"Look, it's a smiley face!" Signe cried.

She'd taken the lid off of her coffee and, using her finger, had drawn a little face in the cream on top. As the liquid in the cup gently sloshed against the sides of its container, thanks to the table it rested upon having uneven legs, the mouth of the little cream person slowly started to lose its shape. The two eyes and wide smile began to stretch and distort, which would've made it creepy if it weren't for the fact that it was both adorable and edible.

Jack grinned at the silly drawing before pointing out "But he doesn't have a nose! How's he supposed to breathe?"

Signe dipped her finger in the coffee again, just below the two eyes, so that she could give the face a small and simplistic nose.

"There, is that better? Will he live?"

"Much better. Though he's not going to live for very long."

"True," Signe said with a smile before taking a long sip of her coffee. When she placed her cup back down, the cream had mingled and mixed to the point where the face was now completely unrecognizable.

"Rest in peace little dude," Jack said before taking a sip of his own coffee. "He was taken far too soon."

The two sat in peaceful silence for awhile, each slowly sipping away at their respective coffees while staring out the water-stained window of the shop. Admittedly, it was a little hard to see outside with all of that rain, but neither of them minded. The way the water ever so slightly distorted the figures, shapes, and movements outside was like viewing the world with tinted sunglasses. Bizarre at first, but it gave you a different perspective of the world, one you wouldn't have been able to see before. And sometimes you get so caught up in the moment that you forget to just sit and appreciate that change in perspective, forget to appreciate the beauty of it. So that's why Signe and Jack were sitting there at that moment. Watching. And enjoying.

Signe sighed contentedly from across the table, disturbing the quiet, but only slightly.

"We got really lucky with this seat," she noted. "Normally this place is so packed you can barely get in the door."

"I know," Jack said back. "It's really nice to have the whole place to ourselves."

Well, almost, Jack thought to himself.

There was one other customer in the shop, sitting just a few tables down from them. Jack couldn't see their face from where he was sitting, and he didn't think Signe could either, as they were hiding behind a newspaper. This wouldn't have been strange if it weren't for the fact that whoever was over there had unfolded the paper so that it was at its full size, practically encapsulating both them and the table in front of them. They never turned the page, or even shifted in the slightest, still in the exact same position every time Jack looked over at them. In fact, they'd been in that exact same position since Signe and Jack had entered the store, which was roughly twenty minutes beforehand.

They'd just been sitting there...doing...what were they even doing?

Signe seemed to notice Jack staring at the person across the shop and smiled.

"Are they slightly creeping you out too?"

"Yeah," Jack laughed. "Just a little."

"Well that's a relief," Signe replied. "I thought I was just losing it, because I swear they haven't moved in ages."

"I don't think they've moved at all," Jack said. "They're just sitting there...menacingly."

"To be honest, I've seen weirder." Signe confessed, taking another sip of her coffee and shrugging off the stranger's odd lack of movement.

Jack nodded in response and took a sip of his own coffee, before saying "How much do you want to bet they don't move before we leave?"

"I'm not taking that bet, because there's no way they're going to move."

Almost immediately after Signe said that, the person behind the newspaper did in fact move. The stranger, who proved to be a woman, lowered her newspaper ever so slightly and peeked over the top. Jack only caught a brief glimpse of her dark brown eyes before they were gone again, the woman calmly lifting the newspaper up again and resuming her previous position, as if nothing had happened.

Jack could only blink in surprise, not sure how to respond to the woman's odd act.

"Well that was weird," Signe whispered, choosing to be a bit more quiet with her words this time around.

Jack nodded, not saying anything in an attempt to diffuse the conversation. He didn't want to talk about the creepy lady anymore. It would be best to find something else to focus on, like their drinks, or the cool posters pinned to the bulletin boards across from them. Or...

"What about that guy?"

Signe looked at Jack in confusion. "Which one?"

Jack pointed to someone standing just outside the coffee shop's window, right next to the door. He was anxiously rocking back and forth on his heels, glancing left and right down the street every two seconds before bringing his cigarette up to his lips momentarily. The man was probably waiting for someone, but the way he eyed his surroundings and moved so nervously made it look like he expected a car to come out of nowhere and hit him.

"He's been there for ten minutes," Jack explained. "Do you think he'll move?"

Signe stared out the window in concentration for a moment, carefully studying the man's actions before replying with "Yeah, he'll move any second now."

As if on cue, something much farther down the street caught the man's attention, and his anxious expression turned to one of relief. He carelessly tossed his cigarette aside and hurried down the wet sidewalk towards whatever it was he'd seen, his strides slightly uneven and awkward.

"How'd you do that?" Jack said, looking at Signe with awe.

"I'm psychic," Signe replied jokingly. "That and I could see his friend down the street trying to get his attention."

