"Aye!"

Ariana turned her head when one of her teammates, Shaggy, walked in on three out of five members of the team including her.

"Anyone hungry?" Shaggy asked, "I think I need an early lunch."

Ariana smiled.
His nickname was so befitting.

"Dude, you ate a burrito like five minutes ago." Scooter aka Scoot said,

Shaggy looked at everyone,
"No, I didn't."

"We all saw you." Scoot said,

Shaggy looked at all of them again, they all smiled at him, except Bob.
"That was five minutes ago."

The three of them laughed.

"Grande."

Ariana looked up when she heard her nickname.

"The director wants to see you." Bob, their last teammate walked in on them.

"The director?" Killian said,

It was unusual for the director to ask for anyone directly and not through their special agent in charge, SAC.

Ariana noticed all the looks they had on their faces as she got up and made her way towards the exit.
"Chill guys, it's probably nothing."

They all stood, facing her and nodded. She smiled and walked away.

"Ask the director if he wants to go get lunch."

Ariana rolled her eyes when she heard Shaggy call after her.

Why does Director Penn want to see me?
Ariana walked out of the elevator and made her way towards his office.

The only time she'd ever seen Director Penn was during briefings of top priority operations, red notice and wanted list kind. The team was currently running point on an operation, they'd just come out of a meeting with their SAC on how to proceed with the operation. Their SAC would've asked her to wait behind if she'd known about this meeting to discuss it before they went to the Director together.

Ariana stopped outside his door and knocked below the name slate that read Jack Penn, Director.

"Come in."

Ariana walked in and shut the door behind her.
"Sir, you asked to see me."

She stood at ease, hands behind her back, out of habit.

Jack looked up from the paperwork piled on his desk and smiled.
"Agent Feilman, please have a seat."

Ariana sat down reluctantly.
"May I ask what this is about, sir?"

Jack smiled at her and then packed some papers and stuffed them into a folder.
"I need you on a new assignment."

Ariana tightened her jaw, she knew where this was going. If he asked for just her, then he was pulling her out of the current operation and away from her team.

"It's classified, so anything you hear doesn't leave this room."

That piqued her interest.

Jack told her everything she needed to know about the assignment and Ariana sat there stunned.

"I'm sorry sir, but it sounds like you want me on bodyguard duty for Mr. Black."

"That's just your cover."

"Pardon me saying, but Mr. Black can very well hire a PI and an actual bodyguard."

"Mr. Black can protect himself, he just needs someone to watch his back while he gets his life back in order." Jack said, "The people after him don't seem like they're going to stop anytime. They have a job they want to finish and I need you on this."

The word protect kept echoing in her head.

"Why me?"

She walked in here thinking she was going to be put on something highly important, more than what she was already on and she finds out it's something below anyone's rank at the office.

"Agent Feilman, I'm assigning you this job because you're the best and I need the best for this job," He said, "Once it's done, you'll be back on the field with the team which I know is where you want to be right now."

Damn right!

Silence filled the room as she took an inaudibly deep breath. She wanted to punch something so hard at that moment.

"Get prepared. It's a 'round the clock protection so you'll be staying with Mr. Black," He said, "See you bright and early tomorrow, Agent Feilman."

Ariana swallowed as anger filled her up.

"You're dismissed."

Ariana got up from where she was seated and turned around, heading towards the door.

"Agent Feilman?"

She turned around to look at him.
"Not a word of this to another soul, not your SAC, your teammates, not even your mother."

Ariana's heart skipped a beat at the mention of her mum.

"Is that clear?"

"Yes sir." She said before she opened the door and walked out of his office.

Ariana went to get her things avoiding her teammates as best as she could so she wouldn't have to lie to their faces.

She stepped out of the office and walked towards where she parked her bike. Putting on her black jacket and zipping it all the way to her neck, she tucked her phone in her jacket pocket where her wallet was. She mounted her matte black BMW S1000 RR and put on her helmet then fastened it. She turned on the engine, revved it before she took off to the gym. She needed to let off some steam before she started this so-called assignment which seemed more like a punishment of some sort.

Good thing no one knew or her teammates would think she was getting punished for something.

What the actual fuck?!

As she rode to the gym, her thoughts spun out of control when she was supposed to let go and be free.

The director specifically said he wanted the best for this job, so it wasn't a punishment but something was up. This Jace Black person must be important and in a lot of trouble to need the best protection the Director could offer. But he also wants to keep it low key otherwise the Director wouldn't have iterated that it was classified.

The only reason she could come up with was that he's related to this person, it was personal for him.

She sighed inside her helmet as she stopped at a red light.

Jace Black.

