A/N: It's now mid April or about four weeks later after the last chapter.

Chapter 5 – Mad World

"I'll be over as soon as court is over with. Shouldn't take that long. Just let yourself in and I'll be there as soon as I get done here. Want anything special for lunch or anything?" I had given Anna a key to my apartment last week when she gave me one to her house. We spent time at each place, depending on work schedules. On the nights Anna had to work the next day, we usually stayed at my apartment because it was closer and she could be with me longer. Most other nights, we were at her house.

"I was thinking I'd make spaghetti? You've got the noodles already in your house and I can make the sauce after I stop by the store and get what I need. I'm not that hungry though, but it sounds good to me. Still feel kinda bad, but I'm okay otherwise. Just hurry home?"

"Still not feeling well from whatever it is you have?"

Anna sighed, "Sort of. I don't know if that's what it is or not. Probably just tired and with me going back to work tomorrow, I know it won't get any better the next couple days."

"I know that one all too well." I thought a minute, "Oh, I was about to forget, but someone's got a birthday coming up. Any idea what you want?" I switched the phone to my other ear as I waited on her response.

"I have a pretty good idea. Let's see, he's about 6'2 with brown hair and speaks with a Texas drawl when he gets agitated and his birthday is the day after mine and someone hasn't told me what he wanted, either."

I laughed. "You've already got me and my accent is not that bad. Not any worse than yours." I brought my arm up to check what time it was, "Hon, what time is it? My watch stopped."

"Again? I know what I'm getting you for your birthday then. Hold on, let me check." Anna apparently brought the phone away from her ear and checked it. "It's 9:45. If your court case is at ten, you better split."

"Crap, thanks for reminding me. I'll see you in a bit."

Anna and I said our goodbyes as I muted the ringer on my phone and stuck it in my pocket. I had to be in court today for a burglary Warrick and I worked earlier in the month. "How's Miss Anna doing there, Nick?"

I shoved the door open to the courtroom. "Fine. She's at my place waiting on me to get done here. Not feeling too well actually, but other than that, she's fine." We took our seats near the front of the courtroom. "This better not take all day long. I've got places to go."

Warrick nudged me, "Yeah, like home to a certain paramedic waiting?"

The court was called to order so I didn't get a chance to respond. Warrick testified first, and then I followed after him. We were excused almost two hours later. I hurried to get home so I could change and see Anna.

Parking my truck in front of my building, I started up the walk to the door. I was about to open it when I happened to glance in the window of my apartment that faced the parking lot. Anna was lost in whatever song she was listening to and wasn't paying any attention. She had her back to the window, but was in the kitchen cooking. I watched from outside as she kept dancing in my kitchen, oblivious to the fact I was watching her. Not wanting to interrupt my dance show, I quietly opened the door and shut it, still watching her dance it out in my kitchen. I wanted to say something, but I was having too much fun watching. Even feeling as bad as she did, she could still put on quite a show. She had changed out of what she had on last night when I left her asleep at my apartment and into a pair of yoga pants and a fitted tee and was barefoot. I did shut the blinds at the window behind me to keep my neighbors from getting a view as she continued to dance and sing along to the song on the radio.

Turning her attention back to the stove and whatever it was she was cooking, she started singing along to a song I haven't heard in years. "Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose. You can plant any one of those. Keep planting to find out which one grows. It's a secret no one knows. It's a secret no one knows. Oh, no one knows..." She faded off as she went back to stirring whatever it was she was cooking.

I couldn't help myself. I had to interrupt her star performance. "You've got a really good voice. I haven't heard you sing like that. I bet if you ask the lady next door, she'll know." I startled Anna as she jumped and turned around to face me. "She's got all sorts of crap planted back there in the planters."

"God, you scared me." She threw a dish towel at me which I easily caught. "But thank you for the comment about my singing. How was court?"

"Sorry about that, but I was enjoying the show." I tossed the dish towel on the counter and stood behind her, smelling her vanilla lotion she wore as well as the spaghetti sauce she was stirring, "You smell good as always as does the sauce. Court was fine. Warrick and I testified to what we saw and here I am." Anna had her hair pulled back in a pony tail, giving me access to the back part of her neck. I kissed her neck which caused goose bumps to appear on her skin. "Slam dunk, but you know how defense attorneys are. They'll argue anything to get their client off." I got a spoon out of the drawer and dipped it in the sauce to get a taste, "Good as always."

