~A week ago you said to me,

"Do you believe I'll never be too far?"~

AUGUST 19TH

She rubbed her blearily and stepped out into the hallway. There was no way to tell from this side of the house what time of day it was - really late, extremely early. When you're a workaholic, none of it really matters, and it definitely didn't matter to her. All she knew was that if she knocked on Nicholas' office door, he answered. That's the way that it always was - she knocked, and he answered.

So her knuckles hit the wood three times, and his voice called out. "Come in." She opened the door enough to slide through, and then shut it again. The blinds were drawn. That meant that there was still no conclusion as to what time it was. There was Nicholas - her aging boss. The man who never slept, just like her. But her insomnia was a side effect of medication, while his was stress-induced. "Gemma," He greeted her. "What do you need?"

The two worked well together - both preferring to get right down to business than exchange pleasantries. She'd been with him for a long time - before her little brother had ever come to her and spoken in tongues about being a getaway driver for the biggest businessman on the east coast of the United States.

The only argument Nicholas and Gemma had ever had was over him pushing his brother in Harry's direction. He wanted something to hold over Simon, and Harry and Gemma's relationship was the perfect weapon. If the two ever clashed, he had an advantage, and she hated it. Hated that Harry was caught up in this world of crime.

"Just need some signatures," She yawned and held out a folder. He continued looking at his computer while signing the highlighted spaces. Gemma was everything to him - except a lover. She ran his companies, ran his money through off-shore accounts, ran his teams, ran his financials. He was a figurehead, and she was in charge. In exchange, she got the best doctors, and safety for her brother.

"Did you hack that list of accounts I sent to you?" He questioned as she began to turn towards the door.

"I've been busy with the security updates," She explained. "There's a lot of them. I can ask Nick to take more of the responsibility, but-"

"Get it done or I'll take him off the no-hit list." Her lips zipped shut. No excuses mattered to him. There was only him getting what he wanted.

With a small nod, Gemma went back into the hallway. The only noise in the large London residence was the sound of five alarm clocks going off simultaneously. Finally, she knew what time it was.

Six in the morning.

She sat down on the floor outside of her office and clutched her hips. The pain was agonizing, and an erratic sleep schedule didn't make anything better. There was a trip to the hospital in order soon.

Loud footsteps clomped down the stairs, and Gemma rolled her eyes as Nick Grimshaw came into full view with not a single shred of clothing on. "Coward. Take an advil." That was the same remark he said to her time and time again.

"You try having your body reject your kidneys, huh pal?" She called, then sighed. "You making tea?"

The response she got was a middle finger, and that prompted her to stand. Not to fight him, because he'd win for sure, but to move into her office before all of her "children" came to start work for the day. There were three screens in front of her comfy chair, which supported her in all the right places to take some of the agony away. Gemma pulled up a secure chat on the left computer and typed in, "Faxing the papers to the lawyers at 8." Then she exited and started looking at the list that Nicholas had emailed her several weeks ago - bank accounts that she was supposed to drain and put into her boss' bank account. Without making that look suspicious of course.

The door opened, and a very quiet Bella Hadid entered. She was all dressed with a complete face of makeup, somehow. Despite it only being fifteen minutes after all of the alarms had gone off. "Need to go into London today?" Gemma shook her head and rubbing her eyes once more. "Didn't sleep? Me either. The baby was up half the night." Bella slid into one of the chairs. "Thank god she won't be here the next couple of days."

The next person to walk in was James Corden, with earbuds in. He held two cups of tea in his hands. One was for Gemma, and the other was for himself. Despite being the humorous one of the group, mornings were when he cared less about cheering everyone up, and more about getting his daily tasks completed.

After the tea was safely in her hands, he sat down on the floor next to the six medium-sized safes. Then he was programming the codes that had been discussed the day before at their nightly meeting.

As it got quiet again, Gemma began typing, waiting for one of the other three to enter the room. The next one was the other twin, Gigi Hadid, slamming the door open and holding a notepad. "I'm making breakfast, what do y'all want?"

Bella turned the chair. "Avocado toast, please."

"James?" Gigi questioned, stepping in to kick him to get a response. He mumbled something that she wrote down, and Gemma simply shook her head and sipped her tea. Then the twin that was standing's attention was drawn back to the safes on the floor. "We don't need six of them. Nick's plan is dumb in some parts."

James pulled out an earbud and took a sip of his drink. "The plan will work. Nicholas signed off on it, and don't we all trust him?"

"Of course," They all chorused with a smile. While some may have had their doubts, Nicholas had done alright by most of them, who had only done a few odd jobs for him. The two that had been there the longest were Gemma and Nick. Both of them had seen everything, and there was no telling what they really thought of the big boss.

Gigi sat down in front of Bella, drawing on the notepad and still allowing herself a moment to wake up. She didn't look as dressed up as her sister, but the two of them did have very different plans for the day. Bella would go into London and practice for the job, while Gigi would sit outside of the other Cowell residence and hope that they would come outside so that she could use her new semi-automatic rifle on someone.

She began laughing, pausing the track that her pen was on as a petal on a flower was completed. "What?" Bella crossed her arms and glared.

"I'm still thinking about Philadelphia."

"Stop," Gemma immediately said, halting her typing for a moment.

Gigi continued chuckling. "I mean, we're trying to kill them, and they were still trying to kill each other. It's quite funny when you think about it. Oh, and the look on his face!" Giggles filled the room, coming from a crazy woman.

"Somebody died, Gigi," Bella said, her face not showing any emotion. "And you know Gemma is pissed that you ignored orders about attacking Harry."

"Sorry," She rolled her eyes and stood.

Gemma set her tea down once more as the twins left with promises of being back later. She did make sure to flip them both off and leave them with a farewell. "Have fun in London!"