Spies and Liars: Twisted Perception

[Rosario Benitez]

The building was hot, and the machinery did not help in making it any less than warm. Sweat slid down the man's face as he hefted up the box of assorted ship parts up off of the lift that was raised to his appointed platform. He turned and walked down the catwalk, glancing over the railing onto the floor far below, the railing having fallen off a long time ago, before he began working there.

"Rosario! Traga isso acima aqui!" came a call from a platform higher up than he was. Looking up, the man spotted his elder brother above him, leaned down over his own cat walk. He nodded up to him.

Rosario Benitez was of the humble opinion that he was too old for this kind of work. His brother needed to hire younger workers. His thirty-seven years had taken too much of him, and he was too tired to be doing this kind of work anymore. He was always told he was the most crotchety of the bunch. And today, he felt it.

"Sim, sim. Eu estou vindo," he said more to himself than anyone else, not that anyone would have been able to hear him besides himself. Rosario moved over a small seam in the catwalk and lost his balance slightly, tilting dangerously. "Fácil, Rosario!" he muttered, getting his footing back.

Rosario's life was mundane. He did not think there was another word for it. Although he wasn't complaining. His life was quiet and he lived well enough. He did not need drama in his life, he had had too much of it all ready. Though he couldn't exactly categorize his life under drama; more like under strife. But Rosario was as happy as he could manage being in his mundane, quiet life. He'd been become fairly good at locking away his demons, or at least successfully beating them off when they reared thier ugly heads.

Rosario had nothing to complain about. Had nothing in his life presently that he had the power to change. And he had learned to coexist with his demons and for now it would have to do.

[Breen Dearborn]

"File away..." Breen Dearborn spoke quietly as she touched the data pad beginning to file away one of her latest holograms she had received in the mail from one of the higher ups. She was so tired of dealing with people in such a way that distanced herself from her job. She enjoyed going and finding the people that needed to have certain things destroyed or filed, it gave her a sense of importance, not that she wasn't important enough already!

She looked down at the clipboard she cradled in her right arm, quickly checking off the item she had filed, keeping track easily with her electronic system she had going. She glanced up at the large shelves that were so high she got vertigo and almost tilted. She was so used to everything in a certain order and having moved to an automated system a few months ago she wasn't very pleased, but she was grateful none the less. Technology was her favorite. She nodded as she checked the last item off the list and turned to head back down the long isle towards her large desk where she worked. She heard a few people laughing and talking and she lifted her blue eyes up to see two people standing in front of her office a sharp dressed man and her co-worker.

"After noon." Breen said to them as she dropped her arms to her sides, looking at her outfit for a second as if her white pant suit wasn't suitable for the sudden company, even though it was perfectly fine. "What do I owe for this wonderful pleasure, Senator?" She smiled at the man and then to the woman, waiting for the introduction she was to make.

"Is some filing in order?" She raised her eyebrow high above the thin silver rimmed glasses she wore, hoping it wasn't anything of great importance for she had a lot of things to do today and she just had one hour left before she could go home and take off her heels.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario ran his forearm over his cheek, brushing some of his unruly, curly, dark hair from his eyes and observing the floor as it slowly came up to meet him, the lift taking eight years to get to the floor of the moving warehouse. Vicente got to sit in the nice cool office upstairs while he and Xanti had to work in the heat. But Rosario thought he would go crazy if he had to sit at a desk all day, every day, filing, talking to clients, dealing with business partners, writing constantly. He was grateful for not having to do that work. But even more grateful that his day was over and he was able to go home.

Jumping off the lift the last couple feet, he landed with a great thud, his working boots clunking on the hard, dusty floor as he landed. A small cloud of dust lifted around him as he stood straight again and looked around him, up and down the aisles and aisles of boxes and supplies, all needing to be delivered, to make sure that he was not going to get run over by any of thier machines as he made his way to the downstairs offices.

The small office had a large window that opened onto the warehouse so that the inhabitant could see all the goings on. His sister was in there right at this moment, and though Rosario could not hear what she was saying to the young worker at the desk, she did not look happy.

Approaching the window, Rosario smiled a little, then tapped on the glass. His sister looked up and stared at him a moment as if he had done something terrible to her by interrupting her tirade. However, when he waved slightly, she laughed and then leaned over, opening the speaking window.

"Rosario! Pesaroso, eu estava falando-lhe... outra vez!" she said, shaking her head. Rosario shook his own, then nodded to the large entrance/exit doors.

"Eu estou indo dirigir para fora. Adeus," he said. She nodded, waving.

"Obrigado. Adeus!" she answered, and Rosario watched her close the window turning to the young clerk again. And after a moment, she was off again, not missing a beat. Rosario shook his head and walked along the office, getting a door near the entrance/exit doors. He went in and grabbed his jacket and satchel off of a hook on the wall. He slid the satchel over his left shoulder and let it hang on his left hip, then threw the jacket over his shoulder. He made his way to the doors and slid out the small opening they kept in the doors so that they could get some ventilation.

Rosario immediately felt better once he was walking down the street, the wind just barely blowing, cooling him off little by little.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen removed her reading glasses and rubbed her eyes that were burning from staring at the charts she had been given and the computer screen all day long almost. Sometimes she wished she could take a long extended vacation, but that happening was very unlikely. She was so tired, her ability to sleep being interrupted by random phone calls telling her to go pick up packages of files. She was about ready to complain to the head of the whole structure, but it was very hard to get a hold of him, even if it was to wish him a happy birthday. She let out a sigh as she glanced at the paper filled desk and then over to a clock staring at her from the corner of her desk.

"Thank God." She said to herself as she rolled back in her leather chair and stood up, grabbing the mix of papers and stacking them into a neat pile before bending down and grabbing her leather shoulder bag. She was needing get out of those high heels and put on something more comfortable, no she was needing a hot bubble bath. She smiled to herself as she put her papers into the bag and grabbed her glasses and put them on quickly, turning to grab the long calve-length black coat.

"Going home?" She heard her co-worker's voice. She glanced up as she buttoned up the front of the coat, seeing the tiny black haired asian smiling, holding a tan folder.

"Yes, yes." She said with a sigh of relief as she grabbed the handle on her bag, the long shoulder strap hitting her leg as she turned off the desk lamp's light and heading towards the door, knowing that folder was for her. "And you?" She questioned, taking the folder and sticking it inside the bag and turning off the overhead lights and closing the mahogany door, sliding her card down the lock and hearing the bolt latch tightly.

"Oh, I have a few hours left before I head out. Have a good night." Breen nodded with a smile and wished her the same as she headed up the stairs to the elevator. The moment she hit the lobby of the building and stepped onto the black marbled floors she was feeling rejuvinated. She said good bye to a few guards and headed out the gold revolving doors, walking towards her regular stop to grab some coffee and catch an air taxi. The cold air bit at her nose as she walked against the wind, hopefully she'd catch a taxi in no time.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario knew he needed to hurry to the air taxi platform, he was just belaboring the point that he had not actually finished all the work he was supposed to do. Not that it really mattered, he would be right back there tomorrow, and the next day and the next. He would have plenty of time to get it all done.

Speeding his pace, and sliding his jacket on to keep out the cold wind, Rosario shoved his hands into his pockets and watched his big clunky boots as he walked. He was going to go home and clean up and get some peace and quiet. The sounds of that warehouse killed his ears and he needed some quiet to restore his proper hearing. Rosario looked up. The air taxi platform was just ahead, he needed to hurry, or there would be no taxi, someone else leaving work just like he would get it and he would be walking home again. Not that he was averse to that. He just preferred a taxi in the cold weather.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sipped her hot cocoa, deciding against coffee today for she wasn't in the mood considering the weather beckoned for something chocolate. She frowned as her glasses became fogged by the hot steam and the cold air. She sighed out and blew on them, watching them slowly clear and give her the proper sight she needed. She saw an air taxi platform a few feet away with an empty taxi sitting, ready for her to get inside and take her home. She smiled and began to jog slightly, hoping to get it before anyone else for she didn't feel like having to wait all day in the cold air.

Her shoes clunked loudly as she jogged, damned heels, she thought, if she had on her flats she'd be there in mere seconds without hesitation. She pulled her bag up on her shoulder as she slowed her pace figuring she'd be the only one, but when she reached for the door she found that she had just grabbed someone's warm hand instead of the cold metallic handle. She moved back and glanced up at a rough looking man bundled up tightly, ready to take on the cold December air.

"Oh," She said surprised before turning her glance into that of a smile. "Excuse me! I didn't see you there."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario stepped back slightly, surprised by the small woman who had grabbed his hand as he had nearly opened the door of the taxi. He licked his lips before noddding to her.

"Its alright," he said, his Portuguese accent obvious even to himself. He reached for the door handle again and pulled the door open looking inside then holding the door up and open. "I was waiting to open this for you. You seem to have yourself a bit of a load," he said quietly, motioning into the taxi as a cold wind swept past them, picking up the woman's strawberry blonde hair and drawing it around it her face in wisps. He motioned to the taxi.

"You could freeze. Go on."

[Breen Dearborn]

The air blew by and she slit her eyes when a piece of her hair went underneath her glasses. She was a bit surprised by his response, a bit...flattered. She titled her head analysing what he had just said to her making sure she had heard that correctly. What a charmer. She smiled and let out a slight laugh as she glanced at him, her breath condensing into the air as more wind blew by briskly nipping at exposed skin.

"I..." She shifted on her foot, wondering what to say but was at loss for words. She laughed and shook her head and smiled. "Thank you." She brushed by him feeling her left shoulder rub against him. She tossed her heavy bag inside of the warm taxi and looked at him, the door separating them.

"Thank you very much, sir." She nodded at him and slowly fell into the taxi, grabbing the handle and closing it and quickly typing in her destination and feeling the car shift into gear. She glanced over her shoulder as she watched the man standing there slowly ease its way into a blur. That was by far the kindest thing anyone had done for her in a while. She smiled, shifting slightly in the seat wondering now if she should've at least offered to share a taxi, but he didn't seem like the kind of man to want to do such a thing. She grinned as she looked ahead, her face bruning so red she could barely contain the excitement and happiness she felt.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario watched the taxi lift off and begin on its way. He sighed out, his breath condensing in the air as white puffs of steam. He shook his head, burrowing deeper down into his jacket and beginning off in the direction of his apartment.

He supposed it would do him good to walk. Besides, he was a big grizzly man, and she was a small woman. She would probably be safer in the taxi at this time of evening anyway. Rosario adjusted his hands in his pockets speeding his pace so that he could arrvie faster at his apartment and get to the warmth therein.

The building was tall, but not intrusively so. It was a dark color and did a very good job of not standing out. Which was something Rosario did not like doing. Standing out. He reached the steps and mounted them, running his cared through the slot, the door unlocking allowing him entry to the lobby. Making his way across to the lifts, he barely glanced at the young clerk. The man had said hello to Rosario the his first week as the desk clerk. After Rosario had ignored him sufficiently, the young man had learned that certain tenants did not like to be disturbed, or simply were too old and tired to say hello anymore.

Rosario got into one of the lifts and typed in his floor and hall numbers. It slowly climbed upward to the fifteenth floor then slid from the far left side to the right, bringing him to the eighth hallway. The doors opened and Rosario emerged looking down the hall towards his door. He was the only tenants who inhabited this floor. It was not a bad thing, he had always valued his privacy.

Rosario went to the door and slid his card, hearing the door unlock. He opened the heavy door and went inside the apartment, closing the door behind him and kicking off his heavy and dusty shoes. He let out a sigh of relief. There was finally a little peace. Finally some silence. Although Rosario knew that in an hour or two the silence would be so lonely, he would be forced to retire to bed so that he did not have to listen to the silence and darkness any longer.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen yawned as she stood up from the bath and grabbed a towel nearby, quickly drying her upper half and wrapping it around her body before stepping out onto the shaggy rug in front of the tub. She sighed out, having enjoyed her hour long bubble bath and her foot massage she had received from the air jets in the tub. She hated being on her feet most of the day, especially when she wore heels, but if she were having a great day she'd stay at her desk and do paperwork. She'd rather have her eyes burn out of her skull than not have the ability to walk the next morning.

She walked out of the large bathroom watching the steam roll out into the living room in a large velvet blanket. It rolled mystically over the cream colored carpet as she made her way through the large elaborate room that had a matching color scheme of white, tan, and khaki. The bedroom being on the opposite end of the apartment she growled at the cold air blowing from the air vents. She stepped into the room and quickly grabbed the lotion bottle and put it on her freshly shaved legs, hating the burn that occured right after.

This was her daily ritual, come home, bathe, lotion up, get dressed, do some paperwork, eat, go to bed. It was a boring routine that she, at one time, used to love. Her life needed excitement, needed some spark of life considering her life, in her increasing age, seemed to get more isolated and boring. She had the friends and the weekends to have fun, but what about those loney weekdays that seemed to go by so slowly. If only she weren't allergic to everything cute and fuzzy she'd have an animal to keep her company, but with the luck she had she was bound to be alone and bored the rest of her days.

Breen stood up and dropped her towel pulling on a pair of grey yoga pants and a tank top, ignoring her wet hair and walking out into the living room to take a seat on the couch and stare at the wall monitor in front of her. She could check the news, but she already knew everything political considering it was her job. She just wanted some freedom for she couldn't help but feel that routine and boredom was suffocating her. Politics and technology, she knew, were going to be the death of her.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario sat on his couch, a blanket wrapped around him. His hair was still slightly damp from the shower he had taken. The heating unit was broken in his hall and the maintainance had not had a chance to get it fixed, as it seemed every other halls unit was broken as well. The apartment was quiet and Rosario had a mind to at least turn on his bug radio to keep the silence from driving him crazy.

But he was tired of hearing the buzz of that thing. His brother kept one on all day long, and he knew about everything that went on anywhere at any given time. He wanted to be able to not have to listen to it for a little while. His eyes fell on the large instrument sitting quietly and patiently in the corner. Its glossy, dark body shimmered in the limited light, the bright strings speaking cheerily to him in a voice unheard by anyone who did not have an ear for music.

Rosario had had his cello for a long time. He had always taken such good care of it that his brothers had teased him, saying he would never find a girlfriend because his mind was too into that instrument. But Rosario had never listened. The instrument meant more to him than most of the few acquaintances he had. It was strange, he knew, but the cello was his best friend.

Getting up and walking over, Rosario slid into his playing chair, propping the large stringed instrument between his knees and picked up the bow. Watching the strings wink happily at him, he put the bow to them and slowly drew it across. The dark deep sound resonated from the body and filled the room like a tall cloaked figure filling the space with his mass. The music chased away the silence that had been pounding on Rosario's ears threatening to overcome him.

Rosario knew that one day, he would be too old to play his beloved instruments. Knew that one day he would die in this silence. He would die alone.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen bit her lower lip as she moved her eyes from one piece of paper to the next, writing endless note to herself about errands, meetings, filing processes, a new worker coming in next week sometime, her vacation time...everything seemed to pile in on her at once especially the meeting. She wasn't keen on having to meet with her boss considering he liked to give her the third degree about things she had seen and heard recently but she always gave him the same answer, the one she was trained to give about how she never saw or heard anything. The only thing she ever heard was her co-worker and mutual friends on the same floor. It was very laid back, yet at the same time not.

"Oookay." She sang to herself as she signed a few forms about sending a few boxes of files to the Jedi Archives. She hadn't been able to get off to personally take them down herself so a uniformed working was having to go instead and all privacy and safety precautions were being used. How she hated having to go through the long and boring meetins on safety issues.

Breen stacked the completed forms up and placed them inside the brown folder and stuffed them into her bag. She glanced at the steaming cup of tea and took a drink, giving her eyes a moments rest. She glanced out the window to see it was beginning to snow and a large grin graced her face. It was always nice to see it snowing in Coruscant, how she loved everything about the city and planet. It was much better than her previous home on Naboo. The radio filled the desolate silence, keeping her entertained for she knew the work would only bore her. It was one of her favorite pieces, a cello instrumental. How she would love to be able to play it again.

[Rosario Benitez]

By the time Rosario turned in for the night, his mind was filled with the cello music he had been playing. It was a peice of music he and his brother had written a long time ago together on a hot summer night when neither could sleep and both were missing thier father, and wondering where he had gone. It was Rosario's favorite of any that he or his brothers had written.

The room around him was dark and consuming, his mind slowly coming to a stop as he stared up at his cieling, his tired eyes closing. Rosario turned over onto his right side getting comfortable as he watched the moon cast a slightly grey light on the opposite wall. It did not take long for Rosario to fall asleep.

---

The morning air bit at Rosario's lungs as he looked out the window, snow dusting lightly on the buildings and the street. Rosario flicked away his cigarette and slowly pulled the window shut. He turned towards the door, picking up his leather jacket and pulling it on over his undershirt and tucking his undershirt into his worn jeans. Moving to the door he pushed his feet into his combat boots and opened the door going out into the hall. He got into the lift and feeling it move downwards.

As he arrived in the lobby, he yawned slightly, making his way to the doors and outside. The wind immediately ripped past him, pulling at his hair and clothes. It was freezing out there, but when he got to work, he knew he would burn alive.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen savored the cigarette that she was gleefully smoking as she walked swiftly towards the coffee shop that knew her orders by heart, as well as her name. She held the styrafoam cup in one hand as it steamed lively in the cold air that was thin and sharp against the skin and in the lungs. She watched people walk by, amny sharp dressed workers comign and going, hoping to get inside where they would find warmth and asylum from the brisk weather. She watched a few flurries fall from the bright grey sky as she frowned softly her eyes not really becoming used to the snow that carpeted the ground. She smiled at a few passerby's she greet regularly at the shop and contiuned her people watching as she stood there cup in her right hand, cigarette sticking out of her mouth, and a paper in her left. She'd occassionally glance down at it watching the figures move lively, every now and again the news changing. How she loved the newspaper in the morning, it never failed to bore her, especially the weather.

She yawned as she put the paper under her arm and grabbed the cigarette to dash her ashes into the tal container for that exact purpose. She let out a sigh as she shook the hair out of her eyes beginning to move towards the direction of her building. She glanced up off the ground and saw a few feet ahead of her the man who had offered her the taxi earlier, she couldn't help but begin to grin.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario buried his face deeper into his jacket. It was so bitterly cold that he wasn't really concerned with which way he got to work, just that he got there quickly so that he would not have to deal with such cold any longer.

Glancing up, he noticed a woman that appeared familiar to him, but he did not give it much of a second thought. He could have seen her anywhere. Speeding his pace, and listening to the rhythmic pattern of his clunky boots on the street, he heard the sound of air taxis flying above him. He took a deep breath and coughed slightly, his hot breath condensing into white steam that floated away from him on the air.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen had been watching the clock almost all day long, today for some reason not starting off on the good foot as she had hoped. She had many complaints from the board about the way her co-worker handled things and she wasn't very up to par with what they had been looking for in the area they needed. The compliments flowed to Breen and she didn't enjoy the attention especially when Aya, her co-worker, was in the same room.

It was time for her to head on home and she was more than ready. She wanted to eat and wanted to go take her ritualistic bath and check the weather report for tomorrow. Breen was contemplating on what to eat for dinner tonight whether it'd be leftovers or a nuked dinner since she wasn't up for cooking tonight. Breen pulled her coat close to her body as she headed to the elevator slowing down when she heard Aya scream her name. Every time, it never failed, she had forgotten to give her something.

"Some red files. Had I forgotten to give them to you then I'd be out of a job, not like I'm not heading that way already." Breen glanced at the thin metallic box with a few papers inside. No doubt this was going to someone in the building who had already gone home for the evening.

"Don't say that, Aya. Everyone is slow in the beginning. I will take these to bossman tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow." Breen didn't have time to wait around the room was giving her claustrophobia and all she wanted to do was smoke a cigarette and head home.

[Rosario Benitez]

"Veja-o, Rosario!" came a cheerful voice from behind the tall man as he started out the entrance/exit doors of the supply company. Rosario looked over his shoulder to see his elder sister, Morela, waving to him. He waved a little bit to her.

"Adeus, Irmã," he said, then turned and headed out the door. Once again, the cold air felt good against his warm skin and body. He took a deep breath, pulling his pack of cigarettes from his pocket and getting one out with his teeth. He lit it and took a drag, stuffing the almost empty pack back in his pocket and blowing the smoke away from him into the cold.

Looking up and around him, Rosario saw the turn towards the air taxi platform that he was headed for. He took another deep breath and let it out, glad to be getting out of the noise of the warehouse.

[Breen Dearborn]

"Damn." Breen let out a growl of annoyance as she dropped her left hand that held the dead lighter. She was needing this cigarette more than anything for she wasn't allowed breaks at work and today was just one of those days. She was tired, hungry, claustrophobic, needing nicotine, and wanting a dag gone taxi and there were none at this exact moment.

"Stupid lighter." She said to herself as she tossed it into her coat pocket, glancing at the burned tip of the cigarette that had blown out. Her thumb was hurting her from trying to get it to light but it was to no avail. She glanced around trying to spot any smokers, but with the great luck she had nobody was smoking or throwing one away. She sighed out and watched her breath condense into the air as she mustered another growl all she wanted to do was go home more than anything she wanted to just get away.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario sped his pace, breaking into the jog. The cold was simply getting to him. He was not able to feel his fingers. But as he rounded the corner, he saw the air taxi take off someone else besides him in the back seat of it. He sighed out the smoke he had taken in and paused in his walking, shaking his head.

"Merda..." he muttered, looking down at his cigarette and studying it for a moment as if it might do something other than burn as it had for the past five minutes. Taking one last drag then flipping it away, he held the smoke in his lungs a moment before letting it out through his nose. "Okay, Rosario...deixe-nos andar..." slowly he began walking again, figuring he would have to do so, despite the cold.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked around a corner not liking the fact that she wasn't getting a taxi as quickly as she had hoped. She was going to walk another block and catch a taxi there considering some places were not as busy as the others. She jogged slightly, tossing her cigarette aside, her need for nicotine was going to have to wait. She glanced down at her her heels praying to God she wouldn't fall and bust her butt considering how slippery it was getting with the temperatures obviously dropping without hesitation.

"Brrr." She said to herself as she pulled the coat tightly around her and pulled her white toboggan over her head, warming her ears. When she glanced up she found that was a mistake. Before she knew it she ran straight into a hard wall of sheer muscle and clothes.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario stepped backwards with a 'Humph!' as he felt someone run straight into him. He was phased too much as they hadn't walked into him hard enough to knock him down, however they were quite frazzled.

It was a young strawberry blonde, the one he had seen earlier and recognized. Papers flew from her hands from a thin metal case she was carrying. Rosario stared for a moment, surprised so much for a minute, that he had forgotten courtesy. His senses soon came back to him. He made a protesting noise and stepped forward towards the woman, crouching down to begin to clean up the mess he had made.

"Please forgive me, ma'am. I am afraid I was not looking where I was going," he rumbled quietly, slightly embarrassed.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen laughed lightly, her own ebarassment causing her to go red in the face and forget her own manners, even worse forget her job. She looked up at him as she fell to the ground and began to snatch papers that had fallen out of the case. Immediately she grabbed them from his hands not meaning to be rude but meaning to keep secresy.

"I am...so sorry!" She said unable to stopp laughing lightly. She glanced up at him and realized that it had been the same man that she had seen earlier that morning and yesterday. "Well, so we meet again." She smiled and put the papers back, almost butted heads with him when they both reached for the same page. She took it and smiled glancing at it briefly.

"I am clumsy and my hat," She touched the white cap that had blocked her view momentarily. "it falls in my eyes so I cannot see. You aren't harmed are you?" She frowned at her comment, like she could hurt such a tall strong man.

Her eyes caught his own that were scanning the area, he looked rough and scary someone she would definitely not want to mess with, but he had miraculous eyes that were a deep green that were almost brown. The black pupil and bright snow covered ground causing them to pop out more at her. He was dark and mysterious just what many women wanted. She smiled, her face growing red again. She looked away before she was caught staring at his eyes taking in the odd color that was borh mesmerizing and dangerous at the same time.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario noticed her quickness to take the papers from him, and surrendered them without hesitating. They were obviously something that meant a great deal to her, or otherwise she would not be snatching them up so hurriedly and out of his hands. He nodded to her and moved back a little as she looked down smiling.

Oh yes! They had met the evening previous at the taxi. He remembered now. That was where he had seen her. They must have worked close together, probably--and it seemed so--even using the same air taxi platform. Rosario stood up slightly, touching her shoulder to make sure she was alright.

"I am alright," he stated in response to her question. He watched her coninuously, her light strawberry blonde hair wisping about her face from underneath her hat in the wind. He blinked several times in the air as it made his eyes slightly water. "You are alright, are you not?"

[Breen Dearborn]

She looked up at him, her jaw open slightly as she latched the case and held it close to her chest she turned her awkward look into a bright smile. She glanced down at the ground once more before slowly standing up and scanning. She turned her glance up to the man who was much taller than she, much larger too.

"Yes, I am fine." She said with a light laugh. "Thank you for...helping me with my papers. If I lose these my job is in the can." She pulled her hat off, hair flying everywhere both from the wind and the static in the air. She flattened it quickly and smiled, unable to do much of anything else.

"In case we meet again," She took her hat with her left hand, which held the case, and held out her other. "My name is Breen."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked at the hand a moment. That was funny. Most people ran away when they saw him. He had gotten his father's stature, his grandfather's gruffness, and his antisocialism from himself. Most people found that combination very awkward indeed and would rather he just go on about his business instead of stop and talk. Which had never served him ill before.

Rosario blinked hard, then nodded to her, smiling just a little bit, his face so unaccustomed to doing so, he felt like an idiot doing it. He nodded again.

"Rosario Benitez," he said simply, reaching for her hand. As he came close to her palm he heard a snap, quite a loud snap, and a painful shock rushed through his hand as the dryness in the winter air caused the static to go out of control. He sucked in a breath through his teeth, jerking his hand back. "Ouch!"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen shook her hand slightly and laughed the shock coming as quite a surprise. She heard his response to the feeling and she couldn't help bt laugh a little bit louder. She glanced around and nodded.

"The air is causing quite a stir. If my father was here he'd try to convince me it wasn't the weather causing such a shock." She winked at him and suddenly realized they were still outside, talking, and allowing the winter wind to take effect on their warmth.

"It was nice to meet you, Rosario. If we shall meet again I hope it is under less...shocking circumstances." She felt like a dork for saying it, but she couldn't resist. She nodded at him and thanked him once more the tingling sensation she felt from the shock somehow making its way to her stomach and up her spine. Today had been an offbeat day for her and suddenly it had turned into something she wanted to remember.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded politely, putting his hand back into his pocket and then turning to continue on his way.

"I also..." he replied as he slowly continued on his way. If he hadn't been a mature, educated man of thirty-seven--going to be thirty-eight in one day--Rosario Benitez could have sworn that that woman had just shown the slightest bit of attraction towards him. Not that he was one to assume others actions, but he was good enough at reading people--and knowledgable enough of the tatics used--to come to that conclusion.

It wasn't like it really mattered, they weren't going to meet again. Just a couple random occurances that had happened to bring them together a few times. Nothing more. And that was alright. Rosario needed nothing new in his life. Though he wanted it, he knew he was getting too old, time was taking too much of a toll, his past was beginning to catch up with him, and nothing in the universe could make him forget some of the things that had happened.

Wow. He had completely skewed the entire situation way out of proportion. That woman was probably on her way to her husband, or boyfriend, thinking not one more thing about that awkward Portuguese man she had just met on the street. And though in any other situation that might have comforted Rosario, this evening it simply discouraged him.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sat looking out the window of the taxi she had managed to get a few minutes after her chance meeting with Mister Rosario Benitez. She had been stirring the situation she had just been put in way too much, more than the normal person she dwell on something like that. But he was an attractive man, older than she probably, who had just now been introduced in her life. She smiled to herself as she continued to watch other cars race by every person seeming to resemble the man she had just met. She hated thinking about a stranger, although she could consider him an aquantence, she was spending too much of her brain power on him and she needed to think about going home and finishing her rituals.

- - - -

The shower had been less gratifying, the food less filling, the news less informative, work more boring. Her mind was continuously going back to the man, for some reason he seemed much more familiar than she had figured. She had seen his face before, heard his name...seen those deep secretive eyes. But where? She had been churning on it all night, even now as she sat at her desk in the darkness, save that for her bright lamp shining down over her work. She had been working just fine for a few minutes, but she'd stop for a tiny break to either think or rub her eyes and there he'd be, filling the sudden void.

Breen wasn't the kind of person to ponder on people, she wasn't one to dwell for long periods of time yet here she was doing so without realizing it. What was with this man? The enigma she had so pleasantly bumped into? Breen leaned back into the comfort of her leather chair, her glasses sitting on the edge of her nose. She was needing to think of something, she was needing to take a break from work, or in this case take a break from Rosario. She stood up and grabbed her empty glass to go fill it up with water. She moved around the desk and felt her the belt loop on her black capri's catch the metallic folder. She turned to catch it but it fell onto the floor and burst wide open, papers flying around and settling seconds later onto the carpet.

"Damn." She said to herself as she sat the cup down and bent down pulling the papers together, trying to pay no mind to what she. "Strike two." She said to herself as she thought about dropping them earlier. One of these days she was going to lose something very important and pay dearly for it. She bit her lower lip as she put them inside with a sigh and sit it further on her desk, grabbing her cup yet again. But she was halted by a paper she had missed, the metal paper clip having caught her attention. She sat the cup next to her on the floor as she bent down and reached under the desk, pulling it to her and flipping it over. The paper clip having kept something together. She groaned with annoyance as she searched the floor, if she lost a number or contact card she'd be in for it so water would have to wait.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." She sang as she moved in a circle while sitting on her knees. When she felt it underneath her she sighed and lifted her knee. The was a grayscaled picture staring up at her, a familiar face staring up at her. "Well hello." She said with a low voice as she reached down and picked it up, seeing the man she had met earlier, smoking a cigarette and looking away into oblivion. Odd, it was photograph that only one would see from spies or private investigators. Breen knew she shouldn't do it, for it was against the workforce's rules, but she had to know otherwise it'd kill her.

She stood up and quickly grabbed the metallic folder and opened it, looking over her shoulders and around the dark living room to make sure nobody was in the shadows spying at her as well. She glanced down at the files and began to skim through them. What she saw was a full profile on him, what his name was, where he was from, what language he spoke, where he worked, background information that only the government would know. Something wasn't right...nobody would know this much information on someone unless they weren't thinking of involving him.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario had made it home in one peice, despite being unable to feel fingers, toes, and nose. He shivered uncontrollably as he mounted the steps to the door, digging in his pocket for his key card. He searched past his cigarette pack and lighter looking for it deep in his right hand pocket. When he did not find it, he rolled his eyes and then moved to the left pocket.

Finding success there, he pulled the card out and slid it, hearing the door buzz politely at him. Rosario pushed the door open and went inside, the warmth enveloping him quickly, but not warming him up immediately. He looked about a moment, stuffing the card back into his pocket before heading towards the lifts across the lobby.

As he walked he noticed the young clerk look up and act strangely for a moment, disappearing behind his desk, then popping back up a moment later. Rosario looked up to see him and he smiled at him.

"Senor Benitez. A package came for you today," he said loudly, in case Rosario had gone completely and totally deaf. Rosario sighed, blinking hard before walking over. He viewed the thin box that the young man had put up on the counter. He observed it a moment.

"Thank you," he mumbled, picking up the box and tucking it under his arm, nodding to the young clerk and then going back along his way. Getting on the lifts, he looked down at the box. There was a manilla folder attached to the back, and there was no return address. That was odd. Rosario never got mail, not this kind of mail, hadn't in years.

Stepping off the lift, and pulling his key card back out, he went to his door and slid the key, pushing the door open. It thudded closed behind him as he tossed his card on the table next to the door, and stepped out of his shoes, going to the couch and dropping the box on it. He went to his bedroom, pulling his shirt off and undoing the button and zipper on his jeans. He dressed in a pair of thick black excercise pants and a grey sweatshirt, pushing the sleeves up to his elbows.

When he emerged from his bedroom, he first went to his jacket and got out a cigarette, lighting it up and taking a puff before sitting down next to his package and pulling off the manilla folder. Rosario undid the top and peered down into it. There was a letter and a necklace down inside. Pulling out the necklace, he recognized them as dog tags one would recieve when in the army. Engraved on them was his father's name. Curious, he pulled out the letter and peered down at it:

To a Mr. Rosario Benitez:

Herein contains the files and papers recording the actions and interactions made by Ramiro Benitez and Rosario Benitez while in service to the National Army of Naboo, both serving in the Eagle class, Wolf rank, second and first class respectively.

Our apologies to Mr. Rosario Benitez for the lack of promptness at returning the files to him following the death of Mr. Ramiro Benitez. Certain Government conflictions restricted us from sending them to him until the date listed at the bottom.

Thank you for your cooperation and service.
Adren Lingho
Commanding Officer
National Army of Naboo

Rosario lifted an eyebrow, looking at the package and sighing out through his nose. He returned the letter to the folder and stuck it back onto the box. Standing and taking it to his table next to his door, he hung the dog tags on the hook on the wall that was for his jacket. He knew what he had done in the army, knew what his father had done. There was no need to go back and revisit the unpleasantness.

