The was a knock on the door, and Isaac looked up from his research as he heard someone come down the stairs into the basement that was his over-large bedroom.
"Nikki?" Isaac frowned. "What are you doing here?"
Nikki burst into tears and reached out for him. More out of habit than anything else, Isaac closed the distance between them and held her close.
"Nikki?"
"Oh Ike, it was terrible!" she wailed as Isaac guided her to the lounge. "The... they... the guy... the guy I was with - the Fudge Gang had him killed."
Isaac stiffened.
"I see," he said coldly.
"I didn't know! I was at a modelling shoot at the time," Nikki wept. "I just had the police around at my house and my contact telling me to lay low and... Ike... I'm so scared... There wasn't supposed to be any murder."
Isaac was silent.
"Well," he said finally. "This is what happens when you get involved with criminal organisations, Nikki. They do that kind of thing."
Nikki clung onto him.
"Ike... please... please don't be like that," she begged. "I love you."
"Nikki..."
"Please just... I'm sorry. I'm really truly very sorry. I knew that I shouldn't try and do... that kind of thing for a job and try and manage a boyfriend at the same time. I know. I'm sorry. I'm so very, very, very sorry that I hurt you. And I'm sure you never wanted to see me again but I didn't know who else to turn to."
"Maybe you should have told the police what's going on."
"Oh, right sure. And be convicted with industrial espionage and accessory to a murder I had nothing to do with? Or worse, to be the next person on the Fudge Gang's chopping block?"
Isaac sighed.
"I'm sorry, Nikki, but I can't really sympathise. You got yourself into this mess and I really don't think that there's anything I can do to get you out of it. Besides avoiding chopping blocks is what witness protection is all about."
He got up off the lounge and moved away from her.
"Yes but... if I did that... I could never see you again... And I might still end up on the chopping block."
Isaac sighed again and rested his head against the wall. There was silence for a time.
"How'd you even get involved in the first place, anyway?"
"I'm an underwear model."
"So?" Isaac asked after a pause.
"Well, I'm not always going to look gorgeous, now am I? I age just like everyone else. Sooner or later someone's going to decide I'm too old when I'm not even out of my prime and I'll stop getting work. And then what will I do? So yes, I joined the Fudge Gang. I found another way to make some money cashing in on my looks. So sue me for trying to make sure I can survive when my future career options peter out."
"Right so instead of studying other areas of the fashion industry you decide to turn to crime?"
"It sounded interesting and exciting."
"And then you were told to spread your legs and got involved in murder."
"I told you! I didn't have anything to do with that! And," Nikki added reproachfully, "I wasn't exactly getting any from my boyfriend at the time, so y'know the whole sex issue -"
"Don't you dare try to make this about me," Isaac cut in. "You're the one who's been playing the spying whore and now that it's jumped up and bit you on the bum you've come running back to me for help. Damnit Nikki, I -"
"Want me to get out of it," Nikki filled in. "Well, guess what? So do I."
She licked her lips nervously, then stood up and walked slowly over.
"Okay, yes, I'll admit it, it's been a shock. But maybe that's what it's taken to get through to me. You're right: this isn't the fun and games I imagined. It has been exciting, yes, but I... it's also been rough. Especially with you. I knew I was doing the wrong thing by you, and I am really, truly very sorry. And I'm also sorry it took someone being murdered for me to realise the immensity of my mistake. I was trying to secure my future, and you're right: I went about it the wrong way. I came to you because I didn't know who else to go to, and I thought... I hoped that maybe... maybe you might help me?"
Isaac closed his eyes. He always seemed to be rescuing people.
"Nikki, I don't think I can. This is out of my league."
"But, but you can," Nikki insisted. "Ike, my contact said to lay low, because they think I may have been exposed. Maybe if I were to stay laying low long enough they might forget about me. There's lots of people working for them. Maybe they will."
"Or maybe they'll remember you at the most inconvient moment."
"Well, maybe. But I could cut off contact with my contact, and if they ask me about it I could just say I was trying do lay low like they asked. If I had really been exposed and kept in contact with my contact that could have risked my contact, couldn't it?"
"Okay, could you have said the word contact any more?"
Nikki giggled nervously.
"Okay, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they will come back but... but I have to try, okay? I can't go to the police, and I can just quit but maybe if I could lay low like they told me... Maybe... maybe I could forget about that world, and they'll forget me and maybe we could get back together?"
"It sounds like wishful thinking to me."
"It's all I have. Please, Ike... whatever you think about me, I... I just want to be with you. You're the only one who has ever made me feel safe."
"Damnit Nikki -" and Ike was promptly cut off by Nikki kissing him.
Oh, wait, no... he was the one who'd done the kissing.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Isaac muttered to himself, then louder, to Nikki: "Nikki, I... I love you too. And... I don't know. My brain is screaming at me to just throw you out of here and just not get involved with you again and my heart just wants to have you back."
"Listen to your heart," Nikki suggested hopefully.
"I don't think that's good advice coming from you. You're biased."
"I am. I admit it."
Isaac managed a smile and kissed her again.
"Just... just promise me one thing..."
"Anything..."
"Don't go selling yourself like that again, okay? I couldn't handle the idea of other man touching you."
Nikki smiled and kissed him back.
"Okay," she said seriously. "I promise not to whore myself out again."
"Good."