Lovers' Maehem

Chapter 48

Griffin

December 22nd, 2180

1:45pm

I stare at Mae, anxiously awaiting her response. I think we all are. She stares at the wrist, the mark, studying it, looking for something.

"It's not them," she finalizes, and we all heave a sigh of disappointment. "I can check another victim, but this is 100% not them."

"It's okay," Mack says over facetime. "Don't be discouraged, we'll figure it out." Mae nods and we head back to the car.

"We'll call you guys from the airport, but keep working," I tell them, hanging up. I look at Mae who is driving silently to go pick up the bags from the hotel. "We'll find them." I tell her, "maybe they are just being extra careful and moving around a lot." Mae nods but doesn't say anything. It's been more than two months, and we've had 5 leads, each one that turns out to be nothing. Mae and I have been all over the country and still seen no sign of her family.

"They said last week Madison Wisconsin had a bunch of cases in that area," she says quietly, "should we go there next?" I shrug,

"How about we wait a few days. Talk it over with the team, follow the cases for a couple days and the consistency," I tell her, "besides, it's almost Christmas, we should take a couple days off." Mae nods. She is really tired, and needs the rest. We've been here in some random Virginia town for 3 days, and she's barely slept for any of them. Finding her family is her main goal, and she's been stressing so much about it. I want her to take Christmas off. Have a good time, and relax.

The plane ride is short, only two and a half hours, but Mae sleeps right through it. I, on the other hand, spend the whole time thinking about Christmas. It's our first Christmas together and I wanted to make it special. Mae says her family didn't usually do something big for Christmas, just gave presents. So I want to make it extra special. I was thinking we would do it with the whole team. Give everyone something to look forward to. We can all have dinner together, and then they can come back the next day for presents. That night on the other hand, I have some other plans. As soon as we land I text Mack and she loves the idea. So together we plan the dinner and the breakfast for the next morning. We agreed to do it at Mack's since it has the most room, and soon enough we have the whole night planned.

**Two Days Later**

Today is Christmas Eve and Mae is really excited. She worked all day yesterday in tracking, but promised to do nothing involving it today. It's almost time to head over to Mack's so Mae is trying on different dresses trying to figure out which one is best.

"I like that one," I tell Mae as she walks out in a dark red velvety dress with a slit down the top and a jewel belt. "It suits you." Mae smirks at me.

"Really," she says, "that's why you like it." She leans on top of me keeping her face only inches from mine. "You'd like my underwear too." I see a flash of the red lace as she walks back to the closet. I stand up and head to the closet with her where I help her put on 'my necklace' as she always calls it, and red earrings.

"You look perfect," I tell her, "now let's go." Mae smiles her curls bouncing at her shoulders as we walk to the car, the flowers for Mack and her parents in her hands. When we get to Mack's almost everyone is there, other than Ivy and Jayden, who always manage to be late.

"You both look amazing! Merry Christmas!" Mack's mom exclaims kissing our cheeks as she takes the flowers from Mae. "Everyone is sitting in the living room, but we'll start dinner soon." We thank Mrs. Johnson and go to see everyone in the living room. Mack and Lucas sit very close, and even if they haven't told everyone yet, I have a hunch they've been going out quite a lot and not as friends. When Ivy and Jayden finally show up we head to the kitchen for dinner.