The quiet clink of guns being cleaned filled the room as Connor and Murphy sat and thought. It was only a week ago that Smecker, Bloom, Duffy, and Dolly had succeeded in breaking them out of the Hoag. It wasn't simple and it certainly wasn't easy, but they managed to pull it off. Like aristocrats fleeing revolutionary France led by the Scarlet Pimpernel; Connor, Murphy, and Romeo were taken away to LA, CA. There they began living in a rundown apartment with its entrance in an alley. A place no one would ever think to find them. Meanwhile, the former agents and the detectives kept an eye on the investigation of the breakout, waiting for when the FBI would give up on the Saints and move on and the boys would be safe to return.

Connor paused in his cleaning and looked up at Murphy who continued his monotonous task for a while before asking, "What?" without ceasing his cleaning.

Connor looked around the room quickly before clicking his tongue in disgust. "This place is nothing like Boston."

Murphy stopped and shook the gun he was cleaning in Connor's direction. "Well what the fuck d'ya expect? We're on a whole 'nother coast for Christ sakes." He put the gun down and picked up another.

"I know that, but still." Connor leaned back on his bed. "Why couldn't we've just gone home to Ireland?"

Murphy stopped again. "Ya know why. The airport was down the night we broke out. It was impossible and we had to get out fast."

Connor sat up again quickly. "But why go this far?"

"I don't fucking know, ok?" Murphy threw the gun aside in frustration and stood to pace.

Connor watched his brother. He felt like he could see the gears turning in his brother's head as he thought. Finally, Murphy stopped and turned to Connor. "How long's Rome been gone? I'm getting fucking hungry."

Lungs burning, leg muscles throbbing, Danielle and Christiana rounded another corner. Christiana looked behind them to see how far ahead they were. In doing this she somehow managed to lose proper control of her legs and started to trip over her own foot. Luckily, Danielle saw this and grabbed her arm, swinging her back into a wall for them to prop themselves up against. "Fucking Chris!" Danielle said angrily as she struggled to catch her breath. Christiana began to laugh as hard as she could with her labored breathing.

"That was fun!"

Danielle looked at her incredulously. "No it fucking wasn't! Those guys had knives!"

With a wicked smile Christiana laughed. "At least they weren't guns, right?"

Danielle punched her arm. "That was the last time! I'm not doing that with you anymore. It's too dangerous."

Christiana's smile faded a little. "Fine. I'll do it on my own then."

Danielle wiped the sweat from her face with the bottom of her shirt. "No, Chris. You'd be in more danger by yourself."

Scowling now, Christiana stood up straight. "I don't need you."

"Chris, don't start this," Danielle said with exasperation.

"I'm not starting anything! How else am I gonna make good money?"

Danielle pushed herself off of the wall. "Get a job!"

"Swindling -is- a job! And we're giving those pieces of shit a taste of their own medicine!"

"Chris!"

"Dani!"

"You can't just-" Danielle's statement was cut short by the sound of men shouting to each other. "Fuck!" Danielle and Chris had just started running again when the men turned the corner and saw them.

"They don't fucking give up, do they?" Christiana shouted, half laughing. Danielle just shook her head and kept on running.

For as long as they could remember they had been together. Danielle and Christiana grew up in an orphanage. Both girls' parents had been casualties in a gang fight that took nineteen innocent lives. Since the girls had arrived together, the employees naturally put them together. When there weren't enough cribs for all the infants, they shared a crib. When the kids outnumbered the beds, they shared a bed. When they were old enough to do chores, they were assigned together. Soon it became only natural for them to be together. One woman who worked in the orphanage joked that they would become like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: unable to decipher who was who. Even when they started school they were inseparable. Subjects that Christiana struggled with, Danielle excelled at and vice versa. Christiana was particularly skillful in English. She could talk her way out of anything. And no one could beat Danielle in logic, which is why she was so good at math. No puzzle remained unsolved for long when in Danielle's hands. That was how it began.

Christiana and Danielle used to go to the park close by the orphanage when they were schoolgirls and play for hours. While they were there, they saw a couple of boys playing marbles. The first time, they thought nothing of it, but soon they saw what was happening. Four boys would challange another group of boys, rarely girls, to a game. They'd pretend to lose for a while, then propose a wager. After getting their opponents to agree, they'd really play. Christiana and Danielle hated seeing those poor kids get cheated so Christiana looked at Danielle, a devilish twinkle in her eyes. "What?" Danielle asked tentatively.

