Happy Saturday!

Here's another short chapter for you all :) Thank you all so much for the reviews, they really make my day!

Hope you enjoy this one! xxx

Since they started working together each day was similar to the last: they got in early in the morning, they kept going through videos, pictures, locations, documents… never sharing space as each one worked from their own. They had lunch separately and kept digging through what they had. In the evening, they stayed until they were tired enough to go home.

Elizabeth dreaded going back to her empty little apartment and she had created a habit to linger at work to avoid it as much as she could. Every time she walked through the door a feeling of loneliness crept upon her and the only way she could fight it was by grabbing a bottle of wine and pouring herself a glass before drifting off to a restless sleep. Other times, she just filled the tub with hot water adding plenty of bubbles and her favorite oil to prepare the most relaxing bath. She would let the bubbles envelop her body as she sunk into the water and would let her mind and body relax until the water turned cold. Sometimes, all of that wasn't enough, though. When she was restless and she needed to calm her reeling mind she would go out, had a strong drink by herself in a bar and would pick up the most gorgeous stranger and have the most wild sex until she was completely spent. After that, a good night's sleep always followed. Someone said that sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine. And who was she to fight it?

Henry, on the other hand, was eager to get home every night. He knew what Elizabeth thought of it by the disapproving huffs she let out every time he left the office earlier than her, which was almost everyday. She thought he left because he didn't care about the job, but the truth was that another kind of work expected him at home. His marriage. Since he got back, things between him and Rochana had not improved at all. She was nice to him and they got along just fine except a few arguments here and there, but he was missing the love of a partner, the affection and the comprehension he was supposed to have in a marriage. Maybe they did rush things, the thought had crossed his mind a handful of times already. But he didn't want to give up as he was sure he would only marry once. So he tried everything he could think of: talk to her as they used to, leave early to spend time together, bring her flowers, go on romantic walks through the park, pick up her favorite movies, prepare amazing dinners only to be met by the same uncaring attitude every time. He had even managed to convince her to have sex a couple times, but it was boring and unsatisfying to say the least. He couldn't remember if it had always been like that but something was definitely off, they were missing the spark he remembered from their beginnings and although he was trying his best to get it back, nothing seemed to work.

It had been almost a month since the mission had started and Henry and Elizabeth were getting anxious to find something. They just needed a solid tiny lead to make progress but it was proving hard to find. It also didn't help that they were not getting along. They both found it extremely difficult to work with each other. Elizabeth was used to working alone and she didn't share much with him. Either personal or professional wise. Henry didn't like her closed attitude, how she was always on her own and didn't show any interest in getting to know him. He truly found it difficult to work with someone with whom couldn't have a personal relationship with. He wasn't asking for a friendship, but a civil relationship at least would be nice. How could he trust her if she didn't even acknowledge him? It was as if he didn't exist. They had been working tireless hours in the same space and he only knew her name. Elizabeth.

"Oh my God…" Elizabeth muttered one day, as they were going through more documents.

"What is it?" he asked, curiously getting up to take a look at the document she was staring at.

Elizabeth showed him the report and pointed straight at the information she just found. "I think I found something. Here it says Mr. Hill will attend a fundraiser next month here in DC. It can be the perfect opportunity to go undercover and meet him."

"Where will it be?" Henry asked while reading the piece of information.

"It says here it's a black-tie event held at The National Building Museum. Around 700 guests are expected and the sponsorships begin at $1.500." she read out loud.

"Wow, we better get something out of it for that price!" he exclaimed, surprised at how people would pay such an amount of money to attend an event. Growing up, that kind of money was enough to take care of his entire family for almost a month.

Elizabeth kept reading out loud, focused on the task at hand. "It says all money raised will go to a major philanthropic organization from the Washington Metropolitan area, that distributes millions in high-impact grants."

"This can be a good opportunity. We'll need to keep gathering information and prepare an action plan." he said, turning back to his seat at the table to keep working.

"Why don't you keep gathering information and I'll handle the plan?" she suggested, bluntly, still not very into teamwork.

Henry stared at her surprised. "Wouldn't it be better if we worked together? I mean, we're both going to be there…" Are we seriously going to work on the information on our own? God, she's impossible.

But Elizabeth dismissed him quickly, not giving him a chance. "I work better on my own. We'll set up a brief before the mission and go from there. If anything comes up in the meantime, we can always talk, I guess." As if I'm ever going to work with you.

"Okay… Whatever." Henry sighed. Yep. She's truly impossible.

And just like any other day, they kept working separately until the day ended. Then, it was time to go home and wait until their days would start all over again.

…