Turning and blowing smoke away from him he dropped the box onto the table and then went into the kitchen to get a drink.

[Breen Dearborn]

We will make sure that any surviving members of the family will be descreetly taken care of, this is, of course, providing there is complications in our plot. Breen's eyes had never deceived her so much than at this exact moment. Had she been passing precious letters of deceit, lies, death, and corruption since the day she began working for her company? Had she been so ignorant to not realize that this was the most private corporation in the galaxy and that this whole time it could've all been dealing with such corruption?

"Oh my..." She couldn't really say much for the situation, the laws she had just broke, the vows of secresy. Apparently there had been something someone didn't like about Rosario Benitez, several people to be more exact. It was apparent that there had been some severe spying, plotting, and many backup plans if their assassination did not go as planned. She couldn't believe what she had been reading, almost a book of information had been given on the plan to murder Rosario, erase his entire existence, and that of his family if things didn't go as expected.

The plan was still unclear for this was just an addition to the information having been exchanged, information that she herself had given to people. To think she had a part in this plan...she being the cornerstone to it all. It made her sick, more so than it should have. What was she to do? This was a man she knew...not exstinsively, no, but she had befriended him earlier today and he the same and that gave her enough right to tell him. But how? How could she tell a man she barely knew that there was a plot to kill him? A plot to erase everything about him? A plot to take the money he had earned? Money that was being secrelty hiding, waiting for him to take? Did he even know that there was money in a bank with his name on it? She sat the page she had been reading down, the memo that was responding to someone else's letter. She had been searching endlessly for things to prove her wrong, to prove that this was not the same person, but the picture that was staring up at her on her desk proved it all correct.

Rosario Benitez was to be killed for something she was unaware of at this moment.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario could not sleep that night. Then again, he could rarely sleep peacefully at all anymore. But that night, he would close his eyes and they would drift back open. He could not get into a comfortable position, couldn't get warm enough, or got too hot. His shirt was itching his skin, his hair bothering his neck, and his face was hurting from the wind burn he had recieved walking home that evening. He did not think he had been this uncomfortable in a long time.

And it never helped that his mind was occupied with things other than sleep. With the arrival of that package, bad memories had been dredged up and he could do nothing but dwell on them, stew about them until they made him angry. His mind was working on his parents at the moment, mostly his father. He hadn't known his father, not well. He had left early in Rosario's childhood to serve in the army, and he did not return for eight years. So when he did return and was injured and bitter, Rosario thought he must have gotten the bad parts of his father's personality, that his kind, mild-mannered mother would not have married such a grizzled, angry man. Then again, that was exactly what Rosario had become, and a meek woman had fallen in love with him as well.

And then, his mind moved to his wife. He did not know of one day that went by that he did not think of her. Her death, he believed, had taken so much of a toll on him that it was responsible for how much he was drawn in today. She had been the only person he had truly loved, who had sincerely loved him in return. And nature, or God, had seen fit to take her away from. Her and his son. Leaving him alone in the world.

Rosario blamed a lot of what happened on himself. If he had just not been so stubborn. They had been warned that there could be complications in the birth because of the size of the baby. But he had been too stubborn, had not been the husband he had promised on thier wedding day that he would be. If it had not been for him, his wife and son would still be alive today.

Grunting in annoyance, Rosario turned over in his bed, and reached over to touch the pressure pad on his wall. A light in the corner slowly came on, the soft-glowing light casting a warm glow over the room as if he had a fire going instead of a light. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his forehead, running a hand through his hair. Rosario looked out the large window that graced his bedroom wall. The lights of the city shimmered at him in the darkness, the sky an inky black with a horizon of soft golden, a reflection of the lights in the city. For a few moments Rosario simply watched the sky as if it might do something different than it had been doing for years.

Swinging his legs over the bed, Rosario walked into his common room then through to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of some alcoholic beverage--he did not look at what it was--and then took a drink, sighing out through his nose and wondering breifly if he would ever sleep correctly again.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed out agitated that she was unable to find anything in the mass of papers that carpeted her desk, the bright glow of white papers blinding her from the lamp on her desk. She had been at this all night long, reading and re-reading, taking mental notes as to what was going on and what the plan was going to be. Although she was missing several pieces of a large puzzle she had at least had a few things down, most notably that Rosario Benitez had a haunted past that was slowly sneaking up on him.

She had drunk at least seven cups of coffee and smoked a pack of cigarettes. Her eyes were burning out of her skull and her head was hurting from all the information she was forcing into her mind. She was tired but in no way was she going to get to sleep, if was like she had been so tired she was awake. She had seen Rosario's face all night long and if she were to lie down now that would be the only thing she saw, not as if that were a bad thing it wasj ust she'd be assosciating him with the plot to murder him. She was determined that that wasn't going to happen. She might've been a pawn in the corrupt government it didn't mean she was actually going to partake in such corruption. No. She would not!

Breen leaned back in the chair and looked at the paper strewn desk. She was going to have to put all fifty pages back in order, make sure everything was the way it had been when it had been given to her by Aya. If someone got the slightest feeling it had been open or tampered with her <smallfont color={hovercolor}>-Censored-</smallfont> would literally be grass. She suddenly felt a pang of fear crawl down her neck. She had taken several oaths of silence and ignorance and if she were to ever see or hear anything she must forget it immediately, and the biggest thing of them all...the biggest law she was breaking...was willingly looking at red files all because of a familiar face. Breen had never been so torn in all her life, was she going to ignore all the she read? Was she going to play dumb and just pretend she never ran into Rosario? Or was she going to do the exact opposite and put her own life on the line for someone else? Was she going to tell him? Breen knew the answer in her heart before her brain was able to catch up. She simply gathered the papers up and stuffed them into the metallic folder and latched it. She stood up and turned the desk lamp off and glanced at the glowing clock at the end of her table seeing the hour. In less than an hour and a half she'd head to work. She yawned and walked around the desk and headed to her comlink and picked it up.

"Aya, this is Breen Dearborn. I am not going to be able to make it to work this evening. I am afraid I have come down with a cold. Tell the representitives to give me a call if they have any problems. Bye." She disconnected and let out a sigh and grabbed her stomach. Oh the trouble she was putting herself into all for a stranger.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario yawned widely as he sat up in his bed. He was dog tired. The night had not been a good one and he was not ready to go back into work this morning. But he knew he had to. Knew that there was a new shipment of parts coming in today and he would be expected to take care of it. Oh, but how he would love to call Vicente and tell him that he was not going to go in today.

However, Rosario got up out of the bed and took a quicky shower, dressing comfortably in a pair of loose worn jeans and a black t-shirt. He pulled on his work boots and then went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee before he went in. As he sat at the table, drinking his coffee and smoking a cigarette, he read a book his brother had given him a long time ago but he had never read.

Soon, though, it came to the point where if he did not leave, he would never make it to work on time. Getting up, Rosario went to the front door, turning out all the lights and then heading down to the lobby. The young clerk nodded to him but said nothing. Rosario went out into the cold morning breathing out and watching his breath condense into white steam that was carried away from him on the breeze.

He was already wishing he were not going to work, and he could not wait for the day to just be over.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen stood shifting uncontrollably outside of the Benitez Supply Company a rough looking building that steamed profusely like many industrial buildings seemed to do in such freezing temperatures. The snow that laid on the gorund was blinding her as she smoked her cigarette, waiting patiently on the man who she had been looking at all night. She was so tired and the dark circles under her eyes were visible had she not attached her sun lenses onto her reading glasses. She hadn't been able to sleep, she had been up for more than 24 hours, coffee was starting to wear off, and she had the shakes from being hungry and nervous about speaking to a man who didn't know her. Well, save her name.

She had been keeping her eyes peeled for more than thirty minutes considering she had talked to someone inside saying he had not shown up. This, naturally, gave her a slight paranoid feeling about their plan already having taken effect, but that was impossible considering things weren't going to be put into motion until the red files were delivered. Luckily she was able to play God for just a moment in time.

"Where the hell are you?" She said to herself as she glanced down at her right wrist where her sharp silver watch hung, the blue decorative face glaring the time up at her. She was going to give him thirty more minutes and if he wasn't there at the hour she was heading to his apartment. Sure he'd be wondering where she got his workplace and home addresses at, but all would be clear once she showed him the files that were stowed away in her black leather bag that hung on her shoulder. Perhaps he'd be able to come with her to a private place and speak, she'd pay him happily the wages he'd lose if it meant helping him in some small way.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario walked quickly, lighting up a cigarette as he walked. The air was so bitter and he knew that by the time he reached work he would not be able to feel any appendage he owned. He was shivering uncontrollably and his was afraid his teeth would start chattering and he would drop his cigarette.

Rounding the corner near the air taxi platform, he glanced up to the large intrusive building that was his workplace. He saw someone standing outside. It was most likely one of Xanti's or Vicente's friends. He could not see them well, but he put his head down and continued walking the cold nearly getting to him.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed out bending her knees repeatedly trying to keep warm for she didn't want to miss Rosario. She heard someone approachign and she quickly turned her glance to where she heard the clunky shoes stepping into the snow and crunching it. When she saw that familiar face her heart skipped beats and her stomach churned.

"Mister Benitez?" She said to him as she moved towards his quick movements. "Do you remember me, from the day before? I'm Breen Dearborn?" She prayed to any God that listened that he'd remember for this was the most urgent thing she ever needed to do in her life.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked up, recognizing her. He nodded slightly as he shoved his hands deeper inside his pockets. What was she doing here? Wasn't her office a long way away? A few blocks at least. Rosario paused a moment.

"Of course, I remember," he said quietly, flicking away his cigarette and blowing the rest of the smoke from his mouth. He glanced up at his work building, embarrassment suddnly flowing through him. He felt suddenly like he did not do such a gret job. It was dirty and hot and unimaginably boring. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of continuing on down the street, telling her he worked somewhere else. But with the Benitez name emblazoned on the front of the building, it would have been very obvious that he would have been lying. He motioned to a door near to the large entrance/exit doors he usually went in through. This door would lead them to the offices in the back of the large warehouse. At least he could pretend like he did something other than simple brawn work.

"Come. Its much too cold to stand out here."

[Breen Dearborn]

"N...no, no." She raised her left hand up to stop him from entering. She couldn't waste precious minutes for she honestly didn't have time. Things were different now she couldn't let one little thing slip to people who could tell the right officials. She bit her lower lip and glanced around knowing there really wasn't much privacy anywhere.

"I'm...I'm needing to speak to you about some serious matters. Would you mind if you and I went some place private to speak? I know of a small cafe down the street. I will pay you money, up front, to speak to you. You must understand this is a very grave matter." She let out a sigh knowing he must've thought she was crazy person at this exact moment, but she didn't care she needed to let him know.

"It involves Official Government business."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario raised an eyebrow. What kind of an idiot did this woman take him for? He tilted his head a little trying to make sure she was actually serious. Then he nodded back to the door.

"There are private offices in here," he said, opening the door and stepping inside. "They will have to do. I have to be at work."

He did not technically have to be at work for another ten minutes, but he was not going to go sown the street to some coffee shop with a woman he barely knew blabbing about some official government business. He would much prefer to talk to her here. Where he could at least turn her away if he absolutely needed to.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen let out a disgruntled sigh, she wasn't going to beg for beggers couldn't be choosers. She at least trusted him in a private office to tell him what she need to. She nodded, although unwillingly, and walked inside smelling an unfamiliar scent. She glanced around and looked over at him and waited for him to show her the way.

"As you wish, Mister Benitez." She said to him not wanting to call him Rosario for fear of making this visit unprofessional, which that was far from the case. She needed to make sure he could grasp the situation understand the legal and life threatening codes she was breaking by coming there and telling him.

"Just assure me that I will have you full attention?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded leading her down a long carpeted hallway, doors on either side, offices, many people inhabiting them. He looked towards one near the end of the hall. It was the one his younger sister, Fia, usually inhabited, but he knew she was off for a few weeks; maternity leave.

"Rosario! esse shipment novo está esperando-o! Que é a preensão acima?" came a call from one of the offices. Rosario paused, leaning into the door and seeing Vicente standing next to his desk, a hand on his hip, and an eyebrow raised. Rosario nodded.

"Eu tenho um visitante. Eu estarei nele em um minuto," he answered. Vicente nodded, waving his hand.

"Okay," he said. Rosario nodded to him and then continued down the hall, reaching the empty office and walking inside, holding the door open for Breen. He nodded to her.

"Come in."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen felt out of place there, but she knew that was the least of her worries. She walked inside and waited for him to shut the door before she spilled the beans about some government plot to kill him and take money that was stowed away for him. But that wasn't even the worst part of the news, if they failed at assassainating him they'd move to the next best thing, his family.

Breen never knew of a harder task to do than to sit there and convince someoen that the government wanted them dead, as quickly as possible as well. But this wasn't really all that complicated one look at the files and she was sure Rosario Benitez would understand and be sold on her story.

"Mister Benitez this is going to seem like a really awkward question, but were you, by any chance, in the army?" She already knew the answer to this question, but it gave her an opening to start telling him everything she had read, everything she knew, and everything that was going to happen to him.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario furrowed his brow. How did she know that? He had only met her yesterday for real. There was no way she could have known anything about his history in the army. He kept the tatoo on his arm covered up by his jacket when not working and the tattoo on the back of his neck was hidden by his hair. So he knew she had not seen those and guess by them. She had either spoken to someone he worked with while waiting for him that morning, or she had been doing research. Which put Rosario on edge.

"Yes..." he said quietly, motioning her to a chair and sitting down himself. "How do you know that, and why do you know that?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen glanced down at the seat and shook her head. She reached into her black bag and pulled out the metallic case and slowly unlocked it and pulled out the informative page with his photo attached.

"I work for the government and yesterday I was sitting at him and knocked off this case." She sat it on the desk in front of him and sighed. "I knew your face and I kept reading and I realized that there is some plot to kill you." She bit her lower lip and glanced at him wondering what his reaction would be. Hopefully it'd be the response she was looking for. What kind of plot?

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked from the papers, to the case, to Breen and back. He worked his eyes over everything, and then nodded. Yep, this woman was crazy. He chewed his lip a moment and then looked up at her. He hated having to admit it to himself, but she was definately confusing him with someone else, or was just going off the deep end right in front of his face.

Pushing the papers back towards her he shook his head and folded his hands.

"I think someone has something mistaken. It's been years since I've been in the army and it had nothing to do with Coruscant's government. I'm sorry, Ma'am. But I think someone has gotten thier lines crossed," he said nodding to her, hoping she could not tell that he thought she was probably insane.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned and looked at him confused. Was he blind? Did he not see that there was a photographed picture of him doing something other than working! Why couldn't he flip through the other files? The ones with the actual plot!?

"What? No, no, no! Mister Benitez!" She moved and grabbed a few papers and threw them on his desk, pointing to certain areas. "This isn't some joke or screwed up typo! There are people wanting to kill you! Murder! Death! People want you dead! Deceased! Buy the farm! Kick the bucket!" She drew in a deep breath and frowned praying with her eyes he'd see the truth, see that she was not lying or psychotic! Because the look on his face was telling her so.

"Mister Benitez!?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario stood up quickly, slamming a hand down on the table. He was much bigger than her, and knew he could strike proper fear if he was so inclined. Up to this point she had only seen his mild mannered normal self. He wasn't going to be so any longer. He did not like being yelled at as if he did not understand what she was saying.

"Madam!" he yelled, growling deep in his chest. "I know what the meaning is of death! I am not stupid, and I do not need you to say it any differently than you already have!" he exclaimed. Taking a deep breath and leaning back he clenched his jaw and then gathered up the papers she had thrown on his desk. He grabbed the case and stuffed them back in, walking around the desk and pushing it back into her arms.

"I don't know you, and I won't have some stranger walking in here trying to either intimidate me, or prove she is mentally unstable. Now," he said herding her out the door and shutting it behind them. "I trust you aren't too handicapped to find the door. Good day to you."

Rosario walked across the hall and through a door that lead him to the warehouse. He locked it behind him and figured she would not have the audacity to follow. If Rosario had not know better, however, he would have almost believed her.

But there was no way anyone could be after him...right?

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen jumped at his gruff voice that was accented beautifully. She wasn't one to be frightened but his sudden anger surprised her, but she was going to stand her ground no man was ever going to scare her. She watched him gather the papers with such force and such passion that when he gave her the case back she toppled slightly, his force also surprising her. His foce was strong against her back and when he pushed her out she almost fell on her face, something she did not appreciate. She frowned and gave him an evil glare over her shoulder, this had been a mistake, obviously! He rushed by her and slammed another door.

"A s s h o l e." She said to herself as she tried to regain her balance and strength. That was by far the rudest thing anyone had ever done to her. How dare he touch her! He was low down filthy man who she was trying to help. If his ignorance was going to prevail then so be it! She would not be insulted again, nor her intelligence which was more than she could say for Rosario Benitez.

Breen sighed out and knew there was no reason to be mad, she was so concerned for him how could he pass such a thing off. Perhaps at a later date when she had more to go on she'd approach him again... in a less personal manner.

"Good day to you, too." She said loud enough for him to hear. She walked outside into the cold and shivered. She had never been so scared for another man's life than at that point.

[Rosario Benitez]

The morning visit had soured Rosario's day. He had done nothing but snap at people from the time he started work till the time he finished and he got a nice a s s chewing from his eldest brother for it too. Not that Xanti thought he could really take Rosario and make him do something he did not want to do, but Rosario valued the money he recieved from his job and did not want to get suspended because some woman off the street had come in spouting nonsense.

Rosario slowly gathered his jacket and started out the door. What a great way to celebrate his thirty-eighth birthday. Not that he celebrated birthdays anymore, never really had. But still, he would have preferred it to have been a little bit more enjoyable than it had been. Oh well, Rosariio was used to having bad days perpetually. This was nothing new, and would not phase him.

As he walked home, Rosario's mind went back to Breen and thier discussion--or more like brawl--they had had that morning. Maybe he should have listened to her. He had let his temper get the best of him, something he had always had trouble with. Maybe he should have just looked at the papers at least, instead of automatically passing her off as a nutcase.

But Rosario was having a hard time beleiving any of it. It had been thirteen years to the day almost since he had been anywhere near the army. Naturally, he had followed what had happened after he had left, but he had not gone back and never planned to. He had not heard from his group for years until the evening previous when he had recieved his and his father's records. Other than that, there had been utter silence from the army he had served in. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Rosario made his way down the street, looking around him as other people made thier way home, or ran to catch a taxi, or talked with friends, or whatever they were doing in thier normal lives. Rosario wondered breifly what it would be like to have a friend. A true one. Ever since his wife died, he had not found one. She was not only his lover, she was his best friend, his soul mate. And Rosario believed, that if you lost your soul mate, you would never find a friend again. Not one you could truly call a friend.

Shaking his head, and mounting the steps to his apartment complex, he slid his card and went inside. He got to the lifts and typed in his code, feeling the lift rev to life and take him upwards to his hall. He got out and went to his door, unlocking it and going inside. He shut the door and locked it, leaning back on it and taking a deep breath, closing his eyes and sighing. That day could officially be added to the long list of worst days he had had.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen lounged on the couch of her apartment, a cigarette in her left hand, the other holding the papers that Rosario had technically thrown back in her face. She was reading them again and again making sure she wasn't a crazy woman as she was sure Benitez had suspected and made her feel like. She still had the proof of what she had seen and it was apparent Rosario had not looked at it at all. She took a drag off of her cigarette and blew out a clean line of white smoke as if this were the only enjoyment in life. She knew for a fact the government, especially corrupt officials, never lacked the courage of their convictions if death was what they were planning then death was what they shall receive.

She allowed the pages to fall onto her lap as she looked up at the ceiling wondering how long it was going to take to convince Rosario of the truth, she figured it'd take time for the way he responded earlier that evening. She couldn't help it... she bent down and picked up the statistics page and looked at the beautiful face that graced the page. She didn't know why but he had piqued her interest and even more so now that she was fighting to save his life. She scanned the page and frowned when her eyes caught a glimpse at the date. She moved her head and looked over at her electronic clock and saw today was his birthday. She smiled and shook her head as she lowered her hand and took another drag.

"Happy birthday, Rosario."

[Rosario Benitez]

The bow slid across the strings with the ease of water sliding over ice. The music filled the air with a haunting melody that Rosario could not remember where he had heard it from. He simply came from his fingers, moved slowly over the strings, pressing on different strings to get his desired sound, manipulating the music until it sounded just as it should have. Not that there was any particular way it should sound, but to Rosario there was a certain pitch, a certain rythmn, a certain beat. It all had to coincide to sound right. It was not something that could be explained.

But even as he played his most valued instrument, Rosario could not keep his mind off of Breen and what she had been trying to tell him. He had been so sure that morning that none of it was true, that she had been spouting insanities. But as the day had progressed, he had become quite unsure. He had begun to wonder if it really was as untrue as he had immediately deemed it.

Rosario did not like wondering. Not this kind of wondering. Not the kind of wondering where it could have possibly been life or death. He did not like groping around in the inky blackness of that shadow of a doubt. It made him nervous, made him doubt himself and that was something he rarely did. His eyes kept going back to that package he had not opened the night before. Could there be something in it that would help explain any of it?

He did not want to open it. Could honestly say he was afraid to. but if Rosario did not figure it out, he might drive himself crazy.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen gasped as she almost fell off the couch. When did she fall asleep? She groaned as the crick in her neck slowly and painfully crept down her back. She sat up, hearing and feeling few papers slide off of her stomach onto the floor and into her ashtray. Luckily the cigarette had been put out long ago. She glanced around and frowned, trying to get her eyesight to adjust. She removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes and saw the time. It was nearing dawn, yet again. She wasn't going to be able to work like this much longer if she didn't go to bed at a decent hour. She was now running on two hours of sleep.

Slowly she moved off the couch and grabbed some of the papers and put them in their proper place and sat it on the glass coffee table in front of her as she picked up the ashtray and sat it next to it. She moved around the room and into her bedroom where she changed into a pant suit. She didn't care about much except her hair and she grabbed her coat and prepared herself for the hell she'd receive at work in a few hours. They were going to wonder where those files went and she was going to play dumb for there was no way in hell she'd give them up, give up Rosario's safety no matter how rude he had been to her.

Breen made some coffee and smoked a few more cigarettes before heading out the door and proceeded to work. She was going in a little earlier to file away some things she was sure she missed, but she knew it wouldn't work for the whole time it was going to be consumed by Rosario.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario had fallen asleep at his table, staring down the box of records. He was slowly coming to, as the sun crept in through his kitchen window from where he had not shut the curtains the evening previous. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and groaned as the sun shone right in them. Squeezing them closed again, he slowly sat up and stretched, carefully opening them to get used to the light.

The box of records had not changed at all over the period of time he had slept. It was still sitting in the same place it had been last night when he had sat down to contemplate it with a bottle of whiskie. His eyes were blurry, his head hurt, and his entire body ached from the awkward position he had slept in. When he looked down at his watch, he realized that he had way overslept and he was supposed to have been at work an hour ago.

Groaning in annoyance, and starting to get up, Rosario paused. He had several weeks of off days and vacation, as he had not ever had the need to take off. Today...he was needing to take off. He was needing to do some personal things. Things needed to be taken care of before they got out of hand.

Slowly making his way into his common room, he picked up his comlink and typed in his brother's number. It beeped for a moment or two before he heard Vicente answer.

"Hello?" he said.

"Vicente. Eu não poderei fazê-lo hoje. Eu tenho algumas coisas para tomar cuidado de. Okay?" he asked. For a moment, his brother was silent. Rosario was not sure if Vicente would be happy with this idea. But after a moment or two, he heard him sigh slightly.

"Okay, Rosario. Eu perdoar-lhe-ei esta vez. Conversa a você mais tarde," he said. Rosario nodded as if Vicente could see him.

"Obrigado. Adeus," Rosario said, and then slowly cut the connection, laying the comlink back down on his table. Glancing into his kitchen at the box that had not moved, Rosario decided that after he took a shower and smoked sufficiently, he would open the box and see if it could answer any of the many questions he had.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen flushed the commode as she moved back to her kneeling position, holding some toilet paper against her mouth as tears streamed down her face. Why was this day going so badly for her? All she was trying to do was help someone yet she was seemingly getting she s h i t end of the deal.

The meeting she had with the her boss had been ugly, especially when he began to threaten her own life for losing those files. She said didn't know how to lie her way out of it, for the first time in her life lying got her nowhere, except to the bathroom where she proceeded to vomit up nothing. She was going to kill Rosario Benitez herself if he didn't understand all that she just went through to help out a stranger. She wasn't someoen who liked to have death on her mind and if he was killed she'd know it was because of her, but how could she convince a man who seemed as stubborn as an ox?

"God..." She sighed out and leaned her head on the stall wall and tried to regain her breath she had lost. She was so tired and her mind was weary. Rosario was there, that picture of him they had clipped, his life and background. She'd never be able to sleep the same again, not after the threats she just received, the anger she just endured, the horrors that were to come to the both of them. Rosario was going to be the death of her she knew it.

Breen lifted her head off the wall and began to wonder... why was she so concerned for a man she did not know at all? Why was he so special? Why was she more concerned about his life rather than her own?

[Rosario Benitez]

The records were just as Rosario had expected. They had his information on there, trackings of what he had done, vital stats, information about his family, his rank, anyone he came in contact with. Anything and everything. It did not surprised Rosario, and somehow, disappointed him. He was hoping to find something there that helped exlplain why Breen had been so adamant about someone being out to kill him. He had hoped to find anything that could help him understand it. Because as mean as he had been to her, he wanted to believe she was not crazy. He wanted to believe that maybe she was really telling him something that was truth. That maybe he was the one being stupid.

But these files helped nothing. They just told him everything he already knew. The only conclusion he could come to now, was that Breen had been very mistaken--or someone had--and she had been acting on a wrong lead. Rosario just did not want to believe that.

Sighing and leaning back in his chair, he threw his papers on the table, annoyed that they had not given him the information he had hoped to find. He looked at all the papers strewn across the table and then grabbed the box, getting in it and pulling out his father's. He might as well reads these since he was at it.

All of it was things he knew. Family members, name, age, height, wieght, rank, class, commanding officer, location. Even the goings on. Rosario continued to read slowly, taking in the information, but not really storing it away. He knew it all, there was no reason to try and learn it all again. Every movement his father had made was on these sheets, and none of it was foreign to Rosario.

Until...

Rosario's eyes trailed over a sentance that did not appear right. Something he never remembered hearing about, learning about. And that one sentance, turned into five sentances, and then twelve sentances, and then and entire paragraph. And before Rosario knew there were whole pages crammed with things that were so foreign to him, it was almost as if he were reading a different language.

His father was supposed to have done all this. But Rosario knew nothing of it. But the army had given them updates as thier father had been in service. Why would they want to keep information from them? Only to send it back thirteen years later?

Leaning forward, Rosario was suddenly completely awake and alert, no longer thinking of anything else but the papers in front of him. He did not know how, or why, but this might have had something to do with Breen's declarations the morning before.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked down the aisles of shelves, doing her routine check to make sure nothing was out of place or missing. She had her clipboard in her hands and the pen ready to write, she and Aya not really talking much except for a few sentences that pertained to either work or the weather. Breen wasn't in the mood for talking, nor was she in the mood for even being there at work, but she had no other options, except quitting her job which that would be very obvious to anyone that she knew where the red files had gone and that she was going to expose the high officials who had been swapping such plans.

"Breen? Aya's voice brought her out of her deep thoughts and she glanced over at the short Asian. "Where are those files I gave you the day before yesterday?" The question came as quite a shock, what would she be doing concerning herself with such things?

"I sent them out...don't you have that on record?" It was typical, one would send files out and place a memo or note stating so in the compartment for such secretive files, which only three people in the whole building knew the code of. Aya, unfortunately, was not one of those lucky few.

"No, there is no memo. They are missing." Breen wasn't going to pass it off, if this were some normal random file she'd stay there all night and all day searching for them until they appeared and although Aya had no authority to know that information she still needed to take precautions. Suddenly it hit her... she was friends with Aya, she worked with Aya, they hung out together... apparently this had been some way to try and catch Breen in a lie.

"Missing?" She said with surprise quickly jogging over to her and beginning to scan through forms on the clipboard. Breen had to fill out forms to let the cataloging be complete and if that wasn't there then the files were labeled as missing. "No, no, no!" Breen flipped through the pages on Aya's and her own board. If she acted like she was seriously concerned perhaps it'd get her boss off her back.

"I've looked a hundred times already, Breen. They aren't here. They are gone." Breen lifted her head to the small girl and bit her lower lip trying to pass off as severely disturbed. What now? What would she normally do in this situation? Make her stay quiet.

"I am the head of this whole section, if they are gone they are going to blame me and you know the repercussions I could face." She let out a sigh as she moved her eyes around the section then back to Aya. "Keep your eyes open! Don’t tell anyone about this until we are absolutely sure they are gone."

"If you want I can stay and help you look?"

"No! No... it's um...okay. You go on home." Breen shook her head in agreement and continued to scan as if she honestly were looking. "I will look for them." She took Aya's clipboard and gave her a weary smile. "I'm sure they are here somewhere." She watched Aya nod and slowly and hesitantly move away from her and head to her small office.

The second Aya was on the elevator Breen felt at ease. If Aya was to tell anyone about the missing files it'd be her boss, hopefully she was a good enough liar to make her assume she was truly worried.

"All of this for you, Rosario." She said to herself in the lowest voice she could muster as she headed back to her office and began to grab her things to leave. She wondered what Rosario was doing right now, if anything had happened, if his mind had been changed at all. Probably not considering he had been a jerk at their last meeting, but she needed more proof to tell him, show him. She bit her lower lip and wondered if she should do what she was about to. The red files were always copied and stuck in the compartment and she had the code. She knew that the camera's were not in on the aisle and she could easily sneak them into her bag. She grabbed her coat and scarf, followed by her normal bags and headed out of the door and to the specific aisle.

She sat down on her knees and typed it in and quickly grabbed them all and closed it. Without hesitation she stood up and walked out to the elevator. Her nerves were on edge and she thought she'd hurl at any given moment, when the doors slid open she stepped into the lobby and rushed towards the door, but her stomach went into her throat when she heard a guard call out to her. Slowly she turned and looked at the two men walking over towards her.

"Y-yes?" She said moving her eyes from one to the other.

"We wanted to wish you a happy belated birthday! We are sorry we forgot." Breen smiled and laughed never so happy to hear such a silly thing in all her life.

"Thank you. Have a nice night!" She didn't stick around to elaborate and chat. She was wanting to head home and check out the information she had just stolen. Great! She thought to herself. I have just committed theft.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario was standing against the far wall of his common room, a cigarette hanging from his mouth, his eyes fixated on the files spread over his kitchen table. After reading and rereading them all thoroughly, Rosario had spent the day doing nothing but tracking down his father's old comrades, any of them that were still alive and still sane and on this planet. He had been slowly peicing together the things that the records said had happened. Most of the old men had been sworn to secrecy, but once they had been discharged, no longer felt the need to stay quiet.

And bit by bit, Rosario had proved that it was all true.

His father had been involved in some sort of conspiracy. Rosario did not know the particulars, any of the details, all he knew was that in the course of his father's eight year service he had been relocated all over Naboo to serve different military bases, most of which had nothing to do with the National Army of Naboo. His father had been a spy. Or at least, that's what it appeared to be. His father had been involved in several operations that had been carried out by the opposing forces. He had done many things, one of which had been to set and fire a series of poison bombs in the capital city, resulting in the deaths of thousands. Ramiro Benitez had been a second class officer in the National Army of Naboo and he had been trusted above many, many others. Rosario had realized the farther he read, that his father was nothing but a two-faced liar.

And Rosario was meant to follow in his footsteps.

The plan had been for Rosario to be sent a year after Ramiro had been honorably discharged. That had been successful. After that, Rosario was supposed to have been put through conditioning to train him to become an elite officer. Again, it was successful. Then, Rosario was to be placed in a base near the capital, his job being to pass information about the opposing army to intelligence officers that would plan attacks and report to the commanding officer.

And that was where Rosario had found the corruption.

Many of the officers he worked with siezed civilians, pounded them for information, raped and killed countless numbers. The army had expected Rosario to switch sides voluntarily, fighting against the corruption. However, they had not counted on his mother dying at the same time. In response, Rosario had gone AWOL.

And it appeared as if they were still holding a grudge against him, after thirteen years. And Rosario was having a hard peicing it all together. He couldn't believe any of it. Was unable to accept that it had all happened truly. Was it possible this was some sort of big joke? Some elaborate practical joke that was being played on him?

