Zoe was lying in bed on her side, staring at the wall. She rolled over and found herself facing Effie, who smiled at her before kissing the tip of her nose. Zoe blushed and tried not to laugh. Effie pulled Zoe's head closer to hers and held her close, kissing the top of her head, and Zoe relaxed into her chest, feeling peace for the first time in what felt like weeks.

"You doing anything today?" Effie asked.

"Allie wants to have lunch, and we might practice something, but otherwise not really," Zoe said, "you?"

"I have a set sometime tonight, but that's about it," Effie said.

Zoe nodded. She didn't know why Allie wanted to have lunch, but lunch was better than their last few meetings, so she was trying to take it in stride. After a while, the girls got up, took showers, got dressed and Effie drove Zoe over to the place Allie had said to meet at before heading over to the casino herself. Allie was already there, in jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair messily pulled back into a ponytail. Zoe approached the table and seated herself.

"I already ordered, I hope you don't mind," Allie said as she took a bite from her sandwich.

"Not at all. I've never understood the weird societal condition that you have to wait for your entire party to show up to eat. Why are we forcing people to starve themselves?" Zoe asked, and Allie nodded in agreement.

"Well," Allie said, chewing and putting the sandwich back down on the plate, "Get whatever you want, it's on me."

"How generous of you."

"You know me, I love to give."

Zoe smirked, which made Allie smile. It was nice to finally be able to put everything behind them and go back to just being professional partners and friends once again. These past few weeks had been terrifying and nerve wracking, somehow simultaneously, and both women were so happy to finally be over it all. Sunny's body was gone, Jenny wasn't squealing, Claire wouldn't say a word and overall, it seemed like it had all blown over. Whatever evidence might've existed was no longer existing, and they finally felt safe.

Zoe ordered an iced tea and a large breakfast plate before looking back across the table at Allie.

"So," Allie said, "...I think I'm gonna leave town."

"Going on vacation?"

"...no, I mean leave leave," Allie said softly, wiping her mouth with her napkin, surprising Zoe with this admittance as she added, "Vegas has been terrible for me. I mean, at the start it was great, but after the accident on stage with Domino, yeah. I can't recover in a place that continually encourages me to be the worst version of myself."

"Where are you gonna go?" Zoe asked.

"I don't know. I thought I might move back home at first. I need to talk to Nick about it, maybe I could convince him to go somewhere with me. After all, with his credentials, he's certified to work as a hospice nurse anywhere, so," Allie said, cupping her hands on the table and sighing, "...I just wanted to say that I'm really really sorry about everything. I didn't wanna just up and leave without telling you what you've meant to me. You've been the best friend I've ever had, and I'm so sorry I got you dragged into this nightmare. I thought I was doing the right thing, at least in the moment, but...in hindsight there must've been a better way to go about it."

"You couldn't have known what it would've led to, you had no way of knowing who his family was," Zoe said softly as the waitress set down her iced tea. She picked it up and sipped as Allie kept talking.

"This is true, but that doesn't make what I did right," Allie said, "and now I've done even worse. Stealing evidence, accidental near manslaughter, like...it's this place. Vegas is built on debauchery, and no matter how much they may try and clean that up, that's a stink that won't wash off. You can't erase your past. All you can do is try and make a cleaner future. That's what I wanna do. I wanna leave and make a cleaner future."

"...but...my work is entirely dependent on your person," Zoe said.

"I think you're talented enough to go it alone, quite frankly. If anything, I'm holding you back," Allie said, smiling warmly, "you're the most talented person I've ever worked with, outside my cousin, and I think you're perfectly capable of outright replacing me, not assisting me."

Zoe wanted to cry. Nobody had ever spoken this way to her before about her attempts at magic. She'd been doing it for so long, but her parents, her friends back home, nobody...they'd never once said a kind or encouraging word about what she was able to do. But now she'd not only gotten to work with her childhood hero, but also be praised by her, and told she was better than her. What more could a girl really ask for?

"...I understand if you need to leave," Zoe said, "I don't wanna stop your attempts at recovery."

"It's just a thought, at the moment, nothing concrete yet. Besides, I promised Molly I'd help her with something first. But I wanted you to be the first to know," Allie said, "so here's to a brighter, less convoluted future."

Allie raised her coffee cup, Zoe raised her iced tea glass, and they clinked the two together.

"To the future," Zoe repeated, smiling.

                                                                           ***

Jenny lay in her hospital bed as her doctor sat beside it on a stool, sifting through the pictures she'd given him. He licked his lips and furrowed his brow in confusion. He finally took a long sigh and put the pictures down on his lap before looking at her gauze covered face.

"You're sure this is what you want?" he asked.

"Positive," she said.

"Because with this kind of surgery, I can make you look like anyone. A lot of people don't go back to their old faces, if anything they see it as a way to become a whole new person, and you didn't even do this willingly, so think of it as a freebie. Some choose celebrities, some choose their parents, some choose a girl they admired in high school. But you want this?" he asked, holding the photos up and waving them slightly.

"...yes," Jenny said, "I want that. I know it must seem weird, but that's what I want."

The doctor shrugged and handed the photos back to her.

"If it's what you want, then that's what we'll do," he said, smiling, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I'm here to help you, not belittle you for your decisions. Other doctors might, but not me. I just want you to be absolutely certain, that's all. If you ever wanna change it again, you're gonna have to pay for it yourself as it'll be considered elective surgery that time around. I'll be back with some paperwork in a few minutes."

The doctor turned and exited the room, leaving Jenny by herself. She picked up the photos and looked at them, smiling. A nurse entered with Jenny's lunch and set it down on a small wheeled table beside the bed before looking at the photos Jenny had.

"Well she's pretty," the nurse said, "...I know her, that's that woman from TV, she's a magician here."

Jenny smirked and nodded, adding, "Yeah. That's gonna be my new face."

                                                                         ***

Molly was sitting at her draft table, trying to come up with some plans for the vault when Allie entered the room. She sat down on a chair in the corner and pushed her cane against the wall before clearing her throat. Molly waved over her shoulder at her and Allie just shrugged.

"...I don't know that I can do this," Molly said through her gritted teeth, "this is so goddamned frustrating. I can't do something that requires such...such...slipshod work. I'm a professional."

"All you gotta do is make it so someone else besides him has access to it. He trusts you. He doesn't know we're friends," Allie said, "If we create a backdoor access, we can turn that over to anyone who might come after us again as evidence that he's at the top of the food chain. If Tony's the one they're actually after, then we'll be able to hand him right over and secure our freedom."

Molly turned around in her chair and looked at Allie, putting her pencil behind her ear.

"But nobody's been following you since you crashed your car, right? You haven't had any feelings of being watched or tracked or whatever, right? So what makes you think they're gonna even come after us again?" Molly asked, and Allie shrugged, picking up an architecture book from a nearby table and thumbing through it.

"It's a precaution, Moll, that's all. A 'get out of jail free' card if you will. I just wanna always be one step ahead," Allie said.

Molly nodded, then turned back to her table and continued looking over her drafts. She chewed on her lip and tossed her curly bangs from her face before groaning and putting her face down onto the drafting table in exasperation.

"Everything okay champ?" Allie asked, not even looking up from the book.

"I wanna die," Molly said muffled.

"In due time," Allie said, which, sick as it was, made Molly laugh.

                                                                              ***

Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper were in Tropper's house. Siskel was getting her gun loaded and strapped into her belt, before pulling her jacket over it. Tropper entered with his wife right behind him, who waved politely at Siskel. Siskel had never spent much time around Tropper's wife, but she seemed like a pleasant woman, and she loved her husband to death and back.

"How do I look?" Tropper asked.

"Oooh, like a man about to take down a hardened criminal," Siskel said, leaning back on the couch and grinning, "Give us a twirl."

Tropper laughed and did a little spin, making both Siskel and his wife laugh. He then pulled his gun from his holster and made sure it was loaded before putting it back in and looking at his wife, Robin. He approached he as he tossed the car keys to Siskel so she could get the car warmed up. As Siskel exited, Tropper put his hands on his wifes hips and kissed her.

"I love you," he said, "I'll be back in a little bit, and I'll bring dinner, okay? I know you always tense up when I go out to do these sorts of things, but don't worry. This woman isn't a threat. She's slippery, but she's nothing compared to Siskel and myself. Besides, she's got my back. She'll ensure I come home."

"After this is over, we should take a vacation," Robin said, "I wanna go somewhere that's not Vegas."

"How about Reno?" Tropper asked, chuckling at her disapproving smirk as he added, "What, it's not Vegas."

He kissed her again before adjusting his holster and then heading for the door. Robin watched her husband climb into the car with Siskel, who was driving. She leaned against the door and waved, as the agents waved back, and then pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road to finish the job. Robin was nervous, but she tried to relax. After all, after tonight her husband would be done with the case, and be a hero. And she knew Siskel would make sure he came home.

Siskel was nothing if adamant on keeping her promises.

"You sure you're ready for this?" Siskel asked.

"Are you?" Tropper asked, "I mean, shit, we've been dealing with this case for weeks now, over a month even, and you don't seem all the least bit excited to be finished. You're finally gonna back her into a corner and close it out."

"It'll be rewarding when it's over," Siskel said, taking a long deep breath before adding, "but it ain't over til it's over."

                                                                            ***

Allie was heading up to her penthouse when the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Tony stepping inside. Allie smiled at him, and he smiled and nodded at her before hitting his offices floor on the panel. Allie cleared her throat and leaned in.

"I never really got to congratulate you on your new places success," Allie said, "A shame what's happened, but you still deserve the congrats nonetheless."

"I appreciate that," Tony said, chuckling, "Yeah, it's been a shitshow. I'm starting to regret ever building a second place. But that's part of owning a business, I guess. The trouble that comes with it. Even if it's trouble from someone else. I just can't imagine who would bury a person like that."

"It was pretty sick," Allie said, "I saw it on the news and it made me retch."

"I just want you to know I'm proud of you," Tony said, surprising Allie completely as he rubbed his nose and nodded, continuing, "you got sober, you've mostly stayed sober, and you haven't made a big fuss about working with this girl and in fact you seem to like her now even, and I just wanna say how great it's been to watch you do that turn around. You were real young when we met, and after learning about your family and stuff, I don't know, I guess I always sort of felt like a father figure to you."

Tony shrugged, and Allie felt the pit of her stomach groan.

"Anyway," he continued, "I just wanted to say that. It's been great seeing you get sober, get back to being successful. You're a great magician, Allie, and a great person, and I'm proud of you. We should get together soon. I'm having a BBQ for my birthday in a few weeks, so you should come and attend. I'd love to have you there, as part of the family, not as a worker."

Allie wanted to cry. Tony smiled and patted her on the shoulder before the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. He walked out, said goodnight and headed down the hall to his office. Allie leaned against the elevator wall as it continued its ascension towards her penthouse suite. She looked at the head of her cane, which had been outfitted with a fake crystal ball and she saw her reflection.

"aw hell," she whispered.

                                                                             ***

Siskel and Tropper stood in the hallway, waiting, listening. Siskel looked at Tropper and nodded, and Tropper pulled his gun. Siskel pulled hers and together they approached the door with caution. Tropper took a long deep sigh, then pushed his shoulder against the door and forced it open.

"Federal ag-" he began, before the first shot went off and he stumbled back against the wall and immediately crawled to hide behind the bar near the kitchenette. Siskel screamed a little, completely surprised that they'd been expected, but she quickly joined him. Kneeling down and looking at him, he grimaced but nodded at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, sounding worried.

"I'm fine, it's in the shoulder, it's fine," he said.

"Nicole Sykes!" Siskel shouted, peeking out over the bartop before more shots came and she quickly retreated, "Nicole, we just wanna talk with you!"

"Nobody comes in guns blazing just to talk!" Nicole shouted back, "I know why you're here! He sent you didn't he?!"

Siskel and Tropper exchanged a curious glance.

"Who?" Tropper asked, "Who sent us?"

Silence.

Agent Siskel stood up and put her gun down on the countertop of the bar, seeing Nicole standing by the window in a sleek, form fitting black dress, her hair a mess, her makeup running, a gun in one hand and a bottle of gin in the other. She looked like the worst kind of a rich party girl. Agent Siskel put her hands up and stepped away from the bar.

"I'm not armed, okay? I'm not here to hurt you," she said slowly and surely, "you have nothing to worry about. We're not here on the orders of anyone, but of our own reasons. Why don't you tell me who it is you think sent us for you?"

"...my father," Nicole whispered, tears running down her face, now stained with eye makeup, "he sent you to kill me, or take me in. I'm the fall guy, aren't I? I knew he would. I knew he would, the bastard!"

She raised her gun and Agent Siskel stopped in her tracks but Nicole just fired into the couch a few feet away and screamed more. Agent Siskel continued approaching, cautiously.

"We don't even know your father," Siskel said, "but maybe we could help eachother out. We're looking into your stepbrothers death, yeah? Remember we came and met you before? If you think your father has something to do with it, which we suspect, then we're more than willing to cut a deal."

Nicole leaned against the glass door to the balcony and sobbed, sliding down it until she hit the floor.

"...there's no deal, you don't get it," she whispered, "he'll make sure I never see the outside of a prison again. He'll do anything to ensure his own freedom. He'll kill you too...."

She lowered the gun and took a long swig from the alcohol bottle as Siskel turned and headed back to Tropper. She pulled her cell phone out and dialed the office, lifting the phone to her ear.

"This is Agent Rebecca Siskel, my partner's been shot, a minor wound, but we need an ambulance here immediately," she said, before giving them the address.

"Agent," Nicole said, and Siskel turned back to face Nicole as she said, "...in my office, there's a locked drawer. The key is in the pinstripe suit in my closet in my bedroom. Inside the drawer are all the financial records that I've doctored to hide his money, to alleviate him of guilt. It's all there in black and white. But..." she wiped her nose on her arm and sniffled, "but it won't be enough, because he isn't at the top, you won't take him down by just taking him in, you need both."

"Both what?" Siskel asked.

"...both parties involved. Him and the casino owners. Specifically Ephram, Tony Ephram," Nicole said, "he's the biggest benefactor and, as a result, gets the largest tax cut. He's the one you're gonna need to bring in too, otherwise you won't have much. My father is so powerful, and he's got such great lawyers. You need to turn them on one another. But getting to Tony won't be easy. You'll need to gain his trust. You need someone close to him."

Siskel furrowed her brow as Nicole looked at the gun in her hand and took a long breath before lifting the gin bottle to her lips and taking the longest sip Siskel had ever seen someone take of straight gin.

"...there's a woman on TV, in commercials for his casino," Nicole said, "She's a magician."

"Allie Meers, yes. She works at his casino, she's been there forever apparently," Siskel said, "Why are...why are you telling me this?"

"...because," Nicole said, "he's not gonna let me go, but if I'm gonna go down, I wanna see him go down too. You're gonna need to get to Tony to turn him against my father, and to do that...you're gonna need Allie Meers."

Siskel and Tropped looked at one another before looking back at Nicole.

"You're gonna need Allie Meers," Nicole repeated before putting the gun to her head and pulling the trigger, her brains exploding out onto the fiberglass balcony doors behind her, shocking both Tropper and Siskel. Siskel stood up and raced over to Nicole, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her, as if it would do any good. Her eyes were already rolled back, her jaw slack, she was gone. She'd been gone the second the trigger had been pulled. Siskel screamed and stood up, kicking the shit out of a nearby table. Tropper watched in absolute disbelief at what he'd just witnessed. Siskel dropped to her knees and screamed, pulling at her hair.

Nicole's body slid down the door to the side and collapsed on the floor entirely, her hand still gripping the gun tightly. In one swift second, she'd both given them everything they'd need to beat this case, and taken away their main source. Everytime, Siskel thought, every single fucking time it seemed like she had it on lockdown, she somehow had another new wrench thrown into the mix that only further complicated things. Outside the sound of the ambulance approached and the lights filled the room even from down on the street. Siskel leaned against the couch on the floor, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. Nicole was right, she knew. Not about her father, or about driving a wedge between Tony and her father, but about what they'd need. They could have all the papers and evidence in the world, but there was one thing they needed above all else...

...the Astounding Allie.

"You got everything?" Nick asked as he entered the hospital room. Allie, using a cane, was standing by the bed, zipping up her bag and nodding. Nick walked across the room to the bed and picked the bag up by its handles and then looked surprised at its weight.

"What?" Allie asked.

"You were only in here for a week, why's this weigh like a ton of bowling balls?" he asked.

"I stole stuff," she replied, shrugging, "I didn't come in with anything, remember? Everything that's in that bag is stuff I stole from this hospital. Towels, tongue depressors, gauze, you name it and I shoved it in that bag. Except my tooth brush."

"Please tell me your toothbrush isn't touching hospital gauze," Nick murmured.

"Of course not," Allie replied, scoffing, "What kind of goblin do you take me for? It's surrounded by cute fish bandaids for children."

"You are disgusting," Nick said, laughing as he left the room. Allie, chuckling to herself, turned and pulled the curtain back from around Jenny's bedside. She then pulled a rolling stool over to the bed and sat down beside her on it. Jenny looked over at her, best she could, her face still essentially covered.

"I'll be back, okay?" she asked, "And if I don't come back, then tell everyone you're a mummy who cursed me. They'll buy that, look at how you're wrapped."

Jenny tried to smile, but it hurt.

"When's your surgery?" Allie asked.

"In a few days," Jenny said, "hopefully they don't make me look any worse than I already do."

"I don't see how that's possible," Allie replied, "right now you look like raw hamburger. The best outcome is you look like a nice steak."

