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g-girlshavingfun · 3 months ago

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Gallagher Girls Masterlist:

Here is everything I've written, everything I'm currently working on, and the ideas I've got planned for the future if I ever get around to them.

If there's ever anything you want me to try writing, just ask and I'll see what I can put together!

WIPs:

A Sister’s Vigil - 5 times Rachel visited her sister in hospital and 1 time she didn’t.

Completed:

Abby/Townsend:

Warm tequila - Set about 5 years after the events of UWS, Abby and Townsend explore the Christmas markets in London. (2,121)

Mismatched socks - 6 and a half years after UWS, Abby and Townsend face an early winter morning with the twins (3,491)

Lips against a hipbone - The winter before the events of LYKY, Abby and Townsend are a couple months into an op in Buenos Aires when years of tension finally comes to a head. (3,690)

Silent films - Set in between OSOT and UWS, Townsend and Abby are doing surveillance on the Winters in Rome when they start talking about the past. (3,243)

Doctor’s orders - A year before the events of LYKL, Abby and Townsend’s assignment in Buenos Aires ends in disaster, and they wind up having an argument in her hospital room. (2,668)

Ursa Major - Half a decade before the events of LYKY, Abby and Townsend are completing a mission in Dubai over Christmas with Abe Baxter in tow. (4,527)

Last call - While in Rome between OSOT and UWS, Abby and Townsend celebrate The New Year together in a bar. (2,712)

Catherine/Townsend:

A hotel bar - Shortly before the events of OGSY, Catherine tracks Townsend down for a long overdue catch up. (2,949)

A necklace knotted around a fist - Over 15 years before the events of LYKY, Townsend discovers that Catherine isn’t all she claims to be and tries to confront her about it. (2,710)

Cammie/Zach:

An attic - Zach and Cammie are spending the Christmas after the events of UWS at her Grandparent’s ranch in Nebraska with the rest of her family, and they manage to find a moment of peace away from the adults together. (3,836)

Joe/Rachel:

Bitter coffee - About a month after the events of DJGC, Rachel turns up at Joe’s cabin for a catch up before she plans to fly to London. (2,569)

A brown leather belt - Towards the end of OSOT, Rachel tries to get Joe alone for a chat. (2,457)

A wax-sealed envelope - Only a few weeks before the events of LYKY, Rachel makes one final attempt at convincing Joe to step out of the field and into a teaching role at Gallagher. (2,884)

Matt/Rachel:

Knees pressed into soft carpet - Over a decade and a half before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Matthew get distracted while on an assignment. (1,388)

Saltwater - In her first winter as headmistress of The Gallagher Academy, Rachel takes a moment to remember warmer and happier times. (1,882)

Abby & Cammie:

Rusty nails - After rediscovering her father’s grave in OSOT, Cammie finds her aunt outside and catches her in a rare vulnerable conversation. (3,315)

Abby & Joe:

White silk - Set during Rachel and Matt’s wedding, a decade and a half before the events of LYKY, Abby and Joe meet properly for the first time. (3,337)

Weathered boxing gloves - Not long after Joe wakes up in OSOT, he goes for a walk around the school grounds at night and comes across Abby in the P&E barn. (3,949)

Abby & Macey:

Bodyguards - Set during DJGC but before the adults learn that Cammie is the target of The Circle, Abby keeps Macey from leaving the Academy one October morning. (3,700)

Abby & Matt:

Overprotective - Nearly two decades before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Matthew discover an intruder in their home when they get back from work. (2,557)

Abby & Rachel:

Red wine - 10 years after their father died, Rachel has exciting news for Abby. (3,135)

A safehouse - While on an assignment in Bahrain, 8 years before the events of LYKY, Rachel and Abby disagree on the group’s next move after one of their cover’s is blown. (3,035)

Catherine & Joe:

Old friends - A decade before the events of LYKY, Catherine needs help with her son and knows just who to go to. (2,364)

Catherine & Zach:

Tall evergreen - After one term at Blackthorn, Zach spends the Christmas 3 years before LYKY trying to get through his mother. (2,130)

Cammie & Matt:

A sous chef - Almost a decade before LYKY, Rachel is feeling under the weather, so Matt and Cammie try to make her feel better (2,399)

Cammie & Rachel:

