We quickly tell Teddy to come over and as I look around the beautiful setting Liam created, I realized it would be awkward to have Teddy sit with us in the candle light. Liam agrees and we quickly walk around and blow the candles out. After blowing out the last one, Liam looks to me and says, "The baby discussion isn't over yet."

I smile to him and he gives me a smile that reaches his eyes. I think he really wants this baby, which is so not what I expected from him. We hear the front door slam shut and Teddy quickly finds us standing in the middle of hundreds of rose petals in the living room. He glances from the petals to us, "Am I missing something here?"

"Yeah, we were just celebrating being kicked off Topher's case," I say back and Teddy's eyes widen.

"You're not his lawyer anymore?" Teddy asks and I shake my head. He drops onto the couch and says, "Damn. I was hoping you could talk to him after I told you all of this. Act like we're still in the dark and find out what he's planning."

I fold my arms and reply, "No, now it's best that I'm off the case. He can get into my head remember? He'd know we know as soon as I stepped foot into that holding room."

Liam plops into our leather chair that's adjacent from the couch and rests his elbows on his knees. He clasps his hands together and says, "Okay, so this is what we know. Your parents work at Cal Tech and should have been there that morning. A bomb goes off and my dad is arrested in the alley way. A woman named Rebecca Kane was supposedly his accomplice and now she is missing. Topher brings Ellie in to be his lawyer and tries to convince her that he was set up. Ellie's bosses discover she's not being entirely honest or ethical with this case and remove her from it. Did I cover everything?"

Both Teddy and I nod. I look between them and say, "Well, also you and Teddy were the ones to go back in and go over the crime scene. We are all involved in this."

"What do you think his next move is?" Teddy asks and both Liam and I shake our heads without an answer.

"Ellie, I know you were taken off this case but tomorrow you should go in and see what your bosses have learned so far. See if there is anything we missed," Teddy tells me and I nod in agreement.

"I've been demoted and your parents were almost killed. I think you two need to watch your backs," I tell Liam and Teddy as they glance to each other.

"I think we should look further into Rebecca Kane too. He wouldn't have brought her name up for no reason," Teddy reminds us.

"You're right. Topher doesn't do anything for no reason."

*****************

The next morning I make it in early for work and I find a bored Monica sitting at the receptionists desk. She's wearing a borderline inappropriate blouse which puts her size D assets on full display. Peabody's little pervy minds will blow when he sees her today. I decide to push my luck and ask her, "Hey Monica, are Peabody and Kavanaugh already in yet? I had a meeting with them but I didn't know if I was supposed to meet them here or at the court house."

She glances to me and then back down to her large flat desk calendar that takes over half of her space. Ellie is losing it if she can't remember where she was supposed meet her bosses for a meeting. No wonder she got kicked off her case.

I bite my tongue and am embarrassed the whole office knows about my current situation. That and she thinks I am irresponsible for a meeting that doesn't even exist. She finishes scanning her notes and looks back to me, "I don't see a meeting scheduled Ellie. Both Kavanaugh and Peabody are in court all day. They won't be back to the office until this afternoon."

I smile to her, "Oh that's right! I remember them telling me to just swing by the courthouse later. Thanks for checking!" I dart away from her before she can think anything else about my irresponsible behavior and I glance around the office hallways all the way to my office. I beat almost everyone here, so the majority of the offices lights are still off. I decide to take my chances and go sneak around Kavanaugh's office for any of Topher's case files he may have left around his office. Sometimes it drives me crazy that both Peabody and Kavanaugh are still set in their old school ways and like every single thing about a case typed up and printed out. They hardly use email and they like hard copies of every piece of paper or evidence neatly filed away in filing cabinets. Their old school tenancies might just help me out today.

I glance around me one last time to make sure the coast is clear before dipping inside Kavanaugh's office. He always leaves the door unlocked in case Monica needs access to something he needs while he's in court. Unfortunately, Peabody always locks his office door when he leaves at night, so if nothing is in here I'm screwed.

I keep the light in his office off so I don't draw attention to myself and my heart stammers while I quietly close the door. I should have had Liam come with me to work and use his talents to sneak around in here. Kavanaugh has the second largest office in the building but it's the most intimidating one. It's wall to wall cherry wood bookshelves that are jammed packed with law books and case references. He has a massive dark cherry wood desk that takes up the left wall and rows and rows of filing cabinets take up the back wall. I decide to check his desk first.

Kavanaugh has rows of perfectly lined up case files and I'm afraid of messing up their neatness. I scan the row of file folders and find one labeled "GATES" in the middle. I carefully pull the file folder from the stack and flip it open. It doesn't seem like they have much information on Topher and the file only contains a few pieces of paper detailing the evidence left at the scene. Which Teddy and Liam already know since they were at the scene. I close the file disappointed not to find anything and I continue scanning the stacks to see if there are any more files. I don't see anything else labeled Gates and I frown. Suddenly Kavanaugh's door knob jiggles and my eyes widen in horror. I immediately drop down behind his desk and press myself behind the desk chair. In the silence I can hear thoughts, if I leave at eleven thirty I will have plenty of time to go return that dress to Nordstrom and make it back before my lunch break ends. If I'm late coming back I'll lie and say I hit traffic. I'm wearing my purple blouse so Peabody will be too distracted by my boobs to notice what I am saying anyway.

Oh it's just Monica, and I'm glad to know she knows about pervy Peabody too. She's rummaging around on the other side of the desk and I am terrified she'll come around to this side and find me hiding out. I hear her staple something and then drop a stack of papers down onto his desk. She spins on her heel and marches out moments later still pondering her lunch break plans. I wait a second to make sure she doesn't come back before pulling myself off the floor. I glance to the file she just dropped onto his desk and I see it labeled "GATES/KANE." I immediately snatch it up and flip the folder open. I see a copy of a picture that looks like the kind of picture taken for an I.D badge. A beautiful brunette woman wearing sleek black rimmed glasses has her lips pursed in front of a white background in the photo. I've never seen this woman before. I take my cellphone out and snap a picture of Rebecca. I send the picture to Liam and Teddy and ask them to look into her. I continue skimming down the notes Kavanaugh has on Rebecca and my eyes stop at the word C.I.A. According to these notes, Rebecca was picked up in Florida by the C.I.A. She is an agent.

No wonder she disappeared. The C.I.A scooped her up as soon as the police started questioning her. If they have her, why haven't they come for Topher? I read Kavanaugh's notes about his frustration that the lab works with the C.I.A so there is a lot of classified information he doesn't have access to. I also read that Kavanaugh is wondering if John Gates had any idea the lab was connected to the C.I.A or if was it a coincidence? I close the folder after skimming the minimal notes and place it back exactly how Monica had dropped it. I dash back over to the door and open it a crack to see if anyone is in the hallway. The coast is clear so I slip back out and run back to my office just in time to see Tristan coming down the hall.

"Good morning Ellie, nice to see you've made it on time for work today." Tristan says smugly and I find my fake smile to give back to him.

"Oh well, I was just so excited to get back to work on the Fisher case to show Peabody and Kavanaugh that they put the wrong person as lead."

Tristan rolls his eyes at me, "Oh so that's why you blew your own case? You were just so eager to be put back on mine. Well Ellie, I'm sure you'll shine as my assistant."

He ducks into his office before I am able to say anything back and my new mission is to destroy Tristan Crawford. That is after I take down Topher....and figure out what do with the pregnancy...I think I have bigger fish to fry than Tristan but he is still certainly on my shit list.