"You didn't tell me that the man you're working for is Zoran Lazarevic!" I hissed at him with a narrowed, heated gaze. My chest ached painfully with how fast my heart had been pounding just a few minutes before; I had met the Zoran Lazarevic, after all, the psychopathic killer that held no morals nor felt guilt for the crimes he committed. Flynn swallowed and tried to lift his lips into a smile, the very same one that helped him weasel his way out of being in the doghouse. Not this time, Flynn, that isn't going to work. "Have you lost all common sense?"

"… It's not as bad as it looks, Cat—"

"'Not as bad as it looks'? 'Not as bad as it—'! Flynn, do you have any idea what type of reputation that… that maniac holds?" I prayed that he didn't; I really wanted to believe that he had absolutely no idea who Zoran Lazarevic really was. It seemed pointless to, though, because the look on his face pretty much gave him away. "Oh, Harry."

He tried his best to give her a charming smile. "Yes?"

My stomach twisted into tight knots and the heat wasn't helping my nausea feeling. Perhaps I shouldn't be as surprised as I was but somehow I had more respect for him than he probably should. Yet I was. That's when it suddenly hit me; he had known. He knew the entire time the background of this criminal and he still had the gall to ask for my help when he knew what type of work I did now? But what really struck me was the fact that he didn't tell me who this mysterious boss of his was. And it hurt more than how it should have.

No wonder that the man had an army of armed men because the man was insane!

"—Cat? Are you still in there?"

I bit my tongue from responding; knowing that—at the moment—what I said wouldn't be sugarcoated with false politeness. Besides, if I started to raise my voice and yell at him, Lazarevic's men— and even he himself—would more than likely hear our exchange of words. Flynn, in the meantime, was still trying to get some type of answer out from me. I finally snapped at him when he tried knocking on my head, "Stop it."

"So she speaks!"

"…"

"… Oh, c'mon now, don't give me that."

"…"

"Cat, I'm serious."

"So am I."

He groaned, "Would you quit making that face at me?"

"What face?"

Again he gave another groan, "That face, the one you're making right now—oh, now you're giving me that other face that's probably worse! C'mon, Cat, relax. It really isn't as bad as you figure it to be. And don't start saying it isn't because it is. You just worry too much."

"I worry too much?" I scoffed. "Flynn, you're working for a psychopathic criminal."

"Oh? And how do you know that?"

"Flynn, do I even need to tell you how I know?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"… No."

"Good." I turned to stare at the small cot inside the tent that had been designated as my sleeping quarters. Well, would have been. "You're flying me back home—"

He gave me a disbelieving face. "Are you kidding me?"

"—because I am not working for that murderous psycho. I don't care how much you try to charm me out of it, buy me out of it, or whatever, but I am not working for him. In fact, if you told me who your employer was I wouldn't even have gone along with it!" I held my tongue from saying how I greatly prefer having to see his cocky self show up, unannounced, than doing this. But knowing him, that would only boost his ego. And the world definitely didn't need that.

"… But if I did that it would have defeated the whole purpose of getting you here." He grinned before swiping it off his face and giving a half shrug. "It'll all go smoothly, trust me. Just let me do the talking whenever in the presence of good, old Zoran and try you're absolute best not to bring attention to yourself. It's really not all that hard, actually." Noticing that I was about to open my mouth and continue to protest until I got my way he quickly added, "Remember if you do this that you'll never ever have to see or hear from me ever again. That was my end of the deal, wasn't it?"

Somehow I didn't know which one was actually worse: going through with this or breaking the deal and in about another three, or so years have him come back knocking with another offer.

It was probably the latter.

"Sir, Grigori here reporting for duty."

Both our attentions flickered towards the closed flap of the tent before back to each other. Flynn gave me one of his impish grins before telling the man to enter to my displeasure. Partly from the fact he was going to discuss 'business matters' with one of Lazarevic's men and the other being from the glint in his eye. The glint that told few who knew him well that he had something up his sleeve. I seated myself on the cot and began to rummage through my bag as if neither man were standing in my assigned quarters.

"Good, right on time too." Flynn commented in a sly voice. "I assume you have yet to meet our newest party member here."

I shot him a glare to knock it off; he knew perfectly well I hadn't been properly—if it could be called that—introduced to anyone here except Zoran Lazarevic himself and his right-handed man, D-something. In response he nearly grinned tenfold.

Idiot.

"Cat, this is Grigori Ivakina; Ivakina, this is Miss. Henderson." He gestured between the two of us and, reluctantly, we both greeted the other. I felt rather than saw Flynn's gaze resting on me. "Ivakina here will be your personal," Momentarily he paused, "guide."

