About five years later...

I don't think I will ever get sick of that certain smell that's always here. The strong scent of hot coffee and sweet spices somehow gives my work that little edge and it's the small perks like that, that help the day go by a little faster. All I'm really thinking about is I need to get home to my sweet daughter who will instantly brighten the rest of the day.

A customer steps up to the front of the very busy line that's forming in the shop. It's only nine thirty in the morning but here all the adults are, desperately craving their morning caffeine so that their day can really begin. I understand on a whole other level the struggle but the strong coffee I had an hour ago has already kicked in so now I feel like I could rule the world.

"Hello and welcome to sweet & savoury tea room. What can I get you?" I say with a beaming smile, possibly too bright and blinding for a run down business woman just looking for a caffeine kick. It's a sentence that has long been imprinted in my mind from when I first began working here. The smile comes easy and as blinding as it is, it also comes naturally as I have learnt to love the little things.

Like the two brief beeps that the coffee machine makes when a cup has finished filling or the ecstatic face of the customer when they get that steaming cup of coffee they have been so anxiously waiting for.

"A skinny latte with almond syrup." The brunette lady in front of me replies, her voice a little raspy and tired. I pick up a small cup and write her order on to it.

"Name?" I ask as I write.

"Amy." She answers, looking up from her phone for just a few seconds. I quickly jot that down too before passing the cup onto my colleague David, an elderly man who usually makes the drinks.

I get the payment for the drink and the lady named Amy moves on.

Right, next person.

Normally I take a brief note of the person I serve, possibly a trait from my previous occupation as an agent but now I do it just to make the day go a little faster. Seeing so much variety in the way a life is lived can be fascinating when you focus on the most little of details.

For this customer I don't look up and greet them eye to eye like I usually do because the till has frozen up slightly and so while I chime the words, "Hello, welcome to sweet & savoury tea room. What can I get you?" I'm also jabbing at a few of the buttons that reset it and it suddenly whirrs back into action, making a noise over his order. I ask him to repeat it, while pressing the last few buttons needed for it to function again.

"A very large, very strong black coffee, please. I really need it." A man's deep voice repeats and I memorise the order, grabbing one of the cups to make a note of it. His voice gives me a strange feeling I can't put my finger on but I chose to ignore it as I hurriedly search for my pen that's decided to hide.

"Name?" I ask routinely just trying to fill the silence of me faffing up as the pen comes into view and I breathe a sigh of relief. I take notice in the corner of my eye that just a moment ago he had leaned closer to me to check my name tag but I also chose to ignore that too. As he leaned back, his expression softened.

The man laughs and then hesitates before saying, "You don't remember?"

I look closely at the customer. "I serve a lot of people sir." I curtly reply. He does look familiar now that he mentions it but the dark hair that's sweeping across his forehead is distracting me from the rest of is face.

"Oh." He says, looking disappointed all of a sudden. "Well after such a long time this is too be expected, I suppose."

A customer behind him then clears their throat loudly in an annoyed manner. He shoots an apologetic look to the lady before looking back to me and I notice she now trying not to swoon. Now that I think about it, he is rather handsome.

"It's August, ma'am." He says, his face empty as he nods for emphasis.

The cup with his order on that I'm holding goes clattering to the floor but I'm too busy taking a much closer look into his eyes.

He's really here.

"Oh right, s-sorry." I stutter, bending down and fumbling for the cup when another customer clears their throat. I write 'August' on the cup in the most awful and rushed handwriting not really knowing what to do next other than what I know. Serving customers.

"Are you okay, Willow?" He asks. I look at him straight in the face but just get lost in his eyes again. I would know those anywhere normally and I kick myself for being so wrapped up in my own world that I hadn't noticed.

"Is that really you?" I ask, finally forgetting everything around me.

"Yes it's me." He replies far too casually.

I vaguely nod my head, trying to control my sporadic breathing as I saying, "please wait a moment," and then I slowly make my way to David.

"Please excuse me, David. I need to take my break early." I whisper into his ear. I make sure it's his left one though because he can't hear out of the other one.

"Okay deary, take five." He says patting my hand and smiling that sweet smile he always has.

I then quickly take August's coffee that David had made even though I hadn't given him the order because he sensed something was up and chuck a fiver in the till. That will cover it. On a day like today when the man you love that you thought was dead comes and asks you for a coffee, it is totally acceptable have it on the house.

After that I walk around the counter and up to August. I don't say anything I just give him his coffee and link our arms, leading him out of the shop and onto one of the tables outside.

"So..." I begin, trying to control my shaking legs. "What does one exactly say in a situation such as this?"

"How about, I missed you?" He replies, sipping on his coffee.

"Well I would except it's more than that. I thought you were dead." I say trying not to scoff in annoyance.

"I figured, considering you just left me there." He says. I am still quite surprised at how casual he is being about all of this.

"I'm sorry. Everything was just so confusing at that time. It was the last straw." I say, pulling gently at the corner of my eyes to stop the full water works from being released. So far it's not working. "I couldn't stay any longer."

"It's fine, I get it. You couldn't keep Mae in there." He says in an understanding manner.

"Just seeing you so lifeless and pale on the floor... I couldn't take it." I say sadly but then I get a realisation. "Wait, you're telling me you weren't dead when I left you then?"