Because otherwise, Ramiro Benitez was not the hero everyone had thought. And Rosario had just been a little pawn in some sick, twisted game.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen coughed as she inhaled the cigarette too deep. She had been rummaging throught the countless papers she had stolen finding out things about corruption, spying, lying, AWOL, assassination attempts, deserters...endless things that people had done and it was all getting worse. Apparently she was beginning to find out things about Rosario she hadn't expected. He had deserted the army for reasons that were still left uknown. So why were they going to kill him? Sure that money that was hidden away was one thing... but why, honestly, kill the man who really had no part in anything? Had he been a spy? A murderer? Had he gone off the deep end? She didn't really know why considering she couldn't really approach him and ask since he had blown her off the day before. But if he was concerned for his life he'd come to her and try to see what their plot was...which at this moment in time was still a mystery.

She sat back and glanced at the clock. It was just five in the afternoon and she could try and get a hold of him, but she didn't think he'd appreciate her harassing him. She scanned a few more papers and saw nothing she hadn't already lookd at over a million times. She still had another folder in her bag and she was going to start piecing things together in that one considering she had gotten all the information she already discovered. She bent over and grabbed another manilla folder and sat it down on the desk and opened it up. The bright white pages shocked her when she began to flip through them. This wasn't some letters or notes passed to people in the army or government, but in fact a log of what Rosario Benitez had been doing for quite some time. She flipped page after page, seeing the dates and times changing.

"Oh my god." She said to herself in disbelief. There were over hundreds of papers and dates showing Rosario going to work, shopping, smoking, readjusting himself...anything and everything he did in one day. As she moved quicker she saw the last log had been the day he ran into her while waiting for a taxi. "Someone is continuosly adding things..." She didn't know who, but it wa apparent they were trying to get a set routine so they knew when and where he'd be whenever they tried to kill him. Breen moved the pages and quickly grabbed the last folder in her bag. She opened it up to see something worse... many black and white photographs. She expected that much, but what she wasn't expecting was to see her and Rosario together at the taxi port.

"S h i t." She said to herself as she closed the folder. No wonder they were suspicious. Files go missing and she had been seen speaking with him. The hole she was digging for herself was just getting deeper and deeper.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario needed to take a walk. He was burning alive in his apartment, and the open window was not helping him at all. Shedding his jacket and going to the door of his apartment, he went out to the lifts and entered. The lifts themselves were hot, as they had thier own heating unit, and as far as Rosario knew, thier heating unit was the only one in the building that did not go out on a regualar routine. In fact, Rosario did not know when the last time was they had gone out.

Getting off the lift and heading through the lobby, glancing over at the young clerk sitting at the desk, writing on something on his desk. Rosario ignored him quickly, and walked to the door. He stepped out on the steps and took a deep breath letting it out and watching his breath disappear away from him. The cold, bitter air enveloped him, making his skin cool quickly.

Rosario's mind raced and yet didn't at the same time. He did not know what to think, what to feel. He did not know if he should believe all of what he had read.

Searching the dimness on the street, the absence of other people caused the street to be very quiet. Very peaceful. Rosario merely stood there for a moment, before lighting up a cigarette and taking a drag, blowing the smoke away from him. For a few moments, Rosario heard nothing.

But the sound of a blaster charging somwhere on the street, quickly caught his attention.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen blew into her large mug trying to cool down the coffee she had just made. She was so tired of worrying, but that was all one had time to do in this kind of situation even worse when you lived alone. She didn't want to see the files anymore, the logs, the plot, the pictures... she just wanted her coffee and cigarettes.

She sat down at her desk, proceeding to do what she did not want to. Stare at the files and try to piece more things together. She wasn't getting anywhere really, just the same thing she had figured out an hour or so ago. She sighed out and leaned on the desk, putting her mug down and grabbing her pack of cigarettes and kighting one up. As she smoked she heard someone at her door. She moved her glance away from the lamp and over to her front door seeing a shadow underneath. She held her breath as if this were going to help matters, but all it did was make her more frightened. She watched the shadow shift and move until something slid under her door in a manilla folder then disappear. It took her a moment to actually get up and run over to the object laying still on the floor.

Breen bent down and flipped it open and saw three large pictures of her and Rosario from the day before, when she had dropped the bomb on him. She looked up at the door with a frown and she jumped up and unlocked it and flung it wide open, running into the hall to see nothing. Who the hell was sending her pictures of herself? Especially pictures with Rosario.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario searched the darkness. He could see no one, but could hear the sound of the blaster charging, someone flipping the lock switch and readying to fire. For a moment, Rosario did not know whether he was really hearing it, or if his mind was just playing tricks on him. His eyes desperately searched the night for something to focus on, but there was nothing. Nothing until...

Rosario saw the tell tale soft glow across the street of a cigarette as someone inhaled the smoke into thier lungs. And before Rosario had any time to react, blaster fire ricocheted off of the building behind him, and another blast that soon followed, grazed Rosario's temple.

"Holy s h i t!" he yelled, immediately swinging his legs over the solid railing of the stairs and hiding behind it, hearing clunky footsteps echoing off the buildings as the person who had shot moved. Rosario's heart was about to leap out of his chest. He had been in war, yes, and this was nothing close to it. Yet, Rosario was still as frightened as he was in warfare. Because as far as he knew, there was no reason he needed to be shot at.

Three more shots rang out, hitting the railing above his head. He ducked down; if he only had his repeating blaster...

"Mr. Benitez!" growled a voice from everywhere and nowhere. "Why don't you come out and join the party!" a shot fired, hitting Rosario's shoulder. Rosario grabbed his shoulder, groaning as the pain spread through his body. He got up to his feet, glancing around him as a little blood trickled from his temple down his jaw. He turned and made an attempt at getting back into the lobby of his apartment complex. Four very well placed shots around his feet sent him in the other direction, sprinting away from the heavy footsteps that echoed behind him.

"Go on and run, Mr. Benitez! Run to your friend, Breen is it?!" yelled the voice again, shooting twice at Rosario's retreating form. "She lives on the other side of town! High Tower Apartments! Apartment thirty-six! Run, Mr. Benitez, but it won't do you any good! We always know where you are!"

But anything else the man yelled was laost to Rosario as he sprinted around buildings, running to the only person that he knew could help.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen paced the floor smoking her last cigarette. In the trash can where two packs that had just been smoked in the time lapse of an hour. What the hell was going on? Why had she been so stupid to get invoved with affairs that didn't even matter to her? Because she was nice and had the inability to let people die because of her, even though it might cost her her own life, which at this rate it seemed she was going to get killed sooner or later.

She puffed away and let out a sigh as the smoke filled the air. She had switched from coffee to liquor and that was still not calming her down. Someone had now been taking pictures of her and Mr. Benitez and that did not comfort her what so ever because if her boss found that out...she'd be in such trouble. She'd be taken to the high courts and hung out to dry for theft, lying, and probably charged with selling secrets. Who the hell knew, the government had easy ways to make people disappear and never exist. She'd probably be killed and dumped somewhere, her name being erased as well as her entire existence.

She rubbed her forehead trying her best to figrue out what to do. If the one person she needed to haev believe her didn't, they'd both die without good reason. Why was this so damn difficult. Why did she have to get involved!? She kept asking herself this but she wasn't going to receive a good answer, it was all because of his troubled past, her sudden infatuation with him, and her inability to just stay out of peoples business. If only she hadn't have dropped those papers.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario made his way to Breen's apartment, using the information the man had just yelled at him. His shoulder was bloody, his face also had blood down the side of it from where the blaster fire had grazed his head. He hoped the man had not just been yelling some apartment. He hoped it really was hers.

He got to the apartment building and waited in the darkness until someone entered the building. He slid in behind them and walked through the lobby, getting many stares from the people there. Ignoring them, he got to the lifts, punching in for aparment thirty-six. The lift took him upward and finally opened. Rosario glanced around the hall a moment as if someone else might be waiting in the shadows to shoot at him again. When he was satisfied he was alone, he made his way down the hall until he found the apartment.

He stared at it a moment, realizing how much she would probably turn him away for the way he had treated her. But he did not know where else to turn. She obviously knew something more about this than he did, and, more than anything else...Rosario Benitez was frightened.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen hugged herself as she stared at the folder on the coffee table that held the pictures of she and him together, puffing away making sure to get every inch of nicotine the cigarette had to offer. She heard a small rapping on her door and she immediately glanced over her shoulder at the door, paranoid and scared to even go near it and look out the peep hole. But like the woman she was... she did it anyway.

Breen slowly crept across the floor, making sure to barely make any noise in case it was someone she didn't want to see or speak to. She kept her cigarette in her hand as she walked to the door and slowly leaned forward closing her right eye. Through the circular piece of glass stood a distorted figure, a man and for a second she thought this was the moment they cam and took her away, but when he glared around the hall familiarity took its form. It was Rosario Benitez, she knew for a fact it had to have been. But how did he find her apartment? SHe didn't care to ask such a question, what did he want? She unlocked the door quickly and put the cigarette in her mouth so she could pull the door open. The second the light spilled into the darkness of her apartment her jaw dropped and her cigarette almost fell out.

"Rosario!" She removed the cigarette from her mouth and looked at his rough appearance, his bloody appearance. "What the hell happened?" She waved him in immediately as she scanned the wounds that were bleeding. "God, come inside, let me have a look at you!"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario slowly made his way inside her apartment, so glad she had not turned him away, and yet feeling stupid for being there. She probably figured he had gotten into some accident at work and couldn't take care of himself. He slid off his dirty work boots and went into her apartment, sinking down into one of the couches, leaning his elbows on his knees and putting his face in his hands.

"I went..." he paused. "I went out to smoke, to get a breath and...somebody started shooting at me. Good aim too, nearly got me several times, I just..." he took a deep breath. "I just...I don't know why..." for a few moments he was quiet, then he looked up at her.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I guess it took me being shot at to get it."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched him remove his shoes and fall into the comfort of her couch, she was so happy to see he was alive and breathing, although she would have prefered to see him not bleeding she was happy he was alive at least. Breen hadn't been able to think of anything else than his well being. She stood smoking her cigarette, sad that it was almost to the end of the filter. His words were coming in heavy breaths and she was more than willing to listen to hear him tell her what happened then to hear him apologize.... she wanted to attack him and give him a hug. At least now she knew for sure that she wasn't crazy, too.

"Please, don't apologize." She said to him as she walked into the bathroom and flipped on the light. She grabbed a towel and ran it under the hot water and came back out and took a seat right in front of him. She sat on the coffee table and grabbed his hands away from his face, from the bleeding wound that left a trail down his face. She moved the tip of the cloth around his face, cleaning the dried blood before actually moving to the painful part.

"Don't be sorry at all. I am just glad to see that you are okay... aside from the wounds." She kept the cigarette hanging out of her mouth as she cleaned it quickly, her energy being restored dramatically.

"I stole some important papers from work hoping to prove you wrong," She grinned slightly as she kept cleaning. "I found some revealing pictures of you and logs of where you were at certain times, what you ate, smoked...all this crap. Even worse a few minutes ago someone slipped some more photograph's under my door. It seems they have been spying on the both of us."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario shook his head, everything coming to him like being smacked in the face. He did not understand what was truly going on, what the scale was of what he had just stepped into. Of what he had apparently been a part of for thirteen years. He shook his head, and winced at the slight pain that went through his head.

This whole thing was so surreal he could not believe that it was real. His mind would not wrap around it. All he could do was sit in awe of what all had happened. He looked up at Breen and then shook his head again.

"Spying? On me?" he asked. Why would anyone want to spy on him? There was nothing to spy on. He was a very boring person. He could not imagine why anyone would want to spy on him.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen blew out a line of smoke and quickly put out her cigarette in the ashtray and glanced back up to him, cleaning his temple as best as she could without killing him. She stood up and jogged into the bathroom where she searched a few drawers trying to find her first aid kit.

"Whatever the reason there is an obvious plot to kill you, Rosario. I have many papers saying so." She walked out of the bathoom and back over to him where she opened the small case and got some medicated sauve and placing it over the wound. "I don't want to say 'I told you so' but had you looked at those papers you would have seen it." She sighed out and looked at him and frowned.

"Take off your coat, let me look at your shoulder." Whoever was trying to kill him was doing a pretty good job so far, they obviously had no problem hitting their target. "Next time, Rosario, you might not be so lucky." She didn't direct this at him really, she was just speaking out loud. She looked up at him and sighed out yet again.

"I don't want to make you paranoid... or... anything, but if they don't succeed in killing you, they're going to go after your family. Whoever wants you dead has a good reason. What that reason is...I'm not really sure of yet."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario did not move. He didn't want to be taken care of not really. He just needed to give her the information he had, and have her give him the information she had. He got up off of the couch and walked across the room, pulling his cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one, taking a drag from it and then blowing it away from him and sighing out of his nose. He ran a hand through his hair and then turned back towards her.

"There are these files that came to my house. I don't know who sent them...but they...outline the goings on of what I did in the army and what my father did. There was an apparent conspiracy or something involving my father. He was a spy for the opposing army, and I..." he paused. "I was supposed to be his replacement when he was discharged. Unknown to me, I was conditioned to properly be able to pass secrets. I was supposed to be this perfect soldier. But, they didn't count on the conditioning to not work mentally. I don't know what it would have to do with them wanting to spy on me. But, that is some of my story," he looked around at her. "Maybe it fits with some of yours."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed and sat her medical aids down and allowed him to tell her what was going on, although she knew almost all of it already. save the part of him being in the army and being a perfect soldier.

"That day I ran into you...those files I jerked away...that was one of many letters written about the conspiracy to commit murder...your murder." She stood up and began to pace glaring at the cigarette he was smoking.

"May I...have one of those, please?" She hoped he'd share for God knew if she didn't have a cigarette she might explode. Stress was mounding on her mind and she knew she needed to tell him about her sudden part in this whole matter.

"Anyway those files," She rubbed her forehead that beaded with sweat the whole situation finally getting to her. "I read them and today I got severe threats from my boss, one of the top leaders in Coruscant's government. He and someone else are trying to murder you. Today, after getting threatened, I grabbed some more papers and found out that more than one people have means to kill you. My life is now on the line because of what I did to help you and now I am beginning to think that they are afraid Iknow too much."

"I just received these..." She bent over and picked up the folder with her photograph's. "Pictures of you and I from the other day. They know I know about the plan to get rid of you, they know I have these files, but what they don't really know is that I have no clue who is trying to kill you."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario dug in his pocket again for his pack of cigarettes. He turned and tossed them on the table towards her, leaning over to look at the picture she indicated. Surely enough, there it was, he and her standing together, the picture in black and white thier images kind of blurry, as if the person had been on the move while taking the picture. Rosario shook his and leaned back, taking in a deep breath of smoke and blowing it out away from him. He felt his head beginning to ache.

All of this was too much for him to handle. Rosario had never been involved in anything like this before, and could not understand how it had all sprung up on him like this. If he and Breen had never met, maybe it would not have happened. Maybe, he would never have looked at those files, and found all this information out. Maybe she never would have dropped her papers and seen his face and information spread out before her. Maybe whoever wanted the papers he got would have claimed them peacefully, and no one would have been put in danger.

As it was, however, not only were his and Breen's lives in danger, but her family, and his family. Everything they knew, everything they had was in danger. In two days, everything could be gone.

But Rosario was not prepared to give up so easily.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen grabbed the pack and quickly took one from the pack and lit it up, allowing the smoke to cover her throat and enter her lungs, at least this was the only stable thing in her life.

"I could go to work tomorrow and try to get names of those who were responsible for writing them." She shook her head as the smoke came out of her mouth. "It'd be tricky considering all of the names have been blacked out, for privacy reasons of course." She raised her eyebrows and let out a sigh before taking another drag.

"You wouldn't happen to know anyone in the army would you? But why are they wanting to kill you so bad?" Suddenly a light went off in her head. "A package was supposed to be delivered two weeks ago and it never arrived. Things like this have happened before... people who were mentioned got the packages. But those who got them were immediately 'taken care of' so-to-speak." Breen didn't know how to handle this situation, but whoever it was trying to kill him was going to suceed, especially if they tracked him down in an open area.

"I'm going to catch hell when they realize that more files have gone missing."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded at her as he made his way over to a window, and peered down into the streets. His mind was slowly beginning to wrap around what all had happened. Yet, he was still having problems believing it. He didn't know who would want to kill him. He looked up at Breen and shook his head, walking over and viciously putting his cigarette out in the ash tray.

"Sure, I know plenty of people in the army who hated me. I know where a lot of them live now, but..." he shook his head, lowering his slightly stressed voice. "None of them would have grown a pair and come after me." He sighed. "I don't know who would care enough to go to the trouble of spying, taking pictures, following me. People hated me, but they got what they wanted. I left the army. They won the war. Its..."

Rosario turned away from her, putting a hand through his hair and sighing again shaking his head. None of it made sense, none of it wanted to go into Rosario's brain. He was too old for this. Much to old, much too worn. He suddenly wished he had never gone into the army. If he had simply listened to his mother and brothers. Then none of this would have happened at all.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen didn't know what to say to him, he was obviously blaming himself for something she was unaware of. She wondered about him, if perhaps the army had worn him out, but it seemed that something deeper was troubling him. She wasn't an expert on judging people or figuring out their problems but it was easy to see he had many skeletons in his closet that were slowly seeping out and it was probably giving him hell.

"I don't know." She said in an exasperated sigh as she moved to a chair and sat down, crossing her leg and smoking her cigarette leisurely. "Whoever it is, though, they are now wanting us dead." She wasn't exactly sure on her part, but he was definitely wanted in a body bag. But she had bigger things to worry about, her boss had threatened her and breaking the laws she sworn to obide by meant nothing other than leaving Coruscant or being erased.

"I want to apologize for getting involved, but the day I met you..." She wasn't going to tread on that kind of water just yet. Mere attraction for someone wasn't a good enough reason to help them out and she was sure a man like him would want nothing to do with a girl like her. "There was just something about you that told me I should help you." Hopefully she wasn't being too bold and that'd he appreciate her sudden concern for a stranger, although that wasn't the true reason for wanting him to live. He was human being with feelings and the right to live, besides she was sure he had a wife back home that would appreciate her sticking her neck out for him. Yeah, his wife was probably very grateful for finding this out.

"I don't know how to solve this mess, but one option you have is to take your wife and family as far away from Coruscant as possible."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's heart panged when she mentioned his wife. He supposed that there was no way for her to know that she had died seven years ago, but even still, it still bothered him to even think about her let alone talk about her. He nodded slightly glancing over his shoulder.

"My wife passed away some years ago. There is no one for me to worry about but my brothers, sisters and I," he paused, then turned to face her fully. "And you. I thank you for having compassion on an old man. And I am still very sorry for the way I treated you, you were only trying to help me. I don't know why anyone would want either of us dead, and I am pretty sure the only reason they would be after you would be because you had a small peice of heart put aside for me, however..." he took a deep breath and looked around as if someone might be in the apartment at that very moment. Then he looked back at her.

"I'll be damned if I go down without a fight," he sighed. "I can only suggest that we do whatever we can to get as much information as we can."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched his back shift slightly then straighten as if she had hit a truly sour note. She watched him turn around and suddenly tell her that his wife had passed on and suddenly she felt incredibly guilty for even mentioning it. SHe had no idea what it was like to lose someone so close, but the feeling she got of thinking about it made her sad. Empathy taking a hold of her heart for Rosario and his loss.

"I....sorry." She said for the lack of a better word. She drew in a sigh and leaned forward putting out her cigarette. She smiled at him, happy to hear his apology even though she honestly could have cared less for she figured he would be anyway. His idea to think of a plan was hard to do, the time it would take to get information on who was setting it up, who in the government wanted him dead, and who knew where they lived.

"I am with you on that one, Rosario. But we would have to work fast considering the person who shot at you tonight must have already gotten the go ahead." She wasn't fond of drama or violence, but when it was thrust upon you like it just now did she doubted there was time to even aknowledge the fact you were in the midst of it all.

"I can try my hand at hacking tomorrow, if we are lucky enough to see it."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, touching his head slightly and looking at the blood that came off on his fingers. He glanced around the apartment a moment, before looking back at her. He blinked a few times.

"Do you have a comlink? I'd like to call my brother," he asked, hoping she did. He'd like to call his brother to see if he could stay there with him at least for this evening. Because if someone wanted him dead bad enough to send someone after him, then they wanted him dead enough to make that person await his return.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen nodded in reply and moved around the living room to her small designated area for her 'office'. She opened up one of the drawers and pulled out her comlink and walked over to Rosario and handed it to him gingerly in his hand, afraid that this action was going to somehow kill him. She was sure he had a rough day, even more so a rough night much like she had had. She was so tired that the circles under her eyes must've been unappealing, but that should've been the last thing on her mind.

"Call whomever you'd like. But I must ask you a question, may I have a number and address to where I could reach you by? Just...in case...."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario took the comlink from her and bowed slightly. He turned away from her, and dialed his brother's code, walking away slightly afraid his speaking Portuguese might make Breen uncomfortable. He listened as the other comlink beeped and for a moment, Rosario was not sure if his brother would answer. But he heard a click and sighed.

"Hello?" came his brother's deep accented voice. Rosario switched the comlink from the hand on his injured arm to the hand on his normal one.

"Hi, Vicente? É Rosario. Eu necessito sua ajuda," he said quickly, hoping to get this all finished fast. He was feeling like he was under the spotlight speaking Portuguese in front of Breen. Although it was the last thing he should have been worried about, he was worried about what she thought of him.

"Ah, Rosario! Que está acima?"

"Mim necessita permanecer hoje à noite com você, e pode você escolher-me acima nos apartamentos elevados da torre no lado ocidental?" he asked carefully pronouncing everything well so that his brother would know exactly where he was and would stray nowhere else. Rosario listened for a moment as his brother wrote it down.

"Mm. Okay. Certo. Sim, eu estarei lá em vinte minutos. Espera para mim?"

"Sim. Adeus," Rosario said, and quickly flipped off the comlink. He turned and slowly laid it back on the table, switching himself back to Basic. He nodded to Breen as he stood upright again, suddenly feeling as if he towered over her.

"Thank you," he paused. "And yes, I will write down the address and link number if you like."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen stared out the window as if she were going to intrude in on his conversation, but when he began to speak in a different language she glanced over her shoulder at him, bending slightly as if this were embarassing. She couldn't help but feel her face grow red and a smile forcefully make its way on her face. Hearing him talk in a different language was beautiful, the language itself being beautiful. It sounded familiar, Spanish or some variation of it, either way she liked hearing it coem from deep within him. She looked away and found the scene she had mindlessly stared at hearing his voice speak in a language she could not understand.

She turned around after a moment and glanced at him, hearing him suddenly get off the comlink and walk over to her as he sat the comlink down. He was so tall, so big, so...attractive, even injured. She grinned, trying her best not to, but it was to no avail. Her heart skipped when he agreed to write it down, she was so relieved to hear that.

"Mmm." She said as she turned and grabbed some paper on her desk as well as a pen. She handed it to him and watched him with interested eyes. "I promise I won't sell this information." She said light heartedly with a grin. "But I cannot promise I won't call you all night long."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario crouched down, taking the pen and writing down his brother's name and address and then his comlink number. Then he jotted down his name and then his Catholic saint both in Portuguese. He stood and smiled at her.

"My brother does not really trust Basic speakers," he shrugged then pointed to his name and Catholic saint. "Chances are I will be answering the comlink for the most part, but if I don't just tell him this, and he should let you have the comlink. He always wants to prove that we know the person calling his home link." He smiled again at her, this time warmer, a little more reassuring. He had found himself smiling more when in Breen's company than any other time.

"And as for calling me all night long, I am not sure that I would be so averse to that as Vicente would be," he chuckled a little. "But please, call often. I want to know that you are alright while I am not in your presence, and unable to see you with my own two eyes." Really, that phrase had slid out. Rosario knew he should not have said it, he immediately felt guilty.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched him write, this allowing her mind to travel to less important things for the first time that night. She glanced at his face taking in some of the age that had set in, the lines from his forhead, the crows feet, his laugh lines that had been used well. She had never been attracted to older men, but it was hard to deny Rosario Benitez. There was something about him that she liked, his voice, his deep eyes that showed his wisdom, his rough appearance. It all was appealing, he was the most handsome man she had ever met in a long time.

She smiled softly at him as she looked up at her with a smile she was not expecting. It gave her a warm feeling and it suddenly soothed her worried mind, as if everything was just fine. It surprised her how that small action chased away any fears she had. How she loved that.

"But please, call often. I want to know that you are alright while I am not in your presence, and unable to see you with my own two eyes." Breen smiled at him her face growing red. She would give anything, truly anything, to be able to feel that comforted again and like she actually had someone to care about her. sad that her family was no longer around to give her the comforts she so desired.

[Rosario Benitez]

For a moment Rosario watched Breen. In a way, she reminded him of his wife. She was kind hearted, quiet, very intelligent. She was very interesting to Rosario. But he could only count her as a friend. When his wife had died, he knew he had lost his soulmate, lost any meaning he had ever had in his life. The color she had brought to his world had been drained away, and he was left with the mundane, the black and white, the emptiness that Rosario had felt until he met her. And he had felt since she had left him

And that wasn't all that troubled him. He would have had a young son, would have at least had one thing to live for, but God had seen fit to take that away as well. And while Rosario wanted to feel the warmth of being close to someone again, he could not allow himself to do it.

These thoughts were all very fleeting and all very unfitting for the moment, but Rosario could not help them. Slowly, he stood completely straight, his mind hurting, his hear hurting, his soul hurting. More than his physical pain, Rosario hurt mentally, spiritually. Hurt in a way nothing seemed to soothe. A hurt he had been trying to heal for seven long years.

For a moment, he said nothing, merely stood there, regarding her quietly. There was nothing left to say than had already been said. There was nothing left to discuss than had already passed between them. There was nothing left now, but to wait and to plan.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched him and for a moment she had forgotten the world for the way he looked made her heart fill up with this dam of pain. He looked lost, deep in thought, and struggling with perhaps inner demons. Was there more to him than mere pages weren't saying? Apparently so if they didn't state his marital status or the fact that his wife had died. She hurt for him and she didn't know why.

She nodded at the page as if she were studying it when in reality she was thinking about Rosario's past. She was so concerned for him that this was beginning to become an addiction. Her life mattered very little to her at this moment, she wanted this man to live and be happy because he deserved it. Especially if he had been well run ragged by the army and by life.

"Thank you, Rosario. If I need anything I will call you." She looked up at him and gave him a soft grin, the soft glow coming from the bathroom and the desk to her right making him appear softer than he might've been, his age softening quite a bit. "You...might want to head on over to your brother's in case they are watching us right now." She said this lowly as if she were afraid this would be the last time she'd ever see him. She hoped that wasn't the case because from the moment she met him all she wanted to do was see him again and again.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded. He turned and walked to the door, still holding his shoulder slightly, intending upon bandaging the angry wound when at his brother's. He slid his feet into his boots and leaned down, tightening the strings so they would stay. He laid a hand on her door knob and paused. It had just occured to him that this was possibly the last time he might ever see her again. One or the other of them could be dead by morning. Or one of them might have to end up running, fleeing as far from each other as humanly possible. And though Rosario wanted to hope that that would not be the case, he had been in the army, knew the precautions people took, knew the damage powerful people could inflict on not so powerful people. Rosario and Breen had stepped into something that neither of them would be able to comprehend the scale of until they reached the peak.

Turning slightly, he looked at Breen over his shoulder. He nodded, turning the door handled and opening the door. He took a step out and turned to shut the door behind him. As he did, he glanced back in at her.

"Be careful, Breen," and to Rosario the soft thud of the door shutting was the seal of his fate, as loud as the doors to a prison cell or a torture chamber.

He did not know what was going to go down, but it could only end in tears.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen nodded as she heard the door close softly. She hadn't felt so empty in all her life until he walked out the door and, possibly, out of her life forever. She had just met him a few hours ago and already they were parting and that was unsettling to her. Something about Rosario Benitez hit a cord in her heart and she was slowly being tugged in a way that had never hurt or felt so good in all her life, but whether or not it was intended was still in question. She doubted it was.

Breen had a lot of things to think about that night, how to make sure nobody found out about the files, make sure nobody knew of her plan to hack into the system and find names, and made sure nobody else saw her with Rosario. Slowly she went over to the door and locked it and headed towards the bedroom where she knew she needed to be, she was so tired that any moment she'd die of exhaustion. As tired as she might have been she knew she'd never get to sleep until she knew for a fact that she and Rosario were safe, although she worried more about his safety than her own. She hurried up and changed into some sleeping clothes and crawled into her bed actually enjoying its comfort for the first time since she bought it. She closed her eyes and immediately thought of all the things that had eventfully happened, her meeting Rosario, finding files, speaking with him, helping him...he wouldn't leave her mind and she doubted he would for a very long time.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario awoke much later than usual. He imagined it was the fact that the wounds on his face and shoulder were not throbbing as badly as the evening previous, but still hurt like none other. His brother, who had apparently already left, had not seen fit to wake him to go to work. Rosario growled slightly. He had specifically told Vicente that he wanted to go to work. He had even left a note for him the evening previous. Obviously, Vicente did not think he wasd ready for work yet. Xanti, Morela, and Fia would be wondering where he was, and he doubted the story he had come up with on the spot would really seem right to them. His sisters and brothers were too cunning for that. He imagined they'd dig till they found something. But Rosario was determined to keep this between he, Breen, and the Government.

Sitting up in the bed, and swinging his legs over, he decided he would take a shower, get dressed and go to work. It would be the only thing that would be able to take his mind off of everything. At least he could be normal for a little while, while he worked.

He glanced down at his bandaged shoulder and sighed. It would take the singed flesh a while to heal, but eventually he knew it would. It would be yet another scar to add to the array of others that graced his body. Rosario moved from the bedroom to the bathroom, where he started up the shower, shedding his grey excercise pants, the bandages, and stepping in. The water was hot and stung at his wounds, but felt good to his old, aching body. Rosario knew he had made the point before, but now since all of this cropped up, he was absolutely sure of the fact that he was much too old to be doing anything. Let alone fighting the government, all but single handedly, with his only ally being a woman he barely knew, and whom he had a strange, and unwanted attraction to.

Rosario shook his head as he let the water run over his hair and face, its heat causing steam to roll about him. Speaking of whom, he wondered how Breen was this morning.

[Breen Dearborn]

"Have a good day!" She sand happily to her favorite coffee shop owner Moussa Shankar the sweet Indian who had always been kind to her since she began to stop and get her routine coffee. This morning she was again in the mood for hot chocolate and it tasted so sweet and wonderfully calmed her nerves. She walked out of the shop and into the brisk cold winter wind, allowing the comfort of the cold weather hitting her hot body. She quickly drank it down not wanting to sip it for she was going to be late for work. She jogged over to the taxi platform and quickly hopped inside, pushing in her destination and sitting back to relax and think of a plan to tell everyone if they found out the files had been missing.

She was running on three hours of sleep now and she was starting to think that she could honestly live like this since she wasn't feeling tired anymore. She began to wonder, as the cab began to move, how Rosario was. Did he sleep okay? Did anyone else bother him on his way to his brothers? Was his wounds healing properly? Was he able to relax? Was he..she let out a sigh and sat back into the comfort of the taxi. She was thinking too much about Rosario and his well being, so much that she was forgetting to think about her needs instead. Breen sat the empty cup on the floor and looked out the window trying to keep herself occupied for the ride, her excuses weren't going to fly with anyone considering she was already suspected of stealing.

suddenly a loud sound came from behind the cab, a hover craft with a killer engine. She glanced over her shoulder to see what kind it was for she was thinking about buying her own, something fast that could get her to work on time. When she saw nothing she frowned. She turned around to see out her window and suddenly her mind went into shock. A black sharp hovercraft was right next to the taxi with guns suddenly blazing. She screamed and ducked into the seat, feeling the glass shatter and fall over her, blaster shots being fired. It blasted through the hull and exploded slightly, throwing metal around the car. The taxi began to swerve and suddenly it crashed into the car next to it. She was being tossed around in the back seat, the holes in the door causing the balance to be thrown off, pieces of glass and metal were being thrown around in the air as well.

Suddenly the person in the craft next to her got the idea to run into it and try and push it into other cars, which is what began to happen, busting out more windows on the opposite side and merely causing chaos. The person in the car was still shooting while driving. It ran into the side of the taxi and suddenly pushed the craft into another car, Breen went from one side of the taxi to another, hitting her head on the door frame as it stopped. She frowned when she sat up, her head suddenly bleeding, as well as cuts and scratches from the glass that sprayed everywhere. When she looked out of the cracked windshield she saw she was in the incoming lane, another taxi coming striaght towards her. She gasped and moved to try and stop the taxi, but the messages weren't being sent for the control panel had been hit by the blaster. The taxi was smoking and suddenly about to blow. She looked around frantically as blaster shots whizzed by her head as well as the crunching of hull-on-hull. She tried her damdest to get it to work but it was just blinking and had sparks shooting at her. The craft next to her ramed into the side again, tossing her into the floor. Panic stricken she continued to get up and go back to the panel. She sat in the seat and lifted her leg and began to kick at the panel, hearing it make weird noises. She glanced out the window and saw the craft next to her suddenly draw back and she knew why. The taxi in front of her was going to hit them both. She held her breath and grabbed her bag and tried to open the door to let herself out, but it was jammed. She frantically continued seeing the taxi drawing near, sweat formed on her head as well as blood. She bit her lower lip and yelled at it.

