^^^PARTS OF THE APARTMENT AND SPARKLES

*FLASHBACK*

"The pointlessness of you asking where I wanted to spend Christmas," she sighed.

"I asked you to choose, and you chose an island. That's not a suitable place to spend Christmas," I bullshitted.

She raised an eyebrow, amused. "The thought of other guys seeing me in a bikini sealed the deal for you huh?"

"Fuck yes! Besides, it's not like Switzerland is the worst place to be," I pointed out.

"Alright Xander, I'm sold. However, how do you plan on convincing my dad to let us all go?" she asked.

I walked up to her and wrapped my arms around her waist. "See? I won't have to. My beautiful blossom is going to do it for me."

"Nice try! I'm going nowhere near him," she refused.

"You need to play your part here blossom. We've already promised the gang a Christmas away from here. Don't be that guy," I replied.

"Why do I have to do it?" she whined.

I chuckled. "I'm going with the most obvious reason being that he's your dad."

"You're just tempting me to not give you your surprise," she huffed.

"Nope! No! You can't do that to me. You've been waving the surprise in my face for the past two weeks," I complained.

"Look at you getting all soft in the name of a surprise," she teased, receiving a nice glare in return.

"I told you that I refuse to have any walls with you. We've come this far and you mean everything to me. The last thing I want to do is be an asshole to you," I reminded.

She leaned on her toes and kissed me. "I know Bond. It's just surreal I guess. When I see you in front of everyone else, I always get giddy on the inside knowing that you're so much more different with me. I can't believe I'm so lucky to see the real you."

I leaned in and kissed her once more. "And you're the only person who ever will."

"Alright! You've buttered me up enough. Let's go before Aziel breaks my phone with all these text messages," she sighed.

"He let you call him Aziel?" I asked in surprise.

"Yep! After you guys wiped away everyone's memories of Nigel's real name, he figured it's fair that I learn his name too since my memory wasn't wiped," she replied.

"And you know the rule right?" I asked.

"I can't call you by your real names around anyone else. It's been three months. I think I've got it by now," she said cheekily.

"I'm just making sure. It would be such a shame to have to wipe your memory of me," I said dramatically.

She gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"Who knows blossom? Who knows?"

***

The punching bag fell off the chains after the last kick to it. I was dripping, and my anger still wasn't soothed. If anything, it was still raging through me. All I could see was my blossom's broken self, and that was enough to get me fired up again.

"You've been in here for ten hours straight."

I turned to find Mr Solano there, arms crossed. "I need to be here."

"Why?" he asked.

"It's the safest way," I replied as I hooked the fifth punching bag up.

"You need to be at her side son," he sighed, walking up to me.

I scowled at him. "You want me to be with her?"

"I love my daughter, and it pains me to say this, but despite what she's gone through, you're the only one who she wants at her side right now," he replied.

I looked away from him. "I can't do it."

"You have to get over it and avenge her. You can't stay down here feeling angry that you didn't protect her. Hell, I feel just as angry at myself for the same reason, especially because I could've prevented this by keeping her away from you. However, you both look like tortured souls, and that's how I know that I can't interfere with this. I will only stand to lose her if I keep you apart, so this is my only option. I have to get your stubborn self back to her," he said sternly.

"I can't look her in the face after I let her down so greatly. I'm the best at what I do, and yet I failed the most important person in my life," I told him.

"So what's the alternative? You avoid her and fail her further?" he asked.

"She's better off without me. She's safer without me," I said before punching the bag.

I didn't expect to be pulled back to have a massive punch landed on my cheek. Mr Solano has one hell of a punch, and the look on his face suggested that he wasn't about to entertain my nonsense, but I wasn't backing down.

"Fight me," he said.

I shook my head. "I can't do that."

"I can take you little boy, and if this is what it takes to get you back to my daughter, then so be it," he said seriously.

"With all respect Sir, I've just caused your daughter injuries. I'm not about to injure you too," I replied.

"You'll be surprised to find that I can hold my own," he said before throwing another punch.

This time I was more alert, and on any other day, I would've probably been shocked at what was going on, but all I could do in that moment was fight him back. I was overwhelmed with my emotions and fighting him was actually helping.

