Mia blinked in total confusion. "He fixed it?"

"I told you he was a computer whiz."

"But I thought you fixed it?"

"I didn't."

"But then... then what about the message you left?" She asked, frowning. "'You're welcome – Genius'?"

"You read it wrong," Eli scoffed. "Your friend Zoe deciphered it correctly, but she made the assumption of thinking 'Genius' was a signature. It wasn't, it was message for me, the whole thing was; 'You're welcome, Genius.'" He drawled. "He was mocking me because I couldn't fix it."

"Wait, so you tried to fix it?"

"I was bored as fuck, just like the day in the auditorium when I saw the puzzle. I tried fixing it, but computers aren't really my game, that was always Caleb's."

"Wow," Mia breathed. "You guys are seriously... I mean..."

Suddenly loud heavy metal music started thumping from Elana's room and caused a startled yelp to escape from Mia. She whipped her head around and stared at Elana's door. She couldn't imagine that pretty little girl listening to Black Veil Brides.

"She likes the vibrations," Eli voiced, making her turn and look back at him. He was glancing at the door as well. "She can feel the bass in the floor. That's the closest she gets to experiencing music."

"God..." Mia couldn't imagine a world where she didn't have music. It was one of the most uncomplicated, simplistic joys in the world, and to not have that... "When did you discover she was a deaf-mute?"

"I didn't know Caleb back then, but back around the time she was born. They'd just lost their parents and she didn't respond to anything he said or did."

She wanted to ask how it happened, but she felt like it wasn't her place to, so instead she asked; "How did you guys meet?"

"Low Point," Eli replied, not meeting her eyes. "Got into a fight with some dicks and we had each other's backs. Next thing I know he's inviting me to stay with him at his apartment and introduces me to Elana. I knew ASL, I taught her, bada-boom, bada-bing, we were mates. Now the dick's vanished off the face of the earth and left me with his little girl."

Mia took it all in and then pressed her lips tightly together. She wanted so badly to offer him money, or at least just something to borrow, but she knew he wouldn't accept it. He wasn't a charity case, but after hearing everything that had happened, she wanted nothing more than to lend him a buck. Or just a hand.

Her eyes slid down to his neck and once again, she found herself admiring his beautiful ink. Even though she had seen every part of his beautiful body, Mia could still get hypnotized by it. She knew beneath his clothes, his body was not only masculine and strong, but also covered in art, in history. Everything, right from his pierced nipples, to his extensive ink, to those eyes that were glaring at her in this very moment, they told the marvelous story of someone who had been through hell and had survived. But she also knew that to the unobservant audience, you just saw rebelliousness, pent up anger, and so much hostility it was enough to scare you away from him – which was the ultimate goal, of course. But he didn't scare her. Not anymore.

"We're going to find him," She said, now meeting his eyes. "I promise. And in the meantime, I promise I won't tell anyone about... about any of this. About you."

Eli clenched his jaw, but then nodded. "Appreciate it."

She gave a nod back and then begun standing up off his lap. "I should get home then."

She was halfway to the door when he suddenly spoke; "You didn't ask me anything."

Mia paused up. "I asked you plenty of things."

"You asked me one real thing, and that was about why I didn't apply for the Alexandrettia. The rest was about Caleb and Elana. You didn't ask about me."

Mia closed her eyes for one long moment. That was true; She had deliberately not asked him about his past, because she felt like every time she did, he closed down on her. Also, she had the feeling that there was a certain reason as to why he wasn't volunteering his past in his explanation. She was dying to ask, dying to know, but for the sake of Eli and whatever his story was, she didn't. And maybe also because... she was scared of losing him. Which was silly, considering they were nothing to each other. You couldn't really call them friends, nor lovers.

"I don't care why you are the way you are," She finally replied, still with her back to him. "I don't need an explanation, it's not really any of my business as you've said. I just want to help you find Caleb so Elana can have her brother back and so you can..."

"Can what?"

She almost said 'so you can go back to hiding from whatever you're hiding from' but she stopped herself. Instead she took in a breath and said, "So you can go back to doing what you normally do."

