Authors' Notes: So hope you all are enjoying this so far. We'll try to update it quite regularly seeing as we want to post the Halloween story during the month of October which is pretty much upon us. Now before we get on with Chapter one, here's a quick reply to an anon reader. :)

Garine: Oh that scene was so much fun to write! And this had to happen sooner or later, it just haaad too.

Now on with the show!

One Month Later…

She felt like she was going crazy, it had been a month since her little chat with Lynch but it was still fresh in her mind. She had taken precautions of her own, getting a new regular cell phone and number, plus having an FBI friend of hers check her special phone just in case. She had thought about moving but figured that would be too much and so she had stayed put in her quaint little apartment. She had avoided contact with Face and the rest of the Team; she hadn't even called Murdock when she happened to have a nightmare. But she was doing better at dealing with those on her own anyways. Every where she went she was watching, if anyone looked at her too long she instantly became suspicious of them. She took to really keeping to herself, going to work then going home. Nothing else. She even took extra care when it came to visiting her Father and kept quiet about things, keeping any conversation they shared focused on the weather or sports.

It was late, roughly ten or so that she got home, it had been a grueling day and she was looking forward to a cold beer and a nice soak in the tub. She didn't even bother turning on the lights as she wandered into the kitchen, leaving her bag on the small table in the breakfast nook. She moved directly to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. She took a long drink of it and leaned back against the counter with a heavy sigh. After a moment she moved down the hall to her bedroom and began to work out of her dress uniform.

Murdock had insisted he bring it. And so grudgingly, Face had packed the little toy in his back and taken it with him.

He'd managed to get into Charissa's appartment hours ago, while it was still daylight, and made himself at home. He turned the lights off when it began to get dark, so as not to arouse her suspicions. After all, she'd been avoiding them for a full month now, and obviously something was wrong. It had to be.

The little red rubber ducky with black horns and a devil mustache floated past him in the hot bath, a crown of bubbles atop its squeaky head, "Rubber ducky you're the one, you make bath-time lots of fun..."

She had shrugged into a very short silk red Japanese styled robe and was moving towards her bathroom when she noticed the light on and a familiar muffled voice. Slowly she opened the door and walked inside, "How's the water?" She folded her arms, her expression anything but amused until she saw the rubber duckie, "Cute." She said with a small gesture towards it.

"Me, or the Diablo Duck?" Face groused, sliding up out of the water to allow for more room, "You're looking very well. Care to explain why I had to convince Murdock you hadn't dropped off the face of the earth?" He asked, raising and eyebrow and moving the bubbles out of the way.

She arched a brow and dropped her robe before slipping into the tub, it was a good sized, definitely able to accommodate two without any problem, "The Duck." She teased lightly, "Think you have enough bubbles in here?" She was amused and it was hard to be angry at him when he was surrounded by a mountain of bubble bath and playing with a devilish rubber duckie, "Ah yes, about that… are you nuts? You really shouldn't be here." Her features grew serious again, very serious.

He squeaked the duck, "It's a present from Murdock. He told me to give it to you - if you were still alive." He joked, "And yeah - sorry about the bubbles - " He gestured to her trash can - "I kinda didn't realize your bubble bath bottle had a loose lid. I went to turn it upside-down and the lid fell off into the tub."

He looked up when he heard the seriousness in her voice, "Sure, I get that. But you're not kicking me out. So what's the matter that you couldn't contact us?"

She eyed the waste basket and frowned splashing water at him, "That was my good stuff too. Expensive." Her eyes narrowed at him slightly, "No I'm not kicking you out and I'm beginning to think I really just need to have a key made for you, but that's beside the point. I'm being watched. Someone got curious and started poking around, put two and two together." The water was the exact temperature she'd normally use, it was weird the random things they had in common, "Remember the mysterious Colonel Lynch? Well I had a not so nice little chat with him a month ago."

There was a pause. Then, "And when you knew that someone was on to us, you assumed the best course of action would be not to let us know...that someone was on to us?" he gave her an incredulous look, squeezing the duck so that it filled up with water, "Bad idea." He squeezed again, squirting it out at her.

"No. That was not my—Hey!" She wiped the water from her face and kicked him underneath the warm water, "That was not my way of thinking, I figured if I didn't contact you they'd stop sniffing around and figure that the connection was false. I was trying to protect you, all of you. I don't know what they have tapped and what they don't. I know my apartment is clean because I check it every day, I got a new cell, but as for the one you gave me I don't know if they have any idea about it or not."

"Ow. Better assume they know you have something. You should buy a new phone - one of those prepaid ones - and use it. Anything you do from now on will be monitored, so make some fake calls with the dummy phone every once in a while." he suggested, handing her the duck.

She nodded slowly, "Didn't think of that…" She took the duck and looked it over, "I'm actually surprised it took you this long to head this way." The water was growing cooler, she dunked down into it for a moment and then came back up and slowly got out after pulling the plug, "How long have you been here?" She questioned as she dried off and slipped her robe back on before brushing through her hair.

"Three, maybe four hours." he thought about it, standing to rinse off the bubbles and suds. He looked around, naked, for a spare towel and didn't spot one. "Hannibal said give you more time. B.A. kept saying you'd got hurt or something. And Murdock, well he's been doing some weird voodoo thing with that iPod you gave him, says he can connect with you because you gave it to him."

She moved over to the cabinet in the bathroom and tossed him a towel, "Weird voodoo thing?" She quirked a brow, "Only Murdock." She said with a shake of her head. She kept her eyes averted from looking at him directly while he stood there naked, now was not the time to get hot and bothered, "I'm going to…um… go and peek out my front curtains and make sure there's nothing suspicious looking going on." She turned almost running into the door and made a quick exit.

Face raised an eyebrow, chuckled, and dried himself off before wrapping the towel around his waist and emerging to find his clothing again. He'd put it on a chair next to her bed and was in the middle of pulling his shirt on when he walked into the hallway to see what was taking her so long.

Drowsy and I are amused by the places Charissa and Face have quote serious conversations... namely in places you'd think they'd be doing you know something "else" rather than talking lol.

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