"Open up! Come on!" But it didn't listen. Suddenly she had no choice. She crawled out the window, gasping when she almost hit another car that whizzed by, honking its horn at her. She saw a platform coming up and she just prayed the taxi would swerve but it didn't. The taxi crashed into one another, throwing her out of the window and luckily onto the platform. The cars exploded on impact and shot fire balls and pieces of hull everywhere. A few people on the street stopped and screamed as the explosion shook everything around it. Breen thought for sure she was dead, but when she opened her eyes to see a huge piece of glass coming at her head she rolled out of the way and covered her head, hearing and feeling it shatter. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to god she was all right.

After a moment of laying on the ground smelling the stench of burning gas she moved and looked up, pain shooting through her body like none other. She groaned and saw her coat stained with blood. A man dared to come over and see if she was okay.

"Miss! Are you all right? I called an ambulance." Breen groaned and nodded in response. The only person they authorities were allowed to call would be Rosario, nobody else would come.

[Ryoshiya Le'Gard]

EDIT

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario heard the sounds from his brother's apartment that was situated near the hoverways. The ground shook slightly with the sounds of explosions and screams. He did not know what had happened, but he was ready to go and find out.

Quickly finishing his bandaging, he zipped and buttoned his jeans and rummaged around his brother's drawers until he found a red long sleeved shirt that would cover his tattoo. He pulled on his jacket and then pushed a hat on his head. He glanced around to make sure he had cleaned everything up after himself, then emerged from the home and onto the stoop. He looked around and saw passerby on the street, staring upward towards the hoverways.

Rosario followed thier gazes. Fireballs and wreckage were everywhere. It appeared as if two taxis had collided. Rosario went down the steps and walked towards the wreck. Bits of the vehicles were everywhere and as he got closer, Rosario had to step over large bits of glass and metal chunks. The platform just ahead was getting a crowd around it. So, being part of the crowd he joined them.

He walked over, standing behind several people, trying to see if anyone was hurt. Slowly, he began to push his way through the people to the front of the crowd. There was someone sitting on the platform, more like laying on it. He wondered if they were still alive. But as he got closer and closer, his stomach dropped.

"Breen?" he said. That was her, there was not doubting it. He pushed harder on the ever growing crowd. "Breen!?" he yelled. "Breen!"

[Breen Dearborn]

She heard a familiar voice come from the large group of people that had formed in a circular ring around her, funny how nobody was going to see if she was okay except a man who had told her he called an ambulance and left. She moved up on her elbows and sat up, pain shooting through her left side and arm, as well as her face. She frowned as she felt a piece of her hair fall into her eyes, she quickly moved it out of the way to see a very familiar face pushing through the crowd of people, some looking at the man as if he were insane to even know her.

"Rosario?" She said lowly a but winded from her fall and the pain that she felt. If her arm was broken she was going to kill those who ran into her taxi herself. "Rosario!" She suddenly realized that it was the man she in fact intended on calling if the police arrived wanting family to come help her. She honestly didn't want an ambulance or the authorities involved, she just wanted to get the hell out of their way to avoid questions.

"Oh God! Rosario!" She moved slowly grunting as she struggled to stand, never in her life had she been so happy to see that beautiful face and hear that rough deep voice.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario had gotten past being polite, as his excuse me's and I'm sorry's weren't making people move. He shoved someone out of his way, getting an angered "Hey!" yelled at him. But he did not care, he was bigger than most of these people. He pushed by people, shoving them out of his way.

"Move!" he yelled. Finally, he pushed free of the crowd and jogged over to Breen, his pain suddenly meaning nothing. He shook his head and waved his arms. "No, no! Don't move. I can come to you." He got to her and crouched down putting an arm around her shoulders being as careful as possible. He looked her up and down, seeing the blood on her jacket, and the pain written on her face.

"Oh my god, Breen, what happened?"

[Breen Dearborn]

She bit her lower lip and shook her head, never in life had she felt so safe in someones slight hold. She felt the fear finally take hold of her and the sudden trauma that this whole situation had put them into. She raised a bloody hand to her mouth where she tried to keep her tears away, but they still filled up her eyes and tried to burst out. She looked at him and dropped her hand trying to regain her breath.

"Oh my god! This...this...." She struggled to find the words. She had never been so horrified and frightened in her life. She just wanted to go home, go somewhere else than there on the ground. "This hover craft! Someone tried to run my taxi into oncoming traffic. The driver was shooting at me and I got trapped inside." She continued to shake her head in disbelief. Tears fell from her eyes as she kept her look stern and emotionless.

"Someone just tried to kill me." She looked up at Rosario and suddenly she just let it out. Her face distorted into pain and fear and she lowered her head and cried, slowly leaning into his chest and wrapping her arms around him. He had comforted her the previous night without his knowing and all she wanted was for him to do that again, just this once.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked down at her as she collapsed into his chest, tears exploding from her, her pain and fear very obvious and very, very real. Rosario put his arms around her, even if awkwardly, and shook his sighing out through his nose. He looked around at the crowd that was literally doing nothing to help them. He purred slightly.

"If you don't have to balls to help the woman, then you don't have the balls to stand here and watch her bleed!" he exclaimed around at them. For a moment, they watched him in disbelief, then slowly, began to dissipate, continuing, if reluctantly on there own ways. Rosario shook his head and looked back down at Breen.

"I called an ambulance. They should be here any minute..." said the only person who had hung around. Rosario looked over to the man, and nodded to him. He looked back down to Breen. He knew this was only the beginning. He and Breen had both been attacked within twenty-four hours of each other. They really were in a serious position. And Rosario knew enough to know that they could never be safe again.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen hugged him tightly as if he was helping her heal in some way, but he was doing so much for her at that moment that he did not even know. She sniffed and smelled his warmth and cleanliness, it soothed her even more. She moved and looked up at him and put her mouth to his ear.

"I don't want the police to get involved, Rosario. Help me get up and get out of here." She moved and put her head back onto his warm chest and continued to squeeze, hoping he'd help her get to her apartment to where she could happily fall to pieces without an audience or a police report.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded. Slowly he moved up, slipping his arm under her shoulders and then the other under her knees. He gently scooped her up and held her close getting down off the platform. He glanced around, wagering it would be easier to go back to his brother's apartment than back to hers or his own. And anyway, they would probably be safer there than anywhere.

Rosario took off towards his brother's apartment again, walking slowly and carefully so as not to jostle Breen's wounds. He continued looking around them out from under his hat, as if someone would be lurking around to shoot them while they were down. But he saw nothing. He looked back down at Breen. This was ridiculous. They could not live like this. They just needed a plan.

[Breen Dearborn]

By the time they made it to his brother's apartment she felt sligtly better although the looks they had gotten from people as they passed on the street made her feel like a freak. If only people knew the predicament that they were being placed in. She had been sat down on the couch where she was quick to groan in pain and cry to herself. She slowly moved to take off her coat where she hissed in pain from a wound in her arm. She groaned as she struggled to get it off, the pain shooting through her body like a thousand daggers. How the hell were they going to keep safe and hidden at the same time when it seemed everyone knew exactly where they were going to be and when.

"This is bull!" She exclaimed loudly and through a burst of tears. She was angered and frightened and taking it out on her coat that she was struggling to get her arm out of. "What the hell are we going to do?" She said out loud, feeling like a whining little girl at that moment. She stopped for a moment and drew in a deep breath and tried to regain control of her feelings, glancing over at Rosario. "What are we going to do?" She said in a lower tone, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario had taken off his hat, jacket, and shoes and had moved into the bedroom, getting Vicente's medical supplies. He heard Breen having a cow in the living room, mostly because her coat was not cooperating and was simply one more thing on the quickly growing s h i t pile. He sighed out through his nose and moved back into the living room. He walked over to her. He did not know if she wanted to take care fo herself or not. He set the supplies down and looked down at her.

She had posed a very good question. He had no idea what they were supposed to do, let alone what they were going to do. He could not remember being this confused, yet for some reason he was very calm. He rarely got too visibly upset about things, and it served him well in these types of situations. Yet, inside, he was torn. He did not have an answer to her question, as much as he would have liked to have. He shook his head at her and sighed again.

"Are you alright? Do you want me to help you take care of those?" he asked, motioning for her injuries. He leaned over taking her jacket and looking at the blood. He laid it over the table. He would clean it later, now, he needed to pay attention to Breen.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen let out a sigh and glanced at her upper arm, the blood that was caked on her tight black shirt. It stung when she felt the air hit it and she saw a nice piece of metal sticking out of it. She frowned and reached her hand over and took it and slightly pulled, frowning and opening her mouth to scream but kept it contained.

"Ow, god." She said as she tried to wiggle it out of her skin, but it wasn't cooperating. She looked up at him and sighed out. "Would you mind....just....rip it out." She said biting her lower lip hoping he wasn't one to be squimish. Breen didn't know what to do or what to say about what had just happened, just that she was grateful he had been there to help her, been there to take her to someplace safe.

"Thank you, Rosario." She said lowly, glancing back at her piece of shrapnel, trying it one more time only to shake her head and shiver not able to do it herself. "Please! Rip it out."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario smiled a little. He remembered what it had been like to get shrapnel in the arm, or leg, or back, or neck. He had had way to many of it in his own body, or had been there when a comrade had had it thiers. He walked over, kneeling down and reaching up, then pausing. He looked over at her then looked her up and down.

"This will hurt just a bit," he lied. Not only would it hurt just a bit, it would hurt immensely, blindingly, paralyzingly. But hopefully, he could trick her midn into thinking that it did not hurt as much as it actually was. He reached over and got a bit of medicated cloth, putting it in his hand and then holding her arm with his other hand. He held it tightly, knowing she would want to jerk away. He looked at her again. "Whatever you do, don't bite your tongue."

And he got ahold of the peice of metal and pulled it up and out of the wound, knowing that it had brought muscle and skin with it.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen bit her lower lip as she felt the pain shot through her arm, chest, back, thighs legs...everywhere possible it hurt her deeply. She couldn't help but let out a scream, which she quickly stifled with her right hand, tears coming to her eyes quicker than she could hold them back. She felt her lip quiver as she glanced down at her arm as she sucked in a breath as tears fell. She sniffed back the tears and drainage coming from her nose, knowing this had to have been the ugliest thing he'd seen in his life. She looked up at him with sad puppy eyes again feeling like a child who needed to be taken care of, and that feeling made her want to throw up for she had never been the one to be babied. Well, if this was even possible to call it being babied.

"God..." She said nasally as she looked at the blood pouring from her arm, which he was quick to clean up with a sterile cloth. "Hurt a bit, my butt!" She let out a laugh for tears were not enough emotion for the pain she was feeling. "Thank you." She said to him as she glanced up at him.

"What a great way to start a day, huh?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, smiling a little. He cleaned the wound thoroughly and carefully wrapped it up in gauze, making sure it was snug but not cutting off the circulation to her hand. When it was bandaged, it looked neater, cleaner and was sure she would feel much better once they weren't handling the wound. He looked up at her face and saw that she also had a seeping wound on her face. He squinched his eyes a little, lifting his hand he touched cupped her face with it, gently brushing away some of the blood so that he could see how bad it was. He leaned forward, looking at it a little more closely. He chewed his lip. It wasn't going to eat her face off, but it definately needed looking after. He slowly leaned away from her, realizing too late that he had probably put her in a slightly uncomfortable situation there. He nodded.

"Would you like me to take care of that, or would you rather do it yourself?" he asked quietly, motioning to the medical equipment, careful not to meet her eyes. For some reason that proximity had caused him a great deal of inner conflict. Although he could not put a finger on why.

[Breen Dearborn]

She loved how it felt to have the wound clean and wrapped. But she forgot about the fact she had another wound on her face, something that would leave a terrible mark in the long run. She looked up at him and felt him touch her face and brush away some blood and suddenly she forgot that she was even in pain or injured, all she saw and felt was Rosario. She didn't know why her mind blocked the world out of her mind when she felt him, but it did. His hands were rough, yet gentle, and the closeness between them made her yearn to be closer. Much, much closer.

He moved back and then the pain came back, harder than ever. She winced slightly and watched him look at the medical case, not once meeting her gaze like she had hoped he would. Apparently the affections she had deep inside were not going to be requited and she knew she should probably not fall for him as she was allowing herself to do.

"Mmm..." She said brushing back a piece of her hair. "I cannot see it." She could've asked for a bathroom like any normal, sane, woman would. But she wasn't so sure she wanted to even look at how horrible her face was. "If...you want...I can do it myself?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario shook his head. He needed to grow a pair, seriously. He turned to the medical case and got out the supplies he would need. Arranging it on the table next to him, he first got a medicated cloth. He looked up at her and nodded.

"Its alright..." he muttered, leaning forward towards her. He raised the medicated cloth to her left cheek, raising his other hand to hold her other cheek and keep her face steady. "Stay still, my friend..." he murmured concentrating on not hurting her. He gently cleaned the wound, trying his best not to hurt it.

Once it was cleaned, he leaned back and picked up a small metal object. He slowly ran it down the thin but deep wound watching as it was sealed together, the liquid stitches barely visible. Once he finished with this, he placed a pad over it and secured it in place with its adhesive. Making sure it was in place, he slowly, carefully leaned back.

"There you are. I imagine there will be a scar, but it will be greatly reduced by those stitches. I wouldn't worry about anyone seeing it first off," he said quietly to her, as if should he speak loudly, the moment--if in fact there was one--would be ruined.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched him with her eyes wide open, taking in the minor details that she had failed to see first hand due to them never being this close. Again she could smell him, the manliness that radiated, as well as the warmth and scent of cleanliness or cologne. His hands on her face made her heart beat faster, so fast in fact it was beginning to hurt her. She was barely able to breathe and she kept holding her breath slightly by letting out a few puffs every now and then. She knew he wouldn't suspect anything due to the fact that she was in pain.

His eyes, oh lord, that was one of her favorite things to find. They were such an odd color sometimes they'd be green, other times brown, but in broad daylight it was a deep hazel. They were such beautiful eyes, dark, mysterious, attractive. Then it was the tiny dimple in the middle of his chin followed by his lips. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him, if his age meant he had more experience, if he was a professional at the art of kissing. She didn't think she'd care if he was a good kisser or not for she would enjoy the taste of him far too much, probably tasted sweet and tangy from his bad habit of smoking. Breen knew she was over analyzing this too much, over analyzing him, but she didn't care she was enjoying the fact that she was this close to him.

Sooner than she had hoped he was done cleaning and taking care of her face, telling her that it might leave a scar in the long run, but that nobody would notice it right off the bat. She moved her eyes from his lips up to his face seeing he was actually looking at her. She just stared at him, trying to regain all the composure she had lost, the pain that was fading away slowly because he was there with her, helping her. Suddenly being taken care of didn't seem that bad, especially if Rosario was the one helping her. She lifted her left hand up to the tiny patch on her face, she gingerly grazed it with her knuckles, feeling hideous that it was there. She shyed away from his glance her true insecurities seeping out with the sudden spill of emotions she was having.

"I'm sure I look awful." She said to him mindlessly in a low unconfident voice. Yeah right, as if he was actually staring at her and taking in her appearance as she had been doing with his own. But even with all her sudden urges of insecurities and shallow confidence she still wanted to kiss him and feel his hands on her face again.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario noticed her eyes on his face and when he looked at her, he saw the look on her face, the emotion in her eyes and he immediately knew he needed to move away from her. No one had looked at him like that since he had first met his wife. She was the only one who had looked at him like that.

Rosario nodded slightly at her and scooted away, listening as she said she probably looked awful. He highly disagreed. In fact, he doubted that much could make Breen look awful. She had a natural beauty. She had the beauty that did not need to be enhanced by manmade make-ups. She was just naturally that beautiful. He sighed a little standing up and gathering the medical supplies up and packing them away in the medical kit.

"No, don't worry," he said. It was a vague answer to her question, but he was suddenly slightly uncomfortable. He was noticing that this woman was very beautiful, very kind, and much like someone that he would like to spend more time with. However, he was several years her senior, and he already felt like he was betraying his wife by even finding another woman--not to mention a younger woman--attractive.

Rosario walked into the bedroom and set the medical kit on the bed, sighing out through his nose. He looked up at the wall, then walked to the doorway and looked at her.

"If you like, you can go back to your apartment. You are welcome to stay..." he paused. "I would need to go to work for a little while, but my sister can come and bring a change of clothes for you. I didn't think that you'd want to wander around in bloodstained clothing all day," he smiled gently at her. Maybe if he took care of her, anything that he felt for her would not be as romantic as he was feeling that it was becoming.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen leaned back after he stood up, trying to regain control of what she was feeling and what he was lacking in return. She knew that there would never be anything in the future for them, only when it concerned their fates. After this whole mess was cleared up and resolved she knew she'd never see him again, they'd go back to being those who passed each other on the street heading to work. But how awkward it was to have met him in such a way only to become involved together in a conspiracy that seemed to only get worse with each passing day.

She slowy stood up her welcome suddenly dissipating. She grabbed her coat ignoring the pains that shot through her in electrical surges. She heard him offer her to stay, but she didn't think she should for her mind was jumping ahead of the situation to things that were never going happen. Breen liked getting what she wanted, but this time she was going to allow it to no go her way. She was too young for him and it was obvious to see that he wasn't feeling anything other than friendship and business partner in this mess. Her intentions could've gone deeper, she wanted them to, but she needed to let it slide. Rosario and Breen were not meant to continue together after this was completed and all was well. Friends...that sounded nice..but Breen didn't think she'd be as happy as she wanted to be with that title.

"No, no." She said with a sigh as she put on her coat slowly, her arm sore as could be. "I will head back to my apartment and take a shower. I need to call them and tell them I had an accident. Maybe they'll understand." She nodded and looked around suddenly feeling out of place.

"Thank you so much, Rosario." Breen walked over to him and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I will see you around, I'll let myself out." She gave him a slight smile and quickly turned and walked towards the door. As she left she gave him a quick glance wondering if this was the last time she'd ever see him again. She hoped not, but she at least got a kiss out of it.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario watched her walk out and listened to her footsteps as they disappeared into the lifts and they went down taking her slowly away from him.

For a moment or two, Rosario couldn't decide if she really had kissed him on the cheek or if was just his overactive imagination working over time. Either way, the feeling he got was both of extreme heat and extreme cold, so he ended up feeling like an oxy-moron of himself.

Sighing and turning, he stared into the mirror across from him on the wall. He watched himself for several ong moments, befroe turning going back to the common room and putting his hat, jacket and boots back on. He had to go into work for at least a little while.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed out as she sat in the living room of her home staring out of the window onto Coruscant watching it snow in heavy sheets. She had never been so scared in all her life. She was scared for herself and scared for Rosario and scared that she had scared him off by giving him a little peck on the cheek. She was smoking her pack of cigarettes quicker than she had figured but she was so stressed out she was beginning to lose large clumps of hair, she had found out by the shower drain. She was so horrified for what was going to happen whenever she did get back to work. She had gotten a voice message from her boss then from Aya. One was warmer than the other, but her boss has struck fear in her heart just by speaking about things we need to discuss, thoroughly. She had a perfect idea of what those things were about and she was pretty sure she didn't want to go to work anymore.

Aya's message, on the other hand, was hoping she was feeling better and she couldn't wait to see her whenever she returned. Breen at least began to smile for Aya's kindness. But as she smiled thinking about the kind and warmth that resonated her mind went to Rosario. He was warm and kind as well, more so than he let on. She couldn't believe she kissed him, even if it was just a tiny little one on his cheek. It made the world of difference to just think her lips touched his skin. She was wondering if he went on to work and wondered how he was doing for she didn't get to ask considering she was too busy whining and crying. Whatever chance she had with Rosario was probably gone now and for some reason that hurt her more than she was expecting.

[Rosario Benitez]

The darkness surrounded Rosario as he slowly walked home, the snow falling like bits of forgotten confetti after a bittersweet reunion, or the birthday part of an old, worn out war vetran, looking for peace and quiet. Rosario snuggled down into his jacket his body heat not enough to keep him totally warm, but it would keep him alive until he was able to get home.

He was going to go back to his apartment, he figured it was pretty safe by now. He wanted to at least get some things, and love on his cello a little before he went back to his brother's if in fact he ended up doing that. The wind that was whipping around him was like indivdual daggers stabbing his face and hands. His fingers were slightly numb, and everything was almost completely silent. The only noise was that of the hoverways high above him, thier lights shimmering over the sparkling snow that padded softly under Rosario's feet.

The snow made Rosario's heart ache. He did not know why, but around this time of the year he always felt so lonely, as if he may never have anyone again. And at the rate he was going, he may never be around to have anyone.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen drew in such a deep breath it hurt her chest she frowned and let it out slowly afraid that it would hurt worse if she let it out quickly. The snow was still falling and the street lights were the only thing resonating light in her living room. Her dark, desolate, lonely, silent, haunting apartment. She lounged on the couch, smoking, staring out the window afraid to turn any lights on for fear that they'd see she was home. She wanted so much to be able to live again, even if it was a routine life she'd at least be able to live.

Her mind was plagued with thoughts of what had happened earlier, storming with ideas of how to get information, Rosario continuously speaking to her inside her mind. She wasn't enjoying the loneliness, no, but she wasn't enjoying having her mind being invaded. Again she sighed, how long was she going to have to live like this? Alone and terrified? She didn't think she'd want to live a life like this. She was ready to just pack her things and go, go someplace where nobody knew her, nobody would know her past.

Slowly her eyes moved to her cigarette, the red cherry that glowed mystically in the darkness of her home. Slowly she moved down the white rolled tobacco to the filter and her fingers that held it steady in her left hand. She lifted it slowly and held her palm open, facing her. She traced the lines on her hand, remembering back to a time when she didn't work, had no worries, had her family. How she missed it all, how she missed....music. Breen glanced at her left middle finger the long scar that went from the pad on her palm to the tip of her finger. She had always been afraid of hover crafts since she had the accident, it took her nearly a year to get inside of one after it had happened. She wondered if her fears were coming back since she was almost killed today. The feeling had been gone for over ten years and it sometimes not wanted to work so writing was hard...playing a stringed instrument was hard. But she missed it, she was scared to play it, scared to mess up the fluent notes that were meant to be played with perfection.

She looked away and took a drag. Her life had seemed to get worse since she was fifteen and it was progressing into her thirties.

[Rosario Benitez]

The air around him slowly vibrated with the deep sounds of the old stringed cello, singing through the doubt, and the lonliness. Rosario's hands slowly worked over the strings, his hand shivering to allow the sound to move fluently, the quality to hit its peak, the vibrato causing the mood to fluctuate. The peice of music was not from anywhere, Rosario had not learned it in any music class, or read of it in any music book. It was a peice he had written a long time ago. Written...in the sense that he had composed it himself. He had never written it down, had never found the need to. If it was locked away in his brain, something that no one could get into, could not take it away, then there was no need for paper. For a real, tangible object that could be ripped, burned or otherwise desecrated.

Rosario played his music to escape. Played his instruments to pretend for a little while that he was not Rosario Benitez. That he had never been born into the life he had, that he had made different decisions. He pretended that he was happy, that he had a life, had a wife, had a son. That they had not died because of his stupidity, his ignorance, his stubborness. Rosario make believed that the government had not tried to kill him and one other person. That his life--what little he had--had not fallen apart around him.

Rosario had tried not to be scared. He had been in the military, had come face-to-face with the worst scum of several planets and the fear he had felt had been so much less than what it was now. Maybe it was because he wasn't just worrying about himself. Maybe it was because he couldn't see the enemy, only knew they were there, somewhere in the ether. Rosario could not put his finger on why this frightened him so much more than warfare.

But somehow it did. And he could not shake the feeling that he might never be able to go back to his normal life. Except, what may have been scaring him more, was that he was not so sure he wanted to.

[Breen Dearborn]

So she was allowing herself to face a demon, a large red cherry demon with curves that were more dangerous than any womans. The strings glistening in the darkness, bow placed neatly inside the hard case where red velvet caressed everything it touched, music sticking out of the pocket on the lid. She ran her fingers over the finish that was glossed and ready for any master to play, but it had been so long, so hard. The strings vibrated her fingertips from the rough edges indented into them. How she yearned to hear it, how she yearned to feel it between her knees, desired to feel it soothe her senses.

Her mind was going back many years...whenever she got a bad grade, became grounded, when she had a fight with her best friend, when she was dumped. The cello had always been there to ease her worried mind, how it never yelled at her, judged her, made her feel unwelcome. But like everything good in her life it had disappeared, it had left her. Ten years of not being able to play it. What was she so afraid of? She had been the one to abandon playing it all because of a finger, one stupid finger. She looked at her hand and wondered how rusty she was, how awful it'd be to play. But her friends had always said playing the cello for her was like riding a bike, she could never forget it.

Breen glanced back to the cello and bit her lower lip and grabbed the neck of the cello and pulled it up out of its case. It was heavier than she remembered, but it was a heaviness she accepted with joy. Her heart was beating as if she were going on a blind date, as if she were sneaking a cigarette, stealing a kiss from a boy. She grinned and stood up, the chair there behind her to catch her fall. This was going to be one for the records she knew. She bent down and grabbed the bow and slowly felt it in her hand. She tested it out by moving her arm in the position to touch the strings, she didn't dare touch them of course, only in her mind. Her eyes closed after a moment as she moved her fingers over the strings, pretending to be playing a piece she had mastered many years ago, remembering the sound and feeling she got inside.

Breen opened them a second after the images graced her mind. She bit her lower lip and bent down and grabbed the music in the pocket and glanced at them seeing a familiar tune but she immediately put it back up and stuck the bow into the case, soon followed by the cello. No, she'd never play again, she swore she'd never do anything to make her memories of playing tainted. She closed the case tightly and locked it and stuck into the closet where it had been sitting for years, collecting lint from her clothes. She wouldn't play, her doctor even had said this to her.

Breen closed the closet door and walked over to the bed where she fell face first, quickly screaming in pain when she realized her cheek wasn't fine or unwounded. She grabbed it and let out a sigh of anger and switched cheeks. She groaned as tire suddenly took over her body and she slowly drifted into a deep sleep seeing Rosario's face with the cello humming a tune in the background.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario brought the dark music slowly to a close, the tune shivering in the darkness of his faint apartment, like a a dream that you try to remember after it is long gone. Rosario had always had his cello, always had his music. To him, the neck, body, strings, stand, all of it was like other appendages. They were second neature to him. All of his instruments were. His flute, his guitar, his piano, his cello. They were his arms, the only thing he could use to reach out.

Rosario remembered when he had first seen a cello. It was an old, beautiful peice of artwork leaning in the corner of his aging grandfather's home. It had shimmered at him, beckoned him to touch it, even at the young age of five. He remembered when his grandfather had begun to teach him music. When he had first heard a tune come from his fingers, and the bow, and the string. He remembered the pain resulting from the sudden death of his grandfather, and bittersweet joy in finding that his grandfather had left him all his musical instruments, and everything related to music that he had owned.

Rosario could still remember the first time he had been tall enough to play that big cello that had sat in the corner for so long as he grew as a musician. Remembered when he played for the first time on it. The cello was his first love, always had been there for him, even when no one else in the world was. Rosario knew, even now, that it would never abandon him.

Slowly, Rosario leaned the old man away from him, and set it into its rack, the bow on the holder on the side. He watched it for a moment as if a tune might resonate from it even though he was not holding it. But he knew his cello was a team player. It only sang when he held it. Smiling slightly, and slowly standing up, Rosario made his way into his bedroom, looking around at the dark cold room, and wondering, suddenly, what Breen was doing. What did she do to escape? Did she play an instrument as he did, or did she simply delve into more important things. He shook his head; he would never know.

Pulling off his shirt and stretching his still hurting shoulder, he sat down on the bed, and laid his head on the pillow. He stared at the cieling for a few moments, so many things going through his mind. Rosario knew that all of the things that had happened would mean he would probably never have his normal life back. Although, he was not sure that was a bad thing. But he had a feeling about all of this, that it might actually crumble everything he thought; everything he knew. Yet, somehow, though that thought slightly frightened him, he did not think that anything he found out would make him hate himself, or his life any less. He was at the point, where he almost did not care if someone caught him unawares, and shot him dead. As long as they did not torture him, it was six of one, half dozen of the other to him.

Slowly, as haunted thoughts crawled eerily across his vision, he closed his eyes and fell into a restless sleep.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen woke up to the disturbing sound of her alarm clock. She had gotten up and taken a shower and got dressed for her routine life at work, her body tattered and bruised every oraface hurting and every part of her ached. She was so sore that she nearly had a heartattack walking to work. She wasn't going to trust the taxi's for a long time, not after yesterdays events.

It was nearing closing time for the building, but she was so deep in thought that she didn't care that she'd be working overtime for a few hours. The building was almost completely dark except for the bright glow of her desk lamp and computer screen that was bright with names that had sent files to the agency. She was doing what she had promised, she was searching for names and faces and trying to hack her way into the system to unlock all the people who had mailed "Red" files. She was getting closer, she was searching every part of her brain to remember the millions of codes and passwords to different systems. She was going to unveil the perpatrator who was trying to harm her Rosario. Breen tilted her head and glanced blindly at the floor. Did she just think... her Rosario? Certainly she didn't. Her mind was starting to place titles on him that were probably never going to exist. How she'd enjoy being able to call him her own, it had been so long since she had someone to love, someone to love her in return.

She let out a sigh as she turned her attention back to the computer veiwing a few profiles of those who had sent files. Suddenly she caught a glimpse of a man with a familiar last name. Benitez. Was it Rosario? She wasn't sure but she tried to click the link to his file but it was denied. She needed a password, the head password to allow her access. She would find it eventually, oh yes, she'd get it somehow even if it was illegal.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario had left work earlier than usual because he had not been much use to anyone there. His shoulder was keeping him from doing his normal job and he was not one for sitting at the desk and filling out papers and being on the phone. So he had cut off early, heading home on the cold his mind a messy tangle of thoughts, all trying to join into one coherent thought, but not succeding in it.

He took a deep breath and let it out, watching the steam curl away from him into the air. The street was empty, people who were smarter than he taking the taxi or staying home all together. Rosario dug around in his pocket, getting out his cigarettes and lighting one, taking a grateful draw from it, the smoke filling his lungs with a slight stinging as his cold lungs felt the nicotine. For a moment, he merely pulled the smoke into his lungs and let it out.

As he passed a corner he glanced down the street towards where Breen worked and for a split second of bad judgement, he seriously considered going to see if she was still there, and if she was, if she was alright. But he caught himself quickly, and continued briskly on his way, his mind racing as to what the consequences could have been if he had followed that instinct. And why he had had that instinct in the first place.

Breaking into a jog, as he let the cigarette hang from his mouth, he shoved his hands deep into his pockets and continued towards his home. He had a bad feeling about that evening. He did not know why. He simply did.

[Breen Dearborn]

"Tell me what it is!" Breen screamed out as she hit the keyboard hearing the computer buzz at her for having the incorrect password, again.

"Tell you what, my dear?" Breen gasped at the deep voice coming from the doorway of her office. She suddenly saw her boss Mr. Svaty the Russian immigrant who was the head of the agency, also ex senator. She glanced at her computer and quickly closed the box and watched him walk into her office and take a seat on the edge of her desk. "Hiding something, are we?"

Breen didn't like the way he was looking at her, his greased hair slicked back in a fashion which she never cared for his beady eyes glaring at her like she was a criminal.

"Not at all." She smiled at him falsely as she grabbed her mug of hot coffee and took a sip. The man laughed lightly as he picked up her mail opener touching the sharp point. He shook his head and poitned it at her and suddenly she didn't feel very safe.

"You have always been a hard worker, Breen. You are at the height of your career, rich, needed, smart, intelligent, sexy..." She stared at him her safe feeling continuously dissipating. How dare he say something like that to her. He suddenly began to jab it at her.

"I needed to tell you that if you were to do anything outside of the law that you had sworn to, you'd never be able to get a job on Coruscant again."

"Yes, I am quite aware of that, Mister Svatie. I took the oath and I honestly intend to follow it." Breen didn't know if she should've said that to him, but it was her defense she needed to put her foot down to this man. She watched him nod and suddenly stare at the silver object, as if he were contemplating on jabbing it in her heart or jugular vein.

"Yes, you did." He sat it back into her cup of pens and pencils and stood up, walking around until he made his way behind her. She held her breath when she felt him touch her shoulders and slightly begin to massage. "I couldn't imagine any other woman sitting at this desk, working after hours, hard to keep me happy... you are by far the best thing that has happened to this agency." Breen closed her eyes knowing she should turn around and smack him, but she couldn't. She was too intimidated. Suddenly his gentle massage turned rough and began to hurt. Then it became a full fledge grip of death. She tried to move but he kept her down.

"Let go!" She yelled to him, but he kept her seated and quiet.

"Now, now Breen. I am your boss, you must listen to my directions and follow my leads." The pain resonated all through her body, even her wounds were aching now. "I know you know about the missing files and Rosario Benitez. That oath you swore by... you better do just that. I want...by tomorrow morning, those files back here, if you want to keep your job, if you want to live." Breen saw him lean over her slightly to look down at her as his fingers dug deep into her collarbone.

