I was actually surprised I was able to finish a chapter this soon. Midterms are next week and I had 3 group projects this week. Anyone else think that college group projects are annoying? Anyway! Enjoy!

The next morning I wake up and there's this annoying buzzing in my skull. Everytime I turn my head, the pain just increases. Suddenly my bedroom door flies open and before I can bury my head under my blankets, Sophie yanks the curtains open.

"Rise and shine," she says way too happily and loud.

I groan and shove my pillow on my face. "Can't I sleep in today?" I muttered sleepily.

Sophie plops down on the bed and pulls my pillow away. For a long moment she looks me over and I wonder what she's thinking. "It's already eight-thirty. You slept late enough. Nate's making breakfast."

Suddenly all the events from the night before came flooding back. I groaned against and rolled over, not wanting to look at her. Sophie wasn't having any of that.

"Look, it's just you and me in here right now, why don't you tell me what you're thinking?" Sophie asked laying a gentle hand on my cheek. For a moment I wanted to fight her, but the truth was, I lived with this woman so there was really no point. We'd eventually have to talk about it, some of it at least, but it didn't mean I'm telling her all of it.

"I'm just mad you didn't tell me. I mean, how long have you been, uh, sleeping together?" I asked scooting myself up and leaning against the headboard.

Sophie leaned against the headboard too and didn't look at me. "Sleeping together regularly? Since the Verd Agra job. But we did sleep together in San Lorenzo while you were with Maggie."

I didn't really know how to respond so I just nodded. We both sat there for a long time. I wanted to tell her that I wanted them together. That I was scared of this because I didn't want to lose my family if something happened. That I loved them both and I didn't want to have to try and imagine them ending and becoming awkward. They would try not to be, but I would feel it. I would see it.

Maybe that was selfish, but I was finally in a place where I felt truly safe and loved. My old life was so complicated. When I was home, I was an heiress. Treated like royalty by the people employed by my father, but treated as nothing by the man himself. Then the months I was gone, I was told to get the artifacts into the states by any means necessary or there was no point in coming home.

The first time I wasn't able to get the artifact to the "buyer", my father broke my nose, two fingers, and my collar bone. I never knew what the people overseas would do to me if I was caught, but I knew my father would only be worse. Sometimes it was easier to just close my eyes and shut it all out.

My family now would never hurt me, but the fear of me waking up one morning and them being gone was constantly in the back of my mind.

"So what the difference between what you guys are doing and dating?" I asked finally.

Sophie opened her mouth, then shut it looking fairly confused and conflicted on what to say. Finally, she looked at me. "We live complicated lives and with you and the team we don't want feelings to screw anything up."

I looked over at her. "I don't get it. Aren't you already emotionally invested?"

Sophie looked at me and sighed. "I'll tell you when I know, how about that? But right now, breakfast!"

She got off the bed and moved toward the door. I struggled after her, my legs tangled in my blankets from a restless night's sleep. "Wait!" I called finally getting free and nearly falling on my face in the process.

She looked at me from the door before I jumped up and threw my arm around her neck. "I love you, Mama," I said softly hugging her tight.

She wrapped her arms around me and held me there. "Love you too, baby girl," she replied, her voice cracking slightly. Before I could see if she was crying, Sophie released me and turned away, heading back toward the kitchen.

I closed the door behind her and quickly showered and changed into my clothes for the day. Fifteen minutes later I was towel drying my hair and taking a seat at the bar in Sophie's kitchen. She was standing oddly close to Nate and didn't notice I was sitting in there.

"Can I have some Tylenol?" Suddenly the two adults jumped apart and turned around and stared at me. "And coffee?"

Nate shook his head but obliged. "You're starting to just appear places like Parker," he laughed sliding a pancake on my plate before nudging the blueberries closer as well. Phantom whined a little and I "accidently" dropped a piece of bacon on the floor.

"Scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes. I'm slowly becoming more okay with this," I teased, trying to show them that I was sorry about my behavior last night. Nate and Sophie exchanged looks quickly, just so I didn't notice but I did. Just like they noticed my bacon drop.

