Ripley explains to Paige that he only found this guy two days ago and wanted to wait for further instructions before going ahead. They already missed him for the day, so they decide to find a place to set up a more permanent camp. After scouting out different areas they come across an abandoned two-story building that was starting to fall apart.
As they enter, they see that it looks like it used to be an old radio station that used to occupy the space. Ripley starts putting charms around the area to hide their location as Paige starts to explore the building. Dust and cobwebs covered all the surfaces in the building. As she enters one room, she sees outdated equipment stacked in a pile in the middle with items smashed by rowdy urban explorers.
She continues to look around, finding the staff room equipped with dusty couches and chairs surrounding a smashed-out television. The cupboards in the attached kitchen were all ripped off the walls, cups, and plates broken and tossed around the room. The only light entering the room is from a single broken window found at the far wall that over looks the back side of the building into an abandoned parking lot.

"Good place to call home for now." Paige says to herself as she kicks a broken mug away from her foot.

"Yeah, it's only a little depressing in here." Otakemaru comments as she walks further into the room, looking at all the damage scattered across the place.

"We've slept in worse." Paige replies to him with a smirk.

"I told you to never talk about Vegas again." Otakemaru growls.

"Okay, sorry." Paige says aloud with a chuckle.

"You talking to yourself now Captain?" Ripley asks as he leans against the door frame.

Paige jumps as she turns to face him.

"Um, no. I thought… I was trying to talk to you on the earpiece. I must have forgotten to turn it on." Paige lies.

"Yeah, equipment usually works better when you turn them on." Ripley replies with a raised eyebrow.

"The lack of sleep is effecting my brain I guess." Paige says as she shuffles her feet.

"Well let us get this place cleaned up then and get some sleep. He won't show until tomorrow morning anyways." Ripley says as he looks around the room.

They spend an hour cleaning the room and tidying up the floor space to have a place to lay down without getting shards of ceramic dishes in their skin while they sleep. They cover the broken window with table they broke apart to make it fit. They decide they would rather sleep on the floor than on the dirty couches, so they pick the far-right corner with clear view of the doorway.

Paige lays her blanket down and lays down on the floor on top of it, exhaustion finally catching up with her. Ripley puts his bag down beside her head and lays down next to her, using his backpack as a pillow.

"I'm not going to cuddle with you Ripley." Paige mutters as she turns to face him.

"You say that now but let's see what happens when it's the middle of the night and you're freezing." Ripley says with a smirk as he stares at the ceiling.

Paige closes her eyes, too tired to argue with him right now. The calm wind outside acting as an eerie lullaby as she falls asleep quickly.

She dreams of finally being able to see Severus. He kisses her passionately after months of being apart. The smell of him burned in her memory so well that it can almost trick her into thinking that it was real. He pulls away from her and says something but can only see his lips move with no words coming out.

"What?" She asks, straining to try and hear what he is saying.

Again, his lips move, but no words come out. A swift chill runs across her body as Severus suddenly bursts into green flames. She tries to scream, but no sound will escape her. She could only release her tears in pain as Severus' charred bones fall to a pile in front of her. She looks at her shaking hands, wondering how this could have happened as she continues to cry. Suddenly a blacken skeleton hand grabs her shoulder.

"Paige!" Ripley's voice says loudly walking her up.

Paige sits up in a panic, her face covered in sweat and tears and her breathing is heavy. The room now darker and chilly.

"Are you okay?" Ripley asks her as uses his sleeve to gently wipe her face.

Paige could not answer him, she was trying to calm her nerves and tell herself that it was only a nightmare and that it was not real. Ripley rubs her back gently as he gives her a minute to collect herself. The cold fall air causes her body to tremble more as the adrenaline and fear wear off. Ripley wraps his arms around her to both warm her and comfort her.

"How long have you been having nightmares?" Ripley asks her as she sinks into him, his body warm and comforting.

"A while." Paige replies quietly.

Ripley just holds her tightly, unable to think of what to say to her. Knowing that the only choice right now was to push forward and continue until this war is over.

