Here's a surprise POV! Enjoy!

I looked at myself in the mirror, feeling the now familiar tingle of unease. I'd stayed in that face too long, got too used to it, now my "normal" face felt strange and unfamiliar. I touched my mouth hesitantly, not sure if I'd gotten it right. The picture of my mother was still in my backpack, it was the only one I had of her; smiling at the camera, a single dimple on her cheek. The dimple was one of the few things I couldn't change no matter how I morphed my face and I liked that. I liked having a few constants, my hair, my skin, my eyes and that one genetic quirk.

I sighed and made a few expressions at the me in the mirror, trying to get used to my usual face again. I knew that I should have ended this investigation a week ago but I'd liked Chloe and I didn't want to let her down but skipping out before her project was done.

I tried to shake the feeling off, reminding myself that I hadn't made any friends, that I just had used some people to get the job done, but that didn't explain the weight in my heart. Chloe and Simon were sweet, hell even the werewolf had his moments, and I had really been tempted to pretend to be that high-school version of Haven Smith forever.

Just do your job. I thought, trying to find that center core of strength that kept me going.

A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Haven? Do you need any help with that cut?" Simon; genuine worry coloring his baritone voice. Not as deep and husky as his brother's but nice, a tone that was easy to listen to, one that would probably get even deeper over the next few years. "I'm coming in."

He opened the unlocked door and I schooled my expression into a comfortable smile. "Hey. I was just about to run screaming for a nurse."

"Well very few people are privy to this knowledge but I actually have a medical degree as well as being a sorcerer and artist."

"Is that so? Cured AIDS yet doc?"

"Just last Tuesday as a matter of fact." He smiled and I cursed the high school girl in me that might have gone a little weak in the knees. "Uh… where exactly is this alleged cut?"

"Alleged?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Hey even Derek's nose has its down days." He frowned off into space. "I remember this one time when he was eight…"

I snorted a laugh and tied up my shirt before I unbuttoned my jeans.

"Uhmm… I know girls can't resist taking their clothes off around me but…"

I rolled my eyes. "Please, that'd be like statutory rape."

"What? I'm eighteen! Totally legal!"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "In what state?"

"All of them!"

I smiled in spite of myself, so much for that determination to not get attached to any of these guys. "It's just below the hem, I think I can take care of it myself…"

He took one look at the cut awkwardly located at the back of my hip. "Pssh. Please. You'd have to bend over backwards and twist like a pretzel and nobody wants to see that." He grinned until I peeled the temporary bandage I'd slapped on earlier off. "Jeez! What kind of knife did you have? A machete?" He looked at me suspiciously. "And where were you keeping this knife exactly? And the cell phone, I want to know where the cell phone came from."

"I'll tell you once I have my pants back on, let's deal with one thing at a time shall we?"

He actually blushed lightly and I had to bite back another smile. "Righto, what do you need me to do?"

I took out an antiseptic towel and wiped away what blood the original bandage hadn't absorbed. "Just check for anything that looks like it shouldn't be embedded in a hip."

He raised an eyebrow at that and kneeled to get a closer look.

He's eighteen, just a kid, he's eighteen, just a kid… I had to chant in my head. But Simon wasn't just a kid. I tried to blame it on being completely immersed in high school culture again, that the sixteen year old girl in me was just feeling light-headed because Simon Bae the hottest guy in school happened to be touching me.

It wasn't just that though. There was something else to Simon, and it wasn't just the dark exotic slant of his eyes or his perfectly balanced elegant/masculine bone structure. He was a genuinely sweet guy, despite being stalked by hordes of girls. He had a good heart and a sense of humor, even without the looks he'd be the kind of guy I would give an arm and a leg for.

I'd almost blown my cover in a moment of vanity at the restaurant, I'd wanted to be prettier, to not embarrass him when we went into the dance and had altered my lips and smoothed some of the baby-fat from my cheeks. It was stupid and vain and didn't really accomplish anything in the end. That other look though… the one he gave me after I'd switched back to my basic face… that might have made me blush a little, which was ridiculous, no eighteen year old boy should be making me blush.

