Hi everyone!

Are you enjoying your holidays guys? :) I'm sorry to keep you waiting, believe me, I *hate* to keep you waiting, but as you can imagine this days have been kind of crazy. I barely found the time to do my things, but I haven't forgotten about you, and now I'm here with a new chapter ready... Thank you for being patient guys :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

Enjoy


"I like your apartment..."

Alex's comment was accompanied by one of her infamous smirks as she looked around my small living room from the couch where we were sitting, cuddling under a blanket and sipping the first cup of coffee in a rare, lazy, peaceful, blissful morning.

It would have been very nice spend the morning outside, take advantage of the bright warm rays of the sun with a walk in the park, but with Alex's leg still injured and after all that had happened in the last few days, I was more than happy with the idea to stay in and spend the day in a quiet way, cuddled in the arms of the woman I loved; in those moments nothing else mattered to me beside Alex's comfort and safety, and even if it hadn't been so easy to convince her to take something for the pain, I managed to... persuade her, and now she looked better with every passing minute, her cheeks had regained their natural light color and the small traces that indicated pain were no longer visible on her gorgeous face.

I couldn't help but chuckle at her words, even if I knew that she was being nothing but sincere.

"Wanna switch it with your castel?" I offered arching an amused eyebrow at her, something that made the raven haired woman laugh even harder.

"My castel, as you call it, will be a tool shed compared to what you'll have in a few years when you'll become one of the most respected professors of some super exclusive private college and most famous art critic of the country kid."

Hearing how highly she thought about me and my knowledge about art history warmed me from the inside; she had always showed nothing but authentic interest for what I did, and when a few minutes previous I told her about the job at the museum, she wasn't even surprised, as if she knew that I would have got the job without any trouble, but she looked, and sounded, so very proud and incredibly happy when I gave her the news.

I wasn't used to receive compliments, except from the ones offered by the professors, and knowing that Alex was so honestly happy for me, made me feel this strange very pleasant sensation that started spreading into my chest with a tingling, and that warmed my cheeks with a deep shy blush, something that didn't fail in capturing Alex's attention, who grinned like a Cheshire cat as I tried to hide my flushed face in the crook of her neck like an embarassed little kid would have done.

She chuckled and brought me even closer, placing a kiss on my temple as I melted in her embrace and snuggled closer to her under the blanket, absently playing with the hem of the sweatshirt that I had given to her to keep her warm.

"I mean it though," She continued after she took a new sip of coffee from the steamy cup. "I really like it here. Your apartment is cozy... It kind of reminds me of the place where I lived when I was at the academy in Quantico."

It was the first time that Alex brought up something that had to do with her previous job, and hearing her saying that made me want to know more about the life she had before she decided to... change career, hoping that if I would have asked a few questions she would have been okay with sharing some of those memories with me; for how many layers she had taken off her to allow me to see what was lying underneath, I knew, that for some still unknown reason Alex's past was a very delicate subject for her.

I didn't want to ask the wrong question and risk to make her close like a shell again, but I couldn't give up this chance after the chink that she left open in her armor. I wanted so much to learn something more about the woman I loved, that I couldn't just ignore the feeling.

"Have you always wanted to be in the forces?" I decided to ask at last pulling away from her neck to look up at her and watching as a small melancholy smile tugged at her lips.

"Yes, ever since I was a little kid."

The image of a little Alex was enough to make me smile broadly. She was probably a troublemaker, I thought, picturing that same mischievous smirk on the face of a smaller version of the woman sitting beside me. Yes... An adorable, cute troublemaker.

I shifted a little more in my seat to give her all my attention, remaining so incredibly pleased when she decided to go on, noticing how the small smile on her lips became slowly full as she continued.

"I wanted to put bad guys in jail just like my mom did, but I wasn't as good with words to become a prosecutor like her... Not to say that defense attorneys always got to my nerves. So after college I decided to try with the FBI Academy, and when I passed the tests, they recruited me right away."

It was no surprise to me that the most important of all the federal law enforcement agencies had decided to take Alex in their team; it was impossible not to notice how smart she was, and I suspected that her skills were quite impressive as well; anyone would have been extremely lucky to have her work with them.

But the thing that got my attention was another one.

