I give you all huge thanks for the reviews and for putting up with my slow progress. Reviews are what keep me alive during periods of writer's block and frustration. I hope you enjoy the next part!

Shiho

She yawned, setting the magazine in her hand aside to allow her eyes a brief rest. The thin silver watch on her delicate wrist told her that it was already half past two. The lateness of the time didn't bother her. After all, she had been up much later many a night. She merely leaned back into her chair and gave the computer screen, which is running a complicated calculation of some sort, a quick glance, fully anticipating yet another long night.

"Your coffee, Hirota-san." The voice belonged to her assistant, a freckled, thin red-head with horn-rimmed glasses.

She smiled bitterly at the new name she had bestowed upon herself. It was the same name her sister had used as an alias on that bank robbery that stole her life. The name reminded her of Akemi and the syndicate at the same time, a reminder of both keeping the will to live and living with her guard up.

The coffee was sweet. The assistant was new and hadn't been told not to put sugar in. Her brows furrowed but she said nothing, setting the cup down and continued to browse through the magazine, her forefinger tapping rather impatiently against the edge of her desk.

"Hirota-san?"

"Yes?" Shiho made a mental note to have the girl informed that she did not like interruptions as well. She disliked unnecessary conversation; it brings up the worry of accidentally letting personal information slip through.

"It's late, shouldn't you get some rest? Surely the test results can wait until tomorrow morning?"

She knew the question was asked more as a hopeful plead to return home rather than genuine concern of her well being, but she gave what she knew would be a satisfactory answer. "Go ahead, go home and get some rest. I'm staying awhile longer."

Her assistant hurried to grab her coat and rushed out, not giving her the slightest chance of changing her mind.

She sneezed. Hakase must be nagging at me. She thought, a wistful smile gracing her face.

She is now alone in the grey, rather lifeless laboratory, which thankfully is relatively small so that it didn't add to the emptiness.

She didn't mind being alone. Or if she did, she was long since used to it. Being in the lab alone somehow feels a lot less lonesome than tossing and turning on the bed the small apartment she owned. Work kept her busy. She needed to be busy.

She was reasonably pleased with her life now. She worked as the assistant researcher of a rich senior professor whose fame and achievements were actually contributed by the unnamed researchers that worked for him. The professor had next to no talent in the field of science, but the wealthy family that raised him made up for that.

She looked down on the professor, but did not turn down the job. She does not seek credit for her work, and her boss cares little about her background, so long as she's intelligent. She was given an assistant, a lab of her own, and enough pay to let her afford an apartment triple the size of the place she lives now.

She was able to buy what she wants, live as she wants. She is content.

Content. She tells herself time and time again.

There was one thing she didn't have in her new world. Friends. She didn't even try to get along with her fellow researchers. She knew they mocked her about working over time when she knew she would not be appreciated for her work. She knew they debated over whether she was having an affair with their boss, or if she was simply a crazy nerd who couldn't leave the lab for a second.

"Either way it's a pity, she had the looks and that body and all." She heard a male staff comment once. He had to take a week off due to a mysterious illness soon afterwards.

She didn't care. Somehow she refused to allow herself get friendly with people here, as if avoiding everything that will make her happy enough to want to stay there forever. Something inside of her refused to let herself be as happy as she was in Tokyo, not that that could ever happen.

The phone rang outside. She didn't bother to stir from her seat, waiting for the receptionist to take the call. She did not get calls, anyway.

On the sixth ring she was reminded of how late it was, and that the receptionist gets off at six. Feeling a little bit more than annoyed, she got up to answer. Who calls at this time of night?

"Hello?"

She was met with silence. She narrowed her eyes, now truly annoyed. "Hello?" she said again.

She was about to dismiss the call as a prank and hang up when she heard his hesitant voice.

"Shiho?"

It wasn't… it couldn't be….

"K-Kudo?" Her brain had frozen somehow. It was his voice. The voice she had missed and longed to hear for so long.

"Shiho, is it really you!?"

She smiled. It was the truest smile that had ever graced her face in a year. "I see I've been found, tantei-san."

She threw away her resolve to leave him behind, settling herself into the receptionist's desk fully expecting a long night, or rather morning now, of conversations that she had missed to a point where she found herself conversing to thin air when she was alone.

It was then when she realized why she could not allow herself to feel comfortable in America.

She smiled, ever so softly. She thought of him, thought of Hakase, thought of the Shonen Tantei.

She was already tied down.

A/N: That's the ending, hope you enjoyed it. I've asked Mikki Mouse to give a once over on the grammar, but I'm posting this here first, and I'll make changes as soon as I see a reply. Stay tuned for specials in the next chapter!