barely concealed annoyance. Zoe looked concerned about missing the flight. I hung back a few seconds after Mike left before approaching them.

Zoe looked stressed, "They're doing group C right now. After this is the final boarding call. If Mike doesn't get back here in the next like five minutes, we're gonna miss the flight." She tapped her foot rapidly. Erica didn't look stressed, just annoyed. She wasn't looking at me right now at all. She was pretending I wasn't there.

"Final boarding call," the gate attendant said pleasantly, "This is the final boarding call for flight 492 with non-stop service to Nebraska."

This definitely did not help Zoe with her nerves, "Where is he?!" She looked around frantically.

"We are missing Zoe Andrews, party of four. Zoe Andrews, party of four, please come to Gate A9." The gate agent said calmly.

Zoe was getting frantic, "I'll go up to the gate and try to stall them. Ben, you go find Mike. Erica, come with me. They might hold off for a while if they knew you were a celebrity."

Erica frowned at this, "I'm not going to abuse my fame like that. Plus, I don't want everyone here to know who I am. It would only make it worse. Mike better hurry his ass up."

Zoe exhaled, "Fine, whatever. Ben, go find Mike! Erica, watch the luggage." With that, Zoe rushed to the ticket counter.

I ran to find Mike. I went into the mens restroom and didn't see him washing his hands, so he must be in the stall. Luckily, there weren't too many people in there, so I felt comfortable calling out.

"Mike! Come'on man, we're gonna miss the flight! Hurry up! Zoe is gonna kill you!"

I heard vomiting from a stall and what seemed like attempts at words. I approached the stall. I tapped on it lightly, "Mike?" The retching continued. I leaped back in disgust.

"Ben?" I heard Mike say weakly within the stall, "I'm so sorry." I approached the stall once more.

"You good?" I asked, then realizing it was a stupid question. He was obviously not good.

"N-no," he coughed, "I must be having withdrawal from the drugs I've been doing. I've never been away this long from tobacco or nicotine in a long time."

I winced in sympathy. Throwing up was awful, no matter why it was happening. It wouldn't help him to stress him out. Whatever happens, happens. I left him to vomit in peace and exited the bathroom to find two very pretty, yet pissed women. Zoe had a scowl on her face that I recognized she reserved for terrorists and bad guys back in the day. I was not looking forward to this conversation.

"We missed our flight." Zoe said, almost deadpan. She glowered at me like it was my fault.

"I'm sorry. Mike is busy heaving his guts out. Apparently its drug withdrawal symptoms. Nothing we can do I guess." I shrugged.

Erica glared at me with cold eyes, "He shouldn't have been doing those stupid drugs anyway. Now we missed the flight." Her words seemed like she was mad at Mike, but I had a feeling that her anger was directed more at me.

"I worked it out with that annoyingly perky desk attendant. We're taking the next flight out in three hours. There's no point in leaving the terminal. Let's just get some food and wait it out." Zoe was still angry.

We sat in silence until Mike came back out around ten minutes later. Lucky for him, he was spared the lecture (I guess they got their irritation out on me) and just got the silent treatment from them. He looked like he felt bad, but I didn't blame him for anything. It wasn't really his fault.

We went to this restaurant sports bar next to our gate. It was way overpriced, but the burger was delicious. We sat in relative silence, as there was a lot of tension in the air. There was baseball on the TV. It was two teams I didn't care about, but Mike was watching the TV longingly. It was evident he missed the sport and was really reflecting about what went wrong. Hopefully, that was enough for him to rethink his decisions and change things when he gets back.

Suddenly, in the middle of the game, the TV switched itself to the news. It said BREAKING NEWS. The news said the plane that we were supposed to be on, the plane to Nebraska, the one that left only an hour and a half ago, crashed. The entire terminal was gathered around the TV. Nervous whispers were around us. Apparently, that plane, for some reason, had little to no fuel when it took off. The sensors and the crew didn't check it properly and the attendant on the tarmac said it was fine. The plane had enough fuel to get to cruising altitude and then started plummeting to the ground. The pilot had no idea what was going on since the sensor was broken. Luckily, the pilots managed to get control of the plane when it was almost at the ground, and they managed to glide the plane to a stop. The wheels still dug feet into the ground of this Kansas farm and got stuck. No one was hurt, thank god. Coincidently, the attendant who said the fuel levels were fine was missing.

Everyone was freaking out, wondering what could have happened. But we knew. And I was really freaking out.

"You know what this means right?" Erica whispered at us. She oddly didn't look very concerned. She looked more excited.

"Yeah! We almost died!" Zoe informed her sharply.

Mike beamed, "I guess my vomiting was worth it after all!" We all gave him a disgusted look.

"No," Erica grinned, "It means we're on the right track! Joshua, or whoever he works for, tried to kill us! This means the mission is real and dangerous. It means this is not a waste of time!"