It was the first time that Alex mentioned someone of her family; we had never touched the subject, for me because it was still a very delicate matter to face, for her however... I didn't know. It was another one of the mysteries that gravitated around Alex.

But now that she had mentioned her mother I couldn't help but wonder and wanting to know more about her; about the woman whom had raised Alex, turned her into this beautiful, brave woman and inspired her to join the forces.

"So your mom is a prosecutor?" I asked with a gentle voice and a small smile on my lips, hoping that it would have encouraged her to continue. That was a safe territory where to start, I thought, after all I was just asking for a confirmation about something that she had already revealed.

But I was wrong.

...If only I knew.

As soon as the words left my lips, I felt Alex stiffen beside me.

The air around us became suddenly thick and heavy, taking away the lightness and playfulness of the quiet, serene moment that we were both enjoying.

I watched how her smile, her bright joyful smile that had been on her lips not even ten seconds before, was immediately wiped off, leaving no reminder of its presence on Alex's beautiful face, as if it had never existed.

Her eyes, her stunning green gems that I had just seen sparkling with happiness while she recollected a few pleasant memories, had now lost all their significant brighteness, replacing it with the deepest, darker shadow of pain.

In those few moments as I witnessed that drastic change, it seemed like time had slowed down, but the forceful, fast, anguished beats of my heart in my chest proved me wrong; time was flowing normally, it was Alex's silence and look of pure sorrow that made every second agonizingly slow as I watched my lover tilt her head down to look blankly at the coffee cup resting in her hands, shielding her face from me with a curtain of black hair before whispering weakly

"She... was a Federal Attorney..."

The pain in her words.

The light crack in her voice...

For how much I didn't want to believe it, for how hard I tried to push away that thought, I knew that there was no other interpretation for all that pain, and the was that she used was the confirmation that resonated around like the echo that filled the last of my doubts.

But there was more. I could feel it, and I could perfectly see it when a moment later I found myself whispering my lover's name, softly, tentatively, in an attempt to get her attention, only to wish that I didn't when, after a few more seconds, she turned and I was met with a look that I would have never even imagined could darken Alex's beautiful features with so much sorrow to make her unrecognisable.

Her eyes were filled with grief, glistening with thick, bitter tears.

Seeing her like that was like receiving an uppercut right to the stomach.

It was devastating.

But compared to what I still didn't know was going to come, it was nothing...

"Remember when I said that the Feds threw both Nicky and I out of the Bureau because of a case?" She asked trying to keep her voice steady while, with trembling hands, she leaned forward to place the half empty cup on the coffee table in front of her.

My stomach clenched painfully and my heart started beating so fast and with so much anguish that I was sure it would have exploded in my chest. I hoped that I had heard wrong, that she wasn't going to tell me what had already crossed in my mind, but when I nodded at her question, the answer that I dreaded the most, was exactly the one that left her lips in a murmur.

"It was my mother's case..."

And then, after she released a shaky breath, the final blow. "Her murder's case."

My blood turned instantly to ice and my heart shattered in a million of sharp pieces inside my chest when I heard those words and saw the first tear roll silently down her cheek.

"Oh Alex..." Her name simply fell from my lips in a quiet whisper. I didn't think twice about it, and just leaned in to take her in my arms, my hands cradling her head, gently stroking her soft black hair in a compassionate attempt to soothe her and bring her a comfort that I knew I couldn't give her, but happy that she didn't pull back from my embrace as a part of me was afraid she would have done.

I heard her sniff softly in the crook of my neck and felt her hot, salty tears wet my skin.

In that moment, I wished more than anything else in the world that I could have been able to take all that pain away from her.

I had no words to offer to her, nothing that would have been enough to comfort her, so I just kept holding her, stroking her hair and kissing her temple. She didn't cry but it wasn't necessary hear her sobbing like a child to feel her agony as she shook in my arms, or to see the grief darkening her face when she pulled back from my embrace a few minutes later.

For how unbearably painful it was to keep my eyes on her, I couldn't divert my gaze, and when she raised her head to look tentatively at me as I took her hand into mine, the question just slipped from my lips with a silent whisper.

"How...?"

If it was possible, in that moment her face scrunched up with even more affliction and distress, but there was something else that was showing this time.

