It was the middle of the morning and Lisa was walking down an unknown street in Shelbyville, following the directions on her phone. Bart hadn't come home that night. She had called Milhouse just in case, but his best friend confirmed he wasn't with him. Now, it wasn't unusual for her brother to spend the entire night out without warning, but this time was different, Lisa knew Sideshow Bob was lurking around. She was probably wrong to worry at all, but a bad feeling was gnawing at her, as though she knew Bart was in a really bad spot.

She held onto the piece of paper she had found in Bart's room, a strange address in Shelbyville hastily written on it. 'I just called him, he's with Angela', Milhouse had texted her later on her way here. Bart's ex-girlfriend did not live in Shelbyville, so why was he here?

She eventually reached the house and her fears were confirmed when she read the name on the mailbox.

'R. Terwilliger'. She knew it, Sideshow Bob. It was a good thing she had prepared her trusty pepper spray just in case, although it might not be enough to make sure her brother was safe. She gathered all of her courage and rang the doorbell, determined to put the criminal on the spot.

After a moment, the door opened and she fidgeted with the spray in her right pocket, prepared just in case. Bob appeared in the doorway, mug of coffee in hand and wearing a purple bathrobe. Oddly casual, given the circumstances.

"Where's Bart?" She asked bluntly before he even had a chance to speak. Bob seemed far from happy with her surprise visit.

"I thought I was clear last time, Lisa. I don't need you following me around and harassing me, especially not in the privacy of my own house."

"Don't lie to me now, I know for a fact he's here."

"And what makes you think that, all of a sudden?" He asked smugly.

She flashed the incriminating piece of paper in front of his eyes. "I found your address in Bart's room, Bob. And Milhouse told me he dropped him off in Shelbyville yesterday, probably around here, too. He didn't come home last night, because he's in your house. What I don't understand is why he would come here."

"That is a very interesting question, Lisa. Why don't you try answering it for yourself and leave me be?"

"I think you laid a trap for him."

"I did no such thing," he spat, snatching the paper from her hands. He leaned in to match her eye level and went on with a smile. "Besides, didn't Bart tell his little friend he was with his ex-girlfriend? You should probably start there. Although... he might have already left by now, and he will surely never admit where he's been."

"Well, that may be, but..." Lisa stopped, realizing what Bob just said. "Wait, Milhouse didn't know where he was until this morning... How would you know what Bart told him?"

Bob was struck speechless; his story had sounded so well-prepared, but he had just dug his own grave. His eyes became two narrow slits, like a snake ready to strike. She had effectively put him on the spot, and there was nothing that could stop her now.

"It's just what I've heard, nothing more," he worded carefully, straightening back to his full height.

"Stop stalling, you said too much already. Let him out or I'll call the police," she threatened.

Bob's face showed a very small wince, but he quickly regained his composure. "Oh, I don't think Bart would appreciate you calling the police on me."

"Really? Why?" She asked, but he didn't answer. "Well, if he really isn't here, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I checked your house, then?" She walked right past Bob with as much confidence as she could muster, feeling her pepper spray in her pocket.

"Come in, why don't you," he said unenthousiastically, closing the door behind her.

She looked around the house, keeping a safe distance from the criminal. "Where is he?"

Bob was glaring at her dangerously, figuratively backed into a corner. She gulped, prepared for the worst, but he eventually sighed and crossed his arms. "Your brother is upstairs. He'll still be in his bath."

Lisa stared at him, genuinely surprised. "In his... bath?"

"Yes."

Doubting every word that came out of his mouth, she walked backwards towards the stairs and climbed carefully, listening on for any sound. She heard quiet splashes coming from one of the rooms in the hallway, and pushed the door open. There Bart was, indeed relaxing in a bath, in Bob's house of all places.

"Lisa?" He gasped. "Wh-wh-what are you doing here?"

"Bart! What is going on? What are you doing here?" She was relieved, but also overwhelmingly confused as they exchanged baffled looks, before a third voice intervened.

"Bart, your sister is being an awful guest."