Jack craned his neck and leaned forward to get a better view of what Signe was seeing. The way he'd been facing before had rendered him unable to see it before, but now that he was looking from Signe's perspective, Jack could spot the man hurrying towards a figure in a trench coat a little ways down the sidewalk.

"Aw, but that's cheating," Jack said.

"I was just using my resources to my advantage!" Signe protested. "That's not cheating. It's called being smart."

"Okay, then what about the two ladies over there chatting? And no using your 'resources' this time!"

The two went on like this for awhile, playing the game of guessing when a person would move or leave. Sometimes they would get lucky and their subject would just happen to move when they predicted, but 90% of the time they were both way off. They'd laugh it off and try again and again, knowing that the odds of either of them being right were slim but going again anyways. Because it was fun. And before long, the bottoms of both Signe's and Jack's cups were visible, the coffee finally drained.

"Looks like we're both out of coffee," Signe finally observed.

"I didn't even notice," Jack replied with a smile. He pulled out his phone to check the time, and his eyes widened when he saw the numbers that were displayed.

"We've been in here for an hour!" He said in surprise, not able to believe that that much time had passed.

Signe looked just as surprised as he did.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I guess we lost track of time," Jack responded, grabbing his jacket from off the back of the chair as he did so. "I should start heading home. There's a whole bunch of stuff I planned to record today."

"Okay. I should probably buy some coffee beans to take home."

"Sounds good," Jack said. He'd honestly been so wrapped up in their conversation he'd completely forgotten that buying more coffee was the purpose of their excursion. "I'll see you at home!"

Jack hurriedly made his way towards the door while Signe waved at him, waiting until he'd disappeared down the sidewalk before turning towards the selection of coffee beans placed upon a shelf, trying to decide which one to buy.

She didn't notice that the woman with the newspaper had moved again.

Or that she was staring right at her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"He left alone," she muttered quietly into the phone. "But it should take him approximately ten minutes to get home. We don't have much time."

"That's fine," was the reply she got. "You should be able to cut him off if you hurry."

She quickly did the math in her head, calculating how fast she would need to move and what streets would get her there the quickest, before asking "And you're sure this will work?"

"Positive," he replied confidently.

"What if I miss?"

"You never miss."

She smiled to herself. He knew her too well.

Grabbing her coat, the woman finally closed her over-extended newspaper and set it down on the table. She then picked up the black trench coat she'd draped over the chair across from her and put it on quickly and effortlessly, her posture radiating confidence.

One would expect her to walk out the front door, seeing as she was a "customer" at the shop, but that didn't happen. Instead she moved her phone away from her mouth, walked over to the bored looking barista behind the counter and asked "Is it ready?"

The barista nodded in response, which was surprising considering the music blasting through her headphones was so loud it could be heard from several feet away, and it should've been impossible for her to hear anything.

"It's out back."

She smiled politely and uttered a quick thank you, to which the barista answered with a half-hearted smile.

Bringing her phone back up her ear, she stepped opened the back door and strode towards the massive transport truck that was waiting for her.

"You know, you're really lucky I was in the area. Otherwise we'd have to wait for another chance, and by then the IH could've snatched him."

"Oh come on, you're not the only one of a higher rank in this area."

"Actually, I am," she replied smartly, her smirk practically audible in the tone of her voice. "Check the records if you don't believe me."

He sighed from the other end before saying "No, I believe you alright."

With a click the doors to the massive vehicle opened, and she opened the one to the driver's side and hopped in without a moment's hesitation. Glancing at her watch, she realized she still had a minute or so to spare before her departure was necessary, and decided to make herself comfortable in the worn out leather seat.

"Now, about your end of this whole ordeal-"

"Don't worry, everything's already been arranged," he said cutting her off. There was that familiar sense of both excitement and arrogance in his voice that irritated but also amused her. "There were some minor hiccups with the technology, but we got them sorted."

She scoffed, knowing he'd probably gotten those hiccups sorted all on his own, and that there was no "we" in the equation.

"And you're sure it won't kill him?"

"Yep. Might be painful, but eh, c'est la vie. He'll be fine."

"Good. Because after what happened to Peggy-"

"We don't talk about Peggy." He said sharply, his tone indicating that she'd touched a nerve.

"Sorry," she apologized before glancing at the clock.

Time to go.

Perfect timing as well, because the conversation had gone south very quickly, and she didn't want to stick around for that inevitable minute of awkward silence that followed the mention of a touchy subject.

"I've got to go. I'll call you when it's done."

"Sounds good," he said flatly from his end before hanging up. She sighed, wishing she hadn't put him in a bad mood.

Because there was a very likely chance he would take it out on their subject.

She turned the key, causing the old truck to sputter to life, and quickly but carefully she backed out of the small parking space behind the coffee shop before speeding off down the road. The thing maneuvered quite clumsily, and she hated the feeling of her movements not being precise, but she brushed her annoyance aside.

This was necessary.

After all, the truck had to be big enough to kill someone.