At the City's Center's base.
Colton was sitting on one of the kitchen island stools inside their living quarters while he ate a big plate of pasta.
His arm was no longer in a cast and the majority of his bruises were now practically gone. They were now replaced by either scars or a yellowish stain from were they once were. Only his leg had remained in a cast and another few places on his abdomen were yet to stop being tender.
He was concentrated on his food when a shriek was heard coming from inside Claire's bedroom. Instead of looking alarmed, a large smirk spread across his face. The very mischievous kind.
A few moments later he heard the door swing open making him shift his expression back to normal. Acting as natural and innocent as possible.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Anna yelled as she stood by the bedroom door wrapped in a towel. Bare footed and her hair dripping wet, she had obviously just stepped out of the shower.
"What do you mean?" Colton replied without raising his eyes form his plate. He could feel her blazing gaze on the side of his face, but he feared his act would falter if he looked up at her. Especially after deducing that she didn't bother wearing any clothes before coming out to confront him.
"Now I can't even take a shower in peace?! You just had to turn the heater off!?" She was beyond furious. Something that was painfully obvious in her voice.
"Is that why I heard you shriek just now?" Colton chuckled as he twirled his fork in his spaghetti. "I thought that you might have seen some wrinkles on your face or something." He teased her as he continued to focus his gaze on his plate.
"Colton Collins, I am not going to play this game with you. Either you turn the heater back on or I swear you're going to end up with two broken arms instead of one this time!" Anna began to threaten him as hot fumes could practically be seen coming out of her.
Colton finally looked up at her and avoided looking anywhere but her face. "I did tell you to sit down and eat with me before you got in the shower. Maybe it's the universe telling you that you should have taken up my offer." He spoke as if he wasn't the one that shut off the heater from his phone.
Anna was about to yell something back when Colton's cellphone went off. The sound of the alarm made them both set their previous conversation aside and have their entire attitudes shift. Including the expressions on their faces.
"I'll be ready in three." Anna said seriously as she went back inside the bedroom.
Colton grabbed the crutch that was leaned against the island and stood up. Now that he was better, he could move around without as much assistance as he needed before. He picked up his phone and tapped on it's screen a few times before starting to head towards the front door. Since he was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, like always, he took a jacket from the hanger beside the door and slowly started to put it on. Although his abdomen was much better, it was still hard for him to dress himself without feeling pain.
He was struggling to keep the balance in his posture while putting the jacket on when he felt Anna's hand on his back.
"I already asked the shadow team for a status report on the Boss and alerted the Wolves." She said as she assisted Colton to put his jacket on.
"Good." He replied as Anna helped him slip his other arm into the jacket before closing the zipper up to his chest. Looking down at her, he took a deep breath to help him push the pain his body was in to the back of his head.
Taking a better look at her, he noticed that her hair was still dripping wet and she didn't even get the chance to grab a jacket for herself. "Thanks." He said with a somewhat heavy voice.
Anna looked up at him and understood. He was indeed recuperating, but something that wouldn't heal as fast as his body was his mindset. And the fact that he still needed help doing something as simple as getting dressed wasn't helping. It was something she wasn't sure she could help with either. Anna simply nodded up at him before turning around and opening the door. There were more pressing manners to attend to.
The pair walked through the base and made their way towards the room Aiden saw his first time visiting the base. As soon as they got there, everybody inside was lined up waiting for them.
"Welcome back Boss." The dozen people inside the tech filed room said at the same time. All with broad smiles on their faces.
Colton was about to disperse them to save himself the need of feeling even more awkward, when a voice boomed from behind them all. "Alright you all got to see him like you wanted to so get back to your stations. We have work to do."
Tildy, the same woman who had been there on Aiden's first visit and the one in charge of conducting most of the meeting he had attended, spoke loudly enough for everybody to hear. And most importantly, obey. As soon as she finished the command, everybody went back to working like bees inside a beehive. Moving as fast as they could while tapping on screens, monitoring numerous devices and relaying information to one another.