"Please stop comparing me to meat," Jenny said, "I don't appreciate being objectified like this."

Allie laughed, as Nick re-entered the room. He stood in the doorframe and waited, watching. Allie looked over her shoulder at him and knew she couldn't wait too much longer, so she turned back to face Jenny, patted her hands and smiled.

"I'll come for your surgery, okay? I'll be here when you get out," she said softly.

As Allie stood up and left, Jenny watched the two of them and thought to herself why she was still defending someone who had put her in this hospital bed. Sure, it'd been accidental, but...it still had happened. Why was she so very desperate for the attention of a woman not interested in her, and who had done so many awful things to her? Jenny looked away from the door as it shut behind them, and sighed. She'd worry about all this later. Right now she needed to focus on getting her strength back for upcoming surgery. In about a week, she was going to have a brand new face.

And one that nobody would see coming.

                                                                          ***

"Mr. Ephram's expecting you," a woman said to Molly, who was waiting in the hall. She put her book down and headed inside Tony's office. He was on the phone when she entered, but he didn't shoo her away. Instead he merely waved at her politely, grinning, then motioned for her to take a seat, which she did while he wrapped up his phone call.

"Yeah, well, let me know what comes of it," he said, "either way I'm working on something, and if this works out, we can fix this problem together. Alright, thanks for calling. Bye."

Tony hung up and turned his attention to Molly.

"So," he said, cupping his hands and leaning in on his desk, "I never really thanked you for the work you did on my new casino. It's beautiful. Sure, it...uh...has had its share of unwanted attention now, but ya know. That's Vegas."

Molly managed to push out a small, seemingly unforced laugh, but inside she was nervous.

"Anyway, you're an architect, I mean clearly, but I looked into your background. You're, like, a well established architect. You went to a good school, you've designed a lot of famous places here in town, always come critically acclaimed and highly recommended. I like your work on my casino so much I think I have another job for you."

"...really?" Molly asked, "...to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why you wanted to see me to begin with."

"I know, I probably should have done this over the phone to lessen the tension but, hey, I prefer face to face," Tony said, lighting a cigar and taking a few puffs, "you don't mind if I smoke do you?"

"Not at all."

"Would you like one?"

"...okay."

Tony smirked, then lit up a cigar for Molly and handed it across the desk to her. As she started puffing on it, he stood up and walked over to the large window behind his desk, looking out at the cityscape below. A few minutes went by of silence, and finally he exhaled and spoke again.

"You ever build a vault, Miss Hatchet?" Tony asked, "I know it's probably not technically architecture considering it isn't an entire building, but you ever done something like that? Design a vault? You know, like...like what they use at banks and stuff?"

"...uh..."

"The reason I ask is because I'm looking for a way to store something," Tony said, "...can you keep a secret?"

Molly hesitated, then nodded nervously. After all, wasn't she already keeping a dozen secrets? What could one more hurt?

                                                                         ***

Zoe was sitting at Molly's kitchen table while Effie served her breakfast, and then took a seat across from her, the both of them digging in. When Molly had left that morning, Zoe called Effie up and asked her to come over, and when Effie subsequently offered to cook an enormous breakfast platter, Zoe wasn't going to say no to that. Zoe took a sip of her coffee and sighed, looking at Effie scooping scrambled eggs onto a fork and eating them.

"I don't deserve any of this," Zoe said, "this cute rom com bullshit."

"I don't think your girlfriend cooking you breakfast counts as a rom com, but alright," Effie said, chuckling.

"It's been a terrible few weeks, hell, it's been a terrible few days," Zoe said, "so I appreciate it either way."

Effie blew her a kiss, making Zoe blush. For so long, this was all Zoe really wanted. Just a nice quiet home, a girl to cook for her, and to do magic with her idol. She'd sort of gotten all that, but with a giant caveat attached. Zoe wanted to tell Effie everything about what she'd been through, but she knew she couldn't. Effie couldn't get involved. She didn't deserve that. If Allie's entire argument was that she did what she did to protect Zoe, then Zoe was doing the same for Effie. Zoe started sniffling, and then full on crying, causing Effie to stand up and come around the table, sitting beside her, kissing the side of her head and rubbing her back.

"Hey it's alright," Effie whispered, "you're alright. I know things have been fucked lately. Allie putting herself in the hospital has to hurt."

Zoe started wailing and collapsed against Effie's shirt. Effie sighed and just held her, consoling her. She hated seeing what Allie was doing to this girl, but she was in a strange place. On one hand, she and Allie had a long time personal and professional relationship that she didn't want to damage, but on the other hand, she was now romantically involved with a woman Allie was - likely unintentionally - hurting, and that didn't sit well with her either. It seemed like there was no good way out of this situation.

"Move in with me," Effie said, surprising her.

"w...what?"

"Yeah, you don't wanna go back to your sisters, you don't wanna see your family, you can't stay with Molly forever-"

"Yes I can, she said she likes having a pet."

"That's not a compliment, sweetheart," Effie said, laughing loudly, "come move in with me. We'll make it work. It'll be our home together. You don't have to live through the goodwill of friends. Live through the goodwill of your partner."

Zoe smirked, which made Effie smile, who then took Zoe's face in her hands gently and pressed her lips against Zoe's. Zoe could never resist the taste of Effie, and her knees buckled even though she was sitting down. How could she say no to this sort of thing?

"Will you make me breakfast every day?" Zoe asked.

"Get off my back, woman," Effie said, the both of them laughing now before kissing again.

                                                                              ***

Allie pushed open the door to her penthouse, with Nick in tow behind her. He dropped the bags when he entered and stretched, cracking his back. Allie sighed and looked around at her home, and shook her head. God...she didn't realize how much she missed her place when she wasn't capable of being in it. She turned back to face Nick, who was still adjusting his spine. Allie looked down at the handle of her cane and thought to her "accident". She sighed and looked back up.

"Did you put me in Jenny's room on purpose?" she asked bluntly.

"Well, I figured you'd wanna be with her," Nick said, "Considering what'd happened. But that doesn't mean that what happened can happen again, okay? You've worked too hard to get clean to backpeddle now."

What? Allie was confused. She thought Nick knew she'd purposefully done what she'd done, but...oh no. It finally hit her. Nick thought she had genuinely tried to hurt herself. She fidgeted uncomfortably and chewed her lip as he walked to the minifridge and grabbed a soda, popped the top and took a long swig before leaning against the wall and looking at her again.

"Seriously, Allie, I'm here," he said, "I was angry, but...I don't know, I'm sorry. I'm not saying I don't have the right to be angry, but I also don't want you to hurt yourself. I didn't think you'd be so upset that you'd try to-"

"ohmygod," Allie muttered under her breath, unable to believe what she was hearing, even though she'd now missed a good portion of his statement. She zoned back in for the last of it though.

"-but we can work on it together, okay? I still love you. I don't wanna see you get worse again," Nick said, approaching her, setting his soda down as he got closer and putting his hands on her hips and lifting her up onto the back of the couch and kissing her neck, whispering, "I don't wanna see you get worse again. God you smell good."

"I do?"

"Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've become attracted to the smells of the hospital. I do spend a lot of time there," Nick said.

"Weirdo," Allie said, making him chuckle as he kept kissing her neck and she ran her hands through his hair, moaning lightly. How could she say no to this? All she wanted was Nick, and she had gotten him back by getting sober. She certainly wasn't going to lose him again now, not because of Jenny, and not because of her half hearted attempt to get into the hospital to see her. So she figured she'd let Nick believe whatever he wanted, because it gave her the upper hand. But this made Allie wonder...was she really as bad a person as he had said? Was she, in fact, poison?

"I know I just spent a week in bed, but take me there anyway," she whispered, giggling, and Nick nodded, picking her up and carrying her across the suite.

"With pleasure," he said, kissing her.

When Allie woke up, it was later that night, and she stretched and rolled onto her side, cuddling up to Nick, who pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. She smiled and closed her eyes, snuggling up into him when she noticed the flashing lights outside. Sudden dread and fear filled her. Anxiety came rushing in. This was it. This was the last nice moment. They'd finally come for her. Allie stumbled out of bed and fell to the floor, before pulling herself back up, her hip screaming at her. She grabbed her cane and hobbled her way to the window and looked out cautiously.

"What's going on?" Nick asked, sitting up now, before standing and joining her, "...the fuck? What's with all the cops?"

Allie turned and began to sweat as she walked away from the window. She panicked. She had to tell Nick everything. Right now. The truth. The entire unvarnished truth. She turned and looked at Nick, who was still looking out the window.

"I did something bad," Allie mumbled, and Nick cocked his head, pulling the window open and leaning out, looking upwards above them, but Allie didn't notice and she said, "Nick, I said I did something really bad, and I-"

"Holy shit it's Molly," Nick said, and that caught Allie's attention. Allie rushed to join him at the window and looked out, noticing Molly was on the roof of the suites, standing on a window ledge. Allie's breath caught in her chest. She quickly pulled on some pants best she could and a tank top and, with her cane, rushed outside of her suite and up the stairs towards the room Molly was near. Allie bumbled through the door and then looked around the suite, trying to find the right window, until she finally saw a window open in the suite in the bedroom and approached it. Allie leaned out and noticed Molly standing there, overlooking the city below.

"Yo, what the fuck," Allie said loudly, getting Molly's attention.

"What are you doing here?" Molly asked.

"I live right below this suite!" Allie said, "What are you doing, Molly?"

"...I'm gonna jump," Molly whispered, her voice wavy and broken, "I'm gonna jump and remove myself from all this."

"The fuck you're not," Allie said, climbing through the window, before remembering that perhaps being on a ledge when using a cane was likely not a god idea; she pulled herself back in and kept looking out instead, "Molly, what's going on? Talk to me."

"...I just wanted to make buildings for a living," Molly whispered, "but then you two...you specifically, you had to drag me down into your bullshit, lying to me until lying no longer served your needs, and now I'm fully in it, man. I'm part of a criminal empire."

"Okay first of all, I'll accept the criminal part, but the empire part is a bit of a stretch," Allie said, "Not saying I don't appreciate the thought, it's nice that you think of me as that established, but-"

"Not you!" Molly said, tears rolling down her face, her lip quivering, "not you. Tony wants me to build a vault."

"What?" Allie asked, half laughing.

"...he needs somewhere to store money that isn't being collected in taxes, somewhere it can't be found," Molly said, "he says some of his associates are being followed for their part in a major tax dodge, and he's worried. He made me promise not to tell. I promised."

"Then why are you telling me?"

"Because I trust you, stupid as that must sound considering what you did to me, I trust you," Molly said, "I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna hide things, I don't wanna steal bodies, I don't wanna build vaults. I just..." Molly bowed her head and sobbed, whispering, "..,i just wanna make buildings again."

Allie felt her heart break. Danger be damned, she thought, and she put her cane on the floor and climbed out onto the ledge, keeping herself as stable as possible as she approached Molly. Molly looked over at her and Allie smiled, reaching and taking her hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Then take me with you," Allie said, "cause I'm not gonna be somewhere you ain't. I can help you, Molly. Either jump and take me with you, or come inside and let me help you. We can figure this out together, alright?"

Molly looked over the ledge again, her feet shuffling closer to the edge, and she thought about it. How it'd feel, to be so free, falling carelessly through the air to the inevitable end. But...but here she had a chance, a chance to do something better. To come out on top.

"If you help me," Molly said softly, "I want the credit."

"What?"

"If you help me, and we put Tony away, I want the credit. My entire life was tarnished by a man hurting me in high school. Your life was derailed by a man offering you pills. I am sick and tired of powerful men putting their problems on the women around them, and then using those women to further their agendas. If we're going to take down a powerful man, I want the credit."

Allie was dumbfounded. She'd never expected Molly to say this sort of thing. But...at the moment, what could she do besides no and agree? After all, she had to get her off this ledge.

"Sure, yeah, just...come inside, and we'll talk through it," Allie said, "We'll find a way to make it work, alright?"

Molly nodded, took Allie's hand, and together the two entered the suite as clapping and cheers from below sounded. Allie then, surprisingly even to herself, turned and hugged Molly as tightly as she could, and never wanted to let her go.

                                                                           ***

"What do you think that's all about?" Agent Tropper asked, nodding to the television, as he and Agent Siskel sat in her apartment, eating chinese and watching the scene unfold on the news.

"I don't know," Agent Siskel said, scooping some shrimp into her mouth, "but I reckon we'll find out any day now."

Zoe was lying in her bed, staring at the wall.

She hadn't gotten up in hours. She'd barely been out of her room since the incident at the zoo. She hadn't gotten a call from anyone either. Allie had never bothered to check up on her, and that hurt most of all somehow. She wiped her eyes on her sweater sleeve when the bedroom door opened and Molly walked in. She sat on the bed and sighed.

"Okay sadpants, this has to stop," she said, "You've been moping in here for like two days, this can't go on. You're starting to bum me out. I made breakfast, do you want breakfast? It's pancakes. Fluffy and syrupy and-"

Zoe started crying, and Molly sighed. She rubbed Zoe's back and nodded.

"I'm sorry," Molly said, "I'm trying to be a good friend, and all I'm doing is invading on you. It just hurts to see you like this. I could call Effie. Would you like her to come over? She'd probably be better at cheering you up then I could be. What can I do for you?"

Zoe shrugged.

"I don't...I don't think there's anything...anyone can do," she managed to say.

Molly sat there, with her friend, in silence. She wanted to help, but she knew there was only so much she could do. Sure, she was part of this situation now, she was included in Allie and Zoe's problems, she'd become more than an accessory, but whatever was going on here was primarily between the two of them, and that wasn't something Molly was involved in. She was beginning to hate Allie for making Zoe feel this way this consistently it seemed. She was beginning to question her loyalty to the group.

                                                                         ***

Allie awoke in a hospital bed.

She was lying there, in silence, staring up at the ceiling. She wasn't even sure if she was all that badly hurt, and all that really mattered was that it had worked. She rolled onto her side and realized her hip was in agonizing pain. She groaned, bit her lip and almost cried when she heard a voice in the room with her.

"You get used to the pain," it said.

Allie's eyes widened and she rolled back onto her back and glanced at the curtain hanging between her bed and another.

"Do...do you?" she asked.

"Yeah," the voice said, "you have to. It becomes a part of you. That's what my doctor told me. He says it eventually becomes a part of you that you cannot ignore. Course, my situation is far worse than most peoples."

"...Jenny?" Allie asked, reaching over and pulling the curtain aside, revealing Jenny in a bed; Allie was shocked, how could she have...and then she realized...Nick must've put her in this room. He must've known she would want to talk to her. She smirked. Even after all that'd happened, he was helping her after all. Allie sat up best she could and carefully climbed out of the bed, slipping into a wheelchair and rolling to Jenny's bedside. Her face was still heavily wrapped and bandaged, and Allie felt immensely guilty.

"I didn't say anything," Jenny whispered, "I didn't say...anything to anyone. I know you didn't mean to push me in."

"I didn't, no, I didn't mean to, and I'm so sorry," Allie said, on the verge of tears, "oh god, Jenny, I am so so sorry. I just...I panicked, and I....you didn't deserve this. Please forgive me, please."

"I just wanted to be your friend," Jenny said quietly, "I wanted to be included in your life because I..."

Jenny went quiet and looked away, embarrassed. Allie raised an eyebrow as she reached out and took Jenny's hand in hers, squeezing it.

"What?" Allie asked.

"...I was always jealous of you and Nick," she said, "but, not because I wanted to steal him from you or anything...because I wanted to steal you from him. I wasn't there when it happened. The accident with the tiger. Your accident. But I remember the day you put him in the zoo was the first day I got to talk to you, and I was so instantly smitten and...and I tried to find ways to insert myself into your life so I could be around you more."

Allie had to admit...she hadn't seen this coming. Jenny was in love with her? That took her by absolute surprise.

"I...I'm not..." Allie said, stuttering, "I'm not gay, Jenny. I mean, I admit, women are hot, but I'm not interested in them. That being said...if I were, you know, interested in them, I think you'd be a pretty good match for me, and I'm flattered that someone as nice and considerate and pretty as you would ever want anything to do with the pile of problems that is me."

Jenny smiled and squeezed Allie's hand back.

"You are my friend, Jenny," Allie whispered, "I'm sorry I never made that clear."

Jenny wanted to cry. That was all she ever wanted to hear.

                                                                            ***

"What have you got?" Chief Larson asked, sitting in the room with Agents Tropper and Siskel standing in front of him at a table. Siskel and Tropper exchanged a glance, and then Siskel cleared her throat and exhaled.

"At first, I thought we just had some kind of grisly murder," Agent Siskel said, "something that they have to call in special forces for because it's not the kind of thing the usual force deals with or knows how to handle. I wasn't wrong. We had something unique. I mean, a dead man buried in a magicians prop underneath a newly built casino? That's...that's not an everyday crime, you know?"

Tropper and Chief Larson both chuckled.

"but the more time we spent on this case, the deeper into it we got, I...I couldn't even...I can't explain it, so I'll show it," Agent Siskel said, pulling off a sheet over a large posterboard, with news clippings and photographs and red string connecting it all. Chief Larson sat forward now, genuinely interested in where this was going.

"This," Agent Siskel said, using a pointer stick to tap a photo of Allie, "is Allie Meers. She's a local magician who used to perform regularly at a casino called The Card Shark. Her employer and owner of The Card Shark is Tony Ephram. The prop we found the man buried in belonged to Meers. We know this because it's the same prop she's used before, and because the man wound up being Sunny Sykes, a local drug dealer who supplied Allie with a shitload of painkillers for years. Allie had an accident on stage one night with a tiger she had, who nearly took her arm off. The tiger in question, seen here," she now tapped a photograph of Domino, "was relocated to a private zoo, who employed a woman named Jenny Gibbons."

