Back In London

By

Philippa Raphet Meeng

Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers, nor any of the Characters. They're property of The Avengers (Film and TV) Enterprises, and this story is meant for entertainment purposes only.

Timeline: 3 years after Cathy ended her partnership with Steed, so it’s the Emma Peel era, 1966. The story takes place in late spring / early summer.

Author’s note: Not much has been written about Cathy Gale yet, most fanfics are based around Steed and Emma. I thought it would be interesting to explore Cathy’s past. I’ve used information from various episodes from series 2 and 3, and special thanks to Timeless A-Peel for providing me with Cathy’s background information from the book ‘The Avengers Files’.

I’ve used some bits from that, but I’ve also twisted and turned some facts in order to make them fit into my story.

We are approaching Heathrow Airport, London. Please return to your seat and fasten your seatbelt.

Cathy Gale looked out of the airplane window, oh how she had missed London. It’d been nearly 3 years since she last set foot in England.
During her holiday in the Bahamas she ran into an old friend of hers, and he invited her to come along with him to America. There she had started to give flying lessons to young women. She had a great time there, but after a while she had become restless. She was in desperate need for a change, plus she missed London.
And there it was, a job offer from the British museum, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. So Cathy had packed her things and had gotten on the first available flight to London.
She was excited, but at the same time, it brought back terrible memories. Just before she left, she was nearly burned alive. Sometimes, the nightmares still haunted her. It was also the last time she had worked together with Steed.
John Steed, she wondered what he was doing right now. Probably still exactly the same things, fighting diabolical masterminds, with a beautiful woman as his partner.
Last time she checked, he had been working with a woman called Emma Peel, a widow, just like herself.

The plane landed at Heathrow Airport according to schedule.
After collecting her luggage, Cathy went off to look for a taxi. She wondered if her flat still looked like it did 3 years ago.
She had rented it out for the time being, and was hoping it would still be in a proper state.
Luckily, it still looked pretty much the same. The long journey and the 6 hour time difference had worn her out, so she decided to take a quick shower and go to bed afterwards.
There would be plenty of time to unpack later.

A week later

Cathy was sitting in her new office at the British Museum, looking through some papers. There was going to be an exhibition soon, about recently discovered ancient Egyptian art, and Cathy was appointed to make an inventory and to make all the arrangements for the exhibition.
The paperwork seemed perfectly alright at first, but when she took a closer look, she discovered something odd about them. There seemed to be a lot of mystery surrounding the finding places of some of the pieces of art, and the people who claimed to have found them.
Must be a case of strange Egyptian bureaucracy, Cathy thought, and put the papers away. She had lots more to do, and very little time. She would take another look at the papers later.

When she entered her office the next morning, she was in shock. The place was wrecked, and about half of the collection was gone…

TBC...