A/N: I can't believe it's been almost 3 months since I last posted! Can you tell I have no sense of time? A thousand apologies to anyone who might actually be reading. I'm going to try to get another chapter out before November, but then I will disappear into another NaNo novel. Let me know what you think of this one!

They came back to his place, baffled. "I'm not sure how in the world I could find Thea. I mean, we were boarders at the same school. It's not like I knew where she really lived."

"Do you know her last name?"

"Yeah… Sprecher."

Jordan laughed. "You really have been living out in the middle of nowhere. Give me a second." She pulled out her iPhone and opened facebook. She smiled triumphantly and showed the phone to him. "She even lives nearby, over in Bellevue. We could go see her this weekend, maybe." There was Thea's facebook, complete with a smiling picture. She still looked the same to him, the smile that he remembered from better days, the distinctly non-feminine clothing.

He took the phone from her and began to scroll through. "She seems happy… there aren't any troubling posts. And she just updated yesterday. Let's see… she works for someplace called EV Technologies. Ever heard of it?"

Jordan shook her head. "Looks like it's in Bellevue. There are dozens of little tech companies in Bellevue and Seattle."

"And she's dating someone named Lucretia Orlikowski."

"Did you know she was a lesbian?"

He scoffed. "I know everything about everyone. Except you. Anyway, that was her big secret, and being telepathic was mine. We trusted each other and no one else. And I don't care. Do you?"

"Of course not. Let me try to friend her and see what happens, ok?" She leaned against him while she sent a friend request and then closed facebook to open up a text message screen. He watched with astonishment as she typed a message to her father explaining that she would be staying at his place that night.

"Your father is going to kill you. Or me. Are you sure that's a wise decision?"

"I already tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. I told him that I'm an adult now and that he needed to accept that I was going to be making some decisions regarding our relationship that he would not necessarily like. I also might have mentioned that my body was my own and I could decide what to do with it. He really didn't like that."

"Aside from all that, do you think it's wise? I mean, we're nowhere near that level."

"Geez, boys really do have their minds in the gutter all the time. This isn't going to turn into sex. It's just that I'd rather be with you tonight and not under my father's watchful eye."

Gibson was right to fear Frank Black's reaction. Twenty minutes later, they heard a strong knock at the door downstairs. Gibson pulled away from Jordan (though they were doing nothing more than resting against one another while watching a TV show on her laptop) in order to read who it was. He inhaled deeply and then let out his breath with a sigh.

"Let me guess," said Jordan, "It's my father."

She was indeed correct. A roommate let him in, and he was quickly upstairs, opening Gibson's door without knocking.

"Jordan, we're going home."

She made no attempt to move. "Dad, you're overreacting."

"As long as you live under my roof, you'll follow my rules," said Frank, reciting a line said by millions of parents each year.

"I find it hard to believe that you would make such a threat. Or that you would accept the inevitable fall-out such words could have. Would you honestly be prepared for me to move out and leave you? Is it worth it to you to hold onto your anger and your self-righteous feelings when all it would do is drive me away and leave you alone?"

"You may be 18, but you are still a child. You are still my responsibility, and I deem you too young to be making these decisions."

Jordan looked to Gibson. "See, that's what I was saying. Why is it that men automatically assume that two people who spend the night together must be having sex?"

Gibson's cheeks flushed with embarrassment, fear, and anxiety, as well as with some desire at the thought. He said nothing, but shook his head ever so slightly.

"Because that's what men want," said Frank, shooting daggers at Gibson. Gibson found he could not entirely disagree.

A disgruntled sound came from the one woman in the room as she scooted to the edge of the bed. "Dad. I'm not going to have sex with Gibson. Not tonight. But at some point, we will. And you're going to have to accept that, because if you don't, it will eat you alive. You can't prevent it, and your attempt to do so will only put an unnecessary strain on our relationship."

"I'm not leaving here without you."

Jordan huffed and sat back on the bed, resting against the wall. She patted the space on the bed next to her. "Well, then, take a seat. We're binge watching the first season of Parks and Rec."

"This isn't a joke."

She ignored him, unpausing the show. He responded by slamming her laptop shut, making both her and Gibson jump.

"That was unnecessary," she said with growing anger. "It's time that you left."

"I'm not leaving here without you."

Gibson finally spoke up, feeling that the ending to this story was not going to be in his favor. "Maybe you should just go. It's not worth fighting over."

"My right to make my own decisions is worth fighting for. My right to live my own life, rather than be shut up inside my father's house is worth it. You don't have a legal leg to stand on, Dad. You need to back away from this before it really turns ugly. I don't want to fight. But I will if you make me."

With that, Frank turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him. Jordan looked to Gibson and gave a barely perceptible nod of her head – their sign that she was about to touch him, but he shook his head.

"He's crying," he said, feeling terribly guilty, despite not being a central character in the argument.

