EDIT: Every chapter has changes in it, but the farther you read, the more there are. All the more reason to keep reading, right?

Fast update! This chapter is a bit longer than the last one, and it's in a new point of view. You can tell whose POV it is by whose thoughts I'm describing.

Chapter Three

Haibara had had a pretty good time at the park yesterday, considering she hadn't wanted to go in the first place. She'd never had any close friends in the Organization, so the three kids and Conan were the first friends she'd ever had, as immature as they were. She also had a new family. Agasa was like her father and Conan was her closest friend, besides Ayumi. Her life now was perfect by her standards, and she half-hoped she'd never find a permanent antidote.

There was actually another reason she didn't want to perfect the antidote. That reason was that he would go away. Conan Edogawa, better known to the world as Shinichi Kudo. She could picture in her mind what would happen when he was presented with the antidote. He'd stare at her with the stupidest expression before slowly grinning, thanking her, and running off to transform. He'd done the same thing every single time before, so she knew he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

'Thinking of Kudo-kun, there was something odd about his behavior yesterday,' thought Haibara. 'There was something odd about his actions. What was it?' She thought about everything he'd done, from inviting her to play, to splitting up the teams, and then playing the game. 'Of course!' she realized suddenly. 'He purposely put Ayumi-chan on his team for some reason. We generally all take turns being on his team because he's so much better than all of us, so why'd he go off the schedule? It isn't really like him to do that. And why didn't I notice this sooner?'

Haibara was still pondering Conan's mysterious behavior when she left for school. She normally walked alone until she met up with Conan and then the two of them would meet up with the other three along the way. However, when she passed the street where the Detective Agency was, there was no sign of Conan. She didn't take much notice of this and kept on walking. He'd been late before, so this wasn't exactly odd.

The big surprise though was still yet to come. When she reached the corner where they met up with Ayumi normally, she was very surprised to see Ayumi and Conan deep in conversation about something she knew he didn't care about: Kamen Yaiba. For one thing it was a kid's show, so it was way too childish for him. But what got her the most was that he'd actually taken a different route to school to meet up with Ayumi. She waited for them at the corner, but they walked right by without even noticing she was there. Apparently their discussion about how viable the fight with the monster at the end would be in real life was just too engrossing.

Haibara followed them silently, listening to their conversation. She was very surprised that Conan hadn't even acknowledged her presence at all, since he was a great detective and could tell when he was being watched. She was actually a little hurt by it. So she decided to do a very childish thing and butt into their conversation.

"Actually Edogawa-kun," said Haibara. "I think Ayumi-chan is right about the monster not being able to defend itself. If something like that were to exist in real life, it would be very fragile due to the weird combinations of animal parts and magic spells." Haibara normally spoke in monotone, but for some reason she'd just jumped right into their conversation and had acted more or less like a normal kid.

She was very surprised when they both jumped, indicating that they really hadn't noticed her presence at all. "Oh Ai-chan," exclaimed Ayumi, "I didn't see you there! You really scared me, but thanks for agreeing with me on the whole situation. I told you I was right Conan-kun!"

Conan just scowled and said, "Why'd you have to surprise us anyway? You could always just wait on the corner for us to see you!"

Haibara was very miffed. Either Conan really hadn't seen her or he was pretending not to have seen her for some reason. She didn't like either option. "I did Edogawa-kun," she responded. "But both of you just walked right past me like I'm just another mailbox or sign. Besides that Edogawa-kun, why are you walking with Ayumi-chan anyway? It's not like you to take such a long detour so early in the morning."

Conan immediately responded by saying, "Mouri-occhan woke me up early with his snoring and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I ate a quick breakfast and decided to just walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the early morning air. On my way to school I happened to pass by Ayumi-chan's apartment just as she was leaving and we struck up conversation about soccer, and then we talked about last night's Kamen Yaiba. Then we met up with you and you scared us."

It sounded rehearsed, but she didn't get to respond because Mitsuhiko and Genta arrived and started talking about the show in earnest with Ayumi.

The rest of the day passed just as weirdly, though you wouldn't notice anything if you weren't looking for it, which the other two guys weren't. Conan kept mysteriously ending up near Ayumi. He sat by Ayumi during lunch, always ended up in line near her, and kept giving loaning her his materials during the art lesson.

Haibara wouldn't have noticed it either normally, but since she had Conan's weird antics on her mind, she kept an extra-close eye on him and saw everything. The way he was acting and how he kept making excuses to be near Ayumi led her to one impossible conclusion: Conan had a crush on Ayumi. That was, of course, ridiculous, but it somehow kept nagging her. She then listed reasons that Conan would NOT like Ayumi. The first reason was of course the obvious age difference. The second was she had annoyed him to death for two years. The third was that he'd loved Ran for years, and had shown no signs before now of not still loving her. If for some reason he didn't love Ran anymore, he hadn't told her about it.

After noticing these small things, Haibara decided to do some investigating. After all, she was a member of the Detective Boys. She assumed she was just overthinking the situation. First she tried teasing him gently to see if he'd rile up.

"Having fun helping your girlfriend Edogawa-kun? She seems to be having fun." she said while he was passing Ayumi some scissors.

"Oi, she's not my girlfriend!" said Conan at once, instantly going on the defense, the same way he'd act when someone called him and Ran a married couple when he still in high school.

"If not, then why are so conspicuously staying near her and helping her out?" asked Haibara teasingly, though still curiously, "You've done it all day."

"I have?" he asked, looking genuinely confused, though he didn't fool Haibara one bit.

"Yes, you have. You'd better watch yourself or I'll have to report you to your other girlfriend," putting stress on the 'other'.

"Eh?" said Ayumi-chan at once, "Conan-kun has a girlfriend?" She looked very jealous and her eyes teared up.

Conan immediately tried to calm her down by saying, "I've never had a girlfriend, I just have several friends that are girls, including you and Haibara."

'Well, if you're not going to tell me, I guess I'll have to try something else later,' she thought. 'But if it is something innocent, since I've pointed it out to him he should quit. If he doesn't, then it means it's not a misunderstanding at all.'

Haibara turned her attention back to her art project at that point, and decided to figure out another method of finding out the truth. She decided to go right to the source. Not Conan, he'd just lie and dance around the subject again. She'd have to stoop lower and ask someone she respected but didn't like being around much: Ran Mouri.

Detective Haibara has finally come to the surface! Next chapter includes some tense moments between Ran and Haibara, including some startling revelations.

I appreciate all the feedback from everyone. My only request is that you all include some ideas where you'd like to see the story go. I have an idea, but I'm always open to others. So please review!