Disclaimer: I only own my OCs. And I think they kick ass with the best of them.

I don't get why we can't meet up at your place," West remarked as he pulled a chair for me. "Or mine for that matter."

I placed my duffel-bag carefully on the ground. West eyed it curiously. "Because, I don't want anyone to over hear us."

He gestured at the local cafe with hands. "No one we actually know," I clarified. He handed me a cup of coffee. I opened the lid and took a long of sniff, already feeling it hit every nerve-endings and kick-starting my brain.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. So what's the deal?"

I scooted closer to the edge of the chair and pinned him with a dead serious look. "How about launching our own investigation?"

West eyebrows shot up, he opened his mouth, then shut it, opened again and let out a loud sigh. "You're being serious," he stated.

"Of course I'm."

"Charlie, all we've been doing the past two weeks was investigate," he said the last word with a sarcastic undertone. "And we got nothing. I hate to say it but maybe we're in over our heads."

I was expecting this. I've dealt with it before with some of my mother's clientele. They all sat there, staring at me in disbelief, probably thinking I was a twelve year old.

"I know." I leaned in closer. "I get it. But this time around, we'll seriously investigate."
He rolled his eyes in exasperation. I nudged the duffel-bag with my foot and he glanced at it. "Take a look," I urged him. "C'mon. You know you want to."

Suspicious, he grabbed it and yanked it open. I sat back on the chair, reading his expression. He went through five different emotions in three seconds flat. He settled on tongue-tied. I laughed.

"Now do you take me serious?"

West reached into the bag eagerly, like a kid on Christmas eve. He pulled out my secret stash of spy gadgets. Two stun guns, audio surveillance equipment, bugs, binocular, cameras concealed as pen and wrist watches, flashlights and my all time favorite, cellular jammers. West was speechless, staring at the gadgets with mesmerized awe. A waitress who passed by eyed our table with barely concealed interest and I shoved them all back into the duffel bag. That snapped West out of his trance.

"Where the hell did you get that from?"

"My mom's a PI, remember?"

"I know that. But are those yours? Like yours yours, not borrowing from your mom yours."

I tilted my head to side. "Well, it's for official use. You know, for an actual case and she lets me use them."

"Oh my, God. You stole them, didn't you." He sat up, slapping the table. "Your mother doesn't know about it."

I scoffed. "I borrowed, not stole. Stealing implies permanence."

"Borrowed, stole, same shit, different semantics."

"Exactly. So can we get back to the part were I was convincing you to carry on with the investigation."

It took less than five seconds for him to put two and two together.

"Wait a sec, here! You're not planning on using those on them."

"Once I've figured out the identities of most of them, yes. That's what I'm planning on doing."

"You're insane."
"I've heard that a lot," I admitted.

"That's because you are insane!" he yelled. When heads turned, he lowered his voice a notch. "Who in their right mind thinks of bugging the police department."

"Actually, I wanna bug the sheriff's office."

He wagged his head back and forth as if he could shake the words out of his brain. "I'm not doing this. This is a felony."

"Only if we get caught, it is," I pointed out. "All one of us has to do is get inside the office, leave a pen in her pen holder and she won't know the difference."

He considered that for a moment. "You make it sound so easy."
"That's coz it is. I've done this so many times I've lost count."

"So what, after we bug the office, he listen in on their conversation, all the time."

I shook my head. "The bugs aren't just transmitters, they record too. So you can download it on your Ipod, put in your headphones and voila, no one would know."

West drummed his fingers on the table top, a nervous habit. "I don't know, Charlie. This is ...screwed up."

I could tell he was conflicted, a natural reaction. But if he knew the list people I was planning on bugging, he'd get a migraine.

I patted his hand condescendingly. "Fear not, my friend. This will be a cakewalk."

Droplets of sweat were glistening on his forehead. He was nervous. Or maybe it was the humid weather that made my hair frizzy. Or maybe both. My parents believed that they had raised me right, so did I. But a few people thought otherwise. They were convinced that I had a bad influence on their children. Using my bangs as a shield, I watched my best friend bite into his croissant. West Dylan, line backer of the Timberwolves, popular, nice and now, my partner in crime. If things went wrong and shit hit the fan, he could be charged with espionage and called guilty by association. I chastised myself for being negative.

Nothing's going to go wrong. You could do this in your sleep.

That was true. But I've never had a partner. I never the felt the burden of responsibility. And now I've to.

When West caught my eye, he smiled freely, easily. That smile that forced me to let my guard down. An uneasy feeling spread to my stomach, making me lose my appetite. Guilt. An emotion I've only learnt of when I moved to this God forsaken town. I was using and endangering my best friend.

I'm a bitch like that.

"I'm home," Jenna called out. "Elena, Jeremy, Charlie."

"In here," I yelled from my position in front of the oven."Those two aren't home yet!"

She walked in, took a deep breath. "Wow, something smells delicious." She opened the fridge and took out a bottled water.

"I'm making brownies," I told her. "For Mrs. Lockwood ."

She arched an eyebrow. "The mayor's wife?"

"One and only. She was mom's best friend. I think I told you that before."

Apprehension dawned on her face. "Ah, I remember." She took a swing from the bottle. "Any special occasion."

I hopped on the counter and swung my legs. "Not really. Just thought it was time I stopped dodging her invitations for dinner week after week and dropping in announced with some home made brownies."

Jenna pointed a finger at me. "Quite clever, you little impish you. Then you won't have to feel obliged to attend any dinner at all."

"It's like you read my mind, Jenna."

