Elizabeth drove unaware of her surroundings as she often did when she was troubled. Barely did she notice the stream of cars rushing to get to their destination or the shifting colors of the traffic lights unless they were a danger to her driving. Something caught her eye, however, as she drove pass a corner and saw a newspaper post, suddenly an idea sparked in her mind. She parked the car (her FBI sticker had marvelous benefits since it would otherwise have been impossible to park in that area) and walked to the place. The owner, a middle age woman dressed casually, was accommodating some magazines so Elizabeth focused on her target and the task at hand. She began searching through all the shelves not wanting to miss any spots. Disappointment began to cloud her conscience as she was unable to find it. She pursed her lips in thought, barely able to notice the shuffling sounds near her.

"Oh! Hi there sweetie." Greeted the woman a bit startled when she saw her. "I didn't see you there." She dropped the diaries and smiled.

"I'm sorry." Lizzy said with an apologetical smile and jutted to the magazines "I was trying to find the Vogue magazine but I think it's sold out." She lied invisibly, disappointment filtered in her tone.

"Vogue… Vogue." Muttered the woman searching in the second shelve, "I don't think… Oh, here it is!" she pulled a thick magazine that was hidden behind an encyclopedia. "Who put this here?" The woman wondered taking the large book from the shelve, and placing it with the others of its kind. Elizabeth felt a pang of excitement when she recognized the familiar style.

"Here you go sweetie." She said cheerily handing her the magazine, and she took it as one would take a precious thing. "Thank you." Elizabeth said truly grateful, she could feel her mood chirping up, "How much is it?" she put it under her arm and took out her wallet from her trousers.

"It's four dollars." Elizabeth took out money from her pocket and gave it to the woman.

"Thank you sweetie, have a nice day" she said happily and continued with her chores.

"Thank you, you too!" she waved as she went back to the car and put the unusually heavy magazine under the passenger seat "It must be a special edition" she thought all the more excited. Unfortunately she had no time to look at it now but was comforted by its mere presence.

Elizabeth arrived at the Post Office building at 8 PM Sharp. She parked the car in her designed place and steadily directed herself through the familiar maze.

Before taking the elevator that would get her to the offices, she had to go through a security check, where they revised her belongings in case of bugs, weapons or any hazardous materials, as it was protocol for all agents. The few minutes that the search took did not gave her the clarity she was hoping for, no matter how hard she tried she could not come up with a solution to her problem, and it nerved her as it always did to have something unsolvable in her hands. Usually when she was out of good options she would just take any and handle it from there, she just needed to get started, all the pieces would later come together. Nevertheless this was not that simple. In a game where she knew it was probable she was being played with, where she had no allies and silent enemies, any choice could be her last. *Excellent description here!

"All good" the guard cleared her up and with a "thanks" she was gone. As she headed into the elevator she thought about how Red would act in regard to the "Tom" thing. Had he believed like the rest that she still trusted her husband? No, he knew she was smarter than she let it know as he had proved several times before. When she got to the elevator she wondered, what did Red think of her intellect? She had always considered herself as smart, above the average but not by far, and certainly not even near his level. Nevertheless he had always suggested that there was more to her, that she underestimated her. Lizzy shook her head trying to deviate from that, the only reason why he had said those things was to either praise her and establish trust or to get her over confident and screw something up. But of course the criminal mind was a devious net of wonders, profiling them was as fascinating as it was frustrating.

Out of the sudden, a smile spread on her face as she remembered a conversation with her dad.

She was around six or seven and she had announced her desire to be a criminal, of all things. When he asked both surprised and amused why that particular choice, she had explained that the good guy was always silly and dumb and only caught the bad guy out of luck. However, she had clarified that she didn't want to be bad, she wanted to be the smart one, witty and with good sense of humor, the one that with his/her money could travel around the world and meet interesting people and places. Realization surprised her, her role model had been Red.

"Penny for your thoughts." A deep and familiar voice brought her back to reality and her head spun to face him. She had not seen him getting in so she must have looked a bit stunned, Red on the other hand was watching her with amusement, his small "naughty boy looking at a box of matches" smile plastered on his face along with something close to fondness. She had seen that spark in his since the moment they met; Elizabeth did not know what it meant, sometimes she could read him like a book, other times he turned so unreadable that the need to uncover his secrets became overwhelming and she often find herself, whenever lost in thought, what would he think about a certain matter, knowing his opinion could give her a sense of calm that she rarely experienced.

Before she stared for too long she faced forward and said, "Morning Red." Short but in a tone that wasn't rude.

"Good morning Lizzy." He practically sang in his cocky tone "I can see Tom didn't murder you in your sleep." He added with the same pitch though with a hint of sarcasm. He was trying to provoke her.

She almost failed to held back the smile caused by his perky comment, the gap between it and her thoughts that same morning was not large enough. She faced him, her face serious but betraying nothing; she found herself unable of saying anything, after all what could she say? Could she trust him enough? She wanted to, but how could she know that it was truly her or if he had led her to feel that way?

Seeing her doubting, Red smiled warmly and spoke, "I know you don't trust him, you don't have to lie to me."

She took a deep breath and in spite of her best judgment said. "You are right, but I can't trust you either."

"I know, it would be foolish if you did." He added in a contrite tone.

She arched an eyebrow and frowned confused, "So why did you…?"

"Because you have to know Lizzy." He explained before she could even ask, "but it's better if you find out by yourself, trust me it will save us a lot of trouble" Elizabeth tried hard to conceal the sudden heat of anger that took her. She was terrified to go home, to face Tom, and he said something useless like this; what was the point of this?

"And how do I do that?" Her tone was sarcastic and increasingly raged.

"All you need is information, you are a smart woman, I'm sure you'll find a way around it."

At that moment the elevator's door opened and with a smile and a nod he was gone.