"...is this...going somewhere?" Chief Larson asked, "I'm sorry, excuse me if I'm wrong, but this just seems like-"

"Sir, you're wrong, and this is me excusing you," Agent Tropper said, "listen to her, it's worth it."

Chief Larson nodded, taking into consideration these agents were respected in the field, and sat back to listen once more.

"Recently Jenny fell into the tiger pit, the very same tiger pit that held Domino, Allie Meer's former tiger. The thing is, there was another part of a body in the pit when they found her. Sunny's body. See, Allie had stolen Sunny's body after we'd located it. As it turns out, the serial killer we arrested was friends with a local mortician who happened to be in her cult, and as such she turned Sunny's body over to Miss Meers as a favor. Now, when you take all of this into consideration, it just seems like a messy complicated almost comical accidental murder. Why Miss Meers killed Sunny we still don't know, honestly, and until we approach her we likely won't, but you know what we do know?"

"What do we know?" Chief Larson asked, enjoying the dramatics.

"We know that there's something much bigger here. Sunny Sykes is the son of the governor, Raymond Sykes. Raymond, as it just so happens, also has a daughter, an adopted daughter named Nicole, who works as an accountant, and primarily handles casinos. Raymond has been using casino funds to help further his career and his re-election campaigns, and in return, has been giving the casinos a break on taxes. He's doing this by funneling the money through falsified tax shelters he created under Nicole's name, and because she's adopted, they have different last names, so it doesn't look suspicious."

Now she had Chief Larson's attention. He was sitting upright, truly entranced, jaw slightly ajar.

"What we have here, sir, is a major tax cheat and a government scandal, all tied to one woman," Agent Siskel said, tapping Allie's photo once again, "Allie Meers. But we can't get to Miss Meers. That's the thing. She's always one step ahead. Thanks to her friendship with Claire, her relationship to Jenny, she has this protective circle around her. But you know who doesn't? Nicole Sykes. And that's where we hit. If we get Nicole to turn states evidence against her father, we can then track the money down to specific casinos, and I'm willing to bet you a thousand to one that the very casino Allie works for is involved."

Chief Larson finally sat back and adjusted his tie. He exhaled and ran his hand through his thinning white hair.

"...this is insane," he said, "I...I want you to take her down. Good work, guys. Great work. Let's get this son of a bitch."

"We'll need proper authority of course in order to move in on Nicole, as you-" Tropper started, but Larson stopped him.

"Yeah, you have it, I'll sign over some paperwork to a judge today, you can approach her within the next 24 hours," Larson said, standing up and shaking Agent Tropper and then Agent Siskel's hands, smiling as he said, "Great work Rebecca. I'll personally see that you're rewarded for this."

Chief Larson turned and exited the room, and Agent Siskel started screaming and jumping up and down. Tropper laughed, watching his friend. She couldn't believe her luck. After weeks of frustration, of failures, of setbacks, of success always being within an inch of her grasp and then sudden;y snatched away, she'd done it, she'd won. She turned and looked at Roger, then hugged him harder than she'd ever hugged anyone else before.

"Thank you for believing in me," she said quietly.

"Hey, I know a good agent when I see one," he replied, laughing.

"Let's finish this, man," Agent Siskel said, the two of them high fiving.

                                                                        ***

Allie was lying in bed, reading a magazine when the door opened and Zoe, of all people, entered the room. Allie smiled, happy to see her, and put her magazine down. Zoe pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed.

"Hey," Allie said, "I'm glad you're here."

"Watcha readin'?" Zoe asked.

"Uh, Guns and Ammo," Allie said, "which is...surprising literature for a hospital to have, but whatever."

They both laughed and Zoe rubbed her arm self consciously.

"I wanna apologize," Zoe started.

"No, please, I'm the one who needs to apologize. I put everyone in harms way. Jenny's in the bed beside me, and she...she's forgiven me, and she knows I didn't mean to do it, and that I just panicked, but Zoe...you're the last person I ever wanted to drag into shit like this. I thought I was doing a good thing. The right thing. Ridding the world of someone who was just going to try and hurt and use you, and then I myself hurt and use you, and Sunny didn't deserve to die. I know that now. He might've dealed drugs but that doesn't make him a bad person. As a former drug addict, we're people too, we deserve kindness."

"...I don't think I should work a while," Zoe whispered, "um...so if it's okay to put the show on hold for a bit, that'd be great. I think I just need some time to myself, and maybe spend some time with Effie and, you know, just relax and take a break from all this stuff."

"Understandable. Well, I'm apparently damaged goods now, my hip is absolutely wrecked, so it'll be a while before I can perform again anyway, so sure, take all the time you need, have a nice time," Allie said, "...Zoe, can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, of course," Zoe said, finally looking Allie in the face again.

"...you still like me, right? We're still friends?"

"Of course!" Zoe said, leaning in and hugging Allie, "I was mad, I was furious, but I'm just as big a part of this as you are, and you're right, we can't split up, we're in this together, and we need to be friends. You're still my best friend, Allie."

Allie wanted to cry. Her entire life all she'd ever wanted, just like Zoe, was someone to be there for her like this. Unconditionally and without question. Sure, this was maybe the most fucked up way imaginable to finally get that, but you work with what you got she figured. She patted Zoe on the back and laughed, the both of them almost crying on eachother. From the other side of the curtain, Jenny wasn't asleep, and she could hear this entire thing. She smiled, happy to know her friends were happy once again.

                                                                           ***

"They're following me," Nicole said, sitting in her fathers den, sipping scotch.

"You think they know?" he asked, stoking the fire.

"I don't know what to think," Nicole replied, "all I know is I'm paranoid and stressed out and this is all goddamned Sunny's fault. If he hadn't gotten himself killed none of this would be happening."

"This is your fault, Nicole," Raymond said, turning to face her, "you should've kept him in check. Should've kept closer tabs on him. Who his friends were. Who he dealt to. Now we're dealing with the fallout from your failure. You're the one who'll pay, not me."

Nicole couldn't believe her ears. She gripped the couch with her free hand in absolute fury, but she kept her mouth shut. She knew better than to mouth off to the man.

"My son is dead and it's your fault, not the fault of whoever killed him. I adopted you because my wife wanted a daughter, and you're an intelligent woman, so it boggles the mind how you could've allowed this sort of thing to happen. Everything we've worked for, everything we've built, now at the possibility of coming undone all because you couldn't control him."

"You couldn't either," she finally said through gritted teeth, "you're his father, you're the one who should've been more in control," she stood up and approached him, glaring in his eyes, "why did all the dirty work always come down to me? I never asked to be involved in this, I just wanted to have a normal life, but you forced me into this line of work and then forced me to work with you. You're a monster and he had every reason and every right to want to drug himself into oblivion to escape you."

Raymond sneered and smacked her across the face, taking her by surprise. It'd been years since he'd hit her. She was sort of in shock, honestly. The den door opened and they both regained their composure as his wife, Shirley, entered.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"I'm just leaving," Nicole said, smiling as she walked to her, grabbing her purse from the couch and giving her a goodbye hug, "Goodnight mom. Call me tomorrow okay?"

Nicole was out of the house in a flash. When she got into her car, she started it, then drove a few blocks away and parked again, screaming at the top of her lungs. She wanted to see Raymond take the fall. She didn't want to be involved in this anymore. She'd already lost the man she loved, what more did she care about? Her career? Her career was a joke, something decided on by her father, not something she had genuine interest in. She reached over and pulled open the glovebox, looking at the shiny black pistol she kept inside. She reached in and pulled it out, holding it gently. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror as she lifted the pistol barrel to the side of her head and held back tears.

No.

This was what he'd want. She'd be giving him exactly what he'd want. He wanted her gone. He wanted her to take the blame. She couldn't give him that satisfaction. She needed to stay alive. She grimaced and put the pistol back into the glovebox, then shut it and started the car up again. She needed to stay alive long enough to see him backed into a corner. She wouldn't pay for his crimes, but she'd make damn sure he would.

                                                                         ***

The hospital room door opened once again and this time Nick entered, surprising Allie. Her eyes lit up at his smile as he walked inside and sat down in the same chair Zoe had been seated in earlier. Allie scooted up and twinged from the pain in her hip.

"You just get off work?" she asked.

"Yeah, and I don't even have to go home to see you now, talk about convenience," he said, making her laugh as he pulled a bouquet of flowers from behind his back and handed them to her, taking her by surprise as he added, "I'm sorry about what I said the other day. You're not poison, Allie. That was mean of me. I love you."

Allie wanted to cry again. She hadn't expected Nick of all people to come back to her. She took the flowers and pushed her nose into them, whimpering.

"...but I am kinda poison," she said softly.

"Then I guess that makes me suicidal," Nick said, smirking.

"I wouldn't say that too loudly if I were you, I think we're in a hospital," she replied, making him laugh. He leaned in and, one hand on her shoulder, the other gently placed behind her head, kissed her longingly. Allie knew she was so lucky to have him, and so grateful he was still here even after the Jenny incident. The past few weeks had been so awful, all she wanted to do right now was live in this moment forever. But as she knew all too well, the good moments never last long.

And eventually the ugly rears its head once more.

The ambulance screamed through the street, rushing to its predetermined destination. Her consciousness was fading in and out, everything was muffled and fuzzy, but she knew they were doing what they could for her. When they finally arrived, she was wheeled out on a gurney immediately into the ER. Her case was one that couldn't wait. She'd suffered enough as it was, and this was time sensitive. She heard the machines around her, the doctors talking frantically. She heard words like "skin grafting" and "serious reconstructive surgery". She was in and out of consciousness for hours, and when she finally managed to regain some sense of reality, she found she was laying in bed, hooked up to various machines. She hurt all over. She had no idea what was happening.

"You're lucky to be alive," a nurse said beside her, surprising her; the nurse changed out a bedpan and looked at her, smiling, "seriously, it's not everyone who survives getting mauled by a tiger."

                                                                           ***

Allie brought the truck to a screeching halt.

She turned the car off and she sat there, listening to Zoe hyperventilate in the passenger seat, while she stared dead ahead out the windshield. The entire experience had taken their evening, and Allie had just driven until the sun was barely up. Now, parked in some unknown neighborhood somewhere in Vegas, Allie couldn't make heads or tails of what day it was or even what time it was. Sometime early in the morning, she knew that much.

"...you...you left her there..." Zoe whispered, her eyes bloodshot from the crying, her voice hoarse from the screaming.

"...I...I didn't...I didn't know what to do," Allie replied, also barely speaking, "I couldn't just go into the pit, I would've put us at risk, he could've gotten out. I'm not a trained animal controller."

"...you pushed her in, and then you left her there..."

"I did not push her in," Allie said through gritted teeth, "that was an accident!"

"How come everything that happens to everyone as a result of being in your presence is an accident?!" Zoe screamed, "First Sunny, now this?! You chose to do these things, those aren't accidental! You pushed her in, and then you left her there!"

Allie wanted to argue, but she knew Zoe had a point. Everyone that had come into contact with her had been meeting with some grizzly end lately it seemed, and it was always her fault in some way. Allie put her head down on the steering wheel and tried not to cry. Zoe climbed out of the truck and started pacing up and down the street, the sun barely starting to peek over the treeline. Allie finally climbed out as well and watched her momentarily.

"we...we have to go to the police," Zoe said, "We can't keep hiding this anymore!"

"They'll put me in prison!"

"Then maybe you deserve to be in prison!" Zoe screamed.

"Keep your voice down!" Allie said angrily but quietly, "We are in a residential neighborhood and it is very early in the morning, don't make a scene."

Zoe walked up to Allie, their faces barely an inch apart, and she could smell her breath.

"I'm through listening to what you tell me to do," Zoe said through gritted teeth, "I was hired to help you, and you took advantage of that. You took advantage of me. Poor little innocent me, who idolized you, who'd never really had a friend, whose family had turned on her. You took total advantage of that, and you used me to justify your poor decisions. Well I'm done. We're done, Allie."

Zoe turned and started walking down the street.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Allie yelled after her.

"I'm going home, Allie!" Zoe shouted back, turning to look back at her, "I'm going home. We're done."

"We're not done! I say when we're done!" Allie shouted, "Zoe! Zoe!"

But Zoe didn't stop. She didn't look back. She just kept walking, walking away from the worst thing that had ever happened to her, and she felt good about it.

                                                                           ***

"Can I help you?" the woman at the front desk asked as Agent Siskel pulled her wallet out and flashed her badge.

"Yeah, my partner and I need to speak to someone in your facility," she said, "Jenny Gibbons, the girl who was brought in here this morning. It's urgent."

The front desk woman knew better than to deny anything to agents of this caliber, so she nodded and silently led them down the hall. Tropper caught up, walking alongside Siskel, as the three of them headed towards Jenny's room in total silence. After they arrived, the nurse turned back and looked at them sternly.

"Don't be too demanding of her, she's been through hell, and please try not to take too long, she needs a lot of rest," she said, then sat down on a chair outside the door, "I'll be here when you're done."

Siskel and Tropped nodded, then entered the room. It was dark, and eerily silent. The walked to the bed and pulled back the curtain to reveal Jenny laying in the bed, her face wrapped in gauze. Her eyes were shut, and she appeared to be heavily drugged. Siskel pulled up a chair and sat down, leaving Tropper to stand behind her. After a moment, Siskel took a deep breath, and then gently reached over and nudged Jenny's shoulder, waking her.

"Mmm?" Jenny asked, slowly rolling her head to face the agents.

"Hello," Agent Siskel said, "I'm Rebecca Siskel, this is my partner Roger Tropper, we're with the local FBI division of the Vegas police force. We know you've been through a hell of an ordeal, and we don't wanna make things complicated or difficult right now for you, after what's happened, but we need to ask you some questions regarding Allie Meers."

That got Jenny's attention, as her eyes widened.

"What about her?" she asked, realizing that it hurt to speak.

"We know the tiger belonged to her, we're just wondering what your relationship to Miss Meers was. We need to know everything you might know about her," Agent Siskel said, "Anything you can tell us would really help in the long run."

Jenny thought for a moment, then smiled.

"I don't know anything about Allie," she said, "I just worked there."

Jenny was a lot of things, but she wasn't a narc.

                                                                           ***

Allie walked into the loft and threw her jacket onto the couch, before noticing Nick standing in the living room area. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him. His arms were crossed, and his eyes were squinty, like he was thinking about what to say to her. For a moment, neither one said a thing, and then finally Allie walked into the living room and pushed herself into his chest, but he merely pulled away.

"please don't," she whispered, trying to get up close again but he pulled away again.

"It's all over the news," Nick said, "what happened? What did you do to her?"

"It was an accident," she whispered, on the verge of tears, "I just wanted to see him, it was an accident."

"You didn't call anyone, you didn't do anything, you just left here there, Allie. I...I thought that maybe, you know, things would be different. You were doing so well. You're sober, you're financially stable again, and yet here you are, self inflicting damage on not just you but those around you. Those who trusted you. I trusted you."

"you can still trust me," Allie mumbled.

"Can I?" Nick asked, "I have work today. I can't deal with this right now. I'll see her at the hospital when I get there, see for myself how she is, what she has to say."

Nick pulled on his jacket from the coat rack by the door and then opened the door. He sighed and looked back at Allie, who wouldn't look up from the floor at him. He scratched the back of his head.

"You know, you're the most beautiful person I've ever known. You're intoxicating, honestly. Your charisma and charm, your sense of humor, it lures people in, but that's just the thing, Allie, you're like a deadly plant. You look great from afar, even seem greater up close, but once you stick around long enough...it starts to slowly poison you. I don't wanna be poisoned anymore," Nick said, "...I'll call you."

And with that he left. Allie finally let herself break, now that she was alone. She collapsed onto the couch and sobbed, screaming into her pillows. In just a few short hours, she'd lost Zoe, now Nick, and had left Jenny for dead. It was all coming unraveled. Sure, Sunny's body was essentially gone, and that helped ease the pain, knowing the core piece of evidence was now destroyed, but it didn't ease the pain of everything else. She rolled onto her side, her eyes landing on the liquor cabinet. She climbed off and approached it, kneeling, fiddling with the lock.

She'd tried so hard, and it all still came undone, so what harm did alcohol really do in the end? She'd been sober for almost a year, and it didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever.

When she got the lock off, and the chains unspooled, she pulled the doors open and looked inside at all the various booze she had in there. She couldn't bring herself to throw it away, so she merely locked it away, kept it for only serious special occasions. Well, what was a more special occasion than your life imploding, she thought? She reached inside and pulled out an entire unopened bottle of whiskey and sighed, staring at the twist off lid.

All it took was one sip, she knew, one sip and she'd throw all her progress away. Was it worth it?

                                                                          ***

"You gonna finish your fries?" Agent Tropper asked as he sat across from Agent Siskel at a burger place nearby the hospital. Agent Siskel shrugged, so Tropper helped himself, reaching across the table and grabbing a handful of her fries.

"I don't...understand," Siskel said, her brow furrowing, "what causes that level of commitment to someone? I mean, Allie and Claire, they both manage to get people to do everything for them, to follow them, to never question. What causes that level of adoration? Is it just being a good enough liar?"

"People wanna be led, Becky," Tropper said, "they don't wanna face up to their own lives, they wanna feel like a bigger part of something. It's not complicated. It's why so many people vote for leaders who have their worst interests at heart. They don't really care, so long as someone is telling them things they want to hear, even if they're doing the opposite."

