Chapter Eight

"I mean, what do you even wear on a skiing holiday?" I asked, splashing water and bubbles as I threw dishes into the sink at the restaurant.

"A ski suit would be a good start." Lindsay said.

"Do I need to buy skis?" I said, turning to face her, "I can't afford to buy skis!"

"There will be skis there." Lindsay told me, "Will you stop panicking?"

I threw a ladle into the sink, "I just don't want to look like an idiot in front of his family. Apparently they've all been skiing for years."

"You could make up an excuse not to go." Lindsay suggested.

"No, I want to go." I said, "I just want it to go well."

"How are things with you and Victor in general?" She asked.

"They're good." I said automatically. And things were good, mostly. I still felt guilty about lying to Victor, but what he didn't know couldn't hurt him, right?

"Have you…." I turn around to see Lindsay waggling her eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes, "If you must know; no, we haven't."

"I don't get it - how do you resist?" She said. I went back to washing dishes, "I know you said his brothers are out of the question, but does he have, like, cousins?"

It's getting dark by the time I finish work, and the streetlights have turned on by the time I've walked home. I jogged up the steps to my apartment, fishing the key out of my pocket as I went, but when I reached the door I found it already open. I frowned at it, sure I'd locked it when I'd left that morning. Pushing it open, I flick on the lights and find my entire apartment in chaos. The furniture has been tipped over, glasses and plates have been smashed, my clothes strewn across the living room. Everything I own that isn't fixed in place has been thrown or broken.

A quick scan of the room shows me that my few valuable items - the TV, my laptop, my jewellery - haven't been taken, which confirm my fears. This wasn't a robbery. This, and whoever smashed up all my lights last week, is to get to me.

I leave, making sure to lock the door behind me, even though whoever is doing this can clearly get around my mediocre security. I go straight to Victor's apartment, which is the only place I can think of that would be safe to spend the night. It's not a very long walk, but I opt for taking a taxi anyway because I'm too freaked out to walk the city streets alone tonight.

I knocked on the door to Victor's apartment but there was no answer. I tried again but got the same result, not sure why I'd expected anything different. I was about to turn around and leave, but I couldn't shake the paranoid feeling that someone had been following me. Working myself into a state, I tried knocking again. When, inevitably, I got no response, I got desperate.

Since regaining my memory, I'd remembered how to do a lot of things I'd completely forgotten about, and one of those things was picking locks. Victor has two locks on his door; one which you need an electronic key card to unlock, which is of course easy for me to disable, and the other which uses a standard key. Pulling the bobby pins from my hair, it only takes me a few minutes to unlock the door. I re-lock it once I'm inside, keeping out whoever may or may not have been following me.

"Vick?" I called out into the empty apartment, even though I knew he wasn't home. It felt strange being in someone else's apartment without them. I only knew Victor's apartment in the context of Victor. I didn't know what to do once he'd been removed from the equation.

I flick on the coffee machine, then change my mind. I needed hot tea. If anything was going to calm me down at a time like this, it was a nice cup of tea.

Settling down on Victor's couch with the warm mug between my hands, I finally felt myself relax a little. I turned on the TV and switched to the cartoon channel, allowing myself to completely forget my troubles and relax further into the warmth of Victor's apartment.

~o.O.o~

I was woken up by the sun streaming onto my face, which was odd, because last night all the blinds had been shut.

Sitting up, I found the TV to be off and my mug sat clean on the draining board. Then Victor walked in from the bedroom, talking on his cellphone.

"You're going to have to get a warrant, Jack." He was saying. He raised an eyebrow at me as he saw I was awake. I felt myself blushing. He must have come home and found me asleep on his couch, probably wondering what the hell I was doing there. "There's not enough evidence to bring him in yet. Just talk to Sadago…..no, I haven't. Okay I'll look over it and get back to you later. Goodbye."

After hanging up the phone, Victor leaned against the kitchen counter, surveying me with a raised eyebrow, "Hello Ava."

"Hey." I said, trying to be casual. As if letting yourself into someone else's apartment for a nap was casual.

"Did you sleep well?" Victor asked. His eyebrow had not yet fallen back to it's natural place.

"I came over to see you last night but you weren't here." I explained. I could tell by the look on his face that that wasn't going to cut it, "I guess I fell asleep waiting for you to get back."

"I was at my parents' house. You know you could have called me." He said. I frowned.

"Yeah, guess I didn't think of that." I said.

Victor smiled and shook his head, "So instead of calling you decided to break into my apartment?"

I offered him a sheepish smile, "For a member of the FBI, your security isn't that great."

"I wasn't aware that I was dating a master criminal." He said. I managed to hide my shock at the comment, realising it was a joke just soon enough to stop myself from blurting out 'how did you find out?'.

I let a smile fall onto my face, "It's a one time thing, promise."

"I could just give you a key and the combination." Victor said.

That seemed like a big step. I mean, I know he wasn't asking me to move in with him, but giving me a key to his apartment was huge, right? I'd only known the guy a couple of months. He obviously saw my uncertainty, "Don't overthink that, Ava. You're already letting yourself in to my apartment, so why not have a key?"

"I'm sorry I broke in to your apartment." I said.

Victor smiled, "I don't mind, but for future reference if you'd called I could have actually come home to be with you."

"I'll call next time." I told him, nodding.

"What was so important that you needed to camp out in my apartment, anyway?" Victor asked.

"Uh, the heater broke at my apartment." I said quickly, avoiding his gaze momentarily.

"Want me to come over and fix it?" Victor asked.

I shook my head, "The building manager is doing it this afternoon."

Victor sat down beside me on the couch, "Does this mean you intent to spend the rest of the day in my apartment? Because I have no objection to that."

