heya guys and welcome to another chapter of The Agent Next Door :) I kinda have a feeling that this one is going to be a bit on the short end like the last one, sorry about that. I've noticed this tends to happen particularly before larger more plot-heavy chapters. Hopefully, that's not too annoying lol X'D all the same I hope you enjoy the chapter. Fair warning it's a bit of a roller coaster chapter.

Song Suggestion: Dancing with your Ghost by Sasha Sloan

Disclaimer: heya if you're 24 chapters in, /o/I hope you know I don't own anything and that I'm not affiliated with CapCom. it's a sad reality but I mean hey if they're hiring for writers hit me up X'D

March came to a close and lead into April, Cold rain became a bit warmer as spring was in full swing. Emma made her way from the parking garage towards the apartment complex. "No mama That's not it." She stops as the woman on the other end of the line talks. "Of course! I'd love to see you guys I know it's been a while it's just things are really busy right now."

She remained silent as she listened to her phone and walked up to the main door of the building and walked in, making her way up the stairs. "I mean yeah June is a few months out... I suppose I can talk to my Boss about it if I'd just a Friday and Monday off..." She agrees as she heads into her apartment and starts pacing while continuing to talk on the phone.

"What?" Emma asks surprised, then stops pacing and holds her face. "Gosh dang it Chel," she whispered away from the phone "Nothing! Nothing, yeah. I'll ask him but no promises. Besides don't you think this is kind of a bit much? like I dunno maybe a face time would" Emma tries to suggest but stops speaking and starts pacing again. "No, I'm not hiding things from you," "mom." "Okay. You're right. I'll try and call more often..."

"Congrats again on retirement," Emma says with a slight smile. Even if the conversation took a bit of a stressful turn, it was still good to talk to her mother. "Love you too, Talk to you again soon," Emma says as she walks over to her couch "Kay. Bye" with that she hangs up and flops onto the couch to bury her face into a pillow. It took her a moment but she eventually rolled to face the ceiling and held up her phone so she could tap at the screen.

.

[Emma] You told my mother. Really? Are we twelve now?

[Chelsea] Hey it came up on it's own. How was I supposed to know you weren't telling your parents OH WAIT you didn't even tell me. -grumpy emoji- I found out when you showed up for Summer's birthday and he had an arm around you.

[Emma] Look. Fair enough, but come on. Did you have to tell mom?

[Chelsea] Karma's a hoe.

[Emma] Yeah it is, cause apparently now mom wants him to come with for the family beach trip she invited you, Jack, and the kids to.

[Chelsea] Well... shit.

[Emma] Enjoy your Karma. I have a very awkward conversation ahead of me.

[Emma] If he does go, could you at least try to get along? I get that you don't like him but I do.

[Chelsea] -No talk me im angy cat gif-

[Chelsea] Fine... but I don't want to hear it if I end up being right about him.

[Emma] Deal

.

She shakes her head and puts her phone down on the coffee table so she can grab the pillow behind her and press it into her face. Good gosh this was just a mess. Okay, take a breath. You can do this. It's not that bad. You're extremely irritable right now but an agreement was reached. Just don't send messages for a bit to avoid being snarky. Emma thought while trying to figure out how she was going to bring up that her parents wanted Chris to fly down with her so they could meet him. That was a wee bit soon in her opinion. Sure they more or less comfortable with private displays of affection now but they weren't really publicly affectionate. Maybe that would change by June but most likely not.

Emma eventually put the Pillow back and got up to look over to the kitchen and stare at the calendar on the fridge. April 4th, a Thursday but Chris was away on a mission again and only just left a few days ago. "Well, at least I scheduled tomorrow off..." Emma says with a slight frown. it had been a year and she hadn't been able to get herself to visit since then... She gives a tired sigh and starts up her afternoon routine. Make food feed, Feed Duke, Take Duke for a walk, relax with a movie in the Background while sorting through Emails. One more quick walk then bed.

Despite taking the day off Emma woke up at her usual time, Walked Duke, took a shower, made breakfast, fed Duke. The Cycle broke as she started packing up a small backpack with a table cloth, some snacks, and a sandwich among other things. "Okay Duke, I'll be back in a bit. Be a good boy while I'm gone okay?" She says as Duke walks over to the couch and climbs up to take a nap. Emma chuckles at this. "Good boy," she says before heading out and locking up behind her.

"Emma dear, are you not going to work today?" asks Mrs. Russo as she and her Husband walk over.

"Mr. and Mrs. Russo. it's good to see you" Emma says with a smile. "Yeah, taking the day off to visit a friend and have a picnic," she replies with a nod.