Siskel sighed and took a sip from her drink, shaking her head. It seemed like no matter what she did, she couldn't win. She couldn't find a break.

"Every single time, Roger, every single time I feel like I've got it, every single time it's within arms reach, she finds a way to pull it away from me again," Siskel said, "I don't know how she does it."

"She's a magician," Tropper said, taking a bite from his burger and chewing, pushing errant lettuce into his mouth, "they're really good at making things disappear."

Siskel nodded, but not really accepting his reasoning. She sighed and rubbed her eyes with the balls of her palms, groaning. She hadn't been sleeping well ever since getting this case, and as things had gotten worse, so had her sleep.

"How do you trick a magician?" Siskel asked, "That's the question. If you can't catch them in the act, if you can't get someone to divulge their secrets, then how do you trick a magician?"

Tropper looked up, seeing Siskel smirking.

"If we can answer that, we might be able to save this," she said.

                                                                          ***

Nick pushed the door open gently and entered Jenny's room. He felt his heart hurt at the sight of this poor, sweet girl lying in this bed, her face so badly mangled that she had to have it covered. He walked in further and sat down in a chair beside the bed, not knowing whether or not she was awake, but also not caring. He needed to see her regardless of whether she was aware of his presence. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I'm so sorry," he said, "I don't...I don't know what else I could possibly say. I just know someone has to say it to you, and she never will. She can never take responsibility for her actions. She's somehow never to blame. I thought she'd changed, but I guess she's the same, she just got better at lying. Never trust a magician in a relationship, I guess."

Jenny stirred, but she didn't wake up or speak.

"You don't deserve this," Nick said, "and I wanna go to the cops, but I know you'd hate me if I did that. I know how much you like her. I don't wanna put you through anything else right now, while you're trying to recover. That isn't fair to you. Just know that I am so so sorry Jenny. I really sincerely am."

Nick reached out and touched her arm, but again she didn't wake. He sighed, then checked his watch and stood up. He had to do his rounds, but he had to see her first. Someone had to care, he thought.

                                                                          ***

"You're in a lot of trouble," Claire said, sitting across from Allie in the visitation room, at their usual corner table, "well, potentially a lot of trouble."

"How'd you do it?" Allie asked, "How'd you get people to do whatever you wanted?"

"Wasn't hard, just had to promise them whatever they wanted, then tell them if they worked hard enough they'd eventually be given it," Claire said, shrugging, "but you gotta have people dumb enough who're willing to believe it. That's part of your problem, Meers, you're not working with idiots."

Allie sighed and leaned back in her chair, rolling her eyes.

"You look like shit, by the way," Claire said, taking a sip of her water.

"Thanks," Allie said, "...she's not dead. She's in the hospital. I need to talk to her, but I need to do it in a way that won't look suspicious. I need to know she's not going to talk. Not going to turn on me."

"Then I suggest you find a way to do that, because if you don't, you could really be facing down the barrel of the gun here," Claire said, "lemme tell you something, okay? The hardest part of what I did came down to getting them to believe their belief was their idea. You have to first convince them to listen to you, then convince them that they convinced themselves. If you can do that, Allie, then you're golden. You're an expert in magic, you figure it out."

Allie thought, and then it hit her like a mac truck. A way to get into the hospital without it ever seeming suspicious, and the answer would be obvious to anyone. After she left the prison, she climbed into her car, then pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the street. She reached a red light of a busy street, then exhaled and pulled open the glove compartment, reaching inside and grabbing a bottle of pills and an airline bottle of alcohol. She drank the alcohol, then took a handful of pills, then shook her head to regain composure before exhaling and staring straight ahead at the parked car across the street. She had to do whatever it took to save herself, to save Zoe, and Molly and everyone else. This was going to hurt, but it was a necessity. So Allie steeled her nerves, put her foot on the gas...

...and sped across high traffic until she collided with the parked car.

Jenny Gibbons had always wanted to work with animals.

Ever since she was a little girl, she loved animals. She loved going to the zoo, the aquarium, national parks, anywhere she might see an animal. She took up bird watching, animal rescue, and eventually became a zoo ranger herself so she could live out her life amongst the creatures she thought were better than people. Jenny loved her job, too. She hated hearing about how people hated their job, because she just couldn't relate, but she also knew she had gotten lucky. She'd found her passion early, and it'd been passionate enough to guide her throughout life. Not everyone had that. Well, Allie Meers did, she guessed, and maybe that's why she liked Allie so much.

Not that she'd ever say it. In fact, she'd only actually met Meers a handful of times, and mostly thanks to her tigers incarceration at the zoo where she worked, and now the private owner who had him. Jenny got buddy buddy with Meer's boyfriend, Nick, but only so she could be closer to Allie. Jenny found Allie fascinating for a number of reasons; first off, the passion she had for her own work, which Jenny felt made them similar. Secondly, the tiger attack. She wasn't there when it happened, but she became obsessed with learning about it once she knew. And third, well...Allie was just plain pretty, and Jenny liked pretty girls.

Maybe tonight, yes, maybe tonight would finally be the night she'd come clean and tell Allie how she felt. She knew she was back with Nick, she didn't even know if she was remotely queer, but she knew that she had to at least say something, otherwise she'd always regret not. Driving to the small, private zoo, Allie and Zoe following behind her, Jenny knew this night would be special, and she was right.

Because by the end of the night, Jenny Gibbons would be able to relate to Allie Meers more than anyone else ever could.

                                                                          ***

"The hell are you doing?" Agent Tropper asked, entering Agent Siskel's apartment.

Siskel was laid up on the couch, eating popcorn in her sweatpants and a tank top and watching something on TV. Her hair was a mess, like she hadn't combed it recently, and her eyes were dark. Agent Tropper sat down on the couch and took a handful of popcorn before shutting the TV off.

"Hey!" Agent Siskel said, trying to sit up.

"You can't do this to yourself, Becky," Tropper said, "This isn't okay."

"Neither is losing my key piece of evidence and flubbing an entire case," Siskel responded, "but look where we are."

"We're clearly dealing with someone intelligent," Tropper said, "I admit that it's frustrating, sure, but you're the best agent I know, and if anyone could bounce back and solve this thing, it's you. Come on, get dressed and let's go watch Sunny's sister for a bit, see if she makes any kind of moves, and-"

"You don't get it, do you?" Siskel asked, her voice cracking, "I LOST a guy. I didn't not find him, I found him, and then I LOST him. That sort of setback isn't something you bounce back from, Roger. If I just hadn't found him, that'd be a whole different story, but to find him and then lose him again? That's...I'll be a laughingstock. I'll be...I'll be a..."

She couldn't even finish before she started crying. Tropper leaned in and rubbed his friends back, just listening. He hated seeing Siskel like this. She was usually so strong and brazen, and to see her worn down...he knew she had to let the act drop eventually, but he hated to see it up close.

"You're not a laughingstock, Becky. This is the first real setback you've ever endured, and your case completion rate is still higher than anyone elses, that's why you're the one on this job," Tropper said, "If we put the pressure on Claire, or like I said we look into Nicole some more, I'm sure we could get somewhere."

"Please just go," Siskel whispered, and after a moment Tropper nodded, stood up and headed to the door. As he exited, he looked back in and smiled.

"Call me if you need anything, okay?" he asked, and then he left.

Siskel laid back down on the couch and turned the TV back on, but this time on mute. A commercial for The Card Shark played, and Allie and Zoe's stage show filled up the screen. Siskel felt a fire begin to rage inside of her, but it fizzled out quickly, and she changed the channel and then buried her face in her couch pillow, crying.

                                                                            ***

"I didn't know people could have private zoos," Zoe said, sitting in the passenger seat of Allie's car, "I really didn't, like, I think I just sort of accepted that you couldn't own whole sets of endangered or dangerous animals."

"It is weird, isn't it? Like, you're used to people owning a dog or a cat or a bird, hell even something like a big lizard isn't too out of the ordinary or a giant snake, but then every once in a while you hear about these people somewhere who own a bobcat or something and it throws your entire perception of pet ownership into question. There was this lady in the first apartment complex I lived in when I moved here, and she lived a few floors up. She, by some act of god - whether that god be vengeful or kind remains to be seen - owned an anaconda. One day, I realize she's just, you know, missing. Nobody's seen her in weeks. So me and this neighbor of mine go upstairs and immediately we sense something is wrong cause the place reeks even before we could get in."

"Oh no."

"Oh yeah. And so we call the police out there and everything, and when they finally break in, she's been partially digested and shit out onto her couch, and the snake is nowhere to be seen," Allie said, "disgusting, might I add, way to go. But that's the risk you play with when you have something that dangerous. See, me? I'm a professional. I worked with big animals. That was just part of the job. This lady? She was a night clerk at a convenience store. She just liked big snakes, and apparently, they liked her too."

Zoe laughed, which made Allie feel a bit more relaxed. As they pulled up to the place, they stopped behind Jenny, who used her master key to gain entrance, then climbed back into her car and kept driving, the girls following.

"Do you know this girl very well beyond the few times you've spoken?" Zoe asked.

"Not really," Allie said, "I mean, she seems nice, but...not really."

"You think she can be trusted?"

"I do," Allie said, nodding, "I really do."

After a short drive further into the premises, both cars came to a stop and all three women got out. Jenny walked over to Allie, while Zoe went to open the back of the truck Allie had rented, and start hauling the tomb out. Why had Zoe agreed to come? Well, she figured this was partially her fault, after all. Allie wouldn't have done this to Sunny if he hadn't threatened to get Zoe hooked on something. Allie lit a cigarette as Jenny approached.

"Didn't know you smoked," Jenny said.

"Very rarely," Allie said, "Stopped years ago, but it happens from time to time when I'm really nervous. You're sure nobody will care we're here?"

"Nah, I'm part of the team that does wellness checks and stuff, he expects me to show up randomly now and then, and what better time than late at night?" Jenny asked, "...can we talk?"

"Sure," Allie said, as they started to walk away from the truck, so as not to draw suspicion to their plans, leaving Zoe to handle the tomb. The less Jenny knew, Allie thought, the better.

"I'm surprised you wanted my help, but I guess it's because I have access, not because you wanted to hang out," Jenny said, sounding nervous, her long silky black hair covering half her face as she snickered and added, "I mean, it'd be cool to hang out sometime, right?"

"You were already in my apartment," Allie said, "Making dinner with my boyfriend."

"I hope you don't think I have designs for him or something," Jenny said.

"I mean he told me as much you don't," Allie said, shrugging, "it was just...weird, I guess, to come home and find you two together. But I do appreciate what you've done for me, and for Domino, and so I guess I can't really be annoyed with you. You're a nice person, Jenny."

Jenny felt her heart flutter, and she blushed.

"I was...I was thinking, um, maybe sometime this coming weekend, you know if you and Nick aren't busy or whatever, we could-"

But she was stopped by the sounds coming from the truck. Both women glanced back, then Allie excused herself and went to help Zoe. Jenny, curious but more thinking about how she'd phrase this, continued walking. When she got to the tiger pit nearby, looking in and seeing Domino, she smiled. She wanted to be more than friends with Allie, but she didn't want Allie to cheat on her boyfriend. How could she get closer though without getting too close? Jenny rubbed her eyes. She hated this. She'd never been good at telling others that she liked them. Anytime she met a boy or a girl that she liked, she always had the toughest time just stating the obvious, and it rarely went well. Rejection was something Jenny had grown uncomfortably used to. She turned at the sound of the dolly wheels coming up behind her, and she looked at something wrapped in a tarp.

"What...what is that?" she asked.

"It's a gift," Allie said, "Don't worry about it."

"...okay, but you can't leave that here, cause if he sees it he's gonna ask-"

"Don't worry, we're not leaving it, we're just emptying it. It has some good meat in it Domino likes, stuff I used to feed him. I'll take the container home okay? Just wanted to dote on my cat for a change," Allie said, and Jenny nodded, still feeling queasy. Jenny then turned and walked to the back gate, unlocking it as Allie turned to Zoe and the two began to whisper.

"We're so close to being home free," Allie said, "you giddy?"

"Giddy doesn't begin to describe it," Zoe remarked, "I can't believe you're taking advice from a serial killer."

"Who better to ask how to dispose of bodies?"

"Well, someone who doesn't get caught doing it, for one," Zoe replied, making Allie smirk.

"Alright, well," Allie said, "it's not like this is gonna be an everyday thing, okay? One time deal, in and out, and then we can finally really move on. Nobody will have any evidence after this. We should've done this from the get go, but...I don't know, I guess I thought nobody would find his ass."

Jenny came back, twirling her keyring around her finger and stopped at the girls, who turned to look at her. Zoe started pushing the dolly ahead, as Jenny and Allie trailed closely behind.

"So what were you gonna ask me?" Allie asked, and Jenny blushed again.

"Oh, I don't know, just, ya know, maybe we could hang out again sometime," Jenny said, "You had a big cat, I love big cats, I could give you all sorts of information on Domino, pictures and stuff, keep you in the loop about how he's doing and stuff, you know?"

"I take it you don't have many friends," Allie said, making Jenny laugh.

"You'd be correct," she said, "I mean, I'm not very social to begin with, but you and Nick are cool and fun and it'd be nice to have at least one pair of buddies. Who knows, we might even-"

They heard the drop, and both turned their heads to see Zoe on her knees, groaning. Allie rushed over, kneeling down, grabbing Zoe's hand. Zoe sounded like she was struggling to breath, and she was shaking. That's when it occurred to Allie that she might be having a seizure. She remembered Zoe telling her she had seizures from time to time, but Allie had never seen it first hand.

"You okay? You alright? Should I do something?" Allie asked, and Zoe shook her head.

"I rolled over...my goddamned foot...with the goddamned dolly," Zoe whispered, making Allie laugh nervously, relieved she wasn't in fact having seizure. Allie helped her back up, but Zoe pulled away from her, glaring and adding, "it's YOUR treat, YOU push it."

"Jeez, you don't have to get angry just cause you maybe broke a nail," Allie replied back.

"Everything we do I'm your assistant, not your partner," Zoe said, making Allie surprised.

"Where the fuck is this coming from?!" she asked, now facing Zoe, who looked like she might explode.

"You say we're partners, but we're not, face it, we're not! I do everything FOR you! The only reason Molly went to get this thing with you is because I literally wasn't available, but had I been I'm sure I would've been the one to do that too. Let me guess? You made her load and unload it, didn't you? Never doing anything by yourself. I'm nothing more than a magicians assistant."

"Whoa, Zoe, calm down, what the-"

Zoe started breathing, then rubbed her eyes, almost crying. She apologized, admitting she didn't know where this outburst came from. Allie walked to her and put her hand on her shoulder, shushing her, telling her it was okay, that they could talk about a more professional partnership later if this was how she truly felt. Jenny checked her watch and sighed. They really needed to be out of here soon, before the early morning guards arrived. Jenny walked briskly past them and put her hands on the dolly, before wrenching her face.

"This smells TERRIBLE," she said.

"Don't touch that!" Allie shouted, rushing back to the dolly and pushing Jenny away, but she wouldn't let go of the handle.

"I'm just trying to help! My ass is on the line if we get caught in here, you know! I'm allowed to be here but I can't be bringing visitors, so we need to get this done and-"

"Let go, Jenny!" Allie shouted.

"You guys, shut up," Zoe said sternly, but neither would listen, they just continued pushing one another, trying to wrestle control of the dolly back and forth.

"I was trying to do you a favor, goddammit!" Jenny yelled and Allie sneered at her.

"I don't need your help!" she screamed, pushing her violently, making Jenny stumble backwards and, much to all their horror, fall over the wall of the pit. It was if time had stopped. Allie and Zoe rushed over to the side and peered down, seeing Jenny laying on her side, groaning.

"oh my god we need to get her out," Zoe whispered.

"I know, she unlocked the gate, we can-"

"Allie," Zoe whispered, tugging at her sleeve, pointing with her other hand. Allie looked back down and all the blood drained from her face. There, slowly slinking out of the darkness, was Domino. Allie couldn't move. She felt glued to the spot. Zoe, however, rushed to the gate and tried to open it to get inside, which was what finally made Allie snap back to reality as she ran up behind her and, arms around her waist, lifted her up, holding her back.

"We have to help her!" Zoe shouted, as Allie put a hand over her mouth.

"Shhh, we can't go down there, we-"

"Allie!" Jenny screamed, the terror in her voice palpable in the night air.

"Allie, we can't just-" Zoe started again, but Allie put her hand back over her mouth.

"Just be quiet, it'll be fine, it'll be fine," Allie said.

The screams. Jesus the screams. Allie and Zoe had heard those screams before. Allie knew firsthand what was happening, and Zoe had witnessed Allie dealing with it in the moment. They knew what was going on. They knew the pit was no longer an option. Zoe started sobbing, kicking, but Allie just pulled her back, dragging her to the truck and shoving her in before going back and, opening the tomb lid, dropping Sunny's decomposing body into the pit as well, where it landed with a thud beside Jenny, who was no longer making noise. Allie looked down into the pit to see Domino begin eating Sunny, and her eyes moved to Jenny, who was no longer moving, blood surrounding her.

"i'm so sorry," Allie whispered, before rushing back to the truck and climbing in, starting the car and pulling out. As they sped away, Zoe hit Allie repeatedly in the arm, screaming they had to go back, but Allie just kept on driving. There was nothing they could do. What had happened had happened.

Why, Allie wondered, of why couldn't things be easy just one time?