I couldn't believe that he'd actually held his own.

"I believe this means you have to go and see my daughter," he said as he pinned me to the floor.

"Fine! I'll do it," I grumbled. He got off of me and helped me up.

"I will never say this to any other boy, so listen carefully. Noelle is my only daughter, and I would die for her. When I first held her, I made myself a promise to only give her away to someone I was confident would feel even remotely close to the way I felt when I first held her. The two of you may be young, and you may face obstacles that most couples wouldn't even imagine, but I'm proud to say that I have met the young man that loves my daughter the way I know she deserves to be loved. I want you to promise me that you're going to stop feeling sorry for yourself, and you're going to find the bastards who harmed my daughter. From then on, I want you to promise me that you will always take care of her and protect her physically, spiritually and emotionally," he told me.

"Are you saying that I can marry her if I wanted to?" I asked.

"Oh, I already know that you're going to do that much. I'm simply saying that you should know that I will never say those words to any other boy," he said before walking out of the gym.

I was left to my thoughts as I went to take a blasting hot shower. I was sore everywhere, but I wasn't registering the pain. Instead I was thinking of all the ways I would be facing my fragile girlfriend. It had been three days since she returned, and I hadn't seen her since.

Instead, we moved her whole family to the safe house, despite not sharing the truth with Nick or Mrs Solano. That wasn't an issue though since they were more worried about blossom's well being. Nigel, Aziel, Franco, Silo and I have been working to find out what the hell is going on. Thinking about what she said to me took me back to the day she had a surprise for me.

*FLASHBACK*

"You look so uncomfortable," she teased.

"I don't like sitting in the passenger seat of a car blossom," I admitted.

She laughed. "Oh my adorable Bond, that much I know. But if you want your surprise, then you're going to have to suffer a little."

"I'll take your word for it," I said warily.

She looked like she remembered something she'd wanted to ask. "Tell me something. With the other groups in the organization, how do their code names work?"

"Are you asking if the numbers continue?" I asked amusedly.

She blushed. "Well yes."

"No, they don't. Last I checked, as far as numbers go, I'm the highest, with Zero being the lowest. The other groups choose how they'd like to be associated," I explained.

"Is there a group that goes by colours?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Not that I know of."

"Okay," she said with a smile.

***

"I've run through all the Cypher records, and there's nothing with the reference 'BLACK' that could mean anything to you, or be of a threat to you," Franco informed me when I got downstairs.

"Same with the Genesis records, which means one of two things. Either you have an enemy who has reinvented themselves, or there's something else going on here," Silo said.

"What exactly are you getting at?" I asked.

"Think about it. We've simply assumed that this was about you this entire time because of who you are, but for all we know, it might be more about your precious girlfriend than you," Silo explained.

"That would make sense if we knew how Elle is then the connection here," Nigel commented.

"Her father is the Director of the FBI. He may be new in his post, but enemies can be people who linger. I'm pretty sure he's made some before he was appointed Director. I think it would be wise to investigate his enemies as well. We might come up with something," Silo recommended.

"Fine, but run your plan through him," I replied.

"Are you heading out?" Nigel asked, to which I nodded.

"Are you finally heading to see her?" Aziel asked.

I nodded once more. "It's time. I can only hope she doesn't kill me for staying away for so long."

"Good luck! She's been looking forward to seeing you," Nigel told me.

They'd already seen her.

"Thanks! Call me if you get something," I told them before heading out to my Maserati.

We were working from my house since the Solano's were staying at the safe house. Everyone else had gone to see blossom, save for Cash, Wes and Eli. We weren't sure what to tell them yet, but we couldn't keep Sunny, Bridge and Felix from finding out.

Or at least Nick couldn't.

It was a short drive from my house to the safe house, and when I arrived, the girls' cars were in the driveway, together with Nick and Mrs Solano's cars. Mr Solano was back at my house since he was also running his own investigation into this.

I went into the house and I could hear the girls talking. I followed their voices and arrived to find them in the kitchen, helping Mrs Solano with lunch. They all sent me encouraging smiles and pointed towards the stairs. I headed up the stairs, only to bump into a frantic Nick.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"She's in the gym, training. She shouldn't even be awake. Please go and talk some sense into her since she won't listen to me," he huffed before storming off.