Something that I recognized immediately after she shook her head as if she wanted to shake away those thoughts and feelings.

"It was all my fault."

Guilt.

She took her time, but she told me everything, starting from the beginning. She told me about the case she was working on at the time with Nicky and a few other agents, and to the help she had asked to her mother who took the case and prosecuted the leader criminal of a human trafficking organization.

She was murdered for revenge by one of the many associates who were still free.

Shot outside the New York Courthouse right after winning the case.

Another good woman, a protector of the justs, dead because of doing what was right.

It was horrifying listening to Alex as she told me how things went, but see the tormented look in her eyes, was even worst.

My lover had lost her job at the FBI after deciding to find personally the assassin that gave the order for the murder and the rest of the criminal companions, bending all the rules and breaking all the laws in the process when she was told by her superiors not to get near the case if she wanted justice to be done.

But she didn't want Justice.

She wanted Revenge.

And honestly, I couldn't blame her.

Suddenly, Alex's behavior, the thick armor that she had built around her, wearing it as a second skin, and the choices she had made about her government assassin's job, were now more than comprehensible to me.

Justifiable.

With evey piece of the story that she revealed, with every detail she added, it was like a fragment that made light on the shadows that I had always noticed surrounding her, and when I saw the complexity of the image that those fragments created and made of Alex, it didn't change the vision that I had about her.

The scars that she had kept hidden from me were now visible in all their ugliness...

But she was still her.

She was still the woman I loved more than anything else... And now maybe even more. Because I understood her better.

Because she let me see and feel her pain.

...Because she had trusted me enough to tell me the most tragic event that had changed her life forever.

It takes great courage to trust.

And in that moment, at my eyes, with the wet lines of the tears glistening on her face as she told me everything that happened, for how heartbreaking it was to see her like that, she had never looked stronger or braver to me.

How she managed to keep her voice steady as she told me all of that was beyond me, but when she finished, she had no tears left. The Alex I knew would have tried anything to hold them back and wipe away the traces, pretending that it was nothing as she locked herself into her impenetrable armor. But this Alex... This vulnerable, shattered woman was opening up to me and offering that part of humanity that I knew she had great difficulty to accept and deal with, and now I understood why. After such traumatic event, I would have expected nothing less.

"It was all my fault..." She repeated another time at the end, tilting her head down.

Broken.

Defeated.

Her long black hair shielding her face. Falling like the curtain of a theatre at the closing scene.

But this was all real.

A tragedy written by life, with a younger Alex as protagonist.

So many years had passed, yet it seemed that the pain had kept following her, kept growing inside her until it became a part of her that she couldn't let go.

But only because she thought so about all that had happened, it didn't mean that she was right; after listening to the whole story, for how heartbreaking and agonizing it had been, I was sure of it.

And I had every intention to prove her that she was wrong.

"No." I said softly yet with conviction as I placed my own cup on the small coffee table in front of the couch before I shifted in my seat to stay closer to her.

She raised her head when she felt me come near, looking at me with a deep frown of confusion as if she had heard wrong. Her lips already parting to protest, but I didn't let her.

"You were doing your job Alex," I said, moving aside a lock of silky black hair from her face before taking her hand in mine. "You asked for your mother's professional opinion and she took the case because she wanted to help you, because it was her job and because, like you, she believed in what she did..."

But she shook her head at me. Denial was still very alive and strong in her. "No. No she died because of me. I should have never let her take that damn case."

When she tried to pull back and turn her head, I stopped her.

I placed my hand on her cheek, she tensed up for a second, but just a moment later she relaxed as I started to stroke her cheekbone with my thumb, slowly, tentatively.

Maybe there was a way to help her. Deep down there was a small part of Alex that was tired of keep fighting against herself after all those years. And if I had to dig deep to find it, I would have done it.

"It's wasn't your fault Alex... What happened to your mom is... Terrible," I said for lack of a better word as I shook my head in an attempt to push away the frightful images that were still vivid in my mind after Alex's story. "But you are not responsible for it, and I know that deep down you know that too..." At this she diverted her gaze, giving me the silent confirmation that I was right.

She took the blame because she couldn't blame anyone else at the time, not even the ones whom had killed her mother, not completely at least. Her sense of guilt was so strong that she pictured herself pointing the gun and pulling the trigger against her mother in the moment that she handed her that case.