"You do want to live yes? Of course... also if you want your boyfriend to live as well you will give me those files. If they are not back by tomorrow... Breen... you will no longer be living, believe me... I will make sure of it. And don't you dare try to look up the hidden files, Breen. You dig into the past, all you get is dirty. Is that what the English say?" Suddenly his grasp eased and he moved away from her.

As he was walking out he turned and gave her a look of death and she restrained from grabbing her shoulders. "Mark my words, Dearborn. Have a nice night." He closed the door with a slam and she immediately grabbed her collarbone. He had just threatened her life as well as Rosario's. How dare he! She immediately jumped up out of her seat and grabbed her coat and keys. She was going to find Rosario, she had to tell him about her boss. Tell him what had just happened for she knew he'd be the only one who cared.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario was trying to keep himself busy at home. He had this buzzing feeling at the back of his neck, like not all was as correct as it should. Besides the obvious, it felt as if something was off. He rubbed his forehead and looked out the window of his apartment to the street below. He needed to chill out, or he was going to hurt something.

Moving into his living room, he poured a glass of whisky he had bought two days before and had not touched yet. He quickly drank it down, pouring another glass and then moving back to sit in his chair in the corner, looking over at his cello that sat quietly there, waiting for the next time he picked it up. He sighed out through his nose, and lit up another cigarette, hoping that it would calm his nerves.

But Rosario had a feeling that something had happened to Breen and it was driving him insane. Standing up--he was unable to stay still at the moment--he moved around the room, from door to look out the peephole, to window to search the streets below. If push came to shove, he would go to her apartment, but he hoped that maybe he would not have to harrass her anymore.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked quickly as she made her way around the corner of the street, pausing for a moment to glance down at the small slip of paper her leather gloves making it hard to unfold in such cold conditions. She saw the address she had written down before she left and then glanced up at the building, knowing for a fact that this was Rosario Benitez's apartment. She looked around as snowflakes hit her hat and face as she stuffed it into her coat pocket and quickly quickened her pace to get into warmth. But something didn't feel right on the back of her neck, she felt as if someone was watching her, following her. She glanced around, her breath getting in the way of her eyesight. She saw nothing and quickly she broke out into a run, almost slipping on a piece of ice in front of the building. She ran inside and closed the doors and frantically searched the view to see if she saw anyone, but when she saw a man and a woman holding hands and laughing lightly she felt a sigh of relief.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" Breen gasped and jumped around to see a young man behind the front desk staring awkwardly at her. She swallowed the fear down and ran to the elevator and quickly got inside and pushed in the number of his floor. The feeling of going up sickened her and when the doors slid open all she felt was fear. it was too quiet, too desolate in the hallway.

All she heard was nothing but her low footsteps and the echoing of an old heating system. She slowly walked down the hall to the room where he lived, the numbers on the door bringing a sickening feeling to her stomach. She lowly raised her hand and knocked lightly.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario was sitting in his seat in the corner when the quiet knock resonated throughout his apartment. He was drinking more whisky, observing the strings of his cello, and tuning it. He looked up from his seat, anxieousness suddenly coursing through him. Slowly, he sat his whisky down on the floor and replaced his cello back on the stand. Rosario stood cautiously.

Though he attempted to keep his footsteps quiet, but they sounded to him like he was beating the side of a building with a metal pole. That was how complete the silence was. It was so heavy, he could have grabbed a handful and stuffed it in his pocket to keep for later. Rosario made it to the door and looked to the peephole. For some reason, he wholeheartedly expected some government official, dressed sharply, with a gun at his side to be standing there. What he did see, made his heart leap.

Rosario chewed his lip as he unlocked the door and gently pulled it open, peering out into the light of the hall, its shimmering light casting a glow on his face and a sliver of it escaping into his dark common room.

"Breen..." he said barely above a whisper as if someone might hear him. He glanced at his watch. Nine o'clock. He pulled the door open a little more and stepped aside, allowing her entrance. "What's wrong?"

[Breen Dearborn]

"I'm sorry, Rosario, am I interrupting you?" She walked in slowly glancing around the darkness wondering if she had woke him up from a slumber peaceful sleep. She bit her lower lip and turned full circle to face him watching him close the door and lock it.

"I..I just wanted to come talk to you and see if you were busy tonight. And to tell you...my boss....he....threatened me tonight at work." She didn't know why but she had been dying to tell him since she left the building purposely coming to his apartment to tell him how scared she was, how he had honestly intimidated her. She sat down her small bag and took off her coat quickly sitting it down on the couch's arm. She glanced down at her black pant suit and grabbed buttons on her blazer and quickly took it off, revealing a sharp white tank top, she pulled the collar down and sighed out, pointing to the fresh bruises forming on her shoulders.

"He walked behind me and massaged my shoulders, before long he was grabbing me like the jaws of life! He told me that he knew I had the files..." She shook her head and sighed out rolling her eyes and she walked in front of his couch and fell into the cushions.

"I shouldn't have been so stupid to have taken them. But I did find something! I know where to get the passwords to the red files that have been blocked. I saw something... that piqued my interest. I am needing those passwords but I need a little help getting them." She felt like she had spoken a book full of words, she drew in a sigh and let it out hoping he caught some of that mess.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario watched as she took off her blazer to reveal the absolutely fabulous blue splotches on her shoulders. He furrowed his brow as he listened to what she told him. Sounded like the kind of scum that worked for the government. He slowly made his way over and took a seat across from her in his chair where he usually played the cello. He picked his whisky off of the floor and leaned back slightly, crossing his legs and taking a drink.

For a moment, he wasn't sure why she would have come to him. It wasn't like he could do much more than what he was doing already. But even sitting there for just the short amount of time some sort of plan was forming. He didn't know what exactly, but he knew it would come to him eventually.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asked, leaning forward and indicating the drink he was holding. He imagined that is what he would have wanted if something like that had happened to him. Then he nodded a little. "What did you have in mind for getting at those files?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at the whiskey and smiled at him. "I would love a drink." She sighed out after a moment of silence trying to think what she had in mind.

"The passwords are in my boss's office I can get into the main building but the elevators shut down when the building does. We can break into the shaft and make our way up there for I have his password to enter his office. If you would be so kind to help me I would love you forever." She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"Unless, of course, it'd be too dangerous for you? There aren't many lights on at night and the cameras they have are everywhere. We'd have to cover up pretty good."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario watched her a moment before going to the table an pouring a drink, thinking a moment of what she had said. Covering up pretty good wasn't even the start of it. If they got caught, they'd be in worse than they already were. He still had some equipment from when he worked in the intelligences forces in the army. They could those things.

Turning, he walked back over to her, he handed her the drink and walked to the window, taking a drag of his cigarette and letting it out, leaning back slightly, and putting his unoccupied hand in his pocket. For a moment he thought about it, all the technical things, everything they would need to do. He had never gone behind enemy lines without planning days, months even, in advance. He would not have chosen to break into a high security building on the spot unless backed into a corner to, as he was right now.

Slowly turning towards her, he furrowed his brow in thought, considering her a moment. He nodded after a moment of thought, going over everything he still had from when he had been in the army. He set his glass down and nodded to his room.

"I still have some stuff from when I was in the military. I don't know how much of it will be useful, but I have stuff if you want to sift through it really quick and see what we could use," he offered.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen took the drink and enjoyed the burn it caused going down her throat, it had been so long since she had touched a drop of whiskey or alcoholic beverage in general. She glanced at his back as she looked out the window, smoke billowing around him like a misty haze as he thought of her proposition. She didn't want to force him to do anything he didn't want to do, but in order to get things moving they'd have to start somewhere, even if that meant breaking into a building where she worked.

Slowly he turned and suddenly spoke of the things he had in the military, happiness and fear running through her heart all at the same time. She smiled brigtly and stood up holding her glass in her hand, sipping occassionally.

"You just made my day." She winked at him and took another swig. "Show me what you have and we'll work from there."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, and beckoned her to follow, moving from the common room into his bedroom. He crossed to his bed and got to his knees reaching under his bed and finding the pressure plate there. He pressed his hand on it and heard a low beeping. After a moment, his bed shivered slightly, and a metal plating slid up and around it and withdrew it into the wall, standing it up on its end.

The wall shut up again, and Rosario got up and stood back as he heard the sound of his compartment surfacing. The hard metal floor under his bed slowly opened revealing a compartment in the floor that rose up to create a large box like object. Rosario nodded to it as it finished and the sound of the gears turning ceased. He went around it and to his drawers near his bed, withdrawing a key card from one of the drawers. He kneeled down and slid it through a slot at the head of the box, and it unlocked, the metallic clunking echoing slightly.

Rosario reached over and slid his hands into the handles, pulling open the box to reveal many things, some of which he had forgotten he had. In the top left corner were his weapons he had purchased while in the military. On the sides, both right and left, were tracking devices. In the bottom left hand and right hand corner were things they could possibly use.

Scanners of all types were packed in the black foam like material contained therein. Many of them were weapons scanners, but Rosario spotted four camera, laser, and trip wire scanners. He took the cigarette from his mouth and blew smoke over the equipment, watching as they shimmered at he and Breen in the dim light. He nodded to them.

"You can look over all of it. If you think any of it will be useful, then..." he paused, getting up from where he had crouched and going to his closet, sliding the door open. He pulled out a black duffel bag, his name, and identity number printed on the side in red, matching the ink in which both his tattoos were emblazoned in. He indicated the bag. "We can put it in there."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned as she watchede everything surface, holding her glass to her chest as she stared in amazement at the precautions and hidden places where he held hsi weapons. She smiled at him and shook her head as she bent over and scanned the things she had. She could see a few things, acsension guns being the thing they needed most, a few hand held weapons would be nice in case they ran into anyone. She wasn't sure if they needed much of anything else except some apparrel to sneak into a building and try to avoid cameras and getting caught.

"Rosario you have out done yourself, this is quite a collection. She glanced up at him and smiled. "I don't think we'll need much, just enough to get into the elevator shaft and up to the fifteenth floor. There are no stairs so I am afraid we'll have to have some lights. I will get a few disks from my office to get the codes so he won't know anything has been taken." She took a drink of the whiskey and sighed out the burn hurting her more than it should have.

"You sure you don't mind doing this with me?" She blinked a few times hoping he was as passionate about her decision as she was. "If you don't want to... I can do it by myself."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario tilted his head a little bit, studying her for a moment. Do it by herself? Did she really think he would let her do it by herself? She was obviously an independant woman, and that was good. But still, two heads were always better than one. He smiled a little, going over and crouching back down over the box. He picked out two separate camera and laser scanners and stood back up handing one to her.

"Do you want me to tell you that I don't want to?" he said. Then he looked down at the scanners and indicated them. "This one will tell us the location of all cameras in the building before we go in. So we can either avoid them or disable them when we need to. That one can loop camera feed when within a certain range of the camera. It is usually a last resort and if you can absolutely not avoid the camera. But it could be useful..." he paused, then looked her over.

"I think anything I own that could be used to cover you will be just a bit too big," he said with another look up and down her body. "I don't even think my smallest fatigue would fit you."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen laughed lightly as she grabbed the objects he handed to her. She watched him continue to speak and then when his eyes traveled over her she suddenly felt flushed he had just checked her out and in a way that was completely business. She smiled and tilted her head.

"You are prepared, Rosario, and I admire that deeply." She drank down the rest of the amber liquid in the glass and felt the burn yet again, always enjoying the feeling. She sighed out and sat the glass down on his bedside table and shrugged her shoulders.

"Whenever you think you are ready we can head out, unless you want to wait till we actually have a solid plan? I know for a fact that my boss will be working late night shifts the rest of the week, the best time would be to go now."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario tossed the scanner back down into the box, with little reverence, and gave a light shrug. He indicated all of the things and then the bag.

"I was used to having a plan in the military, but we were also trained to be able to perform operations with little more than a minute's notice. I am sure with your brains and my brawn we can pull it off," he said with a quick nod. Then he turned and, taking one last drag from his cigarette, he put it out in the ash tray on the table next to his bed.

"As for when we head out, I am ready whenever you are."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched him toss a few things into his bag and look up at her, smoke billowing around him giving him a shroud of mystery that caused her great pleasure. His beauty was indescribable, even more so now that he was willing to help her on the task of breaking into a secure building to steal a few things form her boss. If he ever found out she'd be dead very quickly, without fail.

"I am ready to go, but I do insist that we have some sort of plan. I can get us into the front of the building and into my office, but the cameras will see me and that would be very suspicious. There are back ways but my key does not work. I am sure you have some alternative to that problem?" She smiled at him knowing he probably did, he was a military man tactics was probably right up his alley.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario crouched down, observing his hands a moment, taking the cigarette out of his mouth and looking at it as well. For a few moments he merely thought about it. He did not know the layout of the building, it would be very difficult to come up with something without knowing it. Getting up, he indicated the computer on the wall near his bed.

"Is there a floor plan for the building? And a camera and laser plan? I need to see the layout to see how we can work around it all," he said to her, looking at her closely.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen bit her lip as she thought. Shaking her head she glanced at him and sighed out. "The floor plan is part of the secresy. There are rooms that not even I can get into or even know about, but I do." She rubbed her forehead starting to wonder about this whole plan, but in order to get somewhere with their findings they needed to do a little sneaking around.

"I know the security shifts a lot and they hardly ever come into my wing and they think I am there anyhow working late. We can get in the back with one of your laser things I suppose. I can get you to the elevator shaft with ease, but getting into my boss' room is the hard part, camera's are everywhere." She wonderd how they were going to escape being caught, if he had something to disable cameras or loop them then it was no problem, but getting out was another deal. Camera's where in the back.

"Camera's that is all I am worried about, Rosario."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario indicated the scanners he had tossed irrevrently away and strode back to them picking them up and weighing them in his hands looking down at them a moment before looking back up at Breen.

"These will loop our film and disable cameras all together..." he said, repeating what he had said earlier. "We should be able to loop all cameras in the building once were are in the building. And then we will have...roughly twenty minutes to get in and get out before the looping capabilities and, or, cloaking capabilities run out and the cameras start up again," Rosario looked at Breen a moment, studying her and sighing a little. "So, with these in hand, we will have about twenty to twenty-two minutes to get what you need and get out before we are spotted. Do you think we can do that?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen thought for a moment, wondering how long it would take to run from the backdoor to the elevator shaft and into his office. She swore if they did it quickly and accurately they would be fine, but nothing always went according to plan.

"We can always hope! If we don't make it, then we'll just have to run like hell and then I'll be out of a job!" She smiled at him and then winked.

"But luckily I have you with me so it will get done quicker." She looked around for a moment thinking of the fear that ran through her body, thinking of how pumped up she was getting, and thinking about how this was dangerous as hell. But it was for good reason, the sooner they found out who was hunting them the easier it would be to stay alive.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario took three deep breaths. He had learned the technique when he had been in the army on Naboo. The first to calm, the second to gather the thoughts, the third to steal the courage. Any less and the operation would go horribly wrong, any more and the operation would fail completely. And Rosario did not want this operation to fail.

It had been surprising how easily they had gotten into the supposedly high security building. There were of course the necessary precautions being taken: guards stationed at doors, cameras everywhere. But the guard's shifts were predictable and the position of the cameras were expected, and both were simple to avoid or reroute.

But now that they were in, Rosario's heart was pounding harder. The office door was shut tight and he did not think that anyone would be coming in the check on what they thought would be a computer and some furniture, unless there was a security officer whose job it was to do that. But Breen had not mentioned one and Rosario had not expected there to be one, so if there was, he wouldnot have a way out. Hence, why he hoped there were none.

The sound of the keys tapping was background noise now, and no longer sounded so loud. However, the breathing exercises he was doing still sounded loud in the silence to him. He pressed his back against the wall a little harder, hoping to still his heart beat a little. Rosario looked up and over to the desk. Breen's face was lit up by the computer screen, her brow knitted together in thought, her eyes moving rapidly over the information in front of her. They had not spoken since they had gotten here, and had been communicating with hand signals, so Rosario had no idea what was going on on that computer screen. But he doubted she had found anything yet, for he knew she would have alerted him had she.

Rosario blinked hard and long before turning back to the door and gnawing his lip slightly. He pressed an ear to the door and strained his ear to hear anything. The clunk of the climate control at first sounded like footsteps, but Rosario soon realized it was his stressed mind making up noises for his antsy ears to hear.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen typed away, trying her best to crack the endless amounts of information that would lead her straight to where she wanted. She saw the endless folders, sub-folders, and files with immense amounts of information. The two, so far, had done everything properly. They had broken into the closed building, disabled cameras, surpassed security, even made it to her bosses office, where he picked the lock professionally and cleanly, then headed to her office to get working on finding that person she wanted to find.

"Where are you?" She whispered to herself as she slit her eyes and scrolled the files and exlcluded a few knowing they were of no importance to what mattered at this point. She sighed after finding another folder filled with names that didn't help her at all. If she had a long time she'd search every single one in order to find more evidence of why these two were targets, but time was not on her side...was not on their side. She glanced away from the screen over to Rosario who had his ear against the door. She grinned slightly, so happy that he was there and was ready to pounce on anyone if given the right moment. She felt safe with him, safer than she probably should have considering she barely knew him, but for some reason she felt that if their lives were in immediate danger he would try his best to protect her. She liked that thought, no loved that thought.

Breen growled at herself and snarled as she moved her eyes back to the screen and exited out of the large folder. She sighed and scanned the hundreds of tiny icons. Where had she seen Rosario's name? She clicked around and suddenly felt the weight of stress lifted an inch. She saw the icon she had been looking for, the red folder that would lead her to Rosario! She clicked it and a small box popped up for the password. She smiled and typed it in happily and watched the screens picture disolve into black before another white screen reappeared. Jackpot! Breen sat up and saw the tiny folder icon and clicked it seeing a profile pop up in a new window. The last name was familiar, very familiar in fact, but the name placed behind it did not match what she was hoping. It was a Benitez, as she had seen earlier that day, but the man was not Rosario.

"I found it...but...Rosario, you better come here and look at this." Under the name of the man there was his birthdate, place of birth, occupation...amongst other information she found useless at this moment, but the picture under it all was a dark man who slightly resembled Rosario. Who was this man? Were they related? Something told her Rosario would have all the answers to the millions of questions she was bound to ask.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's stomach rolled slightly when she told him to go over and look at whatever was on the screen. That either meant she had found something bad or something useful. He pressed his palm against the door slightly and then began towards the desk without saying anything.

He walked to and around the desk, his body moving into the bright light of the computer screen. He walked behind Breen and leaned down to see what she was seeing. And as his eyes came level with the screen, his stomach flipped even more than it had a moment before.

The picture he saw there, and the name identifying it were all too familiar to him. Nicolao Benitez. His cousin. They used to be best freinds, used to do everything together, used to be closer to Rosario than anyone. But irreparable differences had disintegrated thier friendship, and severed thier contact. Rosario hadn't spoken with him since his Rosario's son had died. And that had been fine with him. If he never saw Nicolao again, it would be too soon.

"God..." he muttered quietly. "Its my cousin."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned and looked at his face show such emotion that she wasn't even sure if it was surprise, anger, sadness, or hate. Either way it didn't look pleasing and she was sure it had hit some sour note with him.

"Your cousin!?" She said that too loud and she immediately put her hand over her mouth and held her breath. She waited for a moment to see if she heard anything at all, but it was safe, her ears playing tricks on her. "What is he doing in Svatie's files?" She frowned and rummaged through the information given, she saw several things about him, mainly dealing with the army. She saw an address and a number and she was curious if they still talked.

"When was the last time you two..saw each other?" She bit her lower lip and looked up at him his face a glow in the light , beauty written everywhere on his face. She looked away and leaned back on the chair and stared at the screen putting two and two together.

"Were you two in the army together, Rosario?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, a foul taste exploding in his mouth. He and Nicolao had been in the army together for a while before they had stopped talking. And Rosario had emotionally missed his friend. But knew that it was best. He shook his head.

"We haven't talked in close to fifteen years," he muttered, observing the face before him on the screen. "And yes. We were in the army together. On Naboo." He shook his head again, and glanced at the information that was given below his name. "We used to be best friends. Like I said, we haven't talked in forever..." Rosario's words faded off as he leaned over Breen and scrolled down the page looking at the information. Then he narrowed his gaze.

"But I am not sure why he would be in these files..."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at the side of his neck as he leaned over her to play with computer, she could only smell him and suddenly she was taken to a place far away from the dangerous location they were now at. She quickly snapped out of it when she realized she was taking in the side of his neck far too long, the gruffness, the shave long over due...

"I don't know either, but I am almost positive it doesn't mean good things, Rosario." She shook her head and sighed out, before she could look back up at him and give him an empathetic smile to let him know she was sorry for whatever his cousin was doing, a large bang came from the other room, the file room and closing in on her office.

"Oh no." She quickly turned off the monitor and pushed her chair back and stood up, briskly pushing Rosario away from the desk. She grabbed any file she could and tossed them under the desk and she squatted down and grabbed his arm. "Get under here with me! It's my boss!" She could spot his loud thumping footsteps from a mile away, she knew that if they were caught together there would be hell to pay. She sat under the desk and waved him down.

"Hurry!" She whispered to him firmly. Svatie was dangerous and there was no telling what horrors they'd face if they were caught.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario obeyed immediately. With a quick sweep of the room to make sure nothing was out of place, he slid under the desk, carefully positioning himself underneath with her, thier legs tangling together but helping them both fit thier properly.

Rosario held his breath, listening carefully to the footsteps that he had heard a second after Breen. They were getting closer and closer to the office and Rosario dearly hoped that they would not come to investigate underneath the desk. He could barely see Breen in the darkness under the desk, but he could feel her breath and hear her heart. Or was that his? He was unsure at this point in this small space, with the pressure building every moment.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen slightly moved, her body literally being moved ontop of his own, she grabbed the seat and pulled it closely to the desk in hopes of making it seem that it was deserted and left as it had been before. She moved back and realized the space was seemingly getting smaller and smaller and Rosario was just getting closer and closer. She could feel him breathing against her and suddenly she was burning alive. She looked at him, or what she thought was his face and breathed very lightly knowing she would be panting on him if she didn't calm down somehow.

"Sorry." She said very lowly when she felt her hand touch his thigh. She stopped moving when she heard the door open and the light spill in. She bit her lower lip when she realized she was almost a cinameter from his face and she couldn't help but feel utterly embarassed by their sudden forced closeness.

"Tsk.Tsk. Tsk. Ms. Dearborn." Her heart almost stopped when she heard his voice and saw under the tiny crack of the desk his shoes nearing. She looked at Rosario and continued to breathe in short panicked breaths. She heard him rummage a few things on her desk and she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the loud thud of her mug of pens and pencils spill onto the ground.

"You're in big trouble, little girl. She heard him grumble then storm out of the office and slam the door right after. She was wondering how long she should remain under there, hopefully Rosario's hearing was better than hers.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario slowly let his breath out, the air hissing between his teeth as he listened to the footsteps fade away. He waited several extra seconds to be sure the man was gone before he said anything or moved. When he was sure that the other man was gone for sure, he shifted his weight around, trying to get out of Breen's lap, but the back of the desk made that impossible.

The words the man had uttered were not those of a man who did not know someone was in the office. If anything, the man probably thought that someone had been in the office illegally, if he did not know they were there right that moment. Rosario could hear the strain in the other man's voice, his mind probably working over all the terrible punishments that he could inflict upon Breen, and--if he was aware--of her accomplice. Rosario was sure that the man was not ignorant enough to think that the woman had worked on her own and if he was, then her punishment would be twice as bad. As if the death threats and attempts weren't bad enough, Breen would probably now suffer worse fates at her work.

"Maravilhoso... que fêz minha noite..." he whispered to himself, before attempting to untangle his legs from Breen's, glancing up and trying to identify the look on her face in the scant light. He brushed several feathery strands of hair from his face as he watched her. "Someone of import, I take it?" he muttered, almost too low for himself to hear.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed out and pushed the chair away from the desk and slowly crawled out of the cramped space, her body feeling as if it were on fire. She looked wearily over the desk to the door and stood up and looked down at the tiny space they had managed to hide in. She reached out her hand to help him out, even though she doubted he needed it since he was a big boy.

"My boss. I can assure you that we need to get out of here. I can transfer it to a cd and we can be on our merry way. I can go on home and check out your cousins whereabouts and see if I can rummage through these files and see what he is up to and why my boss has a file on him." Breen looked around the room and wondered to herself if Rosario's cousin was in on something, but she doubted it. Svatie seemed like the kinda guy who would go after family if things didn't go his way. It was a weakness to many, family was, and if they were in danger the person who was being hunted down would usually give in to whatever they wanted.

"Dirty bastard." Breen hated her boss and was almost positive she would never come back to that office again to work. It was sad her favorite kind of work and high paying job would have to end because of a run-in with a stranger but she was glad it had happened for she realized how dirty politics and the government really were.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario got out from under the desk after her, smoothing his clothing quickly and shaking some of his curly brown hair from his eyes. He glanced around a moment as he watched Breen sit back down at the computer to do as she had said she was going to.

Rosario's mind was spinning with questions. Nicolao was on these files. That could not mean good things. Not that Rosario really cared much, Nicolao had fallen far out of his favor, although emotionally he still missed his freind. He wondered what Nicolao was doing to have gotten on the files at this place. It could have been some of the things he had done while in the army, some of which he had attempted to get Rosario to participate in. It had been part of the reason they had not talked in so long.

Watching Breen, Rosario took several deep breaths and shifted his weight, putting a hand on his hip.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen typed fast and stuck in a sheik silver disk and quickly began to burn the cd with all the information on the files she had cracked into. She could hear Rosario breathing heavily, perhaps due to his thinking for she was positive it was hard at work due to his newfound find.

"Penny for your thoughts." She said to him as she typed away before hearing her computer begin to burn. She scooted back slightly and looked at up him with a pensive glance. He looked distressed and it was easy to see why. If any of her family was on a list of government files she'd be confused as well.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario glanced down at her and shook his head, looking away from the computer, suddenly dying for a cigarette. This stress was too much for him. He was way too old for this kind of thing. He might have done this when he was sixteen or seventeen, but not now that he was thirty-eight, he was much past his prime and not cut out for this anymore.

He took a few steps away from the whirring peice of machinery and sighed out of his nose, glancing over his shoulder at Breen. He watched her a moment then shook his head, almost as if he were scolding himself for something.

"No thoughts to give a penny for, I'm afraid..."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen nodded a bit let down that he couldn't let her in on what he was thinking, then agian he could've not been thinking about anything. She nodded again and looked around her office and sighed out really wanting another drink.

"I worked so hard to get here..." She was talking to the air really, letting her thoughts in the air. "I did everything perfectly, I did everything they asked. I don't know if I can do anything but this kind of work." She looked up at Rosario and sighed out, standing up out of the chair and walking to the large window and glanced around at the city.

"I don't know after all is done, what I will do." She was sad, how could she do something else when all she was used to was organizing and file work? She had been doing it for year and years. She went silent for a moment and remembered reading about Rosario. He was such an enigma to her, she had read about his army years, his work, his family, his son. Oh! His son. She had remembered seeing he was previously married and saw they had a child. She had never brought it up since it wasn't her business and she was almost certian he didn't want her to be snooping around in his personal life. But how else would she had known if he was safe or not? Worth helping out?

"It is hard for me to think of, you know?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded at her absentmindedly. He didn't really understand her sentiment, but he was willing to accept it. Rosario had always been caught between a rock and hard place when it came to doing something he liked. He never had done what he thought he could, never worked to his full extent. He was thirty-eight. Thirty-eight long years to have done something with his life, and he hadn't. Hadn't done a damn thing.

Rosario shook back his hair as if in courage and turned to Breen going over and staring out of the window at Coruscant, thier shoulders touching, and the back of thier hands bumping. The huge city spread out before them in a flat kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. The planet city. The only planet where you could never be at a loss for something to do. Old worlds and new collided in this explosion of cultures. This place was wild, and yet beautiful. It was Rosario's home. And as he stood here and watched it, the lights from all different places shining out of a feild of black, the hoverways sparkling with the lights of the hover craft going on thier way, his situation was thrown in perspective. If any of what they were trying to resist was successful, then Rosario knew that the possibility of survival was slim. And if he did, it was likely he would have to leave this planet.

And that scared Rosario.

His and Breen's situation was difficult, yes. Unsettling, sure. But Rosario had not been truly scared out of his wits over it yet. Because he was used to this kind of thing from being in the army. However, he had never been run from his home on Coruscant, never felt so threatened that he would not be able to come home than he did right at that moment. Right now, Rosario Benitez was terrified he would have to run away from the only home he knew. He was afraid he would have to leave Breen behind, or they would have to separate ways.

Without realizing he had done it, Rosario's hand brushed Breen's, and he slowly slid her hand into his, his eyes so fixated on the city outside, he had not know what he had done.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen stood beside Rosario thinking her life over as if this were the time in her life where she was unsure of everything. Mid-life crisis she heard people call them, sad and strange how it all had happened how it all started by meeting one man by accident. She had felt him brush against her as he came over to stand beside her, but she paid no mind really, it was almost natural for him to have done that. His hand touched hers and they stood for a moment in silence, both romanticising over Coruscant and its beauty and how much they both probably loved it. She was unsure of Rosario, but when she sneeked a peek to see what he was looking at the longing and admiration for the planet was easily seen in the dark pools that held such emotion. She grinned to herself and looked back out continuing to contemplate her life and wonder if perhaps she was going to die sometime soon, for they were playing a very dangerous game.

Then it happened, her mind was thrown off course and her heart was set to explode. Rosario touched her hand again and somehow managed to slip it into her own and hold on. She looked down at it and then looked up at Rosario. Did he even realize he was holding her hand? Did he mean to do that? She wasn't sure and she was curious to ask, but knew never to question a good thing. She held on as well, again it somehow seeming normal. She drew in a sigh and let it out slowly as she stood there looking over the cityskapes. She leaned into him slightly and put her head on his shoulder.

"What do you think is going to happen to us? Do you think we'll be fine?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario felt his body shudder a little at the extra contact looking down at her, his mind racing suddenly. This was the first time he had been this close to another woman since his wife had died. In a way, it was nice, and yet, he felt as if he were betraying her. Seventeen years and he still felt like he were betraying her.

Rosario looked back out the window, lowering his shoulder a little for her, more because it seemed the right thing to do than he knew what he was doing. Taking a deep breath and sighing it out, watching as his breath fogged the window, he closed his eyes.

"I could not tell you that Breen. I don't know."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen closed her eyes knowing that this was the first time she had thoroughly been scared for her safety, but sadly she was more concerned for Rosario and that frightened her. You'd think it'd be the opposite, you'd think she was more selfish and wanted to live more so than have him live...but she couoldn't help it, that was how she was put in this predicament. If she weren't so stupid to go helping strangers! But she was glad.

"I figured." She said lowly giving a little chuckle as she opened her eyes and looked around. The computer buzzed and she jumped and glanced over her shoulder and saw it was done burning and the cd had been pushed out. She didn't really want to move, but she had to. She let go of his hand and it was shocking to find her body suddenly aching to have it back in his own again. She grabbed the cd and quickly pushed the CD slat back in and exit out of all programs. She turned off the computer and put the cd into the case and grabbed anything of importance they had brought with them. She grabbed a pen and wrote on the case and turned around to look at Rosario. How unfair it was to have met him in such a situation....he was so handsome and the epitome of tall, dark, and mysterious.

"Ready, I suppose." She bit her lower lip afraid to leave so soon. Whenever they parted tonight it was going to be hard for she was going to worry about him all night long, not like she didn't already!

"We can easily slip out of the building, but...I can catch a hover taxi and head home."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded at her, his senses recovering a little, and he realizing what a dumb maneuver he had just pulled. He didn't know what the reprecussions were going to be, but he figured he would just have to cross that bridge when they came to it.

Nodding again, he crept to the door and pressed his ear against it. It would not be hard getting out, he just had to get them the window to do so that they needed.

Outside

Rosario felt safer once they were walking away from the building and were at least two blocks away. He glanced at the hover vehicles above them as they walked and sighed out, his breath condensing above them to float away like smoke. He sighed out several times before he relaxed minimally. He glanced at Breen.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice a whisper.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked a bit paranoid and perhaps too close to Rosario, but she didn't care he made her feel safe and protected, even if he wasn't meaning to do so. She heard his question and she looked around before keeping her eyes straight ahead, hearing the hover ways above loud and clearly.

"Hmm?" She said raising an eyebrow knowing what he had asked. She looked up at him and nodded. "I am feeling okay. And you?" She wasn't really sure how to answer. She didn't know if he was wanting to know if she paranoid or nervous, or sick....she just answered normally without much thought. Suddenly she did feel nervous, she was feeling scared considering she was wanting to know why he held her hand and if it meant anything. She guessed it was just a slip of the mind, either way she was leaving that subject alone.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, his mind eased a little. He wanted to make sure she was alright at all times. He looked down at her again, watching her as they walked. He would not deny that he had been attracted to her physically when they had first met that day when they had bumped into each other by pure chance. But as they had become connected by this entire strange scheme, he had grown attached to her on an emotional level that was hard to describe. First and foremost it was friendship, but under that?

