Welcome to the Masquerade

"Hard Decisions" by Young Mozart (~A~ Report)

 AN: This one is a little shorter than normal, but the next should make up for it. It's a bonus chapter since this story has reached 500+ reads I thought I'd celebrate with and extra chapter. Also I would love to thank catwhobarks , swampbabie, and gatorabbieanna who have stuck with this story that can't seem to get beyond Friday. (I swear we will eventually get past it, but there's a lot of things that the boys keep bringing up when I try to move on. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.) Standard disclaimer still applies! I only own Lory. Everything else is the property of C.L.Stone. Constructive criticism is welcome and even requested, but flames will be used to make s'mores. I love votes and views. Please let me know your favorite lines and moments. Happy Reading.  

*~*~* Owen *~*~*

There it is again.

That's the second time she's taken that position. It can't be comfortable. She's sitting all by herself in the middle of the coffee table. There's nothing to lean against or support her. Damn. It's reminding me of Miss Sorenson kneeling, humbling and humiliating herself in order to be forgiven. Lory is just isolating herself. Pretending it won't hurt. Entertaining fiction or not, I need that file.

I pulled my phone out and sent Dr. Roberts a text as I saw Sean watching Lory with an uncharacteristically worried frown. He sees it, too.

Me: I need Lory's file. 

Me: All of her files.

Dr. Roberts: They're in my possession and currently under review as some supplemental information has been given to me in the last few days. I should be finished with the review by Wednesday.

Me: Can we get them after the review is complete?

Dr. Roberts: Certainly. I can give them to Sean when he comes in for shift Wednesday evening.

Me: Thank you.

I shot Sean a look as I put my phone away and he nodded as he walked over.

"We're right," He began in a low voice, "something is very wrong. It's like she doesn't know how to be herself. Everything is just a shade over the top. Like she's just pretending."

"Yes, Silas had it right, I think. When she's not paying attention, you can see the panic like she's on a stage and forgotten her lines."

"What happened?" Sean muttered in a stressed and worried tone. "Something big has to have happened. The last time we Skyped that wasn't in her eyes."

"I don't know. I've requested her files. According to Dr Roberts her file is under review due to new information."

"What?" Sean muttered with a raised eyebrow. I nodded. Reviews which left files unavailable were rare. 

"She called her file fiction, but maybe with what we learn here and her updated file, we might have enough pieces of the puzzle to figure it out."

"You like puzzles," He muttered his voice still worried.

He's right. I do like puzzles. So why do I dread solving this one?

*~*~*~*~*

Dr. Philip Roberts paced his office pale with fury. If she wasn't dead, Lucy Anderson would be facing serious disciplinary action. As it was the Academy branch she's been working with was going to be getting an earful and full investigation was going to be launched. He's make sure of that personally. This can never happen again.

He had made it through the files Lily had brought him. And it had taken him all afternoon to come to the conclusion that she was right. He snarled audibly at the mishandling of such a talented and promising Academy prospect. That was another thing making his blood boil. Lory was not an actual Academy member. She had been working as one for four or five years as far as he could tell, but she's never been an actual member. He sent her in to help the Blackbourne team hoping they would finally convince her to join.

He had no idea she's spent the last five years working towards a graduations she couldn't receive. Lucy had trained her in legend making but then put that together with Lory's acting skills and nearly gotten her daughter killed. There was a reason the Academy worked in teams, damn it!

In disguise, under cover, no back up. What in the hell was she thinking?! She didn't even bother to actually tell me what she'd been doing. No, She dumped a lifetime's worth of secrets and lies and left her 17-year-old daughter to clean up after her! I'm not sure how she could have been more selfish and short sighted!

Phil snarled again. He's going to have to explain to Zora what Lucy had done. He was really not looking forward to that. His wife was going to be asking some rather ...pointed questions of how this happened. Then there was the accounting and getting her listed with the Academy, because she was going to get credit for what she had been doing!

"God what a mess," he groaned. He really needed to get Rosie and Bublé in on clearing up her records. All but four of the additional identities were inactive. Some had been marked "inactive" and others with Lory's distinctive scrawl as "Burned" with a special code. The remaining four identities had been used a couple of times on different assignments. So basically they needed to work up files on each identity to attach to Lory's main file and figure out where her accounts should really stand.

Then, with one text message, Phil Roberts day just got worse.

Owen: I need Lory's file.

Owen: All of her files.

Now I have to explain to Sean and Owen what has happened. I'll tell Sean we'll have a meeting on the files after they read them. But, first things first. I need to get the Andersons in here and see if we can get an idea of how Lory is coping with basically having five personalities running around in her head. I think I may actually be glad Marcus doesn't know about Lory. I'd really hate to have to explain this to him on top of all of the everything else.

And the day had started out so promising...

"Hard Decisions"  by Young Mozart