(Disclaimer: This story, plot, and its characters are all copyright and owned by me unless otherwise stated in later chapters where some of my friend's characters may come into play.)

You can make someone's day with a nice review or you could trash it. Be nice. You never know who's manic depressant today.

(No offense isintended to those suffering from manic depression.)


Chapter 5

"I guess you can stay in my brother's old room..." Ana muttered as she emerged from her room. She wore tan slacks and a white and blue soccer jersey. The name on the back was Grecia. One of her father's favorite goal keepers from Spain.

Haydren had taken up a seat in the living room on the couch as if he were completely comfortable with his surroundings. About four feet in front of him sat the Doberman on the rug. He did not look too happy. A soft growl rumbled out of his throat as he stared at Haydren.

The man furrowed his brow at the creature then looked to Ana as she entered, coming to his feet respectfully. This made the dog's growling deepen. He hunched down as if ready to move, showing sharp canines.

Ana walked to the animal and gently touched his head as she'd done earlier and he slowly quieted then hopped up to lay down on the couch where Haydren had been sitting.

"Is he your dog?" Haydren asked almost boredly, watching them with slight interest.

She nodded slowly. "I'm taking care of him. His owner beat him with a cane yesterday...and I guess he just followed me home..."

Haydren pondered her for a moment as she knelt to scratch the dog again on the head. The Doberman panted happily, the stubby left over of his cropped tail wiggling excitedly. This was the girl from yesterday? He thought to himself silently. It had seemed odd that Johnson had found this fosterer so quickly after the incident with the girl. This was her? He narrowed his eyes slightly at her back in thought. She looked a lot different with her hair down.

"I see..." He finally muttered. "So, you're nursing him?"

Ana petted the Doberman softly, rubbing behind his ears. "I want to be a vet one day, so this is a good training for me."

Haydren gave a small nod to her. A veterinarian. He could see how Johnson had wriggled into this girl's heart now. He'd appealed to this helpful side of her. "Does he have a name?"

Ana tilted her head and sat back on her heels next to the couch. "I don't..." She began, but then paused as the Doberman turned his gaze up to her. The gaze took her again and she heard a whisper in the back of her mind. "...Janus."

"Janus?" Haydren arched a brow.

"His name is Janus." She said softly as she stood up. Had she really heard that name in her head? Her eyes went to the Doberman and she felt a shiver roll up her spine.

"Janus means Gate Keeper. It's a good name." He said softly and blinked as Ana turned and walked past him without another word. He followed her curiously down the hall.

"So." She finally spoke once she opened the door to the end bedroom and stepped inside. He stepped in after her as she flipped on the light. "Is Haydren you're real name or some kind of spy code?"

"Spy code?" He asked as he looked around the room. It was clean as if no one had been in the room for a long time. Like a guest room. "No, as far as I know Haydren is my real name..."

"As far as you know?" She looked over at him as she opened the closet door. "You don't even know for sure?"

"I don't know much about my life before I became an operative." Haydren said without much infliction as he began laying his clothing out on the bed, unpacking his suitcase.

"How long have you been a spy?" She asked curiously, pushing the clothing in the closet to the other side to make room for Haydren's.

"I've been training since I was five years old. I'm twenty now. So, roughly 15 years."

"Five?" Ana turned, staring at him with wide eyes. He merely nodded to her. "But what about your parents? Your family?"

"I never had one." He shrugged, taking a gun out from inside his belt and checked the clip and safety catch before laying it on the bed spread.

Ana's eyes widened more at the sight of the gun. "W-why do you have a gun?"

"I'm an operative. We use guns." He looked at her over his shoulder. "Do you have a problem with guns?"

Ana laughed nervously. "Well, I've never actually been around guns...we never kept them in the house before."

Haydren turned to her fully as he picked up the gun once more in a fluid motion and walked to her. She quickly stepped back against the closet door as he got closer and raised the gun. He lifted it next to her head and she had a moment of fear where she thought he really might kill her, but he merely held it to her eye level in a non threatening way. He pushed off the safety with his free hand and then clicked it on once again.

"If you ever have to use this gun." He did the movement once more to stress what he was saying. "This button releases the safety catch. There is always a bullet in the chamber ready to shoot, but never put your finger on the trigger unless you're serious about pulling it and killing someone."

Ana stared at him for a long moment then slowly nodded to him in understanding. He turned back to his suitcase and continued unpacking with his back to her.

