Chapter 3: Reunited

When I awoke the next morning, I was alone in bed. I wasn't sure if Rebecca had spent the entire night in my bed or if she left after I fell asleep. What I did know was that I remembered feeling completely at peace as I cuddled up with her last night. I laid in bed for a few more minutes before I decided that I had better go ahead and get up. My phone was plugged into a charger on the table by the bed and I assumed that Rebecca had plugged it in for me last night after I fell asleep. One look it told me why I was alone in bed even if Rebecca did stay with me last night. It was almost noon; I had literally slept away almost half of the day. I jumped out of bed as if someone had hit me with an electric shock. I couldn't believe how late in the morning it was. I never slept this late. I had never exactly been a morning person, but I knew that I had been called up here for something and to sleep away half of my first day here made me feel bad. Another look at my phone told me that it was quite cold today, in the high 20's and…

"Snow," I whispered to myself. "It's snowing outside." I grabbed my phone and dashed out of the room, not even thinking about the fact that I was still wearing exactly what I had shown up to the house wearing, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Definitely not the type of clothing that you would want to be in for this kind of weather, but I didn't care.

The first floor of the house looked empty, but I couldn't be entirely sure as I didn't stop to check before walking out the front door. Chill bumps sprung up all over my body, but I didn't care. I looked up to the sky which was covered in dark clouds. The snow fell heavy on my face and hair as I stood out in the sub-freezing air with the biggest smile on my face. It had obviously been snowing for several hours already as a few inches of snow had already built up on the ground. It was absolutely beautiful, and I could see why snowy scenery made for such appealing movies and TV shows. I easily could have staying out in the white stuff for hours, but I knew that I needed to get back inside and change into warmer clothes, not to mention that I wanted to find out where my car went, as it was no longer where I had parked it last night.

I walked back in the house and confirmed that it was indeed empty on the first floor. The snow that had stuck to my hair was already beginning to melt in the warm house, leaving my hair rather damp feeling. Through the door under the stairs and down in the basement I found Shaun, exactly where Rebecca and I had left him last night, still tapping away on a keyboard and looking slightly frazzled. Rebecca was nowhere to be seen.

"Well, look who deigns to join the world of the living," Shaun said as I pushed the large metal door open and walked in. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to wake up." He had a slight smugness to his to voice that put me on guard.

"I suppose that I was kind of tired," I said. Shaun gave off the impression that he was kind of uptight and I sincerely that he wouldn't actually be that way once I got to know him. "So, you know Rebecca through the brotherhood?"

Shaun turned his chair around to face me. "I'm, sure you'll hear that story soon enough," he said, sounding almost surprised that I didn't know it already. "She does seem to enjoy telling people how she, in her words, saved my ass on multiple occasions."

"So, you guys have worked together a few times before?" I asked.

"Oh, more than a few," Shaun said. "Back in 2012 we worked together with William's son. Rebecca and I have been partners for quite some time." Shaun must have read something on my face, because he laughed before continuing on. "Nothing like that. I mean, sure we're close, but nothing more than friends. I honestly don't think that Rebecca would ever look at me like that."

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," I said, but knew that I was far from convincing. I couldn't even meet Shaun's eyes as I said it.

Shaun simply shrugged his shoulder. "I can't personally speak for how Rebecca is feeling, but I will tell you that I can't remember a time when she spoke about someone how she speaks about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Shaun said. "Bit annoying really, if I'm being honest. But whatever goes on is none of my business. I'm here to do what I always do. Tactical support and trying to hack into Abstergo's database. Rebecca is over at Abstergo right now, and you'll be there within a couple of days."

I had assumed that it would be something like that after hearing stories that Rebecca had told me in the past about going undercover to spy on the Templars. "You have a lead on another artifact?" I asked.

"Not really," Shaun replied. "But based on the Templars setting up a facility around here, we can only assume that they have suspicions of one being close by."

"And we need to find it and get it before they can," I said, finishing his thoughts for him.

"Exactly," Shaun continued. "Now being that both Rebecca and I have been undercover in Abstergo on more than a few occasions, the odds of us being found out are pretty good, but you, having only the one run in with the Templars in the past, have a much better chance of going unnoticed."