But all of this needed to stop.

I shifted to stay just a little closer to her and cupped her other cheek in my hand, gently directing her gaze to me once again and feeling as my heart broke in another million of pieces in my chest when I saw the new tears glistening in those deep green pools that I loved so much.

"I'm not going to tell you that I know what it is like, because I don't," I started, in the softest way I could. "However I can imagine why you still feel guilty about it. But keep taking the blame for what happened when you have no fault is never going to give you peace Alex..." I was pratically pleading her at the end, feeling my own tears rising in my throat, but I remained strong; Alex had to hear the conviction in my words, and needed to feel it just as much.

She remained silent for a few more seconds and then, just when I was starting to think that I couldn't have a change in front of years of self blame, she raised her head and locked eyes with me.

"It still hurts... I just want it to stop. When will it stop hurting?"

The look of distress, the vulnerability in her voice and the pain in her eyes...

I had to swallow hard, twice, to get rid of the lump that had formed in my throat as soon as I heard her asking me that question. A question that I knew only half of the answer, but that I knew it was a truth that would have brought some peace to her spirit.

"When you'll accept it." I simply said with a small, sad, yet hopeful smile. "And when you'll accept that it wasn't your fault Alex."

If I had to repeat the same thing to her every day hoping that some day she would have believed me, and most of all she would have finally understood it, I would have done it willingly. But when I saw the faintest hint of brightness starting to return in her eyes just a moment before she leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips, I knew that there was not need.

My heart mended and fluttered as I kissed her back with as much tenderness as I could.

She had been struggling with that guilt for years, and the torment that she carried with her was so deep that had left scars on her soul.

It would have taken some more time, but I knew that she was on the right way to start to recover from that tragic event, and I wanted her to know that I would have been there for every step of the way if she wanted me to.

When I pulled back I leaned my forehead against hers and whispered the words against her lips. "I love you Alex. You don't have to be alone to go through this. I'm here for you, whenever you need me."

It was a promise. And a reminder for the days to come.

I woudn't have abandoned her.

Not another time.

Not ever.

. . .

I thought that the pain that I kept feeling after my mother's murder was what gave me the strenght to keep going and doing my job as assassin.

But I was wrong.

It was my guilt. And even if killing all those dangerous criminals during the years had been deeply satisfying, it had never filled that void that I felt inside me. It had never offered any kinf of solace or eased my pain.

More death wasn't the answer.

Only love and acceptance would have set me free. And Piper had just explained me that.

Her words brought even more tears to my eyes, but these ones were of happiness and gratefulness, and when I pulled back a little from her embrace a small smile returned on my lips as I looked at her and saw the depth of the love she felt for me shine into her clear blue pools.

"I love you too Piper."

She beamed at me, taking the rest of my pain away with that radiant smile.

It was still a little strange for me to say those words out loud, but they were sincere, because I felt them, and more important, I felt the sentiment beating in my heart for this young woman whom had taken care of my wounds; first of the ones on my body, and now of those that had scarred my soul and that I had allowed to only another person to see so closely.

During the years Nicky had never stopped to repeat me how everything that happened wasn't my fault, and even if I had listened to my friend, I never truly believe it. I never felt the meaning sink into me, her words had never touched me so deeply like Piper's had done.

Maybe it was the right time... Or maybe it was the right person.

Maybe just I needed someone else to say that to me; someone whom had found her way into my heart with a shy, tender smile and a pure, kind spirit, managing to lower the thick solid barriers that I had built around me as protection without me even realizing it.

All I knew was that in that moment I felt a part of me that I was sure I had lost forever, remerge and dare to take a breath for the first time after six long agonizing years.

I knew that I would have never completely recovered from that event, but Piper had showed me the spark that I needed to see, bright like a beacon in the distance, a guide that maybe, hopefully, one day would have lead me out from those cold shadows of the past.

"Thank you." I whispered at last, softly, against the corner of her mouth.

But she shook her head at my words. "You don't need to thank me..." She said pulling me once again into a tight comforting embrace and starting to run her fingers through my hair as I rested my head on the crook of her neck, smelling her intoxicating scent and feeling as more tears welled up in my eyes when she told me, speaking softly next to my ear "I meant it what I said before Alex. I'm here for you. For the good things, to share them with you whenever you want me, but also for the bad ones. You don't have to face all of this alone. Let me take care of you..."

