"SHE RETIRED?" came a sullen male's voice that resonated profoundly within the vehicle. Pierce angled his head down at the man with tussled blonde locks and dark-ringed eyes. His cheeks sunk in so evidently that the bones and jaw were clearly defined, indicating that he hadn't been eating well for months now. His complexion turned a sick color ever since they dived into his sensitive topic.

"I had a word with her a while back," Pierce eyed the side of the man's face with a deep furrow. "She didn't attend the funeral."

His ride escort nodded soundlessly to himself as he shut his eyes and muttered a few prayers. "Did she say anything to you?" The man opened his eyes again to pull the car to a stop at a red light.

Pierce folded his arms. He tilted his chin up as he rested his eyes. "God, I can't believe I'm playing messenger with you people. No, she didn't. But I did find out that Lennon's pursuing a similar career to my teammate, Kenya. I got them in touch and that's what she's been doing while Carter's on his new assignment."

The eerie silence crawled along the walls and  seeped into the skins of the dead and the undead. After the car had revved into motion again and taken a swift turn that veered it away from civility, Pierce stared straight in front of him with tight lips. "What are you going to do now, Damond? You can't keep pretending you're dead forever. You're a coward if you can't own up to your guilt."

That one night at the deranged couple's mansion was full of mysteries that were still unsolved. There had been a dead body in the basement. A ticking bomb inside a four year old girl on the top floor. Terrorizing goons barricading the property. The dead body belonged to Agent O's, and it had been laying face-down in a pool of blood.

They never looked at the body carefully. The one that they picked up to bury for Damond's funeral belonged to one of the assailants that were keeping him tied up and video-taping his torture for Lennon to see. Axel, on the other hand, had been saved by K2's men after they've met the first time Pierce was recruited away from the agency.

Ever since surviving his close fate, Axel had been residing at a private sector away from society. No one knew he was alive besides K2's team and the one agent in this world who didn't ask to be involved.

With a dark scoff, the hands on the stirring wheel tightened as Axel shot his nemesis a glare. "One does not simply come back from the dead. My guilt is my own to deal with, so fuck out of it. I thought out of everyone in this fucked-up world, you'd understand that."

Pierce's eyes flickered to the front mirror as it flared a baleful warning in the air. "Bring her in one more time," he growled. "And I'll gladly finish what your so-called Chestin started."

"Unlike Carter— who I already hate— I hope you know that I absolutely despise your being all the way down to your bloody organs." The hacker laughed dryly, swerving the car with extra thrust. "You're the reason Jamie came back to the agency after two years of leaving her first mission."

"I thought you had issues with Carter, why the fuck am I in your story?"

"I have issues with everyone, son. I worked the action behind the scenes," Axel finally released a stressed smirk. "Everyone's fucked up."

"Request to set you up on a blind date with Osias." Pierce shook his head defiantly. "You people cuss like sailors on crack."

"A doctor shouldn't be talking like that about his client, Easton." The hacker pursed his lips and whistled, knowing that he hit a nerve in the agent.

Pierce's brows twitched. "I don't remember being a real one. And he's a teammate, not a client."

"Doesn't matter. I hope you don't yap like that when we get to my place."

"You have a place already? Did Lennon pre-dig a spacious grave for you? So this is where we're really headed to, to get a tour of your cemetery. Makes sense."

Axel exhaled long and hard and made an effort to run over the bumpy hill of his driveway so that his companion felt extra at home. "I already feel guilty for living, don't make me feel guilty for letting you live too."

Pierce pulled his face mask up to barricade his mouth and grabbed his work bag with his medical kit inside. "Keep that thought on hold for now until I finish with your patient."

The two men exited the stationary car and protruded through a veil of canopy trees that provided shade for a small hut house. It was a desolate place, fitting for a supposedly dead hacker, but the scenery was breathtaking and natural to the point where Pierce believed that the house might look better during the day than it would at night.

"Not bad," The agent smirked while he effortlessly slid on his gloves. Axel turned his head and rolled his eyes as if the discovery was already a given.

The moment that they walked through the door's threshold, Pierce stopped in his tracks at the intoxicating smell of medicine mixing in the air like someone had tried to diagnose a patient when he wasn't knowledgeable in the area what-so-ever. He gradually leaned a heavy head at his accompanier with reprimanding eyes. The hacker coughed deliriously before he proceeded through the house's foyer.

Pierce's face softened ever-so-slightly at a familiar aroma he was drawn to in the house. After a swift scan of the first floor, he spotted a bud in a pot on the kitchen counter in the midst of a fog of death. A red rose was there to disperse the faint smell of lavender from wall to wall, door to door, and room to room.

"I'm surprised it's alive when the house smells like combustion and radioactivity are having intercourse," Pierce threw a nonchalant remark while he stroked a petal of the rose.

