Reaching for the remote control, Cole turned off the television in the guest bedroom at the Richards' mansion. Caitlin was fast asleep on the bed and he was sick of the romantic drivel she had picked out.

This was their second movie and he was deeply grateful she had fallen asleep. Believing Ethan Baxter to be the type to watch anything with a pretty girl, Cole was then stuck playing the hapless country boy. He would have preferred his usual tactics of seduction. Caitlin was lovely in the California blonde sort of way, and she had an innocence that challenged Cole's professional pride.

He removed a small black bundle of tools from his briefcase and brushed a finger through a lock of Caitlin's soft, blonde hair. Asleep, she looked barely eighteen, but her lips were full and ripe. Licking his lips he thought about virgin fruit. She would taste of strawberries.

Sneaking out into the hallway, Cole contemplated his next moves. He would start with the study. Perhaps Gregory was controlling enough to keep Olivia's jewels close at hand.

The study door was locked. Cole knelt in front of it, easing a tiny strip of metal into the lock and feeling around. He took a sharp pick and stuck it into the lock as well. After a moment of fiddling around, the door clicked softly open. Easy.

Shutting the door behind him, Cole went immediately to the painting on the wall. Running his fingers around the edge, he deduced that the picture was on subtle hinges. He opened the painting.

Immediately the study filled with a blaring noise. Cursing to himself, Cole found the tiny tripwire on the corner he had missed. He had thought this was too easy. Licking his fingers, he tried to short circuit the wire, but the alarm continued. He could hear Caitlin coming down the stairs.

Quickly turning on the light in the study, he put on his best perplexed expression and tried to look like he had tripped the whole thing by accident.

"Ethan? Ethan where are you?" Caitlin's sleepy voice floated in from the stairs.

Yelling over the racket of the alarm, Cole sounded apologetic. "I'm in the study. I tripped and I bumped this painting and then the alarm started. I can't figure out how to shut it off."

Caitlin entered, hands over her ears. Cole shoved his toolkit deep under the desk with a foot so she wouldn't see it. Going to the wall, Caitlin entered a quick code and shut off the wailing alarm. "You have to be careful what you touch in daddy's study. Ever since mom inherited the jewels, he's upped security. I think he's even gotten a little paranoid," she finished with a yawn.

"I'm so sorry." He repeated innocently. "I had no idea, I was just looking for at some pictures-" Sitting down at Gregory's desk let him stuff the tools even further out of sight.

"Then I tripped." Cole shrugged sheepishly. "I'm afraid I'm a bit clumsy and I set the dammed thing off. Maybe you can help me find what I'm looking for."

Caitlin perched on the corner of the desk. "What are you looking for?"

Time to lay it on, Cole thought with a mental smirk. "It's kind of embarassing really, but I was looking for pictures of your mom. Dad's always talking about her and your dad. He said they had this kind of epic romance that could never be duplicated. Dad's been searching for someone like that he's entire life."

Something dark passed through her blue eyes and Cole tried to place the emotion. Disbelief? Anger? Jealousy?

Leaving the desk, Caitlin sighed as she pulled a heavy leather album out from the bottom shelf. "These are their wedding pictures and stuff from the beginning. That's all they really have that's romantic. By the time Sean was born they hated each other."

Cole flipped through the pictures quickly, checking Olivia's jewelry in each one. As time went on in the photographs her jewels grew more extravagent. Of course the Deschanel jewels remained the goal, but it wouldn't hurt to pick up some things for himself along the way.

"Why do you say that?" He asked naively. "Dad said they're completely enamored with each other again."

Caitlin didn't look at the pictures. Although she hadn't admitted it to herself yet, she was missing her father's affection. He had been so caught up in Olivia that she could swear he barely listened to her when she was talking. Gregory used to hang on every word she said.

"Again being the keyword." She said bitterly. "And who knows how long it'll last? Mom will just start drinking again and then daddy will just get hurt like he always does."

Cole's mental notes were scribbling furiously. There was something useful between Caitlin and her mother. A kind of deep rooted animousity that could be very helpful indeed. "My father thinks this time is different."

Two diamond necklaces, one sapphire tiara, several sets of ruby earrings - Olivia Richards certainly did not want for fine jewelry. He noted to himself. But he smiled up at Caitlin. He had a trump card. Something else poor, innocent Ethan had let slip on the plane to New York.

"Dad says Gregory wants to have another baby."

Caitlin shook her head. "That's impossible. I'm the only one of his children he really likes. Dad barely tolerates Sean."

Cole leaned across the desk towards her, quickly extrapolating a plausible story. Though Ethan had mentioned Gregory's parental ambitions, Cole had not thought to press the subject. "He told my father that both of you were a disappointment."

Caitlin looked like she had been slapped. "He didn't..."

"Neither of you wants to follow his footsteps at work." Cole continued, "He doesn't think you really appreciate everything he's done for you." Pausing for effect, he added a finishing touch. "Not like your mother does."

Tears came immediately to those soft blue eyes. "How can he be so wrong?" She whispered. "Mom's never cared about him the way I do. She's been drunk for the last twenty years. If I were him I'd have left her years ago."

Standing up, he rested a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "Sometimes you wish he had, don't you?"

"I do." She fell into his arms, crying into his chest. "All the time. If dad got rid of mom he could stop worrying about her and be happy. We'd be happy."

Cole leaned down and kissed her, starting gently but quickly turning on his reserves of charm. When he finished she was breathless and he smiled to himself. Strawberries.