[M] Unexpected Deadly Romance (Me and NoviDome)

[NoviDome]

He nodded at her as she left, watching her. Could it be true? Could she really have given up? He wanted to believe it, he truly did. He sighed and finished packing his bag before heading to his office. He had homework to grade.

[Sparkz]

Two weeks passed by and it was all a blur. It was also a busy two weeks for Lauren. She spent the first few days simply digging in Alicia's past. Things appeared right right before she got hired at the FBI as well as at the same time that the phantom showed up in the same city. Sure, she had a few things but it was spread out and seemed.... Planned. Like leaving a fake trail. Interesting. She started digging into her recorded parents and found that they existed... But not as she has described. Both diseased but they were cousins of the same last name and living on opposite coasts. They didn't have any kids together. Now that was just sloppy. But it proved one thing.... The Alicia that everyone knew was a front.

Now she was getting somewhere. But how do you track someone that didn't want to be found? You hire someone to do it for you. And that is what Lauren did. She found this man off the internet. He had a few shady connections and warrents out for his arrest but he always managed to escape because if computer errors. He was the perfect man to track down the phantom. She paid him to find her real identity. And three days before her project was due, he found it.... Or close at least. He had informed Lauren that Alicia was a fake name. As was the name before that. As to her real name.... It wasn't documented anywhere with an online database. She has created two false identities. What's more? Everywhere this girl went... There was a strange murder. Lauren grinned as she looked over the data. She had her... The phantom assassin. Hiding in plain sight as a mild mannered house wife. Where Alicia went, the phantom followed because they were one and the same! She held her picture in her hand. Professor Haynes knows. He lied to everyone to protect her. Granted the phantom disappeared after that minus one time she reappeared when Alicia was in trouble. She smirked. That attack that she had survived was just a one woman army taking down a group of armed thugs. If she wasn't so disgusted by her tactics, she would be amazing.

And so, she typed up two reports. One to submit online to her professor and one to hand in person. That one was her report on her findings regarding Alicia Haynes and her alternative names. That morning, she woke up early and headed to class. She sat in the front row as she usual did and didn't even bother to hide her proud smirk. Julian would suspect something of course but he never would guess that she figured out the big secret. That Alicia Haynes was the phantom assassin. The woman who murdered her uncle.

[NoviDome]

As Julian entered the class, her smirk was one of the first things he noticed. It caught him off-guard, and he bit his lips as he walked to his desk. "Please, gods, don't let me be right," he muttered under his breath. He'd seen her smirk like that before and it had never been good news. However, there was nothing he could do. She'd probably come to him. He just had to wait. He took a deep breath as he hooked up his laptop. Focus, Julian, you have a class to teach.

He cleared his throat and looked at the students. "Good morning. I hope you're all almost done with your reports. I won't need to remind you that the deadline is tonight, at midnight. All your questions should be answered on the forum by now." He turned and looked at his first slide. "Today's final lecture will be about dealing with the media and finishing up cases." He took a deep breath and started lecturing, pushing Lauren's smirk out of his mind for the time being.

[Sparkz]

Lauren listened to the lecture but her smug face smirked at him the entire time. After class, she would have him her report and make him read it. She was sure that she was right. He was shocking something and this fit the bill. They were clever and did a great job hiding it after the fact but before? The phantom was inexperienced. She was sloppy and that was what could get her arrested. Maybe.

After class, Lauren approached him and handed Julian the file. "You might want to read this." She said. "You'll find it... Extremely... Insightful." She said. She couldn't wait to see his face as he realized what it was.

[NoviDome]

Julian looked at the report in his hands, and then up at Lauren. "You are aware you were supposed to hand in your reports online, right?"

[Sparkz]

Lauren nodded. "I know. And I did already. But this is one you don't want online." She said, giving him a smug look.

[NoviDome]

He frowned. "You wrote two reports?" he asked, flipping open the front page. When he saw Alicia's name next to the Phantom's, he froze. He read it again. And again. These were words he had feared to read for over ten years. He hadn't expected this. He could have handled seeing his own name thrown under suspicion again. But Alicia's... this was bad. This was really bad. This explained her smug look. She hadn't given up after all. The little witch had figured it out, and his face probably confirmed everything for her. Thoughts raced through his head as he closed the report again and handed it back to her, trying - failing - to keep his composure. "...What is this supposed to mean?" he asked through clenched teeth.

[Sparkz]

She nodded. "One official and one unofficial." She said. She watched his face as he flipped it open. He tried to hide it but his face gave it away. She was right. She had figured it out. She smirked as he closed the report and handed it back. "It means that I figured it out. I knew you were hiding something. It took me a bit to figure out that you weren't hiding something for yourself... But for someone else." She slid the report away into her bag. "she is good. But her early career wasn't as carefully planned. Typical rookie. So I followed the path that she took and found inconsistencies." She grinned. "I figured it out. Just like you did. But I have a feeling that you didn't find her... She told you."

[NoviDome]

Julian watched her through narrowed eyes. He wanted to scream, but he kept himself in check. What on earth was he supposed to do? He couldn't very well answer her question. That would be admitting the truth. But then again, he was absolutely certain he wouldn't be able to convince her that what she had found wasn't true. She had read it on his face. He should never have let his damn guard down, Julian, did you just throw away your family's future with a single look? What now? Alicia could be arrested, he would probably go down with her, even if she would fight him about it, even if she convinced him to place the blame on her, he'd slip up, his nerves, his damn nerves would reveal the truth like they had just now... Oh and the kids, think of the poor kids, the looks on their faces when they would find out about all the terrible things their parents had done...

Suddenly he just wanted to run. Grab Alicia and the kids, get on the next plane to Australia and hope not to be found. For a very brief moment, he considered his chances of getting away with Lauren's murder, but he shook that off. Get yourself together, Julian. Think. Breathe. Think. There's a reason she came to you with this. She said you wouldn't want it online. She had called it 'unofficial'.

He took a deep breath and looked at her. "...What do you want?" he asked softly.

[Sparkz]

"I just want to be right." She said. His face told her all she needed to know. She was right. She had figured it out. "I brought this to you first. No one but us has seen this. I didn't hand this over to the police because I know that the Phantom isn't active anymore. Even with that one appearance that she made when your wife got kidnapped. She did what I would have done. Got out of there alive. I don't blame her for that."

She looked at Julian evenly and laughed with amazement. "You married the subject of your most famous case. That's just amazing. I don't know what she had over you but it must have been something for you to keep this a secret. She ruined your perfect record." She laughed again. "That's just hilarious to me." She calmed down after a few moments. "But in all seriousness, I'm willing to destroy what I found if I just get a chance to talk with her. No bullshit cause I know."