Anna left the sauce in the pot and made her way to the couch. "Your TV sucks by the way." She flipped through the few channels I got using the antenna. "We've got to talk about getting you some decent channels." Giving up, she switched the input over to the DVD player and got a movie off the shelf behind the TV and put it in.

"I know. The old company I had kept raising their rates and I wasn't home enough to justify the expense and with me living here, I can't get a satellite dish. Management of the company won't let us. Guess I could check into it again now that I have someone to watch it with." I sat in front of her and she adjusted herself to where she was sitting on her knees and could reach me to put her arms around my shoulders. "You do feel a bit warm to me. Miss me?"

"I still kinda feel bad but of course I missed you. Always do when you're not here." Anna got up. "Pause the movie so I can dump the sauce and the spaghetti will be ready." She kissed me on the cheek as she went back in the kitchen.

After finishing preparing the food, Anna brought out two plates of spaghetti. "Are you sure that's enough?" Anna barely had any food on her plate.

"Yeah, I'm just not that hungry today. But eat up."

I hit the play button on the remote and the movie started again as she and I ate while we watched Steel Magnolias again for about the 200th time since I had known her. I learned early on in our relationship that this was one of her favorite movies. We finished up lunch and I took our plates back in the kitchen to rinse off and clean up as I left her in the living room, stretched out on the couch as the movie played on in the background.

When I got back in the room after putting the leftovers in the fridge, I saw Anna had fallen asleep on the couch. I picked her up and took her back to my bedroom to sleep. She stirred slightly when I picked her up. "Just taking you back to the bedroom. More comfortable. Go back to sleep." She yawned and closed her eyes as I put her in the bed.

I changed out of the clothes I had on and into a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt so I could finish cleaning up the kitchen and the rest of my apartment while Anna was sleeping. After I got done, I took a shower and got in bed next to a still sleeping Anna. While I was gone, Anna had pulled the covers up over her head as she slept. Never understanding why she did that, I got up again and got the movie out of the DVD player in the front room and turned the TV on in my room and finished most of the movie while she slept.

She woke up a little bit later. Stretching as she woke up, she rolled over and put her arm across my stomach. "How long have I been asleep?"

I checked the clock on the table on her side of the bed. "A few hours. The movie is about over. Shelby's in the hospital." Anna moved her pillow closer to me and we watched the ending of the movie. Towards the end, she started to tear up. "You've seen this movie how many times and you still cry?"

"Shut up. I'm a woman. I'm supposed to get emotional at movies like this." She sat up in bed and stretched again. "Up for a lesson at the driving range? I need to practice. The fire department charity golf scramble is coming up and Bryan and I are on a team with our shift captain and his wife. Need the practice so I don't embarrass myself. "

"You don't need to practice much. You're a good golfer." I had seen her hit a few times. She got up and got dressed and she took me to the driving range in town. Anna played golf sometimes after Bryan got her playing it with him and I tried to learn the game, but I wasn't as good as she was. I watched as one by one, she hit the golf balls hard enough to send them flying through the sky and landing well beyond the 100 and 150 yard markers in the lot. "I think you'll do fine at the scramble next week. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

She handed me her driver. "I hope not. I wind up embarrassing myself and captain's gonna put me on another station or give me a bad shift." Stepping out of the sun and back behind me, she put her sunglasses on her head as I attempted to hit the ball. Mine didn't go quite as far as Anna's, but I was getting better.

My last ball came out of the dispenser. I teed up and hit it. The ball hit off the side of the club and instead of going straight ahead on the driving range, the little white ball made a right curve and hit a flower pot on the terrace of the clubhouse next to where we were. I turned around to face Anna and she was already turning red from laughing. "And another one bites the dust…" I shook my head and turned around to survey the damage again. I turned around to look at her and she was doubled over with tears running out of her eyes. "You know, I'm beginning to think you find this humorous."

She straightened up and tried to stop laughing. "Not really. I'd never laugh at you. I'm merely laughing with you." Anna looked over my shoulder at the shattered remains of the flower pot and then back at me and lost it again as she started laughing.

"It takes talent to do something like that. Sure, sure you can get the balls to go out past the 200 yard mark, but only I could smack and break a flower pot with a golf ball." I handed the driver back to her. "Better take this before I go breaking a window next."

She took the driver from me as she tried to quit laughing. "Now that's talent right there. Rest assured, if there's ever a golf scramble that involves demolishing flower pots with golf balls, you're my man. We'd win. Hands down."

Anna and I started back to the parking lot towards my truck as the sun started to set as the afternoon was drawing to a close. "I thought I already was?"