Axel tossed his jacket down to the couch with style while he sighed at his unpleasant guest. He loosened his collar and cleared his throat before throwing his head back for an ear-rapping announcement. "The stupid doctor's here, ma'am. He'll be with you shortly. I hope you still aren't asleep."

Pierce flashed the hacker a distasteful look before gazing at the direction that he hollered to. While no reply echoed back, they could still perceive a faint shuffling behind one of the closed doors furthest down the hallway. The agent turned back to the man on the couch with chafing eyes. "A woman," His mocking gaze almost made Axel reach up and strangle his throat.

"It's not like that," Axel retorted in defense. "She's someone I respect in my field, so don't make me look bad. I just want you to check on her condition."

"What's her name?"

"I'm still pulling up any files I can of her." Axel stroked his chin with a creased frown while he opened the lid of his laptop. "I don't know, I didn't dare ask. That, and she refused to talk until like three nights ago, so I'm just trying to keep her trust for now before I overwhelm her with questions."

Pierce shook his head and slipped off his coat, tossing it over the counter where the one plant stood. He cracked his neck and rolled back his shoulder to massage it from the long ride. Axel briefly glanced up at him and then gazed back at his screen to continue working.

"But you know, I've never seen someone so resilient. She fought to stay conscious every night. It was like watching her torture herself. I almost had to leave the house several times because I couldn't stand not being able to help."

Pierce nodded and gestured towards the sulky man. "Kind of makes you look like a pimp, huh."

"The only pimp here is you not treating my patient already," Axel deadpanned with a firm tone.

With a quiet groan, the agent forced himself to embody his cover as an emergency specialist and dragged his body down the halls for what he predicted to become long hours of interrogation and operation. Sure he was dedicated to his work, but the thought of being in Damond's house for more than a few minutes made his insides gag.

He came up to the door, but for some reason, he hesitated. It may be because he usually had detailed reports on his patients before he treated them, but this woman had nothing. Axel mentioned she was respected in his field, so she was most likely an R.U. agent that he worked with.

Great. And here he was trying to erase his past.

His knuckles rapped the door and waited for her courtesy to open it and allow him in. After a few seconds of no sign that the door would be opened from the other side, his eyes fluttered shut and he rapped it again. No movement. His fingers retightened around the medical box, he readjusted his mask, and he busted through the door.

The person seated atop the abnormally-placed hospital-like bed in the suffocatingly small room pressed against the wall as her hands hurriedly gathered up the bandage wraps around her torso. Her brows were knitted in a frown and her demeanor seemed distant and isolated. Quiet, obedient, but strong-willed, she began breathing in agitated breaths like his sudden entrance reintroduced her pain.

Pierce stepped in cautiously and shut the door with more force than he intended to. He glanced at the woman angling her head away like she didn't want to see him. She was toned but thin, and her hair was naturally curled at her shoulders, most likely due to sweat and tossing around in the small bed that Axel provided for her.

Pierce watched his patient for a moment and sighed to himself. He'd seen enough patients that didn't want to see him, and that was always the first sign that the rest of the process was going to be unpleasantly long and in complete silence.

She looked about the age for marriage. When he asked for her name, he almost wanted to throw the notepad he had with him at her. She gave him a distasteful scoff and ignored his presence, twisting her body to bandage her own body in silence. A small wince and shortness of breath told him that she was a fragile girl, and that made it easier for him to understand why she was so closed off.

It was odd to him that he was interested in the woman's character after a few minutes of only observing her from the chair by the door. She absolutely refused to let him nearer. She'd rumble a deep growl before pressing closer to the wall as if he was the one that caused her distressed state.

Pierce took courtesy of the woman being half-naked at the moment with her top and undershirt laying beside her. She was only in her bra and baggy men's pants that probably belonged at one point to Axel. The woman was uncomfortable with him because she hadn't expected a visitor. If anything, she expected Axel to come, which would explain why she hadn't faced him ever since he stepped foot in.

He gave her some time to get used to him, at least get used to him being in the room alone with her, because it was awkward for him too. Pierce leaned back in the chair and rubbed the back of his neck as he shut his eyes. "The longer you're cautious of me, the longer I'll be here." He opened one eye and peeked at her contemplating form. "I hope you know that."

It was either she was deciding whether or not she should comply or she just didn't hear him since his voice was muffled by his mask. Either way, he spotted her head turning slightly away from the wall before a sudden noise down the hall made her snap it back around.

Pierce internally groaned at his progress going to waste before he picked up his nemesis' footsteps walking down the hall and stopping a few feet away from the door. "Your dead meat better have a good excuse for interrupting my session, Damond."

"Why, is she not talking?" Axel's voice responded.

"Not talking?" he scoffed, glancing at the woman on the bed a few feet away with narrowed eyes. "She's been doing more than just not talking. I'm not even getting the vibe that she acknowledges I'm here."