"Glad that's your biggest concern right now," I muttered.

"Yeah, it also means someone tried to kill us! This is not like ten years ago, Erica! I have a family that relies on me!" Zoe looked wary of all of this. I could see where she was coming from. Once you have someone that relies on you, it changes your whole perspective in life. Man, when I had this fish, I was the most careful person in the world.

"Relax," Erica dismissed, "We've dodged death many times. Who says we won't this time?" Zoe gave her a horrified look.

We were already on edge so we were super startled when this ringtone went off really loudly. We checked our phones and realized it was Erica. Not many people have her number, so it was surprising that it was hers. I looked at the caller ID. It was Scott, Erica's assistant. She sighed and picked it up.

"Hi Scott. This better be good, I thought I told you not to call unless it was an emergency."

His voice was hesitant on the phone, "I know, I know, I'm so sorry. It's just the credit card company called. It said there was suspicious activity on your card. Did you purchase four tickets from Bravo Airlines to go to Nebraska? I just want to make sure that it wasn't someone who stole your card. In case I need to cancel the card."

"Oh yeah, that's me. Thanks for checking up," she said casually.

Relief was clear in Scott's voice, "Okay, good. I hoped it wasn't some hacker while you were on your trip. Wait..." he trailed off like he was reading something, "Oh my god! Are you okay?! Are you on the flight that just crashed?! The notification just popped up! Are you okay?!"

Erica rolled her eyes in good nature, "Yeah, Scott, I'm fine. How would I be calling you if I was in some crashed plane in Kansas? We were supposed to be on the flight, but this dipstick I'm with was throwing up."

There was slight hesitation in his voice, probably from the relief or shock of how close she was, "Well that's good! Really, really good. I'm very glad you're not dead. So who threw up? Was it Ben?"

She looked a little surprised at that question but laughed, "As surprising as it sounds, no, it wasn't him. It was his friend."

Surprising? Excuse me?

"Wait there's more of you?" He said jokingly. Zoe was still shaken up about the whole almost-died-in-a-plane-accident thing. She was gesturing wildly at Erica to get her off the phone.

Erica said bye and hung up the phone, looking quite confused at the hand motions, "What?"

Zoe looked like she was having a minor panic attack, "We almost died and you're gonna go talk on the phone casually with your assistant? Don't we need a plan? Joshua knows we were here! More importantly, he knows where we are going. Doesn't that freak you out?"

Well, when she puts it that way, I guess that is terrifying.

"I'm obviously not going to make a scene," Erica lowered her voice, "We're surrounded by these tourists and travelers. Any one of them could be a mole. We can talk when we have more privacy."

"Until then?" Mike asked, looking a bit worried himself.

"We lay low. Changes are they weren't planning on you being a crackhead and throwing up. They can't sabotage every plane. And the airport is going to be much more careful after that accident. We're going to be okay, at least until Nebraska." Erica smiled, unaffected.

Mike somehow found pride in that dig, "But me being a crackhead saved us! So there!"

"That's not something you should be proud of, buddy," I said, patting his arm. Zoe nodded in agreement. Erica smirked.

Finally, it was time for our flight to board. It was a red eye flight, at eleven at night. It was going to take about five hours. A great amount of time to sleep on the flight. I was blessed with the ability to sleep on airplanes, a gift not everyone has.

For the first time traveling with Erica, we weren't in first class. There weren't too many people on the red eye flight, but first class was still full. It would be nice to sleep in those large, luscious seats, but I didn't mind flying economy at all. I was in no way used to first class yet.

The plane was half empty to Nebraska at 11pm so Mike and I sat together and Erica and Zoe sat in front of us. Once the pilot turned the cabin lights out, I was asleep, reclined in my seat.

Unfortunately, my gift of sleeping on the airplane is pointless if I'm sitting next to a sleeping water buffalo. Gosh, had Mike always snored this loud? I don't remember him sounding like this during all the elementary school sleepovers. All that tar must be ruining his lungs to make him the loudest snorer ever. I had only gotten around an hour of sleep.

I was going to try to go back to sleep, when I heard a hushed conversation in front of us. I wasn't one to eavesdrop, but I was too curious, especially when Zoe asks Erica,

"So Cameron, really?" Zoe asked, sounding very eager for some tea. Erica didn't seem too keen on the conversation though.

"I thought we agreed not to talk about this anymore. And plus it's like one in the morning. I'm tired and I want to go to sleep a little bit." Erica closed her eyes, but she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Come'on Erica!" Zoe whined with a smile, "If anyone should hook up with Cameron, it's me. I should be having the mid-mid-life crisis with my husband cheating on me and all. You would be the last person I'd expect to do something like that."

