When Caulder woke in the morning at eight like he always did, he began with his normal routine: take a shower, get dressed, brush teeth, eat breakfast, go to work. After he showered, got dressed and brushed his teeth, he began making his way into the kitchen, going through the living room.

It wasn't until he heard, "Stop it…let go of me…" That he remembered he had a guest.

He turned away from his journey and came up to the couch where I was laying. "Andi?"

I twitched my head away, completely oblivious to him. "Let go of me…please…" I whined.

Caulder, sensing my fear, came and perched next to me. "Andi?" He gently touched my forehead.

"Stop it!" I screamed at the touch and sat up urgently. Glowing blue eyes opened and flickered back to brown, synchronizing with my bated breath as it calmed. "Caulder," I said weakly, inching away from him. "Could you please back up a little?"

He obliged and stared at me with terribly worried eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah…just dandy." I replied, inching even further away. I began taking deeper breaths in order to try and calm my nerves. "I um…I just had a little fright, that's all."

"It sounded like more than that to me." He said in a very teacher-like manor.

"It's nothing, okay?" I defended quickly. "Look, it's my problem. I'll deal with it…in time." I ran a hand through my now messy hair. "Um, I really don't want to go back to the apartment right now, do you have anything I could wear? If not, it's fine, I'll just wear this."

Caulder was looking at me with a raised eyebrow, obviously stunned at my jump in thoughts. "I…I th-think I have something. Wait here." As if in a trance, he got up and headed back to his bedroom and rummaged through his closet and dresser looking for clothes. He came back a couple minutes later with a pile of clothes.

"Okay, I have a couple t-shirts, a pair of cargo shorts, and some socks. I don't know how you feel about underwear, but I have brand new unopened boxers if you want them." Aw, poor Caulder, I made him nervous.

"Um…not to be picky or anything, but do you have any long sleeved shirts?" I asked hopefully. He nodded quickly, dropped the pile and was heading back to the room when I shouted after him, "And I'll take the boxers, please!"

He came back with a black long sleeved shirt with a red maple leaf on it and a pair of orange and green striped cotton boxers. "Sorry, it was the smallest one I have."

I gave a small smile at the Canadian symbol. "It's okay. I like it. Can I take a shower?"

He nodded quickly. "O-of course, take as long as you need. I don't have to be at work until ten…for our class."

I gathered up the shirt and boxers and headed for the bathroom. It was simple: white walls, white tub with a shower head, white toilet, white sink, a towel rack next to the tub, and a mirror. I dropped the clean clothes in front of the sink and quickly stripped, leaving my bra, tank top, and jeans in the 'clean' pile. The shower was quick, just enough to get clean. I slipped the boxers and pants on before the bra and tank top. I was about to put the shirt on when I noticed a large not-quite-so-obvious blood stain on the back of it.

"Caulder?" I asked, opening the bathroom door and stepping into the hallway with the shirt in my hands.

"Yes?" He called from the kitchen.

"Do you have any other shirts? This one is stained with blood." I came further out and met him in the living room.

He saw me and gaped at my exposed skin. Oops. Tattoos. "Um…I…I might." But he didn't move.

I didn't know what to say. "Do you know who I am?" I mumbled, praying he didn't and was just shocked by the massive amount of leaves on my body.

He nodded dumbly. "I saw you on the news…long time ago, wasn't it?"

"Great." I sighed. "Don't tell Hannibal, okay? I'm supposed to be a good guy."

Caulder's eyebrows knitted together. "Why would he assume you were a bad guy?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm a mercenary. I don't save people like I used to." I gave a sad chuckle. "I can't remember the last time I saved someone's life."

"Is that all being a hero's about? Saving lives?"

"Well taking them isn't exactly heroic, now is it?" I said snappily at him. "Sorry." I apologized a moment later, suddenly remembering all that he's done for me the last few hours.

"It's okay. I'll get you that shirt." He reassured me before he went back into his bedroom.

After he left, I wandered back into the kitchen and smiled when I saw two bowls sitting on the table with a box of Cheerios, two spoons, two glasses of water and two empty mugs. "Oh Caulder," I mumbled to myself, taking the seat closest to the front door. "You're so sweet."

"Thank you." A voice came from behind me.

I jumped in the chair and turned to see a smiling Caulder. "Jeepers, you could've warned me!" I said, slightly angry and yet not.

"That would've taken all the fun out of it. Here," He tossed me another shirt, this one grey with 'MOOSE' spelled out down the right arm. I didn't understand the reference. "That one should fit; it might be a little big, though."

I slipped it on and it fit really well. "Perfect." I smiled at him and he sat across from me.

"I hope you like Cheerios," He began, pouring himself a bowl. "Because it's all I have."

I chuckled a little. "Well then I guess it's a good thing I love them." He smiled.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Concentration was not my strong suit that day. Of course, it never was in school, but I really wasn't paying my professors any attention. Especially once I saw a kid with a little mark on the back of his neck. Caulder had drawn me an example of a glyph, and the one the kid had resembled it. His name was Kyle, I think.

