Part 50

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Sara knocked on the door as she tried to balance the giant folder and stack of books. She had a ton of questions that were nearly bursting out, so when Ricky opened the door she pushed past him and laid all the evidence out of the nearest table. She looked at her masterpiece. She had always loved exploring random concepts and this was the best work she had ever done. 

"Where are they?" She asked eagerly, looing around the house. There were bags under her eyes from staying up all night, but with her quick movements, you could barely even tell she was tired. There was quite a bit of excitement in her chest to meet Shane and the elusive human who might be causing the demon to fall ill. After spending all that time reading about someone it was nearly impossible not to be eager to see them in person. 

"Good morning" Ricky said sarcastically while glancing at her collection of research. He picked up a notebook that had 'The History of Shane' scrawled on the front. "They'll be down in a bit"

"What's the human's name again?" Sara asked, looking over Ricky's shoulder to see his reaction to all her hard work. A part of her wanted him to compliment her on how thorough her investigation was, but she knew he wouldn't. From what she's gathered about Ricky, he wasn't really an affectionate kind of person. Many of the articles that included him only mentioned him for a few brief sentences due to his lack of cooperation with the press. 

There was one instance mentioned in almost every piece on Shane, the giant fight between Ricky and him. From the photos, she pieced together that they were most likely fighting over Shane's departure from Bark and Bite. It was about a week before they both left so it lined up in the timeline. 

"Ryan" He responded, skimming through the timeline she had constructed of Shane's life. "This is decently accurate" 

"Decently? Did I get something wrong?" Sara asked with a raised eyebrow. she thought it was impossible, but Ricky would know better than she did. 

"Shane was never the CEO, he was just the face of the company. He was actually an assassin... allegedly. Robert just wanted the press to think he was the CEO" Ricky tacked on. She considered asking about the fight between Shane and Ricky all those years ago, but she needed to save some questions for Shane himself. 

"Right, allegedly" Sara agreed. It was miraculous how Bark and Bite avoided being caught despite everyone knowing what the company really did. In recent years, more specifically after Shane left, it seems they've been getting sloppier with their cover-ups. This was a detail pointed out in an investigative piece by C.C Tinsley she had read. 

Back upstairs, Shane was riffling through his drawers to try and find something that would fit Ryan. Eventually, he gave up on that notion and got out a simple hoodie. It would be much too big for him, but what the hell? Shane tossed it back towards Ryan, who was thankful it had long sleeves. Shane was considerate enough to make sure it covered his arms despite the hot weather. Shane threw on his best Hawaiian shirt then sat next to Ryan and put his arms around him. 

"Are you ok?" He asked, admiring how cute he looked in the oversized hoodie. His hair was still a mess, but Shane liked it that way. He yearned for the more simplistic nature of the human world, but he had to admit even up there it wasn't all smooth sailing. Even still, Shane knew they couldn't stay in Hell much longer. 

Ryan nodded, still tired from the rude awakening earlier in the day. He laid his head on Shane's shoulder and rested his eyes for a few moments before standing up. Exhaustion weighed down his body as if there were a ton of bricks on his shoulder, but he powered through. 

"Come on, before Ricky kills us" Shane nodded and followed Ryan out of the room while holding his hand. 

"Ricky are you hungover?" Sara asked, grabbing his jaw and looking at his tired eyes. At the same time, Shane and Ryan came down the stairs. Ricky mumbled something about it being none of her business but didn't deny the accusation. 

Shane gasped at the sight and nearly ran up to them. Sara still had a firm grip on Ricky's face and looked closer to confirm that he was hungover. She could smell the faint scent of whiskey on him. 

"Is this who you wanted to introduce me to?" Shane said with a wide smile. "Is this- no it couldn't be... is she your girlfriend?" It was unbelievable. Ricky rarely let anyone get that close to him, so this woman must be special to him. 

That's when Sara got an idea, she quickly gave Ricky the 'just go along with it' look then let go of his face. Ricky reluctantly followed her lead, unsure of why they would lie about that.

"Yes, I am" Sara said, turning to face Shane. Then her attention turned to Ryan, who came down the stairs slowly after Shane. "Is that a human?" She asked, pretending like she didn't expect that. 

Ryan waved awkwardly and looked up at Shane with confusion. He didn't know there was going to be a new person here today, and he certainly didn't know Ricky was going to be here. 

"He is" Shane confirmed, kissing the top of Ryan's head. 

"Can you give us one second?" Ricky asked, taking Sara's arm and dragging her into the kitchen. Shane stood there, still shellshocked. Ricky hadn't dated anyone in years and he had never even mentioned there was someone he was interested in. It was great, but it came out of nowhere. 

"Who was she?" Ryan looked as confused as ever. It was hard to keep track of all these new people. 

"No idea" Shane responded, flopping down onto the couch. 

"Care to explain?" Ricky asked, opening his arms up and awaiting her explanation. They were far enough away that Shane and Ryan couldn't hear them, but close enough that Ricky knew he shouldn't yell. 

"Ok, hear me out" Sara said as the revelation had just hit her. "To do a fully unbias investigation, they can't know I'm analyzing them. This is the perfect cover-up, if they think I'm your girlfriend it would be weird that I have a ton of questions" her enthusiasm made Ricky more susceptible to this outlandish idea. He thought Shane's shenanigans came out of nowhere, but Sara was really putting his schemes to shame. 

He considered it for a moment then shook his head while laughing. "Fine, fine, but next time you decide to tell people your my girlfriend, maybe tell me" 

"Right, will do" She said. it was her form of apology and luckily it seemed Ricky understood that. 

"Here's the plan, I'll distract Ryan so you interview Shane," Ricky said "But make it quick or they'll be suspicious" Sara nodded quickly and they made their way back to the others with a vague idea of what they were going to do. Ricky had plenty of experience going along with spur-of-the-moment plans, but even he had to admit this wasn't looking good for them. He could only hope Sara was good enough of an actor to trick Shane, even if it is only for a few minutes. 

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