“Tony!” I called, my voice strained as got down on my hands and knees in the bedroom, looking under the bed.

“Yeah?” I heard him yell. “What are you doing?” he asked then, closer and chuckling slightly.

I looked up from the floor, noticing him looking at me as he leaned against the doorframe, an amused expression on his face as he took in my position on the floor.

I sighed. “Have you seen my sweater? The one you got me with that key thing on it?” I muttered, moving a box aside under the bed and frowning when I didn’t see it.

“The Keystreet one?” he asked amused.

I sat up, leaning back on my calves as I pouted at him. “Yes, that one, sorry, I forgot what it was called,” I mumbled, slightly embarrassed that I had been with him now for a little over a month and still couldn’t remember the name of his clothing line, I couldn’t even tell you the other one was, something before something. I was a terrible girlfriend to be honest.

He laughed. “No, I haven’t seen it babe, why do you need a sweater?”

I sighed again. “I told you, I’m starting at Lucky’s again tonight and I wanted to bring it with in case we don’t make it back here in enough time. I swear though, I put that damn sweater right on the chair last night.” I said then, sounding frustrated as I glanced over at the armchair he had in the corner of the bedroom.

“You know, you’ve been losing an awful lot of stuff lately, it was your shirt last week and didn’t you just say the other day you couldn’t find your bracelet?” he asked furrowing his eyebrows.

I pushed my eyebrows together. “I haven’t been losing anything; I’ll put something down somewhere and when I come back they’re just…gone.” I sighed, shaking my head as I stood up.

He chuckled. “I promise I’m not moving anything on you babe and unless you’re stuff is growing legs and walking away you have to be forgetting where you put it.” He shrugged.

“Ha ha,” I muttered, clearly not amused, as I took off Tony’s shirt I had been wearing, tossing it at the end of the bed and pulling on the tank top I had placed out.

“Come on Eff, it will show up eventually, just grab one of my sweaters for now; the guys are going to kill us both if we’re late again.” he said coming closer to me and kissing my cheek, slipping his hand under my loose tank top.

“Tony,” I warned, stepping away.

“What?” he asked with a sly grin.

“Your wandering hands are exactly what made us late last time,” I reminded him, raising my eyebrows pointedly.

He just winked at me, shrugging his shoulders before placing a chaste kiss on my lips. I shook my head at him and he laughed as he walked back out the bedroom. I sighed, looking around the room before just giving up and grabbing one of Tony’s sweaters from the closet. I grabbed my large bag off the armchair – that had actually managed to stay where I put it – before I threw the sweater over my arm and made my way out the bedroom, following Tony.

We pulled up to the studio about a half hour later. The guys were just about finished with their new album and Tony had spent nearly every day this week here. He invited me to come with today, feeling bad about leaving me alone all week, though I didn’t mind, and because he wanted me to listen to some of the finished songs. I had started listening to the guys a couple weeks after I returned to San Diego – by Tony’s insistence of course – and I had to admit, they were pretty good and I loved when I got to watch Tony play the guitar, not only was it fascinating to watch the way his hands moved expertly along the instrument, it was also pretty damn sexy.

I was digging through my bag, searching for the manila envelope I knew had been in there because I remembered seeing it sticking out on the ride over here but I sighed when I couldn’t find it. I got up from the small table I had been sitting at, walking over to the guys who were watching Mike in the recording booth, his rhythmic drumming echoing through the speaker above the booth.

“Tone, can I have the car keys?” I asked quietly so I wouldn’t disturb them but not too quietly that I wasn’t heard over the loud banging.

He turned and looked over at me, smiling. “You’re not going to leave on me are you?” he teased, pulling the keys from his pocket and dangling them in front of me.

“No,” I muttered, giving him a sour look as I snatched them out of his hands. “I need to go see if my stuff fell out of my purse.”

He grinned at me before he turned back around, and I smiled, shaking my head before making my way out of the studio. I cringed against the bright sun as I stepped outside. I had been venturing out into the daylight a lot lately, something I wasn’t too particularly fond of but being as I had Tony with me most of the time, I was coping. I sighed as I headed toward his car and unlocked it, rolling my eyes at myself when I immediately saw the manila envelope on the floor at my seat. I opened the door and quickly grabbed it, closing and locking the door before heading back inside.