With that, she walked out of his apartment and drove home. The whole ride home, she couldn't stop shaking from simply thinking about what Caleb had been through. Eli spoke so calmly about it and it made her wonder horridly... what the hell had he been through himself?

~~~

"Zoe?"

"Hm?"

"I have a hypothetical question." Mia carefully said. They were at her apartment, having a girls night with movies and their two favorite boys; Ben & Jerry. "If whoever fixed the glitch in the servers didn't do it directly from inside the server room, but from afar... couldn't a skilled hacker like you maybe... trace an IP address? Hypothetically."

Zoe raised her head from the couch and frowned suspiciously at her. "Maybe. Hypothetically. Do you know something Mia? Hypothetically, of course."

She had kept her promise to Eli and not spoken a word about his secret to anyone. It wasn't hers to share after all. Whatever reason he chose to keep it, it had to be really good. She trusted him and she wanted him to trust her, too. That's why she replied; "No, I've just been thinking, you know. I mean, how did anyone manage to do it? They couldn't have gotten into the school, could they? After that... Eli guy broke in, security has been upped quite a bit."

"Sure, I mean..." Zoe sat up and turned her head away from the TV. "I guess it's possible someone could've fixed the servers from afar. They would've have to have hacked into the systems though, and yeah, that would maybe leave an IP address to trace if you're good, but the easiest way would definitely be to break into the school and fix it manually."

"Right. Okay." Mia doubted that Caleb was the type of guy who cared about what was easiest. From what Eli had said, he sounded more like the carefree, mirthful type who loved causing trouble – a textbook bad boy. Unlike Eli who... well, he was neither bad nor a boy. He was different, and deep down he had the mentality of someone who was three times his age.

"But actually, security might not have been so tight," Zoe suddenly said, abruptly sitting up as if something suddenly occurred to her. "There was a glitch in the entire system, not just the servers. That means security could've been faulty and..." Her eyes expanded to saucers. "It means the Genius could've broken in and fixed the whole thing without setting off the alarms!"

Blinking confusedly at Zoe's sudden eagerness as she scrambled to get to her laptop and opened it, Mia simply just watched while she started doing something. "Uhh, Zo? Whatcha doing there?"

"I'm hacking into the school's system," She told, a wry smile around her lips. "If he can do it, so can I."

"But what are you looking for?" Mia asked, jumping over on the other couch with Zoe, now watching her computer screen while she worked.

"The Genius might not have set off any of the alarms, but," She smirked, tapping away, accessing the school's security system just like that. "He might have been caught by the cameras."

Mia felt a whoosh in her stomach. "C-cameras?"

Zoe nodded. "They installed them after Eli trashed the school. Stupid really that they haven't done so sooner, but I guess having a break-in was what the board needed before they could admit that security alarms sometimes aren't enough and often fail."

"And cameras don't?"

"This isn't like in the movies, hon," Zoe chuckled, still typing away. "Cameras are hooked up to one, big, separate computer which records and stores all the data there. It wouldn't be a part of the school's old system because it's so much newer. They would've set it up somewhere else."

"So you're saying..."

"The cameras aren't hooked up to the servers, which means they weren't fried when the whole thing glitched, ergo..." Zoe pressed Enter and then a video feed popped up. "They might have caught our Genius on camera."

Mia stopped breathing when the video feed started playing, obviously replaying the feed from the night the computer glitch was fixed. Eli said he had tried to fix it as well, and dear God, if he had tried to do it the same night that Caleb had...

"Look, I see someone!" Zoe squealed and pointed to the top left corner of the video feed. A blurry figure was walking down Mia's precious hall, keeping his head down. It was obvious from the shape that it was a man. "Oh, my God, Mia! You think that's him?!"

Mia watched with anticipation as the person came up to the server room, still keeping his head down. He was wearing a hoodie, so catching a glimpse of his face was impossible. At least from the angle the camera was filming. The person expertly picked the lock to the server room and then walked inside, officially removing himself from the spotlight of the surveillance.

"Oh... My... God." Zoe said, gaping wide open. "That was him! It was the Genius! Mia! We just saw the first real life imagine of the Genius in action!" She screamed like a fangirl and shook her short blue hair wildly. "This is amazing!"

Mia had heaved out a breath of relief, because purely from when the guy had reached out to pick the lock, she could tell it wasn't Eli; His hands weren't covered in ink, which Eli's most certainly were. Conclusion, it wasn't him.

But Zoe was still right; it was the first real imagine of the genius in action. It was just another Genius.

"I'm gonna keep working on this," Zoe said after taking a moment to calm herself down. "If I can find anything on the Genius, a logo, a specific indicator or something, it might help us track him down."

"That's brilliant," Mia replied, truthfully. "And if you do, make sure to let me know, please. I want to be a part of this."

"What happened to 'I'm over this, I don't care anymore'?" Zoe grinned, clearly still high on finding something new on the Genius.

Mia came up with the quickest lie she could think of. "I guess I've changed my mind. And, uhm, hey... maybe we should just keep this information to ourselves..."

Zoe frowned deeply. "What? Why? This is huge, M! We should tell someone!"

"No, we can't!" Mia insisted. God, she was so happy she had a fast brain. "You just hacked into the school's system, that's a felony. If the school board found out, you'd be expelled. How do you plan on explaining what we just found without mentioning the fact that you hacked into the school?"

An expression of mortification ran across Zoe's face before she then slowly nodded. "Good point there. You're right, let's keep it between us."

Mia nodded and then adjourned to her own couch again and laid back down. She closed her eyes and released a long sigh.

She could tell this was going to be hard to keep secret, but for Eli... for Eli, she could do it.

• • •

The hunt for the Genius has begun.