Corey's POV

From the moment we left Andy asleep as the safe house this morning, I had a bad feeling. I didn't know what it was, or what it meant. I was hoping our meeting with Phil would go quickly so we could get back to her. It was easy to see the feelings that each of my brothers had for her. In the time she had spent living with us, we had all grown attached to her and I don't know what we would do if she wasn't around anymore.

Sitting down with Phil, I covered the basics and told him what I had found. He wasn't surprised to hear that Jason was involved, or that Andy had insisted on us telling him alone.

"She suspects someone else was behind it, doesn't she?" Phil asked.

"She said something about having trouble locating the CI File, but wouldn't elaborate. She said you would understand but she needed information from those files before she could be sure of what was going on." Axel mused. "She didn't acknowledge that Jason could be the person behind it all and didn't really say much about it at all as we talked through what we found."

Phil simply hummed in acknowledgment. If I didn't know any better, I would think he knew that Andy didn't believe that Jason was the one behind her current situation and that she knew who really was behind it.

"So boys," Phil started, raising an eyebrow. "What do you think of my girl?" He was sporting a knowing look.

"Da, I like my wife very much. I'm not letting her go anywhere," Raven smirked.

Marc, who hadn't expected the question, or Raven's immediate response, snorted his coffee out of his nose.

Axel thumped Marc on the back while answering Phil's question. "I think we are all equally taken with Alexandria, Phil, but you already knew that. I know you have been keeping an eye on her and us. I also know that when you have been unable to keep an eye on us, you have had others doing it.

"I also know that after Kayli, we have all been hesitant to dive back into anything serious with anyone. I can't speak for everyone else, but I know that I find myself wanting to open up to someone new, to spend time with them, getting to know everything about them and them me; someone to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with.

"Don't pull that face Raven! Not all of us bring a different girl home every time we go out!"

"You know you can talk to us about anything, Ax," Brandon said.

"In theory, yes. But sometimes you want the perspective or opinion of someone who hasn't known you as long as we've all known each other," Axel replied.

Phil was smiling, watching us from where he was sitting at the head of the table. It was the most anyone had been able to get Axel to talk about his feelings in a long time.

"Phil, I think it is safe to say that we are all very taken with Andy, but none of us have spoken to her, or to each other about our intentions," I told him truthfully.

"I think it might be time for you all to talk about it then. From what I have heard, she is quite taken with you all and asking her to choose just one of you, or not telling her how you all feel would not end well for any of you!" Phil chuckled.

"What does that mean?" Marc asked.

"If she thinks she is causing any kind of issue between you all, she will leave." Phil looked sad at this admission.

"Phil?" Axel prompted.

"Why do you think she ran away to join the circus. I know kids always joke about it, but how many actually do it? Reggie whined constantly about the changes he had to make when we all agreed that we wanted to have Andy live with us. He was known to be a bit of a nudist before we took her in and it took a bit to adjust. Over the following years, he would make subtle little digs about the amount of time he was missing out on with Jenny.

"Jenny came home early one day and found Reggie yelling at Andy about how she ruined his life. Jenny pulled him into line pretty quickly, but by the time they had calmed down enough and went to check on Andy, she was gone. She left a note saying she was sorry for tearing the family apart. We tried everything to track her down, but she made sure to erase all trace of her involvement with us before she left.

"We found out a few days later that Reggie had been getting treatment for cancer. He had found out just after Andy moved in but didn't know how to ask for help. Instead, he bottled his feelings and made snide remarks frequently. The day he exploded at Andy, he had been to an appointment where they told him he wouldn't see in the new year.

"He knew it was no excuse and was trying to help us find her so he could make amends, but when that girl doesn't want to be found, you won't find her."

We all had more questions for Phil, like who was this Reggie he spoke of and were Jenny and Mrs. Rose the same person, but before any of us were able to ask, our phones all simultaneously zapped us with the emergency shock.

"Corey! Did you really need to shock us?" Brandon snapped.

"Oh, so because I still have my computer open, I must have been the one to shock you!" I snapped back, feeling bitter that I had been shocked by my phone. "Besides if it was me, why would I also shock myself?"

Our argument was cut short by Phil. "Corey, I need you to bring up this IP address, now!"

Unsure what he meant, but understanding the urgency in his voice, I followed Phil's instructions, quickly pulling up the page he directed me to and sharing it on the main screen in the room. It was as though the world had stopped around us as we all took in what we were seeing.

"Shoot!" Phil exclaimed.

It was definitely a lot tamer than the words I had wanted to use.

Raven was seeing red, and despite being the furthest from the door, was the first to reach it with Marc right behind him. The rest of us were not far behind. Phil called out to us that he would have a room ready for when we got her here. He had seen enough to know that Andy was going to be in bad shape and said to call him if we needed an ambulance.

