Previously on 'Defusing':

Chuck paused and flipped a few pages back. Page 45. The forty-five at the top of the page was circled softly in red, softly enough, that if you weren't looking hard, you would have passed it right by.

Chuck's eyes traveled down the page, taking in more soft red marks. He read the marked words softly to himself.

Chuck bit his lip. But what did it mean?

Chapter 10

Chuck frowned at the page in front of him; there were a total of three different kinds of markings on the page. Some words were underlined, some were circled and some were highlighted.

They must be different parts of a message, Chuck decided. The marked words were dispersed around the page, very few compared to how many words graced a single page. The book seemed almost stuffed capacity with words. Well if she had wanted to write a secret message using someone else's words, this was definitely the right book to use. Looking around the empty room; he read the underlined words aloud to himself.

"Important… secret… in… a… book…" Chuck paused, "Important secret in a book? But what does that mean?" Chuck sighed. Well the book had been given to him by Kirsty, and the looks she had been giving him most likely meant she had done this. So did she know something? Something she had only wanted him to know? But what? And why him?

Chuck sighed and looked at the rest of the markings the page had to offer. Three things had been circled, and one line had been highlighted with the mentioned red pencil.

The highlighted line read: "An effort in their presence to speak the truth…"

Strangely Chuck got that one right away. Someone was obviously watching Kirsty, and she needed to get someone to see whatever it was she knew…

Well it would go in accord of why she had handed him a book cryptically instead of telling him.

The next bit puzzled him though. 'Mat' from the word mattock had been circled, the page number 45, and the word 'heart'.

Chuck filed that information away, hoping it would come in handy later.

Sighing, he closed the book and left the table. There was nothing more he could do tonight.

Chuck awoke the next morning to the feeling of being watched. Never having enjoyed the feeling, shivers ran down his spine as he turned slowly to look at the door.

Maybe he was going crazy - oh never mind.

By the door, Casey sat in the room's sole chair.

"About time you woke up."

Chuck rubbed his eyes, "What time is it."

"Quarter past seven."

"Quarter past - Casey what is so important that you need to wake me up this early."

Casey frowned at Chuck. "It's not always about you."

Chuck rolled his eyes and waited from for Casey to speak.

"The thing is, Sam, I have some meetings schedualed this afternoon. So we need to have our appointment with the Doctor this morning, as he only had one hour left of his busy morning, we need to be there in 10 minutes." Casey looked down at his watch, "Sorry 7 minutes."

Chuck huffed and threw the covers off, heading for his dresser. Fishing out some clothes, he undressed quickly throwing his sleep clothes onto the bed.

Entranced, Casey watched Chuck strip down to his boxers before putting on his white day clothes. Chuck had a fantastic body; slim without being boney, tall without seeming to tower, soft without seeming feminine.

Embarrassed, Casey turned quickly away, trying to will away the small amount of arousal he felt from watching his charge undress.

The meeting with the doctor went similar to how it had the day before, and it wasn't long before they were saying goodbye to the always-busy man.

"Sam," The doctor turned to Chuck as he opened the door, "Can you stop by my office around 5 o'clock? It would be nice to get the opportunity to talk to you, see how you've settled so far." The older man smiled.

Chuck nodded, with a "Sure," before turning to Casey, the now only other occupant of the room.

"So are we done now? Can I go get some breakfast and take a shower? Or do we have more spy stuff to do?" Chuck asked sarcastically.

Casey's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "We're done," He said stoically, "I will see you tomorrow."

Chuck headed out of the room, to make the confusing trip to the dinning room. Maybe he could wiggle some answers out of the mysterious Kirsty.

Kirsty groaned into her sugarcoated oatmeal, her morning had gone far from expected. She had awoken early to go for a swim, to discover Ray hadn't left the night before.

Knowing he would be cranky, she had awoken him with a small nudge and a soft "Wake-up sweetie." Of course, it didn't matter how gently she woke him up, he was always cross if he woke up in her room in the morning. It meant that he had admitted needing help, especially from a nightmare, how childish.

Of course, Kirsty had tried to convince him otherwise. "Having nightmares doesn't make me think you're a child," she had flung crossly, "Behaving like this does though!"

She instantly regretted her words, now Ray wasn't speaking to her, which meant she wouldn't be able to comfort him during the next coming days.

Truth be told, she liked comforting Ray, it made her feel useful, like she had a purpose in this screwed up underground mess.

She missed so many things about her old life, but still being able to take care of those she considered as siblings or children who needed love, had helped her feel not quite so lonely, quite so heartbroken.

She felt Lenny sit down beside her as tears began to cloud her vision.

"What's wrong?" He asked her quietly.

"Oh God Lenny," she sobbed as quietly as she could and sunk into his open arms. "I'm never going to leave this place alive."