The next morning, after having the chance to talk with Jack and Peggy (separately) about my lunch and also having a chance to sleep, I felt slightly better. Not much, but a bit. Enough to get to work and actually try to have a decent day.

When I walked into the bullpen, I stopped in my tracks.

There. On my desk.

I finally snapped out of it and hurried to my desk. A couple agents looked at me as I hurried past them, but I had tunnel vision and didn't even notice.

When I sat down and got ready to open it, I froze. Was my desk really the best place to do this? I could go in the conference room, but that almost felt even more obvious if I was in there alone. And there weren't a lot of other options. Or any.

I looked up and around to scope out the situation. No one was really looking at me, as they were all focused on their own work. Made sense.

I decided to take the chance and open it at my desk. Opening the package was easy and I was able to pull the file out of the box it was safely shipped in.

Frank really hadn't been kidding, there was not a lot to the file. With how thin it was, I wondered if it actually could be called a file at all, and not just a couple papers.

I moved the box and stuff down to the ground beside my chair and opened the file up in front of me to start taking a good look. There were a couple statements from Mr. Edwards himself, and I went over them several times.

All they said? He had been hired to do it, to kidnap me. The person who hired him approached him with the how and that Edwards just needed to be the one to do it. Which he did, although not easily. But Edwards didn't say anything about who it was or how they knew where I'd be. Sounds like he resisted a lot of tactics, too. It made me worried about how serious this could be.

Next, I looked at some of the photographs in the file. There was one that instantly caught my eye and I picked it up first. It was of me, entering my home. The night before I left. That was creepy.

I set it aside and my jaw nearly dropped at the next photograph. I turned it over to see what had been written on the back.

Derek Peters. Known accomplice of Edwards.

Derek Peters, the man who I kept seeing around town. I knew he wasn't just some guy, that he didn't just so happen to be at all the same things I was at. He had felt fishy from the beginning and now I knew why.

As I thought back to each of his appearances, I realized he had also been the man I saw on my way out from lunch the day before. How he knew I'd be there scared me. What he was doing in New York, hundreds of miles away from his domain in Miami, made my stomach lurch.

"Hey, Sousa!" The sound of Jack's voice caused me to put everything from the file away.

The smart thing to do? Tell Jack, Daniel, and Peggy about the file I just received and get their help in catching this guy and figuring everything out. However, Jack wouldn't want me to work this since I was a target, apparently.

Daniel and Peggy though... they'd help me out, and would completely understand how I wanted to be involved. It would be hard to keep all three of us off of Jack's radar, though. He'd notice if we were all gone at once, or working on things secretly, and how we wouldn't tell him anything.

Even if I only worked with one person, Jack would figure out something was going on. Not only was he my boyfriend, but the four of us were pretty good friends after what happened. I didn't want to leave him out of the loop.

Also, well, he is still my boss, and finding out three or even two of his agents were going behind his back would put us all in the interrogation room. And not on the good side. I couldn't do that to Peggy or Daniel.

However, I could do it to myself. Like Jack had said, I have favoritism on my side. I didn't want to abuse it, or even use it in the first place, but this called for it.

I put the file away and got out my notepad to start figuring out how to get to this guy. I thought back to all of the times I had seen him that I could remember.

There was when Peggy and I were getting ready for the attempted Dottie grab and were out shopping. Then, there was the mission itself. However, I first brought it up to Jack when I saw him on our night out. I almost forgot about that one, too, because the sighting of my parents kind of took over the night.

The most recent and last sighting was after my failed lunch with my parents. Just thinking about it again made my blood want to boil, but I had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

With it written out in front of me, I took a look and tried to draw out the pattern. Well, the one other than my presence at all of these places.

Upscale places. That seemed to be the pattern. It brought me back to what Jack said at our date, to try and make me feel better.

"He's pretending to be a socialite," I mumbled to myself, writing that word down under my list and underlining it. The cover worked, considering all socialites did were go to parties and fancy places.

I should know, it used to be my world. The thing that had me almost physically flinching was that I might have to make it my world again.

Unfortunately, I only knew one other person who would be able to help me out here, who wouldn't need government approval or yell at me for not being married.

I put the number in quick and begged someone would answer, because at the very least I could leave a message.

"Stark residence."

A sigh of relief came out of my mouth first before I spoke. "Oh thank goodness, Jarvis, I need to speak with Howard. Or- well, actually, you'd be better equipped for this."

"It's not often people prefer to speak to me, so I shall do whatever it is you require. What might I help you with?"

I hesitated for the briefest second. The thought of telling Jack once again crossed my mind. He wouldn't like me doing this all by myself, nor would he like how I'm going about it. And who I'm bringing into this...

After the second was over, however, I had recomposed myself and asked Mr. Jarvis my question.

"Does Howard have any invitations laying around, perhaps with a plus one?"

A/n: so yes, this is very short, but that's because the next one is a bit longer and I didn't want to combine the two

Also, I'm back on campus!! I'm so happy to be back, mostly because I missed having a solid schedule every week. So, now I'm figuring out when to do things like homework, laundry, eat, unpack (still), and... write! I'm so excited!! :)