Just before I made it to the door I started getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and I paused, recognizing the feeling. I glanced around me, the hair on the back on my neck rising as I felt someone watching me. I did a quick once over but being as the studio was located on a pretty popular stretch with more than a dozen people walking by me I couldn’t find anything. I shook my head, laughing slightly at myself, realizing how ridiculous I was acting. I had no reasons to watch my back anymore; my parents were locked up, for a very long time. That being said though, I still couldn’t shake that feeling of paranoia that was buzzing around me, but I pushed it aside as I pulled open the building door and making my way back inside.

I smiled when I saw Tony in the booth when I walked back in; Mike was now sweaty and standing next to Vic. He looked over when he heard me come in, giving me a slight head nod before he looked back at the controls. It had been almost two weeks since Mike had pulled me aside and told me the story behind Tony’s ex-girlfriend and I thought Mike was warming up to me again – though at an extremely slow pace. I hadn’t brought Laurel up with Tony, mostly because I knew that if he wanted to talk to me about her, he would, and he had to have known the same thing Mike did and if he wasn’t worried about, then I wouldn’t be either.

I decided to leave the guys alone, letting them do their thing and took my seat back down at the table, pulling out the various papers I had to go through.

“What are you doing?” I heard Jaime ask and I jumped slightly at the sound of his voice and I looked up, noticing him peering down at the pile of papers, I glanced behind me, noticing that the guys all seemed to be taking a break and realizing I must have lost the track of time.

I sighed. “Going through a bunch of legal stuff; being as I hadn’t really been living normally the past twelve years I have a lot a things I need to get set up and updated, like my health records and stuff like that,” I shrugged, not wanting to go into too much detail, not that I didn’t want to share, it was just a long and complicated process.

“Normally,” Jaime snorted with a laugh as he continued to glance down at the papers.

I smiled and moved another paper, pushing it over in my completed pile.

“Hey,” Jaime said, picking up the paper and looking down at it.

“What?” I asked confused as I noticed Tony and Vic making their way over here.

“This has your birthday on it,” Jaime said, looking up and giving me a puzzled look.

“Yeah, so?” I questioned, furrowing my eyebrows.

“Effie, it says your birthday is this Saturday,” Jaime clarified giving me a look.

“What’s your point?” I muttered, ignoring his look, mentally cursing him with every word I knew.

“That’s two days from now,” Jamie said with a confused laugh.

“What’s two days from now?” Vic asked coming up to us.

“Effie’s birthday,” Jaime said, a hint of smugness in his voice.

“It’s your birthday in two days?” Vic asked with a smile, looking down at me.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Tony asked then, coming up behind Vic, a look of confused shock on his face.

I stood slightly, snatching the paper from Jaime’s hand, making him pout as I set it back down with the rest of the papers.

I sighed. “I don’t know, it’s not a big deal.” I said with a shrug.

“Not a big deal? It’s your birthday, Effie,” Tony said.

“Yeah, that means we can party!” Jaime yelled excitedly.

“How old are you anyway?” Vic asked curiously.

I scowled at them all before I spoke up. “I’ll be twenty six, there will be no party, and no, it’s not a big deal. I haven’t celebrated my birthday in almost thirteen years, why start now?” I muttered.

“What?!” Jaime nearly shouted, making me jump slightly. “That’s a perfect reason to celebrate it! Thirteen years? Holy shit!”

“No! No party!” I groaned, looking at Tony though I could tell that he wouldn’t back me up here and I sighed, slumping my shoulders.

“So it’s settled?” We all looked over at Mike who had been seated over on the small couch, avoiding us, well, more me. “Party this Saturday for Effie’s birthday?” he asked with a smile and I wasn’t sure if he was excited to celebrate my birthday or to just be able to party in general, though I was pretty sure it was the latter reason.

All the guys cheered and I groaned, slapping my head down on the table, which of course made them all laugh at me.

---

Tonight had been my first night back at Lucky’s and to say that I had missed it would be an understatement. There was just something about giving drinks to people, watching their problems slip away with each sip they took that brought me a type of comfort, if that made any sense. Lucky was happy to have me back – apparently my replacement while I had been gone had been terrible – and the night went on without a hitch.