She repeated those same words of the night before. I knew what she meant with them and part of me had already let her in, accepting her help in more ways that I didn't know I would have ever let anyone see me.

But Piper wasn't just anyone.

She had been different to me from the start. From the moment when I saw her enter into my bedroom that very first time I met her. Something drew me to her as soon as she stepped in, and something stirred immediately inside me in the moment I looked into her clear blue eyes for the first time.

As I pulled back from her arms and looked tentatively up at her and at the tender, sweet smile on her lips that held nothing but adoration, I couldn't ignore how calm and safe she made me feel.

"It's not going to be easy Piper but..." I shifted my gaze downward, looking at our joined hands when I felt her caressing my knuckles with her thumb and feeling as a smile tugged at my lips in front of that incredibly simple, yet meaningful gesture and sight, and when my eyes returned to her, the words that I meant to tell her, but that had been stuck in my throat, finally fell from my lips directly from my heart. "...but for you, I'll try."

For her I would have done anything.

Even the harderst thing ever, one that I would have never, ever considered to renounce in a million of years.

But for her I was willing to do it.

My heart was already exposed, my sentiments revealed. But for her, I would have given up a piece of the strongest part of me.

My control.

She had already seen me at my worst, broken, wounded, shattered inside and out, and when she ran away it wasn't because she had been terrified by the ugliness and corruption that she had seen and that I carried inside of me. I never meant for her to see me like that. I never meant for her to see the part of me that at its worst had scared even myself in the past. But she had not only seen it. She had not only witnessed it, but for the first time since that presence had become a part of me, someone else had managed to calm it down and pull me out from a blinding rage that I thought would have swallowed the remaining human in me if it wasn't for her.

No... Piper was like no others for me.

Another bright smile appeared on her beautiful face at my words, and then I leaned in, cupping her cheek in my hand to seal my promise with a kiss.

"After all," I said with a small smirk when I pulled back, looking down at my leg that was resting on the coffee table and then holding up my other hand, the one that she had remedicated and -unnecessarily- wrapped up in a bandage with immense care and tenderness "You have already taken good care of me."

But in my attempt to see that beautiful smile grow even more, the reminder of what had happened to me when I was away for the mission, had darkened her features with the same shadow of concern that I had noticed in the hospital almost a week previous as she diverted her gaze and looked at my injured leg.

"Piper?" I called her name softly, bending a little to find her gaze, but when our eyes met, the small, shaky smile that she gave me back was forced and the brightness that I adore so much and that I always found there to greet me whenever I looked at her, grew dim in her clear pools.

That look had me immediately worried.

"What is it kid?" I asked shifting in my seat to stay closer to her.

She looked down at my leg for a moment longer and then shook her head.

"It's nothing... Sorry. Just a silly thing..." She shrugged off the matter after swallowing hard what I suspected was a lump that had formed in her throat and that made her voice sound particularly low and raspy.

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't a silly thing as she said. If it was so serious to bother her like this, it was anything but ignorable.

"Piper..." I cupped her cheek in my hand, gently lifting her chin to meet my gaze when she tilted her head down, and this time, it wasn't lost on me the new tears that were already forming in her eyes. "Please..." I encouraged her, and luckily, the look I gave her was enough and I didn't have to insist more.

She leaned against my touch, placing her hand above mine before taking in a small steady breath through her parted lips.

"It's just..." She paused, her gaze lingering on my injured leg once more as she considered her words, but I already suspected what all that was about. Part of me expected it. And was ready to reassure her in every way I could, but first I let her finish.

"I keep thing that when you'll recover completely, I know you'll probably return to... work and I..." Another shaky breath. "I don't want to-" She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated with herself.

In any other moment, with any other topic I would have been probably amused to see the always eloquent and well educated young woman in front of me stumbling on her own words, but in that moment, that sight worried me more than anything else. "What I'm trying to say is that..." A pause, and then she sighed, raising her head to look at me. "I know what your duties are and... You'll always be in my thoughts when you are away Alex."

