Chapter 7

A/N: Again, I haven't had any time to spare for editing. Thanks for reading if you've got this far.

Nate was confused, worried and pissed off. His confusion for the explosion stemmed on the fact that this very base had never been found and there had never ever been hostile attacks to his bases in England. His worry was for the children and the new trainers, which he chose to keep both of them as deciding between them was too hard and he could afford to have both of them on board with him, he also worried for Francis, he was a man with a family to go home to and Francis himself wasn't exactly a very young man, not very old but not entirely young neither. His irritation and anger was for anyone who dared to cross him, they clearly had no idea of who they were attacking, otherwise they would be severely terrified and fear greatly for their lives if they thought they were of any worth.

As soon as the explosion hit Nate was rocked back off his chair and fell to the side and was on the floor, however he was fine, with only a few scratches he pulled himself up and ignored the fallen objects that were scattered about and quickly loaded up with the firearms in his office, two side arms with magazines in his pockets and a few knives already tucked away, he then rushed out the door. He found the rest of the corridor much like his office: shaken up, but he then made a bee-line down to the bottom floor where the children were working with Grunt 4 and Gilbert and Clarke, where Francis would have also been.

He was jogging towards the kids and down the stairs with his gun in front of him, alert and ready for anyone or anything to attack to him but luckily nothing did and he made it safely. however he couldn't say the same about the people downstairs.

The explosion mustn't have been too large as the majority of the area was intact and only a few were hurt. He went to the other side of the room at once as he could see that one of the kids had been trapped under a frame that was too heavy to pull up himself, others were trying to help him but they weren't doing much good. The boy trapped was Arthur and he was biting his knuckles painfully to try to stop himself from crying out as his legs were stuck under heavy metal, Nate suspected that his right leg had to be broken and both had to be very bruised and slightly bloodied.

There were sounds of crying and sobbing behind him so he gave a quick scan around the wrecked space and then focused on freeing Arthur but not before ordering a few of his men to guard the kids and the others to patrol the area and deal with any situation or intruders with extreme prejudice.

Nate calmed down the kids before saying, "Craig, hold that end, Chuck, get the other. On the count of three we're going to lift. Andy, you pull him out."

They did as they were told and Andy managed to pull him out of the way, trying to not listen to Arthur's shouts, in time for them to drop the frame back down onto the ground. Nate then sent them off to the back of the room with a medical kit to do what they could and where the other kids were standing closely together.

As soon as they were more or less safe, the grunts that were patrolling came through the front door dragging two men by the tops of their arms. He told them to tie them up, making sure that they don't escape and to transport them to the next warehouse he had which was about 10 miles away.

After dealing with that situation he got 4 of his men to take the kids in separate groups to the cars and to take them to the closest and safest base after this one, The Cottage, which to its name suggests that it is a small but cozy second base for the kids, grunts and himself to stay at for a temporary time while the whole attacking fiasco is being sorted out. As far as he knew the two men were the only clear suspects but he was sure that they weren't the mastermind behind the intrusion on one of his favourite bases. He had a few suspects in mind but he decided to keep it to himself.

Roughly five hours later they all got to The Cottage, with the two guilty culprits in the car boots, and each car had at least 1 grunt to lower the chances of the children being hurt again. The kids soon settled in with the trainers, who had the most hectic first day at a job, ever, they had been though the war but this was really something entirely new. Everyone had to share but they made room and were gracious with each other, as they were all shaken up from the events that only happened a few hours ago, just after they had been training and working like any other day, where nothing traumatic would happen.

Nate only brought with him a medium briefcase of beginnings that he managed to scrounge out of his office, they included enough fire power to last a week at war, very important documents (There were only a few, he didn't like storing all significant information at any one location, he would rather make it hard to find for any potential threats, he was paranoid that way), and some other useful bits and bobs that would be handy in certain situations, such as another attack of he and his kids. Most of the novices only to what they had with them when the attack hit, not much more than a water bottle and a change of clothing, however Nate, as said before is greatly paranoid, had stocks of the basic materials to survive a month without leaving the building as 'The Cottage' was a property that had been built on top of a large bomb shelter that Nate kept secret and for emergencies, such as the one presented.