Axel snorted and then cleared his throat. "You know when you sense someone's just that repulsive? Anyway, she opened up to me in a week's time, so good luck agent. I'll get your sleeping tent ready in the backyard. Do remember to come out for dinner at 7."

Pierce was ready to rip the door open and strangle the hacker when he heard a soft noise behind him. He turned towards the new sound and realized that it came from the woman. He arched his brows before a thought made him frown curiously. Then, he shook his head and his defensive demeanor took over as he raised his voice. "You're laughing? Is it that funny when you're being difficult for no reason towards someone trying to help you?"

Her form became quiet again and she seemed to have straightened her back defensively, like she wasn't going to listen to his words. Yet she was, and Pierce couldn't help but perk a curious smile at her obedience.

It had been a while since a woman made him smile again.. His eyes narrowed and it flickered away as he buried his head in his hands for a moment with a heavy heart, taking a deep breath in.

"Hey, can I treat you now?" He sighed inaudibly as he picked his head back up and saw her resume her sloppy bandaging. She had opened her mouth, finally ready to say something, but a miss-slip in her fingers caused her to cut herself with the scissors that fell with the blades opened apart.

Her sudden movement brought a surge of pain to her abdomen and the sudden twist of expression on her face finally allowed Pierce to understand why Damond never wanted to see it ever again. What looked like a simple wound had actually taken away the life in her body these past few weeks, and it was hard for her to even keep up the pretentious act that she was okay in his presence.

Without her saying a word, he had suddenly come to care for her. Just by observing her continuously pick up the medical tools while she was stubbornly hiding herself from him, he came to realize that she probably wasn't as fragile as her character gave off.

"Stop it," He frowned, rising from his seat. "Just turn around. You're reaching blindly across the table, of course you're going to knock things aro— be carefu—"

Pierce had reached out to snatch her wrist before she cut herself on a plier knife that probably belonged to her. Instead of freezing up like he had expected, she jerked back, and when she couldn't shake him off, her head finally snapped around to him with blood-curling eyes and clenched, defined jaws.

He dropped her hand immediately and his face scrunched up questioning everything the universe tested him with. People couldn't come back from the dead.. no. Her face was different and so was her body and her character. But behind all the newly defined jaw and cheeks, through the emphasized waves of dark cocoa hair encompassing her delicate shoulders, through the layers of bandages and cuts and bruises— her fierce hazel-made-golden-by-the-sun eyes were an exact replica of the woman he loved.

He mouthed that woman's name with a slight hysteric tone, almost turning around to shake his eyes awake, but the sudden expression on the woman before him made him freeze. Her eyes had lost their fierce gaze, her body had deserted the wall she built around herself, and he saw her mouth trying to move. She tried to shift and see his eyes which he angled away from her, but the movement caused stress on her wound. She winced in pain and held her torso with difficulty.

"Pierce," A quiet voice came from beside him, and he turned around to meet her longing gaze. "Pierce." She repeated, her face shifting into disbelief and confusion as she tried to make out who was behind the mask.

Why didn't he see it before? What she was hiding from him that was so crucial in identifying her was a ruby locket and a familiar ring in the small grasp of her palm while she bandaged. And those eyes of hers still held the same pain of the night she last saw him. Why didn't he see it?

Then, a voice from down the hall, as if on cue, announced, "Hey, Easton! So I had a look at her past school records.. apparently her name is Larísa? I can't find anything after that. God, I'm getting worser at my job after Carter. Hold on, I'll interrupt again when I have more info."

Pierce's eyes never left the woman before him. Right after her name was uttered, he let the shortened version of her name roll out naturally from his lips. Hearing her name, her face wiped away any pain she was physically feeling and her eyes began tearing up.

He walked over with his heart pounding. As soon as her fragrant was in his reach, he realized that the nostalgic smell didn't come from the plant outside. A rose couldn't emit the aroma of lavender. There was only one Rose he knew that smelled like lavender.

Their bodies finally found each other. She embraced him with arms that never wanted to let go. He wrapped his arms around her lower waist since she was sitting on a leveled bed and laid his head in her beating chest.

"I thought you were.." His voice failed him, and he could only bury his head deeper into her hold. "Risa, I thought.."

Risa quieted him down and kissed the top of his head long and hard, and then stroked his hair tenderly as she bit her lips to hold in the pain she received from the extra weight he added on her. "You're okay," She brushed back his hair and leaned her face into it with a bless-full smile. "You're alive. I prayed everyday you and the team were okay. Thank you for coming back to me alive."

Pierce rose his heavy head and took in her bright eyes. The fullness of her face and the sureness of her existence reflected back to him with her reassuring smile and constant strokes of his cheek. "I thought you were gone. I really thought that they.. that you di—"

His throat cut off hoarsely. He shut his eyes in frustration. The images were all swimming back fresh in his mind of the night he reached her apartment. All they had found that night was one dead body like she had promised. But she, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.

