The ride to Brooks, Inc. was peaceful and quiet. Nick stared out the window to absorb the scenery. The clouds had shadowed the wide, clean streets and all the plant life surrounding them. He couldn't help but love the grass. They seemed so fresh and alluring, coaxing him to walk on them. He looked longingly at them.

Every few seconds, Daniel would watch Nick from the side. Nick now gave him a completely different feeling. The blond teenager seemed so serene and childlike as he gazed longingly at the grass and trees. It made Daniel wonder how Urgof and the government treated the boy for him to find such pleasures in the most fundamental, mundane aspects of life. Had the teenager never laid eyes on trees or grass before?

Not wanting to disturb Nick's pensive reverie, he decided to rest his tongue and let the teenager enjoy the view. About twenty minutes later, he pulled his car into the private parking lot beneath the building that he had started only twenty years ago. It still looked as new and impressive as the day it was born. Daniel smiled proudly at his creation.

He looked one last time at Nick only to see the reserve and focus plastered on his face again. How could the youth do that? One minute, his face would exude with radiance and wonder and the next he would mask it with a stoic, indifferent expression.

Daniel stopped his thoughts and led Nick towards the elevators. He slid his security card through the scanner and the doors opened. He decided to give Nick a tour of his company first, to give Nick a layout. To his surprise, Nick absorbed everything really fast. He didn't need to repeat anything. It was as if the boy formed an imaginary map in his own head.

Within an hour, they had toured the entire twenty-story building. Nick not only knew where everything was located, but he memorized every location of every important file that Daniel's company kept. Daniel stared in awe at Nick, less than anxious to leave him there so soon. Not that he didn't trust Nick. Daniel just didn't feel right leaving Nick there to work himself away while he and his family enjoyed a warm Christmas snuggled up at home.

Nick saw Daniel's uncertainty and spoke up. "You needn't come back to pick me up. When I'm done, I will call a cab."

Daniel didn't budge from where he stood. Slowly, he reached into his pocket for the keys to certain files. He offered them to Nick.

Nick shook his head. "Not necessary. I believe I can pretty much get a hold of anything that I need." When Daniel looked at him in concern, Nick added, "I'll be okay. I'll walk you to your car," Nick initiated.

Daniel felt so strange. He had never been this out of control of the situation before. And here he was, waiting for a teenager's cues. Finally, Daniel began to move. He and Nick walked back to the car in silence. As he drove out of the parking lot, he felt unhappy for some reason. He didn't look back to see the elevator doors closing as Nick disappeared behind them. How had things gotten so confusing all of a sudden?

Caitlyn rolled around on the bed, only to slap Katerina in the face. Katerina yelped in pain. "Ow!" she shrieked, waking pretty much everybody in the process.

"Your scream is so disturbing!" Michael called out while rubbing his eyes.

"I second that!" Rick agreed. One by one, the seven rubbed their eyes and woke up.

Andy was the first to notice that Nick wasn't there. "Hey, where's Nick?"

All seven scrambled around in confusion. "What? How could he have disappeared like that? Were we not pleasing?" Elisa raised her voice while trying to disentangle herself from the sea of limbs. As the seven tried to come to terms with the fact that Nick had deserted them, they began to clean up and get dressed.

For some reason, Caitlyn and Katerina felt especially disturbed. They didn't think that they did anything to repel Nick. Doubts were soon replaced with a slight anger. If he didn't want to be with them, then they would have to celebrate Christmas without him, they thought in spite. But each was hurt that he had simply abandoned them. "Well, if he doesn't like to sleep with us, then we don't want to sleep with him either!" Caitlyn was the first to voice her indignation.

"Woah, girl, that didn't come out right!" Chad said with a grin. Caitlyn blushed as she realized how perverted her statement must have sounded. The guys smiled their goofy smiles and left the room in search of another bathroom, leaving the girls with some privacy.

When the four guys were gone, the girls huddled on Nick's bed, each feeling a little sad to not see Nick anywhere. "Where do you think he could have gone so early in the morning?" Katerina asked the other two.