A gold tooth - 3 years before the start of LYKY, Rachel and Cammie find a quiet escape during Matt’s funeral to have an important chat. (2,600)

Joe & Matt:

Sawdust - Two decades before the events of LYKY, Matt brings Joe to Nebraska on a pre-Christmas get away (2,793)

Joe & Townsend:

Figs - While spending the Christmas after UWS at the Morgan ranch in Nebraska, Joe and Townsend try to clear the air between them. (2,897)

Rachel & Townsend:

Spiral stairs - Set between Cammie and the girls’ graduation and Rachel and Joe’s wedding, Townsend is met by Rachel when he arrives to take Abby out for dinner on her birthday. (4,870)

Townsend & Zach:

A broken teapot - A year and a half after the events of UWS, Zach joins Townsend (and Abby) for Christmas at his parents house back in England. (3,241)

A breakup - 6 years after the events of UWS, Zach goes running to Townsend after a fight with Cammie. (4,196)

Upcoming:

Codenames - Chameleon. Bookworm. Duchess. Peacock. To anyone with less than level 4 clearance level, those four words mean nothing more than what they mean. But to anyone who knows what truly goes on behind the walls of The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, those four words tell the story of the teenagers who banded together to help take down a terrorist organisation before they even graduated high school. These are the stories of how they became known as such.

Red wine - 3 times a Cameron woman let slip that that they were expecting.

It hurts to miss you, but it’s worse to know - Matthew Morgan had two funerals. Joseph Solomon attended them both.

A safe house - Abby is dedicating all of her time and strength to casing the entire continent of Europe for her brother-in-law. Rachel is dedicating all of her heart and soul to bringing what was left of her fractured family back together to grieve as one. These two states cannot peacefully coexist for long. Of course it all comes to a head in Rome.

Overprotective - 4 times a Cameron woman revealed their boy troubles to the someone who loved them dearly.

Walking away with your kiss on my cheek and a bruise underneath - Abby and Townsend are not perfect. It isn’t love at first sight or a slowly developing affection that binds them to one another. Their relationship is carved from spitting venom and blazing fire, from tearing through one another’s cracks and crevices with vicious words and scathing accusations, from holding one another close in the fallout and vowing never again. Somehow, what holds them together is fighting tooth and nail against one another and basking in the familiar wreckage that this leaves. They wouldn’t have it any other way. Or, the fights that made Abby and Townsend’s relationship what it is.

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g-girlshavingfun · 4 months ago

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December Prompts

28) Figs - Joe & Townsend

While spending the Christmas after UWS at the Morgan ranch in Nebraska, Joe and Townsend try to clear the air between them. (2,897)

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In the Morgan family ranch situated in rural Nebraska, there was a large window encompassing most of the sitting room wall which looked out onto various fields and enclosures found on the land. From it, you could see for miles over the grasslands on a clear day, could see the tattered swing set which stood at the bottom of the dirt track leading to the house, could see the stables and its surrounding paddocks if you looked beyond it. If you hovered by this window one particularly cold morning in December, you would see an older gentleman who smiled from his teeth and his eyes and the wrinkles in his face, who leant heavily on a sleek cane and who laughed with his whole body walking beside one of his horses in the larger paddock. You would see a young woman with stars in her eyes and electricity in her veins sat upon a an old mare as she trotted around in circles, torso twisting intermittently to remain in joyous conversation with her companions. You would see a woman with chestnut hair cropped to her shoulders and a relieved weightlessness to her bones holding her arm out to the gentleman she walked beside, a grin stitching its way up her face as she chuckled at the other woman’s theatrics.

It was there Joe stood watching his wife, his wife, and his sister-in-law help Richard Morgan attend to the horses when he caught Townsend’s reflection approaching him in the glass and felt the soft smile slip from his face.

He didn’t dislike the man per se, but he didn’t particularly enjoy his company either. Truthfully, Joe found him to be far too formal, even finding him pretty dull when Abby wasn’t around to liven him up with a petty argument or debate. He was egotistical and stubborn and controlling. All qualities which made him an admittedly adept operative, qualities which he could see in himself and his friends and his wife, but somehow they grated on his nerves more when the English agent exhibited them. Perhaps it was their history; the man had used Cammie to lure him into a trap and arrested him only a year and a half ago. Or maybe it was the knowledge that he had been involved with Catherine a lifetime ago, had fathered Zach and had never bothered to stick around and find out about him, leaving Joe to pick up the pieces. It could even be the spirit of Matthew Morgan influencing from him from the grave, his old friend never being a fan of anyone who dared date his little sister.

