Nesta couldn't shake off the feeling of deja vu. Couldn't shake the thought that she'll get in pure trouble and yet, somehow, the slight joke Cassian gave her about her being the Lady of Death somehow calmed her down a bit. Why was she thinking of his stupid joke? Nothing to worry about, it's just a small meeting, she thought. Just as she entered the doors, she walked past the receptionist, quite older than her friend Gwyn.

"Good morning, Miss Archeron." She smiled but she ignored her completely and entered the office.

"Graysen, Tomas." She said in a way of greeting, no excitement to deal with the two of them. And judging by their looks of boredom, they weren't excited either.

Tomas was the first one to speak. "Congratulations on the Oprah thing." He said and held his hand to her in a gesture of acknowledgement. "That's terrific news."

Nesta bowed her head slightly. "Thank you, thank you." She then held his stare before saying with all the sarcasm. "This isn't about my second raise, is it?" Seeing the joke didn't cause any effect, she shot quickly. "Just kidding." She took a seat.

"Yeah, I figured" Tomas mumbled and cleared his voice. "Nesta, do you remember when we agreed you wouldn't go to the Frankfurt Book Fair because you weren't allowed out of the country while your visa application was being processed?" He stared. Nesta knew that by the harsh look on his eyes, she was in deep shit.

Nesta's throat slightly bobbed. "Uh, yes. Yes, I do." She replied as she held her composure.

"And…" Tomas leaned forward on his desk, twining his hands together. He was not happy, and Nesta swore that Graysen had a mild smug on his face. She fought the urge to spit an insult at his face. "You went to Frankfurt." Tomas finished his sentence, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes. We were going to lose DeLillo to Beron." Nesta said, voice slightly sharp. So... really didn't have a choice, did I?" She shrugged it off like it was no big deal but Tomas said otherwise.

"Seems the United States Government doesn't care who publishes Don DeLillo." Tomas said while throwing a bunch of paperwork, which he had in hand for a while, at her. Nesta saw a familiar phone number and was hoping she would not think what she thought she was called for in the first place.

"Tomas… What is this?" She asked anyway.

"We just spoke to your immigration attorney." Graysen answers this time. He stood straight and crossed his arms. Nesta was now panicking and was doing too much of a great job to keep her strong mask on.

"Great. So, we're all good?" She asked but the two of them were very serious about the situation. "Everything good?" She asked again.

"Nesta, your VISA application has been denied." Tomas snapped at her.

"And you are being deported." Graysen added. Nesta's confidence shattered, feeling the heavy fall of her gut. She was now in shambles.

No no no no no. She could feel the bundle of panic growing. "Deported!?"

"And there was also some paperwork you didn't fill out in time." Graysen said in amusement. At this point, Nesta was back in the old wreckage of a house she and her sisters had to survive for most of their teenage lives.

"Come on. Come on!" She tried to reason with them. "It's not like I'm even an immigrant! I'm from Canada, for Christ's sake!" She stood up, now almost unable to contain herself. "There's gotta be… something we can do." She said, now panting for some reason.

"We can reapply, but unfortunately you have to leave the country for at least a year." Tomas said to her.

Nope, a year is far too long, she thought. "Ok! Ok, well, that's not ideal, but I can... I can manage everything from Toronto…" She tried to bargain.

"No." Tomas shook his head. Graysen was rather enjoying her panic.

"With...with videoconferencing, Internet-" Nesta kept going. She wasn't going back to her hometown but she was running out of cards to play.

"Unfortunately, if you're deported, you can't work for an American company." Graysen replied as he held his hands in defense.

It was Tomas' turn to reply. "And until this is resolved I'm going to turn operations over to Balthazar Spaulding." He said. Nesta was now dumbfould.

"Balthazar Spaulding? The guy I just fired?" She pointed her thumb to the door as if Balthazar was right behind her.

"We need an editor in chief." Tomas replied. "He is the only person who has enough experience."

"You cannot be serious!" Nesta was losing it. "I beg of you."

"Nesta, listen. We are desperate to have you stay." Grayen said. Obviously a lie from his part but Nesta wasn't having it.

You're one to talk, asshole! She almost shouted.

"If there was any way, any way at all we could make this work, we'd be doing it." Tomas said with genuine concern even if he was to get rid of her. Nesta knew this company meant alot to him and was not risking one of his best chief editors.

