Chapter 2

Maxie slowly got up out of bed; she walked over to the window and unlatched it. Once Three was inside Maxie's room he got a good look at her he saw she was still covered in dirt and dust from the explosion and that her face was tearstained with a small stream of tears still running down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?"

Maxie nodded furiously wiping away her tears.

"I'm fine,"

Three could see she wasn't fine but before he could press her on it she changed the subject.

"What do you want?"

"I need your help, there's no way I can get out of here because the cops are all over," Three explained.

"I can't help you, I just can't," Maxie said crossing her arms over her chest.

Three looked at Maxie for a minute.

"Why not? You helped Jesse when he needed it,"

"Why can't I help you…let's see. Well, I'm the police commissioners daughter and the fact I've disappointed him more times in only a year than I can count doesn't help much either. As for me helping Jesse that---that was different because he was an undercover cop and he didn't hold me hostage for twelve hours!"

Three sighed he started to speak but stopped when he saw Maxie's rant wasn't over.

"There's another thing too. When we were in the vault I told almost everything about me but I don't even know your real name,"

Three sighed Maxie was right, she had told him all of her history and all he had told her was he had a girlfriend.

"Cooper, my friends call me Coop most of the time,"

Maxie nodded.

"Just let me think about it for a little while okay?"

Cooper nodded.

"Look I'm going to have to go out for a little while so you're going to have to hide," Maxie said as she opened her closet door.

Cooper sighed and squirmed his way into the clustered closet and shut the door. After that Maxie left the house.

Cooper stood completely still trying to not make any noise. He thought about all the conversations he and Maxie had had in the vault. Maxie had no reason to help him after the lobby exploded but she did it anyway. She had told him to trust her and he did--- but he didn't want her to get hurt because of his mess. He sighed as he remembered the many times he didn't want her to get hurt…

"Small enough to fit in a briefcase and worth a lot of money. Do you think it's something you could wear?"

"I don't know."

"Well, you were willing to risk your life for whatever's in this briefcase, so don't you want to know what it is? I do."

"Don't. Don't touch it."

"Why not?"

"The case is on a timer. We don't know when it's supposed to self-destruct and I don't want to see you get hurt."

After being locked together in the vault he began to care about what happened to Maxie, whether he wanted to or not. He winced slightly as he remembered what happened right before the vault opened…

"How did you think it was supposed to be? Your boss gave you a mask and a gun and told you not to let anyone leave."

"It was a job -- five minutes, in and out. He made the plan we followed. There wasn't supposed to be real flesh-and-blood people involved."

"You have to believe me. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Then just stick to what we talked about. Hand over the briefcase and --" Maxie was stooped by the sound of the vault opening.

"It's too soon to come open."

"Get in. Well done, Mr. Jackal. Sorry about the lockdown. Now, hand over that case."

Coopers thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Maxie's voice as she walked into the room.

"Cooper you still here?"

"Yeah," he replied stepping out of the closet.

"I brought you a snack I kinda figured you hadn't stopped to eat anything but, you've been warned it might not be very good,"

"Why?"

"Because along with flunking every class except art I also got an F in Life Skills when we were on the cooking unit," Maxie explained.

Cooper laughed

"I'm sure you did better than you think you did,"

"Yeah, maybe," Maxie said resisting the urge to cringe when she thought about her two years of junior high.

Cooper could tell Maxie didn't her years in junior high anymore so he changed the subject.

"What is the plan exactly and what are we doing about the sleeping arrangements?"

"Okay, to answer your first question the plan is you stay here, since Mac is the police commissioner I can tell when things are calmed down enough for you to leave. As for the sleeping arrangement you're going to have to sleep on the rug," Maxie said apologetically at the fact he had to sleep on the floor.

Cooper opened his mouth to comment on the plan but Maxie cut him off.

"You just have to trust me okay?"

Cooper nodded.

"Okay,"

After a few minutes of silence Maxie opened her mouth to speak but shut it deciding not to say anything

Cooper noticed Maxie wanted to say something but didn't, he wondered what it was but didn't press her on it.