Present

I woke up to Sierra's back against my chest, my arms around her torso to hold her close. It almost felt unreal to be holding her again. To not be dreaming of it, for her to be here with me. I checked my digital clock on my bedside table without letting her go and realised we had slept in.

"Morning, darling..." I whispered into her ear, she sighed her annoyance. If she had any sort of trouble sleeping like me, then last night was the first time she had slept well since we last shared a bed.

I placed a kiss on her neck, hearing another sigh leave her body.

"We should get up. It's almost the afternoon." She groaned then.

"Fine. We have a world to save, I guess." She said, rolling over to face me. "Why does it have to be us? Could we just leave everyone else to it? They're all capable."

"Max-"

"No, I'm not responding to that name from you anymore." A smirk was on her face as she spoke, staring into my eyes. I guess I hadn't used that name last night, so it didn't make sense to use it again.

"Sierra, we started all of this, so we should probably help finish it." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay, you make a valid point." She sat up and untangled herself from my arms, which made me sit up as well. She tilted her head backwards, the sun pouring in through the gap in the curtains illuminating the curve of her neck.

"Seduction won't work this morning."

She immediately lifted her head again and looked me in the eye. "Are you sure we can't ignore the world outside for a little longer?" I shook my head and got out of bed, standing up and pulling some clothes out of the wardrobe.

"We have a lot of shit to do if we want to win." I pulled on some sweatpants before throwing one of my sweatshirts to her. "And do you think anyone can do what you can?" I had to boost her ego to get her up and out of the bed.

"I guess not." I put on a t-shirt and socks. "Queen doesn't hate anyone more than me at the moment, so only one of us can effectively get on her nerves." I walked out of the wardrobe. She turned to look at me and took another slow breath, shaking her head. She was finally out of bed, wearing just my sweatshirt. "How do you look good in everything?"

"Could ask you the same thing." My eyes shamelessly looked at her toned legs. At least she had taken care of herself since I put her in prison. It always scared me that she wouldn't, that if I went to visit her, she would be back to barely more than skin and bones. Like when we agreed to work together, when we got her off of fentanyl.

"Well, for me it's undeniable good looks." A smile was on her face as she walked into my wardrobe, took out another pair of sweatpants, and put them on.

"Can I claim that too?"

"I guess so. It would make us a very attractive couple if it were the case." She walked to the bedroom door, reaching for the handle but pausing. "I don't want to go out there."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure that Jacques will kill us both if we don't."

And with that, she opened the door, finding Jacques sitting on the floor, using the coffee table as a desk with papers and maps spread out over the entire surface. I looked to the kitchen bench where I saw our clothes from last night folded in a neat pile. Thanks Jacques.

"The kitchen is bigger and would have been more useful to me, but I assumed I don't want to touch that surface until one of you two cleans it." Jacques said, not even looking up from her laptop.

"Probably safest." Sierra was blushing as I responded. I placed a kiss on her forehead before walking to the kitchen and pulling out some disinfectant wipes to clean the quartz countertop.

"I assume you two sorted out your... issues." Jacques said next, and I watched as Sierra walked over and sat down next to Jacques.

"You could say that." Sierra responded, watching me as I cleaned the kitchen counter and moved our clothes to be on one of the lounge chairs.

"Good, well, I hope you are both well-rested, because I have good and bad news for you."

"Like what?" I asked. She looked up at me and away from her laptop.

"Good news or bad first?"

"Bad first, can make us feel better with the good news afterwards." Sierra said, and I agreed.

"Okay, well, I contacted Micah after you caught me up on what he said, specifically that there's profit for Queen in all of this. Figured out what he meant because I needed to know. Somehow I didn't know everything, which I assume is because Queen wanted to get rid of me as well or was worried I would leave once I figured it out. Jokes on her. I already left. Um, point I was getting to; Ciara's virus kills the host after roughly two weeks. Even if infections were scattered, the 'apocalypse' would only last a few months, maybe a year, at most. There might be some stragglers, but they would be easy to deal with. Queen is going to make a profit by selling places in safe houses." Jacques explained.

"Fuck me." I said under my breath. Sierra looked like she was about to make a joke, but Jacques cut her off.

"I heard you two throughout the night, so don't say a fucking word, Max."

I smiled and laughed, so Jacques moved on before I could say anything else.

"She's sold to affluent and influential people already. She's made over a billion dollars through it, or will once she provides the safety. Everyone has to have cash ready to hand over when they arrive at the houses. From what Micah said, it has to be US dollars."

"If society collapses, she'll have the only money left in the world that's accessible. Internet goes down, then internet banking goes down, it would be cash only." Sierra said.

"She'll control the new world." I said, to which Jacques nodded.

"Anyway, that's the relatively bad news. Hundreds or thousands of 'worthy' people already know about this and aren't doing anything about it. So, to give you the good news; I have located warehouses where Dusk is being produced and stored, and have also located potential safe houses as well." Jacques said, and I nodded.

"If we destroy safe houses..." Sierra trailed off.

"Queen would have to delay her plans if we hit enough of them." I said.

"Well, yes, they would be significantly less guarded than the warehouses. But if we hit a few, she would change her security structure to protect the other safe houses, it could leave the warehouses less guarded and therefore easier to hit." Jacques said, I nodded.

"So we need to find the manpower to do that with people we trust." I said, wondering if the Director was one of the people who had bought a place in one of these safe houses.

"If we have enough people, we could spread and hit multiple at once, catch Queen by surprise. We have Micah and his small army of people, but we need others as well. People who can move quickly, that we can use to break into the warehouses as well." Sierra said, and I knew where she was heading with this.

"You want to pull your team out of the Court." I said. She nodded in reply.

"They've been on call, getting ready since I got out of prison. They could be here by tonight." Sierra said, and I took a deep breath.

"Okay, let's do it." I said. She smiled and stood up, running to her phone to leave the room and call her team.

"Sorry about last night." I said to Jacques, who shook her head.

"Look, at least some of us are getting laid with the end of the world a few days away." She said with a smile.

"Feels like I have my priorities out of whack."

"No, if we fail... it's better to spend as much time with her as you can. Make up for what you've lost. Feel lucky. Some of us have no one."

"Could always find someone for you, Jacques."

"If you can find me a beautiful and intelligent woman while trying to save the world and keep Max entertained, I will be very impressed."

"Well now I know who you're after..." Ciara flashed in front of my eyes. Jacques tilted her head.

"My problem is finding someone who can put up with my genius and scattered brain. They worry when I can't focus on them because I need to focus on work." I smiled a wicked smile. "Esmond-"

"No, she'll probably be coming over at some point today, if I know her at all. You can decide for yourself, but I can introduce you."