Rosario touched her arm as they walked, the cold air surrounding them totally as they made thier way down the walkway.

"If there is something wrong, you will tell me, yes?" he asked, really wanting her to say yes. Because if there was something wrong with her, he would not feel right. He did not know why.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked alongside of him and felt happy to feel him touch her, to let her feel him and let her mind know he was still alive...it was something she had never felt before. Breen had lost family and loved ones, but never friends, never someone she had been attracted to. She knew there was probably nothing for them after they cleared up this mess, but then again one never knew such things.

Her friends always told her never to ask the stupid questions and wondering about why he held her hand was a stupid question. She stopped and turned to look at him, half grinning as the cold air lapped around them.

"I will tell you if something is wrong, Rosario. Promise me you'll keep in touch with me if I don't see you tomorrow?" She felt silly for telling him such a thing, but she was generally worried for him. He was the only thing she had gotten close to for her job never allowed it and here she was experiencing an attraction for a man in many many years.

"Could I ask you a silly, if not dumb, question?" She was going to ask the stupid question despite what she had been told. "Holding my hand...did that...was that....did that mean anything?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario felt a pale pink flush creep into his stubbly face and he looked down to the ground, then at the offending hand that had held hers earlier. For a moment he did not know what to say to her. Should he tell her what he really thought the reason was, or make something up on the spot? He feared the real reason might be too much for right this moment, but a lie would...kill anything that Rosario had been considering.

He looked back at her and sighed out of his nose, the steam swirling around his face a moment before dissipating into the air.

"I...didn't mean for that to scare you or anything...I was just..." but for once Rosario did not know what to say. He looked up into the hoverways and let out another breath. What had he started up there in that office building?

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen waved a hand in front of her face and laughed lightly as if this evening had been a fun little date between two people who had just met, which technically they had. She sighed out and rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Don't worry about it." She stuffed her free hand into her pocket and sighed out and looked around. "I'll give you a call if I find anything, okay?" She looked back at him and tilted her head to the side. She was brushing off the incident as nothing, she was giving him the bail, and still let him know she was going to talk to him without any weird feelings. Even though on the inside she would be feeling awkward she would not show it for he was a man, and men hated baggage and hated girls who were clingy. Too bad she was already clung to him more than he thought.

"I'll catch a taxi and, like I said, call you if I find anything. Be safe, huh?" She drew in a breath and started walking away.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario tossed his key card on the table next to the door of his apartment and let out a breath, looking around the cold dark living room. Kicking off his shoes and making his way through the darkness, he went into his bedroom and then through to the bathroom. He pressed the lights on and squinted in the sudden bright light.

That evening had been hectic and tense. Now that Rosario was back in the silence and relative safe of his apartment, he felt as if it were off. Sighing again, Rosario reached around his hips and grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling it up and over his head and depositing it on the floor next the shower. He started up the water, and felt as it heated up. He finished undressing and stepped in. The water was scalding hot, and slid down his body in steaming ribbons, drenching him.

Rosario took a long, relaxing shower, and when he finished he moved into his room, changing into exercise pants and a t-shirt. He listened to the silence for a long time as he ran the towel vigorously over his hair. It was a silence that he had gotten so used to over the years that it had no longer bothered him. Until he had met Breen. He had grown so accustomed to her voice, seeing her more than his own family, and having her simply there, that the silence he had loved was now the most oppressive thing he had ever had to endure.

As he thought, his mind wandered to his wife. To the things that were still locked away in a safe up in his storage room. The things he had not looked at. Things he was too afraid to look at.

With the resurfacing of his cousin, the past was being dredged up in Rosario's memory, confusing him between present and past. He was trying to link up what happened then to what was happening now and find a common denominator, something that would give him some idea of why all this was happening. Rosario thought that maybe there would be something in his wife's old things that might help him out with why his cousin was mixed up in all of this. His wife and his cousin had always been close friends.

Looking up at the cieling and thinking to himself, he wondered if he would have the courage to look at her things again. Remember he beautiful face and her wonderful voice. Remember everything that had become like a distant dream. Looking at her things would make her a reality again, pull open the scar that had finally--finally--healed after so many years of pain, and sadness.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen yawned as she sat at her desk with a white towel hanging over her drenched hair like a head dressing. She was in her night cllothes, her grey yoga pants and white ribbed tank top, wandering through the CD she had burned back at her office. She had been staring at the same things since she got home over two hours ago. She was unable to concentrate thoroughly since the only thing she could think of was Rosario. Was he okay? She knew that he was fine, but when asking that question she meant it in such a different way.

Breen wanted to go to his apartment and go inside and ask him how he was, how he felt, how his life was, how he was feeling both physically and emotionally. She didn't want a simple answer, she wanted to hear the truth, the elaborated response on how his day went, how he had felt, how he was feeling! Was he feeling old? Tired? Happy? Sad? Depressed? Lonely? She was concerned for his emotional well being rather than his life at this moment. Breen hadn't ever been asked that question, nobody had ever truly been interested considering her ties with family and friends were kept on a very short leash. A leash that was now choking her to death. But after tonight things were different. Breen was consiering herself out of a job, unemployed.

She sighed out as she leaned forward and scrolled the long profile of Nicolao Benitez. She hadn't seen much of anything except certain missions he had been put on a few years ago. It mentioned Rosario several times, but it only stated the same thing, how they used to be in the military. She was curious as to why he had left the military, but when she read about a death in his family she figured it had something to do with that. She opened a drawer in her desk and pulled out the pack of cigarettes and quickly lit one up and continued to do her research. Nothing was striking her fancy or interest and she was easily becoming bored, her mind wandering back and forth to Rosario. Why had he held her hand? Why did she lean her head on his shoulder!? She shook her head wanting to keep him as far from her mind at this moment considering she was trying to work. Suddenly something finally did catch her attention. She sat up in her chair and scooted towards the screen.

"Nicolao is next of kin?" Breen frowned at this information. Did Rosario not have anymore family? To Breen this was useless information until she slowly remembered that next of kin was in line for certain things. "Money." She said to herself lowly. She sighed out and shook her head, puffing away on her cigarette. They didn't talk, they were obviously out of touch, and just because he was next of kin it meant nothing considering it had to be appointed. She knew for a fact Rosario, especially if they had a falling out, would not list him as that anymore.

Breen scrolled a bit more interested, but all she found was nothing.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario fished around in the godforsaken box that had been shoved as far back into his closet as was absolutely possible. The only light he was using to see by was the lights of the city outside of his window in his bedroom. It wasn't much help. The box was dusty and smelled musty as he moved away old belongings to find the key that would open the upstairs room that he had not been into in years.

Digging his hand in deep, Rosario felt the old keycard, bent from use, down near the bottom. He pulled it out and coughed as a cloud of dust exploded from the box and right into his face. He waved his hand in front of himself and turned his head to cough the dust from his lungs. Turning his head back, he peered down at the keycard and sighed. His name was typed clearly at the top. Rosario Celio Benitez. He watched it a moment as if it were going to change before getting up from his crouched position and clenching his jaw. Here goes.

Going back into his living room, he moved to the far right hand corner to a spare room that he rarely used, unlocking it and opening the door, going inside and looking around at the neglected furniture. He glanced around the dark room a moment then up to the cieling and the pull down door there. Going over, he reached up and pushed a pressure plate that was barely visible. A small seam slid down from the ceiling and Rosario caught the lip of it. He pulled it down and a metal ladder appeared from the bit of ceiling. Looking up and at the door that was concealed there, he took another deep breath and climbed the ladder.

Rosario slid the keycard into the socket next to the door and he heard the metallic click of the lock. Shoving the card into his pocket, Rosario pushed up on the door and it popped open, allowing him to climb into the room above his apartment. As he emerged into the dark room, the only light coming from a small window that faced the city, Rosario immediately felt memories rushing back. In the corner there was an old box labeled books, the writing in his wife's hand. He could name the books inside. They had all been her favorites.

Getting up into the room, Rosario tried to ignore the odds and ends that he was sure would cause him emotional distress if he looked at them. This room contained everything that his wife had left behind. It had taken him years, but slowly, he had been able to put it all away and keep it safe. Seeing these things again made all the pain come back as if it had never left. Running his eyes around the room, he was searching for one particular thing.

After a few moments of looking in the dark, Rosario spotted it. It was hidden in the corner, nested between several crates that contained his wife's information tablets. It was a small safe. The safe his wife had kept all her extremely valuable possessions in. He had never known the code to get in, had never thought it necessary, and neither had she.

Slowly going over, Rosario knelt by the small safe, looking on top and seeing a stack of files labeled in his hand "Marie Aleadra-Benitez-RECORDS". For a moment he considered them thinking about the things contained therein. He assumed wills, medical sheets, certificate of birth and general information on his wife. Sighing heavily and sitting down in front of the safe, he turned his gaze down to the combination lock. He had been given the combination after his wife had died as her lawyer had known it and he had the rights to everything inside when she had died.

Slowly--muttering a prayer to himself--Rosario touched the combination and began to scroll in the number combination. Marie's face was so fresh in his mind, it was almost as if she were standing right in front of him.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen hummed to herself as she scrolled down the screen and quickly exiting out of it knowing it held nothing of importance, at least nothing that would pertain to their predicament at this exact moment. She was on the look out for things directing attention to she and Rosario, so far the only thing she had found was the collection of background information on the two and the files on Nicolao. She frowned and remembered a folder she had wanted to go look at over thirty minutes ago buyt got sidetracked by hunger and a bored mind. She went to the front of the files and saw the folder sitting idly all by itself, yearning to be recognizined and clicked on. She heard her computer make a soft whirring noise to let her know it was doing what she commanded it to. She saw new screen pop up and suddenly fill up quickly with tiny thumbnails of pictures. She frowned and looked at the titles they had been given, but all were numbers and nothing she could have deciphered. She moved her cursor up to the top of the window and clicked on the views, she clicked it over to thumbnails since they were set on tiles. She watched the screen slowly convert to her demand and slowly something she wasn't expected was being pieced together.

Pictures and many of them were of Nicolao, Rosario, and an unidentified woman she had never seen before. She frowned and scanned quickly, who was the woman? Why was she with the two of them? Why were...Breen's jaw dropped when she realized, by the ring on Rosario's left hand as well as her own that this must've been his wife. She double-clicked on one image of Rosario and the woman walking together holding hands, her stomach bigger than it should've been.

"Pregnant." Breen muttered to herself. This was his wife and she was expecting a baby, the child that died, the wife that died. "And the wife that is..." She lost her train of thought when she clicked on the 'next' button, the images changing from sweet and lovely, to dark and deceitful. The one that blew her out of the water was a picture of Nicolao and Rosario's wife holding hands and even kissing more vulgarly than one would have wanted to see in public.

"No way." She said to herself. Was Nicolao and Rosario's wife having an affair?

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario pulled the door of the safe open and peered into the darkness therein. The shelves were filled to the brim with things, some Rosario had seen, some he had not. Books, jewelry, photos and files were contained inside. Reaching one big, wethered hand inside, he picked up a stack of photographs that had been converted to file paper to hang up.

Looking down at the first, Rosario could not help but smile. It was a picture during his and Marie's reception. They were standing with Rosario's and Marie's parents, and Nicolao was hugging Rosario from behind. They had all been so young then, Rosario only nineteen, his wife eighteen and Nicolao, twenty. It seemed like so long ago that Rosario could have sworn it was just a nice dream that he had never lived out.

Setting the pictures aside, he peered back into the safe. He saw a small box containing jewelry glinting up at him. Reaching in and retrieving it, he looked inside. Right on top was his wedding ring, and Marie's engagement ring. Rosario looked down at it for a long time, looking finally to the bare ring finger of his left hand. He had thought at one time that he would never take it off, and had only done it a few years before. He was still not used to not having it on. Sighing heavily, Rosario put the box back inside and then saw something on the bottom shelf that caught his attention. Something he could not identify immediately. It was a stack of what appeared to be letters, tied together with a wire. He knew his wife had been fond of sending letters instead of using any of the technology. She had claimed it was more personal, and Rosario had always recieved written letters from her when he had gone away.

Picking them up, Rosario pulled them out and adjusted his position on the floor, sitting back and crossing his legs. He looked down at the paper. The letters were addressed to his wife, the script a little messy, and one that Rosario did not recognize as his own. Curious, he pulled the first letter out and reached into the torn envelope, pulling out the neatly folded sheet of paper. He carefully unfolded it, and looked down at the page.

To my beautiful Marie,

Love, it has been too long since I have seen you. How are you now? Your husband has made it increasingly more difficult for me to send you letters. But I have been with you much longer than he, so I am going to try harder.

So you are pregnant? I would say congratulations, except I know it is not the best happening for you, and you know those reasons. I will be there when you have the child, you can rest assured, my Angel. I am sorry that this letter is going to be short. I fear I have previous engagements. But I will see you very soon my love. Don't forget where I can meet you, and be sure that your husband is out for the evening. I am sure you have it covered, and I can trust you fully.

All my love forever,
Nicolao

Rosario's eyes stung from reading in such limited light, but even more so from the words he was reading. Was this true? Could it possibly be true? Did his wife...had his cousin...was he really this stupid? Had he truly given his life to a woman that would do this? No, he couldn't believe it.

Roughly pushing back his hair, a sudden fear and fury coming over him all at once, he ripped the letter to shreds, tearing the rest from the wire constraint and scattering them out before him. He looked at them all. All were to the same address and from the same address. Shaking his head and growling, he pulled up a handful and began ripping the letters from the envelopes, letting his burning eyes read them. All were the same.

My dear, my beautiful, Angel, Lover, all these terms of endearment, all in Nicolao's hand and all directed towards the same person. Rosario's wife.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen lifted her head after a good long moment of keeping it on the heel of her hand, her heart suddenly feeling so broken for Rosario. She was scared to say anything, shewas afriad to even mention pictures of the two of them together, She looked up at the screen and exited out of the window it actually being too overwhelming for her to stand. She hadn't known Rosario long but she was safe to assume that it would have killed him to know, it was killing her and she didn't even know those two other people!

When she heard that Rosario had been married and that his wife had died during childbirth, after having met him, she was almost positive that his wife had to have been the perfect woman, the perfect wife, the epitome of what a man would want. She saw Rosario with the most caring and loving woman, someone so beautiful it would knock anyone off their feet. Breen had been correct but all changed by a few disgraceful pictures. She wanted to hold Rosario, make him feel better, but he didn't know and hopefully he never would.

[Rosario Benitez]

"God why?" was all Rosario could say. He had torn the letters apart, picked them apart, begged that the next one did not say what the previous one had. But they did. They all did. They all said the same thing, screamed it at Rosario, as if saying "You fool, if you hadn't been so stupid you would have seen it." Marie had been having an affair with his cousin.

Rosario picked all of the letters up, yelling at them in fury, a picture of his cousin and his wife being together swirling around in his head. It was like a horrible nightmare. One that would not leave him alone. Fury, sorrow, pain all coursed through his veins as he hurled the letters across the room, ripping a few of them into the tiniest shreds he could and throwing them up into the air and letting them snow down around him.

"Nicolao... porque você me fêz este?! Eu amei-o! Eu amei-a!" He screamed at nothing in particular. His hands were shaking, his eyes hurting, his head spinning, his stomach whirling. His eyes glistened with tears that he was trying to hold back. All the love he had felt for Marie Aleadre, all the passion he had had for her, had turned into hate and loathing so suddenly it made Rosario sick at his stomach. And yet, he couldn't hate her. But he could hate Nicolao.

"Eu odeio-o! Você fodeu minha vida acima!" he screamed again, as he stumbled for the door, his mind hazy, his heart shattering into a million peices and landing on the floor in front of him. And there was no one there to pick them up and paste them back together. No one to tell him that it was a nightmare, to turn over and go back to sleep that they would be there forever. Rosario had himself, and his dark, silent apartment. His dark, silent apartment, his quiet cello, his broken heart...his liquor.

Getting down the ladder and slamming it shut as hard as was humanly possible, Rosario fell into his living room, not able to get to his alcohol fast enough. The bottle sat idly in the corner of the room, and Rosario picked it it up, not bothering with a glass. He took a long drink of it, his head still reeling with realization. Why had he not known? Was he that idiotic?

No, he had seen. He had just pretended not to. Nicolao had introduced Marie to him. Nicolao said that he and Marie were "very good friends". Rosario had never put two and two together. He guessed he was just that stupid.

Maybe he could just go ahead and do the job for the government. He had plenty of guns, plenty of time, and no one who would miss him if he put a blaster fire straight down his throat.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen turned off her computer and moved away from the sudden realization of the mess. So there were several people involved with their termination, but the question as to why it was all happening had yet to be explained. So far she counted her boss and Nicolao a part of something they hadn't seen just yet, but in time she was almost certain it would all come undone.

Breen walked into her bedroom and pulled the towel off her head, finally, after an hour or so with it on there. She sighed out and let it fall to the floor as she lit up another cigarette, knowing she needed to stop soon otherwise she'd die of cancer rather than a hit man. She sighed out as smoke billowed out of her mouth and into a mystical cloud. She was in a mood to be depressed and saddened, all for a man she found attractive and interesting. A man she did not know! The only thing she knew about him was due to the research she had gathered. She groaned as she pulled her pants off and walked around the dark bedroom, lights from coruscant shining in brightly. She smoked away, wondering what he was doing, as she always did at this time.

"Should I tell you?" She asked out loud as she stared out into oblivion not truly able to pick out his home from the mass of skyscrapers and hoverways.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario kicked the door into his apartment complex open, much to the shock of a few people standing in the lobby. He wasn't as fully inebriated as he would like to be, as he had not had enough alcohol in his room. So he was going to go out to a bar, and he was going to drink. He was going to drink and drink and drink until he no longer knew his own name. Until all the thoughts of his wife and cousin were gone. Until he could no longer feel the shards of his heart stabbing him in the ribs.

The street was dark, the hoverways humming above him. He saw no one else on the street besides himself, and he was glad. He wanted to walk alone, and stew over everything. He wanted to let tears come and go as they pleased. He didn't want to look anyone in the eyes, he didn't want to talk to anyone, didn't want anyone to ask him if he was alright.

And yet, that was a lie. He did want to see someone now. He did want someone to ask him if he was alright. He did want to look someone in the eyes and tell them everything. He wanted to be with Breen. Even if for no other reason than that they had a common goal--which was another lie--Rosario wanted to see her. He wanted to look at her, watch her emerald eyes shimmer at him as if she knew more than he. And at this point, he was convinced she did.

Shaking his head, and shoving his hands down into his pockets, Rosario knew that his first date was with as much whiskey as he could down in the space of five and a half hours. After which the sun would probably be coming up and he would need to go home and sleep it all off. Right after throwing everything back up, and smoking a pack of cigarettes. His evening was set for him. And yet, with his thoughts of Breen earlier, the plan did not seem as satisfying as it had always used to.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen sighed out as she sat on her bed in the lotus position on top of her thick blankets and comforter, lounging on the mound of pillows as she ripped open a new pack of cigarettes, tossing the wrappers aside and pulling the filtered end out of the pack and quickly placing it in between her lips. She looked around the dark room as she lit it up and inhaled deeply, blowing out the smoke almost as fast as she had inhaled it. She wondered what the time was, she looked around the room and saw it was nearing 11 at night. She looked down in between her bent legs to see her comlink laying on the bed. She had picked it up at least thirty times and dropped it back on the bed since she was wanting to call Rosario and see if he was still okay, still alive. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about his well being since she had left his side tonight, she hoped he was okay and if she knew his bed time she would call him.

"Then hang up again." She talked to heself and lifted the cigarette to her lips again and sucked the smoke in. She glanced down at the comlink and picked it up, again, and dialed, again. She lifted it up and heard the line being connected and then it rang. Hopefully he wasn't going to mind the late night check-up.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario felt his comlink buzz in his jacket as he sat at the bar, downing any type of alcohol that he could get. He considered not answering it, but in the part of his mind that had not yet hazed over, he knew that it could be Breen, that something could be wrong.

Reaching into his jacket and putting his glass down, he looked down at it and pressed the open connection button. He lifted it to his mouth and took a deep breath.

"Hello?" he said, a little bit slurred.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen bit her lower lip and her heart began to pound. The hello on he other end didn't sound like Rosario, but yet it somehow resembled him. She frowned and suddenly felt like haning up like a teenage girl would do to her crush, but she stayed on the phone and tried to construct a sentence.

"R-Rosario?" She was a bit scared that this possibly could not have been him, that he was being held captive somewhere and being tortured and beaten, but she doubted it since she heard some random noises in the background. "This is Breen, are..are you feeling okay?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario sat back in his seat, taking one more drink before answering. He glanced around the bar and took a deep breath sighing out of his nose, and nodded clumsily.

"Yeah...I feel...fine..." he said slowly. It was a total lie. He had just found out his wife had had an affair, he was almost getting drunk, and his head and back were hurting so badly he thought they might fall off of his body. He wasn't feeling okay. But Breen did not need to know that. He nodded again, taking another drink. "Yeah...I feel fine..."

[Breen Dearborn]

Somehow she wanted to believe him, but her mind and common sense wasn't going to allow that. She could tell something wasn't right with him, he didn't sound right and somehow Breen knew that something had happened, she just wasn't sure what.

"Are you sure, you don't sound like you are fine." She bit her lower lip as she spoke to him lowly and softly afraid that if she pressed the matter he'd get mad and hang up on her after all it had been such a long time since she had some sort of contact with guys other than friends or co-workers. She was desperately trying to find a way to come to terms with her liking towards him and trying to find ways to show it without ruining it all, but she knew it would be best to keep it all inside for another day, another time when it was actually suitable.

"I was just wanting to see...see how you were. See if you needed anything." Breen felt so stupid. It was all true, of course, but she was practically talking to him like she were his lover and she knew she was far from it.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario blinked hard as he took another drink, pausing to drain it, and waving to the bartender to get him another. He switched his comlink to his other hand and sighed a little.

"Yeah, sure, I am good..." he muttered, watching as the bartender sat his glass down in front of him. He nodded, laying down his money and then taking a drink from his fresh glass. He sat it down and traced the rim, watching the people in the bar behind him in the mirror behind the bar. "I am just...relaxing..." he slurred.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen picked at the comforter as he heard him talk abd take a few pauses. She heard him tell her he was relaxing and she was curious as to what his definition of "relaxing" exactly was, but it wasn't her concern. She drew in a deep breath and sighed out and looked up at the ceiling.

"All right." She raised her eyebrows and looked around the room till she realized that she had no true purpose to be on the phone with him anymore. She was half grateful, but mainly saddened that she wasn't needed at that moment. "I will let you go then, I suppose." She looked bak down at her bed and realized how alone she was. She had been tempting to call him just to have some new noise other than that of silence. She wanted to be relaxing with him at that exact moment for being at home was getting far too common. She didn't even remember when the last time it had been since she went out.

"Take care of yourself, Rosario."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario closed the connection and dropped the comlink on the bar. He set his glass down--hard--and stood letting out a long annoyed breath. Drinking didn't seem to be having the same effect tonight as it usually did. He did not know if it was because of the devestating news that he had just learned, or just that he had just talked to Breen who trusted that he really was alright when he wasn't.

Standing up and stuffing his comlink back into his pocket, he pushed away the glass of whiskey and went to the door. He glanced over his shoulder at the other inhabitants and then pushed through the door into the cold night.

The frigid air hit his face and caused him to shiver violently. He shoved his hands into his pockets and turned his head down away from the wind. His life had fallen apart so suddenly, Rosario could barely remember what it had been like before. It was all lying at his feet in shards, and he wasn't even going to try and pick it up to glue it back together. And now, his heart matched his life, and he figured that that was how it was going to have to stay.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen heard the connection being closed and she let out an agitated sigh and dropped the comlink. He wasn't all right, Breen was almost positive. No man sounded that dull and depressed on the phone when a woman called to check up on them, or atl east she last remembered it had never been like that. Breen jabbed out her cigarette and sat the comlink on the side table and laid down on the bed, not really wanting to get under the covers at this moment in time. She was too worried about Rosario. She knew itwas probably unnatural to think about him as much as she did, but it was all for a good reason.

She groaned and rubbed her face hard, wondering what she could do for she wasn't truly tired. She was more or less afraid that Rosario was going to do something and get hurt and if that happened she honestly did not know what she would do if that happened. She groaned and closed her eyes trying to make the sick nervous feeling dissipate, but the second she closed her eyes all she saw was Rosario's face, the face that made her feel that way. She only prayed he was telling her the truth.

[Rosario Benitez]

The sun seeped into Rosario's window even though he had closed the curtains the night before. Rosario turned over in his bed, trying to hide his hurting eyes from the sun. He saw the sliver of window and sighed out, groaning. He had not drunk enough to get smashed and have a horrible hang over, but he had enough to make him want to sleep later than usual.

He had gotten himself turned in a way that the sun was not hitting him and he had almost dozed back off when suddenly he heard the tone of his comlink from his bedside stand. Jumping slightly and opening his hurting eyes, Rosario fumbled to the stand picking up his comlink and opening the link and holding it near his face.

"Hello?"

"Manhã boa, Rosario. Eu acordei-o?" said a deep voice on the other end. Rosario felt he ought to know it, but he couldn't grasp it.

"Mnnn...no. Eu estava acordado... agora quem é este?" he asked, looking to the window and squinting as the sliver of light his his face.

"Você não reconhece a voz do seu próprio primo? Eu sou decepcionado," answered the voice. Rosario's stomach dropped.

"Nicolao?"

[Breen Dearborn]

"Breen...what have you done? There are officials all over the place! My office has been searched at least thirty times already and I overheard Mr. Svatie drop your name several times. I think they are going to find you and give you a search warrant. I don't know what is going on, but you need to call me! Let me know you are okay. Bye." Breen's stomach dropped to the floor and she felt sicker than she ever could have before. Her co-worker was apparently trying to clue her in on what was going on around the office, but somehow she knew that if she called her ot let her know she was fine and dandy, Breen coul be found. Apparently she was going to be found either way.

"Damn." Breen looked around her kitchen as she heard the message being taped while she made her morning breakfast. She wondered what she was going to do. She didn't want to call Rosario again, but she knew she should at least clue him in on the fact that the authorites were getting involved and prettysoon she'd have to simply disappear, like she had feared. This thing needed to be cleared up, things needed to be settled.

"Damn!" She said again a little louder as the situation began to worsen. She tossed her mug into the sink a few feet away and watched the black liquid splash around and the mug break in the metal sink. She walked over to the comlink and dialed Rosario's number, but it was busy.

"Damn it!" She yelled once more. She sighed out and hung up. What was she going to do? What if they were on their way to her house right now? She needed to get some things together and get the hell out of dodge. Perhaps they both needed to.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario struggled to pull a pair of jeans on, buttoning them fast as he stumbled into his bathroom. He brushed his teeth and pulled on a long sleeved t-shirt and a hooded jacket. This was all spinning in his head again like a bad dream that wouldn't go away. After nearly fifteen years, and suddenly his cousin calls him, telling him he is in the area and wants to see Rosario. Rosario had not had the presence of mind to say no, and in a way Rosario wanted to see him, to tell him in no uncertain terms what he thought of him for what he had done to him.

But right now, he wanted to get to Breen's to fill her in, to be with her, to take her with him. He was sure that if she wasn't with him, he would kill Nicolao the moment he set eyes on him.

Pulling on his boots and lacing them up, he went down and out of his apartment, getting into a jog and heading for Breen's apartment, looking down at his comlink to dial her number and tell her he was coming.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen walked quickly around the house as she pulled on a pair of pinstripe pants and a white button up shirt, wondering what she should do as she smoked her last pack of cigarettes. She was nervous and was unsure of what to do. She was trying to get a hold of Rosario but after two times of the link being busy she gave up, he must've taken it off the hook.

Breen looked around the city looking for suspects that could try and harm her, paranoia setting in quickly after getting a message. She heard her comlink ring an she almost jumped out of her skin, She jogged over to her bed and grabbed it and picked it up.

"Hello?" She bit her lip and held her breath forgetting that someone was trying to kill her. She prayed it was her co-worker or someone other than a mindless governemnet official trying to locate her, which she knew it wasn't that hard anyhow!

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario heard her voice and felt better already. He coughed a little in the frigid air and then took a breath.

"Breen, it's Rosario. Something came up last night, and I think we might be able to find something out today. I am coming over, if you have time and want to come with me somewhere..." then he remembered her job and bit his tongue. "Unless doing that would put you in more trouble at work. If that's the case, I can go alone and fill you in later on."

[Breen Dearborn]

"No!" She yelled this quicker and louder as she had intended, but it just went to show how jumpy this whole thing was making her. "Rosario I just got a call from my friend at the office...my boss has gotten the authorities involved. They are going to come after me with a warrant." She looked around outside and suddenly she saw something moving very swiflty amongst the crowd. She frowned and leaned against the window and saw it was Rosario. She touched the cold glass and already felt safer than she had since she left his side the night before. She calmed herself down and took a deep breath and spoke to him softly.

"I will go wherever you need or want me to go."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded as he glanced up at the building beside him, seeing Breen at the window, her comlink against her ear. He smiled up at her, suddenly thinking that things might be okay as long as she was.

"Alright, Breen..." he muttered, looking away from her form at the window and jumping up the steps, hearing the door sound and he pushed through it. "We'll talk more about it when I get up there. Hang on." He cut the line and pushed the comlink back into his pocket and got to the lifts. He remembered her floor and punched it in, taking a deep breath as it went up towards her floor. He was winded from jogging from his home to hers, but by the time he arrived at her floor he had caught his breath.

Leaving the lift, he made his way down the quiet hall to her apartment. Taking a deep breath he knocked a few times, making sure that it was loud enough for her to hear.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen ran from her standing position in the living room to a sprint to the door. She had never unlocked a door and opened it that quick in all her natural life. When she pulled it open she almost toppled due to her force and her unstability when she saw him standing in front of her door.

"Thank god. I was so worried about you last night, I am so glad to see you." She didn't really notice it but she practically lunged at him and gave him a hug. How happy she was to see him, feel him, hear him. "What is going on? What happened?" She moved away and looked down the hallway and quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him into her apartment.

"Why are we having to go somewhere?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario was surprised by the hug and the force with which she pulled him inside, but once the door was shut, he forgot about it. He took her hand and brought her with him further into the apartment, as if someone was outside listening to thier conversation.

He took a deep breath, not wanting to admit that what he had found last night was true. But he knew he would have to, and if anyone was going to know, it had to be Breen. He sat down and took another deep breath.

"Last night...I was looking through some old things of mine," he began. He looked up at her. "I don't know if I told you, but I was married, a little over less than seventeen years ago. Well, looking through some of my wife's things, I found letters...several of them that indicated that my wife and my cousin had an affair," he said, getting it out as quickly as possible so he could continue to less painful information. He shook his head, standing and continuing, trying to push the thoughts of his wife from his mind.

"This morning, my cousin calls me, and informs me that he is in the area and wants to see me. I wanted to say no, but we might be able to figure out some of why he is in those files if we go see him..." he paused a minute. "I know it doesn't really have much to do with you that my cousin is a bastard, but I...I need you with me."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen had her hand on her hip and she titled her head after he spat out all the information she had needed, and apparently that was it. It wasn't news to her at all, she had seen it first hand in pictures.

"I'm sorry, Rosario." She said lowly as she looked at him holding back the urge to do what she had wanted to last night, hug him again and give him all the softest kisses one could possibly muster, but she refrained. She walked over to him and nodded.

"I wouldn't want to go with anyone else." She smiled at him kindly and looked around her apartment over ot her desk where she had put everything together in an organized pile. She walked over and grabbed the CD and looked up at him. "There are pictures on here of your cousin and wife, I didn't want to say anything to you last night since you sounded so...different. Anyhow, there is also a few pictures of a guy I do not know and was unable to find a file on. He looks dangerous and sneaky. He actually looks like a soldier. Perhaps you might've fought alongside of him." She sighed out and walked over to him and shrugged.

"I can come with you and perhaps do some sneaking around, after all that is what I am best at." She winked at him and smiled. "Whenever you want to head out, I am ready to roll."

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario nodded, taking the CD from her and looking down at it. He would look at in later. A long time in the future when thinking about it didn't make him so sick. He put it in one of his pockets and nodded at her.

"The sooner the better. If you are ready we can head out now."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen nodded at him and looked around. She walked into the bedroom to grab her long coat and her key card and comlink. If anything were to happen the things she needed most would be with her. Without her key card they wouldn't be able to go into certain places without literally blasting them open. Her safe that held valuables, her computer and its files, amongst other things. She pulled on her coat and jogged into the living room where her stomach flipped when she saw him standing there.

"So where is Nicolao?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked her up and down a moment, turning to the door when it appeared that she was ready. He opened the door and stepped out, glancing over his shoulder at Breen behind him.