Risa choked out a sad laugh and lifted his chin close to her face. "... and leave you?" Her last word was said with such certainty and gentleness that his eyes were entranced at the way her lips moved. "I can't do that to you. That's too cruel." Her hands wrapped around his head and she leaned down and whispered, "I'm sorry for making you worry, Pierce. I'm so sorry. I'm alright."

"... what happened that night? How are you here?"

"I'll explain everything once you've calmed down."

They sat there in silence for a moment that seemed equivalent to an eternity. The atmosphere had enveloped a warmth that spread around their bodies. Risa knew her disappearance and near-death experience etched a permanent fear and trauma in his heart that she regretted with her whole life. If she had been stronger. If she hadn't dissociated that night.. he wouldn't have to go through all of that.

So she held him close and made him full aware that her heart was still beating against her chest for him. That she could touch his face, his hair, his hands, and they weren't a figment of his imagination. Then it was his turn to spew out 'I'm sorry' over and over again, in small mutters until it was a faint chant under his breath.

When he was sure of himself that he'd calm down, he gazed up at her intently before rising to a stand, placing his hands securely on either sides of her on the bed as he leaned in. She had just enough time to swiftly pull down his mask before her eyes fluttered close with his lips pressing onto hers. Pierce delivered her a many years overdue kiss. He did his best to be gentle with her when he sensed her body wincing at his touch, but she was the one that pushed forward and tangled her hand through his hair despite her body crying out for help.

The kit scissors and roll of gauze crashed to the floor as Pierce's body arched over Risa's when she fell back on the bed. The clatter, of course, attracted a noise detector and the man came marching down the hallways, busted open the door, and coughed violently at the scene he witnessed.

The tension in the air broke and Pierce gazed down at the woman trapped underneath him. Risa formed her bright smile again before she gestured for him to deal with whatever had just entered the room. This would be the second time someone interrupted him.. how many times was a man willing to forgive?

"Come here," Pierce wiped his mouth by the inside of his wrist sleeve with a sneer. He spun around to face the hacker and reached for the nearest medical equipment, which happened to be the pliers on the bedside. "I'm murdering an asshole tonight."

Axel's brows lifted so high that Risa thought it wanted to hop off his face altogether. In response, he picked up the chair that the agent had sat on earlier and raised it threateningly above his head, temporarily stopping Pierce until he found a better counter-weapon. "Hold up," Axel demanded. "What the fuck were you doing, you pervert?"

"Pervert?" Pierce almost flung the pliers instead as he shifted his weight. "Says the one who kept my girl in a small-ass room without a lock so that you can just inconveniently walk in on her changing? Get the hell out, she's in her bra for fuck's sake."

Risa buried her head in her hands and breathed out of her nostrils in meditation. Axel saw and he directed his shock onto her. "You wouldn't even let me give you a blanket at night and yet the first thing you do when you have your mind straight is kiss this asshole?"

"Oh stop it," She mumbled with her head buried away from the two embarrassing men. "He's not a stranger, he's my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Both Pierce and Axel queried in harmony. While her man stared at her with a proud awe, the hacker who saved her that night dropped his jaws and he had to run a hand through is hair while trying his best not to pluck it bald.

"Why do all of you choose the worst men in history?" He groaned in low agony, looking up with eyes that showed he was serious. "First Jamie with Liam. Then this one who I just opened up and she's already off with Pierce."

Risa raised her head with a cautious smile tugging at her lips. "What's wrong with him?"

"Honey, have you seen his Dora-twin ass—" The hacker cut off dangerously when a look from Pierce sent his body into paralyzation. Instead, he flapped his shirt collar for air circulation before he corrected, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I hope y'all have a prosperous, married life. Allow me to name your kids Disaster and Demise."

"What about Jamie?" Pierce tested.

Axel's tone shifted as he peered at the wall behind them tenderly. "Of course hers is Sunshine and Rainbows."

"Biased crotch." Pierce cursed the man under his breath. "Then yours is Trial and Error."

"Yours is Mistake and Erase."

"Dumb and Dumber."

"Stupid and Stupido."

"O and K." Pierce tossed the trump card down on the hacker regarding his rumored tight-knit relationship with Agent K.

Axel scoffed arrogantly and rolled up his sleeve. "O," he addressed himself and then quieted down for effect. "and 'it's my X.'" Pierce stayed silent to register his comeback before he threw his head back. An incredulous, dry laugh slowly shifted into a dark, threatening one.

"Boys, my body can't make that many babies."

The two men turned their heads surprisedly to the woman sitting on the bed with her head propped up on her upright knee. Pierce had raised his brows before he walked over to her and collected her hand into his palms, stroking her fingers.

