Alexia began a jog once she made it into the woods and quickly saw Scott in the distance. He was sitting under a pine tree with a detached stare on his face. She knew this was going to be hard, as hard as anything she had done. There was so much anger, confusion, and betrayal that still swirled around her. She wanted desperately to get over this man, but she just couldn't. She tried. It's not like she wanted to be emotionally stuck on him. She knew this baggage needed to be set aside, for now. There was too much was at stake to let that jeopardize success.

"Hey." She said as she approached Scott on the ground that seemed to be pushed down by the considerable weight on his shoulders.

"Hey."

"You mind if I sit down." Alexia pointed to the patch of ground across from Scott.

"Go for it," Scott replied, and Alexia crouched down and sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. For some reason, Scott's mind immediately screamed 'criss-cross applesauce' from his grade school days. He fought to hold back a chuckle, but Alexia could see a light flicker in his eyes, and she knew he had one of his stupid thoughts. She used to find them adorable; who knows, maybe she still did, deep down inside.

"Look. I'm sorry for snapping back there. You know how things are with my dad, and I just cannot let anything happen to him. He depends on me, you know?" Alexia brushed her golden blonde hair back behind her ear and took a deep breath to remain calm. She had so much emotion bottled inside her that she had no way to know if tears would roll or punches would fly. Her mind thought of a meditation guru she once heard on the radio that claimed you only needed one word to repeat to yourself to bring peace and tranquility. The theory was that you had a particular word you chose and it centered and calmed you. The word could be anything; it could be pickles, and then when you felt anger or sadness, you say this word repeatedly. Pickles, Pickles, Pickles, Pickles. She quickly realized that pickles was a stupid word to use for this purpose, but she had to admit the emotional roller coaster inside her was now parking in the passenger loading zone. It currently wasn’t zipping up and down the hills and flying around the wild curves, but it sure was prepared to take off again at a moment’s notice

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"I know we have our issues, Scott. That is for another day. We both need to succeed here for our own reasons. The only way we can pull this off is we get on the same page. So how about we squash the beef for now." Alexia rocked forward in her sitting position and extended her hand to Scott. Scott shook it and smiled.

“You know, I think I may have a plan. Let’s head back and run it by everyone.” Scott rose to his feet and started to offer Alexia a hand to help her up, but she was already in the process of popping up as if she was in the middle of some burpee reps. Sometimes it was easy to forget just how athletic Alexia was. Not that burpees are the mark of a super athlete, but who stands up from a sitting position on the ground that way?

“Let’s roll,” Alexia responded as she brushed the dirt off the back of her pants, and they headed back to camp.

“You know if Vanessa brought our old bag of tricks?” Scott was referring to supplies that Vanessa always brought for jobs. It ranged from tools to break alarms, locks to disguises and props. Vanessa was usually the person involved in the con portions of jobs and ensured the tools were all there for everyone.

“Of course, when have you ever know Vanessa to be unprepared for a job?” Alexia questioned. Scott may have been the de facto leader, the guy with the plan, but Vanessa was truly the glue that held them together. You could always count on her to have whatever tools were needed for the job, and despite her sarcastic personality with her friends, when it came to a con, boy, that girl could talk. The fact was she could walk through walls was the icing on the cake for her being team MVP.

“I should have known there was no need to ask.” The wheels in Scott’s head were turning with a plan, he wasn’t sure it was the best plan, but he felt comfortable that they could execute it and get some favorable results. His mood was getting better by the minute; a good plan always put him in high spirits.