Welcome to the Masquerade

"Counting on Hearts" by Icon For Hire (~A~ Report)

AN: HI! I'm still kicking. Since my last sign-on, I've faced the anniversary of my aunt's death, Thanksgiving, my grandmother's rather sudden passing, Christmas, my daughter's birthday and an annual review at work. So go me! I wrote anyway.  Recently I've been rereading some of my favorite stories to get back into the setting since my Harry Potter plot bunny keeps dragging my attention away. When the Lights Went Out, Can you Teach me, Driven to Destiny,  and Blackbourne Investigations are all on the list. The chapter's kinda choppy and mostly filler, but it's a chapter and about 2k words or so. This chapter's song has nothing to do with the story and everything to do with you the readers who keep encouraging me to write with your views, votes, and comments. I still own nothing but Lory, flames will still be used to make s'mores.  As always let me know what you loved and hated. Happy Reading! -MrsAndisMom

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"What are we going to do with her?" Sean asked Owen in frustration once Lory left after finalizing a schedule that saw her doing a work out with Nate once a week and a visit to an Academy counselor.

"I don't know," Owen sighed.

Sean blinked at him for a second in shock at his admission. Owen just admitted to not knowing what to do. He must really be stressed.

"Well, She was already grounded. I've told her she can't change skins without one of us. What else can we do?"

"Prove what we've been saying," He answered pinching his nose.

"That we aren't going anywhere?"

"Yes."

"I think she needs to be kept busy too," Sean suggested. "She needs to get into the training with Sang. Maybe let her do a couple of jobs with Gabe working up disguises. It lets her use her skills and training without going undercover."

"Yes, and I need to get things in place for Ms. Ransome's shoot with Mr. McNeil. She said he wants to do it at the end of February. An outdoor shoot in February for lingerie and swimwear...," Owen shook his head.

"Do we really need to establish her identities?" Sean asked looking over his brother's shoulder at the files on his desk

"Yes, she showed me her emails," Owen waved a hand at some print outs. "She's been doing classes as Kris online. She should at least complete the semester or the school may get suspicious since she is marked as an at-risk student. That gives her the semester to manufacture the transfer information. Lilliana is being asked to do live shows all over the east coast. So far she's been turning them down and she's been doing canned shows. I don't know when she's been recording them, but apparently she has. Even if we are working towards an exit strategy she needs to establish them here so we can get her out of the identities. Kris is the easiest she needs to show up only twice on campus so Lory doesn't have to actively use that identity and to be honest it's so close to being you that I'm least worried about that one. But it's tricky. She's supposed to go soon."

"She's not ready," Sean inserted the worry clear in his voice. "After this weekend's fiasco, she can't change to yet another identity so soon."

"I know." Owen's comment was barely audible and showed his own worry. He was going to develop an ulcer at this rate. "We'll talk to her about it. I think if we can put that one off we can let her do a show here in Charleston as Lilliana. She will need to be seen on-site before the actual show," he broke off with a frustrated disgusted sigh. "It doesn't matter what we do, she's going to be spread too thin."

"Unless we pull her from Ashley Waters." Sean offered

"I don't think we can convince her she should do that if Miss Sorenson's still here. Miss Sorenson is her assignment. All this," he waved vaguely at the plans they were making, "is getting her cleared of her past and she's not going to think it's as important. Unless we can figure out how to pull Miss Sorenson as well or complete our assignment, she's going to stay. How are we doing with the information she got for us?"