"Any word on your mother?" she asked after a beat. She busied herself by taking out the ingredients for dinner.

"Nothing yet."

"I pray nothing's happened to her." She turned to me and placed the salad bowl on the counter before approaching me. I was fighting the anxiety that always emerged when I thought of mom. Did she lose her cellphone? Did she lose my number? Did she get hurt or lost or... My mind always wandered off to dark places where I torture myself with the worst case scenarios. And sometimes, behind the locked door of my room, when no one's around, I allow myself to cry. Just for a while, to grieve their absence. And the possibility that I've lost them forever.

"Hey." Jenna rubbed my arm tenderly. "Hey, look at me, Charlie. Look at me." I raised my head, steeling myself. Her brown eyes were soft and her smile comforting. "Whatever happens, you have me, okay. You always had me, ever since you first blinked those beautiful green eyes of yours and looked at me with awe and wonder." She laughed and teared up. I did too, cursing myself for being so emotional. "So through whenever and whatever, you know I'll be here for you, just like I'd be here for Elena and Jeremy."

I hugged her tightly and she rocked our bodies in a comforting rhythm.

I'm not a particularly deep or introspective person, but everyone has their moments. Most of us take the relationships we have for granted, me being the front runner in this category of people. But there's nothing wrong with pressing pause once in a while, to stop and take in all the colors and savor them. And I was determined to do that more often from here on out because for the first time in my life, I had people that I actually cared about other than my parents.

But first, I had work to do that couldn't wait.

Carol Lockwood was genuinely surprised and happy when I showed up at her doorstep with the brownies. Tyler Lockwood was royally pissed off and suspicious. He eyed the stuff as if he expected worms to wiggle out of them. He sat right across from me, dressed in his full practice regalia. He didn't touch them, just gave me a droll stare. I ignored his expressions and feigned innocence and asked how the Timberwolves were doing this season and whether he studied for the physics quiz that was right around the corner. I even offered to tutor him which Carol thought was just splendid. We discussed school, my childhood, my mother, my future, the upcoming Founder's Day ball that Carol was hosting and everything under the sun. When one of the helpers announced that Mayor Lockwood arrived, Carol excused herself with careful instructions to Tyler to behave.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Tyler asked, "What are you up to, Sanders?"

I widened my eyes and blinked innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

He scoffed. "Sure you don't. Brownies, making asinine conversation with my mother. Coming to my house."

"If you're worried that I'll taser you, don't. It's all in the past now. Ripped it outta my journal and burned it. A clean slate."

"Are you mocking me?"

"I'm not." I rolled my eyes. "I swear. Let bygones be bygones. Whatever other cliche you can think of." I carefully schooled my face to remain blank. "We got off on the wrong foot. Here," I extended my hand and he stared at it. "I'm Charlie Sanders, new girl in town. Nice to meet you."

Hesitantly, he took it in his hand. It was big, strong and calloused. "I hope you're not playing with me here, Sanders."

"I'll forget you being an ass if you forget I tasered you."

He held my gaze for a long time. I'm pretty sure an internal war was waging in his head. "Fine," he stated. "All in the past."

I gave him my best smile. "All in the past."

Tyler sat back, sinking deeper into the cushion and crossing his arms. "Now, tell me what you're really doing here."

This time, I didn't bother to play dumb, even jocks have some sort of brain function. Fortunately, I didn't have to lie.

"I'm here because I've skipped out on your mother's invitations for over a week. Did you know that our mother's were best of friends and that our families had been pretty close for over a millennium. Crazy, right?"

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, mom told me about it."

"You know, if this was in the early nineteen hundreds, we would probably be engaged to each other, making mini Lockwood/Morrisons."

Tyler flushed. "Yeah. Probably." He glanced around the parlor nervously before getting to his feet. "Hey, you want something to drink."

A smile. "Water would be great."

He smiled back. "Sure. I'll go get it for you."

I waited for him to leave before getting to my feet and heading towards the winding staircase while keeping an eye out on anyone. I could hear Mrs. Lockwood talking with her husband from the garden. I had all of few minutes before Tyler returned and decided to look for me. I took the stairs two at a time. I wasn't even sure what I was looking place where the mayor had his deals go down. Possibly where the sheriff could come and inform of the attacks. As luck had it, I spotted the office right away. And it was open. I could hear footsteps from above.

Move your ass, I urged myself.

I dug into the pocket of my jeans to extract the bug. It was a generic black ball point pen disguising a tiny microchip of a bug. As soon as I entered, Tyler's voice floated up stairs, calling my name.

Shit.

My eyes darted around like crazy, taking in the entire office. Mayor Lockwood's pen holder only held three expensive looking fountain pens. Too obvious. I moved around the desk and opened drawer after drawer, trying to find the one with most clutter. The bottom drawer. I stuffed the pen in there and closed them all.

"Charlie!" Tyler's was getting close. I sprinted out of the office just as he stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"There you are," he said when he saw me.

The smile I gave him was joke to the nerves in my stomach. "I got lost trynna find the bathroom."

He studied me for a while. I tried to act as normal as possible.

"It's at the end of the hallway." He climbed up. "Here, let me show you."

Tyler glanced inside his father's office as if he suspected something.

"So," I began to distract him. "Do you think the Timberwolves will win the seasonal this year?"

A/N: Somehow along the way, I totally forgot about Charlie's relation with Jenna and decided to include a little heart warming scene between them. I just love Jenna! She's awesome.

As always, reviews and constructive criticism appreciated.

xoxoxoxo