I feel a weight settle against my side as I continue typing on the laptop I found. I see Nash from the corner of my eye lean over to see the slow but steady progress I'm making in decrypting the laptop. Both of us are at the hospital right now with Jade while she visits her mom and surprisingly she's quickly warmed up to Haruto who's currently sitting with the mom and daughter duo.

"How long have you been working on this?" Nash murmurs and I move my glasses to rub my eyes, the constant staring at the screen is definitely making my eyes feel tired.

"From the time you left with Jade this morning," I answered turning to face him.

"Your eyes are red, you even switched to your glasses which means your eyes must have gotten uncomfortable with your contacts," he says softly as his thumb brushes underneath it. "Have you eaten?"

"I maybe, kind of forgot?" I reply turning away from him and I hear him let out a sigh. 

"Save whatever you're doing and let's go get you something to eat so you can take a break. No reason for you to work on an empty stomach," he tells me as he stands up holding my bag open to put the laptop inside. I open my mouth to protest but instead I snap it shut when I feel my stomach growl from not eating since yesterday evening.

"Alright," I say to him as I save whatever I've done so far before handing it to him to put in my bag. "Julia, Jade, we're just going to grab something to eat, if you need anything tell Haruto to call me," I say to them as I pop my head through the doorway. 

"Okay Natalia," Jade says in a cheerful voice. 

"Alright, let's go," I tell Nash and he holds his hand out for me and I link my fingers with his. "I didn't get to ask but what did you do today?" 

"Was called to deal with a robbery around nine in the morning. Who goes to steal from the bank at nine in the morning?" he says in exasperation while rolling his eyes.

"No casualties right?" I ask him as we reach the elevator and I press the button.

"None at all, it was a small group that went and from what I know it was their first time trying to case a bank and it wasn't successful. I just wish that people didn't try stupid things because now it just makes their lives challenging," he says solemnly and I have to agree. Whenever we arrest someone, the first thing that always crosses my mind is why do it? The result can hurt a lot of people and I'm pretty sure the person that's arrested is hurt too because they know that they're a lot of consequences that they have to face.  "But anyways, the results for the fingerprints on the note you found this morning should be getting back to you soon right?"

"Yeah, I went straight to Georgia since I know she usually goes to work around seven," I answer as we walk into the elevator.

《 Flashback

"Now this is the day, you here at my workplace at this godly hour of the day?" Georgia says as she looks at me in surprise.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I've been working since four this morning," I answer as I sit in her office. "This right here is currently the love of my life," I tell her as I hold up my coffee.

"Did you guys find anything new for the case?" she questions, glancing up at me from her computer.

"I can't go into details but it's progressing," I answer vaguely while she lets out a non-committal hum.

"And how's it going with the girl staying with you and Nash? Any word on how her mom is doing?" she questions and I nod my head, placing my coffee on the table. 

"She woke up but it's still going to be some time before she's able to get home," I answer as she hands me a folder for me to look through. 

"This is everything we've been able to gather on the drug, we're calling it TSK," she tells me and I look at her in confusion at the random acronym. "Before you ask, it means The Silent Killer. Yes, the person will know when the effects become physical but it all begins from the inside without them knowing." 

"Hence the silent part then," I muse as I flip through her findings so far. It's filled with information from an autopsy and from the date of when it was first started, I can assume it's the person who first opened this whole case, Derek Williams. I read everything from top to bottom, from how the drug first targetted the nerves to renal failure, liver failure, and then he was already brain dead before his heart stopped pumping blood. "But wait, where's the list of chemicals?"

"We're still conducting tests so I haven't included it yet but I'll be sending a full list soon,"  she answers and I nod my head before remembering why I came here in the first place.

"Oh, here, I wanted to give this to you,"  I tell her pulling the envelope from earlier out of my pocket. "Someone left this for me when I was working earlier, seems I was being tailed. I need you guys to find out who left it for me," I tell her as I hold it up in front of her and she slips on gloves before taking it from me.

