After spending the day, different than we planned, with Josh, Jake and I had to get ready for an 'introduction' at Rafael's Residence. While I put my hair up in a bun Jake closed the buttons of his shirt. Without many words we left the apartment fifteen minutes before eight and Jake drove us to Rafael's mansion.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Miss Mazelyn. As always you look beautiful, I hope you and your date enjoy the evening." Peter, one of Rafael's guards greeted us when we entered the big house and were checked for weapons. Since hiding our new weapons was easy – and Rafael trusted and respected me - it was no problem to get through the security part. "Thank you, Mister Blake." I replied and felt how Jake shortly put some pressure on my hand which he held but he relaxed after only a few seconds, so I ignored it. We kept going, we walked through the big hall with many of Rodriguez' business partners and followers, since there were mostly men, it wasn't hard to find the twins, Mary's bright, blonde hair would be hard to miss. "At the bar." I whispered and walked towards it with Jake behind me. "Hey, I haven't seen you here before, have I?" I asked Mary with a smile while Jake ordered us drinks. "No, we're new business partners of Rafael. Tom and Mary Jenkins. And you are?" "Until today I have been the only woman on events like these, Jane. Responsible for Rafael's paintings or better said: I am the one controlling if they are priceworthy. And Jake, my boyfriend, is on his best way to be a personal bodyguard." I introduced us leaving out the last names to keep her from doing a quick research.

I kept talking to Mary while the men next to us chatted about their own stuff and looked around. "Hey, I'd like to show you something. Come on." I said after a while and stood up from the bar chair, the guys seemed confused, but Mary was ready to follow me. "Sure, where are we going?" she asked "Yes, where are you going?" Tom interrupted suspiciously "Just the art gallery, I want to show her some of the amazing paintings Rafael owns." I sat back down, pretending I would be scared of Tom but knowing I could easily knock him out whenever I want to. "Okay but don't stay away too long." He approved it, before we could go Jake grabbed my hand. He secretly gave me the sleeping pill for Mary which he had in his pocket because I couldn't hide it anywhere. "Take care." He whispered, smiled, and gave me a quick kiss. I looked in his eyes, saw them sparkle and immediately thought about how happy I was that we were partners in crime against crime. Then Mary and I left, we went upstairs, unnoticed and went to the gallery, I didn't mind about the security cameras that were everywhere because I knew Rafael trusts me, mostly with his art. As soon as we entered the gallery Mary looked impressed. "Wow." She whispered "Amazing, right? That's exactly why I studied art. I just love it, it brings you to places you could never see, amazing places. Makes you feel things. And shows you things from a different perspective." I told her while standing in front of my favorite painting. "What's that?" she asked and stood next to me, looking at the beautiful French landscape and the flowers and grapes on the frame. "About a hundred years old, nothing famous but my favorite. Every time I'm in this room I look at it for at least three minutes. I never notice anything I haven't seen before because my inspection on this one was really close, but I like it, to stare at the most beautiful work in this room as long as possible. I always wanted to go to France." I kept talking. "Understandable, it truly is beautiful." She agreed. We kept looking at the paintings for a few more minutes.

"Since you are probably the only other woman here, I guess you know if there is a restroom only for women!?" Mary asked nervously after a while. "Yes, Rafael's wife, Ophelia, was insisting on having an extra bathroom for women since here are mostly intimidating, strong men in this building and he can't resist her wishes. I'll show you." I said and walked towards the door, after a few right turns in the hallway I stopped in front of the restroom door. "I'll hold your drink and wait for you." I said and smiled at her. "Thank you." She gave me her glass and went inside. I counted to 5 and then tried getting the sleeping pill into her wine with my six free fingers and two glasses in my hands, being careful to stay - as good as possible - invisible on the cameras.

When Mary came back outside, the pill already mixed itself with the wine and we went back downstairs into the hall again. Our arriving was perfect timing, as soon as we reached the bar and joined Jacob and Tom again Rafael wanted to start his speech and introduce the new people. "Did you do it?" my boyfriend put his hands around my hips from behind and laid his head on my shoulder. "Yes, we'll wait for the toast and hope she is finishing the glass fast to get tired soon." I replied, he gave me a little kiss on the neck as a reply and then we listened to Rafael.

About 47 minutes later our plan finally worked, Mary told me she got tired and will look for Tom to ask him to go home. I said goodbye to her with a friendly little hug and then tried catching a look from Jake to give him a sign. Jake looked for Tom after he saw me tipping on my neck. He went to the twin and pretended that he wanted to start a conversation but before that could happen Mary arrived there too and asked her brother to go home. As planned Jake said he wanted to go too and after saying goodbye to Rafael all four of us were outside and walking together to the hotel the twins were staying at. At the darkest part of our way Jake gave me a look. I counted to three with my fingers, so he could see it. Then I got my gun out, at Mary's head. "I'm sorry but we can't risk losing our target, Rafael can't die." I said after I saw how Jake's new gun was pointed at Tom. "And you seriously think it would be that easy? We never get caught." Tom replied before he tried attacking Jake. He shot him.

