The Sequel. The Little Rose.

Chapter Twenty-One. The Start of the Road Trip.

Sang sat in the back of her Grampa's old car while Luke drove. They were about two hours into their trip and her mind wandered back to the previous day.

The boys had all gone and she slowly approached the Sunstone Chest. Her eyes grew sad as she opened the envelope Mr Drummond had sent her with the disc and paperwork. Sang slid a smaller envelope and a small velvet bag out of it and held them to her chest, blinking her eyes rapidly. She suddenly thought that maybe she should have had someone with her after all.

Shaking her head she bent down and opened all the drawers on the chest. Opening the little bag her eyes blurred uncontrollably as she looked at her Grammy and Grampa's wedding rings. Sang threw her head back and sucked in air with big gulps. This was so hard, she thought, I should be happy they are at least together, but I miss them so much and this hurts.

Looking at the rings for one last time Sang gently placed each ring in the right drawer. She breathed in deeply and slowly opened the envelope. She had a feeling she knew what this was, but she still drew in her breath.

They were tickets for the following summer to the ballet, symphony and a rock concert for the three of them. Grammy and Grampa must have preordered them and they came after, well after they were gone. Mr Drummond kept these memories for me all this time, Sang thought sadly as she fingered the tickets gently before sliding the right tickets into the correct drawers. They should go where they now belonged, she realised. They would have had so much fun, she knew. They had been such happy and loving people. Sang was determined never to forget them again.

Nathan's voice suddenly intruded on Sang's recollections and she shook her head and looked over into the front of the car smiling.

"Hey Peanut, are you okay? You've been very quiet." Nathan looked at Luke quickly. They were on the same wavelength. They had both noticed her become quieter as they drove and the Chief had pulled all four of them aside at the diner last night and warned them all that Sang might be quiet and why.

Sang shook her head again and brought herself out of her memories. "I'm fine Nathan," Sang murmured quietly "I was just thinking." She shrugged.

"Yeah, about that Cupcake," Luke said looking at his girl in the rear view mirror "You shouldn't do that on an empty stomach. Nathan toss Sang some of our snacks." He demanded as he grinned at her, only half satisfied when she smiled. He was not convinced it reached her eyes like it usually did.

"We will stop soon for a break, Cupcake." Luke told her. "So if you want some of our stash, now is the time. You know North will insist on something healthy but incredibly boring when we do take a break." He smirked happy when Sang grinned properly and promptly poured the M & Ms into her hand, before swapping the pack with Nathan for some flips, giggling while she did.

"Lock them in the glove compartment Nathan." She suggested just as her phone rang.

The three of them just looked at each other. "North," they all exclaimed.

Sang sighed "he always seems to know" and answered her phone. "Hi North."

North breathed in satisfaction at hearing his Baby's breathy voice. He ignored the wide grin on Silas' face when he did and simply put his phone on speaker.

"Hi Aggele. How are you doing over there? Are Nate and Luke taking care of you?" He asked as his grin grew wider when he heard the crinkle of chip packets and he saw North's face tighten, and he simply laughed when he hear muffled voices "Um, hold on Silas." Sang giggled.

"Baby. Are you eating crap?" North's face tightened as the giggling intensified and Nate replied "She's eating fruit North. What's the matter dude, don't you trust us?"

"I know you Nate and I know Luke, and I know Sang is too fucking nice to tell you she didn't want to eat whatever shit it is you're giving her."

"Probably because she likes fruit jubes, North." Luke yelled in the background.

Before he could really cut loose Sang's soft voice came back over the phone "North?"

North felt himself softening at her soft, questioning voice, "Yeah Baby?"

"Do you still like me?"

North sighed and shook his head at Silas "Yeah Baby. I still like you. Do you still like me?"

"Of course. I always will. Now will you stop worrying about us. We're doing just fine and couple of fruit jubes won't hurt anyone's appetites. We don't stop for lunch for hours yet."

"We're having a break shortly. We promised Mr. Blackbourne we wouldn't push it, Aggele." Silas piped up with.

"I know. I can't wait to see you both soon."

"You too, Baby." North replied and hung his phone back up.

Silas looked at him long and hard. "Well what do you think?"

"About what exactly Si?"

"Well how Aggele is today for starters after what Mr Blackbourne told us. Not to mention Aggele's ideas of suitable career options."

North gripped the steering wheel hard at the thought of Sang joining the C.I. Fucking A. "I swear Sang thinks these things up just to test our fucking blood pressure." he ranted. "I mean, fuck, she could do anything. Absolutely anything, and she comes up with being a spy. What the hell is she thinking?"

"I think she's thinking that the Academy isn't an option for her because she knows not all of us want her to join North." Silas said hardly. "So my Aggele is making plans to use as much of what she has learnt over the years and help other people at the same time. Can you blame her?"

"Are you okay with this idea, Si?" North demanded enraged at the thought.

"Don't be fucking stupid, North. Christ." Silas shot right back. "I just think Sang was thinking aloud the other day and she'll come up with another 100 ideas before she decides what she would really like to do. Honestly though, I can't see Aggele settling on one thing. She will need variety in her job. She excels at so much North, but it's only natural she would want to use all those languages she knows. There is isn't a government department in the country who won't want her."

"Well we'd better make sure that they don't fucking find out about her then." North retorted.

"We may not have a choice North. What if Sang decides she wants to be emancipated? What then? And it doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone else that, regardless of whether Sang joins the Academy or not, but one day way off in the future I would imagine I think that she will want a family. Can you really see Sang ever having kids? I think she would be the best mother, but she won't consider it if she's a ghost because she couldn't acknowledge her child legally."

"And Sang Baby would never go for that. She's knows what that feels like and she would never do it to her own kid." North finished for Silas. "Shit, Si. This is a mess."

"Yeah, it is but I don't really care about anything else past the point of Aggele being happy. I think her head would be a maze to try and wander through at the moment. So we need to chill out and let her just be, Okay brother? Don't worry about her being a spy or any other way out shit she comes up with because we're all still young and we have time. She won't leave us. I have to believe that." Silas finished on a sigh. "So don't start with the 'you have to eat healthy crap' or hound her about not driving today because she'll be fine. Luke and Nate care about her just as much as we do, and if giving her fruit joobies, whatever the fuck they are, is what makes her happy deal with it."

"Jubes, you idiot. Fruit jubes. They're a candy."

"Whatever, dial it back."

North sighed. "I know. I will."

"Good. Because I'm not explaining to anyone, especially Mr Blackbourne, how we upset Aggele over a piece of fucking candy." Silas said, starting to smile as the truck stopped, and he watched Sang get out of the car beside them waving happily in their direction.