I dropped a large amount of blueberries onto my pancake and took a hearty bight. "So, does the team know, or was it completely by accident that I found out at all?" I asked plainly. My goal was to get questions answered without sounding like I was attacking them.

"Just you," Sophie said carefully, turning around and this time actually looking at me. Her eyes narrowed and she quirked her lips into half a smile. "How's the head?"

My cheeks flushed for a reason I wasn't sure of. Sophie was very good at her job as a grifter, and sometimes that transferred over into her parenting. She was good at putting me to shame. "Buzzing."

She smiled at me and ruffled my hair sending a new pain throughout my skull. Just as I was about to smart off, my phone chimed, then Sophie's. It was a text from Parker.

Choco-choco-cholate festival! You're coming!

I looked over at Sophie who was also checking her phone. "Apparently Parker wants you to go to some chocolate thing with her," she announced as I stuffed my mouth with more pancakes and eggs.

"She asked you? She told me." I grabbed my phone and texted Parker back. What time?'

Parker suddenly walked into Sophie's apartment and took a seat next to me. "It starts in thirty minutes, but it's a twenty minute drive," she said, taking a bite of my pancake. She then looked up to Sophie and Nate on the other side of the counter. "Hi Nate, Hi Sophie."

Nate looked extremely uncomfortable as he cleared his throat. "Do you ever knock?" he mumbled as Sophie took a bite of my eggs.

I glared at both them. Seriously. Get your own plate!

Finally, Parker realized something was wrong. "How come Nate's cooking breakfast over here? Did you not want to share with Hardison and Eliot? They're already at your place."

Nate groaned and turned off the stove. "On second thought, I think I am going to go home. We have a client to meet in an hour anyway."

Sophie nodded and continued eating off my plate. Parker grabbed my arm and nearly pulled me out of the chair. "We'll be back later! We're going to go eat chocolate! Chocolate chocolate chocolate!"

I opened my mouth to protest, but I was already being drug to the door. "Uh, bye?" I called just as the door closed behind me.

Parker is a very scary driver all the time, not just when there is chocolate involved, so imagine the way she drove to the chocolate festival. The entire time, she was throwing chocolate at me telling me to try something.

"Oh my dear Lord, this is amazing!" I mumbled taking a long drink of a white chocolate espresso. My body was shaking with the sugar rush but it was so good! Another waiter went by with some other type of chocolates in little papers.

Parker and I both grabbed for one, okay three. As we continued to stuff out faces, she nudged me. "Aren't you glad I made you come?" she asked bouncing up and down in place.

I nodded fiercely. "The one who can steal the most chocolate before the carnival closes, gets to drive home." I checked my phone. "We have ten minutes."

Parker didn't reply, just jumped into action. I did the same. Moving toward the booths, I began pocketing handfuls of bars into the gift bag we were given at the door. Carmel, almond, dark chocolate, chocolate espresso, milk chocolate. All kinds of chocolate stashed into my bag.

As they announced closing time, Parker and I were already almost to the car. Opening the door, Parker smiled. "Ninety-six."

I grinned wider. "One-ten."

Growling, she tossed me the keys to my car. "Fine, you win."

It was already past nine o'clock when we got back to Nate's apartment. Eliot had gone home and Nate and Sophie were sitting at the table running the con. Hardison was doing the actual leg work.

My hands were trembling with the sugar rush as paced around the table, but my stomach was really sick of chocolate. Sophie buried her face in her hands as Parker clicked her candy bars together and bounced up and down in her seat.

"Nate… Nate? Nate, Nate-Nah-Nate Nate! Nate!" she nagged, her eyes wide and her hands drumming the chocolate faster.

"Parker?" Nate replied with a groan.

"What else did we miss in the briefing?" Parker pressed. I finally actually took a good look at her. Chocolate was smeared across her shirt and hands, and I was pretty sure there was even a bit to the right of her nose.

My chocolate limit for the week was definitely maxed out. Just smelling the stuff made me sick.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I told you," Nate grumbled, trying to keep his patience as Parker kept drumming the candy bars.