"You must never reveal my identity to the public. If you did, things would become very bad for you very fast. And we don't want anyone to find a way to get to me by using you. So we'll have to think of some sort of story for why we're living together. Got it?" He looked back to her and found she had moved from where she'd been while he'd been talking.

She now stood before a dresser that came up to about her waist. On it was a scattering of pictures and awards. Mostly science and math. She was staring into one picture, however like someone in mourning.

Haydren's eyes narrowed as he let his system read her. He could decipher the emotions of a person by reading them like this. He could not see into their minds, but any subtle change in pain, anger, or any other mental emotion he could instantly detect. Lies also stood out to him, as if he were a human lie detector. He was sensing pain in her now. Sadness. "Sir?

She seemed to jerk from her thoughts as she heard him, turning quickly to face him with a startled gaze. "Huh?"

"Is everything alright?" He kept the concern from his voice, seeming to be unbothered.

Ana blinked slowly then gave a few small nods of her head. "Ya. Of course." Her mouth turned up in a forced smile and it caused his eyes to narrow slightly. She was hiding something deep down.

"You seemed to be in pain just then." He took a seat on the edge of the bed, leaving his unpacking for later. "My sensors, however, are not reading any injuries..."

She shook her head repeatedly, more so than he thought she should have. "I'm fine."

Haydren watched as she left the dresser and went back to the closet, bringing out some hangers for his clothing. He stood and walked to where she had been standing, picking up the picture from without a word.

The photo was of a man and woman, both smiling brightly as they stood arm in arm. A truly happily couple, he thought. Behind them, the ocean stretched off into the horizon, bright and perfect with the summer sun making things gleam. At the couples feet were two children in the sand. The boy looked older, about fourteen or fifteen. A little girl sat next to him, who looked to be about two years younger.

Everyone was blonde in the picture, save the little girl. Her head was a nest of black curls and waves. Interesting he thought. Looking closer he noted that the mother had a slightly prominent belly under her white beach dress. Pregnant, perhaps?

Despite that, the young girl was the thing that intrigued him the most. Ana as a small child who did not seem to exactly fit into this gleaming world of blonde hair and green eyes.

"This is your family?" He asked curiously. She was already hanging his clothing, her back to him. For a long time she stayed silent and he thought she might be evading the question, but then she finally spoke once more.

"...yeah." She gave a soft sigh. "It was."

"Was?" He looked down at the picture again, studying the four, or perhaps five members of the Tristanval household.

"My parents died a couple months after that picture was taken..." She said, voice a little stiff.

Haydren furrowed his brow. He didn't understand this pain of a parent's death, but he could sort of understand. After all he had lost close allies before in battle. Ones he would even dare to call friends. It must have been a painful subject for her. "What happened to them?"

Ana looked over her shoulder, looking at the frame in his hands with that same sadness in her eyes. "My mother and I went out to the grocery store one day. One that used to be just a couple blocks away. She was about five months pregnant..." She put another shirt on a hanger. "I remember it was raining that day. We were crossing the street and I realized my shoe was untied. I knelt on the sidewalk and tied it before going to follow my mother, but..." Her words caught, but she kept talking. "As soon as I stood up to run after her I heard the impact and people screaming...I ran into the street to her, but they would let me near her...She died the street..."

Haydren watched her as she spoke. Her spine had gone rigid, her voice was tight, a little shaky.

"My father was devastated afterwards. He'd been a great animal doctor, but he started drinking. He got worse over the weeks, more depressed. He stopped talking to me completely. One day he took my brother Lydon aside and told him he loved him. I listened in the hallway, waiting for him to come tell me too and make things better, but he didn't. That day he hung himself down in the boiler room." She turned her gaze to Haydren and he took the moment to study the raw emotion in her eyes. She was such a haunted person. Her ghost like eyes told that story clearly.

"How old were you?" He set the picture frame back down lightly.

"Twelve..." She gave a gentle sigh. "My grandmother brought me up the rest of the way. Well, until she passed away last year..."

Haydren shook his head slowly and started stacking out his books. "What about your brother?"

"He graduated a couple years ago and moved on with his life." She gave a brisk shrug, finishing the clothes. "He's working now."

So much dead, Haydren thought silently. This girl was interesting. She was clearly hurt by the events of her life, yet she was fighting so hard to stay strong in the face of it. It was no doubt difficult to deal with. To cope. He had learned something new, however along with the set up of her family.

He had learned that not all wounds are physical. Some wounds are not visible, but they still bleed over many years. And they take a lot longer to heal themselves...