"I heard 'can't make that many,' but you know what I didn't hear? An opposition." His hopeful look made Risa shut her mouth with a laugh before she turned her head over to Axel.

"Sorry, but do you have a spare shirt?" she asked.

Axel scratched his head at the sudden request. "Yeah, about that.. my whole closet is still at the agency.. so I have to buy new ones." Risa closed her mouth with an awkward lip bite before she reached for the bed cover and dragged it over her body.

"Here, wear mine." Pierce said. He grabbed the rim of his black turtleneck and slipped off his top with one movement. Risa whistled as she peeked underneath and he threw the fabric squarely on her face with a smirk.

Axel shook his head like a nagging parent. "Now he's naked."

"Shut up and pass me my white coat, you fetus." The agent rolled his eyes as Axel reached over and tossed the man his doctor's jacket. He rolled his shoulders into the thin, cool fabric before turning to Risa on the bed, and his eyes raised.

She had swept her hair from underneath the sweater and let it cascade down her back and shoulders. When she tucked her legs inside the sweater, she resembled something like a ball of sushi.

"Were you always this small?" Pierce asked incredulously. He walked forward and brushed her hair behind her ear.

"Don't worry about it," Risa huffed. "I'll grow."

Axel took a seat on the lone chair in the room and stared at the couple with weird but accepting eyes. "I hope you know you stopped growing a while ago, Miss Larísa."

"I'll grow out," Pierce heard her pipe excitedly before she shot him her pure, brown eyes. She gestured her hands to her lips like she was shoving a scoop of food into her mouth. "I'm hungry. I want curves going out!" Pierce pinched her nose until she tapped him feverishly to be release. She fell to her side on the bed with a stone face once she was free.

"Hey Larísa," Axel called out. Risa lifted her head to meet gaze with the hacker before a medallion peeked out from his hand. He held it before him before tossing it to her from across the room.

After securely catching the emblem and briefly inspecting the engraves on the front and back, Risa jerked her head back up with a subtle frown. "My seal."

"I've heard about you," He continued, glancing briefly at Pierce who had leaned on the edge of the bed beside Risa with his arms folded over his chest. "All hackers, actually. I'll introduce myself first. Axel Damond. Deceased R.U. Agent, code name O."

That's where Risa raised her eyebrows, showing the man the first signs of emotions in her face since she's arrived. "You say deceased.. but you're here?"

Axel rubbed his chin with a heavy burden and glanced away. "It's a long story. Me being alive right now to tell you about it, I owe it to Easton and your director."

Although she frowned while taking the details in, her head shook her mind clear of questions as she looked up with a gracious smile. "I'm only telling you this because that's my case as well. Larísa Rose Kennedy. I go by Risa. I'm the co-Commander of T6, codename Venus."

Axel nodded before he glanced at Pierce to indicate he was ready to start. This was where the agent's knowledge ended of that night, and the only witness was Axel himself. "I had a friend at the agency. I've been watching over her for several years, and I've been working with the man she came to love years before that. We had a betrayal on our team, Chestin. I worked behind the scenes to gather the evidences to detain him."

"Betrayer?" Risa said. "We have one too. Casey."

Pierce smirked and decided to chime in to tell the part of the story that he knew. "Things didn't go as planned when Agent K's memory failed and Jamie and him ended up going on this new mission with this deranged couple. Jamie's Agent W by the way." Risa opened her mouth with a small 'oh.'

"On the mission," Pierce continued, gently playing with the woman's soft hair. "Damond was caught as bait and they tried to lure Jamie into acting irrational. The rest is Carter's story to tell. However, Axel was seen shot dead and displayed on a screen before backup came, and everyone at the agency still believes he actually died. In truth it wasn't him but one of the aggressors in the room with him that got killed. K2 was secretly called beforehand for his backup."

"She's gone through so much." Risa commented genuinely as she looked over at Axel. "Why aren't you returning to her? She must be worried if you're her friend."

"Because I've hurt her," Axel responded with a sad smile. "It's too fresh in my mind. The scenes, the look I imagined she had when she saw me dying no matter how much I tried to block it. And she even retired. It's too soon to come back. I need time to make it up to her too."

At that, Risa quieted down. She understood. That night when they had their last call, she also saw flashes of images of Pierce when he'd get to the scene and see her lying there on the ground soaked in blood. It hurt. That was the only thing that she held onto through her weeks of hell to gain consciousness again. The hope that she could make him forget that feeling if he saw her alive again.

Pierce recognized her silence and reached over to tangle his fingers through hers. He turned to Axel and nodded for him to continue.

"I wandered for weeks. That night," Axel nodded at Risa so that they all knew this was where the story lined up. "I came to the bar to drink. Someone got up mighty fast, though." His shady face transmitted through to Risa and she mouthed a polite sorry.

