Author's note: Well I decided to make this one big, long chapter but I think you'll find it is worth it to read it. I really put my heart and soul into this one chapter because I knew in my heart how Abby felt. That is why it took me so long to update this story because it was a piece of me and a piece of Abby that no one has seen yet. This character started out without layers, as just a girl that I thought could make the readers laugh, but she became more than that when I realized that the readers wanted something more. And I was unprepared to give you guys that but I did, and I'm glad I did. I have never been in the experience that Abby has in this chapter, but yet I knew how she felt and I put myself into it. I hope you love it!

There is always that part of the story you wish you could forget. But you can't because it's a part of you whether you like it or not. I've seen this moment in my life over and over in my mind. My memory of the next few moments of this story is so vivid in my memory that putting down everything that happened scares me. I'm scared that maybe I'll look down at the paper and realize it all never happened.

That it was all a bad dream and I'll look beside me, and there'll he will be. Laughing and smiling that same wonderful smile that kept me loving him all those years. Were in Paris with the Eiffel tower looming in the background because we both agreed it made us seem small to be too close to it. And thieves never like feeling small, we like feeling triumphant like nothing can touch it. But it can.

We're sitting on a bench in some park, with some French name that he can't pronounce. He looks at me gauging my reaction, then shrugs and throws birdseed all over us. The birds leap forth and peck the food off of us like were nothing but a fixture as I scream with laughter.

That moment in Paris happened a long time ago and yet it is still one of the moments I look back on, that I believe is my perfect reality. My Utopia if you will. But reality is hardly ever perfect and when it is it doesn't last.

The reality is that the next moments in the story is harsh for me. But every once in a while we need a harsh reality to wake us up to what really matters. If someone had told me this was going to happen I probably would have said it was a harsh reality that I didn't need, but looking back I did need it. Almost as much as he did.

We forgot what it would be like if everything didn't work out like we wanted. We got careless and we didn't even notice.

"Come on! Come on, turn green!" I yelled at the light. I closed my eyes hoping it would turn once I opened them, no such luck.

"What is wrong with you! Two people's lives are on the line you know! You can't just decide to turn green whenever you feel like it! At this rate, both of them are going to be dead and as much as I want one of them out of my life, I really want the other one in one whole piece. And by that I mean no pieces missing, like at all!" I continued my conversation with the stop light.

"You know what I don't care! So what happens if I run a red light? People do it all the time right? What's the worst that can happen? People get injured, possibly killed…" I admitted.

"But that's what gonna happen to someone I actually I love if I don't get there. So, person I love or people I don't know," I said weighing the two options with my hands. Thankfully I didn't have to decide cause the light turned green and I sped through the intersection.

WITH THE OTHERS

"You think she's gonna be mad?" Livingston asked cautiously, as he plugged in wires. Even though they had destroyed most of the equipment for surveillance, they still had the microphones in the casino that would pick up any sound, and transmit back to them.

"It's surveillance, it makes everyone mad," Virgil joked as he helped Livingston connect wires.

"Plus who says she has to know, unless someone tells her," Turk said, pointedly, staring at Linus.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Linus asked as he walked over to Turk, closing the space between them.

"We all know you've gotten closer to Abby during the heist. I'm sure you tell her all about your daddy issues and I'm sure she's told you everything that happened between her and me," Turk explained, undeterred.

"You and her? She doesn't even mention you," Linus shot back.

"What we had was special and whatever you and her think you had is nothing compared to our relationship. You're just a newbie wannabe thief and she took pity on you because of your name. But let me tell you, just cause your daddy was a big name in the thief business doesn't mean you can ride on his washed out name."

"Can you hear yourself? You're a child! Don't you realize that she didn't choose you and she didn't choose me! God knows I would have loved for her to choose me, but she didn't." Linus was yelling now. He looked down and saw he was holding Turk by his shirt, holding it up to his face. He let go slowly and brushed off Turk's shirt like it hadn't happened. "We aren't what she wanted," he finished softly.

WITH RUSTY

I sat down at one of the casino games nonchalantly and began to play. It was peaceful actually, being in a casino with no one around you. Just the sound of the machine ringing that you won or lost. But the sounds of the game didn't pertain to me, because no matter what happened in the situation that was about to transpire I was going to lose.

It's not like I hadn't prepared myself to lose, this had been my plan all along. But once you actually reach the crossroad and though you prepared yourself to make the one choice you can't stop thinking about the other option. I could leave, right now, walk out that door run across the street, and open the door to the safe house.

I would find Abby, she'd probably be dancing or laughing with someone, but I wouldn't care. I would walk up to her and kiss her. Just like that, just as passionately as she should be kissed for the rest of her life. In that moment I wouldn't care that she didn't feel the same. After it was over, my aching heart would be content, fore I would have done what I had been waiting so long to do.

