Em.

The following is an excerpt from one of my untitled works about a man who wakes up in a foreign country with no recollection as to how he got there, why he is there or even what his name is. Upon returning home, he learns that he used to work as a secret agent for the government.

In this part, he is in a debriefing with the chief of the secret agency he is a part of while she explains the next mission to him and some other agents.

He was in the room seven minutes later, throwing a small, rubber bouncy ball he’d found in his jacket pocket onto the floor, where it bounced off and hit the wall before flying right back into his waiting palm. The familiar room, the room he had been in most frequently since his return to America, was empty, had been since he’d arrived five minutes before. Therefore, Emma and whoever else would be joining them were two minutes late. He shook his wrist; checked his watch: it was 12:42. He wondered if he’d been a compulsively late person or early person. He wondered about everything, and then the door opened and Emma burst in, flanked by Luke and Hammond, who didn’t look like they had changed in the slightest. Andrew thought they were even wearing the same ties as they had before.

“We got it,” Emma announced, holding up a folder identical to the one she had picked up the week before on Rovolo. Only this one had NIKLAS STEINWAY printed across the front in black permanent marker.

Luke clapped his hands together and rubbed them as he sat down, and then reached for the file. “Where to, Chief?”

Emma glanced at Luke as if she were challenging him as the three newcomers took their seats around the metal table. Luke put his hands up as if to plead innocent, and Emma started the debrief. She explained how Steinway had been located by security cameras in an Egyptian flea market, and his coordinates had been defined as a mansion in Cairo. Insiders had obtained some information on his plans to breach the United States’ security, but the exact time he planned on doing it still wasn’t for sure. It didn’t really matter, though, as Emma pointed out. Because their mission was to get in and out with the codes and without causing too much damage. Luke had practically bounced out of his seat with anticipation by the time Emma was almost done with her explanation.

“And our team?” she added as she set another file on the table. “Luke and--” she paused and glanced at Andrew-- “Agent Pliler, I’m sure you remember Agent Watson from the Siberian case.”

Luke leaned forward, setting Steinway’s file on the table and nodded. “The feisty redhead. Almost took my leg off.” He chuckled and Hammond tentatively joined in. “I remember.”

Emma rolled her eyes and opened the file. Hammond’s chuckling stopped abruptly. “Then I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that she’ll be joining us.”

Luke simply rubbed his hands together. “Lovely. When’s takeoff?”

Emma rose from her chair. “Ten minutes. Hope you’re ready.”

Andrew started as the three stood and Hammond bustled out of the room. None of them seemed to be surprised; Luke simply looked over Steinway’s file. So he stood. “Excuse me?”

Both looked up, Emma with dazzling green eyes and Luke with hazel. When Andrew simply nodded as if to say “Well?” Luke chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets before rounding the table and brushing past him on his way out. Emma sighed and set the file on the table once the door shut behind Agent Pliler. She pinched the bridge of her nose again, just like she always seemed to do when she was stressed out.

Andrew leaned against the table. “Look, Emma, I--”

“What did you just call me?” she snapped, her hand snapping away from her face.

“Em--I’m sorry, Chief,” he stuttered with realization. “I’m just . . . getting used to . . . all of this.” He gestured to the high-tech room.

She offered a weak smile. “I know, Drew.”

He returned her smile easily. “What’d you just call me?”

She tilted her head to the side. “You know what you used to call me?”

He folded his arms across his chest. Shook his head.

Her gaze flickered from his face to the table in front of him, weary and nostalgic. She swallowed hard. “Em.”

He watched her face as she stared at the table, lost in a world he’d used to belong in too. With her. Maybe they’d been like he and Hammond had, the best of friends. Maybe he’d once seen her as his little sister. Or his older sister. His head suddenly hurt.

Her eyes met his again and she gave him another small smile before snatching both files off the table and starting towards the door. “Seven minutes.”

But the way she said it made it seem as if she’d just said “I miss you.”