Gretta awoke with the bright sun outside the airplane's window. She took out her headphones which blasted whatever rock song she was listening to at the moment and attempted to prepare herself for getting off the plane as they were close to landing.

"It's nice weather outside. That seems like a good sign." Her mother commented. Grace had to be more calm than Gretta had ever seen her. It wasn't unwelcome although it did make her sad to know that it could turn to stress in a matter of months. But that was just the nature of her job, Gretta was told once.

She didn't see why but maybe being with her mother more on the job would gain Gretta some insight.

They got off the airplane and Gretta took a moment to breath in fresh air as Grace stretched her arms wide in the air. Standing side by side, the two looked like twins with the same fair skin, blue eyes and black hair.

Although, currently Grace's hair was dyed brown, shifting towards its natural black—preciously having been red in Pacific Bay.

"Ready to go?" Grace asked, turning to her daughter who nodded silently.

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Once the two had gotten their bags and got checked through airport security, they found a chauffeur standing near pick ups holding a white sheet of paper that read "KEMBLE".

A woman in her early 40s with fair skin wearing a white dress shirt with a purple V-collar, dark rimmed glasses and sporting a grey ponytail stood next to him.

"Hello, Miss Kemble. I am Ingrid Bjorn, the administrative assistant for The Bureau. Chief Ripley wanted me to escort up to our facility." The woman said as they approached. She and Grace exchanged handshakes.

Up close, Gretta observed, she had blue eyes and wore a snowflake necklace around her neck.

"And this must be your daughter?" Ingrid guessed.
"Yes, this is her." Grace says, looking down at her with great pride.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Gretta." Gretta says, holding out her hand for Ingrid to shake like she was told.
"I like your necklace." Gretta compliments as Ingrid looks down at it with a smile.
"Ah, yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now, if you two are ready I would like to get your belongings in the car." Ingrid explained, her voice sounding a bit urgent so they quickly got their things in the car and headed off.

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It took about an hour to get down to The Bureau's headquarters. It had a few security checks at the entrance and was clearly a highly monitored and watched facility. The car left them at the entrance and Ingrid instructed the chauffeur to bring their personal belongings to the London Hyde Hotel nearby.

They got inside, went down several grey and white hallways (some filled with cubicles, others conference rooms) before reaching the end of one hallway where a door lead to the office of "Chief Elizabeth Ripley" as a gold plaque boasted on the wall.

Ingrid knocked on the door.
"Yes?"
"It's me, Miss Ripley."
"Come in."

Ingrid opens the door and allows the women inside where a man in his late 20s with light brown hair sat on the edge of the desk in the room. He was wearing a blue shirt with striped linings and brown slacks as well as gold sunglasses—indoors.

A bad sign in Gretta's book, but she'd let her mom be the judge of character. Gretta would just sit back for this one—literally, she sat on a cushiony office chair in the corner of the room.

An older woman in her early 60s sat at the desk, presumably Elizabeth Ripley, with short blonde hair and wearing a black blouse and an open coat on the top half that Gretta could actually see as she intently read a British newspaper with current events.

The woman's stern green eyed gaze turned to Grace, who remained unfazed, having become use to stern and authoritative people in her line of work.
"You must be Grace Kemble. I am Elizabeth Ripley, your chief. And you of course met Jack Archer back in Pacific Bay. I hope you two can get more acquainted during this mission."

Jack reached out his hand with a smile at Grace who returned it and shook his hand.
"Nice to see you again, Grace."
"You too, Jack."

Wait...they met before?! Gretta thought, but hid her shock rather well.

The rest was Chief Ripley explaining the duo's first case, the local police at Westminster Lame had asked for their help with a murder but it was unclear who it was. Despite the uncertainty, both agreed to check it out and quickly left.

Gretta wasn't sure what to do so she continued to sit, feeling like a little kid in the principal's office—very uncomfortable and intimidated. Even more so when the chief looked at her sternly, like she had done something wrong.

"Who is this?"
"Oh, this is Grace's daughter, Gretta Kemble. It should be in her file." Ingrid explains politely as Elizabeth flips her newspaper over to reveal a small file underneath.

"Ah, yes. My apologizes. Things have been quite hectic lately, I haven't been able to look throughly through the file." Elizabeth explains as though trying to justify her actions, at least that's how Gretta took it.

Ingrid let out a cough,
"Um...chief? What should I do with Gretta?"

Elizabeth looked up from her newspaper briefly and said,
"Oh. Yes. Ingrid put her in a conference room nearby. She can stay there til her mother returns."

She didn't seem hostile but Gretta knew the tone well. It was a dismissive tone wavering between: "Oh, you're still here?" and "I don't have time for this".

Gretta didn't blame the woman for it, not this time. There was clearly a time crunch for this case and being the head of an international agency had to have its stresses.

But it didn't mean it still hurt, not after the many times Gretta had heard it in Pacific Bay said to her by adults, strangers, older kids, kids her age. It got tiring after a while.

ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.

Ingrid led Gretta out into the hall and took her down the hallway to an elevator that led down to a different floor. It was quiet in the elevator before Ingrid said,
"I'm sorry if you don't feel welcome. We are fine with having you. But with the incident with the prince this morning we haven't been up to date on everything." Ingrid explains.
"It's okay. I understand." Gretta says, smiling politely. She really did appreciate that Ingrid said that to her.

Ingrid led her into a conference room surrounded by glass and Gretta sat in one of the chairs.
"If you need a snack or a drink at anytime, there is a vending machine out in the hall and I will come around 12 o'clock to ask what you would like for lunch. If you need anything, I'm on floor 3 right next to the cheif's office, okay?" Gretta nodded as she digested the information.

Ingrid smiled warmly at the teenager, waving goodbye before closing the door and going about her day as normal once again.

Gretta let out a sigh as she sat back in the chair.

Now what the hell was she going to do for the next few hours?

Author's Notes

I realized that last chapter I forgot to say what Grace and Gretta looked like so I had to add in a casual description here real quick—

I made their hair black because when I started playing Grimsborough recently I chose black for my protagonist hair so here we are!

Also Gretta saying her mom dyes her hair is my justification for Grace's hair being different each game because well,, the games don't give me a choice: so it goes from black to red to brown/black again.

I took descriptions that were in game from the wiki because I couldn't always remember what characters were wearing and I sometimes got lazy lol

Also at some point Ingrid's hair is blonde but I haven't seen it? (Apparently it's her natural hair color but idk). I'm only on case 2 at the moment. I'm doing these chapters as I go along through the game😅

Speaking of, I can't wait but am also dreading rewriting the entirety of case 1 and case 2 from World Edition (because details are a little fuzzy to me). Fingers crossed I do well!

BatgirlGeek❤️