After arriving Nate ordered some grunts to take the still unconscious men to the underground bomb shelter while some more grunts would watch over the kids/trainers and patrol the area. Luckily, the bomb shelter was largely sound-proofed, meaning that what the kids had been through didn't have to worsen from hearing the screams Nate was going to have the two men make. While the trainers could probably protect themselves and bear the noises and sight of Nate torturing the perpetrators.

When Nate opened the doors to the bomb shelter he could see that the two men on their knees were already slightly bloodied and bleeding, which he didn't mind because he was generous sometimes, and giving the grunts a chance to make them bleed didn't go badly with him, in fact he encouraged it, bottling up resentment and anger wasn't something Nate appreciated, he would rather someone be honest with him and get mad than keeping quiet and silently hating. Nate liked expression, especially the physical kind in pain and suffering of the wrongdoers.

So he got to work, and inflicted as much agony as he could within the hour, having fun hurting the people who hurt his people. None of the grunts who stood by the doors looked away, more like they eagerly watched on, perhaps wanting to have a go for themselves. Nate used all the available and fitting equipment on the premises and enjoyed making the men, if you could call them men, regret their choice in striking at Nate and his kids.

The hour was up and the bloodied messes on the cold hard floor could barely breathe without causing pain. They had missing fingers, deep lacerations absolutely covered in rock salt, various bullet wounds, removed teeth and blunt strips of metal wedged in their bodies., not to mention the many broken bones and failing organs. In their mind they were begging for death, how amazing it would be to be free of the torment on their bodies, soon to be corpses. Before the torture session neither of the men wanted to die but that was then and this was now, which meant unbearable suffering, for them at least. Nate could do worse things to the people who actually ordered it, the actions were undoubtedly from a higher authority than these men, their IQs were just in double digits and they went to the army to fight as they weren't competent enough to understand the schooling, by Nate's thoughts anyway.

Eventually Nate got tired of hearing their pathetic cries so he put bullets in the back of their heads.

"Take them away," Nate said without remorse, "Put them where we usually put them."

A few of his men dragged away the bodies of the men who could now no longer do any harm to him or his kids. Nate walked to the doors and left the bomb shelter but then he caught his reflection on a window as he made his way to where the kids would be.

He was covered in the men's blood, even his hair. His clothes weren't ripped but his shirt and slacks were stained as they had been bleeding out on them. So he changed direction and his bedroom to get a change of clothing and then went to the closest bathroom to shower and change.

He walked to his also small but cozy bedroom and removed a pair of snug fitting jeans and dark blue shirt out of a drawer and then went to the bathroom across the hallway in just his bloodied trousers. He took a short shower and cleaned up. In his fresh clothes and barefoot on the wooden floorboards he went downstairs to meet the kids who had also changed into a set of non-gendered clothing, essentially sweat pants and plain shirts, generally better than what they had on before, dirty and covered in dust from the explosion at The Boat House.

When he arrived he could see that their happiness levels were clearly way below average, they were miserable and tired. So he told them to get food and and go to sleep since training and any work was being withheld until they were in a more safe and secure place, both literal and figuratively as The Cottage was more or less safe, just not totally guaranteed. Half of them were piled into the surprisingly large kitchen and helped with making something edible. The Cottage was already stocked up on non perishables but without any fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables so he sent two grunts on a small mission to find a decent market with a very clear shopping list, it was a better job than disposing the bodies, by far.

They arrived with the food a few minutes after Nate and some of the kids got to the kitchen. In the end the group of them, with people switching in and out taking turns, they made a stack of sandwiches along with two large pots of vegetable soup that would feed the whole household, simple but filling and it took their minds off the potential threat at hand. Even though Nate had enemies 24/7 and they all knew that, these people were the first to attack in a long while, since before most of the kids had even known Nate as he was very paranoid, he never got anything unexpected.

