Hello again! Well my internet died the second I went to start writing this so, This is going to be out a bit later than I wanted. Oh well. hopefully, you'll enjoy the story all the same thanks as always for continuing to read/returning to the story. The support is appreciated.

Music suggestion: Wolves by Selena Gomez/Marshmello

Disclaimer: eeey I'm a fanfiction writer and don't own jack aside from my own ideas. Surprise! Please don't sue me CapCom.

It was the first week of August, and Saturday had returned. Three weeks had passed since Chris stopped by for coffee, by the next day Emma had found the empty and cleaned Tupperware on the shelf by her door next to the vase of fresh flowers she set up to make her door look more homely. She was just about to walk out with a replacement bundle of colorful Carnations, Celosia, and Peonies when she heard an excited knocking at the door with chattering outside, causing Duke to bark. Emma smiled telling the dog his usual command to get his stuffed animal to get him to stop barking before opening the door.

"Auntie Emmy!" two small voices happily cheer after seeing the woman open the door. A family of 4 was waiting on the other side consisting of a very pregnant mother and a father who appeared to be around Emma's age along with two little girls, one that was probably 5 and the other was no older than 2.

"Hello you little beans," she says kneeling down as the two quickly tackle her in a hug. "Oooh it's been forever, hasn't it. Are you excited about your sleepover?"

The older of the two break the hug first so they could look at Emma. "Can we have Pizza and Ice cream?"

"Pizza AND Ice cream." Emma parrots back in mock shock which causes the girls to giggle and squeal. "Oh I don't know about that, that might be too much. If you're very very good, then I'll consider it." she says before noticing the door to her right open, there stood a less than impressed neighbor. Emma winced before mouthing a quiet 'sorry'. The oldest child however was none the wiser.

"HI! I'm Summer," She says happily and waves to Chris, which the younger sibling parroted. "Hyi! I's ummer."

"Maurie no," Emma says quietly as the toddler forgot to say their own name instead, While Emma was focused on Maurie, Summer had already started walking next door.

"wat's your name?" she asks with a happy and curious smile.

"Chris," he says after a moment of contemplation, though his unamused expression remained.

"Hi, Chris." she parrots back accepting the name.

"Summer get in the house," her mother says clearly more used to telling the child what to do with authority. "I am so sorry about that she's very excitable and likes making friends," the mother says as she walks over to pick up the small child who only complains further by kicking to get away. Tantrum in 5.4.3.

"I set up some paper and crayons on the table, do you want to draw with me?" Emma says as she pick up on the growing frustration of the child.

Distraction accepted and tantrums avoided. The leg failing became less aggressive and more excited to hurry into the apartment as they watched the younger sister toddle into the apartment to try and get to the crayons first. Once both of the kids were inside Emma gave a sigh of relief when she noticed that Chris went back into his own apartment as well.

"Thanks again for watching them Em, it helps a lot," the mother says with a sympathetic smile.

"Don't worry about it Chel, what are friends for if I can't be the cool Auntie?" she says with a short laugh.

"Chelsea we're going to be late" the father points out with a gentle nudge. Chelsea pulls Emma into a quick hug.

"You're the best," she says before letting go. "We'll be back first thing tomorrow, I promise."

"It's fine, I got this. Take your time and get going you and Jack need the break," Em says with a laugh as she nudges her friend to go.

"Fine fine, See you tomorrow," she says with a chuckle and carefully makes her way back down the stairs with the help of her husband. Once Emma was sure that Chelsea made it down the stairs safely she went back into her apartment and locked up per usual. The two kids were happily sitting at the table, the oldest was on to her third masterpiece while the youngest was trying to offer a crayon to Duke.

"Maurie, don't give duke crayons," she says while briskly walking over to take the crayon and put it onto the table. "Duke, bed," she adds as the dog walks off to take its place on the couch and begrudgingly lays down.

One oven pizza for lunch and a healthier dinner later with several games and episodes of paw patrol in between the now very tired Auntie Emmy finally made it to 8pm. The golden hour. bedtime.

"Okay girls, time to get into your PJs," Emma says as she pushes herself to get off the couch.

"One more episode?" Summer asks with a hopeful smile causing Emma to falter slightly. Curse the puppy eyes, but if she had to listen to another song about the power of friendship she was going to go insane.

"No, bedtime," she said sticking to her original statement.

"Frozen?" she asks with a giggle thinking she was being clever.

"Absolutely not," Emma says as she picks up Maurie.

"Ice cream?" she asks as she flops over with a big grin as this was turning into a game.

"Summer, no," Emma said with a firmer tone which caused the girl to pout but get up and grab onto Emma's leg.

