Disclaimer: NOT MINE! Although I wish they were, but alas, I only own the right to plot idea & some of the OC you'll read about here

Summary: Six yrs ago they almost married, but a freak accident caused one of them their life. Six years later Draco Malfoy was a hired hitman working under his father's orders. LDM Software Inc was a cover-up for their headquarters. A familiar face soon surfaced around the office who reminded Draco of that lost love of his; could she be whom he thought she was or was she just a product of his imagination?

Rating: PG-13 for starters but will probably go up as we go along

Pairing: Draco Malfoy & Hermione Granger

Setting: almost 7 years after Hogwarts

Author's Note: thank you so far to all those who read and reviewed my fic. I might be slow in updating since I have other stories to work on, but I'll do my best to update as often as I can.

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II. Short-Notice Assistant

Mackenzie was surprised when Helene Peters, the woman who hired her and the one person who was in direct contact to the CEO of LDM Software Inc (aside from the other department heads, of course), called her to her office for an impromptu meeting. Mackenzie was just about to start her lunch when her name was broadcast through the office intercom.

Louisa, Marion, Victoria, and Madeline all turned to their newest friend with their eyebrows raised questioningly. Mackenzie was just a newcomer and today was her first day at work, why would Helene Peters be calling her up to her office when only half of the day had gone?

"Am I in trouble, you think?" Mackenzie asked nervously, looking from one co-worker to the other.

"How could you be in trouble, Mac? You just started here!" exclaimed uppity Louisa.

"Yeah. Maybe Helene just forgot to discuss some things with you when she hired you," said Victoria, the quietest person of the quartet.

"Don't worry, Mackenzie, Helene doesn't bite—unless you stepped way out of line," friendly Marion patted Mackenzie's arm as she rose from her seat, "But I'm sure you haven't done anything out of bounds yet considering today is your first day at work," she added when Mackenzie still looked doubtful.

Mackenzie gave her four newfound friends one of her numerous courageous smiles and excused herself to go meet with Helene. As she waited for the elevator doors to open, Mackenzie mentally replayed the events of the morning. She had done everything that was asked of her to do, and she did everything she was told to do as well, so what could be the reason why Helene Peters wanted to see her?

Finally the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, punching the number to the eighteenth floor and did a quick breathing exercise to calm her suddenly raging nerves. She couldn't be fired on her first day of working at her new job! She didn't do anything wrong and if Helene Peters thought something was fishy in her résumé because she left a not-so-huge chunk of her education blank (she couldn't include in her résumé that from the time she was eleven until she was seventeen she attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry), but that was hardly relevant to what she had accomplished after junior high and high school! She studied at a post-secondary school in London for two damn years wanting to get a degree and leave the diner. She graduated in top of her class and so far she has had no complaints whatsoever from the people she did her job training with for her final mark in her course.

When the steel doors slid open on the eighteenth floor, Mackenzie was rendered speechless at the magnificence of the executive floor. She has heard from the other girls who were fortunate enough to be asked to go up here how beautiful and luxurious it was, and they weren't lying!

Expensive ebony and ivory marbled flooring alternately tiled to offer a classic hint of class. Marbled granite pillars, large green plants providing another colour thrown in to a somewhat classic black and white décor. From the elevator doors to the floor-to-ceiling glass partition Mackenzie walked, noting that it was a very large and well-kept reception area. The carpet was expensive, she knew that, and had the loveliest shade of royal blue. There were couches on either side of the reception with side tables filled with reading materials—from magazines to pamphlets to the office newsletter. Then at the center of the room stood an octagonal-shaped reception desk. It was so tall that the person who was behind it couldn't be seen—not even her head was visible at the height of the damn desk unless you stepped up closer and lean against it to see her.

Mackenzie did just that and was surprised to find that instead of the usual female receptionist, she encountered a young man who was busy typing up something in to his computer. He was completely engrossed in what he was doing that it took Mackenzie a couple of minutes before he finally pried his eyes from his computer monitor and flashed her a genuine dimpled smile.

"Good day!" he greeted with a jolly crescendo in his voice, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. What can I do for you?" his dimpled smile was still in tact and Mackenzie thought of him as cute, for a man of his age of course (and exactly how old he was she doesn't know nor does she care really).

"Hi," Mackenzie smiled, "I'm Mackenzie Jones. Helene paged me to see her right away," she explained.