"You can go back to sleep Jack. I'm fine now." Paige says with a yawn.

"I'm going to stay awake. I want to make sure we make it on time to catch the guy in a few hours." Ripley replies as he looks at his watch.

Paige holds onto Ripley tighter her and rests her head against his chest to listen to his calm heartbeat, so thankful for him being there with her tonight.


"Paige. It's time to get up and get ready to go." She can hear Ripley say to her quietly.

She slowly sits up unable to remember falling back asleep. She shivers as she leaves the warmth and comfort of their nest on the floor. The room was still as dark as it was when she woke from her nightmare.

"I'm ready." She mumbles as she stumbles to her feet.

Ripley gets up as well and they make their way though the building and out into the brisk dawn. They make their way to the town, Ripley staying quiet to allow Paige so more time to wake up.
They stop in front of the red brick wall. Ripley starts the procedure to move the bricks as Paige yawns, her mind still foggy from sleep.
The bricks move, and they walk through the tunnel together into the sleepy town. Paige glances over at the café and watches the employees start their opening routine to get the shop open for the day. Ripley leads her to the closed clothing shop across the street from the café and just looks at the displays of clothing in their shop window. He checks his watch then glances over at Paige.

"Should be any minute now." Ripley comments as he stares into the reflection of the glass to the café across the street.

Paige tries to focus herself as her mind struggles to work properly. She could see the employee over at the café switch the sign from 'closed' to 'open' on the front door. Another employee points their wand at the chairs that flipped upside down over on all the outside tables to get them ready for customers. Paige's thoughts wander to her nightmare she had during the night and her stomach twists into a tight knot. Ripley nudges her with his elbow as he looks intently into the glass of the clothing shop. Paige notices a man with a dark green cloak with the hood up walking through the café doors. The employee hands the man a premade drink as they make friendly conversation and then grabs a newspaper from behind the counter and hands that to the man.
Paige and Ripley watch as the man then leaves the café and walks down the cobblestone street, heading deeper into the town.

"Are we following him?" Ripley whispers to her.

"Yeah. Let us see where he goes." Paige whispers back as they watch him walk past down the street through the reflection in the glass.

Ripley grabs her hand and turns to follow the man down the street. They slowly follow behind him, pretending to be a couple enjoying the sites of the small quant wizard town inside a no-maj town. They follow him at a distance through the small town until they reach a six-story brick apartment building near the edge of town. Paige bends down beside a small flower garden to pretend to look at the flowers more closely as she watches the man ascend the stairs into the building and through a set of double glass doors.

"What are you thinking?" Ripley asks her as he kneels next to the flowers.

"It's a little risky to follow him in there, but then we also don't know which apartment he's in." Paige replies as she smells a yellow daffodil near her face.

"Maybe we should stake out the place and see if he leaves?" Ripley suggests as he stands back up and looks around the area for a place to hide. "This is such a mess. We have no idea if this is even the guy or not."

"Have some confidence in your decision Jack. It's a solid lead, we just need to focus and think of a game plan here." Paige replies, standing up as well. "It will be better to get a look in the windows at night. We can try and see if we can spot him in one of the units."

"And until then?" Ripley asks her.

"Let's take a lap around the building to see where all the exits are, then you can grab me a coffee while I stake the place out from the best vantage point." Paige replies with a smirk.

"Okay, just make sure your earpiece is on this time." Ripley replies as he turns his earpiece on.

Paige grabs her earpiece from her pocket, puts it in her ear and turns it on.

"Yes Lieutenant." Paige replies.

Paige holds onto Ripley's arm as they casually stroll around the building.

"Looks like one in the front and one in the back." Ripley says quietly to her as they finish walking around the building.

"Let me guess, you're going to watch the back." Paige replies as she glances over at Ripley.

"You know me too well." Ripley says with a smirk. "I'll be right back with some coffees. Where are you going to be?"

Paige looks up at an eight-story building directly across the street from the apartment building.

"Up there." Paige says as she nods her head upwards to the roof of the building.

"I won't be long. Keep tucked and holler if you need me." Ripley says as Paige releases his arm. "You want some food too?"