I jerked, dropping the bag, as I swerved around to face them once again. Had he just said…? No, that was entirely impossible. There was no way he was serious. Was he insane? Wait, no, the answer presented itself already with the whole psychopath war criminal he was working for. You have got to be yanking my chain. It became clear what he really meant by that. "That's quite already, Flynn—"

"I'm not kidding, Cat." He cut me off before I could finish. "Ivakina will be ensuring that your welfare be as it is since you've gotten here. We wouldn't want you drowning in quicksand or eaten by some wild beast, now would we?"

Oh, so you honestly weren't planning on doing what you said. Figures, I can't believe I actually thought for a second that you would.

"… What?"

… Oh.

I seriously did not mean to say that aloud.

"Nothing," I answered stiffly from my seat and went back to searching around inside my bag.

"C'mon, Cat, you can tell me."

"I said it's nothing, Flynn."

He scowled, "Yeah, I bet it's nothing."

Everything became deathly quiet inside the tent and I could sense that, although Grigori didn't show it, he wasn't thrilled having to be assigned with this task just as much as I was with having to have him as an extra shadow. It made me annoyed that he was passing my safety off to another, someone I didn't even know. Then again I wasn't too pleased with the idea of Flynn holding it in his hands in the first place—especially after learning it was the Zoran Lazarevic that he was working for. But at the same time… it did bring an odd sense of comfort knowing—or more like figuring, really—that I'd be by his side during this expedition.

If it hadn't been for another soldier to interrupt our silence there was not telling how long we would have stayed like that.

By the time darkness was overtaking the sky and the lanterns lit it wasn't as bad as I had figured it would turn out to be. Flynn, obnoxious as always, and I managed to translate three entries of Marco Polo's journal yet came to a surprise when Flynn grumbled about how it wasn't the right information that they wanted to know. When tried persuading to hear what it was that Lazarevic was looking for he refused to say. Instead he told me to keep working.

"Would if kill you to give me some kind of hint as to what we're looking for?"

"It may not kill me, per say, but it may kill you."

I wanted to jab him in the ribs for that but thought better of it. At the moment we were standing in line to get a tray full of slop that was being served as tonight's meal. The odor of it was unpleasantly strong and I watched with wide eyes as the substance slowly fell from my fork. Was it even eatable? I snuck a glance at Flynn and Grigori—he seemed to be taking his job seriously, not once leaving the two of us alone since entering the tent—who appeared unaffected by their dinner.

"Why can't I know what it is that we're trying to find out here?"

Flynn rolled his eyes even though a smirk played at the corner of his lips in amusement. "Why can't you drop the subject and eat your dinner?"

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "You call this dinner? It doesn't even look anything close to being food."

"It's not like we're staying at a five star inn."

"I know…" I just thought that if the man's willing to buy all these men and gadgets and whatnot that he would consider investing some of it into the food too. "So if you're not going to tell me what it is you're trying to find, what can you tell me about it?"

"Because I've already told you everything you needed to know. Remember any of it?" Flynn took another bite of the repulsing grub. He chewed, swallowed, and began to talk again. "Why are you so suddenly interested in all of this? I thought you didn't even want to know in the first place, that you rather translate the journals and then get back home." Again he paused, hesitant in taking another bite from his food, "Unless… you're not put off by the idea of having fame and glory added to your name, hmm?"

"Hmph, I really don't think 'fame' and 'glory' will be added to any of our names." I grumbled lowly to myself. I knew Flynn wasn't going to rat me out to Lazarevic that I held no respect to him, but Grigori might and I didn't want to take any chances. "Don't I have the right to be curious and gain some more helpful answers than what little you've told me?"

"Tsk, tsk Cat." Flynn clucked his tongue at me disapprovingly. "Haven't you heard what curiosity does to you? It's said it'll kill you, Cat. I'm more than certain I've told you that in the past."

"Yeah, I know. And it got old real fast too."

"You still found it funny."

"Do you see me finding it funny right now?"

He paused as he studied my face. A minute passed by before he spoke again. "Yep, you still find it funny." His face split into a grin.

Grigori shifted in his seat as he tried to ignore the two of us. He must have felt that although this was a hearty type of argument that it would turn south real fast if one of us didn't end up cracking first. When it appeared that neither of us was going to do that, he adjusted the headphones around his neck and put it on to help blur out our voices.

"Flynn if you don't tell me soon, so help me—!"

I never was able to finish thought as I was quickly interrupted by the pair of long, slim tanned arms that had wrapped themselves around his neck from behind. Without even acknowledging my gawking expression Flynn had turned his head upwards to come face to face with the owner of those arms that were now attached to him. Across from me I saw Grigori give a small jerk of the head—assuming that he was rolling his eyes—and began to poke at the fire as if it had been dying.