Everyone was pretty content afterwards and Nate went back to his office/bedroom and worked on a location where they would settle into next, he had many but he was also looking for one fairly close to London so that he could keep the kids in a busy and populated city and also to finish off his project with that Cloaked Red group that he had been toying with. He still wasn't through with messing with them and having so much fun he couldn't simply abandon them, they might feel lonely and disappointed, wouldn't they? In any case, he had recently sent out a relatively small task force dressed in civilian gear to jump one of the members of The Cloaked Red, he didn't particularly care about who he just ordered the men to follow one of them, the more the merrier, as soon as they came out of the very front, to follow undetected. Which would have been fairly easy if it wasn't for their pesky gut instincts but the one they got to must have been awfully trusting because he got reports back saying how painfully pathetic it was. The grunts he ordered to do the job were told to make it look like a regular mugging, take a purse or wallet and a small gun for show and to keep it clean, not too many bones and no internal organs, skin deep was fine.

Nate just wanted to give them a good scare as that girl he took wasn't at all fun, she hung there boringly, although, she was much better than that Lexi girl. He was being honest when he told the girl he took that Lexi had been a bore, way too ordinary.

Nate finished his plans to head to The Garage in a few days after laying low, he had equipment that kept all contact strictly between he and the people he would be talking to, so that nothing would be intercepted by anyone or anything, it was a nifty piece of tech he acquired from a friend of a friend a few months after the war.

He sent off notes with various bits of information and had them given to grunts who would do different tasks, for instance, a few would go directly to The Garage and scout it out to see if there were any threats at the site before actually going there with the kids.

The days after passed excruciatingly slowly, everyone including Nate were bored out of their minds and had nothing to do but chat and cook, although a few of the kids used what ingredients they had to make some cakes, which were the highlight of their days. Nate's outlook on life had dropped drastically, not a week ago the best part of his week was shooting some manic but now it was cake. So very low expectations.

However, the day eventually came, minute by minute, for them all to leave the wretched place and get back to work. The recruits had no idea how much they needed training and work in their lives until the past few days. They all cheered and the gloomy and drab mood surrounding them had lifted and they were all joyous again. Yay.

Once again everyone loaded up the cars with grunts driving and they took what little luggage they had with them and set off to The Garage, Nate had given a minor talk just before, explaining their new home and what would happen.

Later on Nate would obviously go with a few of his men to The Boat House after the situation had died down to retrieve what he could of the kids stuff and anything worth of use. He would then deliberately destroy the building in a much more civilised manner by sending a bomb down on it, as any passer-by would look to it and think that it must have been a structure caught in the middle of the war and not a secret base for Nate's operations. The bombs might be slightly costly but they would be needed for the cover story.

The drive to their new location wasn't as long this time, only at around 2 hours compared. Most of the kids were too excited to sleep, absolutely thrilled to be getting active and away from sitting around for days. Even though they had nothing to do but talk for along time by their standards they were still chatting nonstop on their car journey.

For a man looking after more than a handful of recruits and paying salaries for his men, he was still incredibly rich, crazy rich, Nate had come into his fortune in many ways, most of them legal but it did the job so he could still afford to pay for the many cars he owned. Some were rather boring and what any regular person would own and some were interesting and great to drive.

Nate arrived first with a few grunts and they gave another quick run down of the area and declared it safe for the kids to be there and then Nate finally went into The Garage. Much like its name it was slightly dim in lighting (that could be fixed) but resourceful, he tended name places and objects generally logically but sometimes with a fun name, like The Cookie Jar. Which was a small but sweet (loaded with all types of carry on weapons thinkable, such as guns or arrows (not that many people used arrows but he actually knew a fairly nice couple that did and they were very good at what they did)) and was another untraceable safe house that no one knew about, just him and not even his kids.

The Garage was much larger than The Cottage, it was similar to The Boat House but not as safe, but Nate was working on that and it was on its way to being even more secure than The Boat House, so that he could start to provide a home for the kids that they could go back to.