It would be the end and the start of a new life, no matter what she felt. But the other option, the one I had to choose, that also was a life changer. I needed to kill someone in order to protect her. She would disapprove, I knew that, but she always loved to fight with me. Any simple decision from who was going to drive to how the car smelled. But this was a much bigger decision, it was a life or death one.

Not that I hadn't taken lives. We all had, but not like this. Shooting at others in our way had always been part of our job, but we weren't hit men. No one hired us for killing, they hired us for stealing. We weren't heartless though we had gone undercover as people that were. This would be easier if I were undercover. But I needed to do this as me.

I could see Benedict now. The man had just lost so much and all he could do was stare out the double doors that Tess had walked out of. He was in shock. He had lost his reputation, his money, his girl, and now his life. I got up from my chair and approached him from behind. He didn't even yell or shiver when I put the gun into his back. I almost thought he didn't know it was there until he said something that surprised me. "Do it."

"What?" I asked genuinely confused.

"We all know you want to do it. And I never thought I would want it, but after today I want it. I lost everything today and I'm never getting any of it back," Benedict said solemnly.

I didn't know what to say to that. My reluctance angered him. "If you won't be a man and do it, don't do it for yourself. Do it for that girl you love so much. What's her name?"

"Abigail," I said angrily pushing the gun further into his back.

"You know I'll go after her and her family if you don't. Life will be so much worse for her if you don't do it," he taunted.

That made me realize that I wanted to kill him for other reasons. It wasn't for Abby, she always knew how to take care of herself. It was to punish him. To punish him for everything he did to her family. But in that moment I realized that giving him life would be punishment enough. He had lost everything and he needed to see what life would be without those things. For that was true punishment. I lowered my gun.

"She doesn't want you dead, you know. After all you did to her and her family. You took so much from her and we returned the favor. Your life, that's one thing that doesn't deserve to be taken from you. You deserve to live a miserable life without all your millions and without the woman you stole. That is a far greater punishment than death," I said softly.

The next thing I knew Benedict ran over to the nearest fire alarm and pulled it. I put up my gun as the security guards flooded into the room with their guns drawn. No one moved, we just stared each other down, the fifty security guards and me. They didn't see me as a threat, at least not yet.

That's when I saw her. She was still in her dress from the party, her curls bouncing as she exited the elevator. She looked around the corner looking for someone and then that's when she saw me and the guards lined up ready to shoot. Half of the security turned to face her, then turning their guns on her. She looked at me, both knowing the next step that had to be taken. The one we had always tried to avoid. A gunfight.

"Put your hands in the air and no harm will come to you," one of the security guards ordered me to do. I nodded in agreement and raised my hands slowly.

"You too ma'am," another guard that was facing Abby ordered. She looked at me and smiled.

"You see I have this thing," she started, before she had even finished she had jump kicked the guard. "I don't listen to orders," she finished as bursts of gunfire filled the air. She ran for cover and made it to the end of the row of slot machines.

As soon as she kicked the guard I grabbed the guns of the unsuspecting security guards and flipped the barrels toward themselves and shot. That gave me enough of a distraction to run for cover as well. Abby was a isle over and I could see they were closing in on her. She needed a distraction, one that I could provide.

I pulled out of my pocket two tear gas bombs and threw them over. The sounds of screams were heard and I watched Abby appear over a slot machine. She walked on top of the machines to get to me and I opened my arms to catch her. She jumped without hesitation and I caught her in my arms. She looked at me expectantly and I smiled. I let her down and we started for the exit, but before we could even get out of the isle another group of security guards had covered the door. They started firing upon us causing us to take cover behind all the slot machines.

WITH ABBY

We we're trapped. It wasn't a new experience. Being a thief we are always caught in situations that could be classified under the category of trapped. When you were hired to steal a painting, a Monet or something expensive and the alarm goes off just as you take it off the wall. Or the person you are stealing from happens to come home too early. These are experiences you learn from, and prepare for.

"Remember how you always wanted to know where I carried my guns?" I asked as I lifted up my dress.

"Yeah," Rusty grinned.

"Well, you're about to find out," I replied. Normally hiding guns under your clothes isn't very hard. But when you're wearing a dress, that's a very different story.

I put my leg out and lifted the fabric enough to reveal that I had three silencer guns duct taped to my leg. Duct tape freaks the weapon scanner out and tricks it into thinking that I'm not carrying. But just three silencers won't get you through a gunfight. Much to Rusty's surprise I took off my platform shoes and revealed that the whole inside of the platform was hollow and hid enough ammo for 10 military guns. I reached into my bra and retrieved more smaller, deadlier guns. I took off my earrings and necklace and revealed they were all made of ammo.

Rusty looked at me in shock. "So, basically when we we're…" Rusty pointed at the air vent above us.