"Can I give my new friend the picture I drew for him first?" she asks while really amplifying the puppy face.

"New fri- Summer"

"PLEASE"

"Okay, okay. Just, keep your voice down. It's late," Emma relented. "You can put it through the mail slot, but you have to go to bed right after."

"Okay," she says with a smile as she hurries over to the table to dig through the mountain of papers she drew on to find the perfect one. While the 5-year-old was busy with this Emma got Maurie changed and tucked into bed. "Auntie Emmy can you help me with my letters?" she asks.

"What do you want to spell," Emma asks in return as she walks over to the table to see she already had her own name on the back of the picture

"I want it to say To Chris," Summer says with a nod causing Emma to chuckle. Hopefully, the military man had enough of a sense of humor to be okay with this. Emma took a blank piece of paper and wrote out the letters for Summer who carefully wrote each one. the S was backwards but overall she did a pretty good job.

With that Summer flipped over the paper allowing Emma to see the chosen drawing. It was a frowning red stick figure. A black shirt and blue pants were added after in what Emma guessed was an attempt at drawing her neighbor. Standing in what appeared to be a scribbled grass field and a tiny house in the distance and

"Is that a bird?" Emma asks pointing to a large green section of markings with red.

"It's a dragon," Summer says with a pout.

"A dragon, right. now I see it" she says with a nod before pointing to another squiggle. "and that's a cat?" she asks pointing at a white and orange blob with two red dots

"Nooo silly that's Duke," Summer says thinking that Emma's guessing was a joke.

"Ah. of course," Emma said. Right. Why wouldn't Duke be there to help her neighbor assess the dragon and house? Dear Lord, please let him have a good sense of humor, Emma thought as the frowning face finally registered.

"Okay, I think it's ready," Summer says with a nod after quickly drawing a yellow sun in the corner.

"Alright, let's go. Remember, no knocking on the door or shouting. Just put it through the mail slot." Emma says which causes Summer to nod.

"Okay," she agrees with a determined expression as a child on a mission as she gets out of the chair. Emma gives a quiet sigh before opening the door for the child. "go one then" she says and Summer quickly hurries over to Chris's door to try and get the mail slot open but it wouldn't budge.

The child made a few sounds of frustration, "AUNTIE EMMY IT'S STUUUCK," She very loudly announced before she eventually tried sliding the letter through the small gap without opening the slot. Sure enough, the rather loud announcement resulted in footsteps and the sounds of the door being unlocked as Chris once more opened the door.

Please let me crawl into a hole, I don't want to exist right now, holy heck, please just let me go invisible, Emma thought as she watched the child just stand there with a smile as the door opened.

"Hi," Summer said with a smile as she looked up at the much taller man "Auntie wouldn't let me watch Frozen but she said I could give you the picture I drew if I promised to be quiet about it and go to bed after."

FEARLESS CHILD, PLEASE STOP TALKING!

Chris looked over to Emma's door to find her watching from the doorway with a clearly uncomfortable expression as she gave him a short wave in greeting. He gives a small nod in return before noticing the child walked into the apartment part of the way so she could try and get the picture out of the mail slot before walking back out into the hallways.

"Anyways, Here's the picture," she says holding the picture up for Chris to take. The tired man accepted the paper and looked it over before looking to Summer

"...Thanks. Now go to bed," he says as he looks back to summer.

"Okay, bye new friend!" Summer said before hurrying back over to Emma and smile "I did it," she whispers with an ear to ear grin.

"Very nice, get inside," Emma says quietly before giving another quiet Sorry and a wave to Chris. Once the door was closed and locked up Emma held her face which was warm from embarrassment. Summer however happily skipped to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth before walking to Emma's room and crawling into the bed next to her sister.

"Auntie Emmy can we have a bedtime story?" the child asks as Emma walked into the room to get her own clothes.

"I think you've had enough excitement before bed. get some sleep," Emma replies hearing a few grumbles in response but the girls stay in the bed. Thank the heavens. "Good night."

"Night Auntie Emmy," Summer says.

"Ni-night," says Maurie with a yawn. With that Emma heads over to the bathroom changes and heads over to the couch to settle in for the night.

The next morning, waffles were served and the girls were happily enjoying them until they heard a knock was heard at the door resulting in the usual greeting. Duke barks, Emma tells him his silent command and opens the door to find the girl's father, Jack on the other side of the door.

"Daddy!" Summer says excitedly as she rushes over and clings to his leg.

"Dadda" Maurie parrots as she does the same and grabs his other leg.

"Heya kiddos, did you behave for your Auntie?" he asks receiving nods from both girls and a headshake from Emma.

"Sorry about that, but thanks for watching them while we were at the docs," Jack says as he picks up Maurie.

