AN: Whoo, chapter two already! XD Not bad for someone who takes eighty years to update, right? XD Eh, you're not here to read my weird Author Notes. On to replies from the last chapter! XD

Sarcasmisinmyblood: XD YAS! I'm glad you're so excited and that you stuck around for so long! It really means a lot! ;D Thank you! Love your username by the way. ;)

PurpleNiclole531: XD Oh, surprised ya, huh? Well glad it was a good surprise! Yeah, I get that Brase isn't everyone's cup of tea. But it still means a ton that you're reading anyways! XD Thanks, and here's the next chapter! XD

TheMichiganWriter: XD Yep! Thank you so much! Well, I'm really trying to be better at updating, so here's Chapter 2! Enjoy!

Yo: XD Yep. You were the only one to guess! Congrats! XD

Guest: XD Awesome! It was a lot of fun when I did it, and I hope it was for you too! XD yeah that is creepy O.o

Shadow: Me too! Brase forever! XD Wish granted! A day over a week is a fast update, if you know my reputation. . Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Lab Rats or Muffin Mania.

I walked into Muffin Mania at the Mission Creek Mall the next morning and heard the little bell above the door chime. The girl behind the register counter smiled at me kindly, and I gave her a quick smile back. I looked around the quiet little shop. The only people here was the girl behind the little counter and an old couple sitting in a booth. Both the man and woman were sipping their own cups of coffee and eating muffins.

I sat in one of the empty booths and watched the door, waiting for Chase. Someone walked into the shop and headed straight to the register, but he didn't hold my attention for long. I was too focused on thinking about meeting up with Chase for the first time since last week.

I put my head down and just took a minute to breathe and relax. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night. I was to nervous and excited about seeing Chase again, and too ashamed to need to keep him a secret. I wish I had the courage to stand up to Dad and say that he is on our side. Better yet, I wished he would just let go of his grudge.

I only picked my head up again when the bell sounded for the third time. Chase walked in and immediately spotted me in the booth. He was still wearing his mission boots, but had on a pair of worn jeans and a flannel with an old t-shirt underneath. There was no doubt he got the clothes from the shelter he was in, but I didn't care how used they were. It was great to see him in something besides that black uniform. And flannel really suits him.

"Hey Bree," he said as he got closer. I stood up to greet him, smiling as we hugged.

"Like your new wardrobe," I teased. He grabbed the ends of his blue flannel and held them out, like you would if you were wearing a new jacket.

"The latest in runaway fashion." I laughed and we went to the register to order. Chase got a banana nut muffin and I ordered a chocolate chip one.

The girl at the counter gladly handed us our muffins and told us the price. Before Chase could do anything, I whipped out the money and paid for our breakfast. I ignored the look I saw Chase give me in the corner of my eye.

"Hey, I could've gotten that." I waved him off, and we took our muffins back to our seats.

"No need. You're living in a homeless shelter and I'm living in a mansion. You should save your money. You don't need to spend it on me."

Chase laughed. "I guess you're right. But once I'm out, you're never paying for anything again."

I smiled. "I don't know, I like it this way. It's not cliché like every other romance you hear about."

I froze and blushed, realizing what I just alluded to. Chase just sat there and took a bite of his muffin, smirking at me.

"So this is romance?" he asked. I blushed more and bit into my chocolatey muffin. It tasted so good. But it wasn't enough to calm my racing heartbeat and somersaulting stomach. Did I really just say that to him?

"Because if it is," Chase left off, leaving me worried. I had no idea where this conversation was going, and he knew I felt this way. He intended to leave me hanging like that, practically begging for him to finish. Like a cliffhanger in a good story or show. But he just sat there and took a big bite out of his muffin happily. He was enjoying this too much for his own good.

He finally said, "I'd like to continue whatever people call our weird relationship." He smiled and I swear the butterflies were trying to fight their way out of my stomach. "I really like you, Bree. But I think you already knew that." Chase blushed the slightest bit.

I smiled back, still shocked and completely nervous. "I like you, too, Chase." I then muttered, "But you already knew that too." My thoughts were clouded by the memory of the kiss we shared in the woods.

