Fred whimpered as he felt the thick smell of cigars. His eyes was covered by a black burlap sack, but he knew who had abducted him in the first place. He should've just stayed home.. The two muscular men that dragged him in, threw him onto a creaking wooden chair and pulled his blindfold off. Before him sat Don DeVito, clad in an elegant black suit with a thick cigar between his lips. He was quite a pudgy, short man, but he had all of the armed men inside the room at his command. Not someone to be messed with.

''So, mistah Coopah. My boys tell me you are late with your payment. I will give you a minute to explain yourself.''

Fred swallowed down his fear, manning up to talk.

''W-we-well, I'm just trying to get my money together.. Times are rough, y'know.. ?''

The Don took a long drag from his cigar, puffing out the cloud of tobacco smoke into Fred's face. He hated that fucking smell.

''Yes.. Well, mistah Coopah, y'see, times are ''rough'' for my family aswell.. How do you expect me to take care of my famiglia when you don't pay me back, huh?''

Fred looked at the short man pleadingly. He felt the feeling of sadness go up his throat and lodging itself stuck there to hinder him any kind of speech without looking like a baby.

''It seems that I have no choice.. Fat Tony.''

Fred looked over his shoulder. The fat, but still big, muscular and imposing man pulled a revolver from under his vest, aiming it against Fred's backhead. Fred stared blankly at the Don. He kept telling himself not to cry. Don't cry.. Don't cry.. But he damn sure cried. The tears welled up from his eyes and down his cheeks as he started to sob.

''I - I'm s-sorry! I'm.. just tr-trying to be a good son.. P-please, give me until Christmas Day.. Please.. DeVito..''

Fred heard the revolver being cocked behind him. He quickly leapt forward, hugging the Don's legs while crying and sobbing.

''PLEASE! PLEASE! Spare me.. I'll pay you back double.. I j-just need time..''

DeVito idly peered at the man, putting down the cigar in an ashtray held by a smaller gentleman next to him.

''A good son, huh? .. I can't deny other family happiness, but you better hold your word, mistah Coopah. You have until Christmas Eve. Fat Tony, Scozarro, escort mistah Coopah back to his apartment.''

Fred kept sobbing and thanking DeVito as he was carried out, the burlap sack again covering his eyes as the two gangsters drove him home. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?

"Benjamin!… BENJAMIN!" Paulina's voice screeched through her apartment.

"Dammit Benjamin! Don't walk away when I'm talking!"

Her pair of glasses were slipping of her tiny nose and her cheeks were running red out of frustration. She followed him into the kitchen, where he realized he was cornered.

He turned around lazily and faced her frowning face.

"What?"

"Were you even listening to me? You don't just walk out on me!"

Benjamin shrugged lazily and gave her a nonchalant look, he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yea, I was listenin' alright. You were talkin' bullshit about me quitting my job." He wanted to brush against her to get out of her sight, but her small pale hands gave him a strong push back to his place near the counter.

"It's not any 'Bullshit', Ben! It's the truth! Both of our careers are at stake!"

"Yea yea, Blah Blah Blah.." He brushed against her with more force and passed her, walking out of the kitchen again.

"Bloody hell, BENJAMIN!" she rushed behind him, getting really pissed at him.

She didn't expect him to suddenly turn around at walk up to her, she suddenly realized how much taller he is then her.

It is kind of terrifying, but she tried not to show that to him.

"No, just. Shut up, Paulina! I'm not quittin' my job! " He pointed his finger at her, not breaking his blue eyes from hers. "Do ye have ANY idea what I make in a month? Why in the world would I give that up in the first place?" Paulina still looked up to his face

"While you're playin' Admin's little lapdog, I actually do something!" He scuffed and stepped back. He went into the hall way and reached for his coat.

"Where do you think your going?" Paulina yelled at him, she was scared for a moment that the shaking in her voice was too obvious.

"Out." He zipped his coat shut and opened the door and slammed it shut behind him.

She jumped at the door and pulled it open with a strong force, she hung over the staircase and saw Ben's Red coat almost disappear from sight.

" BENJAMIN! LIKE HELL YOU'RE LEAVING!"

There was a short silence.

"WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO? BLEED ON ME AGAIN?"

He face flushed red and she took a deep breath and called down to the staircase.

"GROW UP, BEN!"

Her Elderly neighbors head popped out the door next to her, along with a few cats popping out at her feet. She ignored her neighbor and walked back into her apartment.

He angrily kicked a soda can, it flew a few inches into the air and bounced on the concrete. He saw the distant can fall into the gutter, to be forgotten.
The cold poked his bare neck, he zipped the coat up to his neck and stuck his chin between his shoulders. He should have brought his hat while he was making his angry departure from the appartement.