He's eighteen just a kid… but my brain traitorously whispered "a legal kid." I mentally kicked myself Jesus Haven get a grip! You're twenty-two now start acting like it!

"I think we should rinse it out just in case." Simon was saying, oblivious to my lecherous thoughts.

"Okay boss." I looked at the sink, there was no way I was going to fit in that, then at the shower behind me, complete with detachable shower head. "That'll work."

He followed my gaze, then tilted his head slightly as if trying to figure out how exactly this was going to work. I mentally calculated the distances and nodded shortly to myself.

"I'm going to need you to hold the shower head okay? I don't have enough hands for this." I smiled reassuringly and turned on the water, then handed the nozzle to him.

I looked at the small outcropping that could generously be called a shower bench and put my hands on it, facing up, then stepped my feet up onto the counter so I was as parallel to the floor as I was going to get. Once adjusted I turned to him and laughed, he was staring at me, completely bewildered.

"Earth to Simon, can't hold myself up here forever." I shook my head with a smile as he snapped out of it and leaned over me, carefully rinsing my side down and almost hiding another blush.

He'd taken off his suit jacket as soon as we'd gotten home but still wore the shirt and pants, both which looked and fitted expensively.

! I looked up at the ceiling, praying this would be over soon and trying to ignore a small part of me almost hoping that it wouldn't. EIGHTEEN YOU IDIOT!

"You know, I finished a little while back and now I'm just waiting to see how long you can hold yourself up there." Simon's amused voice brought me back to the present and I realized he was just idly keeping the shower spray on me.

"Very funny. Off."

He laughed and turned off the water, handing me a towel when I stepped down. "So I take it you work out?"

I rolled my eyes and dried off, twisting to see my hip in the mirror. Simon caught my shoulders mid-turn.

"Stop twisting around, you're just making yourself bleed more." He sighed exasperatedly and kneeled again, smoothing on antibiotic ointment with surprisingly gentle fingers and a new bandage. "Good as new!"

I stretched, testing my movement. "Not bad Dr. Bae."

"It was a lot easier than I thought it'd be." He waited until I'd eased my pants back up over the bandaged, untied my shirt and pulled it down. "So. Cell phone and knife."

"Ah right, nothing can deter you I see." I slid my fingers into the outside hem of my pants which had a two-inch hidden slit and pulled out a very flat blade the length of my hand. "It was just strapped to my thigh under the dress."

"That. Is pretty hot." Simon raised an eyebrow. "But the phone?"

I rolled my eyes. "Come on Simon, same place that every girl hides small objects." I snapped my bra strap for better illustration.

"If onl-" He broke off as when he opened the door the other three inhabitants of the house tumbled into the bathroom. "What the hell?"

"We weren't eavesdropping!" Chloe said quickly.

"That door needs a hinge changed." Derek commented casually.

"What's taking so long for you to make a move?" Kit asked. "You can't be that out of practice."

The others glared at him.

"What? I thought 'playing doctor' was a good strategy!"

"Well I can honestly say this is a first for me." I leaned back against the counter, trying to look completely at ease despite the near-heart attack I'd had when they fell in. "You sure know how to show a girl a good time."

Simon glared at his family. "I'd love to say your heart's are in the right place but honestly I think you're just trying to spite me."

"Well duh. We're family." Chloe turned to me, brow furrowing with worry. "Are you okay?"

"Are you asking if my injury's okay or if Simon molested me?" I grinned as Simon stormed off down the hall, muttering about what jackasses we all were.

As I was putting my belt back on I heard the door shut with a quiet click and jumped when I saw Chloe in the mirror's reflection.

She smiled. "Usually I'm the jumpy one."

"Generally I'm not, but the past few weeks have been anything but usual." She fidgeted for a second in the mirror and I turned to face her. "Something bothering you?"