"I didn't think much about it," The hacker reassured. "Sure, it was strange that a creepy man was out and about at night coming to a bar when it was closed. But I also thought it was strange that a woman was doing the same. Didn't follow her until I heard some commotion outside. Imagine the surprise on my face when I saw her dragging these men away into an alleyway and walking out unscathed in a blink of an eye?"

Pierce sighed and shot Risa a reprimanded look. "I knew it."

"I'm sorry," Risa threw her hands up. "Like I said, it was easier said than done when there are still people like Jeremy in this world."

"Anyway," Axel cleared his throat, gaining the pair's attention. "What pulled me to her was the fact that she spoke German for a brief moment. It reminded me of Jamie, and I was sick to the stomach at the way the air felt after she was surrounded, so I followed her just until I felt she was safe, but that moment never came."

This was where they both saw Pierce tensing up. Despite Risa experiencing it all first-hand and Axel watching as an onlooker, he wasn't physically there. It was a sensitive topic for him because he had stored the memory away with still so much regret.

"Well, we'll fast forward and say that she knocked out her assaulter. I thought she had made it. She looked completely fine from the distance, and through the rain it was hard to see if she was having difficulty breathing or not. However, I knew what it was like to be at the brink of death. It happened to me."

Axel looked over at Risa tenderly before he finished. "I wasn't going to let it happen to you too. So I saved you, brought you here to recover, and called up Easton since I knew I couldn't call a regular doctor. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we'd come here today where I'd open the door and see him smoldering you on the bed and knocking things to the ground like the dirty pervert he is."

Pierce's brows twitched at the change in the atmosphere. "Excuse me for kissing my girlfriend. You'd be saying different if you had one."

The card was played too hard. Risa tried to console the opposite man with a nervous smile, but the hacker exploded like Pierce had triggered his weakness. "Maybe if you didn't go on a mission with Jamie after she left her mission, I could've. But no," Axel's eyes emphasized sarcastic rage. "You had to be a hormonal raged teenager and go fuck everyone off so you could be detained and be labeled an 'off-limits case used only for times of war' so that she can be called in to tame you."

"I've never heard more twisted words," Pierce spat as he retaliated. "I passed my age of hormones. That was my true character, what the fuck was I supposed to do? And I thought you loved her as a sister."

"Did you really think a grown man and woman living together wouldn't develop something?" Axel scoffed with a hysteric smile of disbelief. "Of course I had feelings for her. I just respected that she needed people in her life just to care for her like a family without forcing love and shit on her, so I did just that."

Pierce shot him a curt frown. Axel responded with a sour expression as his bottom threatened to bend the chair's legs at the bullshit thrown at him. Risa suddenly had a thought and she beckoned at Pierce's coat. He felt the small tug and turned his head to her. Her lips parted ajar as she asked, "How's the team doing? Where are they? Are you still in contact?"

Pierce nodded and collected her hand into his palm. "Yeah. We've all moved back into the penthouse since that night. Do you want to see them?"

"Of course," her heart rose. "I want to go home."

"And leave me?" The pair turned to Axel and they saw the teasing smile on his lips. Risa managed to descend her bed with help from Pierce before she walked up to Axel. Her hand gently cupped his chin as she gave him a small kiss on the cheeks. When she pulled back, she whispered, "Thank you. For everything you've done for me, I can't ever repay it."

Axel smirked softly and placed a hand in her hair. "You know, I think I have a soft spot for her." He glanced up at Pierce who had his brows arched. "Permission for her and only her to come visit?"

"Denied," Pierce deadpanned, grasping Risa's hand into his as they walked out. Risa, on the other hand, threw her head back and suggested down the hall, "Would you like to come for dinner?"

Axel grinned. When Pierce indirectly didn't object, the hacker nodded and said, "Then I'll head out in an hour to your place."

"An hour?" Risa inclined her head. "Why don't you just go with us?"

Axel smirked and glanced knowingly at Pierce, who refused to give him the satisfaction of eye contact. When he had slipped his sweater off and changed to his coat, the hacker caught a glimpse of a chain necklace around the agent's neck. Two proposal rings stayed hidden underneath his coat, and it seemed like he would've worn it for the rest of his life had Axel not reunited the two for him to get his chance.

He turned back to the oblivious woman and waved goodbye. "I have to clean my place up first. Besides, you know I can't stand being in the same car as Easton."

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| snippet into the future |

There was a knock on the lilac, bedroom door. The young girl on the other side perked up and contemplated whether or not she should slide off her stool. Eventually when silence had prolonged in the halls, she stayed seated by her dresser desk, head rested neatly in her arms.

The door creaked open and she lifted her head again to perceive the visitor. A woman with wavy chestnut hair brushed behind one ear peeked her head in. Before long, she had entered the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Risa walked over to the child and bent down beside her. She turned her head to what the girl was staring at so intently, and she realized it was the vast mirror that captured everything before her.

