TONY

When Jerome informs the team of Vanessa's awaited mental health assessment, I'm not the only one excited. In fact, the whole team seems psyched about putting her in the hot seat for once.

This is going to be fun.

We invited her to our apartment, and she's ten minutes late. Ajax and Felix are sifting through a file that Jerome gave us, and Drake and Ethan are sitting on the couch, chatting about the mission we had today.

The mission went amazing today, so we're all buzzed.

The mission was to find and take a flash drive that had incriminating evidence of an agent in the terrorism department. The CIA wanted it because they were being blackmailed and because they wanted to find out which of their agents has dirt.

Ajax took a bit to figure out where the flash drive ended up, but came to a conclusion and directed us toward the house of one of our own agents. It's a real mess for the CIA, but we weren't involved on solving the problem--only getting it.

The plan was simple. Ajax, Vanessa, and I were to remain in the vehicle while Felix, Drake, and Ethan infiltrated the CIA agent's house.

That's exactly how it went. Ajax cut the cameras, Felix unlocked the doors, and Drake made sure nothing went wrong under Ethan's lead.

We only had one problem, and it happened when Ethan walked into the master bedroom.

There was a damned dog.

"Freeze." He stopped in place, causing the others to halt as well. "Ajax, are you seeing this?"

Ajax pulled up the video camera in the house and cursed out loud. "Oh, shit. Shoot it."

"What?" Vanessa screeched, lurching toward Ajax's mic. "No, no. Don't shoot."

The dog was a huge German Sheppard, and as we discussed this, he pulled back his lips and growled at Ethan.

"Ajax, why didn't you see the fucking dog?" Ethan breathed.

"He must've been under the covers or in the darkness." Ajax cracked his knuckles beside us, his hazel eyes narrowing. "Sorry, man. Do you have a plan of attack?"

All of our minds were running with ideas, and nobody spoke theirs aloud. The only person who took action was Vanessa. She snatched up my burrito, which I protested about very loudly, and she exited the van, sprinting toward the building.

Out of the van doors, I watched her enter the building, not taking the time to shut the door behind her. I cursed and told Ajax to take the wheel if there was an emergency, and then I jumped out of the van and into the night.

I raced toward the building, reaching it quickly from where we parked alongside the street. I shut the door behind me and decided to see what Vanessa's brilliant plan was.

I explored the house, ending up at the master bedroom. I peered inside, finding Vanessa in front of the dog, resting on her knees. She was handing over the burrito to the dog, cooing to it like it was her child.

I stood watching in bewilderment as the dog moved to her and started chewing on the burrito. The dog even let her pet it, and she did softly.

Ethan took advantage of her plan and glided over to the nightstand. He began shuffling through it, looking for the flash drive. Felix and Drake slowly followed his lead and sifted through the other pieces of furniture in the room cautiously.

"Found it." Drake told all of them after ten minutes of looking. I didn't pay attention to their search, honestly. My eyes were trained on Vanessa and the dog.

I couldn't believe her kindness and her friendliness toward it. She truly is an amazing person, I realized then. And smart. I wouldn't have thought of giving the dog my burrito. And if I had a say, I probably wouldn't have agreed to give away my burrito.

But it worked. Vanessa saved the dog's life, because, I mean, I was in the same boat as Ajax. I saw the best option as shooting it.

I smile at the thought of the dog now because as we were leaving the building, the dog whined like he didn't want us to leave.

The mission was a success. No blood on our hands because of Vanessa.

Speaking of Vanessa... She has just knocked on our door.

Since I'm the closest to the door, I get the opportunity to be the one to greet her, and as soon as I open the door, my breath is taken away. She has on a dark blue sweater that reaches past her butt. Her legs are covered by leggings, her hair down and a beautiful mess. She has on a pretty silver bracelet and a necklace of a silver bird to match it.

"Bienvenido!" I tell her, bringing her in for a hug. She laughs against me, her caramel eyes bright.

"Hey, guys." She says, entering. I shut the door behind her, following her into the living room. She goes right up to Ethan and embraces him in a warm hug, and when she backs away, she has everyone's eyes on her. "I'm sorry I'm late. I lost track of time."

"You look like you just woke up." Drake says shortly, moving into a more comfortable position on the couch.

Vanessa peers down at him and rolls her eyes. "No. Actually, I was doing laundry, dishes, and cleaning up a bit."

Ajax snickers from where he and Felix sit at the kitchen counter. "Adulting is fun isn't it?"

"You wouldn't know." Felix replies, shoving his brother's shoulder. "You never adult."

Vanessa chuckles, plopping on the vacant couch in our living room. "I'm guessing Felix does all the adulting?"

"No." I shake my head as Ethan sits down beside her. "Everyone helps except AJ."

"It's worked this far." Ajax claps his hands, grinning. "Keep up the good work, men."

Felix rolls his eyes, grabs a bag of chips and the file, and finds a spot on the couch beside Drake. He hands the file over to Drake, and he opens the file up. The air is light and easy as I lean against the armrest of the couch beside Drake. Ajax joins us after a minute of everyone getting situated.

