The apartment is silent, it's only eleven in the morning with Jade and me already awake while Nash left for work earlier in the morning. I'm still working on decoding the laptop but I've been distracted for the last couple of minutes with Jade staring intensely at me from across the coffee table. I decided it'd be best to have a rest day at home to relax, more for her than me. I already talked to Camryn and from the sound coming through the phone I could hear her holding back tears but she'll be reassured once she sees her face-to-face tomorrow. Both of us have been sitting on the ground using the coffee table to do our work and taking advantage of relaxing on the super-soft carpet Nash has here. But it's enough now, time to pick her brain.

"Is there something you want to ask me?" I question her as I push my work to the side a bit so I have her full attention.

"Natalia, why did you want to become a police officer?" she questions, her face is tinged with confusion. "Isn't it scary?"

"Well it is scary but I love helping people, I always wanted to do a job that would help people. I could have become a doctor or a nurse or anything else but somehow I ended up as a police officer," I chuckle as she moves closer to listen to my story. "I remember one day you told me you wanted to become a doctor right?"

"Yes! When I was in kindergarten my mom got me a doctor set to play with and I had everything a doctor has, even the coat. My teddy bears were my patients," she says with a wide smile and even I have to smile as I picture a younger Jade playing doctor. 

"You'll have to do a lot of studying when you go to middle school, high school, even college," I list off.

"It's okay, I love learning new things. I wish we had school every day, even when it's summer," she beams and I chuckle at her excitement. "You know my mom wanted to do something that helps people too but she became a vet," she tells me and I nod my head pretending I didn't already know but this is knowledge I had the day we did a background check on Julia.

"But she's still helping people even if they are animals. You can think of it this way, if someone brings their pet because they're sick, that person is sad because the pet is sick. If your mom can take care and help the animal heal, both of them can be happy again. You get what I'm saying?" I ask her and she thinks for a moment before nodding her head in understanding.

"I'm going to be a doctor and help people in a hospital like Dr. Haruto," she says with a grin and that has me smiling back. Guess Haruto made a really big impression on her. 

"If you ever want to ask Haruto anything, make sure you do it when we're visiting your mom at the hospital or you can ask me and I can call him," I say ruffling her hair. It's always nice to help boost the minds of the younger generation. 

"I'll make a list of things to ask Dr. Haruto today," she says as she goes back to where she was sitting before and rips out a piece of paper from her notebook.

"You already finished your homework?" I ask her and she freezes for a moment before giving me a guilty smile.

"Not yet," she says shyly and I let out a laugh.

"Finish your homework first and then you can make the list for Haruto. Always finish what you need to do before what you want to do, don't let things distract you from doing the things that need to be done now," I advise her and she nods her head in agreement before turning back to her worksheet.

And now to get back to my decoding. I'm ninety-five percent in, another five to go and I should have what I need. Whoever set up this laptop put it through layers and layers of code; it's so intricate that even I'm impressed. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jade putting her work back in her bag and then turns her focus to her question sheet for Haruto and I'm getting the feeling Jade will have such a long list that it'll be like an interview. 

I watch the bar on my screen continue to load, the seconds ticking by feel like it's hours. I'm pulled out of my thoughts when I hear my phone vibrating on the table and see Victoria's name on the screen. 

"Natalia, how are you?" she asks before I can get a greeting in. "Jason told me last night what happened with you and Jade."

"We're fine, they didn't touch a single hair on heads," I reassure her as I stand up and move towards the kitchen.

"He told me it had something to do with the current case you're working on," she tells me and I lean against the island as I let out a sigh.

"You know the bitch I mentioned that was working with us, she's now a wanted criminal," I say to her as she lets out a gasp. "Truthfully speaking if Jade wasn't with me she would have killed me; to her, that was more important."

"Why am I not surprised?" she voices and I can picture her shaking her head since I know she's speaking from experience when her ex-jealous friend almost killed her last year. "And I heard you ended up on the roof of your building?"

"When Jason was here he just looked like he was done with everything, apparently all the women in his life do the craziest things," I chuckle and she joins my laughter.

"What can we say, our minds are sharp when we need to survive," she says confidently and I have to concur with that. "Is Jade staying with you still?"

"I talked with Julia and she said she's still okay with Jade staying with Nash and me. We just have to be more aware of our surroundings than normal," I tell her as I look at the young girl who's now watching a nature show on the television, the list abandoned on the table. I hear the laptop beeping and I rush towards it, my lips twitching upwards when I see the fully loaded bar. My patience and the risk I took yesterday have finally paid off. 

"Victoria, I'll call you later. Something just came up and I'll be heading to the precinct in a bit," I tell her as I go to Nash's room to grab his tablet that he so kindly is letting me borrow so I can document 

"Alright, but as soon as you're done with this case, the four of us are going to do something together. Between me, Charlotte, and Camryn we barely see you," she tells me and I know the girls are disappointed but they all know how work is important. 

"I feel like I'll need a vacation after all this. And maybe Julia will be healed by then and we can bring her with us," I suggest as the idea crosses my mind. 

"Good idea considering she knows all four of us already," she says in agreement. "I'll leave you to your detective work." The phone goes silent and I pocket it in my jeans as I go back to the living room sitting back down in front of the laptop. The screen is filled with multiple windows of files that I'll have to meticulously go through. 

"Time to see what you're trying to hide behind here mister mastermind," I mutter under my breath as I maximize the first window and I can already feel some satisfaction because now we are officially one step ahead of whoever is behind this.

✘✘

"Where are we going?" Jade questions as I wait at a red light. 