"Oh yeah, Helene said to just let you proceed as soon as you get here. Her office is the first one to your right once you passed the partition," he directed her.

"Thanks," she smiled and pushed herself away from the reception desk.

"Anytime."

Mackenzie followed the receptionist's direction and soon found herself standing on the other side of a smoked glass door with a placard bearing the name Helene Peters, Personal Assistant and Head of Administration engraved in white lettering against the black name plate. She knocked once and waited, finally she was asked to come in and she pushed the door slowly.

"Ah, Mackenzie," Helene Peters put down the sheet of paper she was reading and smiled up at the newest member of their company, "Please, come in," she beckoned.

Mackenzie entered the well-lit room (she had a floor-to-ceiling window with the blinds were open to let in the light from the early afternoon soon drift through the slats of the cream coloured vertical blinds) and closed the door after her. She gnawed on her lower lip as she took a few steps and stopped right in front of Helene Peters' desk.

"Uh…you wished you see me, Helene?" her voice was a bit shaky and she mentally scolded herself for losing her cool. You aren't going to be sacked so just keep it cool! her conscience scolded her, reassuring her that she wouldn't be facing unemployment soon after she started at her new job!

"Yes, I did. Please, have a seat," she pointed to one of the two vacant armchairs in front of her desk and waited for Mackenzie to use either one of them. She noted the worried look on her newest secretary's face and decided that she better assure Mackenzie that her job wasn't at stake here.

"Mackenzie, I know you just started today at LDM, and from the reports I got regarding your performance so far, they are all good," Helene began.

Mackenzie felt relieved. I'm not going to get sacked, she thought and smiled more confidently at Helene. She sat more comfortably on the armchair across from the head PA.

"However," Helene continued and Mackenzie's smile froze on her face. Damn that damning word! Whoever invented that word 'however' should be shot! It was a killer word to use. A person's hope gets up, and then however crashes it back down to the ground! It was really annoying!

"H-however?" Mackenzie's voice nearly came out as a squeak.

"Yes," Helene nodded, "When I hired you, I didn't explain to you about our other office protocol," she began. "Every so often our CEO travels out of the country to fix some problems we have with our consumers. Now, it's not common for him to go and see through three consumers' complaints at once, but unfortunately that is the case this time," she paused in her monologue and watched Mackenzie carefully.

Mackenzie sat on her chair with a confused look marring her smooth forehead. She was trying to figure out what this had to do with her being summoned up here.

"Our CEO requested to have a secretary accompany him on this trip to help put his affairs in order," Helene continued.

"And I come in to the picture how?" she couldn't help herself from asking although she already had a gut-feeling about what Helene was going to say next.

"Out of all our candidates, you're the only person I could see that fits the bill perfectly. None of the other girls would be able to leave the country on such short notice without having to worry about their family and their children and whatnot."

"On short notice?" Mackenzie echoed, "Just how short is short notice?"

Helene smiled, "You're leaving tomorrow morning to accompany our company CEO to Canada," she announced.

"What?" Mackenzie blanched. She wasn't expecting the short notice to be less than 24 hours short!

Helene gave her an apologetic smile, "You're the only one I could think of that will be able to take off from here without a snitch. You're single, lives on your own, and you don't have any pets to worry about as well—not that pets were ever a problem to some of our staff before, but this time…well, this is crunch-time, Mackenzie," she practically pleaded with Mackenzie when she saw the look on the brunette's face. It was a cross between saying no and saying yes.

"H-have you ever imposed such notice on any one before?" Mackenzie asked when she finally found some form of coherent thought and asked the first question that formed in her somewhat messed-up mind.

"Yes, once a few years back," Helene nodded.

Mackenzie was still a bit apprehensive.

"You will be fully compensated for whatever inconvenience this might take on you, Mackenzie. I, as well as the company CEO, am aware that asking a person to just up and leave at the drop of a hat wasn't easy. When you return from the trip you will be given five days leave of absence with pay to make up for you working all through the weekend," she bargained with her.

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PhoenixRae's thank-yous:

Nikki: I know when I first started writing this story it'll be weird to find Draco working in the muggle world that was why Mackenzie was having an inner battle with herself that he couldn't be the man she got in to the elevator with

Auroralexis: hehehe, you guessed right!