I knew what she meant with that. It was her way to say "I'll worry day and night about you, but I understand what you must do."

My heart ached, swelling with a strange combination of both pain and love, my eyes pricked with tears but under all of that, a smile found its way across my lips, and of course, it was a reaction that confused Piper.

I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle when I saw the tiny crease that formed between her eyebrows when she saw me smile after what she had just said, but I didn't wait a second longer to explain and reassure her.

If I had any doubt left about my latest choice, after listening to my lover's concerns I knew I had taken the right decision.

"You are right," I started with a nod. "I'll have to return to work when I'll be completely healed..."

Resignation flashed across her face along with an immense look of sadness that she tried to hide from me by tilting her head down, diverting her gaze from mine; return to work was inevitable, she already knew that, but it didn't mean that her look of distress didn't affect me deeply, and before she could start to picture some other unpleasant scenario, like the one that got me injured so gravely, I continued, taking her hand in mine and tracing affectionately her long, delicate, elegant fingers with my thumb. The gesture caught immediately her attention, but what I said next earned me even more.

"But I won't return to do that job anymore."

As soon as I finished, her head snapped up, her look bewildered, incredulous, but there was something else lying in her wide eyes.

Something that made me smile even more.

Hope.

"Y-you mean?" She asked, still not completely allowing to that emotion to take over before she had a real confirmation. One that I didn't wait to give her.

"I've decided to return to work with the Feds, Piper." I announced. "I have quit with that job and with that life."

By the look that she was giving me, I could see that she was having a hard time trying to believe what I was telling her, but the light of hope that was becoming brighter in her eyes with every passing second, told me exactly how she felt about my decision.

A few more moments passed, and I waited patiently until she found her voice and asked me

"I-It's this because of...?" But even she didn't know how to complete that question. Her voice trailed off, leaving open all the possibilities for how to finish it in my head.

Because of what had happened to me? Because I had seriously risked my life? ...Because of us?

I smiled softly at her as I took her hand in mine, deliberately using my bruised one; the one that I had used to protect her, and the one she had medicated with such care.

Her gaze lingered on our joined hands for a moment longer, and when she looked up at me once again, I simply replied

"For both."

New thick tears formed instantly in her eyes, but she managed to hold them back as I explained further.

"I've come too close this time to... not come back, Piper." She knew what I meant, she had seen me in that hospital bed, she knew how extensive and severe my injury was and that my conditions weren't so good, but hearing those simple words from me, had still a very hard impact on her, even if I didn't use that word.

She stiffened and diverted her gaze, blinking away the tears that kept gathering in her clear blue eyes as she let out a silent, shaky breath through her nose.

"And I've come too close to lose you." This time, a small suffocated sob left her lips despite her best efforts to suppress it.

Speak through the lump that had formed in my throat was incredibly uncomfortable, my voice came out so raspy and deep that I barely recognized it as my own, but I didn't stop. I needed to say this and she needed to hear it.

"I won't lie to you and say that the job with the Feds will never be a little risky at times, but I can tell you that is safer, and even if I can't promise that I won't get into some dangerous situations..." I waited until her tentative eyes found mine and then moved aside a lock of golden hair to better see her face, feeling how she started to relax at the softness of my touch as I looked at her and tried to bring to her as much reassurance as I could as I said the next words. "I can promise you Piper, that I'll be always careful... And that I'll always come back to you."

My words brought her some visible comfort, but the strong, sincere promise behind them that she read in my eyes, was what made her lean in and claim my lips in a gentle, yet passionate kiss as soon as I finished.

I kissed her back with everything I had and more, pulling her closer to me, and feeling how she melted in my embrace, her fears still presents, but slowly fading away, dissipating as she allowed me to replace them with the love I felt for her.

For so long I had performed a duty with a purpose, most of the times without even being concerned of what would have been of me if I wouldn't have suceeded. Now instead, even if my cause remained strong, I had something... No... Someone, that I didn't have before.

And she was my reason.

The one that would have given me the strenght to keep going and make me come back to her every time should something have happened to me.

At the end of the day, I would have always seen my lover's face.

That promise was for her as much as it was for me.

When she pulled back we were both breathless but she managed to whisper a single word against my lips. "Promise?" She asked looking at me with eyes filled with joy and shining with hope.