"You know how to beat them, don't you?" Afraid of what Christiana was planning, Danielle just shrugged. "You do. I know you do. I've seen that calculating look in your eye while we watch. Let's do it, Dani."

"Do what?"

"Get them back."

"I-I don't know if I-"

Christiana clapped a hand on her back reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. I'll be the mouth, you be the brain." Danielle thought it over and the next morning over breakfast she looked up at Christiana and nodded.

"Ok. Let's do it."

The girls practiced whenever they had free time. Christiana taught Danielle how to act so as to not give their plan away while Danielle taught Christiana how to figure out which way to shoot the marble in any given situation in order to achieve certain outcomes. When the day came for them to put their plan into action, Danielle nervously chewed on her nails. Christiana saw this on their way to the park and grabbed hold of Danielle's hand, pulling it away from her mouth. "I told you, you can't do stuff like that. Here," she reached into her pocket and pulled out a stick of gum. "Chew on that." Danielle nodded and took the gum. Although she was exceedingly nervous, she trusted Christiana.

Christiana was the one to approach the boys. She played the part of a girl with a crush, searching for a reason to spend time with the guy she liked. Like this, the boys quickly fell for the trap and agreed to a game. It was beautifully done. Christiana and Danielle played the first part of the match as the unlikely winners, while inwardly eagerly awaiting the moment when the boys would suggest they put some money on it. "Sure!" Christiana agreed cheerfully as she reached into her pocket and pulled out twenty dollars, her entire savings. Danielle had to use all her willpower to stifle her laughter at the way the boys' eyes seemed to leap out of their heads. "Daddy always said, 'Go big or go home!'" Christiana lied, giving reason to this large sum. Nodding, the boys pulled out twenty dollars. Just before Christiana moved to make the first shot, she glanced at Danielle. Although it wasn't possible because it would have given them away, Danielle could have sworn she saw Christiana wink at her. This one look was enough to give Danielle the strength to see their plan through to the end just when her resolution was starting to waver.

"Thanks for the game boys!" Christiana said with a smile spreading from one ear to the other as she pocketed the forty dollars. "Let's go," she said to Danielle. For a minute the boys just sat staring at the marbles, wondering how they could possibly have lost to two amateurs. And girls nonetheless! Then they realized it. They had been bested at their own game. Angry, they leapt to their feet and chased after the girls. Christiana and Danielle ran then with the same fear and excitement in their hearts that they now ran with.

"You bitches won't get away with this!" the man leading the others shouted.

"You just had to pick the shadiest fucking bar!" Danielle screamed, her lungs struggling for air as she ran.

"You don't find con artists like that in nice ones!" Christiana shouted back defensively. The girls made a sharp turn into an alley they thought would lead somewhere else. As luck would have it, it was a dead end. "Shit!" They turned around to see if they had time to run back out, but it was too late. They were cornered.

Breathing hard, the man sauntered over, his lackeys following close behind. "Well, well. Looks like luck's on my side tonight after all," he chuckled. As he drew closer, the girls began to back up toward the wall. They reached for each other's hands without looking and held on tightly, silently communicating. "Get 'em," the man said to his followers. Two men stepped forward and lunged toward the girls. Danielle and Christiana waited until the opportune moment to spin out of the way, raise their legs and bring them crashing down onto the back of the guys' heads as they fell forward.

"Told you dating those martial artists would come in handy down the road!" Christiana laughed.

"Not now!" Danielle said, unable to hide her smile.

Two more men came forward and tried to throw punches. The girls skillfully ducked and sent their fists into the guys' stomachs, causing them to hunch over, giving the girls the perfect chance to grab them by their hair and make their faces collide with the girls' knees. Blood splattered onto their jeans from the broken noses. While these men recoiled on the ground in pain, the last set of two charged. Christiana and Danielle nodded at each other, then used the guys' weight advantage against them by maneuvering so that they flipped over the girls' backs. On the ground, the men coughed, struggling for oxygen to fill their lungs after having the wind knocked out of them. Danielle smiled at Christiana and was about to say something when she felt the painful tug of someone's hand tangled in and gripping her hair. The man turned her around to face him. "You may have gotten my men, but I'm not so easy to take down!" he raised his fist high. Danielle shut her eyes as tightly as she possibly could, bracing herself for the blow. Suddenly, she heard the click of a gun cocking. When she opened her eyes, a flood of light made it hard for her to see the man standing behind the one gripping her by the hair. She could not see him, but she could hear his Irish accent perfectly.