"Makes sense." I honestly didn't have that much confidence in my ability to blend in or be undercover at all considering that I had pretty much been found out almost instantaneously in New Orleans. Time had passed since then though, and I could only hope that I wouldn't be as nervous or that I could lie better.

Rebecca didn't return to the house until a few hours later. She looked kind of tired, but still kind of peppy at the same time. The snow that clung to her short hair told me that it was still coming down outside and that just made me want to go play in it like a child. Rebecca sat next to me on the sofa and took a sip from a water bottle that she had been carrying. Shaun was still working on one of the many computers. He had been at it since I woke up.

"You look tired," I said, inching a little closer to where Rebecca sat next to me. "Templar's kept you busy today?"

Rebecca laughed and sat her water down on the floor. "More like bored me to death," she said. "All I am doing is making coffee at their little café that they have and hoping against hope that I catch snippets of anything worth hearing. Months of doing that day in and day out has me losing my sanity."

"And you haven't heard anything?" I asked.

It was Shaun who answered that question for me. "The Templars are convinced that whatever the artifact is, that it went down on a ship in one of the lakes. The trouble with that is that there are over 11,000 lakes in this state, which doesn't narrow it down much."

"Popular theory right now is that it is in one of the shipwrecks in Lake Superior," Rebecca said. "The problem with that is that there are over 350 wrecks in that lake alone."

"And on top of that, is the size of that lake in general," Shaun went on. "Almost 32,000 square miles of water. In other words, damn near impossible."

"Isn't there a way to, I don't know, isolate which ships that sank were Templar ships?" I asked, hoping to be helpful in some way.

Rebecca looked at me with a smile that warmed my heart. "That is indeed what we are trying to do, but the problem is that there are several ships that belonged to the Templar's that went down…as well as several Assassin ships as well. And neither Templar nor Assassin seems to know who was in possession of the artifact at the time of its vanishing"

The conversation continued on, with Rebecca and Shaun each throwing out various ideas on where and how we could figure out which shipwreck, if the artifact was even actually lost in a shipwreck, it could be. The research into sunken ships ended up being one of the more interesting subjects that I had ever looked into. Some of the ships had went down well over a hundred years ago, and many had never even been explored before. Those, of course, seemed the to be the most obvious answers, but the issue was that some of them were way too deep to even think about exploring by scuba diving. Even more interesting to me than that was the fact that many of these shipwrecks were said to be haunted. I didn't put much belief into ghost stories, but if anything could be haunted, I could believe that it would be some of these things. I even came across some stories about corpses still being stuck inside some of the sunken ships, the bodies perfectly preserved due to the depth and cold temperatures of the lake. I found myself both intrigued and slightly creeped out by the notion. It reminded me of something I had read quite a while back about how Lake Superior does not give up her dead. I would not be surprised if that was true. A lake of that size where so many ships sank, many for seemingly no reason at all.

"So, I've been wondering something," I said, turning away from a computer and looking at Rebecca.

"Whatcha got?" Rebecca asked me.

"How are you able to go unnoticed in a company full of Templars?" I asked, standing up from the chair that I had been sitting in and yawning. My eyes felt strained from staring at a screen for a couple of hours. It was starting to get a little late.

"It's simple," Rebecca replied. "They are not all Templars. Abstergo, in a sense, are really who they say they are. They are the world's largest entertainment and tech giants. They have made the animus what it is today. The people who work there as animus users are generally normal people who have no idea what they are actually doing. It's really only the higher ups that are deep in the Templar order."

"And it's the higher ups that you are hoping to hear from?" I asked.

"Exactly," Rebecca said. "And I have met a very few of them, but not the one that I am hoping to spy on. Rumors are floating around that this sect of the order has a new head Templar. I don't know anything about whoever it is though, or even if he or she is working from this particular building. I'm hoping that you'll be able to help me gather some intel."

"How am I supposed to get in with them though?"

Rebecca smiled at me. "That is where other sects of Assassin's come in. We have some people that are deep undercover in other parts of the world, that have been inside Abstergo for many years. People who have gained their trust enough to have some pull within the company. That's how I get in and how you will get in." Rebecca laughed again. "I'll tell you now, that it's not going to be glamorous work. You'll mostly be doing the same thing that I'm doing. Working in the café, cleaning offices and shit like that. Just hoping that one of us will be lucky enough to overhear something that we are not meant to hear."