"Good." His smile suddenly twisted into a playful smirk. "Wanna come on a little trip with me after some shopping?"

I eyed him in suspicion. "What kind of trip?"

"I can't believe you convinced me to bring you here," I grumbled, following Chase as he wove in and out of the mess of trees. I'd just spent the last few minutes carrying him on my back, speeding through the woods.

He turned his head towards me. "Relax, this place should be long abandoned by now. All we have to do is sneak in and grab some of my stuff."

I huffed. "Okay, as long as we don't stay too long. I can't stand being in that lab."

"You and me both."

Chase unlocked the garage and peered in before walking inside. "Just the way we left it," he said, his gaze falling on all the duplicate inventions. He put a few select gadgets into the duffel bag he picked up a the mall before coming here. Then we went back into the elevator, me following closely behind.

We were both silent as Chase pushed the buttons and the elevator started rising. I looked down and saw something red on the floor. It was a blood stain.

"What do you think you're doing?" he shouted at me. His voice echoed around us in the closed lift and I grew scared.

Maybe he is as easily fooled as the other guy...

"Um, just walking around. Douglas wanted me to stretch my legs a bit."

He scoffed and gave me a blank expression.

"Nice try, cupcake. I'm not as gullible as Jake is."

"You do realize you just said his name, right?"

His eyes widened, and he groaned. I giggled a bit, and his features twisted into a snarl.

Before I could register what was happening, he had taken a fighting stance and immediately started throwing punches at me. I dodged most of them, but a few hit my shoulders, arms, and stomach. By the force he threw them, I knew I would have some fresh bruises to add to the ones they gave me yesterday. One of his punches hit my cheek, and I turned away, groaning, to shield my face from any upcoming hits.

That wasn't a very good idea. I felt a strong burning in the middle of my back. I cried out in pain and turned back around to see two quarter sized, singed holes in the back of my shirt. And it burned like heck.

Great. Heat vision. Not to mention, he ruined my shirt!

As I was inspecting my now burnt top, he took the opportunity to punch me in the face. In the nose, to be precise. I heard a loud crack before I sunk to my knees clutching my nose.

Ugh, God. I think it's broken.

I removed my hands to see them covered in a sticky, crimson liquid.

Great. I'm bruised, burned, broken and bleeding. Just perfect.

"Bree? Are you all right?" Chase asked worriedly. I blinked a few times, still staring at the dried speckles of blood on the ground. I nodded and Chase wrapped his arm around me. He knew exactly what I was remembering. He probably remembered every detail I described to him in my cell.

"Don't worry. I won't let that happen to you again." His hand rubbed over my back soothingly. I felt him run his fingers over the two quarter-sized scars Marcus left me with. I sighed and relaxed into his hold. He knew just how to comfort me.

The doors slid open and we walked into the open space of the lab. My eyes instantly caught sight of my cell, the blue laser gate deactivated. Chase walked over to a monitor and started moving stuff around on the cluttered desk.

"Come on, where is it? I know we have one."

"What are you looking for?" I asked him, giving my old cell one last glance. I needed something to distract myself with before too many bad memories came flooding back, and Chase was a very good distraction.

"Douglas always had three places he stored his records: his file cabinet, the computer in his office, and this monitor. That way in case something ever happened to this place he could still recover the files. The file cabinet was old school, but it was also easier to access. He put a bunch of security locks on everything on the computers so Donald couldn't hack his way in.

"I'm going to download the files onto a flash drive in case I ever need them. They'll also make good blackmail if we need to persuade Douglas to do something for us. But I can't find any of Douglas's old flash drives."

"Let me help," I said, moving some of the piles of junk on the desk. Chase nodded and started looking on the floor in case it had fallen on the floor at some point.

The entire surface of the table was covered in empty water bottles, snack wrappers, scattered papers, and a few inventions. I ended up finding Douglas's whip under an empty open file folder. Coincidentally, there was a little black flash drive sitting right next to the leather whip.

"Here," I said, handing the drive to Chase, who stood up. He smiled and plugged it into the side of the computer.

"Thanks Bree. Where was it?"

"Uh," I hesitated. Should I tell him it was by the whip? I didn't want to bring up any bad memories. Then again, honesty is the best policy, right? Oh well, I thought. He must've known he would come across something like this eventually while we were here. It was kind of inevitable.

