"Fuck!" I yelled as I swiped the laptop off of my desk along with everything else in the path of my frustration. Earbuds ripped out of my ear and out of the laptop as it went sliding across the floor, white letters repeating on the screen before it turned off like an old school TV.

Stuart came sprinting just in time to find me curled up into a ball on the floor as I sobbed. "Linkin!" he sounded panicked as he rushed over to me. He looked exhausted, wearing only PJ bottoms. He didn't even have his glasses on, and I was shocked he could figure out it was me.

"I'm fine!" I yelled and pushed myself away from him as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I was wearing a tank top, a fact the blind Stuart couldn't tell. "Just, go back to bed," I huffed, wiping my eyes.

"What time is it, Linkin? Why are you awake?" Stuart knelt down beside me, his face looking so different without him hiding behind glasses. He looked older – frown and worry lines were setting in far too early for someone of his age.

Staring at him, we both sat on the floor as I shook my head. "I had them," I breathed.

"What?"

It was a long story, one that was days of migraine-inducing work. Things could have been done in one day and I might have had answers if only Thierry had been here. Now we'd never know. By the time he'd surface again, whoever I was chasing would have covered their tracks and closed up the back door I used. "I— I hacked into bank accounts."

"You did what?"

"Finding information about the island wasn't working, so I decided to find the people who ran it. I started to follow the money. Shell company after shell company, and..." I let out a long sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. "I found something, I don't even know what. The second I did though, someone started hacking back. I'm not good. I learned this from a book for fuck's sake!" I cursed and shook my head in frustration as more tears fell. I was disappointed in myself and endlessly annoyed that I had gotten so close to having it all come back. "If only Thierry was here..."

We let the thought hang in the air until I sniffled. "Why didn't you wait?"

"I didn't know I was actually going to find something! After a fucking month, you think I still had hope?" I snapped. He was asking the wrong questions with the mood I was in. "Think I wanted my laptop to get some virus which completely destroyed every single piece of evidence I had on there?"

Stuart's eyes widened in horror. "Please tell me you have the cloud or something."

Technology wasn't his strong suit and I slowly shook my head letting out a sharp exhale. "Why would I?"

I found his green eyes more piercing without the glasses blocking them. "What did we lose?" he was hesitant to ask, sounding almost as upset about it as I was.

My lips curled up into a weak smile. "Nothing. I have it all still."

"How?"

"My brain." I reminded him, he seemed slower this early in the morning. He and Ira were never morning people.

Stuart groaned. "I need coffee. Meet me downstairs? I'll go wake up Ira?" he suggested and I nodded slowly. We were going to have a long day ahead. I was sure Ira would have a long list of conspiracies of who hacked back.

By the time I went downstairs, I realized this day was going to be much worse than I thought. Sitting with a navy-blue shawl wrapped around my shoulders, the coffee growled as the machine worked hard on creating the precious caffeine. The note was crumpled in my hand as I stared at the dripping black liquid. I felt drained. My entire body was heavy from the events which led to where we were. I thought I would never want it, but I missed the time when I thought Ira was dead. I still knew she was the best of us, but trouble followed that girl and Stuart and I were suffering the consequences.

"Ira isn't in her room!" Stuart called out in a panic as he ran down the stairs.

"I know," I sighed as I pulled my clear, red, rectangular glasses off my nose and placed them on the table as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "She left a note. Evidently, Thierry had enough time to contact her, but not me. He needs her help." My grip tightened more around the piece of paper, making it more into a ball.

Stuart's footsteps stopped for a second before he hesitantly walked over me, reaching out and placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure he didn't want to get you hurt."

I shook my head and jerked away from his touch. I didn't want false securities. "Or whoever hacked me is on their way here right now and we're going to die and they're going to find our bodies if they ever come back." I glanced at him, glasses still in my hand as I stood up.

Stuart didn't appreciate my pessimism as I walked over to the coffee maker and slid my glasses on my head, knowing there was a good chance they'd find a way to get stuck in my messy hair since it was tied back. "Do... Do you really think someone could be on their way here?"

Glancing at him, I shrugged. "I don't know." I admitted. "Thierry would probably have known, but..."

We were sitting ducks.

"S— So you wear glasses?" Stuart asked nervously as he glanced over his shoulder.

Despite the situation we were in, I was as calm as ever. My emotional nerves were as numb as my sensory ones. "Reading glasses. All that hacking and computer shit is hard on the eyes. Tell anyone and I'll show you how much better I am than Ira with a gun." My jealousy over Ira and Thierry's training was starting to show.