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Altruist

Shaun waited on Norman Jayden's front doorstep, fidgeting around anxiously. He held his backpack loosely in one hand, waiting for him to open the door. This was the only time Norman didn't run hurriedly to the door and let him in after Shaun followed the special "ritual".

Shaun "hmm"'d to himself, wondering if the reason he didn't open the door was because it was currently… 3 AM. Shaun looked around him outside, wondering if someone was watching him, and then turned back to the door to do the ritual again. Ring the doorbell twice, check… knock three times, OK…

Nothing.

Shaun sighed. "I really need to talk to you right now, too... Man, this sucks." Suddenly he remembered something Jayden had given to him in an unmarked white envelope that also contained his thirteenth birthday money a few months ago. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Sorry," He whispered softly, already remorseful, and sat his bag on the ground next to him on the doorstep, unzipping the biggest pocket and taking out a black binder. He opened it and immediately flipped to the last divider and dug out a note attached to a key from the back pouch. Quietly he opened the note and noticed a hole in the corner where a ribbon looped through and attached to the key.

"I can't believe I forgot about this…" Shaun closed his eyes and smiled. "But you did say to 'not open it until I needed it', which actually makes sense now." He laughed softly as he remembered his mother staring at this envelope when Jayden gave it to him at the party, looking suspiciously at it in her own motherly way. But as soon as Shaun took out the money and yelled, surprised and excited, hugging the agent tightly and showering him with a million "Thank you!"s, all her suspicions melted away and she turned back to cut the rest of the cake and lay out the plates on the table near the garden in the back yard.

Shaun was grinning, his face pressed into Jayden's side. "Is she still watching?" His voice came out all muffled and excited. Jayden smiled mildly, not attracting attention from the other party guests, and touched his fingers gently to a familiar place on the back of Shaun's neck without making a sound. Shaun instantly recognized what it meant.

"It's safe," He mouthed silently on the doorstep, trying to remember exactly how Jayden's voice murmured it two years ago when they first started formulating their secret code. There was only so many times Grace would allow Shaun to spend time with Norman, and every time he was at Shaun's house, or at his birthday parties, he was always under her careful, watchful eye and constant scrutiny, her wondering why he would spend so much time with people involved in past cases instead of working on new ones. She wanted Shaun to start spending less time with him, and less frequently. It was her opinion that her son needed to be weaned off of anything that reminded him of the past and eventually cut all ties with it completely. They even moved into a new house. With Steve. Shaun cringed. Steve. He made a lot of money, for being a professional marketing weasel and bullshitter. Shaun hated people who didn't have honest hard-working jobs, like his father had, being an architect, or even the FBI…

Shaun attentively untied the red ribbon from the paper, not wanting to rip through the hole in it, and put the key in the door and turned it, unlocking the door. He took the key back out and tied the loose ends of the ribbon to a belt loop near his pants pocket and let the key dangle from it. He opened the door and grabbed his bag, shutting the door softly behind him. Once inside he kicked off his shoes, locked the door and dropped the bag on the couch while reading the note. All that was on it was an address, written in their code.

And detailed instructions on how to get there from his house.

Discreetly.

"Well, looks like this one wasn't as hard to find as the others, Mr. Jayden. You're losing your touch."

If only Shaun knew how close to the truth he was.