A/N: Yosh, newest rewrite is done. Some things have changed again but mostly because of changes in the previous chapters. Nothing major just yet.

Chapter 10.

"You'd let me stay with you? Really?" Tsukiko asked in disbelief. The offer had surprised her completely. It wasn't something the girl would've ever expected or had even dreamed about. This was something right out of a fanfiction. (Ha ha ha)

"Sure. You've been great help to us." Jodie smiled. And this offered her a chance to observe the girl further. And maybe also find out why Akai got along with her so well. Especially considering his antisocial tendencies.

The girl blinked a couple of more times before…

"Okay." It was the best (and only) option that she got at the moment. She'd take what she could from it. And if the time came when she had to leave… Well, that was for then.

On the way to New Beika Hotel

"And you said that Eisuke will get to the witness protection program?" Brown-haired girl and Edogawa Conan's pseudo-confidante, Haibara Ai, asked from the shrunken detective. The boy had just told her about the fact that Mizunashi Rena was actually a member of CIA and spying the organization and now also helping FBI.

"Yeah, I heard he doesn't want it. FBI is trying to make him accept the offer." Conan replied, bouncing his soccer ball to balance on his back and then back in front of him. "And the other problem is that girl…"

"Yes, this Okiya Tsukiko character. You mentioned her earlier. What exactly is her situation?" Ai inquired.

"Well, she is pretty mysterious. Doesn't really want to tell anything about herself. She seems to know a lot and was a great help to us despite the distrust on both sides. Ultimately, I don't think she is a bad person even though she is otherwise suspicious."

"Well, what do you know about her then?"

"Aside from her name? Not much. She was in a traffic accident and in coma about the same time than Mizunashi. She is smart and while she keeps things she knows close to her chest, sometimes she lets something slip. And she has taken to annoy me deliberately."

"How so?" Ai quirked a smile at the disgruntled boy.

"She calls me 'Tantei-chan' all the time." Conan spat, clearly offended before sighing. "Maybe that is a good thing though. A sign that she doesn't have any idea of who I really am…"

Back at the hospital

On their way back from the roof, Jodie and Tsukiko met the same nurse who the girl had talked with earlier during the day. It was time for Tsukiko's final check-up. And thus the girl left with her to meet a doctor. Meanwhile Jodie headed back to the plan room to meet with the other agents.

"So… You seem to have decided something." Akai stated right when Jodie closed the door.

"Yes. I'm taking her to live with me." Whatever the agents in the room had thought she'd say, this wasn't it.

"Jodie-kun, are you sure?" Black asked in complete befuddlement. Jodie simply nodded resolutely.

"You are not suspicioning her anymore then?" Akai had a faint smirk on his face but his eyes were the ones properly expressing his amusement. Jodie scoffed.

"Of course I am still suspicious of her. There is more than one occasion that have… simply not fit. And while it's doubtful that she is a spy, she is more than likely to be otherwise connected to the Organization. This way I can keep an eye on her." The woman explained before turning to directly address Akai. "And may I ask why you have been all this time, more or less, defending her?" She glared while the man calmly stared back.

"I don't know what makes you think so… but I'm not defending her." Akai stated, with his arms crossed. Yes, he wasn't. Simply keeping an eye on her because of a debt. Well, not a debt. Just a request he was heeding to. And he was wary to know how Hibiki knew the girl.

"But it was your idea to take her to the van number one. She was even aware about your and Conan-kun's plan while we weren't. And you never even considered the chance about her being a spy. What is that, if it's not defending?" Jodie accused.

"It true I didn't listen to the accusations about her being a spy. And that was simply because of the facts we went through earlier. And about the plan she already knew… I have no idea how she found out about it if she really was trying to break a lock in her room. Maybe you should ask about it directly from her." There was a clear tone of irritation in the man's voice though his face remained impassive this time. Jodie seemed ready to argue but both the warning look from Black and the fact her phone rang, interrupted her. Conan was calling her from New Beika Hotel.