Rachel had gently suggested that maybe the problem wasn’t Townsend, wasn’t his accent or his mannerisms or his actions, but simply that he wasn’t Matt.

Of course, his wife was hardly ever wrong, and this wasn’t an exception. It seemed that suddenly, when Joe wasn’t kept within the confinement of The Gallagher Academy, the now former MI6 operative seemed to be the man he spent the most time in the company of. That seemingly overnight, he had somehow slipped into the space in Joe’s life previously filled by the kindest heart he ever knew. That it seemed like one day, Townsend would in a way become Joe’s brother-in-law, technically a closer relation to him than Matt ever was.

Edward Townsend could never hope to compare to the brother that Joe had already lost.

The man in question sidled up to him and hovered quietly by the window, attention briefly stolen by the view outside. When Abby threw her head back in laughter, body nearly tipping off her horse with the force of her elation, stars sparkled in the man’s eyes and a soft smile glowed on his lips. Joe sighed. He supposed he had to try make nice if the upstart was going to keep looking at his friend like that.

Shaking himself out of the brief stunned silence he had found himself in, Townsend cleared his throat and held out a bag of what looked like soft nuts to him. “Dried figs?��

Pretentious prick.

Joe rejected the offer, the bag retreating as Townsend just nodded his head in acceptance like he had expected that answer all along. They stood there in pained silence a moment longer, one of them with nothing to say and the other seemingly lacking to conviction to speak, before Townsend huffed and cleared his throat once more. “I suppose I should thank you.”

If this was the man’s attempt at a thank you, Joe dreaded to imagine what an apology from him might sound like. Suddenly he felt bad for Abby.

“For helping me with Zach’s Christmas present. Abigail’s suggestions were…” He trailed off, probably catching the sharp manner in which Joe’s eyes cut towards him, a warning lingering in his glare. His friend’s advice was probably outrageous. Probably ranged from a karaoke machine to a convertible, various gifts she would buy her niece depending on her mood and how much she wanted to annoy Rachel, gifts as unpredictable as her. He could understand why the man might need to source assistance from elsewhere, but that didn’t mean he would stand here and listen to Townsend criticise her efforts to help. Even if insults and arguments were their weird way of flirting.

Receiving only a look in response, Townsend pushed on. “He deserves something he likes, and I wanted to get him something good but… I just don’t know what he- I still don’t know him very well. So thank you.”

In fairness to Townsend, he hadn’t outright asked Joe what to buy his son. He had instead enquired through a tense jaw and gritted teeth what Zach did outside of espionage, their line of work being the only common ground the two men had found thus far. The question had angered Joe immensely either way. Townsend should already know what his son liked, what he did with his spare time. He should know his favourite colour and his favourite food, the music that he listens to and the books he liked to read. He should know what kept him up at night, the hopes and the dreams and the nightmares he had as a child, the ones that have followed him into adulthood and the ones that died out along the way.

Joe knew all of it, but he wasn’t Zach’s father.

How was that fair?

Still, Joe wanted Zach to have a good Christmas, wanted him to have a good relationship with the one parent he had left, and he supposed Townsend was a decent enough guy. So Joe had given him a few tidbits of information, had sacrificed a few of the pieces of Zach that were only his, and had let the man do what he felt was best with it.

Packaged meticulously in crisp gold paper, a stark contrast to Joe’s haphazard battle with tape and tissue, to the gifts Abby threw carelessly into gift bags, to the cheery snowman pattern adorning Rachel’s lovingly wrapped presents, Townsend had ended up buying him two sets of knives. One for throwing and one for cooking. With his mother the way she was and his father absent for his entire childhood, Zach had learned to fend for himself much younger than he should’ve had to, and that included learning to how to feed himself. He seemed to enjoy the routine of it, the structure of a recipe, the predictability of its outcome.

Discovering this was a relief to Rachel considering Cammie’s inheritance of her own skills in the kitchen.