                                                                          ***

Becca Siskel was eating breakfast in her kitchen when she heard her front door open, and saw Roger Tropper enter. She sighed and shook her head.

"Before you say anything," she said, mouth full of muffin, "let me apologize for you having to see me in that state yesterday. I was...I was not good, and I'm embarrassed and-"

"You have plenty of other better things to be embarrassed about that I've been witness to," Tropper said, making her laugh as he tossed a newspaper in front of her and, pointing at it, said, "Read this."

Siskel went quiet for a bit, her eyes scanning the words, her mouth full of muffin. Once she finished, she looked at Tropper.

"...they name her specifically," Tropper said, "See? 'The tiger in question, once belonging to local magician Allie Meers, was subdued so medical aide could rush in to assess the damage done to Miss Gibbons'. They found half a body in the pit too, something the tiger was eating. She got the tomb thanks to Claire, and she dumped it in a tiger pit along with some poor girl, and they named her directly having ownership at one time, linking her to it. We got her. We can nail her."

Siskel looked back at the paper, then at Tropper.

"I...I don't..." Siskel said, "it's circumstantial, Tropper, we can't just-"

"Bullshit it's circumstantial! We were already investigating and this is just further proof that she not only committed a murder, then a theft of police property and now this?! Come on! We got her to the wall, Becky, we did it!"

Siskel stood up and walked to her coffee maker, pouring herself another cup, then taking a long sip of it before turning back to face Tropper.

"What?" he asked, "What is it?"

"...this is bigger than Meers. After you left last night, I went out, I sat outside Nicole's place for hours. She finally made a move. She drove down to a really nice suburb area, met with an older man. I looked up the address when I got home, it's her father, her father's a governor," Siskel said.

"And?"

"And, for the last few years, he's been pulling in money for re-elections from various sources, but if you do some digging, none of the sources are real outlets. They sound legit, on paper, because he created the companies as a falsehood. But the money coming in doesn't come from them, they come from the casinos. He's using casino backed cash to pay for his re-elections, buy himself back into the governership, and then the casinos get a huge tax dodge as a result for playing nice."

"...why...why are you telling me all of this?" Tropper asked.

"Because Allie Meers isn't our target," Agent Siskel said, wiping her mouth on her sweater sleeve, sighing, "...she's our one shot at catching something way bigger. She's how we'll bring down the governor."

Claire Driscoll sat at the interview table alone, waiting for the agents to enter the room. As she looked around the room, taking in the lack of any decorations whatsoever, she started to wonder if prisons were called "correctional facilities" because that's what they sought to do, correct you of your mindsets and actions. And, if that's the case, what do you do when you incarcerate someone who doesn't think they did anything wrong? Sure, now on medication Claire could see her actions for what they were, monstrous, and yet..and yet a part of her still stood by them. She believed in a greater good, perhaps the greatest good. Nobody else saw it yet, that was the problem. Finally the door opened and Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper entered. She smiled at them as Tropper leaned against the wall and continued drinking his coffee while Siskel sat at the table, putting a manila folder down in front of her.

"Good afternoon," Claire said, "How are you guys doing today?"

"We're fine, thanks," Agent Siskel replied, "Claire, before we get into anything serious, I wanna ask you a question. What do you think people come to Vegas for?"

Claire was taken by surprise. Certainly this was not the kind of discussion she had been expecting, but she decided she'd play along. She thought about it for a moment, chewing on her cheek.

"Uh, gambling, probably, right? Debauchery. The kind of things you can only get away with here. Entertainment being a close second. Everyone always says that, right? 'Let's go take in a show!' or whatever. There's a lot of stuff you can only see in Vegas. High class strippers, call girls, nude poetry readings."

"That's a thing?" Agent Tropper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They're not as fun as they sound," Agent Siskel replied.

"How do you know??" he asked, now even more curious.

"Why? Why are you asking me these things? Look, my compound was on the outskirts of the city, I was as far removed from Vegas as one could be while still technically living in it. I came into the city for work, groceries, shit like that. Why are you-"

"You never came into the city to see, maybe, a magic show?" Agent Siskel asked, and Claire's eyes widened.

"...I don't think so," she said, laughing, "I don't go to stuff like that. I hate crowds."

"You ran a cult," Agent Tropper remarked.

"Yeah, a crowd I could control," Claire replied, "Why are you asking me about magic shows?"

"Because apparently, a few days ago, you had a visitor come by, a magician named Allie Meers. Why'd she come to visit you? You guys weren't friends, right? You didn't run in the same social circles, so why would she come by and see you? She just a fan of your work?" Agent Siskel asked.

"I'm allowed to have fans, serial killers are some of the most revered people in the public eye now," Claire said, "What that says about the public is a whole other discussion, but hey, I'll take my wins where I can get 'em."

"Claire," Agent Siskel said, leaning forward and cupping her hands as she smiled, "how about we make a deal?"

Claire squinted, her brow furrowing.

"What kind of deal?" she asked.

                                                                             ***

"You ever design a funeral home?" Allie asked, as she and Molly were driving out towards the compound. Molly was sitting in the passenger seat, eating a jerky stick while Molly drove.

"I don't like funeral homes. I don't like death. I don't even like cemeteries," she replied, "I acknowledge that they're interesting buildings, certainly, and it might be a structurally challenging design, sure. But no, I've never designed a funeral home. Why?"

"Just curious, just seeing what you've done," Allie said, shrugging.

Molly scratched her forehead and pushed her hair from her eyes, sighing. She never, in a million years, would've expected her life to take the turn it had. On one hand, she wanted to be furious, she wanted to scream and claw Allie's eyes out for what she'd dragged her into. On the other hand, she was weirdly thankful that these people trusted her enough to include her. She supposed that's what happens to a person when they spend their life excluded, any inclusion, no matter what kind, becomes oddly endearing and welcome.

"Why are we meeting at the compound? Wouldn't the cops be keeping a close eye on this place?" Molly asked.

"Why would they? The leader's been arrested, everyone's disbanded for the time being, it's just sitting here. All the more damning would be if we showed up at her funeral home and left with a tomb. That'd be something somebody would notice. This place, as far as they're concerned, is just a big empty lot of land now," Allie said.

Molly shrugged. Allie had a point. If nobody would be here regularly, why bother watching it? She took another bite of her jerky stick and chewed, thinking about Zoe. The only reason Molly was the one coming along for this ride was because Zoe said she couldn't. Zoe had told them that she had some personal things to take care of regarding her family, and they respected that, especially Molly, after hearing just how rough her meeting with her parents had gone.

"Welp," Allie said, "Here it is."

They barreled down a dirt road and finally came to a large gate that encased the compound. After pulling up at the keypad and speaker, Allie rolled down her window and waited. Nothing happened. After a minute she glanced at Molly, who just shrugged, still chewing.

"You Allie?" a voice asked through the speaker, making them both jump and laugh nervously.

"Yeah, that's me," Allie replied back, "Claire sent us to retrieve the package."

"Pull in and park, then come to building C," the voice said, before the speaker crackled and went quiet. The gates unlocked automatically and began to slide open, allowing Allie to drive through. She looked at Molly and smirked.

"Fancy, I feel like royalty," she said.

"Might as well get used to this sort of thing," Molly said, "This is probably what prison will be like."

"If I can escape out of a locked box, what makes you think I couldn't escape from prison?" Allie asked.

                                                                           ***

Rachel St Sebastian was one of the very few people Claire trusted outside the compound. They'd met early on into Claire being in Vegas, and had become quick friends, in part thanks to Claire's weirdly morbid curiosity of her line of work. Rachel was a mortician. It was a family inherited trade, not something she necessarily chose to go to school for, but it was also something she never really minded outright. As she'd once told Claire, "I like working with the dead. At least the dead don't argue."

When she got the call from Claire in prison about the 'package', she knew she had to help. If there was one thing Rachel hated, it was the cops. She'd taken her friend, and now her life, from her and she'd do anything to fight back against them, even just a little. So when she was told to hold the package until Allie showed up, and then turn it over to her, she took the opportunity without thinking twice. She'd seen Allie Meers before, while being downtown. Never in person, just on billboards or on local commercials for the hotel, so she was sort of excited about meeting a pseudo celebrity.

And, best of all, she didn't care one bit about what Allie's participation in this situation was. If anything, she was even more sympathetic to Allie than she ever could've been to Claire.

                                                                              ***

"You'd think that with all this land, you'd at least get some horses," Molly said as Allie parked and they climbed down from the truck. Molly turned and looked at the truck and asked, "did you get a truck with a trailer so we could easily transport it?"

"It was either that or tying him to the roof like a mattress," Allie said, making Molly laugh.

They began to walk away from the truck and towards building C, as instructed. Just as they approached, the doors swung open, and a tall woman, her hair in a messy bun, dressed in a floral short sleeve shirt and khaki pants, strode out to meet them. She was smoking a cigarette, and tossed it on the ground as they approached, stomping it out with her boot.

"So," she said, looking between Allie and Molly, "didn't know you'd have help, but it makes sense."

"Well i can't do this myself," Allie said, "Should I pull the truck around or...?"

"No, I've got a dolly we can wheel him out on," Rachel replied.

"He's not a dresser," Molly said, making Allie chuckle.

"Come on, follow me," Rachel said, and the girls did as they were told. They entered a large room, clearly a medical pavilion of some kind for the people who had lived here, and continued through to another, smaller attached room where, on a metal slab, sat the tomb with a tarp wrapped around it. Allie stopped short, her breath caught in her chest. She hadn't seen the tomb since they'd buried it - well, besides on the news, but she meant more in person - and seeing it now, even if wrapped in something, it made her feel queasy.

"Why's there a tarp over it?" Molly asked.

"Because he's kinda ugly to look at," Rachel said, "he's decomposing for god sakes. You think I wanna see that every time I come in here? So you got a plan of what to do with him?"

"Yeah," Allie said softly as she approached and looked at the tarp covered tomb up close, "...I have a tiger."

                                                                              ***

"Why would a magician come to see you?" Agent Siskel asked, leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs, "I mean, you say she could be a fan, but maybe there's more to it than that, right?"

"Maybe she had the hots for me after seeing me on TV," Claire replied, shrugging, leaning back in her own chair and folding her arms, "Did you know that serial killers get more marriage proposals than anyone else in prison? What does that say about the mental state of the people in this country that they find violence romantically intriguing?"

"What'd you guys talk about?" Agent Siskel asked, still pushing.

"You said something about a deal," Claire said, "and, much as I'd love to take that offer, I have nothing to give in return for it. She came, we chatted about what I did, that was that, sorry to disappoint you, agents. Besides, why the sudden interest in this woman? I thought you guys were watching Sunny's sister?"

"We are," Agent Tropper said, "but that tomb had to come from somewhere, and we saw it up close, we know that it's a magician prop, so if a magician suddenly comes to see you, then it stands to reason that she might have been involved somehow. Claire, you have an opportunity here to gain some freedom. You could help us. All we wanna know is why she came to talk to you."

Claire hesitated, thinking it over. If she walked, would she have anything to walk back to? They'd disbanded her cult, they'd ruined her reputation, they'd taken everything from her. What really would she be returning to?

"You know, it's funny," Claire finally said, grinning slightly, "all I wanted to do was help people, you know? That's why I formed the 'cult', as you call it. I wanted to give people who didn't feel like they belonged a place they could belong to. A family, in a way. I didn't ask anything of them, I just wanted them to feel welcome and loved. Now, here I am, sitting in this prison, and none of them has come to see me."

"Well, considering what you wound up doing, did you expect them to?" Agent Tropper asked, "I mean, not to speak for anyone but, for me personally, if I found out the person I trusted most was arrested for keeping dead bodies in the walls, that'd probably sour my opinion of them."

"Fair," Claire said, "I acknowledge that, but it still stings, you feel me? Actually, that's not true, one person did come to see me. Rachel St Sebastian. She's my oldest friend, and she didn't abandon me, so that was nice."

"...why do I know that name?" Agent Siskel asked, looking at Agent Tropper, who shrugged.

"Because she's the mortician I suggested you use to extract Sunny from the tomb," Claire said, "She's great at what she does, she's highly recognized in her field. She came to see me, she's called a few times, she hasn't left me to rot, and for that, I appreciate her. You know, last time we talked, she told me a story about someone else in her line of work who somehow lost someone they were working on. Someone brought in a young man, someone who had fallen while hiking and had frozen to death, and this other mortician, god knows how they managed to do it, somehow lost the body in transit."

Agent Tropper and Agent Siskel exchanged a glance.

"Why...why are you telling us this?" Agent Tropper asked as Claire grinned.

"Because it's funny, isn't it? People just disappear all the time, even from the places you least expect, in a way almost like life and death itself, one moment they're here, the next they're not," Claire said, "almost like magic."

That's when it struck Agent Siskel. Her eyes widened, her jaw slacked. Claire leaned forward, smiling.

"Abracadabra," she whispered, as Agent Siskel quickly stood up and raced out of the room, a confused Agent Tropper following on her heels, as Claire lost it and started laughing hysterically.

                                                                            ***

Allie and Molly were driving home. Allie didn't want to think about Sunny being in the back of the truck, she just wanted to get home and get rid of him. Molly, almost as if feeling the unease that was suffocating them, sat in total silence as Allie unsuccessfully searched for a radio station, only to get static after static channel.

"Must be too far from the stations," Molly said quietly.

"Do you wanna get something to eat?" Allie asked, "I...I need to eat."

"I could eat," Molly said, "all I've done is full up on gas station jerky, so."

"...I didn't think I'd feel like this. Feel this...bad, you know?" Allie asked, "I think I feel guilty not because I did it, but because he...he wasn't a bad person, and that's what hurts the most. If he'd been an asshole, this all would've been so much easier to defend. But aside from potentially trying to get Zoe hooked, because he was a business man and that's what they do, he wasn't a bad guy. We hung out here and there, he was almost a friend. I just...seeing the tomb again after all this time, it made me wanna vomit."

"Well there goes my appetite," Molly mumbled, making Allie chuckle softly.

"Sorry," Allie said, "it's just all so fucked up. I did what I did to protect Zoe. I didn't know what it would lead to. I just knew that I had to do something to protect her. Look at what happened to me, look at what show business does to a person. She doesn't deserve that. She deserves to be successful, happy, healthy. She's a better person than me."

Molly watched Allie for a moment as she wiped her eyes on her sweatshirt sleeve.

"...I don't think you're a bad person either, Allie," Molly finally said, "I think you were backed into a corner, and you did what you had to."

"Thanks," Allie said, smiling weakly, "I appreciate that."

They didn't talk again until they were in the diner booth, ordering.

                                                                             ***

Agent Siskel pulled up into the parking lot violently, quickly unlatching her seatbelt and climbing out of her car, Agent Tropper right behind her from the passenger side. He was shouting at her, but she didn't take a second to hear him or wait. She barreled right through the doors, only to see Rachel St Sebastian filling out some paperwork at her desk. She looked up when the agents entered, and adjusted her reading glasses.

"Hello," she said calmly.

"Where is he?" Agent Siskel asked.

"...I have some unfortunate news," Rachel said, cupping her hands, "We had a robbery this morning."

Agent Siskel screamed, yanking at her hair as she walked into the coffin showroom, leaning against a nice coffin and crying. All the work, all the effort, and it'd all been undone in a matter of seconds. She couldn't help herself, she was sobbing. She felt a hand on her back and heard Agent Tropper talking to her as he stood beside her, rubbing her shoulder.

"We'll get back on track, alright? We'll make it work," he said, "It's okay, it's just a small setback."

"I was so close, Roger, I was so fucking close," Agent Siskel said, "I was...I was there. I had it. I had it all figured out, locked in, dead to rights. It was over, and she took it from me. That fucking woman, I'm going to kill her, I'm going to do to her what she did to all those people and shove her corpse in a wall."

"Well, that's a little ridiculous," Agent Tropper said, "I understand you're upset, but we'll get it back, alright? Let's just focus."

She wouldn't listen, she couldn't. She just needed to mourn for a moment. Agent Tropper just stayed there, rubbing her back.

"It's fine," he said softly, "Take as long as you need. It's okay."

And she would. Rebecca Siskel had always made a promise to herself, so as not to lose herself in her emotions in regards to her work. She'd let herself be mad or upset, she'd let herself feel for a bit, and then she'd get back to work and she'd solve the case, just like always. She couldn't ignore her disappointment, she knew that was outright unhealthy, but she also knew she couldn't allow herself to wallow in it either, as they got her nowhere. After a bit, she'd regain her composure, she'd get back to work, and she'd do whatever it took to catch Allie Meers.

No matter what.

Molly Hatchet had never really had many friends.

She'd had one serious boyfriend when she was in school, and one close friend, and that was about it. Otherwise she kept to herself or hung out with her parents, who encouraged her love for architecture and pushed her to do something with it for a career. In fact, it wasn't until she met Zoe Fitch and Allie Meers that she finally had people she could consider 'friends', in the typical sense of the word, which was why it hurt them so much that they had lied to her so much and roped her into something so horrible, and why they felt they had to finally set that right. Sitting at the very same minigolf course they'd taken her to the year prior in order to enlist her, Allie and Zoe felt sick, but now for very different reasons. Molly ate her cheese sticks and sipped her drink, nobody saying a thing until she was done and set her cup down, looking up at them and smiling.

"So," she asked, "What did you guys wanna talk to me about?"

"uh," they said in unison, exchanging a glance.

"Is it...bad?" she asked, pushing some hair behind her ear and furrowing a brow.