"How lovely, it's beautiful outside for one." Mrs. Russo comments "Marco perhaps we should do the same and go on a picnic after we get back"

the man chuckles a bit at that "My love you would have had to start packing yesterday" he teases before coughing.

"Are you feeling alright?" Emma asks concern and he waves it off.

"Just a cough," he says after catching his breath.

"We're getting it looked at today, you've had that cough all winter..." Anna says with a worried expression.

"I see, well I hope all goes well and you get a clean bill of health," Emma says with a sympathetic smile. "Next time I plan on going for a picnic I'll let you guys know so we can go together," Emma offers which causes Anna to smile.

"That would be lovely, I did enjoy getting to go to the park with everyone last summer, we'll have to do that again," Anna replies with an excited grin. "I'll try not to hold you up too much longer. We both have places to be. Have a good day though," she adds.

"Of course! Have a good day," Emma replies and patiently walks behind the couple as they slowly make their way down to the ground floor and out to the street. Emma heads to the Garage and gets into her car to drive out of town, down the highway a few exits. She makes a stop at a grocery store to pick up a few things before pulling into the parking lot of a cemetery. It took her a while but eventually, she found the place, or rather person she was looking for. A grave marker with the name Tanner Penmark etched into it.

"Hey Tanner," Emma says quietly to the marker as she puts down the backpack and takes out the table cloth to put that out. once it was properly spread out she sat down in it and reached over to get her bag and set that next to her. "It's been a while huh?" She asks while setting out the items she brought with her, snacks a bit of lunch, a box of tissues just in case, and a bouquet of flowers. "It's not much but, I brought you something... Sorry, it's taken me this long..." Emma says as she picks up the flowers then leans forward to put them down by the marker. as expected there was no reply. she sits back once the flowers were properly settled and gives a quiet sigh.

With the flowers offered she digs into her bag and pulls out a clipboard of paperwork to go over. while she reads it she continued to talk to the grave marker, telling it all the things that had happened over the last year, venting out frustration, laughing at silly memories, and just in general. talking. No one ever replied but it was Cathartic in its own way to just have the time to speak, have the words go out into the ether, and let them go. occasionally she'd pause to use a tissue to wipe away a stray tear but overall the visit was pleasant.

She eventually ran out of snacks and food as she got to the bottom of her stack of work. The apartment bill for April.

[Would you like to request a renewal document? Yes [ ] No [ ] ] The bottom of the bill asked among other questions such as if yes then how long would you like to renew for? and if no what day do you expect to move out?

Emma smiles and Checks Yes and requests another 1-year lease. "It's not much but, I'm happy," Emma says with a tired but genuine smile as she looks at Tanner's marker. "I'm not sure if you're a spirit or in heaven or just gone but, Where ever you are, I hope that you know that and you're happy for me too..."

Little did she know, the casket below her was empty.

'*'*'*'*'

Another two weeks passed since then. Emma had signed her new lease paperwork which would allow her to stay for another year. She got a fair bit of work done and Chris had returned once more.

Chris gave a quiet sigh as he filled out his paperwork, there was another stateside outbreak, a small one luckily so it didn't catch much attention. He fills out the paperwork, it looked like another emergence of the Glenn Aris virus but they couldn't find the source. last time it was water and gas but they tested that. the water was clean and there didn't appear to be anything in the area or the victim's hotel room that would release a gas.

He gives a frustrated grumble before checking his phone. Thursday, April 25th, 5:32 pm. He puts the phone away and packs up, It was a bit earlier than most days but he tried to head out at a more decent time on Thursdays. Once he's home he has a quick bite to eat and sends Emma a text.

[Chris] Hey, ready when you are

[Emma] I'll be right there.

Emma gave a quiet sigh. she had been putting off asking him about the whole family trip thing, granted it helped that he hadn't been around to ask but the longer she waited the harder it would be for him to actually be able to go if he wanted to. She gave herself a tiny pep talk before patting her face. she could do this. She nods and heads over to Chris's place and knocks on the door.

Chris answers it a few moments later and lets her in. "Hey"

"Hey" She replies with a chuckle and gives him a quick kiss. "How was your day?" She asks as she starts moving the table out of the way.

"It was work" He replies with a snicker while shaking his head then closes the door. "And yours?" he asks before heading over to get the now very warn-out mat which made a half-hearted flop sound as he put on on the floor. it had given up the ghost long ago.

That poor mattress. Emma thought while trying not to laugh. "It was good, it's Friday's eve after all," She says with a smile. Just one more day until the weekend.

