So first a bit of an introduction, I'm a new writer, and with new I mean, really new, this is the second story that I'm writing, but it's my first one to ever put on the internet.

I'm from Belgium, so I don't really speak English, my first language is Dutch and my second French, but I found out that I liked it more to write in English.

Disclaimer (or whatever the heck it is): I do not own any characters of Without a trace nor of Numb3rs.

Short introduction: A man loves his co-worker, and she loves him, even their boss can't seem to stop them from being together. But when they're paths cross with a serial attacker, their relationship gets put on the thin line.

Will their relationship get through this? Will they?

3,850,000 INHABITANTS

26 LETTERS

2 TEAMS

1 PSYCHO MANIAC

The early dawn was still there when Tess Xeller left her house. The clock had not even passed the big five, but she had to get to work already. She had parked her car some blocks away from her apartment last night, after not finding a decent spot close to it. Although normally she liked walking, now, with the cold and the dark, she was eagerly awaiting the moment when she'd see her car ahead of her, and being able to get in it.

She had a weird feeling, and as she pulled her sharp even tighten around her neck, someone suddenly grabbed her from behind. She tried to turn herself around to hit him, but the person held her arms tightly behind her. This person was certainly a man, and even more certainly he was a lot stronger then her.

As she went over the possibilities of what he wanted from her, she started to panic. She started to struggle against his grasp even more, and screamed for help when he pulled her jacket off of her, she was starting to get what was happening to her.

It was early but there were apartments all around her and they must have heard her scream before her was able to shut her up. But something in her gut told her that no one was going to help her and she had to deal with this on her own. Tess started to cry when the attacker succeeded in taking off her sweater, and she nearly lost hope.

Her husband was only two blocks away from her, still sleeping and not knowing what was happening to his wife.

Her attacker who had been covering almost her entire face with her own jacket, making it for her impossible to scream or see him, now suddenly removed that, but she couldn't get any look of him, as he immediately covered her eyes with his hands.

"Please, don't do this." She begged, her tears now dropping of her skin, and the fact that he had made no attempt at touching her other then what had been necessary for taking of her jacket and sweater, made her not any less scared, but more confused.

He of course didn't answer to her, and now put a cloth in her mouth, although she couldn't really call it a cloth, as she believed that it was her jacket again. She couldn't see a thing until suddenly he removed his hand, and she saw first nothing, but then his arm and the street in front of her. For a second she thought he had let her go, but then she suddenly felt a white hot pain on her arm. He was burning her right arm with something, and only the cloth stopped her from screaming alive.

The pain was unbearable and she started to struggle again, now knowing that he was planning to kill her, and making her suffer incredibly while doing that.

What felt like hours were actually just seconds, but when he removed the cause of the burning on her arm, the pain did not seize at all, stars were appearing in front of her eyes, and she didn't have a clue anymore what was happening around her. It took a while to realise that her attacker had gone, had just left her there. The pain was subduing but was still very much there. She was still crying and didn't dare to look at her arm, but she stood straight. She took two steps before she fell into darkness.

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When Samantha Spade woke up at seven due to her alarmclock, which every morning was able to wake her up but not her boyfriend, and looked at the other side of her bed, she was satisfied to see, the man that she loved, lying next to her, vast asleep.

She pushed it off, knowing it would ring again in five minutes, but she knew that she shouldn't put it off because it wouldn't be the first time that she fell back to sleep, which caused them both to be late.

She still found it hard to believe that she and Martin had made their twenty month relationship anniversary, but now that that had past several days ago, it being celebrated on a magic way, with her and Martin going a weekend away, but now she was already looking forward to the twenty-four months anniversary, two years.

Martin mumbled something in his sleep as but didn't wake up, and although she knew they both had to get out of bed, she shuffled closer to him, putting his arm around her.

"Good morning." Martin mumbled in her ear, but he made no attempt to move.

"It's past seven." She mumbled back, but she too made no attempt to move.

"I know." He mumbled but he only drew her closer to him enjoying the warmth of her body in his arms.

"That means that we should get up." She said as she finally got the strength to get out of his arms and get out of the bed.

"Jack will kill us if we get late again." She yelled at him from the bathroom. "And he's already mad at us." She continued, knowing that he was probably still lying on the bed.

"At me, you mean." He replied before finally pushing himself straight. "We both know he's not just mad at me because I, sometimes, come late into work." He said, before entering the bathroom and kissing her forehead before going to pick up his cloths.

"Martin." She sighed, she did not intend to lead the conversation to this topic, they had discussed this enough, and she already regretted saying his name.

"Sam, me coming late into work is not what is pissing him off, me coming into work with a certain cute blond, that is what really is pissing him off." He said, before wrapping his arms around her, as she tries to brush her hair properly in the mirror.

"Martin." She giggled as he kissed her in the neck.

"But you're right, we shouldn't give him any more reason to be mad at us."

"He'll have to deal with it."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, he can't be mad forever because it will not change."

"Now that's what I wanted to hear." He said to her, smiling at the blonde beauty in his arms.

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