"I… Uh…" She fidgeted a few more times, biting her lip. "This is awkward. Okay, uh, I know that you're just an agent or PI or whatever but… I was wondering if you'd… keepintouchwithSimon." She said the last in a rush and it took me a second to decipher it.

When I did I stared at her. "Come again?"

She lowered her voice and stepped closer, eyes shunting to the door for a second. "Simon. He's been… off for the past year. I thought that he needed a girlfriend or something but you really made him smile and laugh tonight and I'd really appreciate if you kept in touch."

"Er… Chloe, I don't know if you remember me saying this, but I'm twenty-two-"

"And Savannah's twenty-one." She interrupted. "And she really screwed him over… and so did I. I think it's hard for him-"

A rap at the door made her break off, she gave me one last pleading look and opened it.

"We all need to talk to her." It was Derek, speaking softly and looking at her in a way that made my throat constrict. It was intense to say the least, his super green eyes and her unusual gray ones locked, I couldn't imagine what it was like for Simon to live with that every day. Derek's inhuman eyes shifted from Chloe to me. "Please. Keep in mind what she said."

With that they left, leaving me dumbfounded. Watching the two of them I could see why anyone would feel that something in their life was missing. But I still thought it was kind of ridiculous that they were worried about Simon, he was talented and popular with a bright future ahead of him, he'd be fine.

I went into the kitchen where they all were gathered and Kit hopped out of his seat with a smile. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"What do you have?" I settled into the only empty barstool, on the end with the brothers on either side and slipped off my shoes out of habit.

"Well let's see… There's soda, milk, and… well if you're interested…" He gave me an exaggerated conspiratorial look. "I was going to open a bottle of wine in celebration of our seniors."

"Oh heavens to Betsy!" I smiled. "I suppose if you were going to open a bottle anyway…"

"Is red all right?" He stretched for a bottle from the wine rack on top of the cabinets but couldn't quite reach the one he wanted. A sigh and a mournful sideways look at Derek and me and Chloe giggled as he got up and pulled the bottle without even trying. "Dare you should be shorter; it defeats the purpose of having alcohol out of your kid's reach when you can reach everything."

I smiled, I couldn't help it, they were all so ridiculous and perfectly in sync with each other. Kit opened the bottle and dumped it all in a decanter. I felt my jaw drop. "Ah… I hope everyone's having a glass or you've got a spare couch because I can't drink all that."

"Better than a couch, we've got a whole guest house that you can share with our delightful Victoria!"

"Actually dad, Tori's staying at Michael's tonight." Simon said but gave the decanter a look of trepidation.

"Perfect! Dare! Get down another bottle!"

We all protested that idea adamantly.

"Okay so before you get plastered, explain everything." Chloe rested her chin on her hand and fixed me and Kit with a look.

"Not much to explain really. The interracial counsel and the Cabals coordinated to hire a team to infiltrate the schools with the highest levels of drug trafficking. It's cheaper than another case like Blakeman's." Kit pulled two glasses and poured the wine. "Miss Smith is one of the agents working undercover in the schools with prescription drugs. You'll remember Ms. Levine, she's handling the illegal drugs in schools."

I took my glass from his outstretched hand. "Yours is our third. We've been starting with schools that we're sure have supernaturals registered."

"It's only you two?" Simon asked skeptically.

"Don't you remember all those fancy looking guys who came and helped us out?" I sipped the wine, breathing in satisfactorily. "We've got a whole bunch of people helping us out, but there's just a few of us who can work undercover in a high school."

"Huh." Simon contemplated me seriously for a moment. "So how do you do that?"

"Go undercover? I thought we already established-?"

"Nah, I meant tasting wine. Dad says you taste it by drinking, which is kind of a given and makes me think that he has no idea." This was said with an accusatory glance aimed at his father who smiled noncommittally.

I gave him a disbelieving look. "You want to know about wine, not about shape shifters and witches doing drug busts in schools?"

"I think we've pretty well covered that." He gave a dismissive wave.