"I've been wondering where you went off to, Harry."

His face split into an even wider grin. "What? You didn't think I'd leave you here without taking you with me if I was deciding to stop with all this, did you?"

"I'd surely hope not." The woman replied, arms still encasing him, a sly smile on her face. Without another word she leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips although Flynn seemed genuinely unhappy with the quick contact of her lips on his. Her reaction was a smile before he pulled her back towards him for a longer kiss.

Suddenly realizing that I was watching I snapped my face to the cooling food sulking on my plate. It took me another minute to realize that my fists were clenched and my knuckles were turning white from the pressure. I stabbed my fork into the pile of mush and glanced up; Grigori was watching me, eyes perplexed from my attitude. For a moment his eyes averted back towards the two before back to me and I was sure underneath his ski mask there was a smirk on his face. His eyes now gave away that he found this suddenly rather humorous. I wanted to snap at him. Stop staring at me like that.

"Cat."

I furrowed my eyebrows at him as he continued to give me that stare.

"Cat."

"What?" I bite back as I sent a sharp look towards him. I noticed that the woman was no longer behind him with her arms around him. She was instead seated beside him, away from me, staring at me with a calculating gaze. That's when I also took note that Flynn was staring at me with a blank expression. "Sorry," I managed to mumble out, "what is it?"

For awhile he didn't answer, only stared at me with that one look I could never decipher. A strangled cough came from Grigori and he stood, heading towards the vacant table to get another serving of that slop. If only I had managed to eat what was on my plate, I could have done the exact same thing.

"So you're Catherine. Harry's told me quite a bit about you."

We both turned our faces towards the raven haired woman, who appeared relaxed from the sudden turn of events.

"Mind you, nothing bad." She gave a reassuring smile—as if that was really my problem.

Well, it kinda is…

"Oh, well, I'm sorry to say he hasn't told me anything about you." Then again, it made sense if it was because he met her after leaving. It surprised me when she didn't seem to take offence to that; I knew if I had said something like that to Leroy she would have made another offensive.

She laughed lightly and nudged Flynn in the arm. "Oh, I see how it is."

Flynn ducked his head slightly as if a turtle popping its head back into its shell. Under his breath he grumbled something, but I wasn't able to catch it.

"Well, Harry? Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"I was getting there." He muttered before giving that boyish grin. "This here is Catherine Henderson. Cat, this is—"

"Chloe Frazer," The woman leaned forward and held her hand out which I shook, "it's nice to finally meet you, Catherine."

"It's nice to meet you too."

"Are you two done chatting?" Flynn asked after Chloe and I had talked for, what turned out to be, nearly two whole hours. Grigori had rejoined us and seemed practically bored out of his mind while Flynn appeared beyond irritated with how long we were chatting for. It hit me that most of Lazarevic's men had retreated to their quarters or posts for the night. Chloe rolled her eyes playfully.

"Yes, I suppose it is getting fairly late."

"You 'suppose'?" Flynn arched a brow.

"Honestly, how do we put up with him Cat?" Chloe asked me as we began walking towards the area of the tents. I shrugged, grinning.

"You got me. I've been trying to find the answer to that question for years now."

Sarcasm, "Oh, haha, you two are f—king hilarious."

We both snickered when we heard him mutter in a grudging tone, "Women."

Yep, Louder Than Thunder isn't going to be an oneshot after all! It'll be a multichapter fic.

Oh wow, I had finished rewriting the second chapter to this way long ago and meant to update it sooner, but Life happened to get in the way (first by losing my flashdrives with the original piece and then also by recent events occurring this year). It took me until today to notice it sitting on my desktop and screaming at me that it still hadn't been posted. My apologies for the overdue absence of this chapter! Also, note that I changed 'friendship' to 'romance' because I felt like it… my plot bunnies, however, are mulling over whether this fic should have a happy ending or a sad one. Guess we can only wait and see, hmm? ;)

KoK: Thanks again for the awesome review! X)

Kristina: Thank you so much for the review! And I hope this chapter was worth the wait; I'm terribly sorry for how long it took to get the second chapter up (way too many problems had/have occurred).

Keeziles: Again, thanks so much! I hope I'm doing an OK job with the First POV.

Dommy: Thanks ever so much for the review! I really am tremendously sorry for not having the second chapter up sooner; I hope this chapter was worth the wait, if not then perhaps chapter three will. And now to answer your question: yes, this story will follow the game. Though do expect that some events will remain the same while others will change a little. ;)

Thanks again so much for taking the time to read and review; I really appreciate it! I hope this chapter isn't too badly disappointing and the next chapter we should be getting to more exciting matters because it'll where Nathan Drake and Sully make their move and begin to become a painful thorn in Lazarevic and Flynn's sides.