Oliver persuaded Anabella to let him drive, since the elder's eyes were too unfocused and weary for his liking. The delivery run was not long, but after a heavy bout of sickness, running the bakery was enough for her strength. Siegmund and Matt begrudgingly ambled outside, ushered out of the bakery with the excuse of grocery shopping. They were bakers; the decoy was a perfect excuse. Lila stayed behind to 'watch over the bakery.' After slamming the trunk close, as it did not shut all the way the first time, Oliver risked his life to reach the driver's side of the car.

"You are a natural," Anabella granted once the engine revved.

The teen's ears flushed. "I-I have had an excellent teacher."

Anabella let out a little laugh from her throat, and stared out of the window as the vehicle swerved away from the curb. "It is a cold day," she murmured. Oliver kept his eyes on the road, but his fingers gripped tighter on the steering wheel. Small talk about the weather seemed below them. She continued, "Winter will pick up business. With all the other summer shops closing for the season, sweet tooth's will need to find new hunting grounds."

Last winter was crazy with batches of festive cakes and cookies with seasonal designs. Oliver smiled at the memory; the divots around his nails were dyed with various icings for many washes. "Not that we need the money..."

They shared crinkled smiles and small giggles. "What they do not know, will not hurt them."

"It is not like we put those problem customers in our cupcakes!"

"No, no!" Anabella shook her head, doubling over with laughter. The driver beside them at the purple light eyed them with a sour pucker. "The batter would get too heavy!"

The boy let out an embarrassing peal of chortles. He slapped a hand over his mouth, as if it could stifle the sounds. "Pardon me!"

The old woman tossed him a suddenly blank look. "There is no need to be pardoned," she simply said, until her worker pulled up to a bus stop. "Ah, here we are."

The trio of doctors caught sight of Anabella, and elbowed one another. Oliver opened the hatch, and brought out the cooler. The morning was late, so the men and woman were living on their own, independent of their coffees.

"Hey, you!" The dark haired man called to Anabella shuffling onto the sidewalk. Oliver eyed the other vehicles whipping past them while he settled the cooler beside Louis' feet. A hand rested on his back, and he jerked away just when it started making circling motions.

"Watch it!" Oliver snapped.

"Yes, yes," Anabella assured the others, "I am fine now."

"For now," the man muttered. "Really, Bells, we can help-"

"No," the elder rubbed the back of her shriveled hands. "There is no need to drag this out."

"Oh," Louis leaned forward, "I am watching."

The smell of cigarettes and floral scents clashed in a not so charming manner. Oliver held his hands up in a poor attempt to stop his advances. "It would be better for you to watch from afar."

"Dammit, Louis!" The woman barked, "What did I tell you about hitting on everything with a pulse?! Be useful and carry that, will you?"

"I would, but I am busy," Louis claimed. "I am trying to light my dark, dark life."

"Boo," the other man performed a thumbs-down. Oliver scooted closer to Anabella, as if her presence would ward off her grandson. "Let's get going. We're going to be late...again."

"That means you, too," Anabella swished a hand at Louis. "He doesn't need to be pulled in different directions by all these young gentlemen."

Louis grunted, giving his stubble a scratch before pecking his grandmother's cheeks. "Stay safe," he muttered, giving Oliver a last look. The teen was sure to blow a raspberry when his back was turned, but his boss wacked his arm, smiling sweetly despite her vicious attack. She laughed once they were situated in the car again, but it broke off to a light fit of coughs. Oliver flickered his eyes in her direction. With a sigh, she straightened out, and met his concerned gaze. "When we get to the bakery, I will need to lay my head down."

Oliver pulled into the usual parking spot in front of the bakeshop, his heart pounding with excitement despite the elder's worrisome news. That evening was supposed to be an eventful one! Lila was waiting for him before the windows, and immediately pounced on his head with a loud squeal. The teen glanced at Anabella, in case she heard the ear piercing sound, but like everyone else, all the time, she did not react. She was quietly desperate to get to her bed, which he allowed without further questions.