I couldn't believe what he was telling me, until I got to the gym, and true to word, she was working out. I cringed at the sight of the bruises and marks on her back as she did a pull up. She shouldn't even have that much strength yet. I walked up to pull her down from the bars, only for her somehow attack me and have me flat on my back on the mat.

That's twice I've been pinned down by a Solano in the same day.

"About time you got here," she said before she got off of me.

"What are you doing?" I asked her as I got up.

"Working out," she replied.

"You're supposed to still be in bed," I pointed out. She turned to look at me, tears in her eyes.

It damn near broke me.

"I'm supposed to sit in bed and be smothered by everyone? When they're not there, I'm supposed to lay in the bed, wishing away the horrible memories of what happened to me? I'm supposed to cry myself to sleep, wishing that my boyfriend was there to hold me and tell me that everything will be ok? I refuse to do that anymore Xander, and I was honestly beginning to think that you didn't want to be with me anymore. One would think you would've learnt your lesson about distancing yourself from me after I've gone through something traumatic, but I guess I don-"

I picked her up, wrapping her legs around my waist, before kissing her like I never have before. Listening to her, watching her cry, set off a whole set of new emotions within me. I was angry at myself without a doubt, but I was more determined to avenge her.

"You're crying," she whispered breathlessly, wiping away my tears.

I frowned. "I am?"

I thought it was her tears.

"Why does that surprise you?" she asked.

"I'm pretty sure I last cried when I was a baby. I didn't even cry when I watched my parents and little sister get killed," I explained.

"I thought you can't remember what your parents look like," she said.

"I can't. In my memories, I only see their silhouettes," I replied.

She was silent for a long while, still in my arms, before she finally spoke. "I made you cry."

"I don't even know where to begin to apologize blossom," I admitted.

"You see, I know. I already know that you're sorry, a million times over even, but that's not what I want from you. I just want you to hold me and promise me that we're going to take down the people who had me," she told me.

I leaned in and kissed her softly. "I promise."

"Good! Now put me down. I'm in so much pain, it's not even funny," she complained.

"Why would you put yourself through even more pain to begin with?" I asked in confusion.

She blushed. "I thought it would drive Nick crazy enough to get him to get you down here."

"Blossom, I may be slow and stupid with such reactions, but you had to have known that I would still come," I sighed as I caressed her cheek.

"I was scared," she whispered, looking down.

"Of what?" I asked.

"I thought you wouldn't want to be with me anymore because of this. I thought you'd leave me because you felt it was safer," she confessed, looking up at me just as a tear left her eye.

I leaned down and kissed it away. "Our relationship is built on honesty, so I won't lie to you. I did think about leaving you, and I did think I was doing it for your safety. Your dad had a role to play in talking me out of it, but it's seeing you so fragile because of my absence that has sealed the deal for me. I promise I will never, ever, leave you to go through anything traumatic alone again, no matter how hard I am on myself because of it," I told her sternly.

"Promise?" she whispered. I kissed her forehead as she rested her head on my chest.

"On Sparkles' life."

*FLASHBACK*

"Would you tell me where we're going? We've been driving for hours," I complained.

She giggled. "Would you quit being such a woman? We're almost there."

"I am not being a woman just because I'm impatient. Quite frankly, that's an insult to your own kind," I played at her.

"Look at you being a feminist! But you're right, guys are more impatient than women," she replied.

"What? No we're not," I denied.

"Sure you're not," she said innocently.

"We aren't," I stressed.

"I believe you," she mocked.

I rolled my eyes. "Because that's believable on its own."

"It's not my fault if you don't believe that I'm being genuine," she said with a laugh.

"Whatever blossom. Wake me up when we've arrived," I said as I took the seat back down.

She giggled. "Ok my grumpy pants."

I don't know how long we were on the road for after that, but I managed to get a nice nap in. I was shocked the first time I took a nap because it was in blossom's presence. Aziel had me test out if I could do it again without her there, and it turns out I can't nap without her there.

"Bond, wake up," she said, shaking me awake.

I opened my eyes to be met by a building. "Where are we?"

"Come on," she said before leaving the car.