"Well," Allie said, "That really depends on your definition of 'bad', I guess. Um, Molly, we've...we've taken total advantage of you, and it's time we set that record straight."

"Is this about Zoe staying with me? I told you that's fine," Molly said, looking at Zoe and smiling.

"No, it's about the guy we had you secretly help us bury," Allie said quietly.

Now that caught Molly's attention.

"...the WHAT?" she asked sternly.

                                                                           ***

James Harper opened the door to see Molly standing on his parents porch, soaked in the rain from outside, shivering, crying. He stepped aside so let her in, and once she was inside and he'd shut the door, she turned around and hugged him as tight as possible. Surprised by not just her sudden arrival but also her surprising affection, James hugged her back, and just let her stay there momentarily while she cried against him.

"Is everything okay?" James asked, as Molly stepped back and wiped her eyes on her soaking wet sweater sleeve.

"He..." she started, then stopped, biting her lip, "...he hurt me."

"What?"

But when she made eye contact, that told him all he had to know without saying anything at all. He immediately understood what she meant, and he pulled her back in for another hug, which she graciously accepted. James had always been there for her, and now more than ever she needed a friend. Molly was never very good at making friends, but when she did, she trusted them more than life itself, which is why the betrayal Allie and Zoe hit her with that afternoon hit so hard.

                                                                          ***

"how could you?" Molly whispered, whispering, sitting slumped in the booth.

"It wasn't planned, Molly," Allie said, "and we...we didn't really know you when we made the plan. Once we started knowing you, Zoe even questioned it, but we didn't have a choice, Molly, and we've tried to shield you from it this entire time because we didn't want you involved. But...it's gotten to the point where that's simply not an option anymore."

"They found him," Zoe said, "You saw it on the news. That tomb they pulled out was ours. He was a drug dealer, Molly, he was...he was interested in getting me involved in drugs. Allie saved me. She saw what would've happened, the same thing that happened to her, and she-"

"They're not the same," Molly said sternly, surprising them as she leaned forward, arms folded, "her drug problem wasn't because of him. It was because she was mauled. She was already addicted. He fed that addiction, sure, and that's shitty, sure, but it wasn't because of him. They're not the same, don't say they are."

Allie sighed and nodded as she leaned back, Zoe looking surprised at this sudden admission.

"She's not wrong, actually," Allie said, "but still, Molly, we're sorry. We really are, genuinely, and we love you, you're our best friend. We're not saying these things to trick you or anything, this is all true. Please don't hate Zoe, she...she's just a bystander, honestly. I'm the one to blame."

"You're goddamn right," Molly said, sounding angry but restrained, before sighing and shaking her head, "but...I can't say I blame you. When I was in high school, I had this boyfriend. I thought he was cool, and for the most part he was, but he...he didn't wanna wait for me. He took advantage of me. If given the option, I too would've killed him. But, being a woman, the country is adamantly against me defending myself, so that's not an option. I would've been the one held under a judicial microscope instead of the man attempting sexual assault. I did out him for it though. I put up flyers everywhere before I graduated, explaining what a monster he was, simply so no other girl would go through that."

"Damn," Allie whispered.

"I know what it's like to want to protect those around you," Molly said, "so I can't say I blame you, even if what you did was despicable and backhanded and sneaky. Then again, this is Vegas, so perhaps it was naive of me to think any other sort of behavior would exist here, even in the people you trust most."

"I deserve that, sure," Allie said.

The girls sat there for a moment and for a brief second, nobody said a thing. Nobody would even look at one another, honestly, and hell, who could blame them. This was a major shift in dynamic for their relationship. After a few minutes, Molly cleared her throat and tossed her hair and looked across the table again.

"So...what do we do now?" she asked, "You wouldn't be telling me if you didn't need something."

Allie and Zoe exchanged a glance and chuckled nervously.

"Yeeeah," Allie said, "uh, about that. So, you remember that cult leader that was arrested? Well..."

                                                                          ***

"This is hopeless," Agent Siskel said, throwing her plastic fork down into her chinese food box and sighing, running her hand through her hair as she leaned back in her chair, "she's never going to slip up. She's too careful. Too perfect. We're not getting anything from this."

Agent Tropper sipped his drink and then slipped it back into the cupholder before laughing softly.

"I know it seems hopeless, but this is what a lot of our job is. It isn't all chasing down leads and kicking in doors. Sometimes it's simply sitting somewhere and waiting for someone to make the first move. It's a lot like chess, in a way."

"You play chess?"

"I was actually an extremely talented chess player when I was a teenager, even did it semi professionally for a while," Agent Tropper replied, making Agent Siskel roll her eyes.

"Nerd," she whispered, the both of them laughing.

Siskel and Tropper sat there, Tropper continuing to wrap noodles around his fork and lifting them to his mouth as Siskel picked up the binoculars again and watched Nicole's apartment. She could see her up there, with a man her age, drinking on the balcony and chatting, probably on a date. This job had eaten Siskel's social life, and the only man she really saw on a regular basis was Tropper now. She sighed and lowered the binoculars again, running a hand through her hair.

"...so I dropped off the tomb with that mortician," Agent Siskel said, "if anyone can get that guy out of that thing and clean him up, it'll be her, and once she does that, we'll get the tomb back and we can really look into it for clues. I don't think she put her stepbrother there, for what it's worth, and why would she own a magician prop anyway?"

"Fair assessment," Agent Tropper said, wiping his mouth and checking his watch, "you wanna go get the tomb or should I? If I'm gonna do it, you'll have to tell me what time."

"Do you ever..." Agent Siskel started, then stopped, "...do you ever think about what you'd be doing if you hadn't become this? You know? I used to be a kid in this city and I used to think that it'd be so neat to be, like, a jazz singer or something. In a smoky club somewhere, crooning into a microphone about heartbreak, making all the men feel for me, yearn for me."

"I think I would've stuck with chess," Agent Tropper replied, shrugging, "I didn't have many hobbies."

Agent Siskel laughed, which made Agent Tropper laugh. It was a slow going job, but at least they had eachother.

"When this job's over," Agent Siskel said, "Let's get your wife and we'll go do something fun."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Maybe take in a magic show," Agent Siskel said, smirking.

"You're sick," Agent Tropper said quietly, the both of them laughing again.

                                                                           ***

Molly and Zoe arrived back at Molly's house that evening, Allie going home to the casino, and Molly hadn't said a thing since they left the minigolf park. As they entered the house, Molly walked immediately to the fridge and poured herself a large glass of wine, then downed the entire thing in one sitting before filling it up again and turning to see Zoe standing in the kitchen doorway, looking anxious, rubbing her hands together.

"Something on your mind?" Molly asked, leaning against the counter, now sipping her glass cautiously.

"...please don't hate me," Zoe said, "you guys are the only friends I've ever had and-"

"I don't hate you, you didn't really have a say. She did it in your name, then she lied to me. Allie's the cause. As for the friends thing, I feel the same way, so don't worry. I had one friend in high school, and that was it. I've never been a very sociable person. But you're not to blame here, Zoe, trust me. I've done my research on Allie. Everything that's happened to her...I can't deny some of it was simply unfortunate, but it was also somewhat just...her own stupidity and brazenness. I mean, who works with a tiger, really? You can't control a wild animal. She should've expected that. And then, instead of really trying to get help, she continues to feed her addiction for years, dragging her career down into the toilet. It wasn't until you that she seemed to finally get her things together."

"...and even then, I think just because she needs to be needed," Zoe said, surprising Molly; Zoe sat down in a chair at the table and sighed, "I love her, but I can't deny that she's sick. She's selfish. I'm nothing but a replacement for her cousin that she used to do magic with. She can't stand losing someone again, so she's going to extreme ends to ensure that doesn't happen."

Molly walked to the table and sat down, crossing her legs and looking at Zoe, who was now looking at the floor.

"You know," Molly said, rubbing her nose, "there's...there's gonna come a day where we each will have to face the question of whether she's worth it. Is she worth throwing your own life away for. Frankly, despite not having many friends throughout my life, I don't know that I'd risk it myself, but that's just me. But at some point, Zoe, something terrible is going to happen, and we're gonna have to ask if she's worth going down for."

Molly picked up her wine glass, stood up and started to exit, before stopping in the doorframe and looking back, Zoe now looking back at her.

"I just...I hope we each make the right decision," Molly added, before heading to her home office.

                                                                            ***

Allie came into the penthouse to something that smelled delicious filling the loft. She put her things down and followed the scent into the kitchen, only to find Nick and Jenny there, making dinner. They both smiled and waved at her as she entered and sat on a barstool on the opposite side of them.

"What're you doing here?" Allie asked, making Jenny blush.

"Well, Nick wanted to do something special for you, and I happen to be a culinary artist, so," she said, "he called in my expertise. It's nice. Working at the zoo, I rarely have the energy to cook when I get home, so I'm always itching to stretch my muscles. Hope that's okay..."

"Yeah, whatever, the more the merrier," Allie said, shrugging, "Can I have a beer?"

"You sure can, baby," Nick said, leaning back towards the fridge and pulling one out, tossing it to her, grinning as she caught it, popped the top and started drinking; Nick returned to the stove and, while stirring, asked, "So, you girls have a nice time?"

"...you could say that," Allie mumbled, "so what's for dinner?"

Allie hadn't seen Jenny in a while, really since they'd said goodbye to Domino. She knew Nick and Jenny went back a ways, and their friendship had always somewhat bothered Allie, because she always felt like Jenny was a better fit for him, but she couldn't tell if either one was remotely romantically interested in the other. As Jenny exited the room, heading to the bathroom to wash her hands, Allie slipped away and followed her. She stopped in the doorway, looking in as Jenny pumped soap onto her hands and dipped them under the faucet.

"So, can I ask you a question?" Allie asked.

"Of course!"

"...that private seller who took Domino," Allie said, "uh...you know who it is?"

Jenny wiped her hands on a small towel and looked at Allie.

"...I do," she said.

"I need to see the tiger."

Jenny stared Allie down for a moment, then sighed.

"If I do this for you, you can't tell anyone. I could get fired for giving out client information," she said, and Allie nodded.

"Don't worry," Allie said, "It's gonna be a one time thing."

                                                                           ***

Rebecca Siskel just wanted to forget about the case.

When Agent Tropper dropped her off that night, she wanted to just relax. She went inside, she took a long warm bath, she did her nails, then she pulled out a small pint of ice cream from the freezer and cuddled up in a big quilt on her couch. She sighed as she started to spoon into the pint, flipping channel to channel, looking for anything to watch. Seemed like all she did was work, she felt like she never took any time for herself, and she hated that. She was starting to feel overwhelmed and burnt out, especially now that this case in particular had appeared to have hit such a brick wall, because until Nicole made a move of one kind or another, they had nothing else to go on. Rebecca adjusted herself and accidentally unmuted the television with her elbow, a commercial now loudly filling the room.

"God dammit," she muttered, reaching for the remote, which had fallen off the couch. She set her pint down on the coffee table and climbed down onto her knees, looking around while the TV blared behind her.

"It's the most beautiful casino in Vegas, and it's the only one with such great acts as Effie Brahams, the funniest women in comedy in the city, a 5 star buffet right next to the casino floor and of course, everyones favorite local legend, magician Allie Meers!"

Something clicked in Rebecca's brain, and she turned, looking over the table at the television, watching intently now as she saw a clip of Allie and Zoe in their costumes, doing their act. She turned slowly more, now completely immersed.

"Come on down and see the pair that's sold out regularly! Who knows, you might even catch Allie doing the trick that made her famous, the Tomb of Doom!" the voice said, now showing a clip of Allie performing the trick with a tomb that looked incredibly similar to the one they'd found Sunny in. Rebecca's joy caught in her chest, and she cracked a smile. A man now came on screen, standing in front of an overhead shot of the cityscape.

"I'm Tony Ephram, and I'm the owner of The Card Shark, so come on down, the fish are always bitin'," Tony said, grinning and finger gunning the audience. The channel then cut to a different commercial, but the noise no longer bothered Agent Rebecca Siskel. She'd cracked it, and now she had a lead once again. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Abracafuckindabra," she whispered.

Nicole Sykes's morning was going rather slow for a change, and she was appreciative. Usually her mornings were rushed; coffee grabbed on the go, into the office by 9, barely enough time to shower and find a good suit and do her makeup. But not this morning. This morning was just right...even if for all the wrong reasons. As she sipped her coffee sitting at her bar in the apartment, the newspaper open in front of her, she couldn't have any less urgency if she tried. And then someone knocked at her door. Nicole sighed, set her mug down and stood up, wrapping her silken robe tightly around her and sinching it shut. She opened the front door and saw a man and a woman in suits standing there in the hall.

"...can I help you?" she asked.

"Nicole Sykes?" Agent Tropper asked, "I'm Agent Tropper, this is Agent Siskel. We're with the local FBI chapter of the Vegas PD. Do you have a moment?"

Nicole stepped aside cautiously, letting them enter. As they walked inside, Agent Tropper whistled, looking around her place.

"Nice digs, man," he said.

"Thank you," Nicole replied, smiling, brushing her hair from her eyes, "Do you mind if I have my breakfast while we talk?"

"No, please, go ahead," Agent Siskel said.

Nicole seated herself back at the bar, the agents pulling up stools on the opposite side, facing her. They stayed silent for a bit, letting Nicole drink her coffee and eat her toaster strudels, giving her a moment of peace. After a bit, Agent Siskel cleared her throat and Nicole looked up.

"So," she asked, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

"We found your brother," Agent Siskel said.

"I saw," Nicole said, "Stepbrother, but, close enough. Thank you for finding him. His absence has been hurting me for so long. I couldn't believe he was actually gone, and now that he's really gone, I almost can't seem to parse that reality. When you have someone around you for so long, you know, it's just...it's weird."

"We wanted to ask if maybe your brother had any enemies, or perhaps if you knew of his drug dealings and, as such, any of his clients," Agent Tropper asked.

"I knew he was involved in some shady things, but no, we didn't really discuss that," Nicole said, "We were close, but we almost made a sincere effort to keep our private lives private. As for enemies, not since grade school, hah. None that I'm aware of, anyway."

"We're sorry for your loss," Agent Tropper said, "We know it must be difficult."

"He was my best friend. Being adopted got me a lot of shit growing up, every kid was always trying to make me feel bad about it, but Spencer was always there to make me feel better," Nicole said, sighing and shaking her head, "he was always just so comforting and-"

"Spencer?" Agent Siskel asked, confused.

"Sunny wasn't his actual name," Nicole said, "His birth name was Spencer. Sunny was just something he started calling himself in college. I don't know, I guess with his lifestyle, the name 'Spencer' doesn't exactly invoke feelings of awe and respect."

"Fair enough, I think I beat up a kid named Spencer once, so I'd agree with that," Agent Tropper said, making the girls chuckle.

"I have to be getting into the office soon," Nicole said, checking her watch, "Can we meet again later or tomorrow?"

"Anytime, just give us a call," Agent Siskel said.

Nicole thanked the agents, then escorted them out of the apartment. Standing in the hall, Agent Siskel looked at Agent Tropper, who just nodded at her.

"Yeah," he said, "You're right. She's involved. No question. She was so...prepared. There was no sense of shock or anything. So what do we do now?"

"We wait for her to slip up," Agent Siskel said, "they always do."

                                                                          ***

Claire was led down the hall, her hands cuffed, towards the meeting room. As they entered the room - a room with metal picnic tables where others were having visitations - Claire was pointed to a table in the far back corner, where she saw a woman sitting, waiting for her. Claire walked past everyone else and sat down at the table, tossing her hair and smiling at the woman.

"Do I know you?" she asked.

"No," Allie said, "I'm Allie Meers."

"A fan?"

"Let's say that, sure," Allie said.

"Surprised. I don't get many visitors," Claire said, "...actually, I haven't gotten a single visitor. Not a single person from my compound has come to see me. That's actually been rather upsetting, considering all I did for them."

"What'd you do for them?" Allie asked, her brow furrowed.

"You know, led them to enlightenment, helped them find a higher calling," Claire said, "...all that bullshit."

"So you don't believe in it yourself?"

"I wouldn't say that," Claire replied, "I'll just say that being off medication makes you believe some whack ass shit. They've got me back on it now, apparently prisons have great health insurance, so I'm starting to see how weird everything I did was...so why are you here exactly?"

"I'm here about Sunny," Allie said, "the news said he was somewhat attached to your happenings."

"Did they now? Well, you know what they say, no press is bad press," Claire said.

"...I'm gonna level with you, I need help," Allie said, "and...and I can repay you if you help me. I need to know where they took his body. The tomb he was found in."

"Why?" Claire asked, sounding curious but interested.

"...because it's my mine," Allie said.

                                                                             ***

Effie and Zoe were walking through the crowded restaurant, heading to the outdoor section, Effie holding tight to Zoe's hand as Zoe breathed heavily. She was nervous, but she didn't want to be. It had just been a while since she'd talked to, let alone seen her parents, and she didn't know how this afternoon was going to go over. As they reached the doors leading out, Zoe pointed at them and Effie nodded, then turned to face her.

"You sure you wanna do this?" Effie asked, "You don't have to, you know that, right?"

"I have to," Zoe said, "I need to stop running away from them. I need to stop needing their approval, and that starts with being openly myself, about my career...about you."

Effie smiled and stroked Zoe's cheek, then took her hand again and headed through the doors. As they approached the table, Thea scooted her chair out and stood up, hugging Zoe tightly, rubbing her back. After that hug broke, she shook Effie's hand, while Zoe hugged her parents, and then Effie shook their hands before they all took their seats again.