"Oookay." I pushed my glass to him. "Smell it."

"That's usually Fido's department." Chloe grinned and kissed Derek on the nose while he scowled at both of them.

Simon took a deep whiff and shook his head, pushing the glass back and sneezing. I laughed and drew the stem out of his fingers.

"Okay, let's try that again shall we?" I held his face still with one hand and swirled the glass gently with the other. "Close your eyes and breathe in gently… now that you're not burning out your nose with alcohol, what do you smell?"

"Uh… grapes?"

I tried not to giggle. "And…?"

"Uh…" He frowned, eyes still closed. "Wood..?"

I smiled. "Very good!"

His eyes opened, twinkling with amusement and I realized that I still had my fingertips on his jaw and was leaned forward with the wine glass, an all together too-intimate situation. I dropped my hand and flushed, turning to see everyone else at the table watching with hopeful expressions. Chloe had her hands clasped in front of her, eyes shining and looking between me and Simon. Even Kit looked smug.

I drank my wine in one gulp with a cough.

"Are you supposed to chug it next?" Derek asked with an ill-concealed smile.

"In some situations yes." I replied sagely. "What about you? I bet you can identify the bouquet from where you are puppy."

He smiled for real then. "Some dark fruit, maybe plums, vanilla, oak, faint smoke, some butter, really subtle green… like green bell peppers."

"And if your road-kill locating job ever goes downhill you have a back up as a sommelier!" Chloe squeaked as Derek tickled her. "Crackers!"

I shook my head, beyond asking questions at this point and just getting into the going-with-the-flow stage. Kit went to grab snacks from the pantry and while Chloe and Derek were still busy messing around Simon touched my hand, getting my attention.

"So what next?" He nodded at the glass.

I smiled, grateful that his father and siblings were otherwise occupied. "Well for starters we refill the glass."

He chuckled and I poured then passed the wine. "Okay, now that we have familiarized ourselves with the smells…"

"Wood?" He said with a grin.

I kicked him under the bar. "Focus grasshopper! Usually you'd swirl and smell again but I think you're just going to get more of the same."

"Yep. Definitely wood." He agreed and twisted away as I got ready to kick him again.

"Now taste it, just a little!" I sighed as Simon took the wine like a shot and made a face.

"What? That's the way you did it teach." He winked and I narrowed my eyes.

"Save your charm for the high school girls Bae."

"Ooh, is that a challenge? Are you saying that older girls are immune to my insanely charismatic… charisma?"

"Very smooth Don Juan." I shook my head ruefully. "Far be it for me, a mere mortal to imply such a thing." I looked across the counter to see, yet again, the whole family watching us with anticipation. "Oh for the love of Pete. Go watch shark week or something."

"This is waaaay more interesting." Chloe grinned and I rolled my eyes.

I realized with a start that without meaning to, in fact with meaning to avoid it, I'd gotten sucked into the familial vibe. Even worse, I was letting myself drink, something I never did. I pushed to my feet, slipping on my shoes. "All right kids, if you're done grilling me I think it's time for me to head home, I have a ton of paperwork to do."

All of the protests made me smile but I knew it was time to escape while my dignity was still somewhat intact and before I got too irrevocably attached to them. I made it to the front door before Chloe popped up out of nowhere, scaring the bajeezus out of me.

"Christ! Taking spook lessons from spooks I see." I put my hand over my pounding heart.

She walked with me to my car and I hesitated.

"Wait a sec Chloe." I dug around in my backpack for a small jewel case and sighed with relief when I found it. I grabbed a pen and scribbled a quick note inside, then shut it and handed it to her. "Fairly third grade but… could you put that in Simon's room for me?"

She grinned triumphantly. "Falling for him are we?"

"Hardly, I just feel bad that he was so excited to hear me DJ and didn't get a chance. That's a back-up disc, I'm sure he'll share if you ask nicely." I waved and got into my car, chanting over and over as I drove away.

Eighteen, just a kid. Eighteen, just a kid…