"I'm going to miss you girls so much, get in here." mom wrapped her arms around Cece and I. It was late Saturday morning and we were at the airport saying our goodbyes.

"We'll miss you too mom." Cece said as we separated.

"I already miss you." I hugged her tightly again.

"Oh, honey, take care of your yourself, okay?"

I nodded into her hair and took in the familiar scent of cinnamon and vanilla before breaking away.

"That's my flight girls."

We went through another round of hugs and goodbyes before she finally left. We waited until we couldn't catch sight of her or the purple polka dot blouse she had on, anymore.

"The apartment is going to feel all weird and empty when we get back." Cece spoke first.

"I hate that feeling."

"It'll eventually pass." She rubbed my arm. Her phone made a ding sound and she unlocked it. "It's Ambrose. Our meeting's starting in a bit. I should get going."

The trial was coming up real soon and I was more than excited to see Richmond get everything and more of what he derserved.

"I think I'll get something from the vending machine before I leave, goodluck today."

Cece and I parted ways with her going towards the exit while I gravitated towards the closest vending machine. I was already in front of the vending machine about to make a snack choice when someone called my name. I turned towards the source.

"Ophelia!" Erin, sunny as ever, grinned and hugged me.

"Hey." I smiled and tried to regain my balance once she let me go. I saw the suitcase behind her and immediately asked, "you aren't leaving for London yet, are you?"

"No, no," she gesticulated with her hands, "I'm going to cali, spending the week with my middle school bestie."

"That's cute. I don't even remember if I had a middle school bestie." I chuckled.

"Zoe's-oh look, Will's coming." she pointed and my eyes followed. He was indeed heading our way and with a small carry on bag. A few more steps and he was next to us. He regarded me with surprise.

"Hey."

"Hey." He smiled.

"Look who I found." Erin grinned as she collected the carry on bag from her brother. She turned to me after. "Are you here to drop someone off?"

"Hm, just did, my mom."

"That's right! I saw your mom and sister last week, I think, at the mall. Impossible to miss that gorgeous shade of blonde anywhere."

Getting a snack was completely forgotten as Erin cajoled me towards her check in point with her and William. Our conversation didn't lapse until her flight was called. She went in, making it my second goodbye of the day.

"Are you about to cry?" William stared at me carefully.

"No, there's a bit of draught."

He looked around and laughed.

"Have you called the FBI guy?"

"Something came up."

"What?"

"I don't think we should discuss it here."

"Okay, your place then." I said without preamble.

We got to his car and five minutes out on the road, my eyes started drooping. Five minutes more and I was fully asleep until a light tap on my shoulder jolted me up. The first thing I registered was William's face and he was grinning.

"Come on sleepy head." He beckoned.

He helped me out of the car and we went up into his penthouse. I yawned and stretched the whole way.

"Didn't get enough sleep last night?"

I nodded. "Worked on a presentation due Monday morning most of the night. Now, what came up?"

"A few weeks ago, Leona's PA was killed."

That woke me up.

"Her name was Irene. I'm not sure if you'll remember her. She was always covered up whenever she came to the office."

I shook my head then asked, "Runo?"

"You bet."

"What does she have to do with anything?"

"A lot. She knew something. Something she wanted didn't want anyone else knowing but things must have got messy. She was finally going to tell me and now she's dead." He ran a hand down his face. I placed one of my hands on his knee and patted. I could understand his frustration.

"What about the website?"

"We are getting closer every day." He handed over the laptop on the center table.

"Your team is really good." I murmured.

"We try." He shrugged. "Are you hungry?"

"Everytime." I blew out air.

"I'll make us lunch."

"I'll watch TV and lay here like a princess then."

William stood and I stared some more, at the screen of the laptop. It was full of codes and hard work. I tried to picture Irene but came up short. Another dead person. A shiver ran down my back. The casualties of one man and his crew was alarming. My gaze moved to Will who was turning on the cooker in the kitchen, looking everything a GQ house husband should look like. I captured the moment. Returning my gaze to the screen, I hoped the end to everything was really behind this firewall.

***

"I had lunch brought up today."

It had been almost a week since mom left and meeting Erin and Will at the airport. We'd fallen into a sort of unofficial routine the past week, having lunch together.

"No gluten for me please."

"Do you still get morning sickness?"

"Can't stand the smell of anything before 8:00am."

"I read it doesn't really start till your second trimester."

"Yeah, but there are except-" I stopped, "you read?"

He coughed, "let's eat."

The corners of my mouth lifted in a coy smile but I obliged and dropped it.

The office was silent as we ate until Will asked, "how's the embryo?"

I choked on a grape. The predecessor of my current affliction was quickly by my side rubbing my back in circles.

"Are you laughing?" He asked once he took a look at my face. I searched for water and gulped a mouthful.

"You're ridiculous." I continued laughing.

"I don't exactly know what to do." He deflated.

"Me either." I was honest. "This is also a pretty new territory for me too." With a leap of courage, I took his hand and placed it against my still flat abdomen.