"Of course you are." She pulled me down to her level so she could kiss me. "I hope you know that." She kissed me again as my pager went off. Not breaking the kiss, Anna groaned. She looked down at my belt. "I hate that thing sometimes."

"Yeah, tell me about it." I pulled it off my belt and checked the pager's message. "Arson investigation 1411 Red Grove Road. DB inside. Meet Warrick there – swing is short handed. Sorry, Anna. - Grissom." I handed the pager to her so she could read her message from my supervisor. "Well, guess I need to take you back home then, huh?"

Anna sighed as I opened the door, "Oh goodie, an arson case after golf. Oh well. Such is life." She got in and I went around to the driver's side. "So do I need to call dispatch and tell them you're gonna be late because of the 419 at the golf range?" She held out her cell phone, poised to dial the number.

"Ha ha, Anna. Very funny. You gotta get me one of those things."

She looked at her BlackBerry and silenced it when one of the alerts went off. "Bryan sent me a text." She typed out a response before looking up at me. "A Berry like mine? Now that'll be different. If you want one, I can add you to my plan and get one. I get a discount from being with the fire department. Free handsets since we're public servants and all and most of our handsets kind of die when they get dropped or drowned at a fire call."

"I can imagine." I dropped Anna off at my house. She said she was headed home to check on her critters and then was probably going to stay at my apartment tonight since she was so tired and didn't want to be alone. I changed clothes and grabbed the keys to my truck once again and after kissing her goodbye, headed into work.

I left my truck at the apartment and got in my Tahoe which was parked between my truck and Anna's Xterra and headed towards the address I was given. The house was charred on one end of it. Warrick met me outside. "Sorry about this. Ecklie called Grissom and asked for us since they're short handed."

"Eh, no matter. Anna and I just finished up at the golf range. She was heading to her house checking on her horses and then said she'd be back to my apartment later. She didn't feel like going home to an empty home." We started towards the front door, or what was left of the front door, of the house. "Nice. Evidence eradication crew beat us here already I see." The ceiling was blackened with soot and was dripping wet from the water used to put out the fire. "Up for a challenge? Arson cases always are."

"Ah yes, the firemen. Always here to make our jobs just a little bit harder."

The arson case took up the rest of the night. The coroner came by and got the crispy critter out of the house and took him back to the lab for the autopsy just as Warrick and I finished up in the house. As David and his assistant were loading the body in the van, I watched them before I threw all the evidence Warrick and I had collected in the back of my Tahoe. After shutting the door, I realized I hadn't heard from Anna all night and started to check my pockets for my phone. Not finding it in my pockets, I hoped I had left it in my truck. I got my keys out and got ready to leave when I saw it was on the seat next to me. Flipping it open, I saw I had a text message. "Up now. Call me if you can. – A." I checked the time stamp on the message. It was about twenty minutes ago.

I dialed her number as I left the scene. She answered quickly. "Hey dear. Did I interrupt?"

"Not at all. Just got done with the scene. Coroner came by to pick up the deceased and just now headed back to the lab. Was hoping to get a chance to stop and grab lunch, but that's probably not going to happen." I switched the phone to my other ear so I could turn the volume down on the radio in the truck.

"What do you want? I can bring you something?"

I glanced at the clock on the radio. "Anna, it's nearing two in the morning. I don't want to make you get out this late. I'll be fine. I'll just grab a Twinkie or something from the vending machine. I'll be fine."

"I'm already up and I'm hungry myself. I already polished off the left over spaghetti from earlier. My appetite seems to be coming back. What do you want? I've already got my clothes back on."

"You're spoiling me, you know that, right?"

"Yep. I know. That's what I'm trying to do. You deserve it. So what'll it be?"

I told her to bring me whatever she felt like and hung up the phone as I got back to the lab and started to unload the evidence out of the back of my truck. On the third trip outside, Anna was leaned up against the side of my Tahoe, holding a white bag in her left hand and a drink in her right hand. "Lunch is served, my dear." She held out the bag and took a drink of my Coke before she handed it to me. "And it's not poisonous. I checked."

"You're too kind to check for me." She handed me the bag. I looked inside and saw a cheeseburger and some fries from one of my favorite all night restaurants. "Thank you. You're awesome. This is so much better than a Twinkie." I kissed her as I grabbed the last box from my truck and dropped it off at the evidence clerk's desk. I stopped by the receptionist's desk and got Anna a visitor's badge. She clipped it to the Texas Longhorns sweatshirt of mine she had on that matched the pair of grey sweat pants that she was wearing. "Converting to a Texas fan?"

