A few hours later,

Lani drove their armored Mercedes-Benz. It was a Maybach S560, with the twin turbo V8 and all wheel drive competitive drive train that people who know german automotive engineering already know about. The only thing about this vehicle that was abnormal was the backs of the seats. They had black leather curtains that hid a set of MP7’s and magazine bandoliers for four people.

Lani played music from a playlist consisting of smooth electronica that helped keep her awake for the drive while being calming enough for the long cruise on the autobahn. She smiled the entire ride home, enjoying the car that she was now responsible for.

Michael sat in the front passenger seat, swiping through his social media and browsing pictures of cats. Admiring the various videos of the kittens walking on dogs, being affectionate toward their humans and meowing in their youthful high pitched sounds helped him reach a relaxed state that he hadn’t felt in quite some time.

As Michael browsed his feed full of cats, William glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the series of cats that he scrolled through. “Mister Michael,” William asked nervously.

“Michael is my first name,” he responded, “you don’t put a mister in front of it.” He turned his head a little, waiting to hear what he wanted.

“Michael,” he said, correcting himself, “you really like cats.”

Michael nodded. “Of course, they’re adorable,” he said with a half smile, “and they don’t do the things that humans do to ruin life for others.”

Lani glanced at Michael as they took the exit. “Michael,” she said softly, “you’re smiling again.”

“I wasn’t before?” Michael asked, confused.

“In the hospital,” she said with sadness in her voice, “you fuckin stared at me with no emotion whatsoever.”

Michael blinked and stared at her, one eyebrow managed to narrow itself down as if to show his mild annoyance with what could have been a horrible misunderstanding. “On my end,” he said in a low tone, “I was joyful to see that you had made it, and completed your mission without me being in the way to distract you from accomplishing the task.”

“You set up the tasks,” she said through her teeth, “you made the goal clear, the reasons were clear, you set it all up for me, I just had to work toward a pre-planned thing.”

“You set up defenses of the old house,” Michael replied, “you had escape tunnels and weapons I never knew about, without any help from me. You did a wonderful job.”

Lani took a sharp breath, tried to rebut Michaels statement but she couldn’t. He’s right, she realized painfully, as long as I know the desired end state, I’ve always been able to work toward that point.

After a few moments, they pulled into the driveway and backed the car into the three car garage. Lani shut off the engine and sat still, staring at the steering wheel. John and William opened their doors and waited for word from someone in regard to what they should do. “Go inside,” Michael said as he turned his head to the back of the car, “we gotta have an out of office conversation.”

“Is that how you say that big brother is talking,” John said with a smirk, “rather than the senior agent?”

Lani tilted her head back, eyes up to the ceiling, as she let out a huff. “The senior agent wants to talk to little sister and wants the junior agent and the witness to go in the house.”

John nodded. “Will,” he said softly, “I think they wanna talk and want us to go in the house.”

“But it’s their house,” William said with confusion, “we shouldn’t go in before they do for the first time.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Dude,” John said with annoyance in his voice, “get the fuck out of the car and follow me, the going in the house part might be optional but we don’t need to annoy them. Hurry the fuck up!” William finally got the message and hurried out of the car, shutting the door and walking to the trunk. John guided him to the back door of the garage and gestured him closer. “Will, they been through some shit,” John proceeded to explain. “They’re Crystal twins like you and your ex were. She’s got this guardian angel complex for him and she watched him get shot, blown up and had a ceiling dropped on him.”

“That’s horrible,” William said softly, his eyes watering slightly, “is there anything we can do?”

While John and William talked quietly in the back of the garage, Lani placed her hands on Michaels face. She let her fingers glide over the skin very gently, watching him closely for any kind of reaction to the touch. “Can you feel what I’m doing,” she asked him as she pressed her fingernail into his skin firmly.

“A little bit,” Michael answered calmly, “it feels like it should hurt a bunch more but they punched me with brass knuckles to tell me that I’m superhuman.” He chuckled a little, then took her hand and held it. “What happened in Pripyat?”

“What happened in hell?” Lani retorted with no hesitation. She waited barely a moment for Michael to respond, but grew impatient. “I watched her not die, I was helpless to protect you, the one thing I’m meant to do, and then you get crushed in a building and I go kill them and I borrowed your gun. I wanna know what happened to you, how that girl goes from being an unstoppable unfeeling bitch that we can’t stand against, to this helpless blubbering thing that can barely think.”

“That was a combination of a few things,” Michael answered in a low tone, “between you shooting the gate openers in their faces, me smashing myself in the face with a ballistic plate-”

“You smashed yourself,” she repeated back to him, “with your plate? Do you understand how that sounds to me?”

“It was a manifestation of hatred,” he answered, “I had to walk a corridor of people I had killed and it was a lot. Not everyone I killed was physically fighting.”

“Not fighting?” Lani giggled, “I’ve tied men to chairs and set them on fire, I hung a guy upside down and burned him from inside in Pripyat after I evacuated you.”

“In Venezuela,” Michael said blinking away a near expression of sorrow, “I was escorting some spec ops guys and a guy whose kid got hurt and treated by one of the medics we had, this piece of shit called the army on us as we were leaving. I went back and silenced him for it.”

“He wasn’t innocent,” Lani said with a glare, “what’s to feel bad about, it’s not like you offed his wife in front of him.” She watched as Michael just stared blankly back at her. “You didn’t, right?” Michael continued to stare. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

Michael tilted his head down. “She was screaming,” he said softly, “it couldn’t look like a soldier had gone back to get revenge. I made it look like a cartel hit.”

“How?” Lani asked with shock, “you always stand for doing what’s right, you despise those who hurt bystanders.”

“This was so long ago,” he said as his voice cracked, “I’ve kept it repressed for so long, but it haunts me like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Probably why you can’t sleep comfortably,” Lani said as she placed both hands on the sides of his face, rubbing her thumbs against his temples. Michael recognized this sensation from last time she had done this, when he was injured and laying on the floor. “Shh,” Lani whispered as she felt him try without success to tense up and resist.

“No,” Michael whispered before passing out gently in her hands.

“I’m gonna protect you always,” Lani whispered, “even if it’s from your own pain.” She leaned Michael over and held him close. “This world needs you, and you’ve done so much to better it, by removing cancers and evils from it. You’ve made mistakes but nobody’s perfect.”

Meanwhile, William hid his face as he tried to pretend that he didn't see what was going on in the car during his conversation with John. “She’s so gentle with him,” he said in a whisper, “my twin was never that way.”

“Your ex was a piece of shit,” John said as he rolled his eyes, “that stupid motherfucker didn’t deserve you.”

Will began to smile. “That’s the nicest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Not gay,” John said quietly, “just putting that out there.”

“Of course not,” William said with a soft giggle, “you prefer them female, asian, strong and smart.” Before John could react, William smirked. “I can feel when peoples heartbeats change, and yours beats harder when you focus on her.”

“She’s a senior agent,” John said whispering through his teeth, “my boss's little sister is off limits, guy!” As he said this, Lani stepped out of the car. John looked her way and without conscious thought, he found himself looking at something that wasn’t her eyes. Her well supported C cup that was hugged well by her shirt stood out to him very clearly. He blinked a little bit before turning his eyes back up to her face. “Everything good?” he asked nervously.

“Yeah,” she said calmly, “lets go inside and get you to your rooms.”

“Gotcha,” John said as he walked into the house. Son of a bitch, he realized, I’m attracted.