He nods trying to not be too blunt. "Yeah, the shot was close to my heart but not close enough to be fatal. I was in a heck of a lot of pain though. The next thing I remember after you saying some sort of goodbye was the sanitised white walls of a hospital."

"I'm so sorry..." Is all I can say. I don't regret leaving because who knows what kind of life I'd be living if I had stayed. What life would Mae have? I'm just very, very glad he's come back to me. "All I knew was that the whole place was crawling with D.A.R.E and I need to leave before I ended up like you. Or worse, before Mae did."

"I get it, I'm glad you've made a proper life for yourself since then." He say with a genuine smile. The one I've missed for a very long time.

"So what's been going on since... you know." I ask changing the subject, the past isn't something I like to even think about so talking about it is probably my least favourite thing to do.

"I own a dog shelter for the poor animals nobody loves. I take it you're a barista now." He tries to say without too much remorse. I think he feels like it's all his fault for not being able to protect me back then that I've had to handle life all on my own since that day. "And how is little Mae?"

"Yeah. It's not as full of action as being an agent but it's fun and puts the food on the table." I shrug. "And she's not so small now at the ripe old age of seven and is growing up far too fast." I also add with a smile.

"Time really flies." August muses with a smile matching mine. "Do you miss being an agent?" He then asks after a beat of silence.

"Do you?" I retort. Of course I miss the thrill and suspense of never knowing what's next in that field of work but we all have to grow up at some point and face the real world.

He awkwardly tries to shrug while scratching at his neck. "Who said I ever stopped." He replies in more of a mutter. I guess I can't really be surprised. When you have a brush with death it hardly puts you off trying to bring justice especially when he was so determined to run D.A.R.E into the ground in the first place. He takes in my somewhat shocked reaction and sighs. "I just take a few missions here and there, the dog shelter is my cover but I do love those dogs with all my heart."

I give him a cringed look. "How cliché."

He just laughs. "The point is, my skills are obviously still sharp because I found you."

"Why now, though?" Is a question I have to blurt before my better judgement stops me.

He takes a deep breath like what he's about to say is serious. "Because I've finally found Jack. He was the one member that the police could never catch, especially when half the info they needed on him had been wiped."

So he survived that day.

I give August an apologetic look. Still to this day I wish I could've gotten all the info and not just some of it.

"Anyway," he continues, "he's smart. Too smart. It's more than just him though, the original generation of D.A.R.E. are behind bars but the boss's son... He's decided to follow in old papa's footsteps so now we have another issue on our hands. I need more than one agent brain to figure all of this out and finally bring justice."

"You want me to help?"

"No, I want us to work together to bring justice the right way. You know, just like we planned before." He smiles with a slightly pleading tone. I drink in his features that have aged slightly since the last time I had seen him. His eyes are a little rugged around the edges and the pupils have lost their spark slightly but he's still there. He's still here. With me, breathing and wanting me to join him. When I don't answer straight away, he carries on. "I also can't have you leading a normal life when they finds out I'm after them, I can guarantee they'll know to use you against me."

"Yeah..." I know Jack and D.A.R.E. all too well and while I like to believe he at least still has some form of human emotion left inside of him, he has changed his name and moved away to continue working for bad. He's not Jack anymore, I have to keep telling myself.

"Even if you don't want to help me, I just need you to know that there's quite a large chance that he, or D.A.R.E. are going to come for you and now that Mae is growing up, she's gonna ask questions."

"She already is." I sigh. Just the other day she cried because it was bring your dad into school day and apart from another kid, she was the only one without one. She told me it was my fault. Maybe a change is what Mae needs. She's been struggling in school because she stands out as so different to the other kids. She takes after her father in brains and me in skill and the other kids are jealous.

I take a hold of August's hand which surprises him a little. "I'll come with you. I've never felt safe from the day I left you and I think this is exactly what Mae and I need."

He has an unsettled and conflicted look like he's not convinced I'm serious. "Are you sure?"

"I've created a life here, sure. But it's not a real life. I feel like a fraud and I'm sick of cowering at my own shadow. Something needs to change and maybe putting my old agent instincts to use will help a bit."

His concern gradually melts off his face and is replaced with a relieved smile. "I'm glad."

I try to reply but David appears out of nowhere.

"I need you back working pronto as it is getting very busy, Willow" He warns but in his kind, tired voice.

"Okay, back in a second." I reply softly and he waves approval and scuttles back inside. I then feel a stab of anxiousness in my gut when the thought of how exactly will I break to the sweet old man that this is my last day of work now.

"August? I've also been thinking about you a lot. Lot's of painful thinking because I really thought you were dead and I didn't know if I'd ever recover from both of the people close to my heart being dead..." I'm also referring to the old Jack that really is gone from before he left me in the first place.

"None of that matters now and it's all in the past. It's the past that's changed me and for the better. Without you, I don't think I'd be here today." He admits a little bashfully.

"Exactly, from now on we just look to the future." I chuckle. "But, are you sure? You came closer to death because you knew me."

He smiles fondly. "Believe me, I'm so glad I met you. All I need to know now is do you trust me?" He says looking slightly vulnerable.

I don't hesitate for a moment, squeezing his hand tightly. "Of course I trust you."