Vanessa is the first person to speak. She says, "I can't believe the assessor is being assessed."

"I can. Serves you right anyways, always in our damn business." Drake says, but as Vanessa rolls her eyes, he laughs out loud.

It's crazy to see him smiling and laughing with Vanessa. I would never have thought that possible, like, last month.

"So, where should we start?" I lean forward, grinning at my brothers.

They all wear decisive expressions as if this is a life or death situation, and Vanessa groans, saying, "Get over yourselves and start this thing."

"Okay, okay." I flash a smirk her way. "Tell us about your childhood."

"Ummm... Well, I'm an open book. You guys have read my file." She shrugs, gazing at me.

"That's not enough information. You're going to have to elaborate." Ajax says, tilting her head.

"Fine." She shifts her weight, glaring AJ down. "I grew up with both my parents until around the end of middle school, when my father disappeared. After that, it was me and my mom. We... we've been through a lot, but we've done okay. She wants to go back to school when we get enough money. I want her to, too. She deserves to do something she loves... You know? She depended on my dad for everything until he left."

"Did you play any sports?" I ask curiously.

"Nah." She replies. "I grew up fast without my dad. Had to pick up the slack... Take the dog out, do the dishes, the laundry, and clean. You know, grown up stuff."

She sends Ajax a look, and he grumbles something under his breath.

I move on, saying, "So, you had a dog?"

"Lily." Vanessa curls a strand of her hair around her finger. "But we had to get rid of her a year after my father left because we had to move. She was a great dog, though. Loved cuddles, playing outside, and making sure we were okay. I remember one time when I was upset about something one of the girls said at school, I had cried in my bed, and Lily snuggled against me the whole time."

Everyone is silent. I don't think any of us really had pets. I wonder what it is like.

"Sorry that you had to get rid of her." Felix replies, ever smooth.

"Things change. Life goes on." She sighs, eyes glancing to the ceiling. "I hope she ended up somewhere good."

Silence fills up the room until Vanessa tells us, "I miss her. I miss the way things used to be before my dad left."

Chills roll down my spine when I see Ethan clasp his hand within Vanessa's. His gray eyes are peering into hers with affection glowing in them. Something gushy fills my veins, and it makes me feel so good I wish I could feel it more often.

I clear my throat, wondering why the feeling flooding me is love. "So, did you go to college?"

Vanessa nods. "You know it. You know all of my previous jobs, too."

Drake sighs. "How are we going to get anything out of you if you won't talk to us?"

She shrugs. "Maybe, you shouldn't have looked through my file."

"Maybe." Ajax sits forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "But, could you just talk to us?"

"Tell us something we don't know about you." Felix adds softly. "Anything."

"Anything?" She grins. "Uh... I really like watching movies."

"We knew that." Ethan says.

"Well, Mission Impossible is next on our list." She says, patting his hand.

"Seen it." AJ replies, but nobody else says anything.

Vanessa cheers. "Ajax, you're the only cool one in this place."

Ajax pumps a fist in the air, and I raise my hands to my chest as if my everything has been offended. "Excuse me, I'm cool, too."

"I was kidding." She says, blush spreading across her cheeks.

The jokes die down and so does the noise. Soon, silence is our friend again. Ethan is the one to fill the void this time. "Vanessa, tell us something personal."

"Well, you see... When I do these mental health assessments, I ask questions that leads to you guys telling me things. If you just tell me to tell you something, I have no direction." She says, sort-of shunning us all. I cross my arms in front of me, letting someone else take the floor.

Drake speaks up, wowing me. "Okay, I think I have a question for you..."

A second passes, and then he says, "Tell me, how have you held out so much hope for humanity after everything that has happened?"

Vanessa's caramel eyes linger on Drake's for a thoughtful moment before she shrugs and glances down at her fingers which are laced with Ethan's. "I think everything happens for a reason. I mean, when I was kidnapped by you guys, I thought it was the worst day of my life, but it turned out to be my best because that's when I met the people who are now my favorite. And if I wasn't kidnapped and tortured afterwards, I wouldn't have gone to training, and I wouldn't have grown closer to you guys."

My heart strings tickle as she continues. "I mean, everything that has happened has taught us all lessons and allowed us to grow closer. So, even when bad things happen, I know there is still hope for good."

"But what about in humanity?" Ajax mumbles. "You've come in contact with a bunch of shitty people. How do you still think that people can be good?"

"Um, that's easy." Vanessa smiles and gestures to us. "You guys keep me hopeful. I mean, you've done the worst--you've taken people's lives and you've tortured, yet, you're all kind-hearted. You've all done it for the right reasons. You're all still good. Just like humanity."

"Kind-hearted?" Drake snickers, and Vanessa glares his way. There's a moment where everyone is thinking of the next question to ask, but Drake steals the floor again by asking, "I'm curious. What did you first think when I said I tortured people?"

