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Laurel nodded and stood, "Then I'll start moving our stuff inside," she told him as she turned to leave.

Wolfe looked over his shoulder as she started to leave.

Nic would have stood up to do it himself, but she would make him sit back down and she'd get annoyed. Her current opinion of him was in too good of a place to justify the risk of tainting it when he knew he would be no help anyway. So he'd just save his strength for now.

Laurel caught Wolfe's glaze. Laurel frozen for a moment before hurrying from the room. Wolfe blinked, staring after her for a moment.

He shifted his eyes to Nic, "... Did I scare her?" he suddenly asked, voice expressing a bit of confusion through his usual blankness.

--

"Then sit right here and relax," he replied easily, patting the pillow beside him as he gave her a smolder.

Nic finished chewing before asking nonchalantly, "Did you?"

--

Missy tried to resist, but it didn't last too long as she shuffled over. She sat on the pillow with her head hanging a bit like she had been defeated.

Wolfe thought about it for a moment, gaze unreadable, "... I tend to scare people," he stated, "but I'd never deliberately scare her."

--

Rosen grinned and put a controller in her hand, "Look, it's easy," he stated before showing her his newest addiction. It was a pretty addicting game...

Nic nodded briefly, putting a little more thought into it before asking, "Anything happen when you got her back on the Juttle?"

--

Missy played a little. And then the hardcore gamer in her suddenly seemed to take over. "What the lava?!" she growled as she messed up.

Wolfe took a long moment to think over what had happened. "Laurel was in the same position most of the four hours," he explained. "When Rosen got too close she seemed to break and started screaming for him to go after her sister," Wolfe sighed, "So we decided to keep our distance until we got you back on board."

--

Rosen seemed very pleased with this development, until she started to beat him. "Stay outta my way!" he growled as he knocked her character down.

Nic thought about it critically for a moment before shrugging.

--

Missy cussed a little back at him, working on retaking the lead.

Wolfe paused a long moment before looking back at Nic, "We... need to watch her," he stated, "She hasn't informed me what the Okorie told her." His eyes focused a little harder on Nic, "But what we do know is that they sent her back to us. She was waiting for Snow and Blaze and she told Raven on the Juttle that she didn't want to return. They forced her to return to us. The question I've been struggling with is 'why?'" he explained.

--

Rosen cussed right back and continued to cut her off.

"'Why' not?" Nic asked in response to his dilemma.

--

Missy kept fighting, not backing down.

Wolfe paused again, "They have been chasing her, nearly shot down our Juttle to get her... then when they do, they send her back. I need to understand why. I need to know if they've made Laurel a threat to us."

Nic stared at Wolfe for a moment, a little confused. Then he rephrased his previous statement. "Assume she's a threat," he suggested.

--

After swimming with Frei for an hour and forty minutes, Raven was exhausted and retreated to his room where he passed out on his bed still in his swim trunks.

Wolfe was silent for a long moment as well. "... Has no one told you what occurred in Chicago?" he finally asked, a bit of surprise seeping into his voice.

Nic said nothing, waiting for Wolfe to continue.

"Laurel didn't see your note," Wolfe began simply, "Then she overheard what she thought was you and Yue talking. She took a virtual map off of Rosemary's collar and left. It appears that she'd always known where to find the Okorie. I sent Snow, Blaze, Raven and Frei after her. They spend two days looking for her. Snow infiltrated a Yin Long bar and set up multiple cameras and wiretaps. Raven met Long and after they traded all the information from these camera's for Long's confirmation that the Yin Long had not taken Laurel. A few hours later, Laurel's bracelet suddenly came back on and Snow and Blaze found her sitting at a fountain. She showed extraordinary agility that was not there before. I assume this has something to do with her enhanced eyes. I already told you what took place on the Juttle ride back," he summarized in a simple and efficient manner.

Nic looked away fairly early on as Wolfe noticed a crack in his normally emotionless demeanor. He did his best to hide it, but by the end he was struggling very hard not to let his emotions get to him. He slowly got up and started to walk out without a word.