Mr Jones Goes to Washington

Carver had managed to get Joey's mobile number from somewhere, and before long his handler was texting what was going to happen next, though she had an annoying habit of ignoring her asset's questions when he messaged back.

Joey was to travel to Washington the very next day. The Post had apparently already contacted Ted to inform him of his employee's unlikely poaching by them, and that Joey would not be returning to the Gazette, which denied the man himself the pleasure of telling his boss to shove his job up his ass. Kayleigh had also been emailed a job offer which Joey couldn't see anyway she would refuse, while he was to convince Liv to come with him to the capital, a task Carver knew he couldn't fail to accomplish given his unique powers. Even so, to sweeten the deal, she had sent Joey some images of where he and his girlfriend would be residing - a two bedroom penthouse that looked like a palace compared to where he was living now. It even had a roof top pool.

As for what he would be doing when he got there, the details were still quite sketchy, but basically whatever Carver told him. He was assured it would all be incredibly safe and easy for him, though. At the paper, he would publish only what Carver told him, on behalf of whoever the fuck his employers were. That was the part of this that really sucked for Joey, but at least it might give him some sort of clue what their agenda was. The other consolation was Kayleigh getting to be a real journalist there. That meant Joey could still type whatever he wanted and they could release it under her name. It would still be his words and they would have their usual effect, Kayleigh being the author would just be another part of the lie everyone would swallow.

On the surface, Joey's new life sounded pretty awesome for the most part, but he remained extremely cautious about the things he didn't know.

Joey's phone buzzed, and the always welcome image of Kayleigh's smiling face lit up his screen. Clearly, she had just checked her email.

"Joey, holy fucking shit what the fuck? We're going to the WASHINGTON FUCKING POST, BABY! OH MY GOD!"

Joey smiled, happy he had been able to do this for his friend. He had never heard her lose her shit to this extent before.

"I know, I can't believe it!" he answered gleefully.

"This is the single greatest moment of my life!" Kayleigh declared, then paused for a moment and allowed her excitement to abate a little "Be honest with me, Joey. Did you bullshit us into this?"

Now came the tricky part. Joey had sworn he would never use his gift for deception on the person who meant the most to him, at least not deliberately. However, Carver had unsurprisingly made it very clear nobody could know anything about his work with her, as much for their own safety as anything else. He therefore had to settle for going as close to the truth as he could manage.

"I'm as shocked as you are, but only that they wanted me. You totally deserve this"

"Aww, Joey that's sweet. But you're wrong - you've earned this just as much as I have. I'm so happy we've done it together!"

"Yeah, that is pretty awesome" Joey couldn't help but agree, whatever the circumstances.

"Celebration drink tonight?"

"I'd love to, but I have to catch a plane first thing tomorrow"

"That quickly? It's going to take me at least a couple of days to tie things up here"

"Yeah, I think I can pretty much throw the few things I own in a suitcase and I'm ready" Joey sighed.

After a short and uneventful flight the next morning, Joey was picked up by limousine and driven to his new digs in the centre of the city. Carver's photos really hadn't done the place justice. It had the feel of somewhere a foreign official would be allocated to when they had business at the White House.

Joey quickly realised he wasn't alone. He could hear a young woman humming a tune over the sound of running water. Liv hadn't been due to join him until the evening, but it seemed her plans for the day had been rearranged and she'd beaten him to their new home.

The water was soon switched off but, the humming continued. Joey approached the bathroom door excitedly.

"Hey beautiful, I'm so glad you're here already! Can you believe this place?" he called through it.

The door unlocked and swung open, leaving Joey dumbstruck at the vision of perfection that greeted him, wearing nothing but a towel and a smile.

"It's nice to see you too, Roomie" Carver replied, with a mischievous glint in her eye "Yeah, our new pad is pretty fucking awesome. huh?"