"Miss Hawkins?" My head shot up to see my psychology professor's, Dr. Layton, face staring at me with a smug smirk. "Could you please tell the class who was the neurosurgeon that cut the corpus collosum?"

Uh oh. I shifted my gaze for a moment before looking down the lecture hall at the girl's notes ahead of me, I said uneasily, "Um…Wil-Wilder Pennfield?"

Dr. Layton gave a short scoff. "You are a good guesser, aren't you Miss Hawkins?"

And being the smart ass I am, I replied with, "I am an educated guesser." About half of the class giggled, and thankfully, Dr. Layton looked amused.

"Just to make sure you understand, you'll never get anywhere with 'educated guessing'. That's what experiments are for."

Keeping up with him, tit for tat, "Well, it's a good thing I wasn't planning on going anywhere."

"Miss Hawkins," He crossed his arms over his chest and rested them on his protruding stomach. He was an ugly man with greasy blonde hair, a circular red face and beetle black eyes. His clothes were not raggedy, but his overly large button down white shirt and light brown slacks with dark brown sandals made them seem like it. "I don't say this to many kids, but I do not have high hopes for you."

"I apologize for my rudeness, but how can I take your "high hopes" seriously when you act and dress as unprofessionally as you do?" The entire class was in awe that I said such a thing. I did not say it in a rude manner, it was an honest question.

Dr. Layton stared at me with ice cold eyes. Oh crap. Way to go, Andi, you've said too much again. "Miss Hawkins, please leave my class."

I inwardly sighed and picked up my backpack. "Um," I started, making my way towards the stairs of the lecture hall. "This was exactly what I was talking about." I made sure to mention before I headed out. I stood outside the hall and listened for the door to close with a bang. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. What a jerk!

"Hey," I spun and saw Kyle standing behind me, a grin on his face. "That was awesome."

"Thanks?" I began walking towards the science building where Caulder's class was and he followed.

Kyle was a pretty good looking kid. He had a lighter skin tone with pale blue eyes and a brown crew-cut. He was pretty tall, a little shorter than Caulder, but he was filled out, not to an excess but healthy looking. He stared at me for a moment with a light in his eyes. "Hey, there's a party going on tonight, do you want to come?"

Oh my God. This is it. I smiled, "Sure."

Suddenly, a group of students from out psychology class started running towards us and began a group. "Great. Here," He pulled out his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and handed me a business card. There was a copy of the symbol on his neck on one side and an address on the other. "The party starts at dusk." Kyle threw on a grin.

"I'll be there." He gave me a wink and pushed his way through the crowd that had gathered.

"That was great!" "You killed him!" "Layton was absolutely crushed!"The kids were cheering for me. "We all walked out!"

I tried to keep an eye on where Kyle had gone but he had disappeared into another classroom. "That's fantastic." I said absent mindedly to the group. "Excuse me, I-I have to…go to class." Some had made a path for me and others still followed. Once I had reached Caulder's office, I gave a sharp turn towards those who were still gushing at me. "Guys! Seriously! I have to go to class!" They had begrudgingly dispersed and I opened the door and walked inside.

"Andi? What are you doing here?" Caulder was just settling in with a fresh cup of tea before our class. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Yeah, I got kicked out." I said nonchalantly as I threw my backpack onto the chair sitting across from his desk.

"It's been ten minutes!" He said incredulously.

"I know, and I also kind of, probably, ruined Dr. Layton's career, but that's beside the point." I stood in front of him with a grin on my face. "There's a familiar in my class."

He suddenly lost his disappointment and became interested. "Is there?"

I nodded happily. "Yes. And he invited me to their party." I held up the business card and Caulder plucked it from my hand.

He examined it and mumbled to himself, "This is too fast. Something doesn't add up."

"What do you mean it doesn't add up? So he saw me stand up to Layton and thought I would make a good snack for his buddies, big deal."

He shook his head in disproval. "This seems way too fast."

"Can't we just roll with this?" I practically begged. "I'm usually not lucky enough to get something on the first try, so why can't we take advantage of it?"

"Because it sounds suspicious." He eyed me and my slightly disappointed face before sighing. "We'll talk about this later."

"Later?"

"After class." He pocketed the card and walked around his desk, picking up his own messenger bag and mug.

"Caulder, come on!" I followed him as he left the room and began heading towards our lecture hall. "This could be our chance!"

He gave a quick turn and towered over me. "As of right now," He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "It's too dangerous. We don't know anything about them at this point. It would be a suicide mission going in there blind and you know it."

I gave a soft sigh of defeat. "I just-"

"I know," He backed off a little and put a hand on my shoulder. "But we have to be smart about this. We can't go in there guns loaded and expect to come out successful. We have to plan this."

A very childish pout mounted itself upon my face, to which Caulder only chuckled at. "Fine." I mumbled.