How This All Turned Out

So We Have To Get Rid Of Her

Canada: Consumes the most amount of macaroni and cheese in the world.

America: has a 2-million-square-foot refrigerated warehouse full of Cheese in Missouri, often referred to as the Cheese Cave.

(This has nothing to do with the chapter, but you are now blessed with this knowledge.)

A week has passed since Canada was released, and life has gone back to normal. America officially decides this is much better than running around on adventures - let heists be left to Leverage Consulting & Associates and other fictional thieves.

Canada seems shaken by the experience, but mostly fine. He's looking for a new job, preferably one without any mob links this time. Neither Ontario nor the swirl flagged woman (who's name is apparently Ottawa) had not been sent to prison, but America has made the decision to not think about them.

That resolution does not last long.

It's after Canada's latest job interview. He doesn't have a car and the bus drivers are on strike again, so America is driving him home.

They are going to their apartment only to find Cambridge in the stairwell, also heading in that direction. She is clearly not in a good mood. Her face changes from stormy to confused and then back to the usual irritation when she sees them.

"Tell your friends to quiet the fuck down." she snaps.

America and Canada look at each other.

"Friends?" America asks.

"Yeah, they were messing around with the door..." she trails off as the looks of confusion America is giving her morphed into concern.

"... You didn't have friends over." She says, eventually.

America and Canada rush upstairs, which would have been a very bad idea if anyone had still been in their apartment, but thankfully they find the house is empty.

The lock on the door is broken and there are faint footprints on the floor. Nothing else seems to be missing or damaged.

They check their respective rooms, but there is still no sign of anything having been taken. Which leads America to rather unpleasant conclusions.

"You don't think this has something to do with Municipality, do you?" Canada asks, exiting his room.

America nods grimly. The text he receives further confirms his and Canada's suspicions.

Meet me at the repair shop

And Germany's follow up text is even more ominous:

Make sure you aren't followed

The conclusions America is coming to are definitely very unpleasant.

●   ●   ●

The sun hangs low in the sky, filling Germany's office with red and orange light. It's small, smells of motor oil and most of the space is taken up by a desk covered with paperwork, stationery and engine components.

China occupies the only chair while Germany balances on the edge of the cluttered table, leaving America and Canada to stand by the door.

"I can't believe you got me involved with them!" China says, miserably.

Her house had also been broken into, and she had only avoided the intruders because she had to return a book to the library. America didn't realize people still used libraries, but it was lucky that she did - it may have saved her life.

"You didn't know?" America looks between Germany and China, confused. Germany said that everyone knew.

"No, I don't know the name of every place backed by Municipality," China runs her hand through her hair. "How do they even know we did it? We removed the footage..."

"More Importantly," Germany cuts across China's rambling "what're we doing from here?"

"Shouldn't we go to the police?" China asks.

"They let Ottawa go, do you think they care?" Germany says and America can tell he is getting frustrated with how many times he has to explain the cop's negligence.

"How long will it take them to forget about us?" America hopes that, just maybe, there won't be any more retaliation after today.

"You guys nearly sent Ottawa to prison, she's going to be angry," Canada says.

America sits there, considering what life with an angry gangster constantly after him and Canada would be like. Nope, not good. He hopes someone is going to suggest an idea better than the one he has right now, but no-one does. Well, if they are screwed anyway...

"So... we have to get rid of her," he says. They look at him. "Like, get her into prison or make her think coming after us isn't worth it or..."

And now, how the heck are they going to do that? They already tried arresting her, and it hadn't worked. Normal people can't just take on the mob. Between the four of them they have, what, a car mechanic, a security analyst, an ex-bartender and an underpaid cashier. On the other hand, Ottawa probably has guns, money, gangsters, more guns, connections to law enforcement and even more guns.

There is no way they can take her down.

Unless she doesn't have those things.

And the only way she wouldn't have those things was if -

"or we could get her kicked out of Municipality."

"That could work," Germany says. Because he's an optimist, or something. "If Municipality turns against her, we don't have to worry about anyone else trying to take revenge on us for putting her in prison."

"So, we should interrupt her business?" China asks, "I mean, she works for someone else, right? So if they think she's stealing from them, then they will lose faith in her."

"If she trades stuff - you know, like guns or drugs - and if that went missing..." Canada starts.

"First we need to know more about her and what she does," Germany says.

The discussion about how to get rid of Ottawa is abruptly cut short when America realizes (or more accurately, Canada points out) that he is going to be very late to work.

A/N: Sorry, I didn't spend as much time as I wanted to on this chapter, I've started planing another fic, so I got a bit distracted.

Comments are appreciated!