Small reason

Stopping his hand still on the door Phinox turns slightly to look at Gage. Squinting just a little another evil smile pass his lips as his eyes seem to match the darkness.

"I'm doing what I am getting payment for. A little more torcher to make everyone squirm. Unless you wanna do it?!"

Phinox challanges Gage as he holds out the gun to him. If he could get the younger man to take him up on the challange he would have a perfect shot of his neck to inject the setative.

Nate lifts his head to look at Ryder as he walks out of the room. He willed his toung to hold itself but in his tired state it seemed so hard

"You were all tired, so you decieded to hold my girlfriend while you rested? Sounds like I might have a small reason to feel a bit funny dont you?"

Nate held a confused look on his face, and one that showed a bit of hurt. He trusted Laura, but still he know what he saw and even if nothing happend it still hurt.

Shaking his head and leaning his head aganst the wall Nate didnt want to say more that was on his mind, Nate didnt want to start a fight he wanted to calm himself and than go in to see how Laura was thats all Nate wanted.

All yours

Gage isn't happy about Phinox pushing him around, but he's also cautious and a bit intimidated. Eying Phinox skeptically, he watches the money being taken, and the drawer shut again. He swallows hard, hoping his secret was still safe. Apparently Phinox didn't care what he was reading.

Standing, he hits a few keys on the computer as if looking for something, though his eyes follow Phinox across the floor. Seeing the agent going for the basement again, Gage straightens. "Hey..." His eyes narrow. "You already checked on the goods once. What gives?"


Laura's head snaps up at the sound of Nate's voice. She'd almost drifted to sleep. "Nate...I..." Too late. The door was shut.

Ryder blinks and withdraws his arm, now fully awake himself. "Um..." He slides off the bed, heat crawling into his face. "Guess I done it now, ay? Gone and got him cheesed off and probably you too."

"I... well..." Laura stands as well, the atmosphere suddenly having gone from relaxing to extremely awkward. "No... I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Ryder tosses his empty pop can into the trash and heads for the door. "Guess I'm gonna go make trouble somewhere else."

"Ryder..." Laura stops him at the door, her facial expression apologetic. "You're not making trouble. It's fine. It just... I mean, we..."

"Yeah." Ryder forces a dry laugh. "Yeah." He shakes his head and slips out into the hall before he can make a further fool out of himself. Shutting the door behind him, he's surprised to see Nate right there, and his face grows even redder. "Um... I was just... well..." He clears his throat, hooking his hands in his jeans pockets. "We're all a bit tight thinking about Katie, ya know?" He nods, trying to gain back his composure, and then not even sure why he'd lost it in the first place. "It's, um..." he thumbs towards the spare room. "All yours."

Laura sinks back down on the bed with a sigh. She was so tired.


Kyle glances up from the floor as the door opens and he sees Hunter return to their room. "Have a good walk?"

"Mm-hmm." A smile is pasted on Hunter's face and he flops down in one of the chairs. "Nice outside tonight."

"I bet." Kyle rolls over and tucks his hands under his pillow, closing his eyes against the light.

"You alright?"

Kyle didn't know why Hunter was asking. "Yeah, why?" he mumbles.

"Looked more tired than usual or something, I don't know."

Kyle keeps his eyes shut. "Not feeling so hot."

"Well, if you need something, holler. You know I'll wake up."

Payment

Seeing Gage's foot Phinox looks up at him as his eyes continue to hold there cold tone with the lack of emotions besides anger.

Taking his hand he brings it around to Gage's leg and pushes him backwards rolling the chair away from the desk.

"Your right, but seeing as Rod gave me a job to do, I do have a problem and your keeping me from direct orders."

Opening the door Phinox pushes a bunch of differnt items along with a book he stops to look at for a moment quirking his eye before throwing it aside as well. Finally finding what he was looking for he pulls out an envilope that held money into it.

"Now this, it what I was looking for."

Putting the money and envilops into his pocket before pulling out his gun and going to the door once more before stoping and throwing an almost evil grin at Gage.

"Payment is always a good thing."

Giving a sigh Nate new Reese was right. He needed to be on his A-game before everything went down and lack of sleep would not make that possable.

"Yeah ok, I'll try anyways. Anything new happens let me know please."

Making his way form Reese office Nate lets out a small sigh before heading to the spair room. He was sleeping and his head was starting to hurt.

Opening the door he dosnt notice anyone is in the room till he hears a voice. Looking up quickly Nate stands stuned for a moment seeing Laura leaning into Ryder on the bed. A lump instintly rises in his throat as he can feel his the heat on his face rising.

"Laura, I didnt...relize you were awake...I.."

Knowing he was tired he new maybe he was jumping to conclustions but he couldnt help but still feel a little hurt anyways.

"I'm sorry..I didnt know you were in here."

Turning around again Nate cant help his fists that ball as he trys to keep his temper down. Closing the door he turns and leans again the wall closeing his eyes for a moment. The stress was great, he was tird, and his friend was still gone missing...this no matter what was really going on, was something else that added to the confustion and hurt.