I smiled at the small smirk on his face, "Aren't you busy? You said to that guy on the phone that you had to look at something."

"I've got a few things to do." Victor admitted, "Why don't you take a shower whilst I sort them out, and then I'll make us some breakfast."

My smile grew. I'd half expected him to send me home, "Okay."

Victor's shower was luxurious, like the rest of his apartment. If I hadn't had the motivation of Victor waiting for me, I might have stayed in there all day. As it was I limited myself to twenty minutes before forcing myself out. The thick fluffy towel was a good enough reward.

I realised that I hadn't brought any make up with me, so I had to touch up what hadn't been destroyed by the shower and make do. I put on my clothes from yesterday and then made my way out to the main room.

Victor was still sat on the couch, bent over his laptop reading something. He heard me as I came over and shut the laptop.

"Good shower?" He asked.

"It was lovely." I told him, "You can keep working, if you want. I don't want to disturb you."

Victor shook his head, "Don't be silly. You know I'd rather spend time with you. This case isn't going anywhere."

I spent as long as I could justify with Victor, but eventually I had to go home or he'd get suspicious as to why I was so eager to be out of my apartment. Something in me wandered why I'd instinctively hid what was happening from Victor. It had never crossed my mind to tell him the truth. What did that say about me? About us?

I didn't know who was breaking in to my apartment, but there was a strong chance it had something to do with my past, and I couldn't tell Victor about any of that. Apart from the shame and the guilt I felt for that time in my life, he was an FBI agent. It would be his duty to report what I told him, and I didn't want to put him in a position where he had to choose between his job and me. Besides, I could get him in a lot of trouble, and I didn't want that either. Right now Victor seemed to be the only good thing I had going for me, and I really didn't want to screw it up.

~o.O.o~

"Knock, knock."

The person to whom the all-too familiar voice belonged to walked through my front door without waiting for me to answer.

"Damon." I greeted bluntly.

He sat down on my couch without being invited to, "Finn told me you went to see him."

I glared at the floor. Of course Finn would have told him, it was inevitable, but I hated the smug look plastered on Damon's face.

"I didn't want this to happen." I told him, "I still don't want back into that life."

"Then why did you go?" He asked.

"Because you gave me an ultimatum about my parents." I said, "And it wouldn't have been fair to decide without knowing what we'd been through."

"I'm still waiting on an answer for that ultimatum, you know." He said, "Time is ticking, Ava. I don't know how long they're going to keep your parents alive."

I leant against the kitchen counter and looked up at the ceiling, "You have to understand how complicated this is for me."

"I know. " Damon said. Suddenly the smugness and mocking was gone from him voice. It threw me a little - it had been so long since I'd had any kind of genuine interaction with Damon. "I do understand that this is hard for you, Ava, but I also know that you understand how important it is. We aren't asking you to come back, but we do need your help."

"I don't know, Damon." I said with a long sigh. I turned my back to him and started making coffee. I automatically remembered how he took his; two sugars and a dash of milk.

"You got a new coffee maker." Damon commented. I frowned at him, not liking that he knew my apartment well enough to notice.

"The old one broke." I said. Or rather, it was broken by whoever turned my apartment upside down.

Damon surveyed the apartment, "Did your lamp also break?"

"How often do you study my apartment, Damon?" I asked, "It's creepy."

Damon smirked at me, "I can't help but notice the details in my visions."

"But you could help not spying on me in the first place." I shot back.

His smirk grew, "It's hard to resist."

He stood up and continued to study my apartment as he walked around, "You've got a lot of new stuff." He stopped at the door, where three new heavy locks had been installed. He turned and raised an eyebrow, "Your locks break too?"

I averted my eyes, trying to think of a believable reason for the new locks. Then I studied Damon. There was no way I could talk to Victor about the break ins, but could I tell Damon? He wasn't exactly a friend, confidante, or ally, but he might be able to help me. Especially if it was something to do with my past.

"I've had a couple of break ins." I admitted.

Damon frowned, "What did they take?"

I shook my head, still confused by the whole thing, "Nothing. The first time they smashed all the lights in, and the second time they just trashed the place. I don't think it was ever meant to be a robbery, I think…"
"What?" Damon prompted.

"I don't know. It's crazy." I said, "It just feels like someone is trying to send me a message. And not a friendly one."

"You think someone is trying to scare you?" Damon asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe. I don't know what else would explain it."

Damon was suddenly looking worried, "Have you got any idea who it is?"

I shook my head, "I can't think who would do it."

"I can." Damon said, "At least, I have an idea."

"Who?" I demanded.

"The gang that have your parents." Damon said, "They might be trying to get to you too."

"But I have nothing to do with my parents anymore." I said.

Damon shrugged, "I think they've been trying to reach me too. It's just an idea."

I felt panic rising within me, "How could they have found me? I changed my name. You said I was untraceable."

"We thought you were." Damon said, "But these people are good at what they do. They were good enough to get your parents."

"I thought I was safe here." I said. I didn't feel safe now. If they'd seen through my fake identity and found me, what else could they find out? Could they find my friends? Victor?

"I don't think we'll be safe until we take them out." Damon said.

I looked up at him, "How do we do that?"

"We start by getting your parents." Damon said, "Are you in?" I hesitated, "Ava, we have to stop this. I know we haven't been the best of friends the last few years, but I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

Despite everything, I trusted his words. Family was above everything for Damon and the others.

"I'm in."

A/N: Hola! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for the continued reviews/favourites/follows, please keep them up! I'm looking for more Finding Sky fan fiction to read, so if anyone has any good recommendations please let me know!