"What's with the gloomy face?" Risa consoled, stroking the young girl's ash blonde hair. It had recently begun to fade from its dim gold like her father's into a darker shade more resembling that of her's.

When the girl remained silent, Risa pulled a slight frown before she said, "Yuliya, look at mama."

Her daughter's mesmerizing grey and sea blue eyes turned quickly to her with a faint smile. When Risa had the child, she recognized that her baby neither had brown eyes like her or soft green eyes like Pierce. Instead, she had bright blue eyes, a recessive gene that both Pierce and Risa carried.

"Mama, can I stay at home today?" The six year old murmured, resting her head solemnly on her folded arms.

Risa arched a brow as she leaned back. She caught on quite efficiently as she put the whole scene and atmosphere into their respective context. "Absolutely not. But I'll tell you what you can do." She grabbed a nearby stool and took a seat beside her daughter. "You can tell me what's making you want to stay home. Is it because you like my cooking?"

The young child bit back a chiming laugh as she covered her mouth. Seeing her baby open up, Risa smirked and continued with a pretentious air. "Or because papa's at home today? Come to think, he always takes you somewhere when he's at home, doesn't he?"

She shook her head with a joyful grin, and then planted her face into Risa's hands that were cupping her tiny face. Risa lifted her daughter's head and brushed back her hair with her fingers, taking care to place a particular piece of curly hair that they both liked in the front.

Yuliya glanced back at the mirror and then pointed slowly at herself. "I'm scary."

"Did a friend say something to you?"

"My teacher."

Risa's face fell. "Your teacher? What did he say?"

"He said I had something wrong with my eyes," The child brought her left hand up and covered her blue eye. "He said I was sick, and he told me to stay away from the class so they don't get sick."

Risa's head snapped to the mirror as she tried to see what it was that people could be so ignorant about when it came to a toddler. When she saw her daughter releasing her right eye and then covering up her left eye again so that grey eyes reflected back once more, she finally understood.

Yuliya was born as a half-Russian and half-French little girl. Her complexion varied depending on the lighting and the weather. Like her father, she blended into the dark when the surrounding lights were off, so her grey eyes looked nothing out of the ordinary. But when they took her outside, the sun blessed her dark hair like her mother, and failed to conceal her without-a-doubt blue eyes.

They had thought it was just her baby eyes shifting to their natural color, but after months and eventually years, Pierce and Risa realized that their child had genetically inherited Pierce's heterochromia, but whereas he had central heterochromia, she had complete heterochromia.

Her right eye was the same grey as Pierce's, but her left eye was a vintage blue. At first glance it would be hard to distinguish the colors, so the words she recited had to have been said by someone that was close to her.

While Risa's mind was formulating a plausible rundown to what type of phone call she would be making today, there was a low knock at the door before her child exclaimed, 'Papa!' to let him in. The door opened and closed once more to reveal Pierce coming into the room with his hair still bedridden. Risa momentarily forgot her pressing issue and shot him a sly smile before gesturing for him to come over.

"What's this, both my girls are up," he smiled. When his eyes traveled to them seated by the mirror, Risa finally shifted her attention back to their daughter.

"Baby, you know what I told you about people like that, right? Don't let it get to you, he doesn't know you like I do." She gave her daughter's hand a squeeze before she directed their attention to the mirror. "Look up there. I've never seen someone more beautiful than you."

The young child tried to smile, but her smile faltered when Pierce took a seat at the edge of the bed behind them. "I want to look like mama," Yuliya suddenly confessed as she turned to look at her mother's defined face. "I don't look like anyone. Everyone looks like someone."

"What makes you say that?" Risa cocked her head. She grabbed the strand of curl in front of the child and then grabbed a piece of hers. "Your hair is like mama's." She turned to Pierce and pointed up to his face. "Your lips are like papa's. Your little nose comes from mama. Your chin and brows are from papa. Your ears and cheeks come from mama."

Every time she'd say a feature, she'd stroke or tickle the spot, and that'd earn herself a blissful laugh from her child every few seconds. Pierce had leaned forward in the midst of their mother-daughter bond time and smirked at the woman working her magic.

Risa cupped her daughter's chin and then leaned her head against the girl's. "And then we all have something special about us. No one's the same. For example, mama is good at winning against arguments with papa."

"Do I smell a lie bright and early in the morning?" Pierce chipped in with an amused expression. He ruffled his daughter's hair as Risa gave him a smug look before she continued.

"And Papa's good at protecting us from bad guys," Risa nodded curtly before she side-glanced the man. "Which is why he's going to be making a call later today to your homeroom teacher, right?"