I smiled at her. Kissing her softly on the lips one more time before confirming. "I promise."

A wave of relief washed over her and when she talked, her voice was filled emotion. "I wasn't expecting this, Alex. I mean, I'm... beyond happy" And she really was. "But... I know how much your job meant to you and I would have never have asked you to..." Her voice trailed off as soon as she saw me shake my head with a smile tugging at my lips, leaving her sentence unfinished, but I knew what she was going to say. Of course she wouldn't have asked me to quit with my job as assassin; she would have worried and suffered in silence for me, but I couldn't permit that from happen. I loved her too much to be so selfish and continue with that life.

The decision I took, was really also for her... For us. And I told her that.

"You are much more important to me kid." I confessed at last, watching the first tear of joy roll down her cheek as she smiled brightly, no longer able to contain it after my words.

I wiped it away with the pad of my thumb and kissed her on the bridge of her nose, something that, if possible, earned me a wider smile and a small adorable giggle.

"So..." She asked after a few more moments when she had recovered from all those emotions, trying to hide unsuccessfully the warm blush that had started to spread over her cheeks. "You already know when you'll start and what you'll do?"

I pursed my lips as I thought about it for a second. "Next week both Nicky and I have an appointment with the chief at the Federal Plaza."

I had forgot to mention to her that my best friend would have returned to work with the FBI with me, but Piper seemed even more pleased by that fact, and I suspected that it was because she knew that Nicky would have kept an eye on me all the time. And she was right.

"They'll probably give her a task force into the computer crimes unit." I guessed with a chuckle, knowing how excited my friend would have been at that idea. "About me however I still don't know, probably investigation on field... Don't know which unit though."

She nodded looking in front of her, biting on her bottom lip as if she was considering something.

"A week uh?" She asked at last when her gaze returned to me, a small tentative smirk tugging at her lips, and for how mischievous and kind of suspicious it was to see it on her beautiful face, it didn't fail in bringing one on my own lips.

"Yes...?" I half confirmed half asked with a small laugh.

"You know, I'll start to work at the museum not before next week too..." She said calmly as she shifted to stay a little closer to me, her voice dropping deliberately of a few tones.

"Oh?" I asked feign nonchalance, but struggling to suppress the grin that was threatening to show on my face. "Well that's a very fortunate coincidence..."

She nodded, but it wasn't lost on me the new glint that had started to shine in her eyes. "You can certainly say that..."

Then she shifted and with a swift movement, yet being aware and extra careful to my injured leg, she straddled my waist, and at that point, my cool demeanour started to crumble as my hands found immediately their favourite place on her hips.

It was very interesting to see her act like this, even if it wasn't the first time it always both pleased and amused me the way she could change from the shy and innocent art student, into this flirtatious and teasing young woman.

And even if I was really enjoying how things had started to develop in the last minute and I read perfectly the meaning, and invitation, behind her words, I couldn't help but tease her a little longer.

"I can't possibly immagine what you are suggesting, kid... And I thought you had a thesis to work on, isn't that right?" I asked with an arched eyebrow, but unable to mask my amusement with a bigger smirk when I saw her blushing a little as I pulled her a bit closer so that our fronts were pressed together.

"I think I could take a few days to rest after all," She ammitted, her fingertips tracing the side of my face with such affection. "And I would like very much to spend them with you if... you are okay with that..." Oh, I was certainly more than simply okay with that, in fact if she wasn't going to suggest it, I would have done it.

"I would love to..." I said at last, giving her an honest smile and watching as a bigger one spread across her face. After all that happened we could use some time to spend together before starting once again with work and studies.

Then an idea popped in my head and my eyes widened as I thought about something.

"Actually, would you like to go somewhere with me for the next few days?"

She tilted her head to the side in slight curiosity, eyebrows knitting together in a small frown, but the smile never left her lips. "Where?"

At that I smirked at her and then threw her a wink. "That's a surprise... But I can tell you that is quiet, and that even if it may be a little cold," I admitted as I thought about where I wanted to bring her. "I'm sure we can find a way to stay warm." I concluded lifting my eyebrows playfully.

Her eyes sparkled with excitement and she beamed at me. "If you put it this way, how could I ever refuse?"