Shaun got up from his computer a few minutes later, muttering that he was getting tired and was going to bed. Rebecca and I followed him out of the basement. I felt tired, but at usual when I was tired, I didn't want to go to bed. I was in a new city and a new state, and all I wanted to do was to go explore a little.

"We'll go somewhere for breakfast tomorrow morning," Rebecca said, as if she was reading my mind. "Some of the coffee shops around here have outdoor sitting open."

"That sounds great," I said and headed up the stairs to the room I was staying in.

Rebecca stayed in my room again that night and it was much the same as the previous. Another movie streaming on TV and some light conversation, only this time she fell asleep before I did. I couldn't help but to notice how peaceful Rebecca looked as she slept, snoring just loud enough for me to hear while I was awake next to her, but not loud enough that it would keep me from sleeping. Without even thinking about what I was doing, without any hesitation, I took Rebecca's and in my own and turned on my side to face her. I could swear that I saw her smiling in her sleep as I closed my eyes.

I felt particularly well rested when Rebecca woke me up the next morning. She was smiling as she looked down at me. I guessed that she had already been up for a little bit as she was already dressed. It looked like she was serious when she talked about the two of us going out for breakfast. I rolled out of bed and caught sight of myself on a small mirror on the dresser. I looked like shit and most certainly needed a shower. Hopefully the house had hot water. I pulled open the drawers of the dresser, remembering that Rebecca had mentioned some new clothes more suitable to the cold climate up here. I dug out a new pair of jeans and a dark red long-sleeved shirt before heading to the bathroom.

The shower felt amazing and part of me wished that I could stay in there all day, simply letting the hot water continue to wash over my body, but I knew that I had things to do. Breakfast with Rebecca for one.

Rebecca was waiting for me downstairs after I got out of the shower. She had a couple of warm looking coats in her hand. "You'll need this," she said, handing me one of the jackets.

I nodded my thanks and slipped it on before we walked outside. It was a beautiful sunny day morning outside, but still rather cold. The snow from yesterday accumulated on the ground and stuck. I kind of wanted to just flop down in it and started to wonder if that desire would go away the longer that I was up here, but I was really starting to feel hungry.

"What happened to my car?" I asked.

"Same thing that happened to mine," Rebecca said as she pulled a yellow beanie down over her ears. She always seemed to wear those, even back down south where it was warm throughout the year. It was just part of who she was. "Parked in a secure garage, not too far from Abstergo's building in case we need a quick escape from there. Public transportation around here is so good that you really don't need a car. On top of that, a lot of things are within walking distance. Like our coffee shop for example."

Rebecca was right, a lot of things were within walking distance. As we got out of the rundown, abandoned neighborhood, I started seeing signs of life. A few people bundled up in heavy coats and scarves waited at a bus stop. They all had face masks on and were standing a few feet apart. We passed a small grocery store that had not yet opened, but I imagined that as soon as they did open, lines would be forming to get inside. I didn't relish the idea of having to do that in this cold. I kept glancing down at Rebecca's gloved hands and the urge to take them in mine took over again. I didn't want to make things awkward though.

The coffee shop, as it turned out, was the same kind of shop that I had stopped at on my drive up. The inside was of course closed except for people who were placing orders. The line was short, and a very few others were seated at tables outside. My guess was that not many people liked the idea of sitting outside in such cold weather to drink coffee. Too me though, the cold was kind of nice. It was not something that I had really ever experienced before.

I got in line with Rebecca and attempted to hand her some money, but she waved it away, saying that it was on her. It only took us a couple of minutes to get to the front of the line and order. We both ordered a pumpkin spice and a scone. Rebecca led me to a table outside, it was tucked away in a corner by the window of the shop. The wind picked up slightly, but my coat blocked most of it out and the coffee kept me warm. It felt pretty good to have my mask pulled down and I smiled at Rebecca as she sipped her own drink and nibbled at her breakfast.

"So," Rebecca said as I took a large bite of my scone and washed it down with a swig of hot coffee. "You'll be coming with me to Abstergo when I go back the day after tomorrow."