Tildy was about Colton's age. She was much taller than Anna and Claire, with straight blond hair that reached her mid back. And even though she was casually dressed and wore big dark glasses, she was a natural beauty. The kind you wouldn't expect to be hidden away under ground in a top secret base that nobody knew of. But just like the rest of her life, Claire was surrounded by things and people that didn't make sense to the naked eye.
"Sorry to cut your welcome back party short Boss." Tildy said as she walked up to them. "But I'm guessing you have something else you'd much rather be doing." She offered them a smile before gesturing for them to look at an empty chair right in the middle of the room. "Why don't we get you to it?"
"If you ever wonder why you're my favorite Tildy..." Colton said as he leaned towards her and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "This is why." He smirked before heading towards the seat.
"And if you ever wonder why the team keeps tampering with your phone's signal, it's because you say things like that out loud." Tildy said while she grinned back at him. They both chuckled at her remark.
Colton slowly eased in to the seat and sighed. It had been far too long.
He sat in front of a table which had three different sets of keyboards. On the wall he was directly facing, there were multiple monitors with different numbers, images and formulas constantly appearing and reappearing on their screens. After taking a quick glance of every one of them, Colton smirked.
"It's my turn now you bastard." He mumbled to himself before cracking his knuckles and leaning in to the devices. As soon as he did, he began to tap so fast onto his keyboards that nobody could hold back their smiles. It was a scene they had missed dearly.
Anna was standing just behind him as she saw the contents of the monitors throughout the entire room change rapidly. Being used to seeing it, she didn't even attempt understanding all that was going on. She had long accepted the fact that her efforts to do so would be in vane.
Not a minute after he sat down, her cellphone rang.
"Report." She said after answering it on the first ring. A few seconds after she heard everything the person on the other line said, she hung up the call. Immediately after, she tapped on her phone a few times before calling somebody else.
"Ben." Anna began to say which made Colton pay close attention to her conversation. All without taking his eyes off of the screens. "Go guard the gems." And without saying anything else, she ended the call.
"It's gonna be a long night." Tildy said to herself before she turned around to address the rest of the team. "Listen up everybody." Her voice drew everybody's attention towards her. Once she made sure that all eyes were on her, she continued. "It's time."
And as if those two words were laced with a deeper message, they all nodded her way before they turned back to work. Now facing Colton she continued. "What else do you need?"
"Have one of our moles lay down a trail to follow back, make sure that the main recruiter's transport hasn't been compromised and have Claire's new pup meet me here. He should know the layout better than us."Colton spoke as he worked on the different keyboards.
Anna saw Tildy leave to do as told which left her watching Colton by herself. She saw everybody around her move and work as a the team that they were, which made her feel incredibly out of her element. She would have already been in her usual post if it weren't for the fact that Claire had asked her to take care of Colton. And with everybody running around with work as their focus, she was sure nobody would be paying attention to his needs if he were to have any.
Colton could easily sense her unease, making him stop what he was doing for a moment to look up at her. "I know you're not going to leave even if I ask you to, so how about you help me out from here instead."
Anna immediately nodded in agreement. Having something to do was exactly what she needed. "What do you need?"
"I need you to go dry your hair and wear something warmer." He said as a response which instantly made her eyebrows stitch in annoyance.
Although true that she was too lightly dressed and her hair was dripping wet, it was hardly the time to be focused on such trivial things.
She as about to give him a piece of her mind, but he beat her to it."Let me finish before you start to bicker." Colton saw her staying silent as a green light to continue, so he did. "Go dry up and get into warmer clothes. I don't want my personal caretaker getting sick. When you come back I'll have you get into contact with a few of our moles to gather whatever they have on whats about to go down."
Anna's expression turned into a surprised one. She didn't expect for him to give her something to do so willingly. Colton noticed the change and sighed. After running his hand through his hair, he looked up at her again. "I told you that this time around it would be different Anna. And I don't have to like the fact that I was wrong the first time around to admit it." A flash of something painful passed between them as they looked at each other silently for a second. "Now go."
After another few seconds of looking at him, Anna turned around and hurriedly left. Colton watched her leave before he started to work again.
"I just hope this time around I'm not wrong.....again." He said to himself as the flashing colors of the different screens reflected in his eyes.