"Fuck her! Makin' me quit my job! Who the hell does she think she is, huh?" He averted a puddle in the pavement and skipped over a homeless man underneath a newspaper. The sky was getting darker and clouds were settling above the city.

"Why doesn't she just quit her job? She hardly does anythin' but to walk around with those stupid papers against her!... Being a perfect lapdog for Admin! Yea! That's what she's good at, alright!" He grunted to his own thoughts, a passing lady looked at him worried but kept her fast walking pace up.

He noticed that his weary feet made him walk the familiar road to Carmine's diner.. He stopped up and peered up at the grey sky, and then down at the wet pavement. He was not the one in the wrong here, anyways.

''Miss Perfect, never doing anything wrong..'' he murmured as he kept walking, turning and seeing the blue neon letters of ''Carmine's''. He stopped once more. What the hell was he supposed to do in there? Carmine wouldn't help, and what the hell was Anthony going to do? He sighed, continuing his trek, every step bringing him closer to the diner and the neon sign. He had nowhere else to go - And he was hungry anyway.

''Hey, it's mama's little sunshine!'' Carmine grinned from behind the diner's counter as Ben slammed the door behind him and sat down infront of him on one of the stools. ''What can I get for ya, my euphoric lil' brother?''

''Just give me something to drink.'' Benjamin said grumpily, leaning his face on his closed fist and staring at the woodgrain of the counter. His brother slammed a BONK! Energy Drink infront of him which Ben opened, proceeding to stare into the aluminium-can's contents.

''Aw, my little brother isn't happy today? What happened? Did you get a splinter in your finger? Did someone overtake you on the highway?'' Carmine said daddingly to his younger brother.

''You're -not- helping, Carmine!'' Benjamin spat out, glaring up at him. Carmine smiled slightly and then slid over the counter, taking a seat on the stool next to Ben.

''Okay then, tell me what it is and I won't hurt your manliness any further.'' Ben sighed and tapped his finger on the can he was holding.

''Paulina and I just argued..'' he murmured out. Carmine giggled and gave him a brotherly slap on the shoulder.

''Everyone argues, Benji! Including ma and André, grandma and grandpa, hell, even Clayton and his wife! And they love eachother. It just happens, y'know? Hating eachother is a part of the whole love thing. To truly love someone, y'gotta hate 'em sometimes. 's in the fine print, you know?'' Carmine said with a warm smile on his lips, patting Ben's wet head. ''Now you know what I think you should do? You should get a nice bouquet of flowers, and head right back to Paulina and tell her that you're sorry!'' Ben lifted an eyebrow in annoyance.

''.. She's the one in the wrong here!'' Carmine giggled and gave him a smack on the head.

''Do you really think she'll say sorry to you, loser?'' Ben glared at him and Carmine quickly hopped over the counter again. He snatched Ben's can and sipped from it before shooing his younger brother away. ''Go on, she's not gonna wait forever.'' Ben peered around the inside of the empty diner and sighed, sliding off the stool and heading out of the door.

Paulina paced through the living room, looking outside the window with the slightest hope to see her Scout return to her appartement. She startled with every glimpse of a red raincoat, it was the so manieth old man walking his dog.
She walked back into the kitchen poundering over the words they'd exchanged.

"The Scout's contract is running to an end." she recalled the words in Admin's hoarse voice. "My contract is still running up for some 5 more years, I mean.. It was the opportunity to stop and think about another job... " the thinking made her head ache, she stopped to pour her a cup of tea.

When she looked outside she noticed the rain had gotten worse, she blew the steam from her beverage. "Ben could have always renewed the contract... but.. ugh. I hate seeing him get hurt like that!... not again." She rubbed her head and stared up to the gray sky once more.

A loud knock against her door made her jump out of her thoughts. She put her tea aside and carefully walked to her door, as she was afraid to scare the person behind the door away.
Most likely Benjamin who had returned to her, she quickly looked at her clock to confront him how long he had been roaming the streets.

The door didn't reveal the scrawny figure of Scout dressed in a red coat but the charmatic and apologizing smile of the BLU team's Medic.
She was taken aback by this sudden appearance, her mouth gaped for words and her brow furrowed.

"My apologies, Dear Paulina. But ze rain outside got worse and worse and I was nearby. I hope you don't mind?" His black hair was soaked and pressed against his skull, slight drops of rainwater leaked from all the edges of his posture.

"Yeah! I'm sorry!" She shook her head, opening the door for him. "Do come in." He smiled at her as she took his coat and shook all the rain off it.

"Can I get you something?" She asked him as she was hanging his coat against the wall. He was examining her photos against the wall.

"Whazever you're having!" His hands were locked behind his back as he smiled at the photo of her and her dad. It slightly annoyed her that he was still looking at them, he has seen them before, he has watched them with the same smile over and over.