"not a problem, how was date night?" Emma asks which causes jack to laugh.

"Chel went into labor 2 hours after we dropped off the girls," He admits causing Emma to gasp.

"Oh my gosh, what are you doing here then? Get back there," Emma says swatting at his arm.

"Relax, she's fine, so is little Annie," Jack says with a chuckle. "Chelsea wanted me to pick up the girls though and take them home so they're ready to meet their new sister."

"She's here?" summer asks excitedly.

"Yep, you get to meet her tomorrow. Grandma is waiting for you guys at home," Jack explains to the girls resulting in giddy cheers.

"I'll show Maurie how to be a good big sister," Summer says with a confident nod.

"I'm sure you'll do great," Jack agrees before smiling at Emma. "Thanks again for watching them. You'll have to tell us about how it went in the group chat later."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll get the girl bags," Emma says and walks back to the bedroom to grab the two princess backpacks and hands one to summer and the other to Jack.

"Thanks, see you around," Jack says before taking Summer's hand to walk out of the building.

With that Emma closes the door and looks at the mess that was her apartment and got to work with Sunday cleaning and cooking. She was looking forward to an uneventful week after the craziness that was the weekend but that didn't end up happening. 3 days later as Emma was getting ready to curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn she heard footsteps going up the stairs to the second floor.

"That's, odd I thought everyone was already home for the day..." Emma whispered before hearing the sound of a door shaking. Once, twice thrice. The rattling moved around the floor before eventually, her own door started to rattle for a moment. "What the heck," Emma said as she quickly got up and put the popcorn down on the coffee table so she could move further back into the apartment. The rattling stopped as soon as it started as shuffling could be heard, then the sound of shattered glass before the footsteps quickly hurried back out of the building. Emma waited a moment before cautiously walking over to the door and opens it to find that others were doing the same. Mr. Russo had a shotgun in hand while Chris was holding a pistol. It seemed like a bit of an overreaction but Emma couldn't deny she had considered grabbing a knife from the kitchen before opening the door.

"Did you hear that as well?" Bastion asks as he looked at the others.

"Yeah, I think we all did," Chris confirmed with a frown before putting the safety switch back into place.

"What was that?" Mrs. Russo asks while peeking out from behind her husband. "Oh, oh no Emma, your flowers," she cooed as she noticed the mess.

"It's fine, I can clean it up and get a new vase... maybe plastic this time though," she said with a frown as she kneeled down to start picking up the bigger chunks of glass and the discarded flowers.

"Did anyone see who it was?" Mr. Russo asks receiving a collection of headshakes.

"No way, I didn't want to go near my door after that. Emma is this what happened to you when you first moved in?" Bastion asks curiously.

"Sorta, they just slammed into the door and left last time," she explains before getting back up with the vase shards and flowers in hand.

"Maybe the cameras caught something," Chris offered as he crossed his arms.

"Maybe." Emma agreed. "Well, I'm not going to be sleeping any time soon." she said with a short laugh. "Did you want to stop by for a cup of coffee so we can compare footage and see if we can figure anything out?" she offers to Chris as Mr. Russo grumbles about installing a camera as well after this and goes back into the apartment.

"Sure, I'll be over in a moment," he agrees with a nod.

"If you two do find anything out let me know, it will help calm my nerves," Mrs. Russo requests as she places a hand over her heart. "I'm too old for this," she complains as she goes back inside and closes the door behind her.

"That's so weird. I've lived here for years and haven't had anything like this happen before," Bastion admits with a frown. "Maybe I should get a camera too..." he says while rubbing the back of his neck "For now I'll leave this mystery to you, detective Emma," he adds with a laugh.

Emma chuckles at that "I'm sure it's probably just the same teen Mr. Jacobs mentioned who was bothering the 3rd floor," she says to try and give Bastion some peace of mind.

"Alright, well try and get some sleep," Bastion says before heading in as well. Emma tosses the glass shards in the trash before starting a pot of coffee. Once that was taken care of she got a broom and dustpan from the closest to clean up the last of the glass from the hallway. By the time she finished sweeping Chris walked out of his apartment and locked it behind him.

"Let's see what we got," Chris says as he walks over causing Emma to nod.

"Right," she says as she lets him into the apartment, closes the door behind him, and locking it as well to calm her own nerves. She put down the broom and dustpan by the door so she could join Chris in the kitchen and poured two mugs of coffee, offering one to Chris as it was before adding a bit of milk and sugar to her own cup.

Chris frowned as he clicked around on his phone and accepted the mug, "looks like they had a mask on," he says while looking over the footage.