The kids got to The Garage about half an hour later and the place was up and running. Water, electricity and heating was on and the whole place was ready, it wasn't spotless but it would do, The Garage had a great character and a more interesting history that Nate could go over with the kids later.

They were all ecstatic and as they hopped out of the cars they saw Nate was standing at the front doors holding them open.

"Hey, Nate," Andy said..

"Hi, Andy, you all get here okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, how's this place doing?"

"It's great, you'll love it. It's got all the toys," Nate said, thinking about the extensive equipment they had here, for creating stuff and for working out.

Nate let all the kids and the trainers pile through the doors and loiter in the lobby, The Garage was large enough to have a lobby, and then he told them to wander around the place to get used to it, just not go into his office or room as the doors are labeled. Later on Nate called out for them to pick a room, most would have to share but this just presented a chance for the kids to switch up and change who they were staying with, although some didn't change as there were about 2 couples that Nate simply dotted on and wouldn't dare try to split up. They were still young and meddling with their relationships would just end very very badly. Nate had a few relationships, som ended extremely badly, some ended on a more mature now but what he did know was not to get involved with other people's relationships and that he wasn't interested in anything for the near future as he was too busy raising the kids into independant people that could defend for themselves and that they could grow up happy, he just wanted what was best for them.

Nate didn't plan to do anything for the day they got here but he made the halls available for the kids to workout. The halls were multi-purpose and there were cupboards with varied equipment. So when he wandered around to see what they were doing a few hours later after getting settled he found Cole and Clarke, the trainer, in the actual garage tinkering with things. He asked them how they were doing but they seemed to be content by themselves, he then found a handful of the kids boxing and a few of the girls in the reasonable sized kitchen experimenting with baking, Nate was honestly but fondly worried over what the results would be of their work would looked like they were making some sort of dessert or pudding but they were running around the kitchen making something.

Eventually dinner time came round and all the kids, trainers and some of the grunts present came huddled around the door of the kitchen, all hungry and a tad impatient. Everyone in the kitchen who was baking more or less forgot about supper and was focusing on dessert so they ended up making some beef and vegetable soup and brown bread, not at all interesting but it was enough to fill.

Later on Jonathan, one of the kids, walked up to the door of Nate's office and knocked.

"Come in," Nate called, "Jonathan," Nate said surprised, "What brings you here?"

"Uh, hi. I just wanted to talk," he replied.

"Sure, what's going on. Have a seat, how are you settling here?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," Jonathan said distracted.

"Come on, tell me what's going on," Nate encouraged.

"Me and Aimee had a fight and she won't talk to me. I tried to apologise but she wouldn't listen," Jonathan was explaining he had made a small mistake and regretted it but he couldn't get through to her.

A few minutes later and a thorough talk, Jonathan left Nate's office feeling slightly better and in a more positive mood. Nate wasn't one to get involved but if one of the kids actually came to him for advice and guidance then he wouldn't turn them away.

"I'll talk with her and see how she feels," Nate said holding open the door, Jonathan smiled at him and walked back to his room. He shared with Aimee but they were mature and she wasn't in there right now so it was safe.

He tiredly open the door and took a step before flopping onto the bed on his back and stared at the ceiling, not that the ceiling was particularly interesting. He yanked his jacket off and lied back. Jonathan sighed, he was frustrated and really needed to do something, like take a run or punch a punching bag or do a load of pull ups. But he sighed again and rolled over pressing his face into the pillow.

Nate was finishing up in his office and left work to do later. He was on his way to look for Aimee and he found her after looking around half the building. She was on her own and in one of the smaller sitting rooms on the second floor, only 3 by 3 metres, and was reading a book. The afternoon was ending and the curtains were open letting the last of the light from the sunset in. He got a closer look and it was clear that she had been crying as her eyes were still red, no matter how much she tried to hide it.

"Hey, Aimee. Wanna go to the shooting range?" Nate asked leaning against the door frame.