"You want to know the honest truth?" Vanessa questions, her thin eyebrows lifted.

Drake nods for all of us. I think we're all curious about her answer.

My heart begins to race in my chest as Vanessa bites her lip. Then, she explains, "When I found out you tortured, I imagined you being the one who waterboarded me that night after I first met you. I imagined your icy eyes narrowing at mine as you pried and pried for answers to the questions you spat at me."

Everyone is dead silent as Vanessa lets out a shaky breath. "I was scared out of my mind. I didn't want to believe that you could be that cold."

Drake bows his head a little as the air grows thick. He says, "Yeah. I figured."

"But, you did it for the right reasons. You did it for those who needed saving, those who were going to feel pain if the bad guys didn't." She says slowly, placing her other hand on top of Ethan's. "You guys save people. You just have to do the dirty work to do so. I believe you're all good and that you'd never torture an innocent person."

"Never." I agree quickly, glad to have her caramel eyes on mine for a moment. "And just a minute ago did you say that we are your favorite people?"

She gently smiles and nods, causing my lips to turn up at the ends. I say, "I'm glad, but you have to tell me which one of us is your absolute favorite."

She rolls her eyes. "No. Nice try, though."

I smirk, but before I can say more, Ajax asks, "So, what's your favorite part about the job?"

"Besides being with you guys?" Her thin eyebrows bounce playfully. "Saving people."

"Oh, come on." Ajax shakes his head. "You're not telling us the whole truth."

Vanessa hesitates, but then she tilts her head. "I also enjoy the intensity of it. Never knowing if the plan is going to go smoothly or not. Whenever I worked in the hospital, it wasn't as fun as this. I operated on people, and that's it. With this job and with you guys, I get to travel, learn a thousand new things, and get to help complete missions that I never thought I was capable of working on."

"Man," Ethan chuckles. "You like a lot about this job."

"Hey, I got it because of you." She turns her head to meet his gaze, and their faces are only centimeters away. I can almost see the heat radiating from the two, so I awkwardly clear my throat to make sure they know we're still here.

She smiles at Ethan and then turns back to face us. She acts like she wasn't just thinking about kissing Ethan as she asks, "What's the next question?"

"What was your favorite mission you went on?" Felix queries softly, shrugging his shoulders as if he just came up with the question.

"Definitely the mission where I got to be Ethan's rich wife." She scrunches her nose and lifts her left hand, glaring at her ring finger. "I miss that half-a-million dollar ring."

Felix jots down the information, and nobody speaks for a long time. Vanessa asks, "Are we done, then?"

"No." I tell her, shaking my head. "We're not even halfway done. Why? Are you uncomfortable?"

I make a silly face at her, mocking her for all of the times she asked us deep questions that made us uncomfortable. She rolls her eyes and replies. "Not at all. I was just wondering."

"Mhm." I mumble, keeping my gaze glued to her for a moment longer to tease her.

"Hey," Ethan interjects, causing the playfulness to disperse from the air. "Vanessa, what are a few things you have learned since being on the team?"

"I've learned a lot about you difficult asses." She responds, and Ethan shakes his head.

"That's not what I meant." I can tell humor tugs at his lips, but he doesn't smile. Instead, he asks, "What lessons have you learned?"

"I learned that talking to people instead of holding feelings inside is healthier." She says. Then, she shrugs. "Well, I knew that before. But, I learned how to be able to do that."

"Good." Ethan says, leaving space for her to continue.

She nods. "I also learned that although I do believe that everyone has a chance to be good, I can't trust that everyone is going to be good. Some people just have darkness surrounding them. And when those people get in the way of you guys doing your job, I've also learned that there aren't many choices on how to deal with them. I'm going to try to be better with understanding this."

At the last part of her sentence, she glances right into Ajax's eyes, and so do I. In them, I see forgiveness and understanding, exactly what Vanessa was searching for. She smiles sweetly, warming my heart up.

Ajax nods. "Thank you. It really frustrated me when you argued back about having to either save your own life or save a criminal's because you were never in a situation where you had to make that choice. We face that decision every day, and we make it to save ourselves and save the hundreds of lives that would be affected by our choices. Does that make sense?"

Vanessa nods. "It does."

I just grin. Oh, now everyone is on good terms. How lovely is this? And literally all they had to do was talk to each other and explain to each other their thoughts and feelings.

"Vanessa," Ethan starts, clearing his throat. "I remember something you said when we went on that date... You said that during college and during your career in the medical field, you bounced around from city and city and you never found your home. Are you still looking for it?"

Vanessa gazes into his eyes, and her lips separate. She must be speechless because she doesn't say a word as she turns and steals a glance at each of our curious faces. Then, after her dramatic pause, she says, "You know what? The answer to that question is no. I'm not still looking for it."

"So, you found it? You like Virginia?" I query, trying to read her expression.

"No." She says with the biggest grin on her lips. "You guys are my home. Home is not a place."