"I was carrying a lot more than I took off, don't worry none of them would have gone off," I assured him.

"How do you know? One of the trigger's could have been pulled-" Rusty fought, but he was interrupted by more gunfire. We both grabbed for the same silencer gun and our finger's brushed. We both hesitated and stared at the other.

"Guess we both have-" Rusty started, but he was interrupted by me kissing him. Passionately, like every movie couple had. Normally their was some dramatic moment leading up to it. It figures our dramatic moment happened to be with a gunfight happening around us.

We parted, both staring at the other. "Linus?" he asked, his eyes awaiting the hurt and rejection that would come with my answer. Being a thief he had come to expect the worse. Not that I could blame him. The question answer held both our future's. He knew his answer, I saw it in his eyes everyday, but I had seen it in them so often I had forgotten what it meant. I had forgotten what question they were asking. I had forgotten that they were asking a question at all. I had seen that look in so many eyes of men over the years of being undercover. I had forgotten what it meant when a man looked at you like that. I had forgotten that he still loved me.

He loved me, he always had, and he wanted to try to see if we could salvage what we had. Did I want that? It seemed like my whole life lead up to this moment. His eyes continued searching my face, for some sign of what my answer could be, but it was unreadable and that scared him.

I smiled and shook my head. "I left him for you."

Rusty started to say something, but I put my finger to his lips. "We'll finish this conversation later, right now let's get out of here."

He smiled back, grabbed one of the guns and began shooting at the security guards, his eyes never leaving my face. His shooting was erratic, sometimes we would hear a yelp of pain from one of them, but in that moment we didn't care.

We were snapped back to reality as the bullets started to come dangerous close. The casino had turned into a battleground and though we thought we were going to win it, inside we both knew that our chances were slim.

Suddenly, without warning the bullets stopped. Everything was frozen, with only the smoking of the bullet holes in the carpet making a sound. We took the stance you see people take in spy movies when the spy isn't sure what is around the corner. The one where they crouch against the wall and then when they feel that there is a possibility it might be safe to look, they spin into the entryway, gun drawn to meet their attacker.

We were at the crouching part of it, facing each other, each behind a slot machine. Rusty put his finger to his lips to signal me to be quiet. I nodded, and Rusty mouthed the numbers one through twenty. That was the number of seconds of quiet that a thief usually waited until he peered around the corner. He looked at me and I nodded. It was a good time as any to put our heads around the corner and see what was going on.

With that four second look, we got all the information we needed. We were surrounded. That's why it didn't surprise either one of us when we heard the sound of bull horn being turned on.

We had walked into a nightmare that thieves had, waking up with sweat causing their shirt to cling to their body. Except this time it was real. Once the bull horn comes on it means that there is no way out. Or at least not one where you don't leave in either a body bag or handcuffs. We had played with fire, we were fire benders, we knew all the little tricks to get what we wanted, but along the way we got careless and when you get careless you get burned.

We sat there side by side, each sitting against a slot machine, just sitting there in silence. That silence enveloped our souls as our hearts realized what our head knew all along. I knew it the moment I had walked in and saw the security guards. I had never taken on that many. I could have turned around; I could have walked out and left him. But I couldn't do that, not to him.

As soon as we heard the voice we knew that Benedict had hired a man to negotiate. Though it wouldn't be much of a negotiation. They had nothing to lose, and we, well we had everything.

"Okay, as you can see there is no way you are getting out alive other than if you surrender. Now Mr. Benedict has informed me he does not want to make this messy and would rather it be that both of you give yourselves up. There is no reason for any bloodshed. The D.A. might even be interested in a deal for information on your involvement in the loss of Mr. Benedict's money."

"You'll just have to kill us!" I yelled as I grabbed a machine gun and proceeded to fire at them. I shot a few of them before Rusty pried the gun out of hands. By that time, tears were streaming down my face and I was frantic. He held me against him, as my body shook with sobs. He stroked my hair softly, tears forming in his eyes as well.

"Rusty we gotta fight, we can't go out like this," I pleaded. "There has to be some other way!"

"Shhh," he whispered, as he kissed my head. "Listen to me," he pushed me from him to arms length, making me look into his eyes. "You are not going to prison okay. I'm not gonna let them take you. I'm going to turn myself in, in exchange for you to go free. I'm not going to let them ruin your life anymore Abs," he said out of breath. "Not anymore."

"There is no way that's happening," I scoffed as I tried to retrieve my weapon, but Rusty stopped me.

"Listen to me, when you went rogue we couldn't find you. I couldn't find you. It was the worse moments of my life because I love you, Abigail Ocean," he was still out of breath as he declared his love. "I'm not doing that again, I need to know your safe. That is the only way I can survive prison. We both knew it was just a matter of time before I ended up there anyway."