Erica turned to her, "Okay, first, hold on. I never hooked up with Cameron. That's disgusting. Two, I'm not having a mid-life crisis. Don't tell me you've never gotten drunk and made out with someone or hooked up with someone. Everyone does it."

"I did in college. And you weren't drunk last night. I could tell. And you only made out? For some reason I don't believe you." Zoe grinned mischievously.

Erica groned a little bit. Zoe was wearing her down, "No, Zoe, we didn't hook up. We made out in front of my door. And then he came inside,"

I felt my whole body heat up in jealousy. They hung out after in her room?

"And we drank and ate food from the mini-bar. Then I kicked him out." Erica finished.

Zoe looked at her suspiciously, "You made out, drank and ate out the mini bar and then you kicked him out? Then why'd you do it?"

Erica looked at Zoe, contemplating her answer, "Why does everyone think I have alternative motives? Why couldn't I just make out with him?"

"That does not sound like you at all. You met someone hours ago and suddenly you're making out with them? And you still didn't answer my question."

"How do you know what sounds like me?" Erica countered, "We haven't seen each other in years. I've been to my share of parties where that stuff happens all the time."

"But not with you," Zoe predicted. Erica's face showed that she was right.

"You don't know that." Erica said. She was still avoiding Zoe's question of why.

"Fine," Zoe said, knowing if Erica didn't want to say anything, she wasn't going to, "then what do you want out of it? Like are you ready for a relationship?"

Erica whirled on Zoe, "What do you mean? That came out of nowhere."

"Like are you ready to have a boyfriend or even a husband?" Zoe explained.

"If it's the right person, I don't mind having a light fling with a guy. But I am not ready for a husband at all. Not for a long time, maybe even never."

Zoe looked a bit surprised. I wasn't. Erica barely let herself have friends for the first sixteen years of her life. She has definitely changed overtime, but not this drastically I'd assume.

"Why? The family life is great. Having someone you could rely and trust for the rest of your life," Zoe's words got caught in her throat as a little sob escaped. She must be thinking of Kurt again, "Is a wonderful thing, if it works out right."

Erica softened. She handed Zoe a tissue, "I guess you're right, if the marriage works out correctly. But look at you and Kurt. No offense, but that marriage went to hell. You deserve much more than him. And look at my parents for example. Their entire marriage was built on lies. I'm not sure I want to deal with all of that."

"Ben is." Was all Zoe said. I closed my eyes, just in case they caught me eavesdropping but my heart was racing a hundred miles a minute. What did she mean by that?

"What?" Erica said, as confused as I was.

"I think Ben is. I can tell. He's ready for a serious relationship, possibly even a marriage." Zoe stated.

I thought about this for a second. Was I? I was never the one to date around, or date, period. If I found the right person, I guess... wow. I guess Zoe is right. If I find the right person, a person that was in love with me and I was in love with them, I wouldn't wait. I wouldn't stall until we were older. I'd probably propose. I've wanted to settle down, plant roots. I was ready to commit to someone if they are the one for me. That was a scary thought, but Zoe was right.

"How do you know?" Erica scoffed, "Ben hasn't even dated for a long time. How would he be ready?"

"I think he is. I can just tell. But that's not what you want." Zoe concluded.

"Zoe, if this is a ploy to set us up together, it's not going to work. I'm still mad that he was spying on me like a creep."

"To be fair, that's what being a spy is about. Spying." Zoe said smartly.

Erica's face hardened, "I'm not a terrorist. That was for no reason."

"Maybe there is a reason," Zoe interjected, "Maybe he likes you."

Erica shook her head, "Ben does not like me." When she said this, it made me wonder. Do I like Erica? Well of course I like her as a friend. But more than that? I definitely did ten years ago. I was head over heels for her. But now? I don't know.

"Are you blind? Of course he does!" Zoe said.

"No, I don't think he does. He might be tricking himself into liking me, but I don't think he does. He finds me pretty, sure. But this isn't a romantic type of 'liking me'. It's like he has a crush. If anything, Bne likes me because of the time we spent together at Spy School. He's reminiscing about what we used to have more than realizing his feelings now. And Ben and I are such different people now. He's an accountant in DC, I'm a celebrity in Hollywood. Things don't get more different than that."

"Being different can work in a relationship. Like peanut butter and jelly. You can cancel each other out. Trust me, if you're the same, it won't always work out. Take me and Kurt. In college, everyone said we were perfect for each other since we were practically the same person, but then you know how that turned out."

"Peanut butter and jelly?" Erica smirked, "You're used to talking to three year olds. And you are not the same person as Kurt. You're way better than him."

"I'm just saying to keep an open mind about Ben. You might be perfect for each other," Zoe nudged her.

