He opened his mouth to reply, but closed it with a sad smile as his gaze darted over her shoulder.

“Hey Ash, did you forget about me?” A voice came from over her shoulder. Ashlin around to see Rebecca standing next their booth with an uncertain smile on her face.

Ashlin smiled apologetically, “Um, no of course not.” She gestured to each of them in turn. “Becca, this Derek. Derek, this is my friend, Rebecca Harper.”

Derek smiled as he shook her hand lightly. He gestured to the booth seat. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Harper. Please sit.”

“Likewise.” Rebecca replied as she smiled shyly. Ashlin moved farther into the booth to make room for Rebecca to sit. Few moments passed as the silence became progressively awkward for Ashlin. She glanced at Derek only to be surprised to see his amused smile widen.

Finally Derek broke the silence, “So, Ashlin, what brings you here to Seattle? I'm sure there are less dreary places to visit.”

Ashlin shrugged, “No reason really, just a long overdue vacation.”

“In the middle of the semester?”

She smiled, “Yes and that’s what makes it perfect. You’re missing classes too, you know.”

He shrugged while shaking the hair from his eyes, “I think my professors will make an exception in my case. Besides, they love me too much to fail me anyway.”

“I'm sure you're future patients will be thrilled to learn you skipped out on microbiology.” Ashlin replied with a roll of her eyes. Derek grinned as he took a sip of coffee.

"It's actually medical biochemistry, but close enough." Ashlin rolled her eyes again, poorly suppressing a grin while taking a drink of her own coffee.

“Biochemistry? Are you a med a student?” Rebecca asked, clearly confused.

"M-hm, at Johns Hopkins. I'm in my first semester." Derek answered.

“Johns Hopkins is in Baltimore, my parents went there…What are you doing way out here?"

"My sister is getting married in a few days... I'm in the wedding party so i didn't really have the choice to skip it." Derek said smoothly. The lie was so seamless and simple that Ashlin nearly believed it herself if not for the curious distance in his eyes that Rebecca seemed to miss.

“Are you staying with family?” Ashlin asked, this mention of a sibling making her genuinely curious.

Derek fixed his brilliant eyes on her, causing her pulse to jump, “No, I’m staying here as a matter of fact…well in the hotel, not the café.”

“Why aren’t you staying with family?” Ashlin asked, slightly confused. She figured that with his mother gone he would want to spend this time with the family he had left.

“Because everyone would be one drink away from either undergoing a tearful breakdown or from being stricken from their parents will. For my sanity, I'm staying away until I don't have a choice. ” Derek replied. Even though he said it with a smile, that distance in his eyes remained.

Ashlin couldn’t tell if he was still following his lie or telling a bleak truth, though the sad way his eyes deemed look through her tugged at her heart. She offered him a warm smile, her pulse skipping a little when she received one in return.

“That sounds like it would be wise.” Ashlin replied lightly with a small laugh.

There was lull in the conversation in which Rebecca cleared her throat and said, “Well, Derek, since you seemed to have had such a crappy day, why don’t you come dancing with us tonight?”

Surprised, Ashlin looked over at Rebecca “We’re going dancing tonight?”

“Well, yeah.” Rebecca replied as if this was their plan all along.

“Rebecca, you know I don’t dance…” Ashlin whispered.

“Come on, Ash. You’ll love it.” Rebecca said, not bothering to keep quiet.

Ashlin grimaced as she looked over at Derek, “I don’t suppose you dance, do you?”

Derek raised a slender eyebrow, “Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“No…actually, I think science nerds as a rule are bad at it.” Ashlin snarked, her frown reverting into a smile under his serene eyes.

“A science nerd who took a few weeks worth of salsa lessons. But, then I’ll just have to prove it to you, wont I, Miss McGuiness. Does anyone have a pen?” Ashlin shook her head with a grin while Rebecca nodded and grabbed her purse. After a moment of sifting around in her purse, during which Derek watched Ashlin with a soft smile in his eyes while she pretended not to notice, Rebecca handed a pen over to him. He accepted it with a word of thanks and pulled his discarded receipt toward him.

After a few seconds he pushed the receipt towards her hand with a finger, “This is my number, just tell me when and where to be.” Ashlin picked it up and glanced down at it before stowing it in her coat pocket. She couldn’t help but notice how small and neat his handwriting was.

Ashlin looked up when he stood, revealing that he was much taller than she previously thought. “You’re leaving?”