"He is a good little bit away. It's going to take us all day to get there. I am going to go to my brother's and get some stuff there. We're also going to use his hovercar. There is no way I am getting back into a taxi."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at him walk out and she nodded and stepped outside of the apartment and closed the door and locked it. "Lets go." She said lowly as if someone were going tyo hear. She mindlessly grabbed his hand not knowing why. She just wanted to hold his hand and be close to him, she didn't want to lose him in this kind of mess for she was uncertain of who everyone was, who was after her, who her friends were...it was a way to protect herself without actually coming to terms with how dangerous everything was.

"Don't lose me." She said to him with a smile, losing Rosario was the last thing she wanted to have happen. She wanted the both of them to come out of this horribe mess alive and side by side.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario squeezed her hand reassuringly as they made thier way to the lifts. He didn't want to let go of her, ever.

"I won't."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen shifted uncomfortably in the car as she tried to find a spot to rest her tired aching, and cramped body. They had been driving for over eight hours and she was almost certain it' be daybreak whenever they reached his cousin. She wanted to look at him and smack him saying it wasn't as nearby as they had thought, but she knew it wasn't Rosario's fault. She moaned slightly when she was stirred awake at turbulence, She was getting kind of sick to her stomach and it was nearing 9:30 at night. She breahted in and leaned up, dropping her right hand from the console on the door, tired of leaning to the right. She yawned and looked around trying to get her eyes to focus.

"How much longer do you think it will be?" She asked him as she shifted, yet again, in her seat and glanced over at him the lights throwing his face in different shapes and patterns giving her more ways to view him. She knew that she was getting too attached to him already and there was nothing she could do to stop herself. She smiled at him and looked away afraid of being caught.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's back was aching from being in the hover craft so long and from not getting any sleep at all, as he had been driving. He knew that the ride was not going to be short but he figured on it not being this long either. He pressed his old, aching back into the seat and took a deep breath, turning a corner to a new part of the city they were in.

Rosario's mind had done nothing but go over everything that had happened to he and Breen since that day he had held the door of the taxi open for her. He had been trying to peice together everything. His and Breen lives had fallen apart so swiftly, he couldn't even remember it happening. He couldn't remember crossing the line from normal life to insanity. He couldn't remember realizing that not only was he in danger, but Breen was. He couldn't remember when he began feeling something other than friendship for Breen. It has all happened in such a short period of time, his brain was still trying to catch up.

Glancing over at Breen whose quiet voice had brought him back from his reverie, he watched her readjust herself in the uncomfortable seats of his brother's hover car. He shook his head a little, looking back out ahead of them.

"It won't be much longer. It is around here somewhere. Help me look for some place called Western Heights. He said there it was a large white building. It ought to stick out like a sore thumb..." he said, his words fading off as he looked around them.

[Breen Dearborn]

"Like that one?" Breen smiled as she pointed at the large building surrounded by black buildings. It was so bright it practically lit up the entire cab of the car. She looked over at him and sat up in her chair and grimmaced.

"It appears your cousin is staying in a place for the immensly wealthy. He must be doing very well." She sighed out an draised her eyebrows. It wouldn't have surprised her if he was receiving money from the government or having him steal it. ANyone who dealt with Svatie must've been doing something unorthodox and against some sort of laws. After all he was a home wrecker and they had probably ruined Rosario's life, at least now anyway.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario pulled the hovercraft over to the platform above the building and shut it down, taking a deep breath and arching his back backwards to stretch it. He leaned forward and unlocked the doors, pressing a button that caused the doors to hiss and lift up. The sounds of the hoverways buzzed in as the doors opened. Stepping out of the car and hearing the metallic sound as his boot hit the platform.

Standing straight again did wonders for his old back. He felt the muscles stretch into thier normal positions. He glanced over to see that Breen was out before initiating the doors closing. The doors slowly closed and Rosario walked around the car to Breen. He touched her shoulder and then began down the steps to the front door of the huge building.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen stood looking up at the tal building that looked like it was literally piercing the planets atmosphere. She glanced around to see the people walking in and out and how high class they were, matter of fact this was the district she rarely could afford. She felt Rosario touch her and she shivered. She walked down the platform right beside of him, feeling the cold air whip by and pick up her coat an fling it wildly in the air. She was tempted to touch Rosario but she opted not to for she had too much contact with him already, she didn't want to wear out her welcome.

She walked into the bright lobby that was decorated in wood and marble, high class at its best. She frowned and looked over at Rosario.

"Lead the way." She said to him lowly, afraid to be too loud. She did grab his arm and wanted to stay close to him just in case someone was wanting to pop out of the woodwork.

[Nicolao Benitez]

He was standing in the corner, leaned against the wall when they walked in. His suit, black, and pressed and perfect graced his thin line of a body as he laid non-chalantly on the wall, and fit in well with the other high class persons going in and out of the apartment building.

Nicolao Benitez was used to getting what he wanted. If he couldn't get it by just demanding it, he would use any method necessary to get it. He had always gotten what he wanted, and when someone tried to say no to him, he silenced thier no's. Nicolao had known that Rosario would come. Rosario could never say no to Nicolao, and he had taken full advantage of that. Though Nicolao could remember the times that he and Rosario had loved each other before everyone else. Marie had changed all that.

"No need for him to lead the way, Miss," he said in an amused tone from his corner, pulling his pack of cigarettes from his pocket and extracting one with his mouth, lighting it and putting the lighter and pack back into his pocket. He strode aristocratically from his corner and towards the two standing stupidly in the lobby. Rosario was still tall, dark, and handsome, even if he needed to stand a little closer to a razor. And the woman next to him was...not what Nicolao would have expected to be with him. She was sophisticated, beautiful, dainty, well dressed, and intelligent looking. She was more in Nicolao's league, not Rosario's.

"Você olha encantador, Rosario," he said with a smirk, then looked at the woman. "I am afraid I haven't had the pleasure. I am Nicolao Benitez. And you are, miss?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen let go of Rosario's arm when she heard a voice come out of nowhere. She glared around the dark and sharp lobby, the man stepping away from the shadows seemingly as if he were an ornament on the wall simply because...well...he looked immaculate and perfected. Long black hair, tan skin, sharp dressed, pressed outfit, aristocrat all the way. The kind of men she usually went for until she met Rosario.

She heard the foreign language and remembered he was Portuguese, a beautiful language she had wanted to learn years ago, but settled for French instead. She bit her lower lip and looked at Rosario then remembered she had made a living of dealing with these men. She stepped away a bit further and pulled off her black leather gloves that she ahd found in her pocket, the cold brisk air outside making it a must to wear if outside for far too long. She extended her hand for him to shake, a warm positive smile, her glasses falling towards the end of her nose, and a blonde curl falling over her eye. She flicked her head slightly and made eye contact.

"Breen Dearborn, it is a pleasure to meet you."

[Nicolao Benitez]

Nicolao gave her a smile. It was one of those smiles. The kind no woman could resist, and none had yet. Nicolao had used it to charm many women into his bed. Not that he was looking for that in this woman, but it was always nice to have a beautiful woman think you were equally as beautiful.

Nicolao reached out to her hand, taking her pale fingers into his tanned ones, and lowering his face to her hand. He pressed warm lips to the fresh, clean skin on the back of her hand, and savored the sensation for a moment, glancing up at her as he kissed her hand. Slowly he raised up and nodded to her.

"Nice to meet you Miss Dearborn," he carefully let go of her dainty hand and then looked back up to Rosario who was watching him carefully. He nodded to the lifts. "Shall we head to my home?" but he did not wait for them to answer, because it had not been a question. It had been veiled as one, yes, but he had really demanded that they follow him to his apartment. He glanced over his shoulder as he reached the lifts to make sure they were following, and, surely enough, they were.

As he had made the point before, Rosario could not say no to Nicolao.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen lifted her left eyebrow and gave a crooked grin, his kind of men had a name...he was a charmer. So charming in fact she couldn't help but feel a little blushed when he smiled, but she had expected that much from him. Men like that were used to getting what they want and she was sure he was a preppy kind of guy, a snob, a man who lived for money, lived for status, lived for beauty in everything, especially their women. Or men.

She was quick to reattach herself to Rosario's side simply because she could see the sin in Nicolao's eyes, she could tell he was a dirty man, perhaps so dirty that even hell might not have wanted him. She kept her smile on, her happiness in place, and tried her best to make this meeting as pleasant as possible. She did not need any unwanted attention from Nicolao, she was needing to stay unnoticed for if she was going to do some snooping she needed to stay quiet as a mouse. And that was something she was very good at doing.

[Nicolao Benitez]

Nicolao lead them out of the lift and to a large door directly ahead of them at the end of the hall. It was the largest and most luxurious of all the flats. He had the money to pay for it. He basically owned the entire fifteenth floor, as no one wanted to be up there with a man who trained assassins.

Going to the door, he glanced back at the other two, and then pushed the door open, peering inside at the marble floored entranced hall that went straight ahead to a huge living area--also floored in white marble--and on each side, two marble staircases curled away and up to a balcony that stretched over the entrance hall. It was an elaborate set up that usually took visitors a once over to get used to, but once they were used to, it was hard to forget.

Nicolao stood aside, allowing his guests to walk inside, his eyes following the woman. Well, following posterior area of her body that was very gifted and extremely attractive in the pair of pinstriped pants she wore. Throwing a chuckle around as if it were common knowledge, he shut the door and walked around the two. He smiled at them.

"Come in. Make yourselves as comfortable as you can," he turned to look over his shoulder at the man that walked into the room, his French servant, Pierre Michaels. He smiled. "Faites quelque chose pour que nous boivent, Michaels," he demanded. The man bowed, obeying immediately, just as he had been trained to do. He looked back at his guests.

"He will get us refreshments. In the meantime, I am sure someone in this room has a few things to say to me," he said, throwing a loving look to Rosario that was...less than returned. "Come."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen was very beside herself once the doors were opened and taken aback by the surroundings. She was very pleased to see something so entircate and beautiful. It had been over two months since she had gone to a banquet that celebrated the rich and hard workers of Coruscant, it wouldn't have surprised her if Nicolao had been there given the surroundings of the flat.

"What a beautiful place, Mr. Benitez." She was fond of the finer things in life, but for some reason it disgusted her at the same time as heighten her senses. So when he spoke in French her heart fluittered and her mind raced to translate. He had told Pierre to go get them something to drink, how long it had been since she heard it. This man was very gifted, both with beauty, taste, and language preferences.

"You speak French, you are by far surpassing my dream man at this point." IT was a little harmless flirting and she was sure he'd pick up on it, but she did not care if it kept things moving slowly she would be able to leave without a second thought.

[Nicolao Benitez]

Nicolao threw her a flippant look, his mind off of the girl at this point and on his old friend. Still, he had not been paid attention to by such a well-mannered lady as this in a little while, so in a way it was nice. He tilted his head in her direction and nodded to her.

"That's right, Miss Dearborn. I surpass your dream man. Meaning I am out of your league," he said in a tone that was part sarcastic, part vicious. A tone that was hard to determine the meaning of. Nicolao winked at her, then turned to look at Rosario again. "Rosario?" he asked, seeing that his cousin's eyes were wandering about the apartment. Nicolao could forgive him, as Rosario had never seen anything finer in his entire sad life. He could excuse his beloved cousin this once. Rosario looked back to him the hardened expression immediately returning.

"Oh, Rosario, don't look at me that way. You tire me with your ridiculous grudges and emotional clog," he said in an annoyed sigh. Then he looked back at Breen. "I am afraid, Rosario and I have something to discuss in private. You may wait in the study, just to your left there. We will not be long..." he glanced at Rosario. "God willing." He smiled back at Breen. "Please excused us, Miss Dearborn." With this he took Rosario's elbow and lead him towards the living room, beginning to speak to him in thier native tongue.

All Nicolao was thinking now, was what kind of gripe would Rosario pull out on him this time? Although Nicolao was sure he had already guessed it.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen lifted her chin and smiled on the inside. This was what she had wanted, but she still was a bit dissatisfied at his response, it was apparent his class was inherited, not learned, manners being gone a long time ago. She nodded in response even though they had both been on their merry way to a place where she would not see, nor hear them, as if she could understand anything they said!

Breen turned on her heel and walked into the study, the tall mahogany doors touching at least 12 feet in the air, how classy! She smiled to herself as she stepped into the study, the wallls lined with books and shelves filled to the rim. She would actually be surprised if he had ever read a book in his life for she was sure it was read to him instead. She closed the doors and suddenly was out of her state of caring and class range. She immediately shredded her long coat and tossed it over the back of an old antique looking chair. At one point she would have actually cared, but since she met Rosario things has changed, she somehow wanted to live the simple life of tiny apartments and ramen noodles.

Breen moved her mind out of material possessions and ran around to a large glossy desk and began to pull open drawers of things. She rummaged through it and saw nothing of importance. She looked around the room and frowned. Certainly there would be something! Breen jogged back to the large doors and locked them and quickly ran back to the desk where she was to do her best work, computers. She flipped the switch and turned on the tiny desk lamp that practically glowed a soft yellow over the desk, pulling out its natural wood. The colors of deep brown, black, maroon, and bronze being caught in the liht. She ran her hand over the soft glasslike table and quickly moved her attention elsewhere.

She watched the screen glow and she was hard at work typing in passwords and codes to get her to the safemode so she could begin to seek out the information she came for, the answer to that one question: What did Nicolao and Svatie have to do with each other?

[Morelo Benitez]

If there was one thing he had learned in all these years with Nicolao, it was to always suspect visitors. Always wonder if they were going to keep thier noses out of your business, or if they were going to stick things where they did not belong. This was a case where hands were being put into the cookie jar, and that wasn't what was supposed to happen.

Nicolao had instructed him to wait in the study, out of sight, to make sure his personal things stayed safe. And Morelo Benitez did not count hacking into his personal computer as his things being safe. Morelo blinked long and hard as he watched the woman sit down at the computer and begin typing rapidly. This was obviously her forte, for not even Morelo could follow her finger's movements, and that meant she was going extrememly fast.

Pulling his hands from the pockets of his jeans, and adjusting his red t-shirt, Morelo stood straight, his long thin body not excessively tall, but not short either. Flexing his neck like a soldier about to do battle, Morelo chose a convincing persona and slid from the shadows of the doorway that was never used.

"Don't think Niiko would like it if he knew you were hacking into his system, do you?" he said, knocking some of his brown curly hair from his face, using the persona of a flippant teenager. What he should have been anyway. "I mean, don't let me stop you. But I might have to tell."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen typed quickly and her heart skipped beats when she made her way into his personal e-mail system for she had scanned for names mentioned in the database that computers had. Luckily they had exchanged emails and suddenly she knew that something was definitely not right. But, before she could even read one tiny little sentence, one word even a voice of a stranger came out of nowhere and she almost flew out of the expensive leather computer chair.

"Oh shhhh...oot!" She looked around and found the man whose voice was so soft and smooth, like chocolate for the ears. When her eyes found the man, or perfected specimen, she was almost happy to have been found for he was beyond...perfect! Yet, he was so young and he was so familiar.

"Do you know it is impolite to sneak up and frighten people?" She grinned at him, she could care less if he told on her she was just wanting a little information and she would be on her merry way without ever having to see that boy again.

"I am afraid Nicolao has forgotten his manners, he did not tell me he had a son."

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo smiled a little, walking around the table in a teenaged manner, flipping his hair from his eyes again and hopping onto the desk to sit. He leaned over and pushed the laptop shut, smiling at her a little as he leaned over. He took in her appearanced quickly.

She was small, and pretty. Her face showed intelligence, her eyes showed rebellion. Her hands were long and thin; so she worked on computers for a living. Maybe a computer programmer or a government worker. Her glasses were thin and dainty, the lenses not too thick. Her vision was good then, but not quite good enough. Her wardrobe suggested an appreciation for a place like this. She was higher class, maybe not as high as Nicolao, but higher than the average person.

Sliding off of the desk, and pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he lit one and took a drag. He shrugged a little, knocking hair back from his eyes again, looking over at her.

"Niiko? I'm sorry, Mr. Benitez," he said sarcastically. "Yeah, you could call me that I guess. By blood he's my parental unit, but I'm not allowed to call him dad, or father. So he hasn't been rude at all. We don't exactly call ourselves father and son. But you've pretty much got it right," he said with a shrug taking another drag from his cigarette and sighing the smoke out.

"You the girl that was supposed to come up with Niiko's cousin? What's his face...Roser...something or other."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at him, seeing that this child was not all that he was showing her. There was something in his voice and in his eyes that let her know that he perhaps wasn't the teenager he was showing her at the moment. And what kind of person would call their father by their professional name?

"Mr. Benitez?" She was on the verge of scoffing and completely running her mouth on a subject that she wasn't very fond of. "And yes, my dear, I am the woman that was to come with Rosario." She smiled at him and leaned her elbows on the table, letting him understand that he had won the little battle they so happened to have over the man's files, but trust me it was a war that she was going to win. She was a pro, all she had to do was crack into his network and see everything he had to offer, information that is.

She raked her fingers together and looked at his long slender fingers and the cigarette that was in between them. She raised her eyebrows and gave him a winning smile that was meant to flatter and flirt.

"You...wouldn't mind allowing me to have a cigarette would you? It has been a few hours and I am fresh out." She was enjoying her little run in, for if he wouldn't let her get information through a computer perhaps he'd give her clues as to how he lived. Suddenly something hit her. If the boy was Nicolao's son, where was the mother?

"I am Breen Dearborn, by they way."

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo watched her give him a smile and request a cigarette. She was good, and if Morelo had been the teen that he was pretending to be, then he would have immediately taken the flirting and flirted back. But he was a professional soldier, and he knew every trick in the book. He chuckled taking the cigarette from his lips and leaning down on the table, putting it between hers.

"Smoke that, I don't like it anyway," he said with a shrug. Then he pulled the pack and lighter out and laid it in front of her. "And take those too." He paused a minute before smoothing his hair back and putting it into a low pony-tail so that it would stay out of his eyes. He nodded. "Right, Rosario. Not that good with names, and besides, the way Niiko talked about him, he's not worth knowing any how." Then he looked down at her.

"Breen? That's an interesting name. I like it. I'm Morelo. Morelo Benitez," he said, his accent making the name sound prettier than it really was. "So, are you Rosario's wife or something?" he said, making small talk to hopefully distract her from the computer. If she wasn't interested he might have to be mean to her. And he certainly didn't want that.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen grinned when he smoothly responded to her by placing it in between her lips, the filtered end being moist from his salavia. She pulled it out and licked her lips and smiled at him as he pulled his hair back and spoke about not truly needing to know who Rosario was. Although she played like she were paying attention she was trying to piece together where she had seen his precious face. He looked like a Benitez, that was for sure, but there was something else about him, something she wasn't getting.

"Morelo..." She repeated it in the exact way he said it to her, enjoying how it just rolled off the tongue. She continued to grin and as soon as he mentioned the word wife, her mind flashed with the pictures of Rosario's wife and then the picture of a man she did not know. She kept her sudden excitement inside and she only mustered a grin. The boy, or man she should say, was the unidentified soldier in the pictures. Who was he trying to fool? She knew there wasn't something right with this kid.

"I am just a friend of Rosario's." She puffed on the cigarettes and blew out a line of smoke continuing to take in the boys appearance. She found his eyes and she slit her own. "You and your...father are very, oh how shall I say it, opulent. I would like to see the woman behind it all, might I meet Nicolao's better half? Your Mother?"

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo laughed, the sound coming out smoothly and beautifully, his voice sounding older than his seventeen years. He walked to the door and leaned on it, shrugging at her.

"Niiko will allow you to meet whom he allows you to meet, I have very little say in the matters of his household," he said with a shrug, his ability to lie very convincing. If he had had a mother, he imagined that Nicolao would have invited her to meet Rosario and Breen. However, his mother, Nicolao's wife, had died some years before, giving birth to Morelo, and he did not remember her at all. He shrugged again.

"I am not sure opulent would be the word to use to describe us. Niiko came into this inheiritance, he didn't work for it. He's been rich since he was born. Silver spoon and all of that," he said, Morelo finished in a sigh, tucking a curl behind his ear that had slid from his ponytail. He glanced over at her. "What is it you do, Breen?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen leaned back as if this were her house, considering it would've been suited for her, but in all honesty this was the most unwarm house to be in all it resonated was coldness. She smoked away and smiled at the boy, he was pure gorgeousness, she could see Rosario in his eyes and voice as well, if she didn't know any better she'd say Rosario was the father of him for everything seemed to point to him. Whoever his mother was she must've been beautiful.

"Me? I work for the government. I am an appointed file caretaker, my specialty, as you can see, was computers." She dashed her ashes in a marble ash tray sitting idly on the desk and lazily loeaned back, crossing her long legs and glancing at the young boy lean against the door his hair falling from the pony tail bouncing with such body.

"What do you do? Anything at all? Or are you an heir to all of...this?"

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo flipped his hair away and shook his head, letting out a long sigh of air. She was fishing, he could feel it. She wanted information and if she couldn't get it by hacking, she was going to get it by talking. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, pushing his hip out exaggeratedly as he chose his words carefully.

"Well, I work a little, I have to have some money to do things with on my own, but eventually I'll come into all this. As soon as Niiko passes it on to me, I'll get his money and this place. As well as his estates on Naboo and Tattooine," then he shrugged a little. "I'm selling it." He gave her a sidelong glance before leaning off of the door and walking back over to Breen and the desk.

"So how did you get mixed up in this thing with Niiko and his cousin?"

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen wanted to smile now he was turning the tables on her, he was trying to get information from her as she was trying with him. She nodded and smoked seductively and bounced her leg slightly, wondering what to ask that would lead to answers. So he had more things in Naboo and Tattooine, how nice.

"Innocent bystander. He and I met by accident when we bumped into each other. We haven't been without each other since." She kept it short and sweet without having to lie, but without having to give him everything.

"I was invited along to come meet his wonderful family and so far I am enjoying my trip." She smiled and again dashed her ashes.

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and leaned down over her, putting a hand over hers as she dashed her ashes in the ash tray. He slid his fingers between hers and took the cigarette from her, putting it back between his lips and taking a drag and sighing it out in a long line, blowing it into Breen's face.

"Enjoying your trip by hacking into our files," he shook his head as if scolding a young child. "Now, surely as a government worker you know simple courtesy. And trying to find out information by stealing and lying isn't one of them." Morelo leaned back, lowering the cigarette to the ash tray, he crushed it down and put it out, watching the ashes smoke slightly. He turned away from her and walked around the table to stand behind her, looking down at her hair. He put two hands on her shoulders and squeezed them hard enough to hurt. A warning. He leaned down and placed his face next to hers.

"I wouldn't mistake us for Rosario's wonderful family, Miss Dearborn. And you'd do well to remember that we aren't." Leaning back and standing straight, he moved around to the front of the table again, putting on a smirk. "I am sure Rosario would like to hang onto a beautiful woman like you. Don't give us a reason to take you away from him."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen felt a shiver run down her spine when he took the cigarette and especially when he touched her shoulders then squeezed, what was it with men in trying to do that to her? She grimmaced slightly, expecting him to do something like that. Of course being a soldier she was expecting anything he did to cause some sort of pain. His threats weren't taken lightly, of course, for she knew how those kind of people worked. She lifted her chin as he spoke to her in such a tone that showed true evil, Nicolao must've taught him well. She watched him moved around the table and smirk, so precious that she wondered if he had an unbalance in his emotions.

"Of course, my apologies, child." She was the elder in this situation and she was tired of being pushed around. She wanted to sit up smack him face and tell him to grow up, but she refrained of course.

"Such a wonderful family. I guess intimidation runs in the family?" She raised her eyebrows and stood up and walked over to the chair where she had tossed her coat and quickly slipped it on before walking back over to the desk and leaning over him to grab the pack he had so happily given her. She looked at the side of his face and somehow saw Rosario. She sighed and leaned away and glanced at him and touched his soft face.

"You are too precious to be so hard, my dear Morelo. Perhaps we can be friends some other time." She smiled at him and walked towards the door and opened it up. "See you."

[Morelo Benitez]

Morelo cocked his head at her as she walked towards the door. He followed her to and out the door. He ignored where she was going he didn't care about her. However, he shut the doors behind him and locked them, putting the key back into his pocket. He glanced over his shoulder at the living room where Nicolao and Rosario seemed to be winding down a heated conversation.

"Nicolao. La perra tenía un ir en su computadora," he said as he leaned into the door, using Spanish so that Rosario could not understand it. Portuguese was close to Spanish, yes, but not close enough for him to know it. "No significó interrumpir, pero le pensé si sepa," he finished, looking over at the woman again, and shaking his head. Nicolao in the living room watched him a moment before giving him a disgusted look and waving a hand to the staircase.

"Make yourself invisible, boy. You make me ill," he said, before turning back to Rosario. Morelo nodded, bowing in his direction and turning back towards the staircase, glancing at Breen as he did so. He winked at her.

"Daddy's mad." With that, he took the steps two at a time and disappeared into his bedroom at the top.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned as she watched the scene unfold. She frowned at the town of voice, the hand getstures, and the way Morelo looked at her with a wink and told her how "Daddy was mad". She followed behind Morelo as he ascended the steps, but stopped to take a seat. She wasn't going to butt in on their conversation considering she had no idea what they were saying.

Breen wondered what they were discussing, but she wasn't able translate. What were they talking about? She was sure it wasn't pleasant whatever they were speaking of. She kept her ears open to hear the tones in their voice but she couldn't tell. Breen wondered if they had mentioned Rosario's wife and the illicit affair. Whatever they were speaking about she was sure Rosario would give her a full update.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario let out a long sigh of anger, disappointment and sadness as his and Nicolao's conversation quieted as suddenly as it had begun. Nicolao had changed. So drastically it was unreal. Rosario rememberd him as they had been so long ago. They had been joined at the hip, neither went anywhere without the other. Rosario had loved him before everyone.

And now, he was a greedy, spiteful, rich man who was only interested in everyone doing his dirty and getting back at anyone who had offended him in his lifetime. More than that he was so angry at him for his flippance about his affair, Rosario was saddened by his different personality. He wondered what had happened to the kind man he used to know.

"Aprovação, Nicolao. Eu odeio-o, você compreendo isso. Mas esta é água sob a ponte. Eu deixá-lo-ei na paz..." he said slowly, and quietly, looking Nicolao up and down. His cousin gave a scoff, patting him on the shoulder and turning them towards where he saw Breen waiting patiently.

"Alright, Rosario. Please, come to me again if you need me," Nicolao had the nerve to say to him as they approached Breen. Rosario stepped away from him and glanced breifly at Breen before looking away to hide the pain and hate in his eyes. For a moment, no one said anything. However, the tone of a comlink interrupted everything. Rosario looked over his shoulder as Nicolao answered his comlink, putting in an earpiece--apparently, it was a private conversation.

"Hello? Yes...I see. Alright, thank you. Yes, yes, keep in touch. Goodbye," he said, the conversation short and sweet. When he had put the comlink away, he looked at Breen and Rosario. "I had some people go to watch your apartments while you visited me. They say that the International Safety Bureau has gotten into your homes. Apparently a man by the name of Svatie has called them to look for you. I suggest you spend the night around here somewhere, give this Svatie character time to call off the dogs before you go back," Nicolao explained, then shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

Rosario glanced back at Breen, holding out a hand to her, before nodding to his cousin.

"It's been pleasant, Nicolao. Breen, we've overstayed our welcome," he muttered, indicating that they leave.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen watched the two walk in quietly before she heard Nicolao say something to Rosario. Her mind had been moved to other things such as the painful ride back home and whether or not it was a good idea to even stay at her apartment in case the authorites had come, and when Nicolao said something to that effect her stomach dropped. She watched Rosario walk over to her and hold out his hand, speaking of their overstayed welcome. She saw something in his eyes that let her know that not all had gone well and she was almost mad at herseld for even wanting to know what had gone down in the living area they had wandered off to in private.

Breen nodded and grabbed the decorative rail with her left hand and then took Rosario's after stepping down two steps to level ground. She squeezed it tightly never in her life so happy to be reunited with him.

"It was a pleasure." She lied to Nicolao before glancing over her shoulder up the winding staircase hoping to see the young boy again, but he was out of sight as his father had instructed apparently. She looked at Rosario and smiled warmly at him letting him know that she was there for him no matter what.

"Thank you for your gesture, Mr. Benitez. Good bye." She was just as anxious to leave as Rosario had been and the sooner they left the happier she'd be.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario showed himself and Breen out, closing the door a little harder than was necessary behind him, hearing Nicolao lock it. For a moment, Rosario stood outside of the door, his hand relaxing and dropping Breen's, not because he wanted to, but because he felt all the strength leave his body at once. How could Nicolao have treated him that way? Treated his pain that way? Said the things he had said about his wife? About thier affair about this whole situation. Rosario could not have believed a month ago that there was someone alive who was as heartless, and yet, this evening had shown him that there was someone who literally had no heart. Where his heart had once been lived greed and hate.

Rosario walked as one condemned towards the lifts, assuming that Breen was behind him. He could not feel, could not hear. All he could see was his cousin, and his wife, sneaking away a night that Rosario had worked late, being reassured not ten minutes before by Marie that she would be waiting for him. There was no way to know when she had gone off with his cousin, what times, what they had done. No way for him to ever know when he had kissed a woman who had, moments before, touched his cousin in the most intimate way that she had made him believe was only meant for him. Rosario would not know when it had begun, or when it had ended, if ever it had before she died.

As the lift began downwards, Rosario stared ahead of him, as if he were staring down the barrell of a blaster, ready to fire. And in a way, he would have preferred that to the pain he was feeling in his heart, his soul, and his mind that very moment.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen had felt him drop her hand and she knew that something had happened between the two of them that could not be healed by any words she had to say or any actions she was so willing to give him at this moment. She stood beside of him in silence and could tell that he was in deep thought or pain from what had happened in that room. She bit her lower lip and touched his arm and lovignly squeezed it and ran it down till she was above his hand. She let her hand drop to her side and she leaned against the wall and wondered when it would be safe and appropriate to talk to him about what had happened in the study.

She jerked her head slightly to free her vision of another wild curl that bounced lively at her movements. She put on her leather gloves and continued to glance at the side of his face to see if there was anything other than hurt written, but it was always the same desolate expression that saddened and pained her to see. She cleared her throat and glanced down at the elevator floor and continued to keep her distance and her mouth closed. Poor Rosario, if only she knew what to do, knew what to say for she was more than willing to do it all for him.

[Rosario Benitez]

Wild, half-formed thoughts chased around in Rosario's head. He was so furious, sad, every emotion that was possible to feel, he was feeling it and he couldn't straighten them out. He was angry at Nicolao, disgusted at his wife, disappointed in himself...and suddenly wanting more than his seventeen years of silence and lonliness. He wanted to show them--as much as they could see--that this wasn't going to ruin his life anymore. That he wouldn't let it. That he was better than that.

And yet Rosario didn't know if he could do what he knew he wanted to. It wasn't like it would hurt anyone, not him, not Breen. It was something that he would never have done before all of this. But Rosario's heart was so crushed, the splinters laying desolate in his chest, nothing could break it anymore, and this could only help. Right?

Glancing over at Breen, his stomach giving a lurch for no good reason, Rosario looked down at the floor of the lift. He felt completely and totally dead. As if there were nothing left for him to lose. And in reality, there wasn't.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen saw him look at her and she gave him a small grin that showed her pain for him. She liked Rosario far too much and that scared her she was afraid that holding his hand and touching him was going to send the wrong signals, signals that he might not want. She looked away not really sure of what to do or say. Perhaps if they headed home she could leave him alone and talk to him the next morning to see if they could talk about other ways to find out about Svatie and Nicolao and why they talked to each other.

"What do you want to do, Rosario?" She asked quietly, unsure if she had even said that outloud. "Are we going to stay here for the night...or...drive back?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario stepped out of the lift as the door opened and indicated that she follow him. He sighed a little bit as they walked for the entrance at the far end of the lobby. He glanced back at Breen and then nodded to the door.

"I have no idea if what he told me was the truth or not, but I would rather just stay around here tonight than risk putting you in danger," he said. Then he sighed again. "Besides, I don't want to drive back those nine hours in the dead of night after being awake too long anyway. If you have no objections, I'd like to hang around and sleep on all of this."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at him and nodded.

"Whatever you want to do it I am up for it. If you want we can stay." She smiled at him and nodded as they walked together towards the platform where the hovercraft had been parked. She wondered if they were going to get separate rooms, after all they didn't know each other that well and she was sure he wanted to be alone.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario leaned his head against the door. His hair, normally brown and soft, looking black with the water that was in it. His room was warm from the steam leaving the bathroom. His body ached, and yet, didn't. It was like the aching of a soul that spread throughout the body, giving the illusion that the whole body hurt.

His clothes were in a pile on his bed. He had had them washed while he had been in the shower, and they had been dropped off in neat folds outside his door. But he had swept them up and dumped them on his bed hapazardly, not really caring about how wrinkled they were. And anyway, he didn't need them right this moment.

The door was closed and locked, and so was the one on the other side, but he could still hear Breen moving around in the other room. He imagined her walking around the bed, her hair down and falling into gentle curls on her shoulders. Her glasses were off, laying on the bed side stand, and her lap top was open on the table in the corner. She was taking a break from trying to get any information she could and she was drinking a glass of wine she had had delievered to her earlier. It was red wine, he decided, the dark purple color of it throwing her pale skin into such sharp relief. She was pretending like she was getting ready to lie down and sleep, but after a moment, she would go back to the computer, sitting the glass of wine down on the bed side stand, vowing to go back to it. But she wouldn't. It would sit there all night.