Straight to business, I thought to myself and a slight bit of nervousness must have been showing on my face because Rebecca smiled at me. "Nothing to worry about, honestly," she went on. "You'll most likely find it incredibly boring and tedious. You'll be doing the same as me, just little odd jobs around, hoping to hear something good from someone important. It really is pretty boring."

"I could never be bored with you," I said, unsure where that modicum of boldness came from.

Rebecca smiled and for the briefest of moments I could swear I saw a pink tinge creep up her cheeks, but I couldn't tell if that was just the cold affecting her. We continued our coffee with just the lightest of conversation about the goings on over the past few months. Rebecca didn't say all that much about what she had been doing as she was worried about being overheard by others, so most of the conversation fell on me and I didn't have much to talk about. Life had been rather boring since she had come up here.

Rebecca stood up when I finished my coffee. Together the tossed the paper cups into the large plastic trash can and started back down the street. It was much slower going than when we were walking to the coffee shop, as Rebecca stopped and pointed out several places to me. I just kept thinking to myself how nice it must be to live in a city like this when the whole world wasn't suffering a deadly virus.

"By the way," Rebecca said as we continued down the street. "I was happy when you took my hand last night. If I'm being honest with myself, I had been hoping that you would do something like that since before I came here."

"Really?" I asked as I stopped walking and looked at her.

Rebecca turned to face me and even with the mask covering her mouth and nose I could tell that she was smiling. Her eyes gave it away. "Absolutely. I wanted to tell you how I was starting to feel, but I guess since I am older, I wanted you to make the decision. I wanted you to figure out if it was something you wanted or not."

"And it doesn't bother you that I'm younger than you?" I asked.

"Not at all," Rebecca responded, looking me right in the eye to show me that she was completely serious. "As long as it doesn't bother you that I am older. We are both adults after all."

Rebecca had a point. The age difference didn't bother me. What did bother me was the fact that I had never really been involved with anyone before. It made me nervous that I wouldn't really know how to be with someone. What I did know, was that I felt better with Rebecca near me. I felt safer, like she would always protect and care for me. Just as I knew that I always wanted to care for and protect her. I took a single step closer to her and took both of her hands in mine, my eyes never leaving hers.

"See? Was that so hard?" Rebecca asked as she laced her fingers with mine, her eyes crinkling slightly as she smiled.

"No," I said, and I meant it. It wasn't hard, in fact it felt quite natural. What I wanted to do now would be hard though. I gently pulled one of my hands away and pulled my mask down below my nose and mouth before doing the same with Rebecca's. My heart was racing. I don't think I had ever been this nervous before, not even before I killed a man in New Orleans.

Wrapping one of my arms around Rebecca's waist, I gently pulled her a little closer to me and closed my eyes, leaning towards her. The feeling that went through my body as my lips pressed against hers was beyond anything I had ever felt. It felt like my knees might buckle as I felt her kiss me back and pull me closer. It was my first kiss, and it was more amazing than I ever imagined. My first kiss in a city that was completely foreign to me. It was my first kiss, and it was the single greatest moment of my life.

Author's Note:

Holy fuck! This chapter was a complete train wreck to write. As I type this note, the first chapter of this story has not yet been posted. I don't think I have ever struggled so much with a fanfic chapter as I have with this one. It took me forever to write. Halfway through, I was stricken with writer's block. Shortly after that, I realized that I have kind of written myself into a hole that I am still not sure how I am going to write myself out of. It is going to be difficult. What I mean by that, is despite me being from the state of Minnesota, and having spent the first 30 years of my life in Minneapolis, I did not plan this all that well. I know where and how I want this to play out, but I find our Madi and Becs in the wrong state altogether. I had originally planned to start posting this story when I finished chapter 3, but I am afraid that I must hold out just a little longer. I need to brainstorm on how I am going to get them where I need them. This chapter was not intended to go like this, but I knew that I needed it to. All in all, I am not entirely happy with how our story is going so far, but I am going to work to straighten it out. I hope that you guys are enjoying this so far. By the time you are actually reading this, I should have written myself out of this corner and hopefully this story will not be as much of a shitshow as it is feeling like as I type this.