It appeared that Tsukiko was well and fine to leave the hospital. It was a big relief to her. Especially now that she even had a place to go. During the check-up the doctor had taken the girl's blood pressure as well as checked her hearing, vision and weight in comparison to her height. He had asked questions whether Tsukiko felt nausea or dizziness or general weakness in her limbs. For the duration of the examination, Tsukiko had hidden her glasses as she actually had near perfect eye sight and didn't want the doctor to point out anything unnecessary. But then it was over. And Tsukiko was now on her way towards the plan room. She had previously signed the release forms and thus had no obligation to stay at the hospital. But since Jodie was still with the other FBI agents… well, it wasn't exactly advisable for Tsukiko to leave just yet.

"Signing papers… Grr…" Tsukiko glared at the wall in front of her. She had... She had used western alphabets in signing messily. The reason was simple really. She didn't know the correct kanji for writing 'Okiya'. 'Tsukiko' was easy. It was just 'Moon' and 'Child'. And as the only other way to get out of signing was to use hiragana… Yeah, not gonna happen. Only primary schoolers write their name in hiragana and for a high schooler to do so… Beyond embarrassing. So Tsukiko chose the lesser evil. And she could always pin it on the influence of the internet or something.

"It's already two o'clock… Jodie might leave soon to New Beika Hotel…" Tsukiko muttered to herself as she checked the time from her wrist watch. "Hmm… Maybe I should try something…" Tsukiko place a new memory card into her extra phone and attached a mike and wire on it too. She slipped the phone into the inner pocket of her jacket and attached the mike onto the collar in a way it was hidden from view. The quality wouldn't be the best but it would serve its purpose eventually.

"Friday the 13th… Five hours before the incident of Raiha Pass…" Tsukiko spoke to the mike quietly as she began the recording.

The bespectacled girl knocked to the door and stepped in then. Jodie was still speaking on the phone. Actually, it seemed the call was quite in the beginning. Which was weird since Tsukiko had been quite the long time at the check-up. Maybe this was just the first sign of screwy timelines.

"Jogging in a hotel?"

"Yeah, that guy's a real jock. He did the same thing two years ago." Akai snorted.

"I heard he was in Japan before. Doing what?" Jodie, no. That question wasn't to be answered. Tsukiko felt like facepalming but remained quiet and immobile on the background. No need to alert anyone on the room in any way that she knew more than necessary. She really wasn't on the mood of making up excuses and half-lies.

"Never mind. You better go bail him out. You know the hotel, right?" Akai deflected easily.

"Yes…"

"Whatever you do, don't let the Japanese police find out the FBI is in town." Black reminded the woman.

"I'm well aware of that!" Jodie nodded and was leaving the room when Akai stopped her.

"Oh, and Jodie… Watch your back. I have a bad feeling about today."

"Just because it's Friday the 13th? I'm not the superstitious type." The woman smiled and left. "Stay put, Tsukiko-chan. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Hai." Tsukiko nodded with a slight smile, remaining watching the door that closed after the female agent. She paid no heed on Black who eventually left the room too, leaving her and Akai alone in there. And wasn't that nerve wrecking? Tsukiko's favorite character with her in the same room without any distractions. And no, she didn't think of him as boyfriend material like she knew some fans did with their favorite characters. It was just… the mind blowing possibility and opportunity that couldn't be described properly. That in the long run in real life wouldn't matter in any other way than being a wonderful experience.

But Tsukiko showed all that aside and composed herself.

"Hmm…" The girl hummed absentmindedly and turned on her heels to face the man. "Nice last words, Bakai…"

"Last words?" He repeated with an arched eyebrow. He knew exactly what Tsukiko was implying but silently demanded clarification of what all did she actually know. The sandy-blonde girl smirked.

"This is the last she'll hear of you. But you probably already know it since you told her to watch her own back."

"When you heard about the plan, about letting the organization to get Mizunashi back, you weren't surprised at all. While you could've avoided questions back then I know you didn't give a proper answer. How did you know the plan that was supposed to be known only to four people?"