"I don't know," Caitlyn answered. "Maybe a morning jog?"

"But why didn't he ask us to come with him?" Katerina pushed, still upset. "It's almost 9:00 a.m. You'd think he'd be done with a morning jog already. Why can he be so cold?"

"Yeah, he comes here and lives in this house. Yet he doesn't even give us any respect. He's selfish!" Elisa supported her sister's views.

Perhaps the girls didn't start out with anger, but their words began fueling what was at first, an innocent flame. And the more they talked, the more they felt the anger, even when they knew that they were jumping to conclusions. Still, they were teenagers, brash and bold. They didn't really care whether Nick was truly abandoning them. They just felt like he abandoned them.

The three girls stared at each other for a while, once again thinking things through. Perhaps he was shy last night, but for him to continually shove them away was unforgivable. "Well, if you guys want, we can fight him back. You know, show him that we're not that easily taken advantage of. If he can be mean to us, how about we show him how mean we can be!"

Katerina and Elisa looked at Caitlyn, excited. "How?"

Caitlyn smiled wickedly. "Well, let's get the guys in on this, too. I'm pretty sure we can convince them."

Once done, they went to wash their faces and get dressed. Today was Christmas. They weren't going to let a stranger ruin them. When they had finally gotten downstairs, they weren't surprised to find Nick still missing. And when, Caitlyn's father had told them that Nick had some errands to do, their suspicions and disdain only intensified.

Soon, the guys were just as puzzled as the girls. But they pushed their thoughts of Nick aside. His absence wouldn't deter them from enjoying Christmas. The guys were slightly irritated with the girls for being so ill-willed, especially on Christmas, but they didn't want to heat things up either so they let the girls cool off their anger by asking them to go for a morning jog. With that thought in mind, the seven began their little morning jog.

The evening had finally settled in. Still, Nick had not come home yet. He had spent all of 11 hours working madly. There were so many files to sift through, but he knew that he had to take in as much information as he could absorb. He had gotten through a whole year's worth of records and contracts. In fact, he was so absorbed that he nearly forgot to eat breakfast and lunch.

He did, around noon, go to a vending machine to get some chips, enough to calm his appetite and give him a burst of energy to continue to read. He had no problems accessing the files. Urgof had given him very good training in matters of computers, picking locks and evading security systems.

Nick looked at the clock. Only 6:00 p.m. He still had quite some time to go before Christmas ended. He shrugged. His body was fatigued and his mind ached a little. He didn't want to nap, afraid that he might waste a few precious hours with useless sleep.

Drawing his attention back to some suspicious looking files, he read them once more, trying to get a feel for this person's character. Perhaps this person masked their unlawful actions very well, but Nick could also see the little flaws as well too. He wondered why the other detectives had missed them.

As Nick stared at the transactions that were made in the company in the past few years, he realized a pattern in the contracts. One set of contracts in particular seemed rather interesting. Apparently, a company named Woh's File, Inc. had merged with Brooks, Inc. about five years ago. Funny, with all his experience with companies, he had never come across such a strange name for a company. The company appeared insignificant though. Maybe that was why Nick had never heard of it. And if he hadn't, then not many would have known this company. But one strange thing was that ever since the merger, it's sales seemed to have skyrocketed. To the untrained eye, everything looked perfectly legitimate with their files, but Nick could find little flaws here and there as well.

Nick felt the heat rising in him. He decided to look up the details of the merger to see if he could look for anymore clues. Swiftly, he put the records in his hands back into their proper location and headed for the company archives, all the while wondering what kind of a company Woh's File, Inc. was. The name seemed rather strange. Was it a Chinese owned company? Nick racked his brain for answers to his question.

On his little trek to the archives, the name Woh's File, Inc kept on hovering in him. After a few minutes of exhaustive thought, he got bored and began to play with the words in his mind, a little habit of his. He didn't know why he bothered, but he liked scrambling words around. It used to be his favorite pasttime when he lived with his adopted father. Usually, he would spend most of his day in the library reading. And when he couldn't find anything else to do, he loved playing mind games and crossword puzzles.

