He hated the damn thing and felt a great weight aleviated when he shaved it off. But that was meely the tip of the iceberg. It had been well over a ye...r since he had had a proper vacation, moving from one mission to another which left him battered both body and spirit. An appeal to M for leave went unacknowledged but he threaten to resign M (who never responded very well to threats from subordinates) finally allowed him his vacation time. There were plenty of other Double O agents on active. She put the phone gently back on the cradle, and switched on the answering machine. Tears filled her eyes as she let the phone ring and let the machine pick up. She was suddenly happy that the voice on the machine was store-bought and not hers. She prayed that he would stop calling, and after an hour, he did. She cried herself to sleep. ************* Heather watched the sunset through the small kitchen window, and sighed heavily. It had been two days since she had heard Cal’s voice on her. Bishop's eyebrows raised in surprise, "and he promoted you to Bottom Bitch?"Angel's jaw clenched, making Bishop laugh at her tension.Bishop sat down next to Brynn, putting an arm around her shoulders, "I don't recognize you. You must be new here." He pulled the girl closer to him, inhaling the scent of her hair. Angel stood, nodding for Brynn to scoot over so Angel could sit between the two of them."Aww, what's wrong? Afraid I'll steal her away?" Bishop snickered.Angel rolled her eyes, "more. He pushed a button. There was a click from under the seat, and then a man's baritone filled the car. "Alan Jackson," Jeff said.They had time for a few more songs before they got to the high school. The parking lot was half full. A lot of kids didn't care for the Thursday night dances at the school, but in rural Illinois there wasn't much else to do in the evening. The county had a curfew, but going to the dance got you out of that provided you got a pass at the dance and went straight home. The.