"Ready?"

She comes rushing to the kitchen as I'm finishing my breakfast.

I never had anyone making me breakfast so this was a first. Mom was always working so I had to teach myself from a young age to cook. This was a nice change.

"Yep. Good to go." I stand up picking my plate and mug.

"What do you think you're doing? Leave them there." Mary is scolding me as I leave my things near the sink so I can wash them but she stops.

"It's no trouble, I can wash them." I mutter kind of embarrassed as she is staring at me.

"That's my job, young man. Leave me be." She stands protectively over the sink with her hands crossed so I back away smiling.

"He will get used to it Mary." Rachel stands by my hooking her arm with mine smiling. I look at her frowning. I don't think I will, but ok.

"Look at you! So beautiful!" Mary says as she lays her eyes on Rachel and I must say I couldn't agree more. She is wearing a pair of multicolour flowy pants with a white tank top as her hair are down in loose curls reaching the middle of her back. "Aren't you a lucky man?" She says again smiling at me and I have to say I'm one lucky son of a bitch! "So, you better watch it!" She warns me strickly and I chuckle.

"Yes ma'am." I smile sweetly at her and she smiles back.

"Ok you two. That's enough." Rachel rolls her eyes and tags me to move. " We have to go." I nod at her and start moving.

"Same goes for you, young lady. You better keep this one. It was a nice change to talk to someone with a brain"

"Mary!" Rachel scolds her as I laugh with Mary's comment and Rachel squints her eyes at me.

I take out my keys once we are out the door to unlock my car.

"Hey, can i drive?" My hands freeze in the spot and I look at her shocked.

"No. No you can't." I say firmly and she pouts.

"Why not?"

"You hurt my baby once, that's enough. Now get in." She climbs in the passenger seat still pouting.

"Boy.. just when I thought we were making progress."

"Oh, we are. But it would take more than that for you to drive this car." I scoff and she sticks her tongue out, mocking me.

As we drive to the office together, light music is playing in the car and every now and there I hold her hand, intertwining our fingers. I can't help myself, the urge to keep touching her is stronger than ever.

"I'm kind of anxious."

I look at her momentarily and turn my sight to the front. She is chewing the inside of her cheeks looking lost.

"About what?"

"Dad. I have a bad feeling about this, since the moment you told me about it." She looks at me and I can the worry reflecting from her eyes. I rub small circle on her hand with my thumb and squeeze it a bit.

"It's probably nothing. I'm sorry if upset you, it wasn't my intention."

"No, no. I'm glad you told me. It's just that.." she signs nervously "I know my dad. I've watched him work for years, paying attention to every little detail. This, doesn't seem like something he would do."

"Well, you are about to find out." I half smile to her as I'm parking the car.

The walk upstairs was mostly silent, clear tension in the air. She is holding my hand like her life is depending on it but I don't mind at all.

We exchange pleasantries with Linda before walking in my office.

"Ok, show me."

"Just sit down. It's gonna take a moment for my laptop to open up." I say as I take a seat and start organising a bunch of papers lying on my desk. She is pacing up and down nervously playing with her fingers as she is waiting for me.

"Ok. Here." I stand up and let her sit in my spot so she can browse through my file. I hover over her pointing the transactions I've mentioned before. She is carefully reading everything and then starts searching in depth every receipt, every transaction on her dad's file.

I hear a knock on the door and after a second Dan comes in.

"Hey Noah. Oh, bug, you're here too. How come?" He marks surprised only to be met with Rachel shushing him without even looking at his direction.

"What's going on?" He questions putting his hands on his pant's pockets looking at us curiously.

"Something's come up. I was about to tell you but she insisted to take a look first." I walk up to him as I nod at Rachel behind me.

"Well, I have some news myself. The new ship is gonna be here in a couple of days and dad's on his way here." He grins happily but Rachel looks like she is about to cry when her eyes leave my computer's screen. I frown and I move closer to her.

"Rach, what's up? You don't look ok." Dan says worried.

"It's dad. Danny, I think he may be in trouble." She mutters and it's like all the blood of her body is drained out of her. He shifts his weight from on foot to the other uncomfortably and frowns.

"What do you mean?"

"Here come look at this." He goes to her and looks at what she point to him. I'm watching them feeling guilty as fuck, thinking this is all my doing. I should have told Dan earlier. Never should have brought her into it. It's killing me to see her like this. Especially after what happened with her mother.

My office line blinks and I pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Noah. Is mr. Brody there?" I hear Linda from the other side of the line asking with an oddly unsteady voice.

"Yes.hang on." I turn my eyes to Dan who is looking at me plainly. "It's for you." I give him the phone and Rachel looks at me with questioning eyes. I sigh, shrugging my shoulders and take out my glasses to rub my eyes.

"Yeah." I turn my attention to Dan as he is speaking to Linda. "Wait, what?" He seems shocked. "Hold on, hold on. What are you saying?" Rachel stands up crossing her arms in her chest and looks like she is about to faint. My heart is beating faster as anxiety takes over my whole body and I feel like I'm gonna jump out of my skin any moment now. Dan sighs despairingly and drop his head. "I'm coming right away." With that he closes the phone and places his hands on my desk looking like something is weighing him down. He takes a deep breath and raises his head to look at us. His eyes seem red and he has the same pale color Rachel has for a while now.

"Well? What did she say?" Rachel mutters, her voice so weak and I can only hear her because of how quiet the room is.

"Um.. The ship was stopped in Boston because of an anonymous tip." His voice is breaking and he has trouble breathing. "The FBI was informed that there are illegal stuff on board so they did a swipe. They found enormous quantities of cocaine and crystal meth." Rachel gasps shocked and tears start to escape her eyes as she brings her hand to her mouth. "The IRS is headed to the offices right now to tear up the company's files and dad…" he swallows hard "is wanted and will be arrested the minute he steps out of the plane."

Fuck me!!