Chapter 38 : Daring to hope-

DISCLAMER, i do not own Beauty and the Beast of course, this is just a work of fiction based on the characters and the show.

A/N : Man work is time consuming, but I manage to write tiny bits now and then. Still need time to then put it all together in shape of a chapter though ! eheh ! hope you'll like !

Guest : Well I'm glad you're not giving up on me ahah ! Hopefully you'll get what you want in the next few chapter ! I'm trying ahah ! Bear with me !

Previously in ATW : Vincent and JT had settled in their new place, no matter how little the comfort was and everyone keeps an eye out for Muirfield.

Evan still double agent is starting to really feel scared. He knows the big M has a tendency to kill when they get disappointed in an agent so he wonders what they'd do to him if they knew he was working for the other side. When we left him last chapter he had slept all day to get over his hangover and had received a few suspicious calls. Someone knocked on his door and he is afraid it might be Muirfield ! So what next ? Well … read it !

The knock was quite insistent. For a second Evan considered calling Tess or Cat to ask if it was them. But if it was they would have told him through the door by now, instead of knocking so much.

Not opening would be suspicious, if it was Muirfield they'd know he was home so there was no use in hiding.

Evan took a deep breath, summoned all his courage and walked to the door to open.

"You ?"

JT peaked at the window a bit from behind the curtains. That damn car was still here.

"Something wrong ?" Sarah asked startling him. She had just finished getting ready for their date and was now putting on her coat.

"No, no" he lied and came to help her. "Let's go. You're going to love the place, they make the best sushi I ever tasted !"

"Alright then ! Let's go !" she said with her brightest smile.

All day long JT had been waiting for that moment. He was always looking forward seeing her, she truly was the light of his days. But now that he was with her he was starting to worry. Since he had left the university he had noticed a black car, apparently quite normal, that seemed to be following him.

Of course most people would say he was being paranoiac, but JT had good reasons to worry. It had been way too long since they had had news from the evil M as he liked to call them, and he was starting to feel quite weird, like some sort of intuition that something bad was coming.

Out of worry he had decided not to go home and had actually spent an hour in the city before going straight to Sarah's. He had not seen the car that much while walking around town, but once at her place, when he looked at the window here it was again.

"Oh crap ! I forgot to put your beautiful flowers in a vase" she said before deposing a kiss on his cheek. "It will only be a minute" she added as she ran to the kitchen to fill something with water.

JT took that time to text Vincent : "Not coming home, love you"

Ever since Muirfield had come so close to get Vincent they had decided of a code to be able to warn one another. They were to text like a couple. JT knew that seeing that "love you" at the end of the text, Vincent would get rid of the burner phone and hide in some tunnels around the city and probably would warn Cat as well.

"I'm ready" Sarah said with a cheering voice.

"Perfect" he answered. He shoved his phone in his pocket and they both walked out.

"You should stay here for the night" Catherine told him.

"Haven't you heard what I told you ? JT is not coming home, because he wants to protect me, my only guess is that someone is following him. I can't put you at risk too and I need to make sure he is ok"

"Please, JT doesn't want you around, he is trying to keep you safe, just … stay" she couldn't let him go like that. She was too scared something would happen to him. "Do you seriously think that they'd look for you here ?"

"Well they might have found JT, why wouldn't they find you ?" he was already at the window ready to climb out. But Catherine closed the curtains and put herself in his way.

"He was your friend before everything happened, we didn't know each other back then" she said firmly.

"You're right" he said sighing. "But still … it's not safe …"

"For you, out here. Yeah it's not." After a brief silence she added : "Stay, I'll feel better if you are around. We'll find a way to check on JT" She could read worry in his eyes, and not for himself, for his friend. "I'll get Tess to check on him".

Over the last few days Tess and Cat had managed to get their bound back and somehow it seemed like Tess was now quite on their side. Even though she still refused to meet Vincent face to face, Cat was really hoping that she'd be ready to help out checking on JT if the poor man was in trouble.

"Okay." Vincent finally gave up fighting her. He took off his jacket and sat on her bed. His face buried in his hand he was trying to think what he could do.

"Wasn't he supposed to go out on a date ?"

Vincent nodded. "At that sushi place he kept talking about."

"Right." Cat grabbed her phone and called Tess to ask her to check on JT. She had to explain the whole situation and quite quickly to her surprise Tess accepted to give out some help.

"Thank you so much, you're a life savior" Cat said feeling so relieved.

"Yeah I know"

"Keep me updated please, Vincent and I are really worried"

"Of course" Tess said before hanging up.

JT was driving Sarah in his little blue car when he saw a police car behind him.

"You should stop on the side, I think they wanna control you".

He was not driving too fast, nor had he missed a red light or anything, that was strange. Were Muirfield agent also pretending to be cops ? He was turning paranoiac with all that. He stopped the car and waited.

When he recognized Tess he was so relieved.

"Just checking on paper and all, sir." She said.

He gave her what she had asked for and she took a brief look. "Mind stepping out of the vehicle ?"

JT complied and got out.

"What's going on ?" Tess asked more sounding like herself.

So he explained the suspicious car, but since he couldn't see it around he had no way to show her. Tess could read the panic all over the teacher's face.

"Alright, calm down. I'll give you my number. If anything goes wrong you call me and I'll get Cat and Vincent if needed." She waited to see him nod before adding : "And if you see that car again take note of the license plate. Cat and I can check that out at the precinct."