He nodded sadly as he plucked his black suit jacket from the booth, “Yes, any longer with you ladies and I'll be late for my tux fitting. I miss it and I'll be absent tonight because my sister has strangled me in a blind rage. ”

As he rolled his sleeves down, Ashlin couldn’t help but noticed how muscular his forearms were. Nor could she ignore the long, thick scar snaking up his left arm, an ugly, ropy blemish on his otherwise clear skin. He threw on his jacket and tucked the little book into his breast pocket. Picking up his empty cup he flashed them another smile.

“Well, I shall see you tonight.” He set his eyes on hers as he said this and she felt the heat rise in her face. He smiled one last time before heading to the door. The bell above the door sang its high pitched jingle and he was gone.

Ashlin watched him disappear out the door before taking a deep breath and looked back to Rebecca, who was already looking at her with a smirk. "You can wipe the drool from your mouth now.”

“Oh, shut up.” Ashlin replied with a grin, before sighing in exasperation. “But dancing, Becca? Seriously?”

Rebecca rolled her eyes, “Oh, you’ll be fine. I doubt he actually can dance though, so you two will be fine in the corner, stepping on each others toes. But that doesn't matter. What matters is how easily you two seemed to click. Notice how I barely said a word?”

“If I die from embarrassment tonight, which is a distinct possibility, I'll be sure to thank you for telling me to come over here.” Ashlin replied, sighing again. “Besides, I doubt that after tonight I’ll ever see him again.”

“I don't know...maybe you can be his plus one at his sisters wedding.” Rebecca replied with smile. Ashlin merely smiled an answered with a vague maybe. Rebecca stood then and started slipping on her coat. “Anyways, let’s get going.”

Ashlin raised an eyebrow but followed suit, “Where are we going?”

“It’s like you don’t know me at all.” Rebecca said ruefully while shaking her head. “Did you really think I would let an opportunity as perfect as this slip by me? We’re going to the mall. I mean, I would have found another reason to go, of course…but now it’s a legit excuse. Besides, I know you don’t have anything to wear tonight.”

Ashlin brushed her hair over her shoulder as she stood. She tossed her empty cup in the trash as she followed Rebecca out into the cold morning air. “Yeah, I felt like I should have seen that coming.”

A sea of faces passed before his eyes as he walked against the tide of people. The youthful and the elderly, the beautiful and the homely, the sick and strong, everybody that brushed against his shoulder or sidestepped out of his path, he held their fate at end of his blade or the impact of his bullet. These are the people that he vowed to protect.

By allowing his soul to become corrupt with the corrosive poison of being judgment incarnate, he was saving these people’s lives. At least, that’s what he was been led to believe. That’s what all five of them had been led to believe. It was the obsessive mantra that was drilled into their heads since their initiation and practically from his birth. But now his once iron-clad resolve was cracked with doubt.

There was nothing special about this girl. Nothing that would attract the kind of enemies that would require the protection of a fighter of his caliber. It just didn’t make any sense. Usually he could get a good sense of a person, even if it was just a brief meeting like the one he just had. Yet she was an enigma to him. Her eyes shone with an innocence that he rarely encountered and was ill equipped to deal with. But more than that, she had this honesty about her words that was backed by a sort of ageless wisdom.

It was so odd, speaking with her. Somehow, simply just by being near her, she could draw out this part of him that he thought had died long ago. His words were no longer this polished act that he had gone over in his head dozens of times, but a rough, more natural path that he was more than willing to take. It was easy to be this person, he remembered how, but seemingly only within her presence. As he walked down the sidewalk to the parking garage entrance, he could feel the cold creep back through his veins.

But there was more than just his apathy visiting him, there was something apprehensive in the air and it was then that he realized that he was alone on the sidewalk. Silas slowed as a chill crept up his spine. Something flicked out the corner of his eye, but he didn’t follow it.

That same feeling that he felt back in Moscow, the feeling of the emptiness around watching you with dead eyes had found him again. He slowed to a stop next to the entrance of a vacant storefront. He looked back the way he came, catching the two girls exiting the café in the distance and heading across the street to the apartment complex.

They hadn’t noticed him, but that feeling spiked as soon as they came in sight. Whatever it was, he felt, could feel her importance, even though he scarcely could. He also felt that it desired her, not him. His instincts had never let him down before and he wasn’t about to start doubting himself now.

He could feel that Ashlin was no longer safe, if she had ever been, and he couldn’t let her out his sight. Not with this new hostility surrounding them. If he did, he would lose her. Only lingering long enough to make sure they made it to a glossy sports car just beyond the complex gate he hurried to his car to follow.