Zach would appreciate the gift, would like it even, Joe knew. He could picture the shock igniting in his features, wide aghast eyes and mouth slightly agape at the thoughtfulness put into the gift, at the fact that Townsend actually bought something he would want, would use. His eyes would sparkle with something uncomfortably like gratitude, as if he owed his father anything resembling a thank you.

Joe just grunted in acknowledgment, the lingering silence between them becoming stifling. Townsend nodded again to himself, looking back out the towering window as he chewed contemplatively on his figs.

“You don’t like horses?” The question nearly made Joe jump. Frown creasing his face and eyebrows dipped in challenge, he turned fully to face the man beside him.

“I like horses fine.”

“You don’t trust them.”

The animals must weigh something close to half a ton and were built almost entirely out of muscle. They were unpredictable and unyielding, quick to revolt and hard to soothe. Joe could never ascertain what they were thinking or feeling, what they were going to do next. It unnerved him. “I don’t trust much.”

“Your shoulders are tense. Even before I joined you they were stiff. You flinched when Mr Morgan’s horse reared his head and you lean forward each time Abby’s trots a bit faster.”

He read off his evidence like lines from a children’s book. It was typical of an operative to systematically catalogue their observations and interpret them as one, a skill he had both utilised and taught several times throughout his career. What was atypical was listing them off to your target like you’d achieved something special. Joe’s students did it, their voices lilted in a question as they looked for reassurance from him that they were getting things right. That was fine, operatives in training were supposed to check their assumptions with their superiors. Abby still did it, her tone smug and teasing, just wanting to brag about the fact that she had navigated through his guarded expressions and unspoken words. That was fine too because she smiled charmingly when she did it, because she easily endeared herself to those around her, because Joe loved Abby. Townsend however stewed his words in arrogance and assuredness, eyes knowing and cold. It aggravated him.

“Congratulations, I don’t trust horses.”

Despite the scathing sarcasm being directed his way, Townsend just nodded thoughtfully again, his own voice taking on what Joe was sure he thought was a reassuring tone. “Abigail’s good with them. She’s annoyingly good at most things, but she’s particularly good with animals. She wont let-”

“I know.” His interruption was short and to the point, slicing through Townsend’s condescending assurance like the knives placed under the Christmas tree, anger bubbling in the pit of his stomach and in the hollow of his chest. “I’ve known her a lot longer than you have Townsend.”

Pointed heat carved deep holes into the side of his skull, deep blue eyes boring into him like a drill. He turned his own gaze away from the man beside him, choosing to focus instead on the way the frosty sun danced along his wife’s skin, how she skated weightlessly across the mud soaked earth, how she sang when she laughed and glowed when she talked. Townsend’s reflection was vaguely imprinted over the image of his family in the distance, the slow nodding of his head once again drawing Joe’s attention.

“You don’t like me, and that’s fine, I’m not a huge fan of yours either.” The words were slow and deliberate, carefully manicured to bring them to equal footing without causing offence. “But I would like for us to get along, or to be civil at least. For Abby and Zach’s sake if nothing else.” A pregnant pause hung between them, Joe refusing to give life to the reluctant agreement he could feel brewing inside him. Although Townsend must be a patient man, he couldn’t have dealt with Abby for nearly as long as he had if he wasn’t, when he didn’t get a response he continued barreling through the conversation with an frustrated huff. “Look, I’m not going to apologise for last year if that’s what you’re waiting for.”

“You’re not going to apologise for arresting me under false pretences?”

“They weren’t false.” Townsend whirled round to face him at that, eyes ablaze and muscles taut. A finger jabbed into Joe’s sternum and pressed hard; he resisted the urge to snap it in two. The voice which snarled at him was deep and growling, words on fire and breath smoking. “You were recruited by and operating within The Circle of Cavan. You were identified and exposed by the man who shot Abigail. You chose to make yourself a fugitive rather than coming in peacefully and saving us all a lot of trouble.”

Despite knowing that the man’s assessment wasn’t wrong, that truthfully Joe didn’t blame him for any of the actions he took that year, that he respected him more for them in fact, he felt his hackles rising. Shoulder’s squaring and chest protruding, he filled himself with indignant righteousness. “Do you not remember what happened when I was in custody? The Circle-”

“You were The Circle. At least to me you were. You were a danger to national security, a danger to Cameron and her family. I had to bring you in.”

