Author's Note: Filler chapter... Excuses below.

Chapter 6: Picking Locks

Lexington snuck down the hallway carefully. Every time his feet hit the tile with a loud click he winced. When he finally made it to his approximate destination he breathed a sigh of relief.

Lex jiggled the handle on Owen's office door and sighed in resignation as he realized it was locked. It wasn't a surprise, but a nuisance anyway. Lex pulled a leather case out of his belt and pulled some metal picks out of it.

'If it's not in here, then I'll have to check his living quarters.' Lex mused. 'That'll be a completely different set of problems.' He stuck the picks in the lock and started fiddling with them.

Every once in a while Lex glanced nervously at the security camera. He'd given himself a wide window to get this accomplished, but he was still on edge. He felt a little guilty for doing this at all, but he could always find a justification.

'This thing might be dangerous. Puck might be planning something with it. It'd be good for me to get a look at it before that happens.' Was the one that pushed him forward this time.

The lock finally clicked and Lexington opened the door. He closed the door gently behind himself and made his way over to the desk. Owen's desk was clear of clutter and everything was aligned at perfectly 90 degree angles. That was a bit intimidating. If he knocked anything off by just a bit he got the feeling Owen would know. But it also eliminated the top of the desk as a place to search.

Lex sat down at the desk and pulled on one of the drawers. They were locked. Lex rolled his eyes. Of course.

Lex pulled the picks out AGAIN and started on the first one. These locks weren't as complicated as the door so they didn't take as long. He got the first drawer open right away. It was a file drawer. Lex shifted through them and checked the bottom of the drawer just in case. He had just started on the other side when the phone rang.

Lex jumped back from the desk and paused as the phone continued to ring. He calmed himself down before approaching the desk again and fiddling with the drawer some more. Just then Owen's voice filled the air. Lexington paused.

"Rewrite the merger with ShoreCast to include..." Lexington listened in confusion for a moment before he realized what was going on. Owen was dictating messages to himself.

Owen had gone off with Xanatos to the west coast on some sort of business trip. Lexington hadn't gotten the details, all that matter to him was that Owen would be away. Giving Lex a nice window to see if he couldn't get a close up look at the necklace.

"... in Lexington."

Lexington ducked when he heard his name. The answering machine then beeped and clicked off.

'I wonder if he was talking about me...' Lexington mused. He hadn't really been paying attention...If he played the message then Owen would know someone had been in here. There was no way of knowing.

After a moment Lex got back to work and popped open the other side of the desk. This side was a bunch of drawers and it looked much more promising. He probably should have checked this side first.

Lex finally found the necklace. It was in the bottom drawer in a dark blue velvet jewelry case. He popped open the case and marveled at the necklace. It seemed to shine and sparkle even now when there was no light.

'I just want to see what it does, that's all. All magical artifacts have a purpose...' Lex thought as he picked the necklace out of the casing. He stuffed it into his pocket and fled from the office.

====[Break]====

Lexington had to wait until he had another opportunity to be alone before he could look at it more carefully. For two nights it burned a hole in his pocket as different things came up to distract him. But he finally got his chance.

Goliath was off helping Eliza catch some notorious criminal, Angela & Broadway were off on a date, and Brooklyn was off doing... something. He hadn't said. So as long as he steered clear of the TV room where Hudson & Bronx were then he might as well have the whole castle to himself.

Lexington pulled the necklace out and set it on the table in front of him. Aside from the inexplicable light it seemed to refract it looked normal enough. A mossy green quartz with golden accents.

"I probably have to put it on." Lex said to himself. He picked it up, but hesitated. Would it do something terrible? Or irreversible? He didn't know how he would explain if something happened.

After a moment he put the necklace on anyway, resolving to worry about that later.

Lex waited... but didn't notice any change. He sighed, half in relief and half in disappointment. He took the pendant in hand and brought it up to his face to look at it.

"I bet if I were a Child of Oberon I'd know exactly what you do." Lex said bitterly. He let the pendant drop to his chest again and decided to leave the castle to go flying for a bit. It'd clear his head and it might give him a few more ideas.

Author's Note: Sorry that this was sort of a crappy chapter. We started our summer early here and decided to go on a really long road trip. I know you'd think that would give me more time to write but...
Anyway, I'm gearing up for the first real 'conflict' in the story and I'm rather nervous because I'm historically bad at writing conflict. Stay tuned.