Pierce raised his eyebrows before nodding blindly after catching his daughter's anticipating eyes. Risa then pointed to the matching seashell bracelets that the young girl had made for the three of them yesterday at home. "And Yuliya's good at tinkering. When she grows up, she'll build the tallest castle even if it's all out of sand and seashells. Isn't that right?"

Their girl smiled proudly at the accessory she labored at. Pierce bent down to quickly peck her atop her soft hair and then proceeded to be oblivious about who had disturbed her. Yuliya squirmed playfully and spun around on her stool before she jump into his arms. Risa shook her head as the two of them fell backwards on the bed and began wrestling despite her already fixing their daughter's hair and clothes for school.

"Alright, monkeys," she announced, getting the two to quiet down. "Since you're in a playful mood this morning, what would we like to wear today instead?"

"Dress." Pierce answered at the same time Yuliya exclaimed, "Jean." They studied each other with wide-eyes before both heads turned to Risa again and he coughed, "Jean," while she shouted, "Dress."

The woman sighed like she like did when the two always mimicked one another to gain brownie points from each other for a reason she didn't know. She picked out an overall dress that Cody, Osias, Kenya, and Asao had picked out for her daughter when they went gift shopping last Christmas. She tossed it to Pierce who took initiative on dressing their child before the bus would come.

Usually one of them would drive her, but today, one of Yuliya's friends were coming back from being home-schooled and she wanted to make sure that she would have a friend to walk her through the day. When they went downstairs, one of them got her backpack while the other retrieved her lunch bag. They finally each sent her off with a kiss.

"See you later at home, angel," Pierce brushed back Yuliya's hair like how both of the girls liked it and stroked her cheek before she ran out the door to the bus coming up right ahead. The door only closed after they saw to it that she was safely on the bus and it had disappeared around the corner.

Pierce pulled Risa back into the living room as he said, "Alright, who am I calling again and why?"

She folded her arms over her chest and leaned her head into his chest with her eyes shut. "I never thought a teacher.. would go after a kid. Can you believe he mentioned her eyes like it was something infectious?" Risa abruptly snapped her head up to gaze at her husband with a disgusted frown. He saw the anger in her eyes that didn't show a hint of existence when their daughter was there.

As Pierce absorbed the details, he found himself squinting his eyes in scrutiny. "You're right. I'll make the phone call."

"You don't have work today, right?" Risa asked.

He shook his head. "I finished K2's assignment yesterday so I should be free a few days. You?"

"I'm also called off work for a few days." Risa responded. She began to walk over to him and he gazed at her curiously. She reached up and ran her hand through his tousled hair, rearranging it gradually to its original state while she became lost in his eyes. He held her lower back and watched her with a fluttering smirk.

"Also," Risa tilted her head down as she finished. She flattened her toes from tip-toeing and gazed at her husband with charming eyes. "I didn't get a chance to say it earlier. Happy Birthday, Pierce."

He leaned his head down and laid it on her's gently, breathing in her soft scent of lavender. "I'm getting old."

"Not really," Risa lifted her chin and pecked him on the nose with a grin. When she brought her head back down, he had pulled her into a tight embrace by her waist.

"So after the phone call, what's the plan for today, Sunny?" He smirked by her ears. "We can't stay home on my birthday." He saw the gears in her eyes turning as she scrunched up her face in thought. When she finally found her reply, she spun around in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Since you're asking," she laughed with a beam in her eyes. "Let's go do something we've never done before."

And it was true. They completely skipped over that stage since the night he asked for her hand in marriage. She still remembered it like it was yesterday. The proposal, the rings, and then arriving at the penthouse and seeing the team again— what was once her longest and toughest period became her most memorable moment.

Pierce arched his brows as if he could telepathically tell what she was planning. "Are you asking me out on a date?" He mused with a grin in his eyes as he leaned his head slowly into the crook of his wife's neck and planted a seductive kiss against her skin to give her his answer.

As he expected, Risa's face flushed a deep pink as she pulled out of his arms with a hand on where his kiss lingered. Ever since she had became a mother, her competitive side had reduced to a minimum and she no longer tried to outdo him when it came to teasing. So, he found it amusing that her body had forgotten how vulnerable it was to his touch, and he made it his personal mission to remind her every now and then when their daughter was out of the house.

Pierce smiled as he watched Risa heading to the kitchen— to either wash her burning face or grab the infamous Betty for revenge, he wouldn't know. He pushed off the counter swiftly to head back upstairs to change.

Pierce couldn't ask for two better girls in the whole world. Errors, mistakes, accidents— they all happened for a reason. If not for them, there would be no explanations, no corrections, and no discoveries in life. An error couldn't be erased. Never. What's there will always be there waiting, lurking, and present until someone tried to lure it out.

But they would have to go through him. He was going to protect her and her child until his last breath.

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Yuliya: Thank you for watching over mama and papa. ❥

Agent O: Imagine coming back to life in a story that's not even yours.