She had to find out exactly what was going on. Asides the basic information that Mr. Black was in danger and needed protection, she got nothing else.

Was it a personal vendetta or a power trip?

Ariana got to the gym a few moments later and went in and got changed. Without wasting any more time, she was in the ring with her personal trainer, Wang.

"You seem tense." Wang said as he put on his gloves.

"I'm not." Ariana jumped from side to side, warming herself up as she threw her fists into the air like she was punching something.

"You're definitely tense." Wang said, "Let's go."

Before Wang could take a stance, Ariana was already on him and they went on for over an hour.

She went to shower after that and changed her clothes before she got on her bike and sped off to GC Hospital, stopping on the way to get Lillies.

Ariana walked into the hospital and made her way towards the elevator and to her mum's ward. Stepping out of the elevator and passing through the reception in the hallway and turning, she headed towards her mum's room.

"Ari."

Ariana stopped and turned around to see Nurse Betty making her way towards her with a smile. Betty was in her late forties and had been taking great care of her mum for a couple of years and she always kept her informed me or called her up when there was an update.

"Hi, Betty." Ariana greeted, "How's she feeling today?"

Betty joined in on her short walk to her mum's room.

"Same, no changes."

Ariana nodded. She trusted Betty for her honesty, she never sugar-coated anything for her.

Ariana nodded and sighed.

"I'll let you go see her." Betty said, "I have to go see a patient, I'll be right back."

"Alright."

Betty turned around and headed back to join her other colleague while she pushed open the door to her mum's room and walked in, shutting the door behind her.

Ariana let out a breath when she saw her mum's thin figure lying on the bed, unconscious with machines beeping into the silence. Ariana walked towards her bedside and switched out the old lilies with the new ones. She dumped the old ones into the bin and pulled up a chair to the side of the bed and held her mum's hand.

"Hi mum," She smiled and kissed her hand, "Betty said you're the same but I know. I know you're just going at your own pace."

All she got back was the beeping of the machines.

"I got pulled off the operation and was assigned a new one which I'm starting tomorrow. It's a round the clock assignment, and I don't know how much free time I'll have to come see you," She said, "But I promise when I'm done, I'll stay right here and you'll have to wake up to beg me to leave."

Ariana smiled as she pictured how that would go.

"Betty's giving you a hard time, uh?" She asked, "Fluffing your pillow, changing the water in your vase, must be annoying."

Ariana had found out about her mum's cancer when she was away on tour. Her captain had delivered the news to her and the aftermath of that news hadn't been something she very much liked to remember. She had been discharged due to her injuries that made her unfit for duty. Joining her mum at the hospital, her mum had undergone chemo while she had a little over one year of physiotherapy. She got into the academy the following year and after her training and a series of exams to check if her leg wasn't a problem anymore, she became an agent.

Her first year as an agent, her mum's cancer returned and she had to undergo chemo again. Just when she thought her mum was getting better, the worst happened. One day, her mum tried getting out of bed by herself which was right after a chemo session. As expected, she was weak from the chemo but didn't call Betty or anyone to help her to the bathroom and had slipped and hit her head on the side of the bed.

Betty had come in a moment later, after making her rounds to see how she was doing and found her on the floor, head bleeding. Her mum has been in a coma ever since. That was a year ago.

Director Penn mentioning her mum today told her that he knew about her mum. Because of the medical bills coming their way, there was a record of it. She wasn't sure how she felt about him knowing. Of course, the last Director knew but he never acted like he knew. She wasn't great with having people knowing about her business they had no business knowing.

Betty came in ten minutes later to find Ariana at Abigail's bedside.

"You should go home, Sweetheart," Betty placed a hand on her shoulder.

Ariana placed a hand over hers and looked up at her and smiled.

"You're on tonight's shift?"

"I'm not," Betty replied, "The house is empty tonight, I'd rather be here helping out than at the empty house."

"You'd be too exhausted for your morning shift tomorrow," Ariana frowned at her,

She smiled,
"I'm off tomorrow."

Ariana sighed and smiled up at her.

"Now you go home," Betty said, "That job of yours is worse than mine."

Ariana got up from where she was seated, shifting the chair back to where it was, she hugged Betty.

"I won't be visiting for a while," Ariana pulled back, "I'm on a new assignment that'll last indefinitely."

"Does anything you do ever end?" Betty asked sarcastically,

Ariana scoffed smiling at her.

"See you, Betty."
Ariana turned around and headed towards the door.

"Bye sweetheart. Be careful."

Ariana left the hospital and went home to get the best sleep she could get because she didn't know when next she would be able to sleep. Her new assignment was going to take a lot out of her, she had a feeling.

She had to be on alert every second of every day.