Paige feels her stomach still tightly knotted, unable to consume food with its constriction and pain.

"Just the coffee." Paige replies.

"You sure?" He asks as she steps forward towards the building.

"Yep." She says as she continues walking towards her stake out building, not looking back at him.

Paige notices the fire escape running up along side the building. She climbs up the eight-story set of stairs leading up the building, trying to be as silent as possible as she passes windows on her way up, hoping she will not be seen by anyone in the early morning light as people start to wake up to start their days. She climbs the final flight of stairs and reaches the roof top. She spots two large steel boxes at the edge of the building facing the entrance to the building across the street and decides to use those as cover to watch the door. She lays down on her stomach and slowly crawls towards the edge of the rooftop trying to push herself into the hard concrete below her so people on the top floor of the apartment building cannot see her peaking down at the door.

"You should really eat something." Otakemaru whispers in her ear as she focuses on the front door of the building across the street.

"I think I would puke if I ate right now." Paige replies to him in her head.

"You should at least try." He argues back.

"I'll be fine for now."

"You're going to be starving later."

"I've been starving before. I'll survive."

"You're the boss." Otakemaru says, dropping the subject. "Do you think Ripley actually found the guy?"

"He's an awfully interesting fellow." Paige replies as she watches a man walk down the street in front of the building.

"How so?" Otakemaru asks her.

"Why grab a coffee and go back home? Usually, it's you leave your house to grab a coffee and then head out for the day." Paige comments back as the man she was watching rounds the corner and out of sight. "It would be interesting to see where he comes from before heading here."

"Maybe he works from home. Like an author or a song writer maybe?" Otakemaru adds.

"If he was working from home then why does he come from the tunnel?" Paige comments as she watches a woman and a small child leave the building the man went into. "Hopefully, we can figure out which place is his and find a way to check it out. I would like to find out some more information."

"Do you think Vincent is wondering where his little fox friend went?" Otakemaru asks her.

"Probably. I'm glad I don't have to eat those damn crackers for a while anyways." Paige replies as her memory triggers the taste of the stale crackers in her mouth.

Paige watches the front of the building and watches the people start coming out from their apartments and houses to get to their routines. After about thirty minutes she could hear footsteps coming up the fire escape, she casually looks over not even taking out her wand, so confident it was just Ripley. As she guessed, Ripley's head pops into view then the rest of his body holding two coffees and a brown paper bag as he climbs the rest of the stairs.

"Oh good, I was wondering how I was going to get my stair-master work-outs in." Ripley says out of breath as he kneels next to Paige behind the steel box that Paige figures it is a sort of heating or A/C unit.

He hands her a coffee then digs into the brown paper bag and hands her a bagel wrapped in parchment paper. Paige looks at him in confusion.

"Just take it. If you are not hungry now just eat it later. You're going to be up here a while." Ripley says as he forces the bagel into her hand.

"I'm the one whose suppose to be taking care of you Jack." Paige replies with a grin.

"Just shut up and eat your happy carbs." He demands as he grabs the brown paper bag again. "I'm going to try and find a spot on the other side of the building to watch the back."

"Thank you, Jack." Paige says quietly as she glances back down to the building across the street.

"I'll let you know when I get into position." Ripley says with a smirk as he stands back up.

She watches him walk back to the fire escape, only giving her a wink and a smirk before leaving her on the rooftop. She waits about twenty minutes before hearing Ripley over the earpiece.

"I found a good hiding spot in the back by the dumpsters, it may not smell the greatest, but I'm at least concealed."

"Okay, well at some point we're going to have to find you a shower then." Paige comments with a smirk.

"I've smelt worse, and you still slept beside me Captain, a little garbage isn't going to kill you." He replies.

Paige ignores his comment, deciding that she would toss him in the river later if necessary.


They stake out the place all morning and all afternoon with no sight of the man in the green cloak. The sun light was quickly starting to fade as the sun sets and the moon starts to rise in the sky.

"He could have left without us even knowing if he's not wearing his green cloak." Ripley comments over the earpiece.

