Bryce didn't hear the door bell ring. He was walking out to the main hall to take Lara a mug of herbal tea in her room when he saw a black figure crouched by one of the arm chairs. He froze, blinked and saw that the figure was gone. He blinked again and tried to remember what time he had gone to bed the pervious night. Bryce brushed off the sighting of the black figure and began to walk towards the stairs.
The mysterious black figure leapt, grabbing Bryce from behind. He cried out and dropped the tray that contained the mug of tea. The mug crashed to the floor breaking instantly. The next thing Bryce realized, he was staring at the blade of a knife pressing against his throat.
"Where is Lara?" A voice close to Bryce's ear demanded.
"She's not in." Bryce lied. His mind was racing. What the hell is going on!? He thought, desperately.
Lara, hearing the mug of tea break, stepped from her room. She glanced over the balcony and caught sight of the person who was holding Bryce with a knife to his throat. She laughed. Bryce froze. What is wrong with her?! He demanded. Some person is attempting to murder me and she's laughing?!
"Smoke!" Lara said. "Let Bryce go."
Much to Bryce's surprise he felt the figure's hands release him. Smoke shoved Bryce away from her and turned back to Lara who was coming down the stairs.
"Are you alright, Bryce?" Lara asked. Helping Bryce off of the floor. Bryce leaned closer to Lara.
"Who is in the world is that?" He asked.
"Smoke." Lara said.
Smoke, a young woman in her early twenties, slid her knife back into her boot. She was dressed all in black, complete with a black trench coat and black combat boots. Her dark hair was tied back in a bun, framing her face which bore dark eye make-up, contrasting against her pale skin.
"Lara, who is that?" Smoke asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"This is Bryce." Lara said. "He's my personal computer nerd." Lara laughed. She turned to Bryce. "Don't worry, Smoke is a friend of mine."
"You have got some odd friends, Lara." Bryce muttered, running his hand over the neck, making sure that Lara's friend didn't break the skin with that knife of hers. Bryce glanced back at Smoke.
"Where is Hillary?" She asked Lara.
"He's in the library." Lara responded.
Smoke glanced at Lara's swollen stomach and raised an eyebrow at her. She turned back to Bryce with her regular expression on her face.
"You can leave now." She said, flatly.
"Okay. . ." Bryce just walked off instead of even bothering with the young woman. He did think that she was cute though. . .
"Come on, Smoke. I'll give you a tour of the assault course." Lara said.
"You changed it again?" Smoke asked as and followed Lara out onto the assault course where they could talk in private.
Once the two women were outside Smoke turned to Lara with a serious expression on her face. "I'm not going to lie to you, Lara." She said. "I'm on the run from the American police."
Lara sighed. "What did you do this time?" She asked.
"I assassinated someone and I accidentally got caught on a security camera."
"Tsk, tsk." Lara said. "You're getting careless in your old age."
"So you don't mind if I hide out here for a few weeks?" Smoke asked.
"Of course not." Lara said. "I'll owe you my life." She said sincerely.
Then, Smoke did a very rare thing for her. She smiled. "You've always been my best friend." She murmured, hugging Lara. She pulled back from the embrace and glanced at Lara's stomach. "You never did tell me about your pregnancy. . ." Smoke said.
"Well, I'd have to tell you about my marriage then too." Lara said, showing Smoke her ring.
"You married Alex West?" Smoke asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure that was a wise idea?"
"Of course."
"I heard Alex West was nothing but a superficial playboy who only dated women until he got tired of them." Smoke said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Really? Who told you that?" Smoke whirled around to see Alex standing behind her. He walked over to Lara and gave her a quick kiss before turning back to Smoke. "Honey, who's this?" He asked, glancing at the assassin.
"She's an old friend of mine." Lara said. "Smoke is going to stay with us for a little while."
"Nice to meet you, Smoke." He said, nodding in her direction. "Were your parents hippies or something?"
"Smoke isn't my real name." She said. "If you'll excuse me, I have things to unpack." With that Smoke turned and walked away.
"What a charming young lady. . ." Alex said, sarcastically.
"Smoke isn't much of a conversationalist but she's really a nice person. She just doesn't want anyone to know."
"She's doing one hell of a job of hiding it." Alex said.
"You are getting more insufferable by the day." Lara laughed. "Now hurry, I want to see the new bookcase you and Hillary put into the library."