It felt like the noise made me deaf. The blood that ran down on Tom's shirt made me feel pain at the exact same spot were the bullet caught him. Seeing Tom fall made me feel numb, my hand went lower. Mary sank to the ground to help her brother, she cried. "Jane! Gun!" I heard Jake and before Mary could kill him, I shot, the shoulder, she'll be fine. She let the gun fall and tried getting it back up, but Jake kicked it away and pressed the signal button on the disposable phone that notified the agents that were here to pick up the twins, we found the last mission package when we came home from our day with Josh.

Still feeling numb I watched how Jake changed the signal words with the agents and how they pulled Tom inside and how Mary cried and tried to free herself from the handcuffs she got and how she tried getting closer to her brother and then how the door of the van closed again. It took me a few more minutes after they left, to process what just happened. My partner and boyfriend, Agent Jacob Edward Mel just killed someone without hesitation only because Tom Jenkins, a serial killer and sociopath, said something wrong, in front of his sisters' eyes, who also was a serial killer and sociopath but seemed to have loved her brother.

The feeling left me as soon as Jake grabbed my shoulder, I turned around. His hand was full of blood just like the black shirt he wore, I could barely see it, but it must have been much blood. "You weren't fast enough, honey." He said and then let himself fall on the grass next to us. "Please get the car. I think you need to sew this." He added, I just stood there looking at him bleeding. "Hurry!" he said louder, I wanted to move but I couldn't. The face of my old friend Charles Cooper appeared in front of me. It was as if he was right there "You are a monster! A murderer!" I heard his voice. He never said that, but I knew his voice, I knew how it would sound. "Jane! Focus!" I heard Jake again, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground, close to him. "I don't want to die." He said, I nodded but I couldn't move more than that, I wanted to tell him but I couldn't speak either. I felt tears on my cheeks because I knew his live depended on my concentration that I couldn't get at the moment. "S... S.... sorry... I... I..." I brought out but I couldn't finish the sentence. I still saw Charles' face and his blood, his file, felt how he held my hand when I killed him. "I understand." Jake said and then kissed me unexpected. My focus came back the second our lips touched, I closed my eyes, breathed in the smell of his aftershave, and concentrated on his soft lips. "Now, get the car, babe." He said when we got distance again, I nodded and all of a sudden, I was able to move again, I took the keys Jake held tightly and went to get the car as fast as I could.

"How bad is it? Do we have to go to the hospital?" I asked while I helped him getting in the car that I parked on the street next to him. "Just a graze shot, no hospital. Just home, quickly." He replied, I ran around the car, jumped in on the driver's side and drove home.

When we arrived at our apartment Jake took off his shirt and sat into the bathtub to make cleaning easier. First, I cleaned his wound and sanitized it, tried stopping the bleeding and then I got sewing stuff and tried my best. At the end I put a band aid on the wound and then leaned back against the bathroom wall. "See? I don't need a doctor when I got you, they're only trouble... with their reporting-gunshot-wounds-policy." Jacob smiled at me. "By the way: these bathtub walls are freaking cold." He said and sat up straight, as far as he could. "You want to talk to me 'bout Cooper now?" he kept talking, I just looked at him. "I know he was in the same training course as you and was supposed to graduate with you, I also know you lived together for a month before you had your exam in New York where you had to shoot him, but I never was allowed to read his file. What did he do?" he asked, I had to take a deep breath before I could talk. "I met him at the first day of training, he was nice, and we were friends almost immediately. Our friendship got closer, and I had some distance to Josh so I was ready to have a relationship with Charles, after... eight months we started dating and after another two months we moved in together. All the time he was an amazing friend and amazing boyfriend, I never suspected anything being wrong with him. Then after the 11th month we flew to New York, we went earlier to make a little sightseeing tour and it was fun. The day of my exam I got a package. It was early but he went out to get breakfast. I saw his name, read his file, realized he was not who he pretended to be and chose to trust the files. I called him, told him to meet me at times square and there it happened. I shot him." I told him. "He was a Russian spy. He stole information from our database and was kind of an assassin. Killed several Americans and was part of the organization that attacked the authorities. And from Interpool we got confirmation that he travelled through the world sneaking into secret agencies stealing information and he had a story of raping and killing at least one person in every country he ever visited." I explained, Jake seemed shocked. "Well... that's a story... crazy that the agency didn't know his file and made him part of the training." were the only words he said. "Getting better. You probably read in my file that my mother was murdered when I was 16. After his dead it turned out he killed her." I felt tears rolling over my face. "You know you don't have to keep talking if you don't want to." He got out of the bathtub and sat next to me to put his arm around me. I leaned against him. "Sure, those are painful memories, but I should really start getting over it, it's been years." I sobbed. "Only because some time passed doesn't mean you have to get over it. You lost your mother, and your boyfriend was a Psychopath and you had to kill someone close to you. Honestly, I have no idea how you came so far, you are such a strong woman. How can you not be completely nuts? You are amazing." He stroked my arm gently. "I have never been alone with it. My father lost his wife too, he knew how I felt and was always there for me and Josh was still there after Charles was gone." I told him my guess. "You want to tell me your worst story? Or do you want to sleep?" I tried changing the subject to keep myself from crying. "I think I'm not ready yet, I hope it's fine if we go to bed now." He said. "Sure, take your time. Let's get some pain-killer-pills and snuggle in my bed." I proposed. Jake took my face into his hands and whipped away my tears, with his thumbs, before he kissed me, the next few tears he kissed away gently and then he pulled me closer again because I couldn't hold back my tears.