I pulled into the driveway of mine and Tony’s place a little after four – Tony of course not allowing me to walk in the dark anymore – and I dug around in my bag as I searched for my house key, realizing that I should probably clip it onto the car keys. As I was unlocking the door, trying to keep my motions quiet because I didn’t want to wake Tony, I felt that familiar feeling of paranoia creep over me again and I glanced over my shoulder, my heart racing. I was surrounded by darkness, something that wasn’t offering me a lot of comfort at the moment though, and I quickly pushed the key in the lock, stepping inside and shutting the door behind me and locking it.

I kicked off my shoes, trying to stay quiet as I made my way into the kitchen. I took in a deep breath, my breathing finally returning to normal after my slight freak out I had outside. I leaned over on the counter, closing my eyes, shaking my head at myself. I felt a cool breeze, my hair swirling in my face and I looked up, confused. I turned and furrowed my eyebrows as I saw the kitchen window open. I walked over, the uneasy feeling returning in my stomach because there was no reason for it to have been open. I peeked outside, once again being met by nothing but darkness and I slowly lowered the frame, shutting the window and switching the lock as I continued to look outside, my thoughts racing.

“Hey.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin as I let out a terrified squeal, turning around, my hand flying up to my chest, as I saw Tony standing behind me.

His eyes widened. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said with a laugh, coming up and wrapping his arms around me.

I sighed, shaking my head. “It’s okay, um, what are you doing awake?” I asked him.

He smiled. “I waited for you, I wanted to make sure you got home,” he pouted then. “I don’t like you working so late.”

I sighed, smiling at him. “Tony, I’ve been doing this for a while now, you have nothing to worry about.”

“I know, but you shouldn’t be out this late, you should be in bed, with me,” he mumbled against my hair as he leaned down.

“Hmm,” I hummed. “Sounds lovely,” I teased.

He grinned. “Come on baby, let’s get some sleep,” he said, taking my hand and beginning to pull me along the house.

He let go as we entered the bedroom and he pulled his shirt off his body, tossing it on the floor and I rolled my eyes before I started unbuttoning my jeans. I slipped them off and looked over at the bed, frowning when I saw it.

“Tone, where did you put that shirt I had on the bed?” I asked him.

He looked over at me confused, now just wearing his boxers. “I didn’t move any shirt.”

I sighed. “But I put it right on the edge of the bed this morning; it was the one I wore to bed last night.”

“I don’t know, I didn’t see anything there when I got home,” he said with a shrug, walking over to me. I pouted at the bed; I knew I put it there. “Hey, don’t worry about it Effie, I like you better without a shirt anyways,” Tony said, raising his eyebrows at me and smiling suggestively.

I snorted a laugh, shaking my head at him as he came up to me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer to him. He brought his lips down to mine and I leaned in to him, deciding that I must have put the shirt somewhere else. I moaned softly as he deepened the kiss and I brought my hands up to his hair as he started moving his lips along my chin, leaving a trail of kisses along my jawline until he stopped at my neck, nipping gently at the skin.

I sighed against him, leaning my head back slightly to give him a better angle. Just as I was about to close my eyes I saw a movement by the window and I glanced over. I gasped out loud, immediately jumping back.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asked, his voice low and slightly breathless.

I looked back at the window before I looked at him, noticing him giving me a puzzled look, his eyebrows were pushed together and his mouth was slightly opened.

“I, uh, nothing, sorry,” I said, shaking my head as I glanced out the window again, giving him a small smile.

He continued to look at me, confusion still on his face so I took a step forward and started to kiss him again. He seemed hesitant at first, obviously wondering what was wrong with me but he soon picked up where he left off and I tried to focus on him, closing my eyes as he picked me up and brought me over to the bed, laying me down as he hovered over me, placing sweet kisses against my neck.

As much as I tried to push my thoughts aside, deciding that I had merely been seeing things, I couldn’t help but shake that feeling that was in my gut because no matter what I tried to tell myself, I was all but positive that I had seen a woman standing outside our window, looking in and watching us.

Notes

I'm off work so you guys get an early update!! yay! lol sorry that it is a rather long and fillerish chapter, I didn't plan on that it just kind of happened but with that being said, any guesses as to what's going to happen??? ;)

also, I would like to say that I enjoy writing with you too @Lost in Neverland , you definitely keep me on my toes with this drama hehe . have fun with the next chapter hopefully I left you a good take off spot ;)

don't forget to comment and let us know what you guys think! I don't think you guys realize how awesome your feedback makes us feel :)