Anna looked down at the shirt, "Uh no. This was the first one I pulled out of your closet and put on. I'm still a Hogs gal. If this gets back to the alumni at U of A, I'm gonna have to turn in my plastic hog hat and snout."

I led her to the break room at the end of the hallway. She pulled out a chair from the table and sat down as I grabbed some napkins and sat down next to her to eat my lunch she brought me. Anna pulled both of her knees to her chest and hugged herself, laying her head on her knees. "You don't feel good, do you?" She shook her head but put it back on her knees when she was done. I pulled her rolling chair in closer to me and put one of my hands behind her neck. "You may have a fever. Take some Motrin or something when you get back home. It's in the cabinet in the bathroom." I finished up my lunch as Anna stayed in pretty much the same position she was in when I started eating. I tossed the wrappers in the trash, "Thank you. I know you don't feel well, but thank you."

I walked with Anna back outside. She took the visitor's badge off of her sweatshirt and handed it back to me, telling me she was going to go back to my apartment and sleep it off. I told her goodbye and let her know I'd be in the lab the rest of the night and if she needed me to call.

I finished up processing what I could for the rest of the night. It was nearing 9AM when I finally dropped the last bag off at trace for them to process. I was heading back to my locker to change when my phone rang. "Hey beautiful. Sleep well?"

"Well, actually I did, but thanks for asking." I turned around to see Greg standing on the other side of me. "You look ravishing yourself, handsome. This whole lab rat look works for you. The lab coat brings out your eyes."

"I'm wearing a blue coat and my eyes are brown, you goof and I wasn't talking to you." I took off the lab coat and tossed it at Greg. "I was talking to Anna, see?" I held out the phone. I gave him a shove as I walked by him to leave the room and head outside. "Sorry bout that. I guess I should have been a little more specific when I said what I did."

"I did for the most part. Just now woke up and figured I'd try to call you. Heading out now?"

"Yeah, leaving now. Heading home. Oh, I forgot to tell you, cable installer will be there after while. Mind hanging out there until I can get there? The rep I talked to on the phone said it'd be between eight and noon."

She said she'd stay awake until then, but still wasn't feeling well. I left the lab and headed home. I saw the cable van in front of my building. I saw the installer leaned inside his truck, writing something on a work order. "You here to install for me?"

He turned around and flipped up a piece of paper. "Nicholas Stokes?"

"Yep. That's me. Come on in."

"Nigel Crane from Luna Cable."

I shook his hand. "Nice to meet you." He walked with me up to the front door. "Just wait right here a minute. I don't want to scare my girlfriend. Let me make sure she's up." I left him at the door as I went to check on Anna. She was in my bed with the covers thrown off of her. "Anna?" I sat down on the bed next to her. She had changed out of the sweat pants she was in last night and was wearing a pair of gym shorts and a tank top. "The cable guy's here. I didn't want to scare you."

She got up and opened my closet door and pulled the Texas sweatshirt she had on last night off the hanger and put it on again. "There. Halfway presentable." She pulled a hair tie out of the bathroom drawer and pulled her hair back in a messy ponytail. I went with her up front and left her on the couch still about half asleep as I let the cable guy in.

He stepped in and looked at me before he started to stare at Anna. Something in the way he looked at her didn't set well with me, but he soon turned his attention to the work order in his hand. "So what are we doing?"

"TV in here, then one in the bedroom for cable."

"Do you mind doing the one in the bedroom first? I feel awful and want to go back to bed and don't want to get you sick if whatever I have is contagious."

He looked over at Anna again as he gave her the same look he gave her earlier. It still didn't sit well with me but after a moment, he turned his attention back to me, completely ignoring Anna. "Sure."

I showed him back to the bedroom and came back to sit with Anna while he worked. "You look a little better." I handed her a pillow from the chair next to the couch and motioned for her to sit up so I could put it behind her.

She sneezed. "I wish I felt better. Sinuses I think or maybe allergies. Or maybe it's some rare virus that no one knows about yet."

"Funny." I poked her in the ribs, knowing she was kidding.

"I was feeling better last night when I stopped by to see you. I really don't want to go to the doctor, but I may have to."

I sat on my knees down on the floor in front of her. Anna put her hands on my neck and brought me in closer to her to kiss me. She rested her head on the top of my shoulder. "Your fever seems to be broken." She pulled her head back and I felt the back of her neck. "Did you check it?"

"Excuse me?"

