... Go, I thought to myself.

I closed the last of the distance between Marc and myself, pressing my lips to his. I heard his sudden intake of breath and felt his body tense over mine. If I said I wasn't disappointed by his reaction I would be lying. There was something about the guys in this team that had me wanting to let all of my carefully constructed walls down and let them in. I wanted to be close to them and I wanted them to be close to me, to know the real me. They were already closer than I usually let people, but so far, they have learned of the scared me, the hurt me and the me on a mission to stop someone from destroying me. I wanted them to know the me I was every day, when I am with Phil and when I don't have to worry about people finding out the truth of my past.

At his reaction, I closed my eyes and lowered myself so I was laying flat on the floor again, letting out a deep breath and letting my body relax, practically melting into the floor. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to see the look of disgust I was sure would be on his face after his reaction. I felt ashamed of my actions and wanted nothing more than for the floor to open up and swallow me whole so I wouldn't have to deal with the embarrassment and shame I was feeling for even thinking Marc would be interested in me; that any of them would ever be interested in someone as damaged as I was.

I was holding my breath, waiting for Marc to say something, or to move from on top of me, but he seemed as shocked by my actions as I was, frozen and unmoving. I was fighting back tears of frustration at myself and my foolish actions when I felt muscles in Marc's arms begin to move and I blinked my eyes open, looking at him in confusion. Instead of moving to stand up or roll away from me, he was lowering himself toward me, his eyes focussed on my lips.

I found myself thinking that maybe I hadn't been wrong, maybe Marc did want to kiss me and had just been surprised by me making the first move. I couldn't stop the small spark of hope that was starting to form inside of me. I didn't dare move as he continued his descent. Just as he was about to press his lips to mine, he pushed himself backward and away from me, muttering about people being inconsiderate and having terrible timing as he went.

Rubbing his leg, Marc pulled his phone from his pocket. He gave the screen a filthy look before answering the call. "Speak your peace before I make you regret insisting on the redline emergency buttons" he all but growled into the phone.

He was silent for a moment, the scowl etched upon his face made even more menacing by the frustration he was feeling. He was listening to whoever was on the other line; judging by the comment on the emergency button, I assumed it was Axel. It had been my decision that every team in the Academy should have access to the emergency software that had been created by Victor. I knew there would be people who wouldn't be fond of the idea that their phone could shock them, but it was an additional safety mechanism that had helped save multiple lives since its implementation. Once the decision was made for teams to use the software, it was up to the Academy Liaison to inform their team of the change.

"Kitty, Axel wants to know why you are ignoring his calls," Marc said to me. The first thought I had was at least he is still calling me Kitty - my brain snap hadn't affected the relationship we had started to build. It took another couple of moments for me to realised what he had asked me and longer still to form an answer.

Patting down the usual places I stashed my phone - the bra, pockets, the waistband of my tight fitting pants. I came up empty and rolled my eyes. "I put it down when I picked up the whiskey. With my hands full carrying both the bottle and the glasses, I forgot about it. I guess I am too at home in this place."

"Did you hear that, bossman?" Marc asked Axel. "Good. Of course I let her drink! This is her house and after everything that has been going on, I don't blame her for wanting one!"

Marc paused for another moment before replying to Axel, "Okay, I will let her know, but I am not stopping her from doing anything she wants to do between now and then."

I had hopped up and walked back into the kitchen while Marc finished up on the phone call. I put the whiskey back in its rightful place and picked up my phone to see six missed calls from Axel and messages from Corey, Brandon and Raven begging me to answer the calls. I sent back a quick apology to them all before washing up the glasses that Marc and I had used.

Following after me and coming into the kitchen, Marc told me the team would be arriving for a family meeting in a little over two hours; apparently, they had something important to share with me. It was a given I should make something for dinner, or dessert, or both, for them. They were doing everything to help keep me safe and find out who was after me.

Marc left me to my musings and went to pack up the twister mat and return the lounge room to its original glory when I decided I would make dessert - we would order in for dinner. Deciding on what to make, I sent a quick text out to the team.

Andy: Hi Team, can someone please pick up some french vanilla ice cream on the way over, to go with dessert. Thanks guys.

I quickly got replies from them all in the affirmative and set to work on making one of my favourite desserts. Realistically, it was a fairly simple dessert and often overlooked by many as boring, but it had been my favourite since the first time I had it, with Phil and Mrs Rose.