Sideshow Bob was standing right behind her, staring at Bart in his bath. The situation was so outlandish that she couldn't find anything to say. Her brother looked downright panicked and embarrassed, his eyes glued to the ex-convict behind her.

"But wait- you let her in?" He asked him. Somehow, that question hurt Lisa more than she expected.

"Of course I did not, she invited herself in. I suppose it runs in the family." Bart gave him an amused glare for reasons Lisa didn't understand. There seemed to be some sort of complicity between the two, one she couldn't quite comprehend. "Shall we give Bart some time to finish up?" Bob went on, intent on guiding her out of the room.

She turned back and simply left, perplexed and irritated, feeling left out of information that was important to her. As she walked down the stairs, she could still hear them talk.

"You left my address lying around in your bedroom?"

"Maybe..."

She soon found herself back in Bob's living-room and sat on the couch. What else could she do beside wait for Bart to come down? He was safe, that was all that mattered. Still, she wanted answers, something was off. And by something, she thought everything. She stiffened when Sideshow Bob arrived after her. He sat down in a nearby armchair, glaring at her, noticeably tensed. Of course, she wasn't feeling any better. She was in his territory, after all.

She swallowed a lump and spoke up. "Why is Bart here?"

Bob was acting appropriately cornered and irked, gripping the armrest beneath his fingers like he was about to rip it to shreds any second. "I cannot tell you," he replied, forcing himself to remain calm and collected.

"You can't?"

"It will be Bart's choice to tell you, not mine. Do feel free to ask any other question, I might care enough to answer some of them."

Bob's bevahior was certainly strange, but far from murderous. She could get some answers from him before Bart arrived, she just needed the right questions. "Is... Bart here willingly?"

"Absolutely."

"Did you get him to come here last night?"

"I did not."

"Did you hurt him?"

Bob took a moment, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, careful with his words. "You should ask him." Lisa held his gaze to try and force the information out of him. He eventually averted his eyes and his features softened. "Technically speaking, I don't know, and I will not lie."

Lisa was dumbfounded. After a moment of silence between the two of them, footsteps echoed loudly in the house as Bart all but ran down the stairs.

''If Bob wanted me dead he'd have killed me weeks ago!'' He shouted upon arriving in the living-room. When he noticed they were just sitting there, he stared at his sister, then at the homicidal maniac.

"Join us, Bart," the latter invited, as though they were all old friends sitting in for a friendly chat.

The young man quietly sat in the chair next to the couch. An odd choice, Lisa thought, since he could sit with her instead. The air was thick with tension, every person involved too uncomfortable to speak up first.

"Bart," Lisa broke the silence. "What's going on? Why are you here?"

Her brother shared a glance with the man sitting opposite him, expecting help or whatever else from him, but Bob remained quiet, as per his agreement.

"Uhm... Alright," he started nervously. "Bob's a customer at the café where I work. It was a coincidence, though, so we just started talking for a while, and... well, we made out."

Lisa raised a surprised eyebrow, as did the other man. "You... made out?"

Bart's eyes widened, realizing his mistake. "Made up! I meant we made up! Ugh..."

Bob stifled a laugh, obviously entertained by the whole situation. "What a terrible slip. What a poor save," he sighed. "I believe what your brother is trying to tell you is that we get along just fine now, and he was never in any real danger.

She turned to Bart for confirmation, not caring much for what Bob had to say. "Is that true?"

"Yeah," he replied simply, shifting in his chair and sharing a knowing glance with the attempted murderer. Something was definitely fishy for Lisa, her brother wasn't acting right.

"Bart, did Bob hurt you in any way?"

"No, he didn't-"

"Don't lie, Bart," the redhead cut him off without so much as a glance. "Did I hurt you in any way?"

He looked at Bob in confusion and took a second. "Well, I mean, yeah, but... I'm fine, Lis. It's fine."

"What did you do to him?" She almost shouted as she stood up from the couch and shot the criminal a murderous glare, but he seemed unfazed by it all.