"We do not have any orders until the day after tomorrow, but it is a tad too early to head back to the House just yet."

Lila shuffled in his hair, putting in, "I thought you had a bet happening later."

"Yes, I do, but dinner is still a couple of hours from now."

"What does dinner have to do with it?" The fairy stopped herself. "Let me guess, I will see?"

"You said it!" Oliver stopped flipping through the near blank pages of the reservation book to glower at a cobweb in the ceiling corner.

Lila spun around on his head, and gasped, "Oliver! Outside!"

The boy whipped around at her squeaky tone, and she had to readjust her position from the sudden movement. Before the front door's pane, Gizmo sat on his haunches, drawing a dark claw down the glass. The chimera stared at Oliver with wide, nearly black eyes. Oliver eased, and crept closer to the door. Out of courtesy, he let the cat-monkey into the bakery. "You are a while from the House!"

Gizmo leaped onto one of the tables to get closer to the baker's level. It began right away, "A concerning occurrence is unfolding. It appears to be dire, and I inferred it may be of importance that you know about it."

"Uh oh," Lila began.

Oliver crouched before the table, gripping the edges tightly. "What do you mean? What is happening?"

"Those...mechanisms your kind travel in...there are several of them that are constantly circling the property." At the sight of the teen's confused expression, Gizmo's tail twitched. "These bright orbs are on top of the great carriers, and these humans that came out of them were dressed all the same."

"That sounds like the police!" Oliver glanced around the bakery in rising panic. "We must leave immediate-" he yelped as the chimera leaped from the table, and landed on his shoulders, disrupting his balance a bit. Lila exclaimed in disgust, revolving around them in lost of her perch. The baker fished for his keys from his pocket, and jabbed one at the door's lock. His shaking hands made the simple task more difficult than it had to be.

Gizmo's claws prickled against Oliver's scalp in urgency, and then as a way to keep rooted on his shoulders as the boy pelted down the sidewalk. Lila cried out to chase after them, latching onto the cat-monkey's matted fur so she would not be left behind.

Oliver huffed between quick breaths, "How long...did it take...for you get here?!"

"I left the vicinity after the second scouting was finished around the property. You were not at the delicious smelling place when I arrived."

"B-bollocks!" Oliver let slip, his cheeks inflaming with exertion. A passerby scrambled to latch onto her large tote bag as he zipped by her. He wanted to say worse things, but he did not have the breath or dignity. He cursed himself, however, as he realized he could have took Anabella's car again, but was too caught up in the moment to dote on it.

"Oliver?" A distant voice called, hoarse and ahead of him. "Oliver!" Some of the pedestrians swerved, as if to escape the shouting. Matt and Siegmund pushed by a man with his nose stuck in his cellphone. All of them were red faced and panting as they stopped a few feet from one another. "We...we were...hah, just going to get you."

"I have heard," Oliver breathlessly and stupidly replied. Lila let out a worried whine.

The other boys exchanged a confused look. "Wha-?"

"It does not matter at the moment. We need to get back to the House."

They nodded, hesitating for a moment to catch some air before charging after Oliver. He made it more than halfway across town before almost running into his Housemates, so within a few moments, which dragged on for anybody running, they neared the pointed fence surrounding the House's yard.

"Wait!" Matt called out, skidding to a stop. Siegmund and Oliver jogged back to him. "Those cruisers...hah, holy shit, those cruisers weren't parked there before. Dammit, that means they haven't gotten the others yet."

"Others? Who, Crookednose's posse?"

Matt shook his head, his chest heaving. "Let's go in the back way. I don't want to get snatched by one of them."

"Matt," Oliver barked, "They are taking my neighbor's pals away, right?!"

"They are supposed to! But when our guys returned, all of sudden, the police showed up, and started hunting them down!"

