Disclaimer: I do not own Collateral or Vincent, any character unheard of belongs to me…unless I borrow them from someone else (with their permission of course or to pay homage with). Another disclaimer is what will follow is known as a 'tangent' or a 'digression' of topic, but it should be entertaining none the less. Next chapter's the real one, but this plot bunny here's been a hoppin' and I couldn't help myself...So, let's get started.

Leanan Sidhe cautiously peeked her head out from the closet of which she had so cleverly hidden herself. Seeing no sign of the one she was avoiding, with a relieved sigh she stepped out and made her way toward the kitchen, glancing back slightly over her shoulder just in case she was being followed. Her head should have been positioned in the other direction because, chuckling quietly, she walked smack dab into the one person she really didn't want to see at the moment.

"Fuck, Vincent! You scared me!" She yelped accusingly.

Staring coldly down at her, the hit man muse, gave her the third degree, "What are you doing out of the computer room, Sid? Aren't you supposed to be updating Andrews little piece?" A small amount of suspicious was laced through his inquiry.

"Just getting a snack." Leanan replied nimbly trying to dodge around the question, "Is that a problem Mr.-knocks-me-out-cold-when-he's-threatened-by-someone-half-his-age-and-twice-as-gorgeous?"

Vincent blocked the entire doorway now into the panty, growling low, "You had it coming."

Not one to be hounded by an (all too solid and intimidatingly sensual) muse, Lee moved purposefully forward, in an undeniable confrontation stance, "And you're asking for it. Now, move your murdering ass and let me go get some munchies or I swear to god I'll never write another word."

Pushing himself off of the door frame, he began that all too calm walk she knew well, toward her, "I could just make you." He murmured.

"Not without your gun you couldn't." Lee pointedly reminded him, as he advanced, backing only a little in response, "You know the rules."

His smile was the warning sign, "When have you ever known me to follow them? Besides, every rule has a loophole. Basic logic."

"Not my rules…" Lee snarled as her back hit the wall, furious with him, he knew she hated being backed into corners. He always did it.

"Everybody's rules, Sid. Even yours."

She pushed against his chest, but he caught her hands and forced them to her sides.

"Especially yours."

"I'm going to beat the shit out of you, if you don't let me go, Vincent." She warned him.

"The day you beat the shit out of me, I'll let you go." He taunted her.

"You're pushing it…" Lee spat, irritated by his proximity. Too close for comfort or too comfortably close, she couldn't at this point in time decide which, "Now come on, off. I have work to do."

Shoving with all her might she budged him and grudgingly the hit man backed off. Lee straightened her shirt, which had gotten bunched up in the encounter.

"Jack never has to demand things," she muttered, "He has the confidence to wait."

She knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment her back hit the wall again, this time with such violence it jolted the breath out of her. She gasped in shock at the bruising hold Vincent had a hold of her. His eyes were steely, but focused which usually meant he was dangerously close to snapping her neck.

"I'm warning you, Author…" Lee shivered, he only used that name when he was all but going to murder her, something he'd threatened her with on several occasions, "I will make your life miserable if I find out you're bringing in that Ripper character again…"

"Ripner…" Lee corrected him in a whisper.

"Shut up." He silenced her with another jerk against the wall squeezing her of all breath, "I'll do worse than that if I find out that you're sneaking him in on the side when you should be strenuously devoting yourself to mine and Lara's story. Got it?"

He sure knew how to increase the heart rate, that was for damn sure…but in the process it only increased her annoyance…among other things… "Fact check, Vinny…" She sneered using HIS hated nickname, as she pried his hands off her arms.

"One: The last time I looked Veronica was your daughter, not me, so stop playing daddy. Two: Lara needs a break from you. You're practically running her into the ground…"

"Other way around…" Vincent smirked.

"You wish. And three: It's just a freaking snack. Chill and wait in the computer room for me. I'll be there in a second. Go, shoo!" She ordered, pushing him toward the work room where they did most of their collaborations.

"I don't trust you."

"Ditto, Muse. Now do you want anything to drink?"

"Water." He ground out, heading for his work station, "You know I don't drink when I work."

Rolling her eyes after the temperamental muse, Lee stalked into the kitchen and began mocking his words with cruel precision, "You know I don't drink when I work…Stupid smug son of a bitch bastard!" Opening a cabinet without any intention in mind, she turned suddenly eyeing the fridge in the corner, "I remember…I have something chilling in the freezer…"

Walking over to the door of the ice box Lee opened it, a moment later a wicked smile blossomed on her face, "I thought so…"

A slim, long elegant fingered hand snaked around her waist out of the cold depths, nearly dragging her into the stainless steel container as well.