"Look, Zoe," Erica said, and she lowered her voice. I could barely hear them, "Don't tell Ben this, but I honestly don't think we're meant for each other. At school, it was fun and we had just gotten off a mission and we were all spies I can't pick up where I left off with Ben. That'll take a long time, and he seems ready to commit. I'm not. If it works out that we are meant for each other, then I'll give it a chance. But we've been arguing and not on the same page this entire time, from the moment he came to my house. He's been more aggressive than I remember, although he's getting better now. I don't know Zoe, we'll see. I'm not ready to put in all the effort it would take for us to be together."

There was a pause on Zoe's end while she contemplated Erica's answer. I eagerly awaited her answer. But before she could, there was a giant snort that sounded like a trunk honk. Yay. Mike was awake.

"Oh my god! Ben, I had the greatest rest I've ever had on a plane! You should sleep! It feels so nice, you have no idea." Mike yaned and wiped his eyes.

"Don't worry, I tried," I muttered under my breath. They stopped talking once they realized that Mike was awake. Zoe went to sleep and I tried to go back to sleep again.

After about a half an hour after trying, I was getting nowhere. Mike could tell and we started talking quietly.

"So, man, how've you been?" Mike asked, popping a peanut in his mouth.

Everything happened so fast, I never got a chance to catch up with Mike. I was worried it would be awkward after how we left things, but we fell back into our old ways. I'm glad; I couldn't have handled yet another Erica type fiasco.

I explained to Mike everything that had happened, even during high school. We really needed this time to see what went wrong. I did play down how much he hurt me in high school though. When he ditched me for the popular kids, the athletes like himself, the girls and the parties, it completely crushed me. I was too hung up on him to see the opportunities to make friends that were right in front of me, like the guys from the math and chess club. That was my fault. In a way, I guess this might be what was happening with Erica. I've been hung up on her for ten years. Maybe I missed opportunities to fall in love and get a girlfriend if I wasn't so stuck in the past.

I went on to explain how I went to college while he was recruited to the AAA then eventually the major leagues. I barely spoke to him during this time. I'd see him on the news and congratulate him, and he'd rely with 'thx'. And then he changed his number. I talked about the boring corporate job I got and most recently, how I got kicked out of my apartment. As I went on telling Mike how sad my life was, I felt him getting guilty and guilty for ditching me. I hadn't meant for him to feel that way, but it was good for him to know what his decisions did to me.

But then it was Mike's turn. He opened up about how he felt stressed in high school with sports and how he missed the spy life . He also told me how he felt stressed about somehow letting it slip about spy school. When he started gaining national fame with baseball in college, that affected his schoolwork as he spent hours afterschool on training rather than academics. Mike struggled to keep his C average and on top of all of this, he was gaining schoolwide popularity because everyone wanted to be friends with the "Most Promising High School Baseball Player" (according to Sports Illustrated). And that just added pressure to be the best and not let anyone down. Coming from Mike, I could see his side of the story much more clearly. I thought that he was just one of the cool kids now, and they don't give a crap about anything, but Mike was under a lot more stress than it looked like. And once he graduated, he worked his ass off in AAA to get drafted for a star position on the Red Sox, one of the greatest and hardest achievements as a twenty year old. Mike was already pitching and a starting hitter, something almost unheard of, especially for someone that young. After a few seasons, that's when he really got into drugs and drinking. Sure, the team did a little bit of chewing tobacco and whatnot, but Mike got into the really serious stuff. His career was taking off when he became a super-addict. He told me his justification for all this junk was that he worked so hard, sometimes eighteen hours a day, for the last twelve years, and now that he finally made it, he deserved to enjoy himself. After he said it, however, he realized,

"I just threw it all away," Mike had a faraway look in his eyes, "I can't believe I just did that. I prioritized some powdery substance before my dream job and all that hard work I put in."

Mike was talking to himself more than he was talking to me. This was good for him. It was like an intervention. I'm glad he was stepping back and seeing everything from an outsider's perspective. He was quiet for about ten minutes after that, lost in his thoughts.

There was only an hour left in our flight. Mike regained his thoughts and we went on to talking about life. He asked me about my parents and the store while I asked him about how his little brother was doing. It was nice to talk with Mike and reminisce about our childhood.

Before we knew it, we were landing. There was a time difference from Nebraska to Massachsutes (Boston is an hour ahead of Nebraska) so it was 4 am Boston time, or 3 am local time. We were are super tired since we really didn't get much sleep but we got a rental car and went to our hotel. The options were very limited, as it was all rural country town around here. There were farms farther than the eye can see. Our only two options were a sketchy Motel 6 or a local, sweet motel.

We got two rooms in the family-owned motel. Erica may have said something about going to the Dazy's farm (it was only fifteen minutes away) and scoping the place out, but I wasn't paying that much attention. I was barely capable of keeping my eyes open. I don't remember much, all I remember was laying down on a bed, and exhaustion taking over me, plunging me into deep sleep.