"Try it. I dare ya." The man released Danielle with a trembling hand. "Now get the fuck out o' here." With no hint of hesitation, the man flew out of the alley, his buddies scrambling after him. As the Irishman came into focus, Danielle spotted the gun in his hand. The situation suddenly became too much for her and she fainted.

"Oh, you have no idea how bad the shit here gets," Danielle heard Christiana say as her eyes fluttered open. She sat up slowly, allowing for her eyes to adjust to the lighting in the small apartment. "Ah! Sleeping Beauty has awoken."

"Oh shut up, Chris," Danielle said, finally looking up and seeing Christiana sitting at a small round table with two Irishmen and a Mexican man. Her heart began to pound with anxiety as she quickly pieced together what had happened in order to land them in this situation. When it finally all clicked, she touched the back of her head gingerly. The area still stung considerably, but there was no real pain.

"Here." Danielle looked up to take a look at the man who owned the voice she recognized as that of her rescuer. He held out a small ice pack to her. "It'll ease the sting."

"Thank you," Danielle blushed slightly as she took the ice pack. Although she wasn't as good at interacting with men as Christiana was and therefore did what she could to avoid them, she still could not deny a man's good looks. And this man was good looking. Not just in terms of features, but there was a feeling about him that would make a blind person say, "My, how handsome!" At least, that's how Danielle expressed it to Christiana later on.

"No problem, lass," the other Irishman said. "We've got some Tylenol if ya need it, too."

Danielle shook her head slowly, stealing glances at the first man as he went over to the table and picked up a plate. He brought it back to her. "I don't know yer gonna like it. It's covered in some green shit."

"They're jalapenos, you cabbage-loving freak," the Mexican grumbled.

Danielle laughed softly as she took the pizza from the handsome Irishman. She took a considerable bite, underestimating the freshness of the pepper and summarily began to choke. The Irishman quickly moved to pat her back while Christiana rushed over with a glass of water. "Hurry up an' drink," the Irishman said, passing the glass from Christiana to Danielle. The way she chugged the water made him chuckle. "Damn, lass! It's not like it was gonna disappear!"

"Dani's always been like that, Murphy. She gets scared easily," Christiana commented on her way back to the table.

"Murphy," Danielle said in a whisper, thinking to herself that it was a wonderful name.

"Hmm?" Murphy, who was still sitting behind her, leaned closer. "Ya say something?"

Nervous to have him so close, Danielle jumped and leaned away from him awkwardly. "Nothing!" she half squeaked.

"Come back over here an' leave the poor girl alone," the other Irishman said as he took a sip of his Guinness.

"I wasn' botherin' 'er, Connor," Murphy said as he got up and returned to the table beside Connor.

"Don' mind me brother, lass. His social skills are lacking," Connor teased.

"Fuck you!" Murphy said, looking a little embarrassed and shoving his brother.

Christiana looked up at the clock and stood. "It's about time Dani and got going. You good, Dani?"

Danielle glanced at Murphy before nodded. "Yeah. Let's go." On her way out the door after Christiana she looked back at Murphy who was waiting to close the door after them. "Thank you for saving me."

Murphy gave her a half smile, half smirk. "It's what I do."

The girls had walked a ways away before Christiana purposefully knocked into Danielle. "What?" Danielle asked, feeling a little irritated.

"You like him," Christiana said with a sly smile.

"I do not."

"You're a terrible liar."

Danielle frowned and searched for a change of topic. "Hey, Chris, I was serious. This time something bad almost happened. We can't be doing that anymore."

Christiana's brow furrowed, then she chose to ignore Danielle. "Let's find an excuse to come back soon."

"Chris!" Danielle called exasperatedly as Christiana skipped on ahead up the road.

"I think I've already thought of a plan to, anyway!" Christiana called over her shoulder.

Danielle paused, considering Christiana's proposal. She ran to catch up, then muttered shyly, "Fine. Let's do it."