Sophie, on the other hand, lost it. "Oh, will you please just stop that hammering?" she snapped viciously.

Parker stared at her for a long moment before dropping the candy bars on the table and looking back at Nate. "Why'd Eliot go home?"

"Because he knew you had chocolate…" Sophie mumbled as I rounded the table for the twenty-second time. "Anna! Sit!" she snapped, pulling out a chair. I sat nearly instantly, as did Phantom who had been following me the entire time.

Nate glanced over at her for a short moment before looking back at Parker. "Because he doesn't have to be here, just like you don't have to be here."

Parker jumped up from her seat and looked through Nate's blinds. "I don't mind. I'm still energized from Le Festival du Chocolat!" she cheered. "Oh, my God! Sophie, you should've been there!"

Sophie had both hands on her face now, inhaling and exhaling slowly. But of course, Parker didn't notice her lack of patience at the moment.

"Sophie. Sophie. Sophie!"

"What?! What?! What?!" Sophie replied frantically, seeming obviously distress. Man, she was cranky. She must have not got much sleep last night.

Parker ran across around the table and pulled me up and started dancing me around the floor. "We tasted like 12 different kinds of chocolate and then Anna and I had to steal as many chocolate bars as we could in ten minutes and she beat me! Can you believe it? Anna's getting really good. Then again, I did let her have the easier side, but still!" Parker stopped suddenly, inches from my face. "Tell her!"

She spun me around to face Sophie, and I blinked blankly.

Sophie looked like she was ready to pull out her hair. "At least Anna's sugar high has crashed." She opened her arms up and I went to her, sitting in her lap and laying my head on her shoulder. It had been a long day and the only thing I've eaten all day was what Nate made for breakfast and chocolate.

Suddenly Nate's posture changed. "Hardison, okay. Did you find it?" Nate asked.

I retrieved an earbud from my pocket and stuck it in my ear. "No. It's probably off shore. Isle of Man or one of those new joints, like Timor. Look man, once he starts moving the money, I can find it, but right now it's like looking for a needle in the Grand Canyon."

Parker also retrieved an earbud. "Hi Hardison!" she chirped bouncing up and down again.

"Uh… Hello?" he replied cautiously.

Parker pointed at Nate accusingly. "Nate won't tell me what the name of the job is."

Sophie had her arms around my tiny frame as she sighed. Nate gritted his teeth. "Parker, not now. Please?" he tried, but Parker wasn't having any of it.

"Yeah, but what are we stealing?" she asked taking the seat directly beside him. "Is it, 'let's go steal a mountain' or a potato or a funeral or a panda or…?"

Hardison sighed. "I told y'all not to let her go to that festival unsupervised."

I frowned. "I went with her," I mumbled not taking my head off Sophie's shoulder.

"And you're probably gonna have juvenile diabetes. Just saying."

Before I could throw out a smartass comment, Hardison started stuttering. "What's happening Greg?"

I looked at Sophie and Nate. "Who's Greg?" I asked confused.

Sophie nudged me to get up and she moved over to Nate. "Our mark."

"I'm just burning the night oil, ya know what I mean?" Hardison tried, but he sounded too nervous to be very convincing.

"I figured you'd be the one I'd find working later than anyone else." The voice was older. I would guess late thirties, well educated. But even from his tone I could tell he was a snake in the grass. One that was a bit full of himself and wasn't easily intimidated.

"Yeah, yeah, it's all in a day's…" Hardison actually covered pretty comfortably, but it was too late, he was blown.

"I'd expect nothing less from Alec Hardison, hacker extraordinaire, when he's trying to pull a cyber heist."

I looked over at Nate and Sophie who both looked like they were a little surprised, but not too worried. Nate bounced his fist up and down on the table. "Okay, okay. Just stay cool. Tell him you're not stealing first of all."

Hardison managed to get the words out, but he was getting verbally roughed up. This Greg guy knew how to pick out the flaws in a person better than I would expect. It was like he had Sophie's superpower times two, at least he was much more willing to call people out on it. "Who do you think you're bumping? I'm Greg Sherman, The Mako."

