Author's Note: I finally managed to get the sequel up! This takes place four years after the prelude. The first chapter's a little short, but enjoy!


Chapter 1

Brian studied his files on Arturo Braga intently before sighing and leaning back in his seat. He was pretty much stuck with no leads whatsoever as of yet. He raised his hand and massaged his eyes, relaxing even more when a pair of hands descended onto his shoulders and massaged them with the right amount of pressure.

He dropped his hand from his eyes and the massaging stopped as he turned to face Coralie, his turquoise-eyed beauty.

"What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the very same thing," she retorted with a slight frown. "It's nearly three a.m. in the morning and you're awake, staring at a bunch of boring as hell files when you should be in bed with me. Asleep. Or doing other things that will require a lot of energy, hence, make you sleepy."

He smiled a little, "I was just thinking of a few things."

"Yeah. 'A few things' about work. I wouldn't mind it at all if you were thinking of me, but you're thinking about work. That, I mind," she said before sighing. "Aren't you coming to bed?"

"I will."

"Eventually," she added for him, knowing him well. "You can work tomorrow at the office. Home and the office are two separate and very different places, so don't combine the two and turn our home into an office. You go to the office to work on dreary FBI stuff and you come home to be with me," she said and grinned. "No overtime!"

He chuckled a little. He guessed that he could put it out of his mind for awhile and he was feeling pretty tired. Curling up in bed with Cora sounded wonderful to him too and was more pleasing than staring at files when there was nothing to go on for the moment.

"I guess."

"There's no guessing, mister. I work too, but you don't see me bringing my work home. We'd be having an alcohol party if I did."

He laughed again and smiled at her, "All right."

"So you're coming back to bed?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Good! Because I have trouble sleeping without you," she grinned and he got up.

"Well, we can't have that, now can we?"

She yawned, "No, we can't."

He leaned down and kissed her softly, "I'm sorry, Cora. Let's go to sleep."

She nodded and they went back to their bedroom, climbing back into bed with Cora snuggling into him, making him smile.

"I'm warning you. If you wake up and leave me alone in bed again at such an unholy time, I won't hesitate to chain you to the bed," she mumbled sleepily as he wrapped his arms around her.

He laughed, "Kinky, but I won't. Go back to sleep, Cora," he said, kissing her on the forehead.

"G'night, Brian."

"Night, Cora," he smiled.

She was gone quickly and it was understandable since she ended work later than he did and hers required much more energy than his did on a normal day since she did work in a bar.

The bar that they'd met in.

It was hard to believe they'd been together for four years already... Time seemed to pass by so fast when he was with her that he wanted more and more time with her.

They had gotten an apartment together and he had been reinstated as an FBI agent. He had gotten his life back together. If he hadn't met her... he would surely still be pining for Mia and possibly losing his grip on his life. To be without Cora... he definitely didn't want that. He got over Mia, but he didn't believe he would ever get over Cora if she ever left him.

She snuggled closer to him, making him smile again and he too went to sleep.


"Have a good day at work, all right? Try not to drown yourself in paperwork. And if you have a field job, don't get yourself killed," she smiled cheerfully before giving him a good luck kiss.

"Thanks, though a simple 'be careful' would have been good enough," he said, making her laugh. "I won't though. Get killed, I mean."

"I know you won't and I always expect you to come back to me. You're like Superman or something, though without the ridiculously red underwear on the outside, the tight suits and all that jazz,"she giggled, fixing his tie for him.

"Thanks, Cora," he smiled. "I'll be seeing you for lunch later then?"

"Definitely. I'll be there to make your colleagues jealous."

"For sure," he laughed. "Then I'll see you later."

"Yup."

She saw him off and sat back down in the chair, recalling his files from the night before. Cora swallowed hard.

"The fuck do I do now?" she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

Of all the people for Brian to want to involve himself with... why Arturo Braga? Couldn't it have been anyone else but him? Cora knew she couldn't run from her past any longer.

Her life had been so blissful.

However, she understood that she couldn't run from her past any longer. No, she had known from the very beginning that it was only a matter of tine before her past came back to bite her in the ass.

Perhaps if she could draw Brian from Braga, then things could remain the way it was.

She wanted to be naïve.


Author's note: Please review!