She frowned but she closed her book and followed him out the door, they walked side by side in a dim silence.

"Here," Nate handed her a pistol and he picked up a Russian revolver himself and directed her to the targets on the other side of the room. She was still confused but she stood in the appropriate stance, aimed and fired three rounds.

"Right. Now tell me what is going on with you and Jonathan."

She looked down to her feet and didn't meet his eyes again, "We, uh, had a fight."

nate obviously knew that it wasn't a physical one but if it was then he wouldn't blame them, a good spar might do wonders and with all their training they could definitely hold their own in a combat situation, it would have also been in a controlled environment which would mean that people could step in if the fight got out of hand. So he made it a suggestion.

"Look, I know that Jonathan was a bit of an idiot and was spectacularly dumb in that moment but he is also very sorry about what he said but he loves you, and so I have an idea that might work," Nate was saying. Aimee appeared to be a bit more attentive as she looked up from the floor and to Nate.

Nate jumped straight in, "Why don't the both of you spar, go a few rounds in the room next door. You can give him a good throw down and work out all your teenage-y feelings in this, yeah?"

Aimee was now undoubtedly interested now, she had a small twinkle in her eye as she formed a small smile.

"Yeah, that'd be cool," she agreed.

"Absolutely, but you're having a crowd. Lord knows how Jonathan is going to get his arse kicked by you. Don't want him to be a puddle on the mats," he said and she grinned. "Now let's check your aim."

They walked around to the counter and across the wide space. Aimee was still grinning as she saw the results. Nate patted her shoulder, "Well done, kiddo. So, in an hour then, get ready and be next door by 6."

"Yeah," Aimee said as she practically bouncing out of the room with Nate just behind her after putting the guns away into their proper places.

As darkness fell, the kids, trainers, some grunts and Nate gathered in the hall next to the shooting range. Nate gave a quick note to Jonathan about the plan, he was worried but not too concerned, the time came and he was already there and in the centre of the room. They were all waiting for Aimee, all completely bored. A few minutes later she cranked open the door and strode into the hall. Everyone stared as she came in.

"You know, I did say 6 o'clock," Nate said approaching her. Aimee shrugged and started for the mats where Jonathan was.

"Round 1 out of three," Nate said, loud enough so the whole hall could hear him.

Jonathan visibly gulped and stood in a sparring position: ready. They met at the centre facing each other, they gave a nod and then backed up a few steps and circled each other. A moment later Aimee threw the first punch which he dodge and then he blocked another, he kicked out aiming at her knee but she moved out of the way and gripped the back of his leg shoving him off his feet and landed on his back with a thump but then swiped out with his other leg, also making her fall to the mat, her hands reaching out saving her from smashing her face into the floor, as she did that he leapt up.

The fight was fast and intense as the audience watched on focusing on their movements. People cheered whenever there was a harsh and sharp move. They kept going, bruising and giving each other minor injuries until Aimee pinned Jonathan to the mat her knee at the back of his neck and his arm pulled painfully behind him. They were both covered in sweat and puffing hard as Jonathan slapped the mat thrice to signal his defeat for the first round. Aimee pushed herself up and Jonathan rolled onto his back, she stretched out her hand for him and he accepted. She pulled him up half way when he pulled her back down, making her land on her side with a sound and he was now standing.

She glared at him and he smirked at her.

"Har har har. Very funny, J," Aimee said, disgruntled and looking forward to round 2.

Jonathan was still smirking at her when he said, "So am I, dear."

He was feeling better, much better. they were on speaking terms, pretty much anyway. Even if it meant sparring to make that happen, Nate was brilliant, great ideas from that man. Jonathan was satisfied with the current situation and chugged down almost a full jug of water at the side until Andy came up behind him and smacked him on the back of his head, making him spew out the water in his mouth and drop the close to empty jug.

"Dick move, doofus," Andy said with her arms crossed and facing him, "Thought you were smart, and you should have heard me approaching, idiot. You're slipping."

