And Then, There Was Fire.

twenty three.

Kurisch and Trey allowed the silence between the three of them, with Trey allowing Lauren the time to digest this. She always would tell him it was harder for her to entertain the idea of herself relating to any of their findings, since this started with Trey going off the whim of his father's name. However, now, with an actual photograph, he understood she needed time to process this.

She leaned forward and dropped the pictures on the desk, leaning back while sliding her hand back into the pocket of her jacket as she stared at Kurisch, with her expression stiff.

"What exactly did Paula explain to you both?" He asked, his eyes shifting between the two of them.

"Well, she said a whole lot but also not enough. Was pretty confusing, but gave me these copies." Trey answered, reaching behind his back in his jacket to pull out the folded packet of stapled pages. He placed them on the desk as Kurisch eagerly grabbed a hold of them, shuffling through the pages as he glanced over each one.

"She mentioned that name, Pseusrathena, after focusing on Lauren oddly. You asked if I had to find her," Trey continued, causing Kurisch to look up at him before Trey could continue.

"Before driving down to Florida to visit Paula's shop, it was simply just for me, because of the rabbit hole my father's name sent me down. Lauren just happened to be a very......." He paused, looking at Lauren as he found his words. "important person to me, that I trust and wanted in my company. There were things about her since we first met," He paused, glancing at Lauren in solace. "that made me feel as if we're the same. We just never spoke to it directly until that day." He shrugged and frowned the corners of his mouth. "So, I figured I'd have her come on that trip with me. Just to get there and see her face drawn in some book Paula had." He finished, pointing at the pages.

"You know," Kurisch began after a short pause that brought a smirk on his face, warmed to hear Trey tell him this. He then brought his leg over his other knee as he leaned back again. "while you both were babies, and even during both of your mothers' pregnancies, we always wondered.......... if you two were to be," His eyes looked up as he paused, trying to find the best way to describe this without having shared anything of their origin yet. "connected." He finished while glancing at the both of them.

"Connected how?" Trey asked.

"Who's we?" Lauren followed immediately, overwhelmed that this unfamiliar man mentioned her as an infant.

Kurisch sighed, knowing this was going to be difficult, and long. He knew he needed to start from the very beginning of it all.

Just then, the corded phone began ringing behind him, causing all of them to slightly jump in their seats. "Finally." He snapped his fingers, turning around to answer the phone in German before shortly hanging up.

"One second." He excused himself to head towards the front door down the suite, causing Trey to sigh and Lauren to roll her eyes, becoming impatient.

They turned around and saw one of his waitresses at the door, attempting to roll a cart in with their spirits, wine and food. He spoke in German as he insisted on taking the stainless-steel cart himself and closed the door.

"Just in time," He smiled while bringing the cart over. "Cause we are all going to need this." He handed Trey his short glass of brown liquor, filled mid-way with one large iced ball in it. He then placed the wine glass in front of Lauren on his desk, taking a bottle of white wine that she's never seen before as he tipped it over his forearm with etiquette.

"You said connected. In what way are we connected?" Trey asked to jump back on the topic.

"And who's we?" Lauren followed, again. "Thank you." She politely thanked him for her wine, reaching for it as she had no appetite anymore; just an appetite for the wine she needed after seeing the two photographs she kept glancing at.