Anna looked up to see the cable guy in the hallway. She sat back against the couch so I could get up to see what he wanted. I left her where she was as she curled into a ball on my couch. "Yeah, man?" I looked over my shoulder at her again and she was pulling my Texas throw off the back of my couch to wrap herself up with.

He looked over my shoulder at Anna as she finished cocooning herself in the blanket. He was still looking at her in that same way that made me uneasy. "I need in your attic to run the line down and to hook it up. Where's the access?"

I told him it was in the hallway. I heard him pull the stairs down as I went back to Anna. She asked for something to drink and as I was fixing her drink, the cable guy came back. "Where's Nick?"

I looked around the kitchen wall as she peered out from under the blanket. "He's in the kitchen fixing me some green tea. Need me to get him?"

"I'm right here." I handed the glass to Anna. "Here, honey." I turned my attention back to the cable guy after Anna took the glass from me. "What's wrong?"

He motioned for me to follow him back to the bedroom. I stayed back near the door as he picked up a remote he left on the dresser. "Regency Cleaners?"

"Huh?"

He pointed to a receipt on the dresser. "Regency Cleaners. You use them?"

I had forgotten Anna had dropped off two of her uniform shirts to be repaired as well as a few of my shirts that needed to have buttons sewn back on. She needed a new patch sewn on one of them and some buttons put back on another one. "Yeah, my girlfriend dropped off some of our clothes to be repaired. Buttons and stuff." I reached out for the remote. He dropped it in my hand, paying more attention than necessary to the dry cleaning receipt. "So is it hooked up or what?"

"Yep, I'm done back in your room. She can come back here and sleep now while we work on the front one."

I didn't understand the whole we part, but I shrugged it off as I went back up front to get Anna. She had fallen asleep on the couch while cable man and I were in the bedroom. I woke her up long enough to get her to come with me to the bedroom, leaving the cable guy in the living room. I got Anna tucked into bed and closed the door so we wouldn't bother her and headed back up front.

He was already working on drilling a hole in the wall for the cable line when I stopped in the kitchen to fix myself a snack. I heard him talking to himself about something, but didn't want to interrupt. I picked up some case files I had brought home and spread them out on the table as he worked. I started flipping through the pictures, not even paying any attention to anything around me. "You a cop?"

I looked up to see him standing next to me. He had a pair of wire strippers in his left hand and some coax cable in his right. "Uh not really. I'm a criminalist. I work for the crime lab."

"Sounds exciting actually. Get paid to observe people."

The statement he made caught me off guard. "I guess that's one way to look at it."

He went back to the TV and started trying to make small talk to me. I listened about half the time as he finished up about an hour later. "You've got some extra channels I threw in on this TV for you. Sports channels. Noticed you're a Texas fan judging by the rug and the throw on the couch?"

Cable guy was starting to make me more than uneasy, "Yeah. Texas Longhorns all the way and thanks for the extra channels. You didn't have to do that.'

"No problem." He threw some tools into a bag and after casting one last glance around my apartment, started towards the door. He dug in his pocket and handed me a card. "My business card. Call me if you ever have problems or if you just want to go out and grab a beer or something together."

The weird cable man was already making me uneasy the whole time he was here, but I thanked him and let him outside. If I could have, I would have thrown the weird little cable man out the door to get rid of him. I left the case files where they were and dropped his business card and the remote to the new TV cable box on the table and went to check on Anna. She was still asleep on her stomach with the covers kicked off of her. I covered her back up and went to finish on the case files I was looking at.

After getting my laptop out to type out a narrative, I flipped through the case files trying to find my handwritten notes from the crime scene. I spent the next hour typing out narratives from the notes I took about the pictures and evidence collected. Stretching after I was done, I put everything up and tossed the remote on the couch and joined Anna in bed to take a nap before shift started.

We woke up after dark. Anna stayed in bed while I got ready to go to work, falling back asleep while I was in the shower. Not wanting to wake her up again, I left her a note on the night stand on her side of the bed, telling her to call or text me when she got up. After kissing her goodbye, I left my apartment and headed into work.

Assignments were handed out and I got a hit and run with Warrick. We worked together in silence for a while until we got to take a break while the wreckers loaded up the car that was involved in the crash.

I started telling him about the weird little cable guy. "Anna was there with me and he kept giving her this look that still doesn't set well with me. It was almost like he was mad at her for being there or something. I don't know, but it just really got under my skin."

"Little short guy? Dark hair and glasses?" Warrick stopped talking long enough to sign an evidence bag and toss it into the back of his truck.