"Have you ever been shot?" he asked after a while to make me think about something else. "No." I simply replied while I watched him stand up. "I was shot before. One... no two times." He took my hands to pull me up, but I didn't let him pull me because of his wound. "The first time was at my very first actual mission with other agents." He took some pills out of the bathroom cabinet. "Another agent died that day, he was my mentor. I hated myself for surviving when he didn't." he kept talking when he left the bathroom, I followed him to the bedroom, turning off the light in every room. "But I was too scared of dying, that's why I stayed in the hospital that time, instead of bleeding out somewhere in the street." I knew he didn't want me to answer anything, so I just changed, with my back turned to his direction and he just took off his pants, respectfully he didn't look at me. "I was pretty close to death." I heard how he took out a pill. "Now I got a tattoo on the place where the scar was. You probably already saw it." We both went under the blanket "It's right here." He pointed at the spot on his hip where I noticed a moon-tattoo earlier. He pulled me on his naked chest, and I felt relaxed with his heat around me, protecting me from anything bad. "I hope you will never feel the pain of guilt when you aren't guilty of anything. I did feel guilty for the death of my mentor, but it was not my fault and you know, if I would have died today because you weren't able to focus it wouldn't have been your fault, it would have been the fault of Charles Cooper, the person that traumatized you, probably for a life time, and it is not your fault." He finished, I simply sighed, turned around and snuggled closer on to his chest. "Now sleep nice, dream well, babe. Be safe and sure that I will protect you from every nightmare that wants to get into this head." He tapped on the back of my head gently before placing his lips on the top of it, for a few seconds. "I never felt safer anywhere than in your arms, Jacob." I whispered and then we were quiet. I fell asleep in a dark, silent room, comfortable and safe.

In the morning my ringing phone woke me, I didn't look at the name of the person who called me to make it silent quickly. "Who's there?" I said and got up, out of Jakes protective arms around me. "It's Josh, didn't you see that?" I heard my best friend's voice. "I didn't look, good morning, bestie." I said while leaving the room with one of Jakes Hoodies that lay on the ground for some reason. "Why are you calling?" I asked and pulled the Hoodie over my head because I was cold. "I thought we could go shooting or boxing today, I'm still a bit down today and couldn't sleep much." It sounded as if he was begging. "I don't know, sweetie." I turned on the coffee machine and got two cups out of the cabinet. "Maybe we can go boxing for an hour or two." I thought. "I don't want to go shooting today." I added remembering how I reacted last night. "Okay, I'll pick you up in... three hours?" he asked, I looked at the time, it's 9.30. "Fine, see you." "Bye." He hung up. I put down the phone on the counter and leaned against it. When the coffee was done, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, stretched, and then wanted to go back to bed with the cups. I felt the big hands of my boyfriend on my hip before I could pick up the cups. He laid his arms around me and put his head on my shoulder. "Good morning, why didn't you wait until I got up too? I would have like to wake up next to you." He whispered and started kissing my neck. "Josh called, I didn't want to wake you." I said and turned to him to kiss his lips. "And I was on my way back to you." I added with a smile. "Is that my hoodie?" he asked looking at the brown fabric I was wearing over my thin clothes. "Yes." I grinned "Let's go back to bed now, Josh comes over in three hours." I said and gave him his coffee cup. He walked in front of me, and I inspected every centimeter of his skin that I could see until my look landed on his band aid. "Does it still hurt?" I asked while he put down his cup next to the bed. "No. It actually feels like there wouldn't be anything. Why?" he sat on the bed, I put down my cup and stood in front of him. "What kind of a question is that? I ask because I'm worried." I said, I put my hands on his shoulders. "Are you sure you didn't ask to find out what kind of activities I can do?" he suddenly picked me up and sat me on his lap. "Could be." I said pretending I wouldn't know. "We live together for three months, and both didn't sleep with anyone for months... you look really cute in my hoodie, but I more liked your towel-look from yesterday." He rushed a few words out and took of the hoodie. "I like the way you're dressed." I said and ran my fingers gently over his warm, muscular skin. "Can we stop talking now?" he asked while unbuttoning the shirt I wore.

Three hours later the doorbell rang. We both were already showered and fully dressed again and cuddled on the couch while watching a movie. I jumped up and opened the door for Josh. "Hey there." I smiled and hugged him. "Wow, you're in a good mood, huh?" Josh laughed, Jake and I switched some looks until I decided we should get going. "You want to come too, Jake?" Josh asked him "No, I can't. Had something like a workout-accident, I shouldn't get hit." He lied with a smile because he couldn't tell Josh that he was shot. "Alright, then I'll just take your girlfriend out for a few hours, see ya." Josh said, after giving Jake a short kiss I followed my best friend outside to his car.