"Well," Richard, Zoe and Thea's father, said, "we're glad you were able to find time to see us. You look great."

"Thanks dad," Zoe said, her voice meek and shaky, "I've been really busy with work, and other stuff with my work partner, so it's been hard to find time to do anything else, but yeah, she had to do something today, so I had some time off."

"Well thank you for using it to come see us," their mother, Ginny, said, "and thank you for bringing her, since she's not staying with Thea right now," she added, looking at Effie and smiling politely.

"Oh, sure, it was no problem!" Effie said, opening her menu and reading through, "Honestly, I was more than happy to do so. Especially once I got invited. Can't turn down a free meal."

Zoe giggled, which made Thea smile, as their parents smiled weakly.

"She's a comedian, please forgive her," Zoe said, "She works at the same casino I work at, that's how we met. She was a friend of my partner."

"So work is going well?" Ginny asked, making Zoe grimace, hiding it best she could.

Was work going well? Sure, they were doing gangbusters in ticket sales, and they were selling out constantly, and Zoe was making more money than she'd ever seen in her entire life, but now with Sunny's body having been found and Allie visiting a cult leader serial killer in prison for advice...was work going well? Well, Zoe had learned, had become a somewhat relative term. She nodded, reassuring her parents, that work was in fact going well, even if she didn't really believe it. Though, really, work was going well. It was life that wasn't.

"So where are you staying?" Richard asked, sipping his glass of water.

"With a friend," Zoe said, "A woman who designed the casino we work in. I'm staying with her."

"Oh, I just figured you were staying with her since she drove you," Richard said.

"No, she's not," Effie said, "Even though I offered. But, you know, she didn't feel comfortable."

"Why not? Your place not big enough?" Ginny asked.

Zoe and Effie exchanged a nervous glance, and Zoe exhaled.

"The reason I even came to lunch today was tell you guys something," Zoe said, squeezing Effie's hand under the table, "it's about me, and...about her," she added, motioning to Effie. The truth was something Zoe had to face, rather than run from. She needed to gain strength and personhood, instead of letting others live for her, and the first step was accepting herself in front of her parents, whether they accepted her or not.

                                                                            ***

"That's a hell of a story," Claire said, smirking as Allie leaned back in her chair, exhausted emotionally; Claire chewed her lip, then leaned in and lowered her voice, "in my compound, there's a woman who works there who works with the dead. She's the best mortician in the city. She was partially how I managed to get away with storing bodies the way I did for so long without getting caught. If anyone is going to get Sunny back for you, it's gonna be here. They're gonna need a professional to remove him from that tomb, and I can't think of anyone I'd recommend to them more than her."

"And you're telling me that this woman would help me?" Allie asked, as Claire nodded.

"Indeed she will," Claire said, "I'll recommend her to the agents, and they'll give her the tomb to pull his body from and do some work on so he can be buried for the family's sense of closure. When she has him, she can turn him over to you. You got a pen?"

Allie fumbled around a bit, before finally pulling a pen from her purse. Claire took it, best she could being in cuffs, and uncapped it with her teeth. Then she took Allie's wrist and began writing directions up her arm.

"This is how you get to the compound, she's there taking care of it for me while I'm here," Claire said, "Tell her I sent you, tell her what I told you. Once she gets the call from the agents, she'll know you're not bullshitting her. Besides, she'll recognize my handwriting here."

Allie couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe she might actually get a chance to set things right, or at the very least, throw them off her and Zoe's trail for a while longer so they could think of something else. After Claire finished her directions, she capped the pen again and slid it across the table to Allie.

"Thank you so much," Allie whispered.

"We all screw up," Claire said sullenly, "Some of us worse than others, but there's no reason both of us should go down for this. Sunny wasn't a bad guy, but he was helping keep bad habits alive, and I can't forgive that. Get rid of him again, once and for all, and make sure nobody knows where he goes."

"Oh don't worry," Allie said, looking at her hand, "Nobody will ever find him."

"You got a plan?"

Allie grinned.

"I have a tiger," she said.

                                                                            ***

Driving home in the light rain, Effie couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. After Zoe's admittance of her sexuality to her folks, the lunch had taken a...less fun turn. Things hadn't become outright hostile, but their demeanor certainly changed into more solemn than they had been before, and that brought everyone else down. Effie glanced over at Zoe, looking down at her hands as the heater blew her hair back gently.

"You wanna talk about it?" Effie asked.

"No."

"Parents suck, man, don't worry too much about it," Effie said.

"...I will never be my sister," Zoe whispered, catching Effie off guard.

"What's that now?"

"I will never be my sister," Zoe repeated, "She's the good kid. She's the one who does well, she's the one who got her life together. She's not the one who idolizes a magician and is gay. She's the one I'll always be held up against as an example and I will always fall short."

"Yeah but that's on them, not on you. Your expectations of yourself aren't based on how well you compare to her, right? Only theirs are. That's the difference. You know your self worth," Effie said, "and if they can't see past that to see what you're actually capable of, then fuck 'em."

Zoe smiled and reached over, putting her hand on Effie's leg. It had been an uncomfortable afternoon, as she'd expected. but at least she had someone to comfort her. And when they arrived back at Molly's, they found dinner was already made. In a way, Zoe thought, Effie was right. Who ultimately cared how her parents felt. She knew how great she was, and she had better people in her life now anyway. People who didn't care about that aspect of her one iota. People who were just simply happy to know her at all. That had to count for something. Zoe had left her parents a frightened and uncertain young woman, but she was quickly finding out that she was so much more than their perception of how she used to be.

And she owed it all to those around her.

                                                                            ***

Nicole Sykes's evening wasn't as uneventful as her morning had been, and she was annoyed by it.

She had planned to go to dinner with some girlfriends, and then go home and do some domestic chores. Get some laundry done, do some cleaning, but after the visit from the agents that morning, all Nicole could think of was calling The Benefactor. She knew she had to give them a heads up, in case they started to head their way, but she was afraid of doing so. Goddamn Sunny, she thought, everything was fine until he got himself killed. She knew this would eventually happen, and she thankfully had a contingency plan in place, but still, she'd hoped she'd never have to actually use it. Sitting in her car after work, she opened her phone and dialed. After a few rings, they answered.

"It's Nicole," she said, "You probably know, I think you have caller ID. Anyway, some agents came to see me this morning about Sunny. Yeah, well, I figured you should know. They didn't have anything to say to me other than extend their sympathies and ask me if I knew of his illicit activities, to which I acknowledged but also said I wasn't involved in. I don't know, I'm not sure if they believed me or not. You want to meet? Talk about this in person, or should we keep our distance for a while?"

A pause, and Nicole nodded and sighed.

"Alright, you're right. Yeah, I'll just go home and unwind. I'm very tense," she said, "Call me if you find anything else out, or you just wanna discuss it further. Thanks. Yeah. Goodbye."

She hung up and tossed her phone on the passenger seat. She was going to need to find whoever had killed her brother before the agents did, that's all it boiled down to, because if they were remotely related to the business, it could bring the whole operation down. She sighed and pulled out of her parking space, then headed onto the road. She'd seen the news, she'd seen the photos, he'd been found in a magicians prop. She should be looking into magicians, she figured, but this was Vegas, there were so many goddamned casinos and magicians, where do you start?

It didn't matter, she'd find them. She'd find them...

...and she'd do to them what they'd done to her stepbrother, or even worse.

God, what Molly would give to wake up and not need help from caffeine. She'd given up coffee a while ago, and she felt better than ever, but sometimes she really missed the boost it gave her. As she stood in her kitchen, cooking scrambled eggs, she heard Zoe plod into the kitchen and seat herself at the kitchen table. She rested her face on her hands on the table, her eyes still closed. Molly smiled and picked up the coffee pot, pulled a mug from the cabinet and walked them to the table. She set them down and poured her a cup. Zoe reached out and picked up the mug, pulling it towards her.

"Thank you," she said, groggily.

"My pleasure," Molly said, heading back to the stove to finish cooking her eggs; she glanced over her shoulder and asked, "So, what do you have to do today?"

"I know I should probably see my parents at some point," Zoe said, rubbing her eyes and yawning, "but, god, I'm just not ready. I think we have practice today, so I guess I'll head over to the casino."

"Oh, that might not be a good idea," Molly said, walking to the table with two plates of scrambled eggs and sitting down, sliding one of the plates across the table to Zoe, adding, "there's a bunch of cops and stuff there. These workers looking for a busted pipe found some dead guy buried underground."

Zoe stopped in her tracks, mouth full of eggs. She slowly looked up at Molly, her eyes wide.

"...what?" she asked.

                                                                           ***

Zoe pulled up in her car in the parking lot to find Allie already there, leaning against the car, smoking a cigarette which she immediately stomped out as Zoe climbed out of the car. Neither woman looked particularly well dressed or prepared for the day; hell, Zoe hadn't even changed out of her pajamas. The parking lot they'd met in was the one of the old casino, because there'd be no activity there, so they figured it was the best spot to go.

"...you heard?" Zoe asked.

"Of course I heard, it's the only thing on all the local channels!" Allie said loudly, before lowering her voice, "we need to make a plan."

"You told me they wouldn't find him," Zoe said, "you told me that this would be eternal. That there'd be no reason for anyone to ever come across him."

"Yeah well, I didn't expect pipes to be put in that area!" Allie replied, her ire clear, "and even then, what're the odds that they'd break and lead someone to him? Don't worry, we'll be alright. I have some ideas of how to deal with this."

"Every idea you've had has only made things worse," Zoe said.

"I did this for you," Allie replied.

"Stop putting that in front of me," Zoe replied, "I didn't ask you to do anything. You did it of your own accord, and likely because you're afraid of being alone, certainly not for my well being."

A moment passed as a few cars slowly passed by, looking for a parking spot. The women took a moment to calm down, Zoe pacing as Allie rubbed her forehead. She pulled another cigarette from the carton in her shirt pocket and lit it, inhaling then exhaling, blowing smoke into the cool morning air. After a few minutes she finally took a long deep breath and looked back at Zoe.

"We can go to his apartment," Allie said, "I know where he lived. If we go to his apartment we can remove any instances of my knowing him."

"You think you can get in?"

"I have a key. He asked me to watch his place when he went on vacation once."

"What makes you think his apartment is even still around?"

"...because I've stopped by it," Allie mumbled.

"EXCUSE me?" Zoe asked loudly, "You what?! Why would you do that?!"

"Maybe because of a little thing called guilt, Zoe, you ever hear of it?" Allie asked sternly, "it's this thing normal people have when they feel bad about something they did. How's it work on your planet?"

"Oh right, you're the prime example of a 'normal person'," Zoe said, using air quotes.

"Get in the fucking car," Allie said, and instead of arguing, Zoe did what she was told. She walked around to the passenger side, climbed inside and strapped her seatbelt as Allie started the car up and pulled back out of the space, exiting the lot. She didn't want to tell Zoe she'd been by Sunny's place, but it was true. She had stopped by on numerous occasions. She'd never gone inside, she'd just stopped by and looked at the apartment from her car, feeling remorseful about what she'd done.

But she knew she'd done it for the right reason. He was going to target Zoe. He was going to get her addicted, and she didn't deserve that. Allie hated using that as leverage, but it was the reason she'd done what she'd done. Okay, to be fair, she didn't mean to kill him. It was an accident. But she'd defended Zoe's personhood against him, and that had led to his demise. Well, maybe, Allie thought, going by his place would finally give her a sense of closure. But, as she'd soon learn...

...there's no closure to be had in this type of situation.

                                                                            ***

"You sure we should be here?" Agent Tropper asked as he shut the car door, looking over the roof at Agent Siskel exiting the drivers side. She adjusted her glasses and nodded.

"I mean, they seem to have found our man, so yes, I'd say we should be here," Agent Siskel replied, "Come on. I'll buy you lunch afterwards, alright? It'll be worth it."

Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper walked through the crowd, past firefighters and cops, until they found a stout, semi balding man in a suit standing there in a hawaiian shirt and grey slacks. He pulled his sunglassess of his face and ran his hand down his face, groaning loudly as they agents stopped beside him.

"Rough morning?" Agent Siskel asked.

"You have no idea," Tony said, "...who are you guys?"

"Special agents Rebecca Siskel and Roger Tropper. We're here about the guy," Agent Siskel replied, nodding at the dig site, "you guys manage to pull him out yet?"

"Yeah," Tony said, "they got him out of there about ten minutes ago, he's being held over there while these guys do some minor detailing on how to patch up this whole mess."

"...sir, did you know the deceased?" Agent Siskel asked, "His name was Sunny Sykes, he was a governors son. He's been missing for over half a year."

"No?" Tony asked, shaking his head, "I run a casino, not a drug den. What makes you think I'd have any interactions with a man like that?"

"Because we have reason to believe he was laundering money through casinos, helping the owners cheat taxes," Agent Tropper said, sticking his hands in his pockets, "seeing as he wound up under yours, we just thought we'd ask. I'm gonna go check on the guy."

"He can't get any deader," Tony said, making Agent Siskel laugh as they watched Agent Tropper walk away; after a moment, Tony looked back at Agent Siskel and asked, "so...so wait, someone buried this guy here while we were building my casino, or?"

"We don't know yet," Agent Siskel said, "but we're gonna find out, okay? Just be patient, and we'll find the people responsible, and clear your casino of any ill will. I'm sorry you've been inadvertently included in this horrific incident."

Agent Siskel then excused herself to join her partner, leaving Tony there to think. As Agent Siskel approached Agent Tropper, she furrowed her brow as she noticed what it was Sunny was placed inside. Agent Tropper knocked on the tomb, realizing it was made of plastic.

"This is a magicians prop," Agent Siskel said, "weird final resting place."

"You think if we open this he'll unleash a plague of curses on us?" Agent Tropper asked, making Agent Siskel throw her head back, laughing loudly, which made Agent Tropper smile. He appreciated, if nothing else, being paired with someone whom he could get along with. Through all their time together on cases, Siskel and Tropper had become genuine friends and not just coworkers.

"So," Agent Tropper asked, "...how do we find out who owned it?"

                                                                             ***

The door to Sunny's apartment opened and Allie and Zoe slunk inside quietly. Allie turned on some small lights, so as not to draw any attention to the fact that this place suddenly had visitors. Zoe shut the door behind them and made sure to lock it, for some reason. Paranoia, she figured. As she looked at Allie, she noticed Allie was looking at the photos on the entertainment stand Sunny's TV and other equipment and devices were on.

"...Allie, I'm sorry," Zoe finally said.

"No, don't...don't apologize, I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't continue to hold that over you, it's slimy. I didn't do it for leverage. I did it because I care about you. Because you're my friend and I didn't wanna see you go down the same road I did. I'm a mess, Zoe, but you don't have to be."

Zoe sat on the couch and sighed, looking at her shoes.

"My family's in town," Zoe finally said, almost whispering.

"What? Really?"

"Mhm. I'm hiding out at Molly's," Zoe said.

"Afraid to face them since you started working with me, or is it because of what you did as a kid?" Allie asked, "Cause I mean, they know it was an accident, they can't hold that against you forever. Hell, maybe they're here to make things right. You never know."

"I am scared to face them, but not because of those reasons," Zoe said, now getting Allie's attention as she turned to look at her; Zoe sniffled and wiped her eyes on her pajama shirt sleeve and added, "I just...I'm scared for them to know I'm in a relationship. Until I came here to work with you, until I met Effie, I never...I never had feelings for another girl, really. Or, if I did, I repressed it to the point of not realizing it. I'm scared they'll judge me on that. And now with this on top of that, I just..."

Allie walked to the couch and sat down beside Zoe, rubbing her back gently.

"I'm sorry," Allie said, "but you have nothing to be ashamed of. And if they don't accept you, you know we all do. We don't care if you're gay or not. We're just happy you're happy. We're your family too, Zoe. Molly and Effie and Nick and I. We all love you and accept you for who you are. You're a good person, Zoe, and you have the biggest heart and a conscience and if they can't see the good past this one thing, then they don't deserve to know you at your best."

Zoe smiled and leaned against Allie, letting her hold her. The two sat there in silence for a bit, just soaking in the moment.

"When my cousin decided to stop doing magic with me, it destroyed me. I thought we were a team, you know? So to have someone again, to trust someone again that deeply...you mean a lot to me, Zoe. That's why I did what I did. I can't..." Allie bit her lip, starting to cry, "...I can't lose you too."

Zoe smiled, blushing, as she hugged Allie, not realizing that as she leaned in, she turned the TV on with the remote that was on the couch. The girls laughed as the screen flickered to life, and then Allie got up and continued looking around for any evidence of her attachment to Sunny.

"God, it's weird being here," Allie said, "I really didn't-"

"Allie," Zoe said softly, pointing at the TV, making Allie look and seeing the news. Zoe turned it up.

"If you're just joining us, our top story today is a local drug dealer, a governors son who's been missing for half a year, has been found dead underneath a new casino. His body was buried inside what appears to be a magicians prop tomb. Agents working on the scene have informed us that there's a distinct possibility that he is tied closely to the cult leader recently arrested, Claire Driscoll. Cause of death has yet to be-"

Zoe muted the TV and looked at Allie.

"...I guess I'm going to prison," Allie said.

"They haven't figured anything substantial out yet, there's still time to-"

"No, not go to prison for good" Allie said, "go to prison to meet Claire."

                                                                         ***

Claire Driscoll was sitting in her cell, reading a book when she heard the door open and saw Agents Siskel and Tropper enter. She put the book down and, blowing her bangs from her face, looked at them, her eyes clearer than they had been in weeks.