He gaped at her for a second before defending himself, "Erm, pardon me for my greatness as you lame persons try to prepare for my invasion of expertise in the game of winning at life. I am not slipping, I thought I proved that on the mats."

She rolled her eyes and just said, "Humph. Well you're going to have to do something 'great' if you want A to forgive and have you back."

"I know."

The next round was similar to the first round, it was quick and tough with Aimee winning once again. The third and final round was slightly different.

A few minutes before the end Aimee was winning, she was holding out as Jonathan was struggling to keep up.

"Come on, J, keep up, don't you want them to be proud of you. You want to impress people don't you. All your life, trying to live up to other people's standards," she taunted. He was glaring murderously but then his expression cleared and became blank.

His next move was the game changer and he managed to flip her onto her front but her arms not reaching out in time to save her fall. He grabbed her forearms quickly and restrained them firmly so she couldn't move, his elbow was digging in harder than necessary into the back of her left shoulder and his weight at his advantage, holding her down making sure she wasn't able to do anything in retaliation.

As the clear winner he got up, ignored everyone and left the hall.

The crowd was still watching without any input but they heard her comment and saw him leave, they were quiet for another moment before everyone was talking.

Nate rapidly went to Aimee who was still in the middle of the room, still and obviously instantly guilty about what she said. She looked to him and he nodded and tilted his head in the direction of the door.

"Go," he mouthed, she reacted hastily and went through the doors as well, the only person after Jonathan to leave. She checked all the nearby rooms before climbing the first few set of stairs and finding him at the very top on the last stairs in the building. She knew he knew that she was there and timidly came to him, she sat down on the step to the right of him and put her hands on her lap.

"I'm sorry."

He didn't look away from the steps in front of him.

She put her tired arms around his body sideways, leaning into him. "I'm sorry."

He acknowledged her apology and hugged the arm in front of him closer to his chest. She squeezed tighter and they sat there for a while quietly.

Eventually they had to return to the others but they turned in for the night instead.

The next morning they came down to the main area with Aimee's arm threaded through his, where everyone was lounging around or eating breakfast. No one really noticed their entrance which they were absolutely fine with until Andy squealed and jumped up from her seat, literally, and then over the coffee table to give them a bear hug, squeezing the three of them together tightly.

"Yes! Together forever!" Andy said, happy that her favourite couple weren't fighting anymore.

"Okay, Andy, ease up," Aimee said as they both gave each other a look and patted her back. Andy let them go but fired questions at them.

"So, how did it go? Did you spar again? Who won? No, wait, I don't think you thought again, did you? Did you talk it out? We haven't seen you since the dramatic exit, how was the make up sex?"

Aimee stopped her at that point, "Nope there wasn't any, don't go wild with this. Everything's okay now, right, hon?" She looked to Jonathan who rolled his eyes but agreed.

Nate then came in with Francis by his side and said to the trio, "You're together again, my plans are a success and I am amazing."

Andy slapped the side of Nate's arm with the back of her hand lightly, "Sure, but I'm the best at plotting."

Nate looked definitely flabbergasted, there was no other way to describe his face and the hand over his heart, he was astounded as he gasped, "No freaking way." Nate and Andy proceeded to debate over the best person at manipulating and awesomeness.

Behind Nate, Francis rolled his eyes and watched the dramatics amused. The couple stayed for another moment before getting tired of their antics and left for the kitchen.

Nate and Andy were still arguing by the time they got back, but it had been reduced to sitting down on the arm chairs throwing insults about each other's abilities.

"Come on, Natalia and Andrea. Take a break, go take a bath or eat a packet of beans," Jonathan suggested.

Nate and Andy abruptly stopped their chatter and turned their heads at the same time to glare at Jonathan. "No," they said in sync and flatly.

"That's creepy. Don't do that," Aimee commented, resting on the arm of the arm chair Jonathan was seated on.

"Do what? This?" Nate and Andy mirrored, still talking at the same time.

"Do they practice?" Jonathan asked Aimee, completely weirded out, "Do you practice?" he aimed at the two in front of them, behaving oddly.