"What?!"

Siegmund let out a sharp exhale, throwing his head back. Oliver gave him a sympathetic look. "Hate...running...too."

Gizmo asked, ruffled from the random movements, "Are those...are those cruisers dangerous to other humans?"

Lila answered him, "People called officers drive those. They seem to like to take others away for long times for doing bad stuff, but sometimes, the people that are taken away didn't even do bad things! Oliver had not had pleasant experiences associated with them."

"I should stay out of the way if that is the case," the chimera decided, readying to launch off the teen's shoulders. "I have done what I could to benefit a friend."

Oliver gasped at the sudden lost of weight on his head, and stumbled into the backyard. The others gave him bewildered looks. Matt started again, "Someone called the cops, and it wasn't any of us! We did not need to. We had everything figured out!"

Siegmund began signing with a haunted expression, but the other teen's attention snapped to a loud cackle echoing across the landscape. All pairs of eyes landed to a rightmost window, where Oliver's neighbor nearly hung out of its frame. "You better run along now, or else you will be sleeping behind bars!"

"What did you do?" Oliver hollered.

"Are you stupid?" Matt snarled. "The police are going to get all of us!"

"Not me!" Another of Crookednose's pals wedged beside him. "We're not the ones that have the guns the cops were looking for!"

Oliver tried, "Why-?"

"Bastard!" Matt sprinted forward, and threw open the back door to get inside. Siegmund gestured for Oliver to stay, and he pelted after the blond.

"Shit!" Crookednose spat, tossing a glance behind himself. "Why did you have to say those kinds of things?! Get out of here before that psycho, maple loving wacko gets us!"

"Pansies!" Oliver hollered, but the window was already slammed shut. "Oh, goodness," he whirled around, jumping in fright at familiar shapes. "Lila, what do I do?! They're after the wrong group of boys!" Just fifteen minutes ago, everything was as it usually was, and he was already loathing this mass confusion spread to all four corners of the property.

A high, furious shriek came from the front of the House. "That sounds like Luciano!" The teen clapped his hands over his mouth. Lila was lost for words, and her stammering did not help matters. Oliver lurched forward to investigate, or perhaps somehow come up with a way to help his friends, but something crashed against the wooden siding of the House.

"Oliver, stop!"

Oliver backed away to crane his head to the balcony. "Allen!" He called out in half joy, half confusion. "What is going on?!"

The other teen grabbed the balcony's railings, and swung his legs over the wood. "Don't go over there, Ollie!"

"What are you doing?!" Despite his crazy protests, Allen dropped from the deck, and thumped on the grass, catching himself on both his feet. "Your brother just went inside-"

"Fuck, that was rough," Allen growled, but went right for the baker. His round features were plagued by a furious expression, cutting off Oliver's confused blubbering by sweeping him off the ground, and spun him around, closer to the rear gate.

"Ugh," Oliver was roughly sat down. "Allen, there are-" He was smothered by a needy kiss that squished their noses together. Just as quickly he grabbed him, Allen's lips left his to attack anywhere else. "Wha-! This is lovely, and all-" His cheek, over the bridge of his nose, to the other expanse of freckles made the baker fidget against the hands that clutched on his upper arms. "There are police officers here!"

"I know," Allen spat in a dark tone. "I know, dammit." He rested his forehead against Oliver's shoulder for a quick moment as he squeezed him tightly. Lila was constantly jumping and twitching in his hair, as if she was going mad. The other teen took a heavy breath, and announced, "You gotta get outa here."

"What?!"

Allen snapped his head up, and forced Oliver to spin around before shoving him between his shoulder blades. "Go! If they see you're wit' us, they'll nick you, too."

Oliver stumbled for a few steps, and twisted around, ferocious and flustered. "Oh no, you are not doing this. Us? No, you are coming with me!"

The other boy latched onto his shoulders when Oliver marched over again to grab him. "Just go, Ollie! It's too late fer us! They know who they're lookin' fer!"