Nesta begged. "There is no way... I am begging you." She could hardly hear the knocking on the door, she was too distracted to turn to see who was interrupting.

"No. Excuse me, we're in a meeting." Tomas glanced at the person lingering on the door. Nesta heard a familiar voice as he cleared his voice. Has it passed ten minutes already?

"Sorry to interrupt." Cassian spoke, doing the job to get her out as she was instructed.

"What?! What?!" Nesta asked. At this point she didn't care if he saved her, she would do anything to stay in that office and stay in New York, even if it was her getting on her knees, begging hopelessly.

"Ianthe, from her office, called. She's on the line." Cassian said, trying to get her out of there.

"I know." Nesta nodded and waved her hands, telling him to keep talking when in reality was to give her time. She knew Her and Ianthe weren't even associated and couldn't thank Cassian enough for this made-up story. But right now she needed time to think of a plan.

"She's on hold." Cassian understood the sign and kept up with the excuse. "She needs to speak with you." Cassian was running out of ideas. "I told her you were otherwise engaged." He picked up another lie. "She insisted, so…" He stopped when she suddenly couldn't read the expression on her face. "Sorry…. so… um" He shifted on his feet a bit uncomfortable.

Bingo! Nesta thought and motioned her finger for him to come inside. "Come here." She whispered urgently, almost an order, but Cassian obliged and closed the door behind him

"Uh.. Gentlemen, I understand-" She cleared her voice. "I understand the predicament that we are in." She stumbled on her words as she slowly walked next to Cassian, who had no idea what was happening. "And… And there's... Well…" She struggled as she was now regretting this idea. "I think there's something that you should know." She nodded to Cassian. He wasn't sure what he was agreeing to when he nodded. "We're getting married." She almost blurted, forcing a smile as she patted his red tie.

Cassian gave her a look of disbelief. "Who is getting married?" He asked in a whisper. His confusion was almost visible but she patted his tie again, slightly stronger this time, still the forced smile plastered on her face. "I mean, yes-"

"Yes! We getting married!" Nesta said with fake excitement.

"We are… Getting married." Cassian was genuinely shocked. What did I get himself into, he had thought.

"We are getting married." Nesta repeated his words.

Cassian nodded. "Yes."

Graysen was shot back but almost didn't believe a single word they were saying. "Isn't he your secretary?" He sounded accusatory.

Cassian tried to clarify. "Assistant-" Before he was cut off by Nesta.

"Executive... assistant secretary." She chuckled a bit but Cassian could hear the nervousness, without mentioning how stiff she was as she held his hand. "Titles. But, wouldn't be the first time one of us fell for our secretaries. Would it, Graysen? With my sister Elain. Remember?" She Glared at him, to which Graysen only flinched. Nesta could count the amount of times Feyre had to kick his balls for what he did.

"So, yeah." She was reassured and kept on talking. "The truth is, you know, Cassian and I, we're…" Nesta hoped Cassian would follow her act. "We are just two people who weren't meant to fall in love but we did."

Cassian shook his head and tried to object. "No-"

Nesta squeezed his hand to the point of pain. "All those late nights at the office" She said as she sighed romantically at him. Cassian stiffened but couldn't stop his cheeks from flushing to crimson. "And weekend book fairs."

Cassian tried to object again. "Yeah… No-"

"Something happened." Nesta utted him off again and held his gaze with a smile. Cassian saw the pleading and lingering tears in her eyes and he just gave up at this point. He thought to himself that this was gonna end in deep shit.

"Something." Cassian slightly faked a grin at her with small nods, confirming her fake statements.

"Yeah-" Nesta half hugged him with one arm around his torso, but as she made her attempt to pull away, she held her by the shoulder. "Tried to fight it and… Can't fight a…" She tried to speak over this action but he beat her to it.

"Can't fight… Can't fight a love like ours! Ain't that right… Sweetheart?~" He grinned at her. His acting is perfect, she thought but she was gonna scold him later.

"Uh- Yes! You're absolutely right!" Nesta blurted. "So uh… A-Are we good with this? Are you happy?" She asked both Tomas and Graysen, which still had the look of disbelief. "Because, well, we are happy. So happy." She said as the two of them smiled. Cassian cursed mentally for the deep lie he was in right now.

"Nesta." Tomas' throat bobbed.

"Yes?" Nesta smiled nervously, hoping they didn't sense the lie.