"You know I don't think that's how that works," Chris says with a raised eyebrow.

"Shh let me have this one," Emma replies with a chuckle before continuing. "Before we get started," Emma says then bobs her head while trying to think of the right words "How would you feel about going to the beach in late June?"

The question was a bit surprising, they weren't exactly close to a beach. "Haven't been to one in a while." he admits with a shrug "why do you ask?"

Here we go."I got a call from my mother recently, she and dad are retiring so they wanted to get the family together for a short extended weekend vacation," Emma explained, "I completely understand if you'd rather not but she wanted me to extend an invitation for you to come with as well."

"Oh," Chris replies surprised. well shit. "Where is it?" he asks not completely rejecting the idea outright. Emma digs out her phone and looks up the address before offering him the small device. Chris accepts it and scrolls around a bit. That was actually rather Close to where claire was staying these days. he could maybe visit her for a bit if he does go with Emma. It would at least be a decent escape route if he needed it...

"That's actually pretty close to where my sister is living. I've been meaning to make plans to visit her... Maybe we can sort something out." Chris offers as a middle ground and hands the phone back to Emma. He wasn't sure how comfortable he'd be with staying the whole time but by late June they would have been seeing each other for half a year so a vague introduction and confirmation of existing seemed fair.

"Sounds like a good idea," Emma agrees with a shy but enamored smile. He was trying and it was appreciated. She put the phone away before joining him on the mat and getting into a ready stance "Ready?"

Chris nods and gets into his own ready stance. "Let's get going then," The routine picked up as they went over punches and kicks and even added in a few Kneeing parts to the warm-up routine. They go over disarming as Chris decided to expand her practice a bit since they didn't seem to be stopping. the more scenarios she was ready for, the better off she'd be. 10 minutes of warm-ups, 15 minutes of disarming, and on to the usual Pins and Holds.

Hold, break, pin, break, hold, break, pin. They were about 15 minutes into this portion of practicing. Behaving during practice had gotten roughly 10 times more difficult thanks to the events of last month but he did all the same. Most of the time.

He got her leg tangled with his to make it more difficult for her to get out before giving her a peck on the cheek. The wirey stubble tickled causing her to chuckle. "Aren't you usually the one that says 'don't get distracted during training'," She points out with a hint of a smirk but gives him a peck in return while still trying to think of a way out of the pin with only one leg.

"True," He replies smiling back "suppose we call in early?" he suggests in return as he shifts his hold on her.

"I dunno, we still have" she leans a bit to try and see the clock from where she was-What was that? oh no. Nah-uh. tap out, tap out, tap out. she repeatedly patted his shoulder "Chris move. Chris move please," Emma says as she stared up at the spider that was right over them, very slowly lowering itself down from the ceiling. Noooooo.

While very confused by the sudden panicking Chris quickly gets off and looks around for what was freaking her out so bad only to see the maybe quarter coin-sized spider dangling in the air. "Please tell me that's not why you were panicking..." Chris says trying to hide his amusement as he watches Emma speedily move away from the area where the spider was.

"What do you mean? Of course that's why I was panicking. It was going to land on my face," she says with a pouting frown.

Well, there goes that mood. "What happened to the fearless Emma that laughed in the face of zombies back at the haunted house," Chris asks amused as he walks over to the kitchen to get a paper towel.

"Zombies aren't real, spiders are and they're demonic spawns of hell," Emma says with a chuckle in an attempt to tell a joke as she stays away from where the spider landed. The statement got him to pause but he eventually walked back over with the paper towel and picked up the spider to crush it in the towel.

"There, taken care of," Chris says as he goes to throw away the crumpled paper towel.

"My hero," Emma jokingly coos before quietly laughing. "Well I suppose since we're calling it early for training I should go," Emma says with a playful smile while walking to the door. Chris walks over and snakes one arm around her waist as the other reaches out to keep the door from opening. he wasn't really sure how to go about this.

"... stay?" He hesitantly requests though he does take his hand off the door to keep from trapping her in case she'd rather leave.

"Okay," Emma replies with a soft smile as she leans back to gently kiss his neck. being around him made her heart feel full. It's not much but, she was happy.

I'm gonna go run and hide in a bunker while I write the next chapter. Toodles. x'D there was a request for another 'bit o spice' so hopefully I was able to provide that XD i am really not an intimacy writer so hopefully that worked out and the request was fulfilled X'D

Review Responses:

InkScribble - oh nooo not the diabetes, hopefully this chapter provided a bit of a cleanse. XD things are about to pick up again.

Guest1995 - lol just a lil bit of heat X'D I'm too shy to write much more than that.