"Don't change the subject…" Tsukiko frowned in irritation before sighing. "The reason why I knew the plan is that I eavesdropped it. But if I had admitted it back then, I would have been in troubles. Bigger than before."

"And now I'm curious to know how you managed to do it while presumably being behind a locked door." Akai almost smiled while saying it. Tsukiko merely arched her eye brows took her blue spare cellphone from its hiding place and showed it –and the mike wire attached to it – to him.

"With this it was easy. I simply called to the cell that I gave to you and listened to the whole conversation whilst working on the lock."

"Two phones?" Akai said with… was he impressed? "And what made you decide to you make that call? No one knew we were at Mizunashi's room. No one knew what we were about to do." The agent took the green phone Tsukiko had relinquished earlier from his pocket and gave it back to the girl. She picked it but then suddenly cut the on-going recording, unattached the wire, popped out the memory card and dropped the spare cell on his hand instead.

"That is a topic we can discuss about later." Tsukiko smiled. "Now… Six hours. I'll be waiting for your call. No matter what has happened."

"I guess you won't answer even if I were to ask 'why'." He put the blue phone to the same pocket where the green one had been.

"Bingo~!"

"Am I right in guessing that you won't tell me where did you get inspiration to draw this?" Akai drew a piece of paper from the same pocket he'd stowed the phone away and turned the page around. The drawing was a copy from a picture about DC chapter 609's page 4. The moment when Mizunashi Rena shot at Akai in Raiha Pass.

"The purpose of that page is to attract your attention and get a chance to talk privately with you." Tsukiko answered. "You are not the only one who is planning all the time after all. But I have to admit I was also lucky. If someone else had noticed that paper and the drawing… Well..." She let the sentence trail off.

"Where you got this idea to this drawing then?"

"That is also something I'd like to save to another time. All secrets shouldn't be revealed right away. Ne, Bakai?"

"Hmh…" He obviously didn't care much about the nick-name Tsukiko had bestowed upon him but didn't particularly feel like it was something worth complaining about. Smart man.

"Well, I'm off now." The girl stated then after a little silence. It was accompanied by a little absent wave. Besides it was about the same time Black that came back to the room, meaning that they couldn't have continued their conversation even if they had wanted to. Akai slipped the folded calendar page back to his pocket.

"One more question, if you don't mind…" He said. "When you said that the people who put you in the hospital… Did you mean the Black Organization specifically?"

"Saa… I don't know. After all we don't know for certain they were the ones to hospitalize me. It's only conjuncture at this point." Tsukiko smiled. They all knew that it was more than likely it had been the organization members that had put the girl into the hospital but initially the information didn't do anything good. "But let's agree that at least I'm not an ally of theirs. And if the actions they presented here at the hospital tell anything about their general MO… Well, it's very unlikely I'll ever be on the same side than them… Anyways, I wish you luck with the 'unhappy end', Bakai…" And with that, she left the room. Right outside Tsukiko fished out the memory card from her jeans pocket. She smiled at it before stowing it away again.

Everything was settled now. All Tsukiko needed to do anymore, was to wait for Akai's call. And the girl was sure the he was going to. The agent was full of questions that he couldn't have anyone else to answer and Tsukiko had hinted him that she knew what would happen in Raiha Pass.

"Tic toc…" Tsukiko yawned and turned a page of some fashion magazine. She was sitting in the hospital's entrance hall and wasting her time with boring magazines. If only she had some good mangabooks with her… But at least like this she could practice reading Japanese. Speaking it came automatically, reading was quite alright but writing… There was a reason why the note to Akai had been written in English.

"Tic toc…" It was so boring. Maybe she should go and eat something. There was a restaurant nearby. Just inform so agent what she was about to do…

"Tic toc…" Tsukiko got up on her feet and went to upstairs. She wanted to talk with Eisuke. It was no use to just sit and wait. The time wouldn't go forward any faster.

A/N: Phew. It's done now. I hope you are satisfied with the renewed chapter. I'll try to get writing the next completely new one soon.