"You're joking," Emma replies as she puts the milk away then takes out her own phone to check. Sure enough, she saw pretty much the same thing. A figure completely covered from head to toe walked over to Bastion's door and shook it while jiggling the handle before walking out of frame. The figure eventually walked back into the frame as they did the same thing to her door, noticed the flowers, and picked up the vase to take the flowers out and throw them on the ground first, pour out the water into their hand then smash the vase in frustration before noticing the camera and bolting for the door. They were trying to get in...

"Shit," she said as she watched it again in horror. "I think they were looking for a key," she said as she showed the footage to Chris.

"Seems possible," he agrees with a frown.

"Well great. what do I do now?" Emma asks clearly unhappy with the situation. At this point it was pretty clear it wasn't some teenager messing around, someone was trying to get into the apartments with really no clear target since they went to all of the doors.

"Without a face or a way to identify them, not much..." Chris admits as he offers the phone back. "With any luck, noticing the cameras will be enough of a deterrent."

"So, what? I just hand over the footage to and the authorities and hope it doesn't happen again?" Emma asks defeated as she accepted the phone and put it on the counter.

"There's not much else to do at this point. They didn't get in," Chris points out. "Keep you're door locked when you're not here and at night and you'll be fine," he offers which didn't really comfort Emma much as she picks up her coffee and sips at it while thinking.

"You're military right?" Emma asks though it was clearly rhetorical as she continued to speak, "can you teach me to defend myself?" she requests. "Maybe this is normal for you but this is really freaking me out. I only just moved here, and if this is the same person as before and they only slammed into my door," she pointed out. "I'll pay you for your time, just once a week until I get the hang of a few moves or whatever they called."

"You don't need that, you're panicking" Chris points out.

"So if someone does get in what's going to keep me safe? Duke?" she says pointing her thumb over to the living room where sure enough Duke was still hiding between the couch and wall with a terrified expression. "I'm not asking for a full boot camp training, just enough to be able to hold off a threat until someone can help me."

The man frows but thought on it for a moment before giving a short sigh. "Alright Emma, alright. you made your point."

"So you'll help me," she asks with a gleam of hope.

"I have another trip coming up in a few days. I'll be gone for roughly 3 weeks" he says before sipping at his coffee. "We can go over a few things now, and after I'm back I can help you on Thursdays after work until your confidant that you have it down," he offers. "I don't usually get home until late though, and I won't go easy on you just because you're tired."

"Understood, thank you so much," Emma says as she already started to feel a lot better about the situation of the unwanted apartment door check. Chris finished the last of his coffee and got up to walk over to the space between the kitchen and living room and moves the table to the side before motioning for Emma to join him. Emma put her cup of coffee down and walked over. "I need to see what I'm working with first of all," he says before holding up an open hand. "Punch my hand."

"What"

"I'm not repeating myself," he says as he started getting into his usual drill mod. Emma did as she was told and punched the man's open hand. it was not exactly impressive.

"Harder," he says figuring she was holding back. once twice trice. nothing really impressive came from that. she just lacked upper body strength it seemed. maybe she did need the help. "Okay, kick right here," he says as he pats his side.

"I'm not going to kick you," Emma rebuttals.

"Do you want my help or not," Chris snapped back which quickly quieted Emma who's expression shifted to a more determined one. There we go. Emma swung her leg at Chris's side. To his surprise, it was actually a pretty solid kick, the form wasn't great but it had force. Once, twice, trice more and he nods "Alright so you have a decent lower body and core strength but the upper body is lacking pretty badly so that's going to be your weak point," he says which causes Emma to nod.

The two went over different holds and breaks that would be useful in case of an emergency. An hour or so had passed before the man nods. "Alright, that should be enough for you to practice while I'm gone," he says before walking back to the kitchen.

"Thank you," Emma says as she walks with him to the kitchen then over to her purse that was sitting on the far counter. and she didn't usually carry cash... Right. She went to the fridge instead and took out another lunch pack. "It's not much but hopefully this will work as collateral for the lesson."

Chris looked at the Tupperware before accepting it "Food is fine, you don't have to pay me." He agrees, figuring that would at least keep her from trying to give him money.

"Food it is then." Emma agrees with a nod as Chris heads over to the door and unlocks it. "I hope your trip goes well," she adds "Have a good night."

"Gnight," he says and heads out closing the door behind him so Emma could lock it after he left.

With the apartment safely locked up, Emma walked back over to the empty space and practices a few small jabs before giving a quiet sigh. "Yeah. I'm gonna have to work on that..." she admits before putting the table back into place, cleaning up the abandoned popcorn, and heading to bed.

The plot thickens! who is the mysterious masked figure? what is their goal? Only time will tell. Thanks for reading another chapter :) with any luck, I might still get a double upload today.