Once I had dessert ready to go, I took a quick shower and was just heading back downstairs, drying my hair as I went, when the team showed up. I greeted them all before asking Brandon to pop the ice cream he was carrying in the freezer. After offering everyone something to drink, we all made our way to the lounge room.

I curled up in the single seater, my preferred seat in the room and the position I usually sat in when I was expecting to hear something unpleasant, while the guys all spread out among the other lounges that were placed throughout the room. Axel was avoiding eye contact and Corey was shifting uncomfortably where he sat. Brandon was looking straight ahead and Raven was mumbling about ending someone under his breath. Given Marc had been with me today, he was looking uncomfortable, but more out of waiting to hear what had everyone else on edge.

"Okay, what's going on? None of you will look at me, and since the call Marc got earlier said Corey managed to find something, I am assuming it is something I won't particularly like to hear. So, just tell me." Everyone stayed quiet. "Come on, rip off the band-aid! Quick and painless! One fell swoop! Dump and run!" Nothing. Not even a smile from them at the onslaught of my terrible attempts to ease the tension. "Would someone just tell me what's going on?"

"Corey," Axel spoke up. "She needs to know. It is her that this affects the most."

I looked at Corey, who could not have looked more uncomfortable if he tried. He was fidgeting, eyes darting back and forth, knees bouncing. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought he had way too much caffeine in his system and he had been forced to sit still.

After another minute of no one talking, I decided to just come out and ask. "You traced it back to him, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did. A new payment was sent to Sputnik's account this morning, around the same time the goons were raiding the apartment. It was routed through a number of offshore accounts but it led back to your ex." Corey looked so deflated, having to tell me my ex was still trying to ruin my life.

"I figured as much." I told them truthfully. "I just hadn't been able to connect the dots. It was a possibility I had started looking into when the code red first happened, but there was nothing concrete so there was no point telling you my suspicions and clouding your unbiased views."

"Andy, we checked in with Kevin. James is missing. He disappeared a couple of days ago. He somehow managed to give the New York teams the slip and no one knows where he is, but we think he is coming here."

My mind went into overdrive at Axel's words. James was no longer under surveillance. He had worked out he was being watched and managed to get out of the city without anyone realising. I could feel the start of a panic attack coming on. I had always known this could be a possibility and had even suspected he was involved in all of this, but actually hearing it, and that he was missing, was too much.

I uncurled from where I was sitting, vaguely aware of Marc asking if I was okay and Raven yelling at Corey and Axel for 'breaking me'. If I wasn't having so much trouble breathing, I might have found it amusing. I planted both feet firmly on the ground, squishing my toes in the plush carpet. I lowered my head toward my knees, placing my hands on the back of my neck and focussed on trying to take a deep breath. I barely registered Brandon moving and placing a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to let me know I wasn't alone, that they were there for me.

After I managed to calm down and reassure myself this house was safe and that no one would be getting in here uninvited unless they were Phil, the guys started to calm down. There was a quick round of discussion before we decided on pizza for dinner. It was quick, easy and all of us ate it.

The conversation remained deliberately light and fluffy during dinner, ranging from favourite colour to favourite animal, dream car to dream job, the basic stuff friends should know about each other, that we hadn't really made it to yet. It was obvious that it was a deliberate move by the team to keep me preoccupied, but I appreciated their efforts.

After dinner was done and dusted, and the rubbish taken out, I left the guys talking in the lounge room, while I went to the kitchen to get dessert organised. I took the ice cream out of the freezer to let it sit for a minute while I portioned out the desserts and worked on reheating them. I had just added ice cream to the last bowl and was putting it back in the freezer when I heard noise behind me. Spinning around, I came face to face with some wide eyed men as they took in the dessert before them.

"Andy, is that what I think it is and did you heat it up?" Marc asked.

"Well that really depends what you think it is." I countered.

"It smells like a chocolate cake" Corey stated.

"This is my favourite dessert," I told them proudly. "Chocolate mud cake, topped with a thick chocolate ganache, heated to the point where the ganache starts to melt, with a side of vanilla ice cream! Simple, but delicious! It was the first non-essential food that Phil and Rose were able to get me to eat, and it has been my favourite ever since." I told them honestly. 

Quick shoutout to sinder-char for the beautiful new cover! Thank you!