Betsal, thank you for your review. :)

Jat, thank you very much for beta-reading. Feel hugged!

Nothing is so like it seems

It was an unusual warm April day in Los Angeles. So Lily left the villa to go outside to the pool. She lay on a lounger and tried to enjoy some sun bathing. But questions surfaced repeatedly in her head which she wanted answers to.

For 4 weeks she had now been a guest in this house and nothing had happened to help her begin her life with a new identity. Jack, who had saved her from the clutches of the Legion was here also. It was somehow weird, his job at the police surely didn´t include his guarding a witness both day and night. In movies, the cops always changed and the witnesses were never housed in a villa. Every time she wanted to talk about this issue she did not get sufficient answers, only excuses. It would just take some time to get a perfect new identity she was told.

Lily had become attached to Jack. If she was honest, she could not imagine him suddenly not being part of her life. In just a short time Jack had become a close friend which surprised her because normally you don´t easily develope such close friendships so fast. They tend to grow over time. She heard footsteps coming towards her and then she felt a shadow steal the sunlight.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and blinked at Jack. "You are blocking my sun," she said with a smile. Jack took a step aside. "Is it better this way?"

"Yes," she answered him shortly as Jack sat down beside her on the lounger and turned his attention to the pool. He did not say another word which made her suspicious because usually Jack was never loss for words. She slowly sat up and moved beside Jack. Something was wrong. Has her hideout been discovered? An uneasy feeling spread inside her.

"Is something wrong?" She had to ask. Jack took a deep breath and took her hand.

"No, it's all right. I just need to discuss something with you and I do not know where to start or how to explain it to you at all." The behavior did not fit Jack. He seemed really nervous and that only strengthened her bad feeling that was slowly but quickly turning to fear.

Now she also took a deep breath. "Just start. It can´t be too bad." With this she tried not only to give Jack courage, but also herself.

"Lily, I ... I ..." Jack really seemed to struggle to find the right words but apparently he couldn't succeed.

"Jack, just say it. What is it?"

"I'm not a cop."

"What do you mean, you're not a cop?" she asked now confused. That she had not expected and her fear turned to anger in a split second. Allowing her anger to show, she rose swiftly and was now stood in front of Jack waiting for an explanation. But Jack was now staring at his hands and made no real effort to give her an answer. His behavior only made her more furious.

"I´m waiting," she squeezed out the words from between her teeth.

Jack lifted his gaze. "Lily, calm down. Then I will explain everything to you."

"I should calm down?" She said in a shrill tone. "You have lied to me!"

"I have not lied to you. I have never told you that I was a cop. You just assumed it. Well, I must admit, I should have immediately corrected that, but then you would not have come along with me," Jack said quietly.

Lily could not believe her ears. If Jack was not a cop, was there no witness protection program? "And what about the witness protection program?" she asked him bluntly.

"Well, it does not exist. At least not the way it would normally. But we will protect you." Jack said hesitantly.

"It just keeps getting better! And who are WE?" She now yelled at him. Lily felt like the ground had been pulled out from under her feet. Where was she? What was going on here? She spun and walked away from him.

Jack got up and walked a few steps toward Lily. "Lily," he said in a calm, friendly tone," you have always trusted me till now. You are safe here."

She could really see how Jack tried to calm her, but she was not only incredibly angry with him but was also afraid. Afraid of what would happen, what he was telling her. Since that fateful afternoon, her life had changed and that fact only made her more afraid. And now she felt betrayed by Jack. She had trusted him and now it turns out that he had abused her naivety and her trust.

"Exactly, and I shouldn´t have given you that trust, as it turns out now," she answered him in a husky voice. She had trouble hiding her tears from him and no way did she want to break out in tears in front of him.

So she ran back the quickly into the house. She wanted to leave this estate as fast as possible. Before she closed her door, she could hear Anna, the owner of the villa, said to Jack: "That went wrong."

She hastily dressed herself in jeans and a top. She really did not need to pack because she had never really unpacked her few belongings from her bag. She had lived literally out of a suitcase for the last month. Only a few of her things were in the bathroom and in the washing machine.

When she came out of the bath, there was a knock at her door. "Lily, it's me Anna. Can I come in?"

She remained undecided at the door of the bathroom. She did not know whether she should let Anna enter or not. Anna had always been nice and friendly and when she met Anna, Lily had found her sympathetic from the first moment. Finally she said: "Come in."

Anna opened the door and saw Lily standing with her toiletries in her hand in front of the bathroom. She looked around and then saw the packed bag on the bed. "You want to leave us?" Anna said with regret.

"Yes, I think that is the best," Lily said without looking to Anna. She knew that anyone could read her emotions on her face and she didn't want to let her see her injured feelings.

"I do not think that it would be best, Lily. You really are safe here. I must admit that we should have put our cards on the table from the beginning but ...", Anna hesitated. She seemed to think very carefully about what and how she should tell Lily.

"Jack has really been thinking for a long time how to explain this to you and it looks like he has chosen the wrong option."

"Oh, and what would have been the right option to explain to me that I am not in the witness protection program or that he is not a policeman?" Lily did not prevent her voice from sounding shaky and injured.

Anna moved toward the bed, stopped briefly in front of it and turned to Lily. "How about if we sit down and talk. After that you can still go."

On one hand, she wanted to get away from this place as quickly as possible, but on the other hand she also wanted answers because there had to be a reason why she was here now. Her fate had brought her to this place. She was convinced.

She breathed deeply in and out and while doing that she went to the bed saying, "Okay!"

After both were seated on the bed, since that was the only place to sit in the room, Anna began to try and give an explanation. "Jack and I belong to a very old Order which has fallen into obscurity over the centuries. Only very few know of our Order and many of them think that we are only a legend. The Legion had made it to their mission to destroy the Order a long time ago. And by that I mean not only to destroy an organization, but also all the people who are associated with it. You have to know that our Order is not like a club in which anyone can join. We are automatically members because of our origins and we were able to survive because we have hidden ourselves. The Legion knows that we still exist and that many of our members know nothing about it because they have lived normal lives for centuries. We who know of the Order guard and protect the descendants. And Lily, you're one of those descendants."

Anna paused and looked intently at Lily. Lily could feel Anna's eyes on her and she did not quite know what to do with what she had just heard.

"Let's see if I understand this right," Lily said, "You are an order, say like the Templars and the Legion would be in this case the church. Or was it a king? It does not matter. And when this massacre happened to the Templars, there were some who survived and they had then secretly continued to exist."

Lily paused for a moment and then asked incredulously: "You aren't telling me that you are the Templars, are you?"

Anna could not resist a grin and answered her with a shake of the head: "No, we are not the Templars."

"Then who are you?" Lily had to ask the inevitable question.

"I knew you'd ask that," Anna said with a grin on her face. "But I think Jack should tell you this because it is his job."

"His job?" Lily asked confused.

"Yes, but first you should talk with Jack and after maybe you will still want to leave but you should know that we will always watch over you and protect you. And when you don´t know a way out or you need anything else, you can call me any time." Anna took a cell phone from her pocket and handed it to Lily. "My number is saved in the phone."

Before she left the room, she turned around and said to Lily: "Jack had has felt very guilty from the beginning for not telling you the whole truth. And when you talk to him no matter how crazy it might sound to you, please remember that he really is your friend."