The fight leaked out of him at that.

Ever since him and Matt became close, became brothers, Joe had striven to do whatever he could to protect him and his family. When Cammie was born, that meant keeping her safe over everything else. It was one of the reasons he kept his distance from the Morgan family while she was growing up, not wanting to risk infecting her life with his bad luck, his terrorist affiliations, his general bad influence. Despite his best efforts, he had failed dramatically, ruining her life and the rest of Matt’s family’s in one fell swoop. He would never directly hurt Cammie, he would rather tear through his own skin and claw his intestines out with a spoon than cause her any ounce of distress, but he was a danger to her. Townsend was just the only other person to see it.

He sighed. A reluctant huff of air which took all the tension in his body with it as it flew out of his lungs. “I suppose I should be thanking you for that.”

“For what?”

“For protecting Cammie. For helping take The Circle down.”

Townsend shrugged at that, nonchalance coating his words. “That’s my job.” It was, but plenty of people in his position wouldn’t have invested themselves like he did, so the thank you was warranted either way.

Joe could see that it wouldn’t be accepted however, so instead he looked back out to the Nebraskan grasslands, nodded towards the woman sat astride a now cantering horse. “Thank you for looking after her then.”

He was careful with his words; Abby had never needed protecting.

When Townsend followed his gaze towards the woman in question, a stupidly soft look crept over his face, no sign of the frown that had marred his forehead or the tension that chiseled his jaw. A fraction of a smile spread across his lips, his cheeks, his eyes, mirth dancing in his features as he watched her laugh. Tone as wistful as a falling leaf, his words were barely a whisper. “She doesn't need looking after.” The words but I will anyway went unsaid.

Something must have alerted the girls to the eyes watching them, because they both turned in unison to look at the window. Rachel caught his gaze immediately, a soft smile on her lips and a gentle wave on her fingertips as she tilted her head at him in question. When he shook his head in reassurance at her, they both glanced up to see Abby beaming at Townsend, a laugh trembling through her mouth when she caught them together.

She was his best friend. She was his sister.

“If you ever-”

The man he had turned to in challenge cut him off immediately. “A lot of people might say that you’re more intimidating that your wife, but I’m not one of them. Rachel’s already given me this talk Joe. I’m not going to hurt her, but if I do there’ll be a long queue of Gallagher graduates waiting to get their hands on me, you’ll have to wait in line.”

He had to chuckle at that, picturing his wife pining the man down with a firm stare and a stern word. “As long as you know.”

The bag of figs was once again held out to him as a peace offering, and this time he decided to take one. Sickly and syrupy in his mouth, he winced a little as he chewed, surprised that Townsend enjoyed a snack as sweet that.

At his questioning look, the man shrugged, something bashful taking over his expression. “Abby likes them, rubbed off on me.”

Chuckling again, Joe figured he could extend his own olive branch. “I’m going to drive up to the local Christmas tree farm tomorrow. The local church needs one for their youth group and Mrs Doddle across the road needs one as well.” A lifetime ago, Matt had taken him to that farm. They had battled with a saw and a bundle of ropes and the thoughtlessness of youth, eventually coming home with two haggard trees and scrapes and burns decorating their hands. It was at that farm that Joe first started to feel like he had found himself a family, the first one of his life, and although he would never again get to go there again with Matt, maybe going with Townsend wouldn’t be so bad. “Want to come?”

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Authors note:

Townsend: breathes

Joe: Can you not?

Boyfriends of the Cameron sisters forcing themselves through a civil conversation, as requested by @bryn-not-brynn

So uni is pretty busy, hence each remaining update will probably be at least a week apart. Currently hoping to get 29 up this weekend, and 30 and 31 done in the next couple weeks after that. I also have a second one shot for 29 that I will write and post after that. Next will be chapter 5 of A Sister’s Vigil, a little piece about how the girls got their codenames, then the final chapter. Think that will take me into March at the earliest. I have a few ideas of things to write from there on that I may share and get opinions on, but if anyone has anything in particular they’d be interested in reading I’d be happy to give it a go!

#gallagher girls #gallagher girls series #gallagher girls fanfiction #december prompts #writing prompts #Joe Solomon #joseph solomon #edward townsend

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