"It was next to the whip," I mumbled, pointing to the coiled ribbon of leather. Chase glanced at it and quickly turned back to the computer, his face expressionless.

"Oh," was all he said. I sighed. I shouldn't have told him. But there was nothing I could do at that point.

There was a small silence before Chase ran his fingers through his hair and groaned. "The security locks on these things are harder to crack than I thought. This'll take at least an hour to decrypt!"

"Think you'll be able to get it anyway?"

Chase scoffed. "Look at who you're talking to, Bree! Genius!" Chase gestured to himself and smirked. I rolled my eyes, but I couldn't help smiling at his goofiness.

"Whatever you say."

"It'll still take me about a while though. I'm not the fastest typer in the world," he admitted.

"Well, then you'd better get working!" I teased, patting his shoulder. Chase rolled his eyes but got to work anyway, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

As Chase was hacking into Douglas's files, I started meandering around the lab in boredom. I hadn't brought anything with me besides money to Muffin Mania this morning, so it's not like I had anything to entertain myself with while Chase worked. And I didn't want to bother him because it would just take longer.

I froze in my place when I walked alongside the wall of Douglas's office. Suddenly Chase's loud typing wasn't the only thing I could hear. There were two voices coming out of Douglas's office.

"Just a few more minutes and the download will be complete. They won't even know what hit them. There's no way the four of them can stand up to us."

"Don't get too proud. Underestimation will be the end of you. Make no mistake, take no risk. Do everything according to my plan and my plan alone. Remember that."

"Yes sir."

I leaned against the wall for support. I felt like my legs could give out any second from shock. I had heard one of those voices before. I thought I recognized the first one, but I couldn't match it to a face. And I was too petrified to peek around the doorframe and look for myself. Instead, I tip toed away as quickly and quietly as I could. I needed to warn Chase about them.

"Chase!" I whisper-shouted frantically once I was far away from the office. "We need to go now. There's someone in Douglas's office!"

He switched his gaze from the screen to me. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his eyes were widened. "What are you talking about? There's no one else here!"

"Go see for yourself! Or use your super hearing!"

He sighed with a stressed look on his face and brushed away a few strands of hair from over his ear. The look on his face could only be defined as pure concentration as he eavesdropped on the strangers' conversation.

"Shoot," he hissed before turning back to the keyboard and typing furiously. "Whoever they are, they're downloading the same files as I am, and they're practically ready to leave with a full flash drive. I need to get this done now."

"We don't have time! We need to leave before they walk out here and find us! We don't know who they are! Who knows what they're capable of!"

"No. Just a few more minutes! I'm almost done!"

My heart started pounding rapidly in my chest. I was so anxious, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I felt completely terrified and energized at the same time. Wait . . . Energized! Of course! And all it took was a little adrenalin.

"Let me try something."

AN: There ya go! Chapter 2 done, many more to go! XD

Uh-oh . . . who's in the lab?! Comment below who you think! Maybe we'll find out next chapter? XD

I think you guys can probably guess what Bree is going to do. If you're unsure, just remember the episode "Dude, Where's my Lab" and you'll get it. XD

Only ONE PERSON was able to guess the Easter Egg from the last chapter! It was Muffin Mania from Smilie254's story "Love at Mission Creek Mall" on Wattpad. It's an actual place too. I'm kinda surprised more of you didn't get it . . . It's a popular story! XD

One announcement: I'm posting a (SUPER long) Halloween One-Shot on October 31 (Halloween, to put it simpler)! Yes, it was the one I told you guys about last year. XD I had it done a while ago, but it didn't really make sense to post it in the middle of the year. So, I waited until October this year! Get ready for "Truth, Dare, or Scare" (there might be some slight hints at Brase for you Brase lovers ;P)!

Other news: I just found out my winter break is super short and doesn't start until CHRISTMAS EVE! What gives, school board?!

Don't forget to comment what you thought about the chapter! Last week's response was great and I wanna keep it up! ;) You guys are seriously the best. XD Thank you all!

Until next time . . .

PEACE OUT PICKLES!