"I don't see why you couldn't convince Bryce to help too."
"You know Bryce, if it's not online he's not interested." She smirked. "Come along, Mr. West."
***
"Lara, are you sure that letting Smoke stay here is a good idea?" Hillary asked. He had managed to pull Lara away from her and Alex's infernal quest for the perfect name for their baby. Smoke had already retired after running circles around Bryce with her knowledge of DHTML at dinner. Smoke found him interesting to laugh at. Bryce was in love. Hillary secretly wanted to bang his head against the table until the ringing in his ears could block out the non-stop techno babble.
"Hillary, give Smoke a chance." Lara said. "She's a lovely girl, she just can't show that because of her job."
"What do you mean?"
"How would hire an assassin who admits going to see Titanic eight times and crying for the third hour every time?"
Hillary thought for a second. "Point taken. Still, did you see the way Bryce was looking at her?"
"Yes." Lara smiled. "Don't you think they make the perfect couple?"
"Come on, Lara. Smoke is probably the rebound from Corazon and when Bryce dumps Smoke I have a feeling that he might end up dead."
"Smoke would never do that. Besides, she's one of my dearest friends. Now, please don't complain about her anymore. Alex has already done that."
"Yes, Lara." Hillary sighed.
***
"Smoke is incredible, isn't she?" Bryce said, leaning back in his chair, linking his hands behind his head.
"She's an assassin and she knows how to bored someone to death with computer talk. I could bearly contain myself." Alex said, sarcastically. The two were sitting in the dining room, talking.
"I wonder if she has a boyfriend." Bryce murmured, starring off into space.
"You are hopeless." Alex said. "First you fall for a total groupie who you screw in my bed and now you're in love with a paid assassin who's on the run from the law."
The phone rang. Both Alex and Bryce looked up but no one moved to answer it. "No one touch it!" Alex yelled through the house.
"Why not?" Lara asked from the hallway.
"I'm avoiding Sam. He's trying to convince me to come back to work!" Alex lied. With a new female in the house the last thing they needed was more phone calls from the mystery caller.
Hillary entered the room, holding a stack of white towels. He set the towels down on the kitchen table and walked over to the stove where a tea kettle was just starting to whistle.
"Who are the towels for?" Bryce asked, glancing at the stack.
"They're for Smoke. I forgot to replace the towels in the guest room the last time I wash them. I also thought that she might like a cup of tea. Perhaps it would calm her down a bit."
"I'll take it to her." Bryce volunteered.
Alex grinned. "You are a sad, sad man Bryce." He said.
"Come off it, Alex." Bryce chided.
"Yes, maybe attempting to date Smoke will cure Bryce of his obsession with beautiful women." Hillary said. "Well, if Smoke doesn't shoot him first anyways."
"There's something to look forward too." Alex said, nudging Bryce.
"Cynic." Bryce said. He took the mug of tea that Hillary had prepared in one hand and picked up the towels in the other.
"Wish me luck." Bryce smiled.
"Good luck." Hillary and Alex said in unison.
Bryce walked out of the kitchen, up the stairs and made his way to the guest bedroom. Bryce stood outside the door for several seconds, making sure he was ready. He knocked softly first. When there was no answer Bryce carefully opened the door. He poked his head inside the room. No one was insight.
"Smoke?" He asked as he ventured into the room.
The women in question was laying on the chaise lounge in the corner of the room. She had changed out of her traveling clothes and was in only a flimsy white tank top and gray sweat pants that sat around her hips. Her hair was done up in a bun and her face was make-up less. She looked like a normal girl instead of an intimidating assassin.
"Did you want something?" Smoke asked after Bryce's gaze had traveled over her entire figure.
"Oh, there are some towels. . . that weren't changed, because Hillary forgot." Bryce said, stumbling over his words.
Smoke got up and took the towels from him. "Hmm, thank you." She said.
"Oh and some tea." Bryce said, holding the mug out to her.
"Why did you bring tea?" She asked, taking the mug from him.
"It's was Hillary's idea." Bryce said. "You- you look a lot different without all that black on."
"Different how?" Smoke asked.
"Oh! Good different. You look very good different."
"Thank you. But there is one problem." Smoke said.
"What?"
"I can't seek to get to my satellite uplink from this room. Would you mind if I used yours?"
"No, of course not. Come on, I'll show you my whole computer network."