"Yeah, that's him."

"He installed at a neighbor's apartment about two doors down from mine. I had the window open and was in my living room watching a game. He kept eying me through the window as he kept walking by. I didn't understand why, but I didn't question him. I figured it's best to leave things alone." Warrick crammed another bag in the box in his truck. "Need to get another one. This one's full."

I shoved another bag I was holding into the already crowded box in the back of his truck. "He was there longer than he needed to be and thank God Anna was asleep most of the time he was there. I don't know. He just kept looking at her funny every time he had to be in the same room with her. Made me real uncomfortable but I think Anna was too sick to care. Feels like something was off. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it."

"Nick, your gut instincts aren't usually wrong. Just keep your eyes open and if he made you that uncomfortable, call that 800 number on the customer service sheet he left. Report him."

We finished up on the scene and headed back to the lab to start processing. Before I knew it, it was nearing seven in the morning. Anna sent me a text to let me know she was on her way into work and thanking me for picking up the shirts from the cleaners. I texted her back and said I didn't get a chance to go by. I tossed the phone on the table and forgot about it until it rang almost two hours later. "Working hard?"

Sounding tired, she said she had just gotten back from a run. "It's 9:30 and I've been here 90 minutes and we've already had two runs. One was a no treatment, so that technically doesn't count as all we did was make the scene, but left there and came back to the station. We got back to the station, left there, headed on our second call of the morning and got another one. Dropped him off at the hospital and now we're headed back in." She answered a radio call her dispatcher gave her. "Sorry about that, and yet another one. Bryan's driving, so I can talk."

"I take it the cleaners lost our stuff? I didn't go by. Was gonna go by this morning, but we're just now wrapping up from the hit and run."

Anna answered the radio again. "Thing won't shut up. No, I stopped by the cleaners before I came here to work and they said you had already been by. The clerk said you had come by earlier and said I just missed you by just a few minutes, but I didn't see your truck in the parking lot."

I was racking my brain trying to figure out what was going on. "I didn't go by. I'll stop by when I'm done here and double check. Maybe the clerk was confused?"

"Just let me know. I need my uniform shirts. I've got career day at one of the schools in a couple weeks and needed to get that new patch sewn on." Anna went silent as she radioed to the dispatcher they were about to be on scene. "About to have to hang up. We're almost at the scene and Bryan and I have to put on our Super Medic capes and go save lives or something. According to Bryan, we even have a motto now. 'We save lives, dammit.' He went for originality."

I could hear Bryan in the background adding input to our conversation. "Tell CSI Man we still need a theme song."

"Hear that? Bryan said we needed a theme song to go along with our motto."

"Tell him you were doing the 'MMMBop' thing pretty well in my kitchen."

Anna groaned. "You would bring that up again, huh?"

"I don't know, you dancing to 'MMMBop' wearing those yoga pants. Kinda sexy."

"Yeah. There's nothing sexier than a sick girlfriend in your kitchen stirring spaghetti sauce while singing along to a Hanson song from the 90s." Anna answered another radio broadcast and said they were on scene and she'd be done in a bit.

I told Anna goodbye and she said she'd call me later. I went back to finishing up the evidence and left the crime lab, headed to the cleaners to find out about our missing clothes. When I got to the cleaners, the clerk there told me the same story she told Anna. Another man claiming to be me had already picked everything up a few minutes before Anna had come in. The clerk explained that they could have gotten the clothes mixed up or put our tag on another set of clothes and whoever it was picked it up. "If you'll leave your number, we'll call you if they show back up. Chances are if they picked up the wrong clothes, they'll bring them back to get theirs. It happens. Sometimes tags get mixed up or we invert a number. I'm sorry this happened to you. Truly."

"Thanks." I wrote my number and Anna's number on the lost clothing form she handed me. "Just call either of us. My girlfriend's shirts were the fire department shirts and mine are the other two."

The clerk took the form from me and put it in a drawer. I left still wondering what happened to our clothes. Leaving there, I texted Anna to tell her what I found out at the cleaners and that I was going home to take a nap and would call her later.

A/N: So can you guess what's coming up in some upcoming chapters? As always, reviewers will be rewarded with previews and my undying gratitude for taking the time to read my story and then letting me know they did it by leaving a review. The previews I've sent out already to those who have reviewed in the past will be making more and more sense in the upcoming chapters. So stay tuned and review away!

And to those of you who read and didn't review, the flower pot's blood is on your hands!