"We're going to the police station since I have some work to do," I answer as the light turns green and she perks up with excitement. I spent a good twenty minutes noting down every single thing I could and glancing through as many files as possible.

"Is Nash there too?" she questions eagerly and I let out a soft chuckle.

"He should be unless he's working outside today," I reply as I turn into the precinct's parking lot.

"This is going to be so much fun, wait until I tell mom later," she says in excitement as I park my car. We get out of the car as we cross through the lot and she walks happily in the snow as we reach the building. I open the door saying hello to the officer at the front desk before going to the back towards Jason's office.

"You said to get here as soon as I got something right?" I say walking into Jason's open office. 

"You got it unlocked?" he asks looking up from the computer, his face stern but shifting into something softer when he sees Jade peeking into the room. "It's nice to see you too Jade."

"You to Jason," she says as she steps in to stand beside me.

"Is Nash here or is he out?" I ask as I place my bag on his table. 

"He's somewhere around, let me send him a message," he tells me and I turn to Jade handing her my phone. 

"Keep yourself busy for now while we talk and as soon as we're done we're going to the hospital," I say directing her to a table on the other side of the office just as Nash walks in closing the door behind him.

"Pay up Jason, told you she'd be here before noon," he tells Jason with his hands outstretched as he opens his arm as Jade rushes to hug him quickly before going back to sit down.

"Did you two really bet when I'd finish this?" I ask looking at the two of them incredulously.

"I know what you're capable of," he says with a smirk as he walks over to us. "As if I ever doubted you."

"You two can talk about whatever deal you two have later, right now you need two need to look at this," I tell them as they lean down to look at the screen. "There's still so much shit to look through, so far I can tell you there are three warehouses in our area that are most likely housing the drugs. Whoever's after the computer most likely knows I already unlocked everything so you need to send in people today," I say turning to look at Jason. 

"Send that to me now, I'll have three teams ready to go while I file for some warrants," he orders as he gets on his phone.

"Way ahead of you Chief," I tell him as I send the three coordinates for him to share. "The next is the list of people that have it in possession. Since this was Lucas' copy it probably only has the people he's dealing with so we need to get to them now as well," I say to them as I open another window.

"Wait, hold on, is that who I think it is?" Nash asks zeroing in on one name. 

"I wasn't too surprised to be honest but it's imperative we find her," I say looking at Aurora's name. If it was anyone else they might have said 'shit, so she knew all along' but ever since she tried to threaten me yesterday I knew there was a high chance she knew more than she let on.

"Do you think she was ordered to take you out?" he asks looking at me in concern.

"Wouldn't be surprised if she was, probably would have done it if Jade wasn't there," I say while shrugging my shoulders.

"Alright I'll have the teams get ready and what I want you two to do is head over to the forensics lab, I already have a warrant to check Aurora's workspace," Jason tells me as he heads back to his desk to grab an envelope.

"You work fast Chief," I tell him as I take the court order. "But wait if you want me to do it now, I'm still watching over Jade and I'm supposed to take her to the hospital to see her mom." The three of us look at the girl sitting on the other side of the room keeping herself busy with my phone.

"She can stay here and I'll keep an eye on her," he assures me. "It's only noon so I can grab lunch with her and give her something to do when we get back. I'm picking up Oli today so I'll take her with me before going with her to the hospital. Might as well meet her mom and the woman Haruto seems intent on befriending."

"You're sure about it? It wouldn't inconvenience you right?" I ask him with worry.

"It wouldn't and besides I'd rather have someone I can trust working on this and you can trust watching your back right now," he says pointedly looking at Nash.

"As if I'd let anything happen to her," Nash scoffs and a faint smile passes across my face as my fingers brush his, our pinkies linking with one another. "We'll find as much as we can."

"And take Felix with you as well, one more person to make sure nothing is missed," he tells us and Nash takes out his phone already messaging Felix.

"Jade, me and Nash have to go do some work outside so we're going to leave you with Jason," I tell her as I walk towards her and she leans around me looking at Jason hesitantly. "You know Ms. Dawson and Ms. Marshall, this is their best friend and if you know Wren, do you know a boy named Oli?"

"Yeah, I've played with them at recess sometimes," she says recognizing his name.

"Jason is Oli's uncle too and our friend, we trust him," I tell her and she's quiet for a couple of seconds before nodding her head in agreement. "In case we don't come back before three, Jason's going to pick up Oli from school and then he'll take you to the hospital," I add as Nash stands beside me.

"Okay, please be careful," she says moving to hug me tightly and I hug her back just as tight. No doubt she's worried after what happened yesterday and that us going to work is most likely a danger for us.

"I promise we'll be careful," I say smoothing her hair down. She moves to give Nash a hug as well and I can tell it's as tight as the one she gave me. She lets him go and I nod my head at Jason before walking out.

"You know as soon as we finish our work at the lab, I want to talk to Lucas," I tell Nash as we go to get our investigation kits.

"You think he might know more than he let on?" he asks looking at me in question.

"Definitely," I say vehemently. I'll have to go through the report from his first questioning but what I want to know is the more recent things, if he knows Aurora and most importantly, who gave him the laptop.

✘✘

A/N Happy weekend everyone!! Natalia has finally decoded the computer and our girl works fast only taking two days to crack it. And Jade at the beginning was so cute, I know we haven't seen her as much in the story but don't worry she's still here! Things are slowly coming together, I feel so relieved that the random ideas I just jotted down are working.

Be sure to leave your thoughts of the chapter in the comments!!