He imagined she might fall asleep on her computer, or on the still made blankets of the bed, her red hair in a wild mess on the pillow around her finely shaped face. Her glasses would be in her hand where she had taken them off. The wine would still be sitting on the bed side stand, the small lamp in the corner shimmering on its redness.

Rosario closed his eyes and leaned off of the door that connected him to Breen's room. He had gotten adjoined rooms, so that they would have access to eachother quickly in case something happened when they were asleep. He steadied himself on his legs and walked over to the bed, pulling on a pair of exercise pants he had purchased on the way here. He needed something to sleep in. Slowly he sank down onto the bed, putting his face into his hands and resting his elbows on his knees.

How had things gotten so bad? He could barely remember having a normal life, even though he had had one not a month previous. He couldn't remember being able to live without Breen within running distance, yet he had lived a Breen-free life only weeks before. He couldn't remember not wanting to be with her. Yet he knew that at some point he must've been indifferent to her, not cared either way.

But now, things were different. She was his only friend. She was the only person Rosario could imagine himself...but he shook his head. Ridiculous thoughts of a ridiculous old man whose heart had been broken and stomped upon. He needed to lay down and sleep, yet for some reason the thought of going to sleep alone made him shudder, made him cold. Made him never want to sleep again.

Rosario glanced up at the door that lead to Breen's room as a small thump sounded from her room. He sighed, blowing some of his wet hair from his face. What was she doing now? Was she thinking of him as he was of her?

[Breen Dearborn]

Damn! That was all her mind raced with over and over again, as she leaned down to rub her toe that had painfully met its match with the leg of the desk provided in the hotel room. She stood up and clenched her jaw as she grabbed the glass of wine and downed it, as if the alcohol would dull the sudden surge of pain shooting up her foot and leg like needles in her veins. She sighed out and cringed when the alcohol caught up to her. The burn after chugging a whole glass. How many had that been? Two? Three? Five? She had lost count while in the midst of taking a bath before Rosario and the time lapse of trying to research what she had stolen. The bottle was half full and quickly going as she found herself tilting her head to the side watching the crimson liquid fill the middle of her curved glass.

For some reason unknown to her Rosario had made the bellhop bring it to her in an iced bucket with only one glass. The man had given her quite a scare when he knocked. Knowing Rosario was in the other room she had tip toed to the door to see the short boy holding it. He had told her that it was “courtesy of Mister Benitez.” She didn’t know whether to swoon or to faint. Either way she accepted the gift with much delight and began to drink.

She had always enjoyed a good wine and this, by far, topped them all. Breen took the glass in the palm of her hands, the stem going in between her index and middle finger, the cold liquid soothing her warm hands after typing away at her laptop. She wandered over to the window and peeked out between the thick curtains to view that vast scenery. Although for a moment she was captivated her thoughts traveled back to the glass, the wine, the man who had purchased it for her own enjoyment. She glanced over at the door that separated them. What was he doing? Why had he ordered it for her? How was he feeling? The questions poured in her mind. It was her job to answer questions not ask them and surprisingly she wasn’t forcing this one. If he needed to speak, he’d do so, she was sure. Right?

So why wouldn’t her mind go somewhere else? That was, after all, why she was wandering aimlessly around the room drinking like a fish staring at that damned door. Breen had been independent all her life and had never been tought otherwise, but suddenly after this period of time that had passed she was nothing but dependent on the man in the other room. How it felt like her life line had been cut off, her oxygen supply taken away. He had made her feel safe and she loved that. If there was a problem that needed help being solved Rosario would be there.

And there he still is. She thought as she found herself inching closer to the door. He hadn’t gone yet, he was still needing her in some way otherwise she’d probably be on her own again. Oh but that was a depressing thought. Dear God, she thought, am I falling for a complete stranger with chestnut eyes and soft wavy hair? Certainly a few glasses of wine didn’t impair her judgement that bad now did it? Or was alcohol her truth serum?

Breen slowly managed to inch her way to the door that was closed tightly and probably locked from his side. She leaned her ear against it and listened for a moment wondering if he was asleep, but she heard some movement and this made her smile. She leaned back and gave the door a soft tap and waited for an answer. A thanks was in order for everything he had done and even more she was going to offer him some wine. She wasn't one to drink alone anyhow.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario glanced over to the doors separating he from Breen as he shoved his clothing into a small drawer on the bed side stand. He blinked a few times, then swallowed, then pulled out the shirt he had just stuffed into the drawer. He pulled it on, its grey color not clashing too badly with the black exercise pants.

Taking a deep breath, and flipping a little of his damp hair over to the side of his head, he walked to the doors and unlocked his door and opened it, the tiny two step to her door being no match for his long legs. He went to the other door and turned the handle, hoping it was unlocked. It was. Pulling it open, his eyes sunk downwards to the woman standing there, a glass of wine in her hand, her eyes cast upwards at him as his was cast downwards to her. He smiled a little and nodded at her.

"Good evening," he said. Then he glanced at the half gone bottle of wine on the table behind her in the room. He smiled a little wider. "I hope you're enjoying it. After all the fuss with my cousin and...his son, I thought you deserved something nice, for not telling me to get lost," he said with a nod. Then he sighed. "Thank you for not telling me to get lost."

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen was a bit surprised at how quick he answered the door, but she was glad to see his face even better when he smiled brightly. Then he thanked her. Thanked her! She was a bit taken aback but she smiled and lifted up the glass and sighed happily, glad to know that she wasn't alone even though she knew it all along.

"Drink with me?" She wasn't truly asking, or demanding, she just hoped he'd say yes! She wanted to spend some time with him without having to worry or without having to think of the events that had happened a while ago. It would just be Rosario, her, and a bottle of wine. "Please?"

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked at the glass of wine then sighed. He nodded a little. Turning and pulling his door closed, he entered her room and glanced around. Just as he had imagined a few moments before, her lap top was sitting open on the table in the corner. He smiled a little as he closed the door behind him and stepped into the room.

He turned back to look at Breen. She looked just as pretty three hours after they had arrived there as she had when they had stepped into the hotel. Rosario couldn't fathom how she kept her class, her beauty after all of this. He was scattered halfway across Coruscant, and yet Breen looked as if it were just another day at the office. So calm, so collected.

Rosario looked back over to the bottle of wine and smiled a little. Then he turned fully towards Breen again.

"I'm afraid I did not expect you to have a companion to drink with. I did not order another glass," he said with a small smile.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen smelled him the second he opened the door and there it was clouding her mind and rolling in her room. Sure he smelled the same as he had before, but now it was more evident and more delicious than before. How she liked it, how she wouldn't mind it being all over her. Suddenly she realized that the wine wsa taking more effect on her judgement than she had first thought. Oh well. Breen could now do anything she pleased and have the excuse of alcohol to make up for whatever she did. She grinned as she nodded at his response. She sat her glass down and moved towards the bathroom they shared. She opened the door and saw the glass cup covered by a paper top.

"They always assume people are going to drink. They have extras in here." She grabbed it and wakled back out. Wait, she thought to herself. It wasn't like she was actually going to do anything anyway! She and Rosario were adults and they were allowed to drink. Besides she wasn't even feeling anything considering she had a nice tolerance built up to alcohol due to her sudden excessive drinking of it after...well...everything.

"Here." She handed the glass to him and grabbed the neck of the tall and large bottle and quickly poured. "Tell me when..." She glanced up at him and smiled feeling her cheeks blush at the way he stared at her with those dark eyes. Like they were the black hole in outer space, like he knew something she didn't....like he could see what she felt inside. Lord, she thought, don't do anything stupid.

[Rosario Benitez]

"When," Rosario said as the wine reached a little more than halfway up the glass. He watched as Breen put the bottle back down and seemed preoccupied with something else. How nice she looked when she was preoccupied.

God, Rosario, you're thinking like a sixteen year old with a crush, he thought to himself. Shaking his head, he took a swig of the wine, the burning sensation sliding down his throat in a manner that he hated and liked all at the same time. He hadn't drunk wine in forever, and the taste was foreign and familiar on his tongue. Rosario himself was preoccupied. With everything that was going on right at the moment.

His cousin was his current thought obsession. There was something going on that Nicolao wasn't saying, and his son...Morelo? Nicolao was not a child person. Rosario couldn't imagine that he had gotten a girl pregnant, stuck around for her to have the kid then taken it in and become its father when the girl ran. Nicolao had always been the kind of person to "love them and leave them", so to speak. But when he had betrayed Rosario in the worst way, he had become even more so. Even though they had fallen out of touch, Rosario still heard things from friends of friends. He knew that Nicolao had gotten in trouble on two planets and had hopped them to get out of it. He also knew that Nicolao was a man who loved women...or men. Whatever the hell Nicolao took a liking to, Nicolao got. And he loved high class women, making them fall for him, then bailing on them as quickly as was absolutely possible.

Until he had met Marie.

Rosario's heart panged as he stared down into his wine. As far as Rosario knew, his wife was the only woman that Nicolao had never had the intention of leaving. Anger grew in Rosario. He couldn't help but think about the nights he had been at the warehouse having been assured by Marie that she would be awake when he got home and that while he was out, his cousin had screwed his her in the back room of thier house. Or in the alleyway. Or in the hotel down the road.

To think that he had come home to her sitting on her window seat, kissed her, made love to her, ignorant to all that had gone on. Never knowing that she probably envisioned Nicolao every moment.

Rosario turned away and looked out of the window of the hotel. He couldn't think of that right now. It made him angrier than anything. It hurt more than anything. If only there were some way to get her back, to get Nicolao back. He didn't know how, but he wished there were some way.

Glancing up, Rosario watched Breen's reflection in the window. She looked pristine. Perfect. Untouched. Beautiful. Rosario was drawn to her, that he knew. But he hadn't let himself feel it fully because of the memory of his wife. The only woman he loved. Rosario's eyes swept up Breen's reflection, finding her eyes. He smiled slightly in the window at her.

Could Breen change that?

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen had been staring in silence as he took a drink, showed a sign of bitersweet pain traveling down his throat, then turning to the window to be lost in deep thoughts that were far too deep for Breen's touching. She had stood there staring at his back, staring at his reflection, ignoring the sudden twisting and turning in her stomach, the nervousness that was crawling through her nerves, the sudden infatuation with Rosario and how she wanted to fix problems that were none of her business.

Funny how a few accidents and a few rescues caused her independence to be clouded by a thought and fantasy of whirlwind romance with the enigmatic man standing tall in her window. That smile he had given her earlier pulled on strings that she never knew existed inside of her and she was liking the feeling, but hating the suspense of what it all meant.

Breen was intelligent, she knew that she moment she stepped into private schools. But for once in her life she was walking in water that she had no incling of proper thought. Ask her anything about atronomical mathematics and equations, categorizing and filing government documents by articles, clauses, and subjects, even ask her how to reprogram a computer and she'd give you nothing but straight, simplistsic, and correct answers. Ask her about love and her mind would shut down, all human thought processes would be lost. Not that anyone was asking her about love or even hinting at it, but she wasn't stupid enough to ignore the fact that those heart strings that were being tugged, that sickening feeling in her stomach, her shortness of breath at the sight of Rosario, the slightest touch of him that causes her limbs to shake....all of that led to things that she never knew of, but had always longed for.

Breen realized that her mind had wandered into deep deark places of her mind that had yet to be filled with any kind of knowledge, save that of what she heard and read. Her eyes moved from a muscular and attractive back to a face that had been casted on the window. A smile had been paced on his face which, in turn, caused her to blush and smile foolishly. He sure had smiled an awful lot since the incidents that had unfolded. What was he thinking? What was he smiling for? Was it because of her? Was she so drunk she was saying things and not rememberng them?

"What?" She questioned with a grin. If he couldn't hear her nerves through her voice then she was a better actress than she thought. "Did I do something? Say something?" She bit her lower lip and looked away. Her brain was shutting down, she was losing her cool, pretty soon he was going to know that all this time they've been together her feelings had grown to an attachment far more than he could ever imagined.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario looked down at the floor as she did as well. Rosario felt things for Breen he hadn't felt for anyone in so long he didn't even know his body was capable of it. Ever since his wife--the woman he had been married to had died, he had been dead inside. Living out his own personal hell. Moving one step forward and three back. Wishing he could feel something other than helpless, lost, and angry. Pretending his life was worth enough to keep living it.

Then Breen had come along. She had awoken in him something that was no helplessness, not lost, not angry. It was a feeling of complete control over his life, even if she was causing his emotions to go totally haywire. She made him feel at once strong and weak, happy and frightened. Rosario shook his head as he looked back up into the big window at the woman's reflection.

He had the courage now, but was he going to do it?

Setting his wine down on the table he turned slowly, taking two big steps over towards her. He paused a moment before covering the rest of the carpet and standing in front of her. He looked down at her a moment, before reached down and gently took her glass of wine and set it nearly silently on the coffee table. Rosario bit his bottom lip, then raised his hands. Cupping her cheeks and jaw in them, he lifted her face to meet her eyes with his own. Thier blue shone in the light from the lamps in the room, shimmering almost as if they glowed on thier own. Rosario did not know if he had actually taken the time to look at her eyes. In fact, Rosario did not knwo if he had ever really noticed how opposite they were. He was tan, rough, dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes. She was fine, soft, with light skin, hair, and eyes. They were polar opposites and yet, Rosario had not felt this close to someone since...

"I don't know if I have thanked you, Breen," he said quietly. "For everything you've done for me. You helped a stranger, even though it risked your own life. Thank you for everything you've done for me..." Rosario slowly stroked her temple with his thumb, knocking a small red curl from her eyes. Blinking once, and throwing caution to the wind, Rosario leaned down to her, gently pressing his lips to hers.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked down at the rug and wondered if the silence they suddenly shared was full of eletric chare or if she was just tense and uncomfortable. Rosario was a lot older than she was and more mature, wise beyond her. He was so intelligent and he had gone through so many trials in his life she could see it in his face, his face that had signs of age and wisdom and his hair had tones of gray, salt and pepper. There were so many things that Breen liked about him and she was trying to deny her feeligns for the man she had come to trust. The only person she had trusted nowadays. She heard him moving and her heart skipped many beats, more than the normal amount she was sure. she felt so excited, scared, and unsure of what was going on at that exact moment. She felt like she was on fire, the room was a million degrees, her heart was skipping beats due to her random thoughts of infatuation with Rosario, the alcohol, everything that was going on was causing her to get light headed. She glanced up to find him quickly eliminating the space that separated them. What was he doing? Why was he closing in on her? What the hell was he doing? Why was she freakig out about this? She tried to remain calm, but couldn't. She liked hikm so much that she was beginning to get that warm and fuzzy feeling that also reminded her of being sixteen again.

Breen swallowed hte lump of fear and anticipation down and stared up at him, shocked that it took her almost a minute of pure silence to allow her brain to catch up to the fact he was cupping her face and staring into her eyes. Normally she would have felt weird by this, felt like he could see straight through her. The alcohol, she knew, had taken the effect it should have an hour ago all in two seconds.

Breen held her breath as he spoke to her in a low tone that was raspy and accented. Was the heat going? Was the damn thermastat broken? Why was the temperature rising? Breen clenched her hjaw and did nothing but remain still and helpless, like jello in his hands as he spoke to her. He was thanking her, she knew that much, but suddenly she wondered if this was even real. The second she felt his mouth touch her own the spark of electricity that cracked on lips from the charged air somehow made things more passionate. Breen closed her eyes and began to stand on the balls of her feet as if he had been sucking the life out of her, oh but even so she had never felt so alive in all her pitiful life.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's spine had been wonderfully loose through the entire ordeal, until Breen returned the pressure of his mouth. Rosario had not been expecting her. For whatever reason, he thought she would refuse him, tell him he was out of bounds, do something other than what she did. And when she accepted him, kissed him back, Rosario thought his heart would jump out of his chest and land on Breen.

For a moment, he wondered if what he was doing was sensible, he was questioning himself...again. Like he always did. Rosario wondered if he ever did something spontaneous and didn't wonder abput the consequences. Gently closing his eyes, he decided this would be it. The thing he didn't think about.

Rosario slid his arms down and carefull placed them around Breen's waist. She was so tiny. So fragile in his arms, yet he had not yet met a woman as brave and resiliant as she. At times, she had more of a spine than Rosario. At times, Rosario had to stand back and marvel that she had not already gotten herself killed, with the speed with which she turned against the powerful men she worked for.

Yet, as he kissed her, she felt like the smallest human being in the universe. Like just the simplest of things could undo her tiny frame. Rosario's thoughts were crowded. He couldn't think straight. And it was all because of one woman.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned gently as her mind swam in thoughts of sheer bliss and sheer blurriness. She felt so dizzy, her body het was so high that he swore she'd burst into flames, sensibility had left her, alcohol had impaired her judgement, and yet she was still allowing the man to take her to new heights and cross new boundries they had yet to step on. Wherever this was going she didn't have the incling to stop it. Even if she knew where this kiss was heading she still wouldn't stop it, all she was doing at this moment was letting this sudden burst of surprise to run its course, no matter if it was going to cause trouble in the long run.

Breen had a grip on reality, well...kind of, and when she felt him wrap his arms around her gently she decided to just let the rest of her give in, just this once. She was tired of playing by the rules, it was quite refreshing for a change, after all it was only fitting for their situation of nothing but changes. Breen moaned against his mouth when she kissed him back, repaying the favor by cautiously putting her arms around him as well, afraid that he'd push her away when he gathered up his right mind. How rough and tough he felt, how strong and muscular, how manly he seemed when she pulled him tightly to her in a hold. It was nice to feel, nice to smell, nice to kiss. Had she been told this was going to happen a month ago she would have laughed, but now all she was doing was relishing in the unimaginable.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's mind had totally shut down. Any normal brain function that had maintained itself up to this point had diminished and disappeared completely. He hadn't been this blissfully blank in a long time, and he had forgotten how nice it felt to simply go on instinct instead of sitting around and thinking out a plan as he had been doing for what seemed like eight lifetimes.

And without thinking about it, Rosario's mouth moved from Breen's lips, to her jaw and neck, massaging it gently. She tasted clean, and fresh, like the smell of a Naboo plain after a rain storm. All the good things about the Naboo wilderness that Rosario remembered were wrapped up in this woman. All the wonderful things that had happened throughout his life were contained in this most intimate of gestures. Rosario liked the way she felt in his arms, next to his body, his lips pressed against her skin, exploring every inch of it.

Rosario knew where all this could lead, and in a way he wanted it to. In a way, it would be his silent protest against Nicolao, against his adulterous wife, showing them, in his own way, that he had moved on. That they couldn't hold him captive any more. He knew it was the wrong reason to do what he was about to, but it wasn't the only reason...right?

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen could feel her heart beating in a quick, unstable rythm inside of her chest. A second ago he was kissing her lips, the next wherever he pleased to roam, as if she were an unchartered island needing to be mapped out. The heat was on and it was constantly rising to new levels, her mind was being fried by the heat he was turning her on to, and the only thing she could literally think was what was going on and whether or not she would plea temporary insanity. Or lust, whichever came first.

Breen couldn't fathom a time a man kissed her so intently that it gave her a head rush, a heat rush, and a rush that she had yet to acknowledge, actually name! Rosario had tugged on her heart strings and had given her stomach a few turns whenever she looked at him walk in a room or whenever he passed her by and allowed her senese to pick up on him. He was attractive, handsome would have been the word. She liked him, found him extremely masculine and handsome, but there was something that he had that she liked...his intelligence and his strength through everything.

Her brain was screaming for her to stop this madness, quit while they were ahead, but her body was far too deprived of this attention and it was making things difficult for her. Breen felt her body suddenly being pushed to new limits, she was mindlessly ready to tear off her clothes, as well as his, and she was two seconds away from breathing his name. Suddenly she realized what was going on, she was in herhotel room, he was in there with her, alcohol was involved, and high tensions were causing them both to go crazy.

"Rosario...what are we doing?" Breen practically moaned this, not making it sound like she was trying to make him stop, matter of fact she simple provoked it more by moving her hands around his body. This was heading in a direction she had never though before and knowing this...she kept on.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario was only spurred on by her moan. It was throaty, deep. She didn't sound like she wanted him to stop, but he paused in his movements out of wonder. But after a moment, he moved to kissing her neck and shoulder again. Rosario couldn't remember feeling this much heat in the past years. It had been so long since he had felt like this, gotten this pleasure. He was only human.

"Do you want me to stop...?" he muttered against her shoulder as he kissed it. He would stop if she wanted him to, despite the fact that he really didn't want to.

This wasn't like Rosario, that was for certain. If he had been told four hours ago that he would be in Breen's room, kissing her neck anticipating what was to come, he would have laughed heartily. Yet, standing here, in the act, it wasn't so hard to believe. After all, they had been through things together no one else would ever be able to understand. They could share things with each other that no one else would be able to provide for them. Breen was the first woman Rosario had felt anything for since his wife had died so long ago. She was the only woman who seemed to give a damn about him, about his thoughts, his feelings. He actually felt connected to her, spiritually.

Now he wanted to finish it. He wanted to be connected to her physically. He wanted thier bond to be that much stronger. Yet, there was a little guilt in him. His reasons were mostly pure. But there was a tiny bit of him that didn't care whether they would be together. That little tiny bit of him just wanted to get back at Marie and Nicolao. Rosario pushed at it. He didn't want it there, he wanted this to be real, something he could hold on to. Something that he could have that he could cherish after a lifetime of pain and sadness.

"Please..." was the last intelligent word that left his lips before he moved his kisses down a little farther, inching slowly down her shoulder.

[Breen Dearborn]

After hearing that little word, which she wasn't exactly sure how over her breathlessness and severe panting and screams of desire in her brain, she simply allowed her eyes to roll in the back of her head and lean her neck back in sheer pleasure at the soft supple skin caressing her skin. How quickly she forgot how to say stop or no or anything that would cause all of this to come to a stand still. She didn't want it to stop, she just wanted it to go on and on until everything she was feeling had been put into perspective by consumating her feelings for him. The things they had witnessed and been through...it had shoved her into a world she hadn't ever thought to have lived. Things were different, everything was different and the only other person who could understand was Rosario. Why? Because they had shared it together.

Breen remembered when they met, when they first touched, the spark of electricity that had happened between them. Then she was sure it had to do with the weather of snow and thin air, but now she wanted to say it was due to something more. Something that was beyond her control. But she had never been one to believe in such things such as fate or love, technically because she had never experienced it. But was she doing so now with Rosario? How she wanted that answer to be yes, how she wanted him to give her everything she hadn't had before. The only thing she wasn't sure about was whether or not it was requieted and if this was real.

This man had lost a wife, lost a best friend, lost a cousin, all to have it thrown back in his face with a, literal, family affair. Rosario deserved something great, something to fulfill the void of his wife and best friend, perhaps make things in his life a little brighter. She just wondered if she could do it. Her feelings for him ran much deeper than she was actually willing to admit. Denial of feelings was something horrible, she was sure, but she just wanted to make sure that this wasn't some one time thing that would satisfy a need that either one of them had. What that was exactly she wasn't sure. Which was why this was getting a lot easier to do without stopping, which was why she was already beginning to push things further by unbuttoning her shirt.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario's heart had stopped by the time he saw more of the clean, fresh, and pale skin revealed when her slightly trembling hands pushed the pearlescent orbs through the holes on the opposite side of her shirt. His eyes couldn't help but travel down to look down the soft trace of skin to her breasts, cupped by a white silken bra. Rosario leaned his head down, pressing his lips to her breast bone. For a moment, he was going to continue downwards, exploring skin he had never dreamed he would touch before this evening.

However, conscious thought took over and after a moment he leaned back, kissing her lips lightly, then kissing her forehead. He gently slid his hands over her shoulders, sliding them under her shirt to slip it down her arms. Her skin was soft, and untouched...was it really? He hadn't thought of that yet, that she really was untouched. Rosario pressed his lips to her shoulder, massaging it with his tongue, letting his mind go completely and blissfully blank.

Rosario could not remember feeling this much love for someone all at once. But there was still that nagging voice in the back of his head, telling him to do it for no other purpose than to get back at Nicolao.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen wasn't even sure this was happening, wasn't even sure that her shirt was on the floor in a limp heap at the heels of her feet. But one thing she was sure of was that as Rosario's lips and hands ran over her body leaving nothing but electric pulses in its wake. She shivered, but not from cold, simply from the wonderful sensation that she was getting from this.

She moaned and felt her breath being caught in her throat. This was sheer bliss. Painful bliss at that. Morals were nagging at the back of her mind, but she had done this before, not that many times but enough to know that she had nothing to worry about except whether or not this was the right thing to do with Rosario. But as he kept on kissing, her breathing kept geting heavier, her heart beating rapidly...it was getting harder to even consider the possibility of putting an end to it all. No, that wasn't an option anymore, not to her, not to him. If she was going to do something she wanted to do before her time was up, which that could be any day since all of this started, she was going to have a little fun with a man she had feelings for. Perhaps her feelings were love....but then again perhaps lust.

Breen had gone through so much she didn't trust anything anymore, but for some reason she was going to trust her feelings on this one, she wanted nothing more than to be with Rosario.

[Rosario Benitez]

---
Rosario's eyes opened slowly. They ached. Like they always did when he awoke after having little sleep the evening previous. His head hurt too, and so did his abdomon. Scratch that, his whole body ached. Swallowing he shifted under the blankets that were tangled around his legs slightly. Rosario ran a hand through his hair and let his head fall to the side, his eyes used to the darkness of the room. He could see a little light emanating from a pinpoint of light that was blinking on Breen's still open computer. He blinked once, then turned his head over to look at the pillow next to him.

Breen lay there, her chest rising and falling gently as she breathed. Her hair lay in wild curls on the pillow around her hair, like a halo. Her skin glowed in the darkness, its cool color causing her to look even more like an angel than usual. Rosario chewed his lip a little as he watched her shift a little in her sleep, his memories of the evening previoius taking over his brain.

Had it really been the night before? Rosario turned his head to look at the clock next to him. Four o'clock, Coruscant time. In the corner it listed several other times from different major planets. Glancing over at Breen again, Rosario sat forward slowly, straining to not move the bed too much and wake up the sleeping woman. Swinging his legs off of the bed, he stood straight and stretched a little, his naked body reacting to the coolness of the room by shivering a little.

Rosario walked around the bed, his eyes looking breifly at the piles of clothing on the floor. Breen's shirt was still in a heap from where he had pushed it off her shoulders. Her bra was near to it, her trousers a foot or so closer to the bed. His pants lay in a pile in one corner, his shirt just beside the bed, the corner of it hidden underneath a little. Rosario looked away as he moved towards the bathroom, trying not to think about it.

He closed the door quietly behind him, flipping on the light and starting the water in the shower. After it warmed, he got in, letting the steam roll around him in mountains and hills that might cleanse him of his sins. He was having second thoughts about what he had done the night before. He couldn't decide whether it was out of the feelings he had for her, or the contempt he felt for his cousin. Both of the emotions were so strong, yet polar opposites. He cared for her deeply, of this he was now sure. He had known that long before last night had happened at all. But he also hated his cousin so deeply, it was just as strong as his love for Breen. He was conflicted.

Slowly, he cleaned himself, washing away everything, maybe he could forget the guilt of doing what he had done for any other reason than he loved her. But as he stepped out of the shower and rubbed his hair vigorously with a towel, he knew the only way he could forget would be to go away completely. Run.

Leaving the bathroom, he glanced at the bed. Breen has shifted positions, but, to his knowledge, not awakened. He tossed the towel into a corner gathering up his clothing and carefully slipping back into his own room. As he made his way to the bedside stand, his mind was a blur of thoughts. If he decided to run, it wouldn't be any different from what he had been doing his entire life. He had never faced anything like this head on. He would find himself a place to hide in again.

But wasn't that what Breen was to you? said a little voice in the back of his mind as he pulled on his jeans and t-shirt. Twelve hours ago, she meant safety to you. She meant everything to you. What changed, Rosario?

Rosario shook his head standing straight and looking back over to the open door that lead back to Breen's room. Slowly, he walked over and through. The room was still silent and dark, Breen's small form still under the blankets. Rosario walked over, crouching next to her. She was still sleeping peacefully, her face was calm, gentle, perfect. Rosario felt at once pain and sorrow and love. Reaching up, he brushed a curl from her face and leaned down gently kissing her forehead.

"Eu te amo, Breen..." he felt a rock form in his throat. "E... eu sou pesaroso..." he whispered. Quietly, he stood and made his way to the door, letting himself out as silently as possible. It was either he leave and free her from danger and he from guilt, or stay and...who knew.

But halfway down on the lift, and Rosario's heart broke.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen frowned and shifted in her sleep. Slowly she was beginning to come to and suddenly she realized her blissful dream of nothing was suddenly being ruined by reality. She slightly cracked her eyes and realized it was day and that she was no longer in her wonderland. She groaned after a moment and moved turning over on her side, a slightly grin on her face when she remembered what had happened the night before. The wonderful things that had continued to happen throughout the night. She moved her hand to the side of the bed were Rosario had been sleeping. To her dismay, and shock, he wasn't there, nor was the warmth. Breen shot up, hair everywhere, empty bed and bedsheets next to her. She frowned and looked around, panic rushing through her. Where was he? Breen sat up and gathered up the white sheets and put them over her naked body. She stood up kept the sheets near her as she stared the floor trying to find any reminents of Rosario being there, but sadly she saw nothing. She sighed and walked around the bed over to the bathroom to find it empty as well. She then realized, perhaps he was in his room? But something told her he wasn't. Breen dropped the sheets nad grabbed her clothes and put them on quickly before going to the door and knocking. She saw it was unlocked she went in.

"Rosario?" She said lowly. Suddenly her eyes found nothing, no suitcase, clothes, letter....nothing! He was gone. Tears began to fill her eyes as ran around the room as if she had missed him. But she knew that he was gone.

Her eyes were burning as she had cried a bucket full of tears because something had happened that she never expected. The one man she gave a damn about, perhaps loved....left her after sex. This happened to cheap women who knew nothing about relationships...who didn't care who touched her body or had her the way Rosario had her last night. Now she was feeling cheap, like some whore that had been used and dumped. Breen licked her wounds quickly knowing that she ddn't have time to cry rivers and wallow in her misery. She was heartbroken, but she had to keep going. Breen got out of the shower and quickly fized her hair and dressed, knowing that she needed to leave as quickly as possible and go back home to figure out what to do. Now that her fellow partner was gone...she didn't know what to do.

Breen packed everything up and walked out the door, tears still stinging her eyes. Why had he done that? Why did he leave? Why didn't he say anything to her?

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario leaned on the wall of the hotel, the rain pouring down around him. He had found little shelter under the roof that stuck out a little floors above him on the hotel. The cigarette glowed slightly in the still dark of the early morning. He could see the hover car just in front of him, quiet, waiting for him to get in and start it up.

He had put his clothes in the back, gotten in the driver's seat, started the engine and gotten two buildings away from the hotel before stopping abruptly, causing several drivers behind him to swerve and curse at him, even though he couldn't hear them. His mind had been on one thing, and one thing only. Breen Dearborn.

He had turned around, parked his car and gotten out a half hour ago. His clothes showed the half hour of rain that had soaked him through to the bone, his hair clinging to his face as he smoked, drawing in the toxins and breathing them out slowly. His heart had broken and he realized what kind of a person he was turning into. He was turning into someone who did nothing but run. Someone who took what they wanted and left.

He was turning into Nicolao.

[Breen Dearborn]

Breen looked at the man behind the desk as she checked out of her room, giving back the key and saing her thanks before looking out the window to find it pouring the rain.

"Nasty weather." She said to herself as she walkedtowards the exit. The weather was just perfect for her sudden downcast feeling inside of her. She wasn't exaactly sure as to why Rosario left, matter of fact she found it horrible that he couldn't have left her a note that at least let her know he wasn't dead or had been abducted. Breen was sure, though, he had left for one reason. A reason he had left sleeping in the bed as he left. Breen sighed out as she folded the bill and put it away in her laptop bag as she grabbed the pack of smokes Morelo had given her the night before. God, how she felt soured by thinking that. She bit her lower lip and ignored the pain inside of her as she stepped out and lit up her cigarette. How was she going to get home?

"Damn it." She sucked in the toxins and stared ahead wondering how she was going to find a taxi in this kind of weather.

[Rosario Benitez]

Rosario glanced over from the shadows as the one person he was waiting for cursed and drew in a deep breath of smoke from her cigarette. His heart melted. He couldn't help it. He truly cared for her, and she deserved to know that. She deserved better than what he had given her.

He tossed away his own cigarette and listened as it fizzed in a puddle nearby. He looked back up at Breen's back as she looked around her, probably wondering how long she would have to stand in the rain before she got a taxi. Rosario wondered how she didn't see his hover car sitting just beside her. He leaned off the wall and shook a wet peice of hair from his face.

"Can I give you a lift?"