She didn't speak at first and instead pulled her legs up, resting her chin on her knees. When she did speak, he could hear the frustration in her voice. "I love him. I really do. And it kills me that we fight like this. I don't know how to fix it. I keep giving him variations of the same speech, and it has no effect. There's got to be a way to win."

"It may just take time," said Gibson, placing his arm around her shoulders. "Lots and lots of time. But eventually he'll have to accept it."

"If he doesn't, we'll just have to elope," she said with a giggle.

Gibson, however, felt his entire body go cold with shock. Unfortunately, the shock also meant he lost focus, and the next thing he knew, Jordan was tense beside him and seemingly unconscious. He quickly locked up his thoughts and laid her out on the bed, kneeling beside it as he brushed her hair back from her forehead until she woke up.

She gave him a somewhat woozy smile. "Didn't mean to surprise you like that."

"Yeah you did. You probably shouldn't do that again."

With a nod and a coyness added to her smile, she closed her eyes and slept. He couldn't sleep beside her that night – he knew as soon as he was unconscious, he'd lose control over his mind, and she'd already been through enough. He spent a rough night on the floor instead.

The weekend came and went, still with no contact from Thea. On Monday, they devised a plan, of sorts – to take the bus to Bellevue and simply ask to see her at her workplace. But the plan came to an utter stop when they arrived at the building. Gibson immediately regretted not doing his research on the company beforehand.

"What's wrong?" asked Jordan upon seeing Gibson stop dead in his tracks.

"We need to go." He pulled her along with him, backtracking until they were no longer in sight of the building. "That's the company that I had to work for back when I was sold. EV – Espana Ventures. I can't believe I didn't make the connection. But the logo…"

Espana Ventures has chosen a particular font with green letters. Some sort of bird of prey was done in gold behind the words. The logo emblazoned above the building had the same gold bird and used the same font in green letters, but said EV Technologies, rather than Espana Ventures.

"I can't go in there."

"But you said the man who took you was dead."

"He is, but I can't walk back in there. What if someone there recognizes me? What if they send the footage on to another place and someone there recognizes me? I know too much about the company. They might kill me or try and take me again."

Jordan nodded. "I'll do it."

"No, it's too dangerous. There's something going on, something bad. I just thought the company was bad before because of Mr. Diaz. But if Thea's in trouble, then maybe it's worse than we thought. We should do more research."

"It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get here. I'm going in. Stay here." She walked away without giving him the chance to argue.

In truth, she was terrified. But she found strength in the truths that she knew. For while she knew that her life would be cut short, she also knew that it did not end here and it did not end now. She could do this. She could be brave and daring; she could help someone in need.

EV Technologies was housed in a relatively small office building, but it was so new as to be imposing. Jordan pushed open the heavy glass door and before she'd even taken two steps in, the receptionist asked in a stern voice, "Can I help you?"

Jordan noticed immediately the two cameras pointed at the entry way and felt the panic that Gibson's words had inspired – What if someone recognized her? But she had to be brave. She had to help find Thea. And so she asked if Thea Sprecher was in.

"Do you have an appointment with her?"

"No. I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by."

"I'm sorry, but EV Tech is a secure building. Unless you have clearance, you are not allowed in. I would suggest that you step outside and call your friend to let her know you are here."

"You can't just call her and tell her someone is down in the lobby to see her? I want to surprise her."

"I'm sorry, young lady. But I am not at liberty to disturb the work of our employees for such frivolity. Have a nice day," she said, her hand motioning toward the door.

Jordan returned to Gibson, defeated. Both were a little unsettled by the reception she'd received and agreed that they should look into the company before trying to set foot on the property again. But Jordan was still reluctant to leave.

They found a coffee shop within sight of the building, though Gibson sat with his back towards it, while Jordan kept an eye on the front door. The least they could do was watch for Thea leaving at the end of the day.

Five o'clock and then six came and went. Only a small handful of people exited the building. Jordan and Gibson were compelled to order dinner at the coffee shop, and sat outside shivering as the temperature fell. Finally just after 7, a few more people exited.

"I see her," said Jordan, and she jumped up to intersect her. Her first impulse was to call out, but she quickly realized that would not help – Thea was deaf. Jordan knew only the alphabet, and even that was questionable. It did not matter – she would do what she could. She raced over to pass Thea and waved her hand in front of her, for Thea was walking with her head down, her thoughts far away.

The girl scrutinized her, and when she recognized her from the facebook invite, she started to sign. Jordan shook her head and slowly spelled out G-I-B-S-O-N, before pointing towards the café. The look on Thea's face was unmistakable. She turned to see and then looked back at Jordan with a huge smile before her hands went wild again with signs that Jordan could not begin to interpret. Thea's saw the confusing on her face, threw her hands up in defeat, and gave a loud, sharp laugh that made Jordan jump.

"Come on," she said, waving her hand in the nearly universal sign meaning to follow her.