Remember me? Haha, sorry about that by the way, explications (bad ones) are down at the end of the chapter.
Disclamer: I don't own PJO, because I am not Rick Riordan
"Gardner, get your ass back here!" Travis Stoll yelled watching her walk out of his office.
"Not gonna happen!" Katie shouted, not even bothering to look back. She pressed the elevator button, and it opened right away. Just as the doors were closing, Travis stuck his hand in the elevator, stepped in, and pressed the close button. Half a floor down, he pressed the stop button, and the elevator came to an abrupt halt. Katie kept her eyes trained on the elevator buttons, futilely hoping that it would make the elevator move.
"I don't really think you have a choice, Gardner."
"I most definitely do," she snapped. She lifted her head just to glare at him and looked back down a split second later.
"Of course you do," he agreed. "I send flowers to your funeral by the end of the week."
"None of that would be necessary if you were able to do your job," she said. Deciding that the elevator would not spontaneously start up, Katie reached out to press the button, but a hand grabbed onto her wrist firmly.
"I can do my job!" Travis protested, sounding more than a little insulted. Katie had only known him for a day and already called him incapable of his job. So what if he hit on her before she could even say hello? He was just trying to ease the tension... although, a phone number wouldn't have been horrible either. "But only if you let me."
"And if I don't?" she challenged tearing her grip from his hand.
He shrugged nonchalantly, "You die."
Katie reached for the button again and Travis didn't stop her. The elevator continued its descent from the tenth floor and Travis's ominous words hung in the silence.
Just as they were passing the third floor, Katie rounded on him and ranted, "If you think that I will leave everything I've done for my plant business, my friends, my boyfriend, my life!" Katie pointed a finger at him. "Just because you and that bird think I need to go away due to the fact that you can't catch this guy. Well guess what? That is not my problem, and I am not giving up my life."
Travis stared at her before laughing, not only at her naivety and sudden outburst, but also her calling one of his co-workers, Jay, a bird.
"Yeah, not your problem," he deadpanned. "You witnessed a double homicide and now the murderer is after you. I can't possibly imagine how any of this has anything to do with you."
"I don't even know what he looks like." She leaned against the elevator and crossed her arms. Neither of them seemed to notice the elevator doors open, and then close back up.
Travis scoffed. "You think that matters to him? He will stop at nothing to kill you. But if you really don't want to trust us then fine, just go back to your perfect oblivious life, and hopefully I won't find your dead body in an alley."
"Do you really think he'll kill me?"
He knew that Katie desperately wanted him to say know, but who was he to lie? "Yes."
Katie's mind reeled by his answer. She didn't want to believe that anyone was trying to kill her, who would? Her knees gave out and she gripped the bar in the elevator to keep herself from pathetically crumbling to the floor.
"O-okay. What if—what if I do enter the p-program?"
"Let's talk about it over dinner," Travis suggested.
She glared at him, "I have a boyfriend."
"I have an empty stomach. It's nine o'clock. Would you like me to ask you to breakfast tonight?"
"Fine, let's go."
When the elevator door dinged open, Katie made to exit the elevator, and yet again, was stopped by a hand on her wrist.
"We have to eat in; it's more likely of you getting killed out there then in here." He pressed the button that would take them to the tenth floor, and was quite surprised, as well as glad, that Katie didn't object.
"Okay, like I asked before, how are you going to assure my safety?" Katie asked before taking a giant bite of her sandwich.
"You have to completely drop off the radar, somewhere secluded. We are going to change your name, new passport, ID, driving license, make sure that no one will know Katie Gardner, especially not your killer. You won't be able to contact any of your family, but once we get there, I'm gonna give you a burner phone and you can tell them that you are on vay-cay or something. I'm monitoring the phone calls so don't start having phone sex with your boyfriend okay?" Katie scoffed, disgusted.
"And where will I be going?" she asked.
"That's classified."
"What will my name be?"
"That's classified."
"Why are you baby-sitting me?"
"That's classified."
"Do you have any leads?"
"That's classified."
"Can you say anything other than 'that's classified'?" she snapped. "It's a bit annoying."
"Hey baby, I must be lost because I thought paradise was farther south." He gave her a slow once over, blatantly checking her out, with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.
"That's classified," she drawled and resisted the urge to slap him.
"Your eyes will fall out if you keep rolling them like that."
"Well, at least I won't have to see your face."
"What was that sound?" Travis put a hand to his ear like he was trying to hear someone whisper. "Right, that was my heart, shattering into a million pieces."
Katie rolled her eyes again and tried to finish her sandwich in silence. When she was almost finished, Travis's phone rang and he got up to go answer it. She wanted to hear what they were saying, because she didn't doubt that it had to do with her.
When Travis came back, Katie was seemingly waiting patiently for him, but at a closer look, one would see her irritably tapping her foot and glaring at nothing.
"Is there anyone at your house right now?" he asked the second he reached her.
"No, I live alone," she answered. As an afterthought she added, "And no, I will not sleep with you."
"Aw, not even a little bit?" he said pouting.
"You are impossible." She got up and started walking to the elevator with Travis at her heels. "Great. Now I have two stalkers."
"One stalker, one baby-sitter." he corrected waiting for the elevator to get to the ground floor. The office on a Sunday night was usually empty like it is now, except for the security guard or two who is always there.
"See ya Marv," Travis waved walking out with Katie back to her house, which happened to only be four blocks away. She opened the door and reluctantly let him in, because she knew he'd be able to kick down her door easily.
"Get a luggage and pack." Katie glared at his order. He may be in charge of keeping her alive, but that didn't give him a right to dictate. "Go! I called they said they could have a plane ready for us in about an hour."
"An hour!" She scrambled toward her closet with impossible speed, throwing open her suitcase she kept next to her dresser, and threw in as many clothes as possible.
"Yeah, so hurry!"
"You must be out of your damn mind!" Katie shouted, continuing to shovel mounds of clothes into the suitcase. When it was full, she got another luggage and emptied her drawers into it. If she was going to leave, she was most definitely taking as much of her house that would fit with her. But, she realized with dread, as she glanced at the windowsill, some of her beloved plants that are going to be left without her love and care. Sure, she could ask her father if they were on speaking terms, or her half sisters and brother, but she didn't speak to them either. And she most definitely did not trust Lenard to take care of her plants. She loved him, but, god he is bad with plants. Katie sighed and stared at her plants longingly.
"Come on, Gardner!"
"Agent Stoll, I am hurrying, please, shut up!" She finally finished getting all of her stuff and ran out with one suitcase in each one of her hands, shoving one of them towards Travis.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Sure. Let's go before I change my mind." The second she closed the door, the feeling of losing a great friend plagued her.
A/N: *Looks around sheepishly and dodges the tomato thrown.* Hey there? So you're probably wondering why the rest of the story is not here and why it took me so damn long to update. That's good because I have answers for both. The rest of the story has been deleted temporarily. Why it took me so long to update is because I'm an idiot. I had writers block, then I forgot I had this story and was more focused on this story for Fictionpress (which is like 20% done or less). When I got back from Dumbass-land, I decided to re-read my story to see what I'd write next. The thing is, I read the first half of the first chapter and wondered why the hell you guys read this crap. I edited... a lot, and now I'm actually kinda proud of it. Updates will be fast this time around, and I can guarantee this because I'm one or two chapters from being actually done done.
Mmkay, you can hate me now, but not too much.