The drive between the hospital and Andy's apartment should normally take about twenty minutes, but since Raven was driving we made it in 5. The car hadn't even come to a complete stop and Marc had leaped out, racing toward the only apartment with an open door. I was right behind him, making sure to pull a fire alarm switch on the way. We could see the smoke coming from her apartment and it definitely hadn't been there when we left.

I was right on Marc's heels as he reached the door. He hesitated only a second before he launched himself at James, knocking him completely off and away from Andy. Frozen in place and unsure what to do, I stood just inside the doorway as Axel, Raven, and Brandon filed in around me. Brandon raced over to Andy just as her eyes closed. I quickly dialed Phil and told him we would need that ambulance as soon as possible.

"Brandon, are you right to get Andy outside? Take her over to the grass and keep an eye on her until the Ambulance gets here." Axel ordered.

I was momentarily distracted by the sound of a bone breaking. Turning my head, I saw Marc's hand withdrawing from James' face, bloody, no doubt bruised, and with the sound of that last hit, possibly even broken. I watched for a few more moments as Marc continued to land blow after blow on a stunned Jason who seemed to be having a hard time catching onto the severity of the situation he found himself in. 

"Sometimes I forget that Marc used to be in a gang," I mumbled, mostly to myself.

"Corey! We all have a past and you know he didn't want to be in that life, he was forced into it." Axel chastised me.

"I know, Ax, I also know that whether or not he wanted to be involved, he would have had to go through a hell of a lot to be accepted in. He has always been so reserved, so calm, that I wondered if he ever really was in a gang. Seeing him lose control like this just reminds me that he wasn't always the guy we know." I responded.

Axel gave me a slight nod, acknowledging what I was trying to convey, as Brandon carried Andy from the burning apartment. "Raven, get Marc out of here before the place burns down. Corey and I will knock on all of the surrounding apartments and make sure that tenants have evacuated."

By the time we had checked the neighbors, they had already cleared out. Joining the rest of the team on the grass, waiting for the fire crews and the ambulance to arrive, I saw my brother looking more vulnerable than he had in years. He was sitting on the grass, legs on either side of Andy as she lay on him. She appeared to be somewhat conscious, but not entirely lucid.

Brandon looked like he was going to break down at any moment. The last time he looked this distraught was when I was arrested for hacking after we had run away from our parents. Even when Kayli had been around he was still kind of closed off. While I was glad for the changes I had seen in him since we all met Andy I hated to see him looking like this again, especially knowing there was nothing I could do to help him.

Marc sat a little to the side, hands fisted in his hair, staring unseeingly at Andy leaning against Brandon. He was rocking slightly and mumbling to himself. Axel stood near him, close enough to stop him from doing anything irrational, but far enough to let him had the space we all knew he would need after what had happened. There was no denying that Marc wasn't going to be himself for a while.

I stood back a little, not wanting to crowd them. Raven had been glaring at anyone that tried to get too close, which had Andy's neighbors scared enough that they kept a good distance away as well. I kept an eye on all of the neighbors, knowing that if James had lit the fire in the apartment, he wouldn't have still been in the room when we got here and his accomplice was nowhere in sight.

Arsonists usually liked to stay and watch their handiwork and while I highly doubted they lived in the complex, I needed to do something, so I watched the people that were watching what was going on. Most of them looked horrified and shocked at seeing their building go up in flames and some even kept stealing glances at Andy, trying to work out if she was alright.

There was one man that stood out though. He stood separate to everyone else, was wearing a baseball cap and hadn't taken his eyes off the doorway to Andy's apartment. I was wondering why when I realized that James was still in there. I shot Axel a look, asking what was done with James. His answering glance told me this was not the time or the place to talk about it, so I went back to looking at the lone man.

Sensing I was watching him, he turned and looked at me briefly before I broke eye contact with him and wandered toward Brandon, under the guise of checking on Andy and making sure there was enough room around us for the ambulance that was turning into the driveway of the complex. Axel came to stand beside me.

"The man in the baseball cap, standing off to the side watching Andy's apartment, he looks familiar but I can't place him," I mumbled to Axel.

Thankfully, he had been standing on the side of me that allowed him to look at the man without drawing attention to us.

"I think he works at the aquarium as a security guard. His name is Roy. I haven't seen him around over the last couple of weeks though." Axel replied.

Our conversation on Roy was cut short by the paramedics racing over to Andy and starting their workup. I made a mental note to check up on the man later, but right now, I needed to know what was happening with Andy and to make sure that Brandon wasn't going to cause a scene when they ultimately tell us we can't ride in the ambulance with her.