"I'm surprised you let your guard down," she chuckles as she stands up and I follow her out of the office.

"I didn't let my guard down but it was a little more complicated than that," I answer as we reach the elevators.

"We'll get started with this and continue with the rest of our work," she tells me as she presses the button. 

"Alright, let me know what else you find," I tell her as I turn to make my way to the front of the building.  One thing down, now to start with decrypting the laptop I found. 

End of Flashback》

✘✘

"Do you have any homework to do tonight Jade?" I ask her as we wait for the elevator door to open once it reaches my floor. The two of us left Julia after Nash and I came back from eating or more like him buying me a meal so I can eat. By the time we went back to the two of them, doctors were there to talk to Julia so I thought it'd be best for us to leave until tomorrow. I don't have to go to the precinct to finish anything extra so I decided we should just head straight home.

"I have a math sheet and I have to read three chapters from the book I picked from the library today," she tells me as we walk out and I take out my keys from my jacket.

"What kind of book did you borrow?" I ask her as I unlock the front but when I turn the key in I notice that the door is already unlocked. I pocket back my key as I pull out my phone dialling Nash's number because I can already feel that something is wrong and ninety-nine percent of the time my hunches are right. "Jade just give me one second," I tell her as Nash picks up.

"What's up Nat-"

"Tell me, did you forget to lock the door this morning?" I ask him as I start leading Jade back to the elevator.

"No, why would I forget that? And Jade double-checked for me, a habit she does with her mom," he explains. "Why?" 

"We're coming to the precinct, I'll explain when we're there," I tell him as I hear a door open in the mainly silent hall. "Wait hold on a minute." I watch a booted foot step out of my apartment and the person walks out with a gun pointed at me. 

"Aren't you going to come into your home?" Aurora asks with a sickeningly sweet smile. I thought she was a snake with her shitty personality but I guess it goes beyond that.

"Jade, take my phone and go to the elevator now," I instruct her sternly as I hold my phone out to her and push her towards the elevator. I pull out my gun from its holster pointing it back at Aurora, a fierce glare overtaking my face.

"What kind of shit are you pulling here Aurora? You're working with whoever is going around murdering people?" I ask, my voice tinged with anger.

"I don't know who's making and distributing those drugs but I got an interesting email earlier today to retrieve something you found at your friend's bar with a promised million-dollar reward," she says with a mocking grin. "I'm surprised that they found out I use to work as a hitman." And this just keeps getting better, it's just one thing after another today. 

"But you're not doing it for the money, this is personal because it's me," I tell her, it's not hard to put two together. 

"You got that right. You think you're the shit, all the women that have met me know not to fuck with the things I want. When it comes to forensics I'm at the top because I crushed everyone below me," she gloats and I roll my eyes in exasperation. "And when it comes to men, do you honestly think I give a shit if he's already with someone?"

"So long story short, you're just pissed Nash is with me and not you. That he likes me and not you. That he's fucking me and not you," I tell her, my voice lowered when I say that and I watch as she turns red in anger.

"And now I'm just going to make things harder for you," she sneers. 

"Even if you're pissed at me, I couldn't give a fuck. I'm not giving it to you Aurora, walk away from this," I tell her and she lets out a bark of laughter. 

"Are you sure Natalia because we're singing two different tunes right now," she says as she gazes past me and my heart freezes as I whip my head to the scene behind me. I tall burly man overtowers Jade and I see her hand clenching onto my phone. "I'm not one for hurting children Natalia, so don't make it happen today. Hand over the laptop now." 

"Bring Jade closer to me otherwise I ain't handing it over. This piece of shit ain't worth it if she gets hurt," I snap as I turn my bag towards my front. She clicks her tongue but waves her hand for the man to bring Jade closer. I unzip my bag and pull out a laptop from my bag. 

"Here, I'm placing it on the floor and walking away from it," I say in a calm voice as I slowly lower it to the floor. "Tell your guy to come pick it up," I tell her as I slip my bag back onto my back. She nods her head at the man and he walks around Jade towards me as she looks up at me and I subtly gesture for her to start backing away. I try to keep my face calm so she doesn't get more frightened than she already is. 

