A/N: Thanks for reading. Enjoy!
"I need a name, and not just any name.", Mia says, clicking the top of her pen. She and I are sitting on the floor of Kate and Elliot's living room while Kate sits in one of the chairs. The three of us have been spending the afternoon brainstorming ideas for Mia's food truck.
"It needs to be catchy. You want something people are going to remember.", I nod, looking over at Kate who's been writing like crazy. "What all have you got?"
"Uh..nothing.", Kate groans as she holds up her notepad. "I've been writing my name over and over, but I've been trying to come up with a name." She snaps her fingers and grins. "How about the No Name Truck?"
"How about no?", Mia sighs. "Would it be ok if I go and get a snack?"
"Sure. Go ahead. Get whatever you want. I think we've got some leftover pizza in the fridge. Ana, do you want something?", Kate asks.
"I'm good." Mia stands and heads to the kitchen as Kate and I go back to thinking. Neither of us have come up with anything by the time Mia returns with an apple and a bottle of grape juice.
"I thought about getting some of that pizza you told me about, but when I opened the box, I found it was empty.", Mia shrugs.
"Elliot.", Kate hisses. "He's the worst when it comes to leaving empty containers in the fridge. He's also terrible about leaving only a tiny drop of milk in the carton."
"He used to do that all the time when we were younger. I'd want a bowl of cereal before school, yet I'd find little or no milk in the carton. Back to the food truck, I'm going tomorrow to look at a van. It's only a year old and said to be in good condition. Of course I'd had have to have work done on it to make it adequate for business."
"Have you also given any thought to another aspect of this venture?", I ask Mia. "Hiring someone? It's going to be difficult to do the entire operation on your own."
"I've thought about it a little, and my friend Claire said she'd help. She's been looking for a job."
"Mia's Mobile Cafe.", Kate grins until she sees Mia shaking her head. "This is hard."
"A Fork in the Road.", I say. Kate and Mia dart their eyes to me and appear to be in disbelief. "Good?"
"I like it.", Mia replies. "No. I love it. It's a great name."
"I really like it too.", Kate adds. "Way to go Ana."
"Thank you." I look down at my watch and see that it's already five. "I've got to get home to my guys."
"I should be going too.", Mia says. "Nicholas should be getting off work soon. Kate, what time is Elliot going to be home?" Although it's a Saturday, Elliot's taking advantage of the nice weather by finishing up construction on the house his crew has been working on. As I'm standing, he walks through the front door. "Ah, there he is." Mia pads over to her brother and lightly pokes him on the shoulder.
"Ouch. What was that for?", Elliot asks.
"Stop leaving empty food containers."
"Yes Mom. I'll try to do better."
"That's all I ask.", Mia smirks. "Laters."
"What's taking your daddy so long?", I sweetly ask Oliver. Christian and I were in the middle of hanging out in the living room when he got a phone call, only that was almost thirty minutes ago. I ease off the sofa and go to the study. The door is half open so I'm able to get a glimpse of Christian pacing the floor with his phone to his ear. He holds the phone in one hand and runs the other hand through his hair.
"I don't give a damn. Find out answers.", he snarls before almost tossing his phone against the wall, but he halts when he sees me watching him. He opens the door, and I walk in, settling on the sofa with Oliver. "How long were you standing there?"
"Not long but long enough to see that something is bothering you."
"It's nothing." He leans down and kisses Oliver's cheek. "I'm sorry I was gone so long."
"Christian, don't do this.", I plead.
"Apologize to our son for taking away from our time together?", he scoffs. "Isn't family what's important?"
"Family is most certainly what's important but so is honesty. You can stand there all you want and say nothing is wrong, but I know you. I know the face you get when you're holding back from you. Haven't we learned from past secrets?"
"You're right. I just didn't want to ruin our good night, but it's already been tainted by what I was told in my phone call. Olivia needed some papers so she could do some work at home so she and Sawyer headed to the magazine. When she went to put her key card in the door, she noticed it was already unlocked. Sawyer refused to allow Olivia to go any further. He called the police who showed up to find the first floor intact but upon investigating, they found other floors disturbed. Papers were scattered all over the place. Chairs were flipped. Computer monitors had been broken."
"How could someone get in?", I ask.
"It appears whoever did it deactivated the alarm along with all the security cameras. The most damage was on the executive level where entire offices were pretty much destroyed. I've called my team to start looking for evidence." Christian falls back on to the sofa and stares up at the celing. "Your mind is already on a certain person." He rotates his head in my direction.
"I'm not saying it's him, but it's possible Jack Hyde is behind what happened. He has the computer skills to interfere with the alarm and the cameras. Christian, I wanted to believe he was being truthful about changing, but you need to prepare yourself for the fact that he's not as changed as you think."
"I know that.", Christian murmurs. "He's the first person who came to mind. It's disheartening to think the guy I put my trust in could turn around and betray me. I've been getting all good reports from his supervisor, and still been keeping tabs on him. He appeared to be doing well."
"Yet that could have been all part of his plan. He might have wanted you to believe he had changed just so you could let your guard down. I'm guessing it's too early to know if any information was stolen from the computers."
"Barney's already working on it. Whoever did it could be in possession of employee information. I'm getting a headache.", he sighs while rubbing the sides of his head.
"How about we go to bed and get some sleep? Tomorrow will probably be a long day, and we're going to need all the rest we can get."
"We?", he scoffs.
"Yes we. We're in this together."