Mako? What kind of name was that? At least be something interesting.

"My father was the Springfield Wonder. My grandfather was the Yellow Kid. Titanic Tompson, Wildfire John, I knew them all. My family invented most every con that you've ever heard of," Greg Sherman continued.

Nice history lesson, but truth betold, I honestly wasn't that worried. He may have griftnig in his blood, but we had Nate, a mastermind that sometime bordered on evil, but brilliant; Sophie, whom some have called the greatest grifter in the world; Eliot, who can just kill you if he really wanted; Parker, who could steal your sock without noticing, while you were wearing laced up tennis shoes; and Hardison, hacker extraordinaire. This Mako dude didn't know who he was crawling into bed with .

Nate sat up in his chair and drummed his fingers on the table. "Tell him you're parking proxies in his accounts."

"I was hire to park proxies-commodities," Hardison replied calmly.

Sherman wasn't sold yet, not that we expected him to be. "What the angle?"

"Angle?"

"Repeating the question to buy time to think of a lie? I was doing that in the second grade!" Man, I really hated this guy's attitude.

Hardison recover quickly. "I was hired by a commodities mogul."

"What commodity?" If this guy's life as a criminal fail, which it probably would since he was currently our mark, he'd make an excellent interrogator. Some people just must use their powers for evil.

Nate opened his mouth to give the answer, but Parker was on it. "Chocolate!" she demanded.

Sophie looked at her desperately, covering her own mouth with her hand. Taking a deep breath, I covered my eyes and shook my head.

"Chocolate."

This seemed to interest Sherman. "Cocoa futures. That's a very volatile market."

"No, it's crazy, is what it is," Hardison played the hook.

"What's the play?" Sherman demanded.

"The play is supply and demand, you know? If you control or predict supply and demand, you corner the market." I was actually really proud of Hardison. He was really getting better at coming up with stuff on the fly. Not to say he was bad at it, but he had a tendency of going over board.

"He's a hedge fund manager? They're a dime a dozen in commodities," Sherman scoffed.

Hardison knew how to play this. "No, but this guy, he's only focused on one commodity: cocoa. Some people even call him Count Chocula."

Nate groaned and Sophie dropped her head. "Count Chocula? Seriously, Hardison?" he mumbled.

Sherman grew much more serious. "I want to meet this count." Before Hardison could interrupt, he raised his voice. "I meet him, or you don't leave this building. You read me?"

Nate looked off into space as he made his plan. "Okay, we're going to have to call Eliot, and secure some office somehow." Sophie grabbed a piece of paper and pen, ready for Nate to start his list while I reached into my pocket for my cell phone. "We're gonna need signage, propage, everything. Hardison, stay with the keyboard for now." Nate glanced between the three of us. "No shortcuts here."

We worked well into the morning, and though everyone, except Parker's, energy levels were low, we finished at about one.

Sophie laid the sign on the table and nudged me with her foot. I was laying on the hardwood floor, using Phantom as my pillow, finishing up the little stuff; pamphlets, name plates, photoshopped pictures. I was exhausted, barely able to keep my eyes open as I finished framing the final photo.

"Come on, darling, it's time to go home," Sophie said softly as I glanced over to see Parker, unconscious on Nate's couch.

I groaned an argument, but Sophie snapped her fingers and my pillow ran to her side. Suddenly the floor was much less comfortable. She reached out and helped me up, before handing me her car keys.

I snapped my fingers and Phantom was at my heels. Nate was standing in his pajamas by the door whispering something to Sophie, as I walked up to them. Nate gave me half a smile before I hugged him and kissed his cheek goodnight.

It was all so normal, even for as weird and completely abnormal family we were. It just felt right as Nate pulled the throw cover off the top of the couch and laid it over Parker and exchanged a smile and a quick goodbye with Sophie.

Still… it felt like everything was a time bomb, waiting to explode and take my family away in the fire.

So… A little bit of emotion in this one as well as a little bit more background into Anna. What did you think? Please review! Love, Marilynn