He pictured the words Woh's File, Inc. in his mind again. "Woh's" could be rearranged to Who's or How's. Nick wondered whether he was getting too bored. And "File" could be rearranged to form the word "life". Funny, Nick thought when he put the two words together. "How's life?" Nick laughed despite himself. The owner must be just as bored as he was, Nick thought to himself. But then again, the owner could be Chinese.

He was so deep in thought that he almost failed to notice footsteps heading away from him. But he did hear the shuffling in time to run across the room with cat-like agility, only to see a dark figure disappear quickly behind the end of the hallway. Nick was hot on the person's tail trying not to lose him.

He wasn't afraid to follow the figure. He didn't care whether his identity as a detective was revealed to anyone. If anything, he thought it was stupid that Urgof had tried to conceal him as Daniel's nephew. He didn't think it would give that much of any advantage. Ultimately, he would still solve the case, regardless.

If anything, it would ruin the honest relationship he had with the two families. Then it would be even harder to work through the case once they did discover his real identity. And so far, assuming the role of Daniel's nephew seemed to put too many expectations on him. How was he to act like family when he really wasn't?

As Nick neared the end of the hallway, he reached inside his sweats for his gun. Apparently, the intruder had seen Nick and was trying to run away. Nick knew that by following him, he could possibly encourage the guy to fight him back in defense. He heard more shuffling around the corner. As he listened closely, he could tell that there were three people around the corner.

Nick relaxed the muscles in his arms, ready for anything. In all his life, his theory had been to not cower from danger. If he got shot, then so be it. There was no pleasure in living. So there could be no loss when his life was taken away. Not that he blindly chased after dangerous criminals. He just didn't try to avoid confrontation in order to save his skin.

By now, Nick could hear the thugs heading down the stairs. Still though, he could hear one remain behind the corner, perhaps ready to shoot him once he appeared. Nick crouched and quickly jumped out into view, hoping to catch the remaining intruder by surprise. True enough, the intruder was ready with gun in hand, pointing at Nick.

But speed was an advantage and Nick managed to dodge a few bullets. Unfortunately, the masked theft was very skilled in his trade and one of his bullets grazed Nick's arm, carrying with it a good centimeter of his skin. The blood started to leak slowly out of Nick's arm, but he ignored it, trying to focus on the more impending danger. He dodged a few more bullets and sought refuge back behind the corner of the hallway.

He could hear the intruder's light footsteps as the man ran for the stairs.. Nick didn't chase after him. He had gotten what he needed, which was a good look at the remaining intruder. The few seconds that he had come into view of the one remaining intruder, Nick had snatched a good look at the man. He had memorized the man's feature and build. And although the man was masked, Nick felt confident that he could at least recognize the body once he saw it again. He had a knack for that, which impressed even Urgof.

Nick looked up to see the security cameras placed in every corner of the building. They had all been turned off. These people appeared to know this building very well, he took note. With one final glance, he headed out the hallways and into a room, hoping to catch a glimpse of these thugs' car as they sped away. He strode to the nearest window, but it was useless. They must have taken a different route.

Still, Nick had gotten quite a bit of information. Satisfied, he decided to clean off his wound. He looked down and sighed at the streak of blood that left its mark on his sweatshirt. He needed to clean that up before coming back to the Brooks' place. Quickly, he left the building and jogged down the road to the nearest pay phone. He called a cab and was soon brought to the nearest supermarket. Since the bullet did not take too much of his skin off, he decided to wrap it up and let it heal on its own. Then, he searched for a sweat shirt similar to the one he wore and did away with the blood-soaked one.

Once satisfied, he looked at the clock. It was already 9:00 p.m. Still a little too early, but he was too tired to continue for the day. He decided to take the cab home, hoping that he wouldn't stumble across a family gathering when he got home. He sighed in relief, knowing that things were going his way now. He felt that this case was not impossible to crack. Soon, he would solve it and leave the Brooks be. And hopefully, the government would bestow some mercy on him and let him free!

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