She poured him a cup of tea and put it on the coffee table. The noise of the porselain mug against the wooden table made the German doctor turn his gaze from the photos to her. He sat next to her and sipped from the tea.

"So Gottfried, how have you been?" She asked after a moment of silence. "No, what brings you here? I thought you'd return back to Germany this time of year?" recalling how she'd spend the last year in Germany with him.

"I decided to live closer to work. I bought a house here." He nods agreeing to every word he said.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "How nice."

"And you Paulina? How have you been?" They looked at eachother and Paulina suddenly remembered that look that caught her attention for the first time, that and his charming smile that made her fall in love with the handsome doctor from Germany.

''I've been.. good.. No real problems here in Boston, really.'' Paulina smiled which Gottfried happily smiled back. A few seconds of silence passed as the German sipped from his cup. He placed it down and looked at her.

''So, do you still dance, Paulina?'' he said, his words smooth as if covered in butter on a hot summer day. Paulina let out a light snort.

''Dance? Not lately - Not that I was especially good at it anyways.'' she said, straightening her back. Gottfried stood up and offered his hand courtly.

''May I make a suggestion of dancing for old times sake?'' Paulina looked at his hand and placed hers on his palm, standing up aswell. Slowly they started their waltz.

"God, this is weird..." she murmured softly when they glided across the room together. She looked up to his clean shaven chin and he looked back at her with his familiar reassuring smile.

Paulina somehow feeling very at home in Gottfried's arms. She couldn't help but to notice he had the same cologne he always used to, the familiar smell almost melting her heart. It gave her series of memories flashing before her eyes, the kissing, the embraces, waking up next to him... the lovely summer they spend in Germany together. Like her heart ached for such closure, her eyes flew over his smooth, handsome face. Their waltz slowly stopped as they looked at eachother, their faces carefully inching close to eachother

''Hey, Fritz, get your hands off Paulina!'' Ben shouted from the doorframe to Paulina's kitchen. Gottfried lifted his eyebrow inquisitively and peered down at Paulina.

''Paulina, do you know zis man?'' Paulina sighed and let go off Gottfried's hands, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a grunt.

''Yes.. Uhm.. Well, I guess you already know eachother.'' Gottfried nodded and peered over at Benjamin, who was fuming with the rage of a thousand suns. Or atleast a tiny Bostonian.

''Now, now, Scout - Let's not get ahead of ourzelves. I zink it is better if you leave before zings must end badly.'' Benjamin clenched his fists at the German's arrogant words, crushing the bouquet of flowers in his hand.

''How da hell am I supposed to do dat? YOU TRIED TO KISS MY GIRLFRIEND, YOU.. you.. Deutschbag!'' Benjamin shouted, throwing the ruined flowers onto the floor. Gottfried sighed, rolling his eyes at the immature whelp.

''I would slap you but in Germany we don't hit lizle girls.'' Benjamin glared down the German, before letting out a Bostonian warcry, flying at Gottfried, both men grabbing a hold of eachother's necks. Ben kicked franticly, getting Gottfried leant over, before smashing his face into the porcelain cup on the table.

Gottfried shrieked in agony, and Scout kept on smashing away at his back. Paulina ran up to pull Ben away, but got waved away - but this gave Gottfried enough of an opening to splash the hot tea-water into Ben's face.

''OW! MY FRICKIN' FACE! MY FAACE!'' Ben screamed as he stumbled out of the kitche, holding his burnt face in his hands. Gottfried stood up, walking out after the screaming Bostonian.

''All I can tell you is zis next procedure will be.. excruciating!'' Gottfried took a snug grip of Ben's head, before slamming him headfirst into the livingroom's glasstable - making the glasstop of the table crash at the impact, Ben letting out another high-pitched shriek. Gottfried confidently wiped his hands, turning around and smiling at Paulina.

''I apologize, Fräulein, but some bastards should j-'' Gottfried didn't get to complete his sentence before getting a copy of Andy Warhol's 'Flowers' smashed over his head. Scout followed it up by grabbing the German's hair and smashing him into another copy of Andy Warhol's painting of Jackie Kennedy. As he was about to continue his relentless assault, Paulina's voice stopped them both, dead in their tracks.

''STOP IT! OUT! BOTH OF YOU!'' Slowly both turned to look at her and then at their own bloody selves. Paulina put a hand on each of their backs, pushing them out the door.

''Out! OUT! OUT!''

Ben sighed as he sat down on the curb, wiping blood out of his eyes from being smashed into the glass table. The German sat down next to him, still with the painting wrapped around his neck.

''Yeah.. Nice tie, knucklehead. This is all your fault.'' Ben said angrily as he zipped up his jacket.

''Shut up, you lizle bunny.''

AN: AAAAAND WE'RE BACK! Updates every weekend!