"It's terrific." Tomas smiled a bit before pointing his ring finger. "Just make it legal." He said.

Nesta felt a knee wobbling relief as she now held Cassian's hand "Legal. Yeah, well, then that means we…" She slowly dragged him with her to the door. "We need to get ourselves to the immigration office." She almost panted. "So we can work this whole mess out. Right?" She pointed at Cassian's tie again. "Thank you very much, gentlemen. We will do that right away." She smiled, still dragging Cassian out of the office. Graysen narrowed his eyes at her. "Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank you." She repeated.

"Gentlemen." Cassian said with a forced smile.

"Thank you." Nesta said one last time before fully leaving the office, now yanking Cassian out of there.

It hasn't even been twenty minutes and now the whole building knows about their mirage. Apparently someone snooped near the office and heard everything, sending it to the chat: Nesta and Cassian are getting married!?!?!?! And the whispers started to spread as the two of them walked past everyone.

"What is that about?"

"Lady Death! Here they come."

"What is he thinking?"

Cassian can just ignore the pointing looks of either smug approval in his taste in women or a disapproving glance. He was about to head to Nesta's office when Azriel and Lucien dragged him to somewhere more private.

"Dude, for real. Her?" Lucien was the first one to speak.

"Married? Didn't even know you two were dating. What else have you've been keeping from us, brother?" Azriel gave a smirk of his own. Cassian could think of a million things to say just to wipe that smirk of his face but he has his own questions to be answered.

"I'll tell you everything once things are sorted out, ok? Just wait for me after work, we can go get some beers and talk about it. Sounds good?" Cassian said.

"Fine by me." Azriel shrugged.

"Only if you take us as your bestmens." Lucien joked but Cassian just huffed a laugh.

"Oh you will." He walked right past then and entered Nesta's office. Completely ignoring everyone as he gave her a glare of disbelief as she was fixing a rather large staff of papers.

"What?" She almost growled. Cassian was full of confidence at this point.

"I don't understand what's happening, Sweetheart~ So! Do. Explain." He said in a strict tone. Nesta was either suprised or taken aback by his sharp tone of voice.

"Relax. This is for you, too." She said vaguely but she crossed his arms, without tearing the glare from her eyes. She swore those hazel eyes would eat her alive if she wasnt fully prepared, but it somehow gave her goosebumps. "They were going to make Balthazar chief."

"Oh ho!" Cassian was now losing it. "And naturally I would have to marry you?"

"And what's the problem?" Nesta leaned on her office chair and crossed her arms. "Like you were saving yourself for someone special?" She asked sarcastically.

"I like to think so myself! Besides, it's illegal!" Cassian threw his arms at the craziness of her idea.

"They're looking for terrorists, not for book publishers." Nesta said lamely. Cassian scratched his neck hysterically.

"Nesta." He said but then stopped when he realized she was still looking at him with ferocious eyes.

"Yes?" She asked him.

"I'm not gonna marry you." Cassian blurted. Knowing that if his brothers hear about this, not only he's gonna hear the end of it, but because he'll know Rhys will do anything in his power to set up a wedding for his brother.

"Sure you are." Nesta said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Because if you don't, your dreams of touching the lives of millions with the written word are dead." She said with a smug face. Well shit, Cassian started to consider it. Nesta stood up, and slowly walked around her desk before leaning from it, right in front of him. "Balthazar is gonna fire you the second I'm gone. Guaranteed. That means you're out on the street looking for a job. That means the time that we spent together, the lattes, the canceled dates, the midnight Tampax runs, were all for nothing and all your dreams of being an editor are gone." She said.

Well FUCK, Cassian thought to himself. She was right, but he can't really risk his job. Granted, even if he did want to be his husband, it's still wrong.

"Don't worry, after the required allotment of time, we'll get a divorce and you'll be done with me." Nesta closed the distance between them. "But until then, like it or not, your wagon is hitched to mine.Ok?" She gave him a smile and patted his cheek once. Twice. She then pointed at the ringing phone. "Phone.~"

Cassian stood rigid there, analyzing everything she told him. Not only is he risking his status, but he's already at risk of losing his job, ending up on the street as a hot dog seller, in the worst case scenario, and not only that but has to play along with her for who knows how long. I'm in a complete mess, he thought to himself before leaving her office before cursing lowly. "Fucking shit…"