"You should instead ask what we did," Bob retorted defensively. "I will not be held sole responsible. I'll let you answer, Bart."

Turning towards him expectantly, she noticed her brother was trying hard to find the words.

"Bob and I... We... We... I'm mean we're not really... But... We've been seeing each other a lot lately. In private."

Lisa looked at him blankly, noticing a small smirk pulling up the corner of his lips. She turned her gaze to Sideshow Bob, sitting in his armchair and drinking his coffee, wearing a bathrobe and what seemed like nothing underneath, and her blood started boiling. The pieces all came together in an impossible puzzle, where nothing was supposed to match but the resulting picture was finally revealed. She couldn't fully process what she understood. She switched her gaze between the two men in the room, realizing why they'd been sharing glances.

"You make it sound like... But you can't..."

"Whatever it is you're thinking, Lisa," Bob spoke, "it is most likely the truth."

"Don't tell me you... you two..."

"Have an affair," he completed her sentence, his words like a knife cutting through her thoughts. Bob was acting so nonchalant about it, it was almost cruel.

"What?" She shouted in indignation. "You... How dare you-"

"Lisa! It's fine! I'm fine!" Her brother called out to her and grabbed her arm to try and calm her down.

She sank back into the couch and turned to him. "You're fine? This is Sideshow Bob! He's always up to something, what has he made you do?"

"Nothing! Listen... We just hit it off for a while and we... turned into something else, that's all. He's never threatened me, or forced me to do anything. Even when I got here last night, he let me choose. Everytime, he let me choose."

Lisa just stared at him astounded. He seemed more worried about her reaction than about his murderer's presence. Could they really be what they implied? She had absolutely no problem with her brother being gay, but the situation was far more complex. Recalling his strange behavior from the past few weeks, she only remembered him being happy. Could Bart really be intimate with the man who wanted him dead, and with so much age difference?

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked quietly, trying to ignore the presence of the other man in the room.

Bart sighed with remorse. "What was I supposed to say? Hey Lis, so I just got a new job, Bob's a customer there and we made out one night, now I want him? Even I didn't know what to think of it then..."

Lisa was taken aback by the sudden detail and almost pointed it out, but decided against it. Even her brother realized what he'd just spewed out, as well as Bob who looked away awkwardly, slightly blushing. "But, I don't understand, how long have you... you know," she asked clumsily.

"About two weeks, when we really... you know," Bart answered humorously, mirroring her question.

"I mean, I thought you had a girlfriend?"

She heard the redhead scoff. "I don't know what he's told you, but that would be me," he said before taking a sip from his mug, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"He didn't tell me he was with someone who's tried to kill him as a child," she retorted coldly. "Bart, are you sure you're alright?"

He was looking at her with a reassuring smile. "Lisa, I spent the entire night here, what do you think?"

"Did you sleep with him?" She blurted out without thinking, immediately regretting it. Bart's face turned crimson red.

"Well, yeah. But I won't go into details..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... But you've got to admit it's... unusual. I expected everything but that."

"Yeah, tell me about it," he replied with a little laugh.

"Which is exactly why no one was supposed to find out," Bob explained, visibly irritated. "But when you came to my door with the persistent idea that Bart was here, I knew I couldn't keep the truth from you. I also knew you would be open-minded enough to understand, Lisa."

Despite his resentment, Bob was looking at her with a softer expression, pleading her for her discretion. She breathed in slowly, contemplating the situation. She had to trust Bart; as he had pointed out, if Bob wanted him dead, he would have killed him as soon as he could. But this was a lot to take in. Looking at the pair, she could tell something had definitely changed.

"Please, don't tell anyone," Bart urged her. "Don't tell Mom and Dad, or Maggie. Not even Milhouse, please!"

She sighed heavily. "Alright. I won't tell anyone. I'm doing it for Bart, though," she glared at the other man. "I swear, if anything happens to him, I'll hold you responsible."

Bob smirked. "That is par for the course, isn't it?" He replied before getting to his feet. "Well, I suppose I have to give you two a ride home, now."