"So there's something in there right now?"

"Crazy right?"

"Crazy." He nodded.

"What kind of parents do you think we'll be?" I asked as his hand dropped.

"Hopefully not the kind still fighting a mafia crime lord when it's born."

"Hopefully." I grinned then checked my phone. "When's he coming?"

Looking at his wristwatch too, he answered. "He should be here soon."

He finally succumbed and called the ginger haired FBI agent (who had a business card), Eli, yesterday. Persistence really did pay off.

"You know, it took you long enough to call him."

"I just want to be careful."

"You don't ignore a pregnant woman's intuition." I tsked.

He chuckled.

"Why? What's funny?"

"You're not suddenly Gandhi Ophelia."

We were still arguing the case over when William's phone rang. We both fell quiet and stared at it. He answered it and after a short exchange, the call ended.

"Where is he?"

"4th level parking lot." He went to his drawer and brought something out. It was a gun. I desparately tried to play it cool because it was moments like these everything really dawned on me. We were trying to catch a bad guy. Oh boy.

"Can never be too safe." He placed it in his back pocket.

"Are you good with it?"

"I've never killed anyone before."

"That's not what I meant."

"I believe I make a decent shot then."

We didn't say anymore all the way down to the lot. I found Eli without a hassle. He was the only other person there and he was waiting right beside William's car.

We walked towards him.

"Nice to finally meet you Illston." Eli brought his hand out as we reached him. "Hey beautiful." He smirked at me.

William ignored the hand and decided to be a dunderhead by placing his arm around my waist instead. I elbowed his side causing him to groan. Eli retracted his hand with a smile. Men, I rolled my eyes.

"What do you know about Runo?" I got to business.

"He's a bastard."

"That we can agree on." Will spoke.

"But he's a smart bastard. I know you've been trying to hack into his website for months now. I'm a major reason you haven't been arrested."

Will raised his brow at that then searched around. He brought out his key, unlocked the car the beside us and motioned to it. He got in the driver's side, I, the passenger's side while Eli got in the back.

"Runo's website is full of illegal information, it's not like he can report it." I started.

"He has some higher ups bribed." Eli continued.

"If he has them in his hands, then what's to say the evidence on his firewall will even be enough to put him behind bars?" William looked conflicted now.

"Oh it'll more than be enough. There's no escaping from what's on there. But here's the wow factor. The evidence isn't on his website."

William and I both turned to stare at Eli.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You guys are on an orchestrated goose chase."

I glanced at William. His jaw was ticking. "So it was never there?"

"It was, just not anymore."

"Where is it?" Will gritted out.

Eli brought his phone out, tapped something then held it up. On the screen was a picture of a man.

"That's Twain Yanus." I recognized.

He showed us another picture.

"And that's irene. Both dead." William said. "They knew something, didn't they?"

"Yanus more than knew. He created. Irene was unlucky. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What else do you remember about Twain, Ophelia?" William suddenly asked me.

"That he made sim cards?"

"Not only love." Eli grinned.

"And memory cards." William's eyes lit up. "He had plans to start a memory card line in the future."

"So he made them a memory card?" I felt the excitement bubble in my throat.

"Every single thing that bastard has ever done is on there." Eli confirmed.

"And where is this memory card now?" I stared at the two men.

"Right now? It's free game. Runo doesn't know where it is. What Twain gave him was a fake. I think he planned to use it to bribe him in the long run but Runo is a fucking psychopath and ended up killing Yanus and his girlfriend," he turned to me, "the one who lived in your apartment. She and Twain devised the plan together but he apparently didn't tell even her where he hid it."

I turned away from them. The entire thing was so sad. Too many deaths. I felt William's eyes on me.

"Runo's tearing up the city for that card as we speak but we have to find it first or else, we won't ever get another chance. Especially you Illston."

"How do you have all this information? It can't all be FBI benefits only." I questioned still staring at the dashboard.

"I have eyes on the street beautiful."

"Runo can't know we know about it." William said.

"Exactly. So you need to keep hacking. We'll need more hands though. None of my guys will, not until it's solid."

Will made a scoffing sound.

"There's Detective Shaun." I threw in.

Will groaned loudly.

"The more the merrier." FBI spread his arms out and grinned.

__

"Are you okay?" Will asked as we returned upstairs.

"Mmhm."

"Things are only going to get more dangerous from here on."

"I'm aware."

"Runo will sooner or later find out that we know about the memory card and are also searching for it. And once he knows, he's going to come after me."

"I know," my voice was lower.

"But I'm happy you're here with me like this." He said shocking me. I expected more lectures on the danger of everything. "It's better. I said I'll never push you away again and I meant it. But I can never fully shake off that part of me that just wants you to be safe. It's an irrational part. I really wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you."

A lecture would've been better.

"You have a gun and all, I think I'll be alright." I smiled. The elevator came and we entered. Baby steps. I liked them.

***