"No," I said softly.

"What?" he asked confused.

"I never thought that. You were good Rusty, really good," I choked on the tears.

"Hey, now no more of that. How am I supposed to know your okay, while I'm in prison if the last time I saw you, you were crying?" He asked pulling me close to him.

"I'm staying with you till they take you. Don't try to make me leave cause I can't. I don't care how long it is, I don't care if we just spend the time holding each other, I just want you to know I'll be waiting for you when you get out. And I have connections in prison so I'll know if you start flirting with a girl-"

"Never," he cut me off. "But seriously Abby, I need to go," he said as he unhooked my arms from his waist. He held my hand and dropped it slowly as he walked away, towards the chaos. "When will I see you again?" I called out to him. He turned around, tears finally spilling out of his beautiful green eyes. "Someday," he mouthed as he kneeled before them, with his hands over his head.

They swarmed him, obliterating my view of him. I wasn't able to see him as they took him away, the security guards made sure of it as they paraded him out like a common criminal. And you, the reader may point out the fact that he was.

And yes he was, but you then why are reading this if that's all you truly believed he was. He was so much more than that, just like everybody is more than what they do. Stealing was his profession and he did it well, a little too well. The first and last thing he ever stole were the same item. My heart. I heard him arguing with them for me to be set free. He must have won them over because the man got back on the bull horn and said I was free to go.

I knew that it was true as all the guard's guns were lowered, as I walked past them. I looked terrible, tear stains, sweat, and grime covered my body. But I was calm and showed no sadness as I passed by them. I had been trained since I was young that you never let your enemy see you break. T

hey hadn't seen me break, but they had heard it. They had heard our goodbye and I needed to be strong and walk past with dignity. I searched the faces of each of the guards. Some met my eyes and some looked down in shame. But one of them was different.

I saw it in his eyes that he knew. He knew what we had and a single tear made it's way down his cheek. He knew it was wrong. It was wrong to separate two people that much in love. I knew that he was the negotiator, the one that spoke into the bull horn. The one that had jumpstarted the nightmare. I put my hand on his shoulder, causing the line of guns to go up and point directly at me. But the man motioned for them to lower them again. "Do something for me," I said solemnly.

He nodded slowly, unsure what I would ask of him. "Go home, hug and kiss your wife. Remind yourself that you just separated the love of a lifetime."

They even opened the door for me and I stepped out into the rain. The pouring rain, enveloped me, and I cried. I broke down, but held myself up as I made my way across the street. To anyone that saw me that day, they would have never known the great things I had done. I was a professional thief that had seen more money and riches than any of them, but I had lost more than any of them. That they could tell.

This was not the face of a young girl, in that moment I looked like a woman. A woman that had been through many hardships and had experienced more of them than any person had any right to. I stood outside the safe house, just staring up at it. I was soaked with rain and tears. People passed by me and put up their umbrellas but I didn't need one. I wanted to feel it. To feel the rain upon my skin, like hurt pressing down on me.

I wanted to feel that moment more than anyone felt any moment in their whole life. If I didn't feel it then I wasn't human. I wanted to feel the rain, feel the pain of all the choices I had made that let up to the worst day of my life. I knew where he was going to be for the next few years, and I made my decision there in the pouring rain that I would be waiting for him. I was never one for patience that's why it was so hard to wait for Danny to get out of jail so we could get revenge. But I did it, and I would do it again.

My phone rang in my pocket. I almost didn't hear it with the sound of the rain hitting the pavement around me. I looked down at the phone and let out a sound of surprise. The call was from Nevada prison. It kept ringing and I finally answered it on the last ring.

"Hey hon, how you doing?" Danny's solemn voice resounded through the phone.

I told him everything, everything that had happened since he was taken. He hung on ever word, it being the last he would hear from me in a long time. At least in person, thieves have ways to keep in contact in jail, but it's not the same thing as listening to your loved one's voice.

"I just saw the men take Rusty in, and he didn't even put up a fight. Thought the boy make more of one," Danny admitted.

I sighed. "Danny, I want you to know that I love him," I blurted out. There was a short moment of silence on the other end, and then a huge laugh.

"He's the one isn't he?" Danny laughed.

I sighed in relief. "Yeah, he is."

"You both have tip toed around that fact long enough. Are you really planning to have a long distance relationship with him? Don't lead each other on honey. If you don't intend to work with him on your relationship you might as well make it known to him. One thing jail does is it gives you time on your hands. And when you have time on your hands you get to thinking and you start falling more and more in love with someone on the outside that over time is starting to fall out of love with you. I've seen it happen to the best of relationships," Danny advised.

"This is real Dad," I said using the term I hadn't used in a long time. "I know where he's gonna be in a few years and even if he has doubts I know where I'll be in those same years."

"And that is?"

"Waiting for him."