"Thank you" he said relaxing a bit.

"They probably are just following you since you were friend with Vincent before he became their guinea pig, don't panic, they probably have nothing on you. Do you have a place to stay for the night ?"

"I can always ask Sarah"

"Perfect, you do that. I'll tell Cat you're ok, she and Vincent were worried. "

She was about to leave when she remembered she had one last thing to give him "Wait, Vincent's new number. Don't mix them up, I don't want to get your love messages for you best bud" she joked.

"Ah-ah" he faked laugh, obviously not a fan of her humor.

When JT jumped back in the car Sarah looked worried.

"Just, wanted to check the lights of the car, it's all ok."

She smiled at him and he started the car again, this time his shoulder feeling a little less heavy. He did not know why Tess was helping out, but she was and that was good news.

"What … what are you doing here ?"

The beautiful Elsa stood in front of him, a shy smile drew on her face. Her cheeks were a little pink, though Evan did not notice. Her hair was down, she looked much less cold and strict than the first time he had met her. It suited her so well. In other circumstances, Evan would have smiled back at her, instead he just stared blankly, quite in shock.

"But, wait. Where are my manners ? Come on in."

He moved aside to let her in. Still shaken up he was not in full possession of his thoughts and therefore forgot to offer her a beverage, as he would normally do.

"I came to give you this" she said handing him a large brown envelope.

He took it and stared at it confused before looking back up at her.

"They know I don't live too far from here, so they asked me to drop this by for you on my way home" she explained.

His mind was racing and making up a million possible scenarios, none of which in his favor.

After a brief yet awkward silence, as they were still staring at each other, Elsa dared to ask : "May I sit ?"

"Course"

She took off her jacket and set it on the side of the couch before sitting on it. She then passed her hand on her hair and looked back at Evan who seemed stuck standing with his hands anxiously gripped at the envelope.

He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and took place next to her leaving the envelope on the small table in front of them. If the documents were out of his hands they weren't out of his thoughts and that was clear to Elsa.

"Maybe you should take a look at it"

Without a word and quite quickly he grabbed back the envelope and took out the content to give it a quick look. It seemed to be medical exams of the men that had been experimented on about a decade ago. He did not have time to check but he expected Vincent's medical history would also be included in there.

Evan didn't know if he should rejoice, but somehow he felt relived.

"That's not the only reason I came though" the young blond said interrupting his thoughts.

Confused he looked back at her and though he spoke no word his face said it all.

"People tend to forget about my presence you know." with her delicate fingers she was playing with bits of her top. "What I mean is ... I heard things ..."

"I don't follow" Evan said frowning.

"What do you do for Muirfield ?" she asked him.

He looked down, that seemed like shame to her.

"It's better if you don't know." He said sadly.

"You seem like a nice guy"

Now Evan was even more confused.

"You're so … I don't know how to say" she continued, "and I don't know why and you may think it's silly but, never in a million years could I imagine you doing anything wrong ... Yet ... " She couldn't finish her sentence.

"Elsa" he said moving closer to her. He had never called her by her first name, at least not as far as she could remember, and she couldn't help but blush a bit. "Do you know what Muirfield truly do ?"

"Not officially... But as I said I hear things."

Both looked at one another in complete silence for what seemed like an eternity.

"They are looking for someone aren't they ?"

Evan did not dare to deny.

"And you are helping them ... Or at least you're supposed to ... " she added.

Could she know he was working against Muirfield ? And if she did, would it mean that they did too ? Was she playing innocent to get him to confess. Evan's paranoia was getting out of hand, but what if he was right ? He didn't dare to react to her word and preferred to let her continue.

"Whatever it is they do, I doubt they are honest, and ... I hope you don't really help them. And if I'm right, know that they doubt you. I don't know what exactly is in that envelope, but if I were you I wouldn't trust it. And ..." she tried to control her shaky voice, "Be careful, they are going to take a closer look at you"

He was not sure about anything, not anymore, not since he had been working with Muirfield. It was so easy for him to see evil everywhere, but he wanted her to say the truth. He wanted so bad for her to be the sweet innocent angel that she seemed to be. Oh how much he was hoping she was indeed just trying to protect him.

He had to say something, he had to react to her words, but what to answer ? He wanted to trust her but he was still in doubt and decided not to be too direct thus avoiding to confess anything.

"You mentioned not living far" he did not give her time to say anything. "There is a nice little coffee shop down the street, I think it's called Max Brownies, I go there most mornings to grab a coffee for work. If you were to stop by there on your way, we might stumble upon each other"

She smiled. This would be a way to get in touch and it would seem like chance, might fool Muirfield in case they needed to communicate.

Evan was hoping she'd get the message and was still silently praying that he was right to believe she was on his side, or at least might be.

"Thank you" she said with her warmest smile, "thank you so much"

"What for ?"

"For being who I was hoping you were, for caring ... And for trusting me"

A/N : to the anon that hoped it was Elsa … am I THAT obvious ? AHAH ! Hope you liked it !

So is Evan right to trust Elsa ? Even just a bit ?

Please review, I'm always curious about what you imagine could happen, or what you'd like to see, or what you thought would have happened or … idk whatever ! Just tell me what you like and dislike, helps me get my muse working and motivates me to get better !