"So, you're saying we need to get a look at his face." Paige replies, still watching the front door of the building.

"Yeah, I think that's something we need to do."

"I'm sure we can think of something in the morning."

"How much longer do you want to stay out here for Captain?"

"Awe what's the matter? Rip getting tired of the garbage smell?"

"Holy shit."

"Oh? That joke is too far? Unbelievable." Paige mutters.

"He's here. He's coming out the back door." Ripley replies frantically.

"Try and keep eyes, I'm coming down." Paige says as she jumps up to her feet and rushes down the fire escape.

Paige races down the fire escape, not caring how much noise she makes. She jumps over the railing on the second story and lands in the alleyway below her.

"He's about to round a corner. I'm going to lose eyes on him." Ripley tells her.

Paige quickly looks around to see if anyone was watching her and when she saw that the alleyway was empty, she changes into her fox form and makes her way quickly behind the building. She sees Ripley standing up near a couple of dumpsters and he nods further down the street. Paige spots the man in his green cloak and follows behind him cautiously. She follows him for a few blocks to a food truck selling an unknown meat on a stick. She watches as he makes small talk with the owner of the food truck and employee hands him a brown paper bag already prepared for him and waiting. They exchange more words before the man in the green cloak turns and walks towards the main road. Paige turns into a tight alleyway between two buildings and changes back into herself before following him to the main road. She slowly makes her way to the pub where her and her team went the first night they were here and watches him head towards the brick tunnel back to the town of Zlin.

"He's leaving through the tunnel." Paige whispers to Ripley in the earpiece.

"If you think you can follow him, then do it." Ripley replies. "I'm about two minutes away from the entrance."

Paige puts the hood up on her cloak and decides to follow the man through the tunnel. She follows behind the man about a block away, keeping her distance. She trails him to a muggle campus, a giant five-story building with curvature architecture and rows and rows of windows. She watches as the man enters a door that says 'Library' and she stands outside, unsure if she should go in after him or if that would be too suspicious.

"Did he go inside?" Paige could hear Ripley ask her from behind.

She could smell the strong stench of garbage radiating off him.

"Yeah. I think we should not follow him tonight. We should wait for him in the library tomorrow and watch what he does." Paige suggests as she takes a step back from Ripley.

"Oh, come on, I don't smell that bad." Ripley says in an amused tone.

"You smell worse then bad; did you get sprayed by a skunk and thrown up on while you were there?" Paige replies as she pinches her nose to try and block out his odor. "You need to jump in the river or something."

"Look, I hate fighting with you Paige, just come give me a hug and we can work this out." Ripley says with a smirk as he steps forward towards her, his arms outstretched.

"Stay the hell away from me Rip" Paige says seriously as she backs further away from him.

"Come on Captain, bring it in." He replies as he now moves quickly towards her.

Paige quickly turns and starts to run away from Ripley and his disgusting smell. He chases her and manages to catch up to her and grabs her in his arms and hugs her tightly.

"No please, this is so gross. You smell so bad." Paige whines as she gives up trying to fight him off.

"Guess you need to jump in the river now too." Ripley replies with a smirk as he frees her from his arms.

"You are a fucking dumbass; I would have jumped in the river with you if you asked nicely. You didn't need me smelling like hot stinky feet with molding food." Paige groans as she smells her clothing.

"You expect me to ask nicely?" Ripley asks as they start walking towards the river.

Paige mutters and curses as they walk further out of town, following the river to somewhere more secluded.

"And it's going to be freezing." Paige mutters as they find a good spot to quickly wash themselves and their clothing.

"Just shut up and do it." Ripley says and he starts stripping off his clothing.

Paige crosses her arms as he stripes down to just his boxers.

"Paige, I'm gay. I'm not going to sit here and stare at your tits, now get your ass undressed and into that freezing icy water." Ripley demands, but still with a slight smirk on his face.

"I hate you so much right now." Paige says as she turns around to start undressing.

She can hear Ripley chuckle as he walks away from her and towards the river.