Looking back at Hunter Alice gives a small smile.

"Lord willing I shall see you in the morning."

Giving his hand a returning squize Alice just looks at Hunter for a moment studying his eyes before giving her head a little shake and opening the hotel door. Stopping she Alice turns back to Hunter for a moment.

"I liked getting to know you better, thank you."

Finishing her way into the bedroom Alice gabes her cloths from the bed and heads into the bathroom taking a quick shower and than hoping into bed throwing the covers over her. A read bed felt nice, a real pillow was better, but that wasnt the only reason Alice had a smile tonight. She had made another friend and it felt good.

Something more

Reese takes a deep breath, finally just shrugging lamely. "I don't know if we can trust him or not, Nate. But at this point, he's all we got. If this fails, then all we have left to do is negotiate further with the Agency. They haven't killed Katie yet... we still have something they want... so... we still have a bargaining chip, whether we want to use it or not."

He shakes his head. "Sometimes I think we shouldn't have called in Derek and Jay... but then one, we still might need them, and two, I assume the Agency would have known, had we not called them in."

Looking at Nate's tired eyes, he purses his lips. "Get some rest, Nate... none of us will be any good if we're dead tired when we need to act. Why don't you go rest in the spare room... We'll call you if anything else happens."


Laura sniffs and wipes her nose again with a tissue, leaned back against the wall as she sits on the spare room bed. “I just… I want to be out there, ya know?” She looks down, feeling so weak for having finally crumbled. “I mean… maybe Katie and I weren’t best friends, but… she’s the only girl friend I’ve had that I’ve been able to trust and if anything happens to her…”

“Hey, it’s alright.” Ryder puts an arm around her as he sits next to her, his legs stretched out over the bed. He sets his can of pop aside, giving Laura’s arm a little run. “Katie will be fine. She’s a fighter… I know she’ll make it through this.”

“But what if she doesn’t?”

“She will.” Ryder’s voice grows stern. “We’re all stuck here without being able to do a thing and we’re all tired and frustrated. On a normal case, those of us who didn’t have anything to do would just go home… but this time we’re all wanting the information as soon as it comes in, so we’re hanging around, worrying ourselves sick.”

He sighs. “She’ll come back… we have to believe that.”

Laura sniffs one last time before leaning into Ryder, resting her head on his shoulder. He was warm and comfortable, and she was still exhausted.


Hunter grins as they walk, falling into a light conversation, sharing more about himself, and learning a few more things about Alice too.

By the time the hotel comes back into view, it hardly feels that the time has passed at all. Reaching their floor, Hunter walks Alice to her and Chloe’s room, stopping for just a moment. He gives her hand a little squeeze before letting her go. “Well… I guess this is goodnight.”

As he looked into her eyes, one could tell that there was something more that he was holding back. But he doesn't act on it, simply taking one step back instead. "See you in the morning."


Gage eyes Phinox warily as the desk is browsed through. When Phinox reaches the bottom drawer, he puts his foot out, so his boot blocks it from being opened. He stays in the same position though, lifting an eyebrow. "Last I knew, 'snooping' wasn't on the agenda."

He keeps his arms crossed and cocks his head. "I'm here to keep eyes from looking too deeply, and to make sure our pet downstairs stays where she is. Got a problem with that?"

A new night

Alice cant help the small silly hum that comes from her lips at his last name almost as if tasting something. Turning her head a little she gives a silly grin to Hunter.

"Maxwell, a good name and coffee...yumm yumm.."

Continuing to walk Alice can pick up the tone change in Hunter's voice and a small pit of pain at the mention of his own family. She had always been on good terms with her own so didnt know how it felt but it much suck alot.

Knowing better than going to dig at wounds Alice skims over it and if Hunter wanted to tell her he would.

"Mexican food is good. The spicer the better if you ask me. My dad always said sooner or later my insides were going to set on fire."

Giving a smile back to Hunter as they walk and talk it was nice to know she had another friend she shaired some differnt things in comman with. One best friend was great, but add another friend and it sure did feel good.

"Alright I am on it. Thanks Carson."

Staning from his own desk Nate puts some papers down before making his way to Reese. It felt good to stange once again as his legs were starting to cramp.

Giving a soft tap on Reese door Nate enters, his eyes were a bit tired, but there was no way he could sleep.

"Reese, Carson on the confermation from Phinox over the philm. He said nothing else has happend though."

Giving a sigh Nate searches his boss face before stepping a little closer.

"Are you sure we can trust Phinox on this?"

Shutting the basment door behind him Phinox's expression is cold, and hard. The mask he has put on many times before fitting in with The Agency.

Taking his own seat at a desk he looks up at Gage's comment.

"No actully I'm not, but I will be shortly."

Looking through one of the desk draws Phinox seems to be looking for something but for now he says nothing. He had to keep Gage on edge and unsaspective. He would strike when the time was right but that time was not now, not yet.

"So Gage, what is it you do here?"