"the 1" by Taylor Swift

"You ready?" Eunice asked as we rode the elevator up to the correct floor. I nodded. I was nervous but I was trying not to look like it. She knocked on the door firmly, pushing her lips and chest out a little bit to look more seductive. I adjusted my bra so that my cleavage was a bit more prominent.

"What do you want?" a tall man answered gruffly, looking us over.

"I heard you boys needed some entertainment," Eunice winked and tipped her hat. He looked us over before shrugging and opening the door. There were about twenty men in suits mingling and picking at some finger foods that were laying about.

"You girls want drinks?"

"Oh bless your heart," Eunice smiled sweetly. The man snapped at a younger guy with curly black hair. "Jimmy, get the ladies drinks. Somethin' good so the show's good."

"Yes, sir," Jimmy replied nervously. He looked at us, his eyes widening when he saw my face. Eunice, however, didn't notice because she was scanning the other men in the room.

Another knock on the door. Klaus and Romeo. As they began wheeling their cart into the room, reaching into their stolen chef jackets for firearms, Jimmy grabbed me and ran. Eunice swore, trying to sprint after us as some glass shattered and gunfire started ringing out. Eventually he stopped running and shoved me into what looked like a closet. As soon as I was in it, however, I realized it was a safe room. He closed the door behind him in the face of some other men.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he hissed in my face, looking pissed.

"Who the fuck are you?" I shot back, pushing him back slightly. He straightened up a bit.

"Sorry, you're just not supposed to be here."

"Because I should be dead?"

"What? No. I've been following you to make sure you stay alive," he said, clearly exasperated.

"You've been following me? You don't look like a hitman."

"Do you really think they have hitmen serving cocktails?"

"Probably not. I dunno. It's not like there's a handbook for mob jobs I can look up."

"Mafia."

"Whatever. Are you going to tell me who you are?"

"I'm your cousin, Jimmy."

"And?"

"And I was trying to make sure you stay alive since, apparently like your father, you like dangerous company."

"You're saying a lot of words and literally telling me nothing," I snapped, irritated. The gunfire outside stopped. I started hitting buttons on the keypad angrily. First some sprinklers started going off and then the door opened. Jimmy paled visibly seeing the twins with their guns drawn on him.

"There a reason ye took our lass?" Connor questioned. Jimmy held up his hands in surrender as I went to stand behind Murphy.

"They weren't directly responsible," he pointed at the mobsters on the floor. "But I know who is if you don't kill me."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Your middle name is Killian. Like your dad." My glare softened a bit as Murphy lowered his gun slightly, looking at me to make sure it was okay. I nodded. I don't tell many people my middle name. And out of the people in the room, only Murphy knew it. Well, and probably Eunice since she had read my file.

"Alright, what do ye know?" Murphy asked calmly. The rest of the group followed suit, slowly lowering their weapons but nobody holstered them. Just in case Jimmy tried anything.

"We were hired by some guy named the Roman. He's got some grudge against your dad."

"My dad?" I questioned.

"No, ours," Murphy exhaled.

"Da's got enemies," Connor mused. "Guess we'll have to make a call back home."

"First we've got to rearrange some stuff in here," Eunice interrupted. "Before the cops show up." She looked at Jimmy. "Security footage?"

"Yeah, pretty sure Cecilia destroyed it though. It was in the safe room."

"Double check it," she instructed me before assigning everyone some chores to do.

"What about me? I didn't get to do anything!" Romeo said, looking depressed about the whole ordeal.

"You kicked down the door, didn't ya?" Eunice asked, leaning in sweetly. Romeo's face lit up as he cocked his guns in the air.

"Yeah! Ding, dong, motherfuckers!"

Murphy and Connor looked up from their task, exchanged a glance, and then muttered something to the effect that Romeo was a nutjob in German. I heard Klaus chuckle as I stepped back into the vault with Jimmy.

"These are busted," he said, noticing the sparking equipment. I studied it for a few seconds.