"Chilling, hmmmn? Clever one, Sid." A voice purred. "This is new…" The soft hum of a voice mused from the fridge, "We've never used the ice-box as a rendezvous spot before."

"Don't know why not." She grinned, feeling the other long limbed arm curl around her middle. He stepped out. Caribbean blue eyes. Striking eyes.

"Poetic. Fitting." He murmured close to her neck, pushing the door to the freezer closed with his foot. "A little frigid…"

"That's the idea."

"Ah, I see. Cold storage. I get it…to keep me fresh in your mind until the tyrant releases you."

Lee looked off into the direction where Vincent had disappeared, sighing, "He's being particularly possessive lately…

"Little Becky still needs to grow up. There is a time limit, Sid; I hate to remind you…" Jack Ripner admonished severely.

"I know, I know, but…it's Vincent. He's being a royal pain in the ass…and these secret meetings of ours are getting harder and harder to orchestrate as it is…"

Pinning her with a hypnotizing stare, Jack asked her point blank, "Have you brought up the matter of the sequel? Your ideas concerning…"

"I don't think now's the right time. He's pretty sour…I don't think he'd go for it now…"

"Lee, we need to go over your interpretation in this one scene, it's complete bullsh…"

Lee felt her heart stop, just stop as Vincent walked into the room.

"Oh crap…" She moaned going slack in Ripner's wonderful hold.

He just stood there, blinked back fire from his gaze and stormed out. Lee tore from Jack's grasp, running after Vincent before he did anything stupid like deleting the entire story from entirely. Ripner followed at a slower pace, smirking widely.

Lee reached the room just in time to see the oddest thing her eyes had ever beheld in all her years. Vincent wasn't deleting anything, nor was he breaking anything…he was actually pulling someone from the computer screen.

"Get the fuck off me, asshole!" A feminine voice bellowed, as he hauled her from the cyber window. Standing in full sight of the stricken author, Lee could now see clearly who it was.

"Oh my god! Jade!" She made a move to rescue the fellow writer but a foot away Vincent pulled out his gun, leveling it right at her chest. Lee slowed to a halt in disbelief.

"No. You're not allowed to have that. You're not! It was part of the contract we wrote up, you sneaky cretin piece of filth!"

"Contract's null and void, Author, if you go back on your agreement, which you did. Which gives me the freedom to use all my assets any way I choose. Now step back. That's a good girl…"

Fuming, Lee backed up as the other writer recognized the silver fox holding her in check, "Shit…" Jade murmured, "Is this because I haven't written you that fic I was promising to do?"

"Quiet." He bit out, whirling her around so that all in the room (Ripner included, who was looking at it all in mild amusement) could see the weapon prominently placed under her chin.

"Now, hold up there, partner…" Lee coaxed eyes growing wide, "Don't kill her just cause you're pissed at me. She's one of your army of sparse few good Collateral writers out there. Don't do anything rash…"

With the legendary animal like grin she had described so often, Lee watched as he twisted his lips in a smirk, "Rash…" he murmured a second before crushing his mouth to Jades.

He had thought by provoking her own jealousy he would win this? He was an idiot, and she was one because she could feel his plan working. Fine, he wanted to play dirty? She marched over to the computer, Vincent was watching her every move through hawk eyes, over Jade's shoulder. Reaching the desktop, Lee bent savagely and grabbed a hold of the main plug, tugging it a little. The screen with the next chapter's finished words, flickered warningly.

Vincent broke away from Jade, but keeping a firm hand of her as she started cursing up a storm at him for getting so fresh at a moment like that, and why couldn't he have done that when he visited her a week ago…

"You wouldn't." Vincent narrowed his eyes, those eyes to slits.

"Fucking try me, sucka." Lee growled, poised for another tug.

She could hear the deadly sound of his teeth grinding behind his lips, "Alright, Author…"

Lee didn't have time to blink before he had pushed Jade, propelling her into a surprised Ripner's arms, and had caught a hold of her arm. He threw open the closet door she had been hiding in originally. The dark and the certainty of what awaited her in that black made her shake, as Vincent forced her in, "We finish this now."

"Bastard…!"

Whatever else she said was muffled by the door closing behind them…locking with a tell tale click.

Spades Jade looked up at Ripner, whose chest she was sprawled against now, "Hi."

"Hi."

"I'm Jade."

"Jackson."

"I know…so..when do you think they'll be out?"

"Don't know. We're probably in for a long wait."

"Probably right."

Righting her, Jackson went and pulled the plug on the computer. The screen faded to black with a beeeeeeeeeoooooooooop. "Give them some time…So, Jade…when are you going to right that Red Eye fic of yours?"