"More questions?" Claire asked.

"We found him," Agent Siskel said, "we found Sunny. Now, we can't get you off the charges, but we might be able to lighten them considering how you helped us. Don't think we would've found this guy without your help, honestly."

"Is he...is he..."

"Yeah, he is," Agent Tropper chimed in, "but he'll be back in his dads arms and they can put him to rest, so you did a good thing, Claire. Inadvertently, perhaps, but still a good thing nonetheless. But we are somewhat curious how well you knew this guy. Were you closer to him than you said? Did he ever talk about other clients, or family or anything?"

Claire shook her head, then thought and he eyes lit up.

"Actually he mentioned a sister," Claire said, snapping his fingers, "I unsuccessfully tried to recruit her, but he did mention a sister a number of times. After I tried recruiting her he threatened me to stay away, so I did. Why?"

"We found these photos in his apartment," Agent Siskel said, handing Claire the framed photo and the one that was with the files, "is that the woman? Is that his sister? We could easily confirm this with his father but we don't butt in on his grieving right now, and it'd held to have third party corroboration."

"Yeah, that's her," Claire said, "You have to tell her, don't you?"

Agent Siskel and Agent Tropper thanked her for her help, then exited. Standing in the hall outside her room now, they exhaled and as Agent Siskel looked at the photos, Agent Tropper pulled some gum from his coat pocket and popped a few pieces into his mouth, chewing.

"So, when do we tell her?" Agent Tropper asked.

"We don't," Agent Siskel said, "Because I've already done some research into his sister."

"...what?" Agent Tropper asked.

"She's an accountant, Roger," Agent Siskel said, "she's the one who was helping him. And I have a sneaking suspicion that their father isn't as innocent as we thought. This could be an entire family operation we've stumbled onto. Claire Driscoll may actually be some kind of hero, in some warped way."

"So what do we do now?" Agent Tropper asked as they headed down the hall.

"We find out who owns that tomb," Agent Siskel replied.

                                                                         ***

Allie dropped Zoe off at Molly's, said their goodbyes and said they'd meet in a day or so for practice. Despite everything, they still had to work. They had to maintain a sense of a life, otherwise others may grow curious. As Zoe entered the house, she found Molly sitting with Effie in the living room, each drinking tea and laughing. Taken aback by this sudden appearance of Effie, Zoe turned red and went quiet.

"She's been here for like an hour," Molly said, getting up, "I'll leave you guys alone."

Molly exited the room as Zoe walked and sat down in the chair Molly had been seated in. Effie set her mug down on the side table, folding her legs.

"Where you been?" Effie asked, "I haven't heard from you in days, it feels like. Now you're staying with her? I mean, I'm just...concerned and confused I guess. Is everything okay between us?"

"I didn't wanna bother you," Zoe mumbled, "I...I felt weird, asking if I could stay with you, seeing as we're just dating and, I don't know, things are complicated. Not between us, god no, but just in general. Things with Allie are tense, and my family is in town for some reason and-"

Effie stood up and walked over to the chair Zoe sat in and sat on an ottoman in front of her, taking her hands in hers and smiling.

"I don't really mind, I just...I guess I was worried you were avoiding me or something," Effie said, "I'm glad that's not the case, but you could've stayed with me. It's alright."

"I didn't wanna pressure you. I've never really been in a serious relationship," Zoe said.

"I understand," Effie said, "but Zoe, I...I love you. I do. I know that's, like, a serious faux paus to make only half a year into something, but I do, and I care about you and I wanna help keep you happy. Just, please try and include me in your life. I've had nothing but crappy relationships, so this thing with you is...weird cause it's not crappy, and I don't really know how to approach that. I just know that I-"

Zoe leaned in and kissed Effie, while Molly, watching from the kitchen doorway, smiled. She loved seeing people happy together, and wished she could have that for herself.

"I love you too," Zoe whispered, "Can we go to dinner? I need normalcy."

"Yeah, you got it, anywhere you want," Effie replied, grinning, their foreheads touching.

                                                                             ***

       A FEW YEARS AGO

Sunny sighed, leaning against the railing of his sisters high rise balcony. He sipped his scotch as she walked out, still in her tight black dress and her bright red high heels. Her long blonde hair, wavy behind her, flowed in the night breeze. Sunny smiled as she leaned against the railing beside him and sighed, sipping her own scotch.

"Who says crime doesn't pay?" Sunny asked, making her laugh.

"You know, we're playing with fire here," Nicole said, "but then again I guess we're used to it, seeing as we've been doing it our whole lives."

"Thanks for the help, I really do appreciate it," Sunny said, "we're gonna get dad elected, and we're gonna run this whole fucking place."

Nicole smirked as she downed the rest of her drink then walked back past the sliding glass doors, unzipping her dress as she went in and letting it fall to the floor. She casually glanced over her shoulder at Sunny, smirking and winking. He grinned, put his glass down on the outdoor balcony table and walked inside after her. As Nicole fell onto the couch, pulling her brother on top of her, kissing him, she could've believe her life. She'd been adopted into a wealthy family, with a father who had the possibility of becoming a governor, and a brother who loved her more than he should've. She had gone to the finest college, she had gotten a good paying job, and now she was about to own all of Vegas with the help of her family. As she felt Sunny's lips biting her neck, she shut her eyes and moaned, grinning. Nothing was going to stop her.

Nothing except a magician.

Marcie was late.

She was going to have to get to this birthday party quickly, and then back to the college just as quickly, since she had a paper she could not afford to have late. She sped down the road, taking sharp turns around curves and altogether ignoring traffic laws. All she wanted to do was go to college, and now that she was, she found she had to pay for it all by herself. Between her dead end job at the copier store and doing magic, she made it work, but it was barely enough to squeak by. As she turned, she realized she might've forgotten her deck of cards, and swore at the top of her lungs before beginning to dig around in the bag on the passenger seat. She didn't even see the minivan in front of her. When Marcie awoke, she was in a hospital bed.

Things were never the same after that.

She had to drop out of school altogether to recooperate and move back home, much to both her and her parents disappointment. After a few months of being on pain medication and doing physical therapy, Marcie finally became fed up with her parents, packed a rental car and split. She didn't know where to go, all she knew was that she didn't want to be here. She could remember a birthday party where she'd met a little girl who'd asked her where she could do magic professionally, and Marcie had told her maybe Vegas, so, she thought, maybe Vegas was the place to go.

It seems to be where everyone who doesn't belong anywhere else winds up.

                                                                                 ***

"May I ask, and you don't have to answer but I am curious, why you have a genie outfit in your closet?" Effie asked while standing in Allie's penthouse while Allie watered her plants.

"Because of an act I once did," Allie said, "but, uh, turns out it didn't work out the way I wanted it to, so now it just sits there as an occasional Halloween costume, or, ya know, something for a special evening."

"Hot," Effie said, making Allie smirk; Effie shut the closet door and turned to Allie, "so," she started, "why did you ask me to hang out and not Nick?"

"Nick has work today," Allie said, "Besides, we don't do enough things together."

"This counts as doing something? Jesus your bar is low," Effie said.

"You're the one capable of meeting it."

"Okay, ow," Effie replied, "Guess I deserved that."

Effie pulled out a pack of cigarettes from her shirt pocket and hit the bottom a few times before sliding one out and then lighting it, putting it between her lips.

"You don't mind do you?" she asked.

"Usually people ask before they start smoking it," Allie said.

"Well, I'm always different," Effie said.

Allie set her bright red watering can down on the dresser where her plants were sitting atop and looked around the penthouse. It felt like she didn't spend much time here anymore, what with all the time she seemed to spend at Nick's now, and she started feeling weird about even still having her own place. Maybe she should ask Nick to move in with her, but then again if something didn't work out, he'd no longer have an apartment, and that wouldn't be fair to him. Allie sighed and put her hands on her hips, looking around.

"...fuck, what time is it?" she asked, checking her watch.

"Why did you ask that if you had a watch?" Effie asked.

"I was supposed to pick up a piece of equipment for a show," Allie said, "Can you hang here until I get back? I'll buy you dinner later."

"Ooh, and I don't even have to sleep with you? Fancy," Effie said, the both of them laughing as Allie grabbed her windbreaker from the hanger by the door and pulled it on. She said she'd be back in less than an hour, and then headed out of the penthouse. She found her way downstairs to the parking garage, climbed into her car and pulled out, driving to the prop store she got all her equipment from. Allie parked, and headed into the store, to find it - as usual - mostly empty. She strolled down an aisle, looking for even a single person who worked there, before turning around a corner and bumping into someone.

"Jesus, sorry," she quickly apologized, before realizing who it was, "...Marcie?"

"...yes?" Marcie asked, looking at Allie in confusion, "Do I know you?"

                                                                              ***

After that birthday party, Allie was enamored with the idea of magic.

For her next birthday, she begged for a magic kit, which her mothers brother bought for her. She spent the remainder of her adolescence in her bedroom, perfecting her magic act. She always wanted to see The Marvelous Marcie again, but she never wound up going to another birthday party - or any party really - that required a magician, and she couldn't find her in any of the phonebooks thanks to not having her last name. All she had to remember her by was the cape Marcie had given her at the party. When Allie moved to Vegas with her cousin, she picked a stagename reminiscent of Marcie's, because she figured that was what you did. She didn't have anything else to guide her besides the magic kit, which didn't even really cover the topic of names.

But, in the back of her mind, Allie had always hoped that one day she would meet The Marvelous Marcie once again. Who would've guessed that she would, in a magic shop of all places?

                                                                                ***

Zoe groaned as she rolled over and saw Molly picking up laundry from the floor. She sat up on her elbows and pushed her bushy hair from her face, one eye squinting at her, the other still shut. Molly glanced over and smiled at her.

"You don't have to do my laundry," Zoe said.

"You're a guest in my house," Molly said, "I also made lunch, if you're hungry."

"Wow, you're a really nice hostess."

"Well," Molly said, standing up with a pile of clothes in her arms now, "I...I don't get many visitors, so I guess I'm kind of grateful for the company."

Molly turned and exited the room as Zoe climbed out of bed. Zoe took a shower, got dressed and then headed to the kitchen, where she found a plate of french toast and a cup of coffee sitting on the table for her. Zoe sat down as she watched Molly back and forth between the kitchen and the laundry room, putting load after load into the machine before starting it and joining her at the table.

"So," Molly said, "Any idea of whether or not you'll see your folks?"

"I probably have to at some point, but I'd rather it be on my terms," Zoe said, "You know what I mean? I wanna be prepared."

"I understand," Molly said, "there's nothing worse than people dropping by unannounced."

Zoe raised an eyebrow, making Molly become flustered.

"Not...not you! Oh, that sounded bad, I'm sorry. No. I meant more like family, but you dropping by unannounced was fine, and I like having you here," Molly said, "I'm sorry, that came off wrong."

"It's fine," Zoe said, laughing as she cut into her french toast, "I know you like having me here, you made me breakfast after all."

"Actually I made me breakfast, I just happened to make too much," Molly said, smiling.

                                                                               ***

"I can't believe you're in Vegas," Allie said, "I can't believe we've never run into eachother."

"I can't believe the prices here," Marcie whispered, making Allie laugh loudly; Marcie smiled and added, "So, I guess you took my advice after all, from what you've told me. How's it worked out for you?"

"Well, I currently have a long standing contract with The Card Shark, and its new location specifically, as the headlining act and I live in a penthouse suite free of charge, so I'd say it's worked out pretty goddamn well honestly. You, on the other hand, look like you'd disagree."

"I was going to college for a real career," Marcie mumbled as she slid a set of brass rings back onto the hook, "but I had to keep working because of a falling out with my folks, then I got into a nasty accident so I just gave up after living with them a while, packed my shit and left. Vegas has always been a comforting and welcoming place for transients and rejects."

"Can't argue there," Allie said, nodding in agreement, "and business is good now or?"

"It is what it is," Marcie said, "I never really wanted to do magic for a living, but if it's what I'm good at, if it pays the bills, then I suppose I can't argue. But it was always a hobby more than a career goal. Not to besmirch you or anyone else who actively chose and pursued it that way. I just..." Marcie hesitated, picking up a small fake coin from a bin and turning it over in her hand, "...I guess I never really considered what my actions might lead to. I was always a very selfish person, Allie. I lived in the moment. Instant gratification. I never thought that the things I did might lead to worse things down the road."

"...jeez, you really can bring down a mood," Allie said, "Is that a magic trick you had to learn, or you just inherently a bummer?"

Marcie snickered, which made Allie smile. The girls didn't have much, but at least they had this conversation, which was all Marcie needed right now. Allie, on the other hand, should've been listening closer. She might've heard the way her own future was about to go down.

                                                                               ***

"God it smells so good in here," Agent Siskel said, entering and sniffing the air of Sunny's apartment, Agent Tropper right behind her.

"Usually drug dens are heinous, vile places, but this actually manages to be cozy, like a den. Gotta give him credit to that," Agent Tropper replied, walking further in and looking at Sunny's belongings; he noticed a photo of Sunny and a woman together somewhere at a casino, and then asked, "...so what exactly is it we're looking for here?"

"Any kind of record or book keeping, receipts of any kind. Anything that might lead to a list of people he supplied," Agent Siskel said, "Especially if it implicates Claire. Any further evidence we can attain to corroborate her claims or refute them is good by my book."

"You mean you believe her?" Agent Tropper asked, turning to face her.

Agent Siskel sighed and pushed her bangs from her eyes, putting her hands on her hips, "I don't know, man, I just know that people with drug problems shouldn't be explicitly considered villainous, and that sometimes, people who go off their meds do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Combine those two and you've got an intricate situation which risks falling apart and hurting many people on the way down. Claire did what she did. There's no denying that. Whether she wanted to or not is the question. I...I've dealt with a lot of mental illness in my family Roger, and honestly I can't say that some part of me doesn't see her telling the truth."

"Wow, that's...that's very admirable of you," Agent Tropper said as he started to open up drawers on a table, "I'm just surprised I guess. Usually people in our line of work wanna pin people to the wall no matter what it takes, but you're actually capable of having a moral compass."

"Well, I am a woman, so," Agent Siskel said, making Tropper chuckle.

"I just don't understand why someone would kill a guy like this," Agent Tropper said, "I mean look at his place. It's spotless. It's...it's as clean as someone who works a 9 to 5 office job. He was supplying a woman with medication to help control her violent tendencies. This guy was clearly not your run of the mill everyday average drug dealer. So...what leads someone to kill someone like that? I mean, I know murder is random, and it can just happen, but it doesn't really make sense when it happens to someone who doesn't fit the mold you expect them to in this line of work."

"Self defense, maybe? Perhaps he got handsy with a female customer? I don't know," Agent Siskel said, pulling a book off a shelf and opening it, as an envelope fell out and onto the floor. She and Agent Tropper exchanged a look and she bent down to pick it up but he got to it first.

"Oooh, too slow," he said.

"Come on, I found it, let me open it," Agent Siskel said, grabbing for it but he quickly pulled it away from her, grinning; she furrowed her brow and stomped her foot, "Give it back or I'm gonna tell on you!"

The two started laughing as they fought playfully over the envelope, until finally he gave it to Siskel. She opened it and carefully pulled out a small black book along with a photo and a few folded papers. Agent Tropper took the photo and glanced at it.

"Huh," he said, "this woman is in this photo over here too," he said, pointing at the framed picture he'd seen when coming in, "...she's clearly important to him. If we could find out who she is, perhaps..."

"Oh my god," Agent Siskel whispered, as Agent Tropper turned back to her.

"What? What is is Rebecca?"

"...holy fucking shit," said whispered, flipping through the small black book, "...this guy wasn't just a drug dealer. He was laundering money..."

She stopped, looking at Agent Tropper and grinning.

"...through casinos."

                                                                            ***

Allie and Marcie were standing outside the magic shop, Allie having paid for Marcie's purchases simply to be nice and spread the wealth. Each standing near their respective cars as Allie waited for her prop to be loaded onto the roof of hers, Marcie couldn't help but feel an odd combination of gracious and disgusted.

"You can always open for me," Allie said, "For me and my partner, for us. It's been hard to get used to saying us, I was a solo act for so long."

"I appreciate that, but I prefer sticking to dingy clubs," Marcie said.

"Well, you can always contact me if you're interested in just talking, or about work. You know where I am," Allie said, and Marcie smiled, thanked her for her kindness and then climbed into her car. She tucked her cane into the passenger seat, then started the car and began driving to her apartment. When she arrived, she parked and headed upstairs. She unlocked the door and entered the apartment, to find a young high school student washing dishes.

"Oh, you're back," the girl said, glancing over her shoulder at Marcie as she locked the door behind her.

"Yeah, I got some supplies for the gig," Marcie said, "Are you okay?"

"As okay as one can be I guess," the girl said, shrugging.

Marcie walked up to her at the sink and kissed her neck, making the girl blush.

Yes, Marcie Bevel hadn't wanted to be a magician. But then again, there were a lot of things Marcie Bevel hadn't wanted to be. Like a sexual predator.

                                                                             ***

A pipe had busted.

The two men walking in the underneath of the casino, the headlamps on their hardhats turned to full, looked around for where the pipe was. One man had a map Tony had provided him, a map which Molly had given him in case something like this happened, but even still he was having trouble making sense of it. The other man pointed, and the map holding man nodded in agreement.

"Jesus, these places need to start making stuff like this more accessible," he said.

"The fuck," the first man said, shining his headlamp on something, and the map man looked.

There, embedded in the wall behind crumbling concrete, was a prop tomb.