"Not enough." I unplugged it, pried it open, and retrieved the tape inside. I took it out, popping open the protective casing to see the film. I used my shirt to grab it without leaving any fingerprints and began splicing out the first half of the tape. Klaus poked his head into the room as I was splicing it back together. Now it looks like a fresh tape that never got to record. Thankfully it was a new tape so the missing time wasn't very much. "Do you have a lighter?"

"Ja," Klaus said, pulling one out of his pocket.

"Hold it for now. We'll burn this away from here. Just in case."

"Smart," Eunice approved.

"Paranoid," I corrected.

"Same thing most of the time."

Klaus and I sat outside at the park near the apartment as the security tape burned in the small fire pit he made for the occasion. I yawned, ready for a shower and bed. I'm not made for this vigilante stuff.

"You can spend hours digging around in the dirt, but less than an hour of adrenaline and you're ready for bed," Klaus chuckled. I shot him an unamused look as the flame burnt out. We scattered the rocks and then made sure that the ashes weren't anywhere to be found. He offered me his arm, which I took gratefully. "So your middle name is Killian. You never told me that."

"I don't tell most people that," I shrugged, fiddling with Rocco's necklace absentmindedly.

"Murphy knew."

"Murphy knows almost everything about me."

He was silent for a few steps. "Why?"

"Why does he know or why did I choose him?"

"Are they different answers?"

"I guess not." I recalled the first time I met Murphy at McGinty's. He was so handsome. I always think he's handsome. Even when he's an insufferable ass. "We met at McGinty's when I was twenty-seven. I was on- and off-again engaged at the time to a guy who was entirely terrible to me. But I was lonely and I wanted to escape Pennsylvania so I let him whisk me away to Boston. I put myself through college, made friends, started a band. But I felt like I was asleep before I met Murphy. Like there was a wall between me and myself. I was just...waiting."

Klaus nodded.

"Anyway. I was way too drunk to go home alone, even though I tried to. But he and Connor walked me home. My ex was still around, even though he was supposed to be gone. They helped me kick him out and they stayed the night to be sure he didn't come back. They didn't know me at all other than I was some redhead they met at the bar studying archaeology and waiting for the rain to pass. But we all became friends. And Murphy and I fell in love. I didn't know about anything they were doing at the time. And then Rocco died. And I felt like I went asleep again. Then I got the position in Germany and Murphy wouldn't leave before they finished what they had started. So I went alone."

We had stopped walking at this point and Klaus was just watching me speak as I looked up at the stars.

"When I left, I decided I hated Boston. Everything I've ever loved had been taken away from me here. Before that, I loved it because it reminded me of my dad." I shook my head, continuing to walk forward. "So Murphy and I broke up and I went to Germany like I planned. Then I found out I was pregnant and Tyler followed me so that I wasn't doing it on my own. My mom and I reconciled. Then I met you."

"Then you moved to Ireland," he said, getting impatient with how long I was taking to answer his question.

"And then I moved to Ireland," I smiled. "And I knocked on a farmhouse door and their dad and Connor answered."

He looked surprised.

"I didn't go searching for Murphy. I found out he was alive shortly after the incident but I didn't look. Honestly I thought our story had come to a close by that point. I just wanted to raise Declan and Kelly as well as I could and love them twice as much as I should. But we had to dig two fucking feet into Noah McManus' property line. And it was like Murphy and I had never been apart when we were together again."

"You almost sound like it was fate."

"I don't know what else to call it at this point. Murphy's right. Everything has happened for a reason." At this point, I think I was talking more to myself than Klaus, even though he was trying so hard to patiently listen. "I don't know how to explain exactly why I love Murphy. I just do. I know you know that."

"I do, I just needed to hear you say it."

"I will always love Murphy. That will never change. I feel like I'm home when I'm with him, no matter where we are or what we're doing."

He pretended to be shot in the heart, wincing in pretend pain. "Ow, my heart."

"You said you needed to hear it."

"I did. Thank you. Just promise me you'll actually be my friend from now on."

"I promise," I smiled at him. He smiled back, patting my hand that was resting on his arm. "Now, as your friend, I'm pretty sure Eunice is going to need somewhere to stay and she seems pretty single."

He contemplated this silently, walking me to the front door of the apartment and saying goodnight. I climbed the stairs, thinking only about showering and going to bed.