I followed after her when she'd locked the car. We headed into the building, and she went to the reception area, where she was handed a key. We headed up the elevator, before heading down the hall to a door with the number sixty six on it.

Our favourite number since both our names have six letters.

You can imagine my shock when I found that it was an apartment. The interior seemed to have a theme of black, gray, white and red. It looked like a corporate apartment, but with the homey feel as well. There were pictures of the both of us on the walls.

I turned when I heard a yip behind me, to find her holding a small Maltese puppy and an envelope. "We've got something for you."

"What's going on?" I asked as I accepted the envelope.

She smiled. "Just read the letter."

When I opened the envelope, the last thing I expected was to be met by the Cypher logo. There were two letters, and the other had a Harvard logo on it. The Cypher letter was confirming that I could go to college, and the Harvard one as confirming that I'd been accepted to study law and play football there.

"I got mine three days ago, so I asked Nigel to check how far your request was at Headquarters. Apparently they'd forgotten to send you the letter, so when your Harvard acceptance letter arrived, I managed to put this together with the help of Malachi," she said.

I looked up at her. "What are you saying blossom?"

"Cypher's given you this apartment to live in while you go to Harvard, and you've been given the green light to stay here with me. I haven't met anyone from Cypher, but Malachi and Aziel really helped me to put this surprise together. We can always change things up with the apartment, though I love just the way that it is. This here is Sparkles. I remember you saying that you've never had a dog before, so I figured I'd get us Sparkles. Malachi has agreed to watch her for us until we've moved into here," she explained.

I couldn't believe what she'd done. We'd both applied to Harvard after deciding that it was what we wanted. She applied to study medicine, and we'd had a random afternoon, thinking about an ideal world where Cypher didn't exist and I was just a normal guy leaving for college with his girlfriend.

And how we were going to get ourselves a puppy named Sparkles.

"I love you," I accidentally blurted.

"I know. I love you too," she said with a smile.

***

We'd only spent one weekend at the apartment since her dad doesn't know about it. All he knows is that his baby girl got accepted into Harvard, and nothing else. He doesn't even know that I got it, but knowing Mr Solano, we probably don't need to tell him.

"I think I need to sleep, but I won't sleep if you're not staying," she warned.

"Don't worry Rambo. I'm not going anywhere," I teased.

"I hate it when you call me Rambo," she mumbled.

"I know you do. We'll talk some more once you're rested," I told her as we walked to my room here at the safe house. I already knew that's where she was staying.

"I know. I'm just glad to have you back, so don't leave, even if it's to answer the phone. Look at how well that turned out the last time," she said with narrowed eyes.

"Something tells me you're not going to let me down easy here," I sighed.

She giggled. "That's because you're my very wise boyfriend who knows me better than anyone."

"Oh, the things we go through for love," I said dramatically.

"Said the person who didn't even suffer for it," she said, deadpan.

"But I did," I groaned.

"Oh really? How?" she asked.

"Oh would you look at that? It's time for you to sleep!" I said, opening her blankets for her.

"This conversation isn't over Xander," she threatened as she got in.

"I wouldn't dream of it Noelle," I replied. She pointed to her cheek, and I leaned down to kiss it.

"And here," she said, pointing to her other cheek. I chuckled and kissed her other cheek.

"And here."

I kissed her forehead.

"And here."

I kissed her nose.

"And here."

I kissed her pouting lips.

"Ok, now I'm all better. Let's go out," she said as she got out bed.

"Blossom," I said in warning.

"I'm kidding! I'm just grabbing this," she said, grabbing my sweatshirt.

One of the many she's taken from me.

"You're not leaving right?" she asked.

"I just need to go and calm Nick down, and then call your dad, but I'll be back to lay with you as soon as I'm done," I said.

"Pwomise?" she said in a baby voice.

"I pwomise," I replied in the same manner.

"Ok! I love you Bond," she said with a smile. I leaned down and kissed her softly.

"I love you too blossom."

**********

HEY SMURFLETTES!!!

Sorry this is late, but I had internet connection problems and then my laptop died, so I had to wait to get home.

Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope it was a blessed one!

PS Thank you for your support on S.I.X and your continued support on Z.E.R.O. I love you guys!

Katee (^^,)