Second Chance Addison

"No." Fait made her stance abundantly clear.

"It isn't forever. He'll just stay until we can make other arrangements." Chance didn't see what the problem was.

Now that the meeting with the mystery man had ended, they needed to figure out what to do with Tucker. Chance offered up one of his spare rooms and Fait immediately disagreed.

She did not trust Tucker at all and thought it was too much of a risk.

"He can stay with Mr. Flynn." She suggested.

"Um, Miss Foster, I don't live alone. If I bring work home with me, my sister... she might kick me out."

Nevada was already unhappy with him for getting her involved with Charlie. Even though she was slowly coming around, he didn't want to irritate her even more.

Fait frowned and tried to come up with an alternative. Lola's place was out of the question, as was Roy's. Since he had to 'meet' with Chance soon, they couldn't send him to be with his wife.

Tucker sat awkwardly in his seat and played with his fingers. He didn't much care what they did with him, as long as he was safe.

Chance turned to Tucker and asked, "You have given up on trying to hurt me right?"

"Uh, yes. Although I never really wanted to-"

"And you aren't going to try to kill me?"

"That is correct."

"Then it's settled, you'll stay with me."

"..." No one, except for Chance, thought that this was a good idea. But, lacking any other options, they couldn't continue to argue.

A short while later, they arrived at Chance's apartment building. As he and Tucker left, Chance said something in a low voice so only Fait could hear it. Then, he grabbed Tucker's arm and nearly sprinted to the elevator.

Fait's ears turned red and she frowned lightly. Poor Lola and Koty could only watch and wonder. Neither was brave enough to ask what had been said.

...

Fait stepped into her apartment and went through the usual security checks. Seeing nothing was out of place, she relaxed and went into her bedroom to change out of her work clothes.

As she stepped into her room she suddenly remembered what her annoying boss had said when he left.

"Don't worry, he won't sleep in your room." Chance had whispered this and then fled.

"What does he mean by 'your room?' It's just a guest room. Why would I care?" She questioned aloud as she rifled through her clothes.

Did he think she was jealous? Why should she care about who was staying at his apartment? It was a safety issue, okay! It had nothing to do with 'her' room or whatever.

She grumbled about the situation as she changed and then went to her kitchen to prepare a snack.

"If he wants to risk his life, that's fine by me. I get everything if something goes wrong anyway." Fait could only sigh in frustration.

The last thing she wanted was control. She didn't mind being behind the scenes, but being front and center would be dangerous. Especially if her background was found out...

Nope, it was definitely safer to let Chance handle things.

She would have to trust his judgement of Tucker for now. Plus, she was pretty sure Chance could take Tucker down in a fight. If not...

"Don't let me down, Addison," she sighed again and was about to let it go when her phone started to buzz.

She picked it up and saw she had a new message from Chance. It was actually a picture message.

She opened it up to see the doors to his two guest bedrooms.

'Her' room door was closed and the other was open with the light on. Tucker was sitting on the bed in the open room, facing away from the camera. Evidently he was unaware that his picture had been taken.

The text with the picture read [As promised.]

Before her brain could catch up and understand what he had sent her, another message arrived.

It simply said [Goodnight.]

Fait rolled her eyes and tossed her phone on the counter. What was he sending this for?

Looking over to where it had landed, her lips couldn't help but curl up into a slight smile.

...

Chance looked down at his phone and smiled. He had taken that photo earlier, as he got his new roommate settled in.

Now that he too was ready to turn in for the night, he sent it to Fait as a follow up to earlier.

After all the heavy and scary things that had happened in the last twenty-four hours or so, he thought it would be fun to tease her, just a little, to lighten the mood.

He wished he hadn't had to run off after whispering to her. He was absolutely sure that her ears had turned red.

Unfortunately he didn't get to see it. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'there's always next time.'