Undercover

21. Third Time IS the Charm

It was already the weekend and while I missed the children dearly, I was glad that I had gotten a break from getting up early to be at the school. I had learned to cherish the weekends and the days off. But it didn't mean that I wasn't busy during that time. I always had something to do, regardless of what day it was.

I got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom that was inside my bedroom. I took a shower and then put on some jeans and a t-shirt. I wasn't going to go anywhere so why dress up? It wasn't like I dressed up a lot anyway, so really the question was irrelevant.

After I got dressed, I went downstairs and saw that both Cayden and Ingrid were already seated and eating breakfast. They both said good morning and there was already a plate set at the table for me. I ate in silence just looking between Ingrid and Cayden. They hadn't said anything to me besides the good morning, and that was really setting me on edge. Usually in the mornings, you couldn't make them stop talking, even if you begged. I was a little nervous and I really hoped that they weren't going to bring up the fact that I had gotten in late the other night because I had stayed at Aiden's place. It wasn't even supposed to happen.

"So...how is Aiden's apartment?" Ingrid said as soon as I had finished with my plate and had washed it.

"It was neat." I said.

"That's all you're going to give us? No there were some porn movies over here, and some playboy magazines over there or any naughty stuff like that?"

I looked at her with a deadpan stare, or at least what I hoped was a deadpan stare. "No, Ingrid. He did, however, have many pictures of us on his wall. I didn't think that he still had them."

"Aww. That's so cute. He kept your pictures and even hung them up in his apartment, where he lived alone. He still loves you, Nat."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Come on, you can't deny that you don't love him, Nat. It's in your eyes. The way that you two look at each other still." Cayden added.

"Guys, I seriously don't want to talk about this. I just want to be here and be calm and not have my siblings hound me about something that was never meant to be. So please don't start this. I just want to be here and not think about the fact that he came back into my life. I don't want to think about the fact that because he came back into my life the very man that was responsible for his leaving is also searching to get back at him through me. I don't want to be worried about the fact that something might happen to me."

"Come on, Nat. Nothing's going to happen to you."

"You don't know that. He already knows who I am. He knows that I'm the one who lives in the place next door to where Aiden had first been stationed in so long ago. There's no sign that they're going to catch him any time soon."

"You're thinking so negatively."

"I'm not. I'm just saying that this is a possibility."

"Make sure you put up a hell of a fight if something happens."

"I just want to not worry about whether today is the day that he's going to get me."

"I know, kiddo. But everything will be fine. We won't let anything happen to you."

I nodded and let myself fall on the couch. Ingrid hated it when I did that, but she hadn't said anything about it today. I think it was because she was too scared. I think they were as scared as I was, because the last time that they had lost someone, they hadn't been expecting them to not come back. I would give everything that I had just so that they didn't have to go through that again. There were many things that I didn't understand and death was always one of them. She didn't really care who it was, she took without a second chance. Life had the same problem. It didn't matter who it was, it would take whenever the hell it wanted and it didn't have to answer to anybody.