Just as the guy reaches where I am and bends down to pick up the computer, with my hand still holding onto my gun, I slam it down hard into his neck. I don't even give Aurora a chance to process as I kick the computer down the hall and hear it slamming into the wall.

"Jade! Run!"I yell as Aurora lets out a piercing scream. I shove the man to the floor and run to Jade, catching up with her and I grab onto her hand pulling her down the hall to the staircase. I push her in front of me as I open the door and I turn to look back down the hall just as Aurora pulls the trigger of her gun. The shot rings through the hall and I enter the staircase just in time as the bullet passes me.

"Natalia, what's going on? What do we do?" Jade asks in a frantic voice. If we go down she might have more people waiting for us and if we go up they'll find us waiting in the hall, but wait, if we go there I know they won't be looking for us up there. 

"We're going upstairs," I tell her as I pull her to the staircase. She grabs my hand again as we run up four flights of stairs and when we reach the top floor I slowly push the door open, doing the same as I close it behind me. 

I go towards the ladder by the wall, climbing it quickly and my hands working to turn the latch leading to the roof, it was one of the first things I checked when I moved here years ago. I hear it pop open and I push the hatch up and climb the rest of the way up before turning to look down at Jade.

"Climb up Jade," I tell her and I watch with careful eyes as she climbs up the ladder and I hold out my hand for her as I pull her up before closing the hatch. 

"Woah, we're so high up," she says with her voice tinged with awe as she looks around.

"Sit right here for a minute, we're safe now." I tell her as I walk over to the edge of the building peering down at the ground and see Aurora rushing out of the building going into a black car that was waiting at the front.

"Natalia, Nash is still on the phone," Jade calls out to me.

"Hey, what's going on, where are you" Nash asks me, his voice filled with worry.

"Just on the roof of the building," I tell him as I feel my heart rate going down. I fall back onto the ground beside Jade and I see her cheeks are flushed from the running we did. "Someone we know came to pick up the laptop and I had no choice but to give it to them," I tell him as I take off my backpack and put it in my lap as I unzip it.

"The roof! I could hear you yelling at Jade to run and someone shooting at you guys, we're heading your way now. Are you two okay?" he questions and I take in the sound of sirens in his background and soon hear it coming from down below.

"Yeah we're fine, we got away and besides, whatever they wanted they didn't get it," I tell him.

"What are you talking about? You said you gave it to them right?" he asks in confusion.

"I said I gave them a laptop, it just wasn't the right one," I say with a smirk as I look at the actual one in my bag. Whatever person Aurora gives the laptop I gave to her they're going to be sorely disappointed when they see it's a blank computer, my personal computer I use for things like hacking and the memory is wiped away each time; I honestly wish I could see the look on their faces.

But for now, I can count it as my victory. I kept Jade safe, kept the information safe, I didn't get shot again though I definitely know once we start arresting the criminals we're looking for I'll be personally going after Aurora. I'll make sure to kick her sorry ass before dragging it to jail. I'll teach her what it means when you fucking try to mess with me.

 ✘✘

A/N  First I'll say this needs to be desperately edited but I know so many of you were waiting for a new chapter so I figured I'd post it while I work on the next and later come back to this. So I just had an epiphany while writing this chapter that I kind of foreshadowed Nash's feelings towards Natalia in one of the bonus chapters in Jason's P.O.V. I literally had to go back just to make sure I wrote what I wrote and turns out I was right. So in a way, to everyone who was waiting for this story to come out, maybe some of you guessed that it'd be about these two ^^

And as for the dynamic between Haruto and Julia, Haruto isn't helping with her treatment so their friendship comes after his shift (if I'm making sense) but anyways, what are your thoughts on the chapter?  And I love Natalia's character in the chapter, she's so calm and collected but a total badass!! Be sure to leave a comment below!!