"No, we do not practice," they chorused. Andy was having trouble keeping a straight face and burst out laughing.

"Sorry, can't keep going," she choked out as she leaned forward laughing hard.

"I am certainly not amused Andrea Katerina Johnson. You have failed our first attempt at scaring the people of the world," he said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah. As you keep saying," Andy said, "but you've got to admit, it was funny watching them squirm." She inclined her head to where Aimee and Jonathan were and behind them where Francis was on the sofa.

"Okay, I've actually got to go now, with actual work to do," Nate said standing up.

"Aww, really? We were having so much fun," Andy whined. Nate grinned and mused her hair and she quickly swatted his hand away and gave him a death glare. "Never touch the hair, mate. Never know where that hand of yours might end up."

She was re-doing her hair as Nate signalled for Francis to follow him, Nate looked down to Andy who was still sitting. "Laters, Andrea."

Andy sighed and followed him out with her eyes. Aimee gasped and jumped up from her place next to Jonathan and plopped down on the space next to Andy.

"My God, you like him!" Aimee said wide eyed. Looking from Andy to Jonathan who realised the revelation in that moment as well as his other half repeated, "You like him. Andrea Katerina Johnson, you like Nate!"

"No. I do not. And what is it with everyone today and using my full name? I like 'Andy'," Andy said.

"Don't try to change the subject, we are going to talk about the technicalities of this predicament," this came from Jonathan this time who got up from his seat and sat down on the other side of Andy, thus sandwiching Andy between Jonathan and Aimee, trapping her from leaving as the interrogation came from Aimee and Jonathan was just moral support for them both.

Andy made an irritated noise, put out by their outrageousness. "You two are impertinent fools who never listen."

"Nope," Aimee disagreed, " She's just in denial, isn't she?" she said to Jonathan, leaning forward, speaking over Andy who was disgruntled so she crossed her arms and stared ahead into the window looking out to the garage in front.

Jonathan leaned forward and said, "Absolutely. And oh, look, it's Nate. I was wondering about what she was so focused on." Jonathan and Aimee were smiling widely and looked smug, Andy cast her eyes away from the window where Nate was driving one of his more expensive and treasured cars with Francis in the passenger seat holding onto the car door and front as Nate threw the car out of the garage, onto the paved ground and then sped up even more on the way out of the facility. By the time he and Francis had gone completely out of sight jonathan caught Andy glancing out of the window again.

"We knew it, Andrea Johnson likes Nate and she can't stay away," Jonathan was going on.

"I do not, you twit. He's too old anyway," Andy said.

Aimee gasped again, "You admit you do like Nate!"

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you just did and how is he 'too old'? You're 23 and he's only 32 and a totally successful guy," Aimee started at.

"And he would be perfect for each other, both crazy psychos and always pranking everyone," Jonathan ended. He and Aimee were a team and stronger than ever.

The couple finally let Andy go from holding her hostage but called out encouraging things as she got further away.

"You know you like him."

"He totally likes you back."

And so on. Andy was heading back to her room to curl up in bed under the cozy covers and never leave.

About 50 miles away Nate's frantic driving was still scaring Francis and they were about to meet up with some arms dealers to make sure they weren't the ones behind the attack or in any association with it and to also get on friendly terms with them, Nate had a large trunk of cash in the back seat. Nate was driving because he didn't want to show any fear, which he didn't have, it would just be any old meeting that he'd been through with Francis many times before, but that didn't mean he was and idiot, no matter what Andy said, he had a large car full of his grunts only two miles back, meaning if the encounter went down hill Nate had back up. Although, Nate could handle himself well on his own as his strength and senses were unparalleled to any other human.

He rolled up to the back of an abandoned warehouse where he and they agreed to meet. Nate had knives and guns hidden all over him, he was almost ready for anything.

Just maybe not the man with the rather heavy crowbar whacking him and Francis around the back of their heads as they were just about to greet the two men just behind the front of the large table with a wide range of guns and of other weaponry.