"They have the wrong boys!" Oliver cried out, still gripping Allen's jacket despite his partner's best attempts to lodge him off.

"You think they would listen to me?! After all the trouble I caused fer 'em? They're waitin' fer an excuse to get me! This is it!"

"Oliver!" Lila panicked. "Please, let's just go!"

"No, no, no, not you, too!"

"Ollie, listen," it must have been difficult to speak as his shirt was clawed by desperate hands. "They can't keep me forever. I will come back. Fuck, I'll bust out, but it'll be worse if I don't go now!"

Oliver let out a gasp for his lost at the final, short lived kiss Allen planted on his lips before ripping himself away. "Come back, you idiot!"

"I will!" Allen did a short salute, jogging backwards a few steps before twisting around to run normally. The side of the House took the visual from Oliver.

Lila yanked on his hair when the boy took a step in Allen's direction. "You need to leave! Now, Oliver!"

"But-" Another, root pulling yank made him yelp. "Ow! Oh, blast it all!" Oliver spat, and spun around to bolt for the rear gate. "Blast it to pieces!"

"If only!" Lila unusually snarled. She gasped as a loud whoop approached from other side of the fence, quickly approaching the back of the property. However, pass the parking lot by the rear gate, more trees clustered together before a line of suburban houses, and Oliver ducked by a large bush against one of the houses' fences before any purple and yellow lights could shine on his face. He collapsed onto the cool grass, and shrunk against the wooden stakes. Lila was launched off his head, falling a little ways from him. His chest heaved for breath, "Running...ugh."

The fairy shot up into the air, only momentarily dazed. "Oliver! Are you okay?!"

The teen blubbered pass his breaths, which jumped to erratic inhales with his tears. Lila pushed on his forehead. "Sit up! Sit up, Ollie! You got to breathe!"

He tried that, slouched against the fence, and was able to sob more coherently. "I-it was a mistake...!"

"I know, Oliver. Just get it out."

All of it, the running, the sudden seizure of a large chunk of what he built for himself, and the great gap where all the happy plans of 'laters' and 'tomorrows' left behind as they were sucked away went out in rapid gasps and jumbled fragments. Lila rested on his knee, and nodded to each of Oliver's sloppy phrases.

"If Miss Warden knows...this is mistake! She can help me!"

"No, Oliver!" Lila launched off his leg to hover in front of his wide, watery eyes. "You can't do that! If you start explaining everything, she'll know you were a part of the plot! Just stay here, until the po-po.."

"P-police?"

"Puh-lease men leave. They'll take you away like they did to Marionette!" She gasped, "Just think! Your mother would be devastated if she found out you were imprisoned! I'll tell her!"

"That's awful!" Oliver wailed, but it kept him rooted to the grass.

"Then stay there!" Lila retorted, jabbing his nose with a small finger. "Don't forget Bella would be sad, too! You would not hurt a poor old woman's feelings, would you?"

"N-no!"

The fairy threw her arms up. "Point proven!"

"What about Allen, and the rest of my friends-?!"

"Allen said he will come back!"

"What if...what if h-he does not-"

"Stop. Stop!" Lila poked his nose again. "Saying things like that will only make you feel worse!"

The boy pressed his head to his knees. "I just had to get in a tizzy over a delinquent, did I?"

His small friend crossed her arms. "You weren't complaining about it before!"

The sirens whooped, startling the both of them, and the lights flashed across the sky before they drove off. "They are leaving," Oliver murmured, trying to make a view of himself by wiping the mess on his face.

"I can go check if everything is A-Okay to go back. It's getting dark, and I don't want anybody sneaking up on you!"

"Would you?"

"I would!" Lila claimed, and zipped off, leaving Oliver in the nearing night. He wedged his face between his legs once more, shivering from the grass numbing his behind, and from the autumn breeze that bit into his skin.