"Holy shit its fucking cold." Ripley yells as he dips his foot in the water.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock. Where did you find that clue to that brilliant observation?" Paige remarks sarcastically and she takes off her pants.

Paige was about to remove her shirt when Otakemaru stops her.

"He will see your tattoo." He whispers in her ear.

"Oh shit, I almost forgot." Paige replies as she puts her shirt back down quickly.

Paige decides to just go into the river with her shirt on. She walks beside Ripley who was still standing next to the river.

"Jump on three?" Ripley asks as he side glances at her.

"Nah." Paige replies as she pushes him forward into the river.

He steps forward and loses his balance, his whole body falling into the chilly water.

"That was a cheap shot, Paige." Ripley says through chattering teeth as he splashes her with water.

"When did you turn into such a big baby?" Paige asks as she tries to bravely enter the water slowly without showing her discomfort to Ripley.

"Probably around the same time you went through your heart broken emo phase." Ripley chuckles.

"Ouch. Now who's taking cheap shots?" Paige smirks and she wades deeper into the water, her legs turning completely numb.

Ripley grabs her arm and pulls her further into the water, the sudden cold reaching her chest almost taking the air out of her lungs.

They quickly wash off Ripley's garbage smell and wash their clothing that they stripped off themselves before starting a small fire to warm up and dry their clothes. Paige wraps herself up in her cloak near the fire, just staring into the flames.

"Did you ever think when you signed up to be an Auror that you would be fighting in a war?" Ripley asks her as he pokes their small fire with a stick.

"I felt like every mission we were on was like a small war in a weird way. It's definitely at a bigger scale this time around." Paige replies, her eyes still focused on the fire.

She breaks her focus when she hears Ripley chuckling to himself. Paige looks at him like he is losing his mind.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't laughing at what you said." Ripley replies with a chuckle still in his voice. "I was just remembering the time we were in Montana, up near the Great Falls and we somehow got lost and ended up in Canada."

"Oh man that was embarrassing." Paige comments with a smirk, remembering that day.

"The nice-ness contest you did with the Canadian Magical Boarder Control was hysterical." Ripley says as he laughs.

"Well, it was an honest mistake, and they were understanding." Paige replies as she picks up a small pebble from the ground and throws it at him.

"Oh, my apologies, sir it seems like we got lost. I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience." Ripley says in a higher voice, mocking Paige.

"You want to take another trip into the river?" Paige asks him with a grin.

"Okay, fine. I'll stop with the teasing." Ripley says as he puts his hands up in defeat.

They both stare silently into the fire for a moment.

"Oh god, remember when they tried to get mad at us, saying that the 'boarder was clearly marked.'" Paige adds, still thinking about that day.

"You out-niced them on that one too. Oh man, what did you say?" Ripley comments trying to think back to what she said.

"Pretty sure it was something about an Optometrist appointment." Paige smirks as she continues looking down at the fire.

Ripley lets out a long sigh and leans back on his elbow on the ground.

"I wonder what Juan is doing right now." Ripley says, changing the subject.

"Probably worrying about you, like you're worrying about him." Paige replies as she looks up at the sky, the thought making her think of what Severus would be doing right now.

"I don't know. He was pretty pissed when he left." Ripley comments.

"Just because you're mad at someone doesn't mean you stop loving them." Paige replies as she looks back down at Ripley.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ripley says quietly.

"Of course, I'm right, now let's head back to base and think of what to do next." Paige says as she stands up and grabs her pants from near the fire and starts to put them on.

"What are you thinking?" Ripley asks as he starts putting his clothes back on as well.

"Okay, so we can scope out the inside of the apartment building. Just to check it out, maybe find a clue to which unit is his while he's not there." Paige informs him as she puts her still slightly damp boots on. "We also need to get a look at his face."

"Do you think he stays in the library all night?" Ripley asks her as he puts out their fire.

"Maybe? We also need to know if that's where he comes from in the mornings if it's not the library."

"Jesus, when does this guy sleep?"

"Maybe he sleeps in the library for some weird reason."

"This guy sure is odd."

"Interesting is the word I would use."