Cats and Mice

“You can say it,” Foggy sighed, resting his back on his chair. 

He hadn’t said a word so far. He didn’t say anything when Karen and Matt stormed into the office, looking for something that wasn’t there and told him not to say a word. In his mind, they were just a bit insane. He could understand that. They were the kind of people who were always looking for something big to happen. Not because they were bored, but simply because of who they were. He wasn’t like that. 

When they didn’t find anything suspicious, and they checked the flowers Rose gave them at least five times each, they finally decided to have him sit in the conference room to have a talk. And then they told him. They never clearly said it, but it was all there. Rose, their friend, was working with Vanessa Fisk. No one had bothered to tell him that the woman was pregnant before, and it would’ve been a big reveal to Foggy if he hadn’t been busy trying to recall every single one of his interactions with Rose. 

He’d been so sure, ever since she entered their lives, that she was a genuinely good person. Now, he was not only disappointed in himself, but also in her. If she wanted to work against them, why didn’t she decide to be a regular bad guy and just openly hate them while trying to take them down at the same time ? Did she have to manipulate them the way she did ? 

Karen placed a hand on top of his and gently squeezed it. “It’s not your fault,” she softly said. “She’s… she’s good.”

At least they weren’t reminding him that he’d been wrong, he thought. Now that he’d pitied himself for a while, he turned to look at Matt. He didn’t seem very fine either. He’d been in an unusually good mood for a few days, all thanks to Rose and what was happening between them even if he’d refused to give him any detail. Was this all a lie for her, too ? 

“Have you seen her ?” Foggy asked. 

Matt briefly shook his head. “I was waiting. We need a plan,” he replied, his voice confirming Foggy’s fears. 

“So we’re not giving her the benefit of the doubt ? Nothing ? We could be missing something here.”

“She told me she was at church,” Matt explained. “Meeting with Father Bryant. She never mentioned Vanessa, not even once. Never talked about Fisk either.”

“And the bug in the plant she gave me,” Karen added. “We’d barely talked when she offered it to me, after I told her I didn’t know who Daredevil was.”

Foggy slammed his hand on the table. “See ? Doesn’t make sense,” he said, quite hopeful. “Vanessa knows about Matt. If they were working together, she’d know.”

“Maybe she…” Karen started, unable to form a coherent response to that. “Okay, we can’t explain everything. But it’s enough for us to at least investigate, right ? Even if it’s not her, she lied about Vanessa and someone bugged my place.”

“What do you want to investigate ?” Foggy scoffed. “We had Jessica Jones do it for us. If she’d found anything, she would’ve told us, right ?”

“Doesn’t make much sense,” Matt agreed. “We can’t ignore the facts either. She lied, she’s the main suspect in the bugging of Karen’s place.”

“And she’s been assaulted,” Foggy finished. “How do you explain that ?”

Neither Matt or Karen said anything. Granted, Foggy only wanted to find Rose excuses, meaning that he hadn’t been that wrong about her, but they had rather strong arguments. He didn’t like this any more than they did, and he’d have to agree to let them investigate anyway. 

“I already made a list,” Karen said. “A few places I know she’s going to. It’s a long drive, but there’s a greenhouse and a print shop just outside the City that she told me about a few times.”

“And then what ?” Foggy asked. “You want to ask them if she’s ever done anything suspicious ? A greenhouse and a print shop, Karen.”

“That’s all we got,” Matt calmly said. “Maybe there are other things she hasn’t been honest about. And then we can…” Foggy arched a brow at him before looking back at Karen. She was suddenly very interested in her little list of greenhouses Rose was working with. “We can search her place,” Matt finally finished. 

“What ? No !”

“She might be hiding something,” Matt argued. 

“You want to break into the apartment of the woman you’re, just a reminder, dating,” Foggy said, now thinking that they were both going too far, as usual. “What next ? You kidnap her for questioning ? You’re gonna beat her to a pulp until she tells you why she lied about Vanessa ? And then go back and hold her hand in the hospital ?” This was too much for him. He left his chair in the conference room and let out a heavy breath. “Go,” he told Karen. “If there’s anything more than what you have now, then you can search her place,” he added, turning towards Matt. “But not a thorough search. You get in there, make sure she’s not hiding an arsenal or secretly selling drugs, and then you get out.”

Matt nodded, and so did Karen. That was enough for him. 

Foggy looked at the red flowers in the middle of the table. They’d bloomed only a couple days ago. Now, they were thinking about ruining everything already. He left the room, walked back to his office, and closed the door behind him for once. None of it was right, and there was something more to it. He knew it, and he’d be Rose’s advocate until they found irrefutable proof of her wrongdoings. 

***

The man had been in the shop for a while now. Rose had offered to help him, but he’d told her that he only wanted to take a look. She wondered how long he’d have to look at the sunflowers before deciding to buy some. They all looked the same, she made sure to throw away the sad ones before opening. Not only was he looking a lot, but he was also touching them. She didn’t like that. She took out her phone and opened her notes app. ‘Get a don’t touch the flowers sign’, she wrote.

Sitting behind her counter, her head resting in the palm of her hand, Rose spent another three minutes studying her customer before Matt entered the shop. She sat straight and smiled. 

“Don’t be too loud, I’m studying,” she whispered as he was joining her at the counter. 

He briefly kissed her on the cheek and sat down, waiting for the inevitable coffee she’d bring him. “What’s happening ?”

She hurried back with a warm cup and took her seat back. “So there’s this guy,” she explained, as the man was now moving to potted flowers, “he’s been here for 24 minutes. He’s just looking and touching the flowers. Doesn’t want my help or anything. Hasn’t looked my way once.”

“And ?”

She shrugged. “What if he’s spying on me ?” 

“Why would he do that ?”

Rose sighed and turned around to face Matt. “Okay, you’ve ruined it,” she scoffed. “I like to think that I’m somehow more important than I actually am.” She checked that the man was still busy and took Matt’s hand below the counter. “Haven’t seen you for coffee this morning.”

“New case,” he said. 

She arched a brow at him. Something was wrong. She knew very little about law, but she’d had to be a therapist for multiple of her dates before. She had experience. “You want to talk about it ?” she asked. 

He smiled at her, but she saw how forced it was. “We’re hoping to get a breakthrough soon,” he simply said. 

“Anything I can help with ?” He shook his head, still without a word. Whatever it was, that case was troubling him. “Tell me if you need someone to listen,” she softly added. “I promise I’ll keep my jokes to myself.”

He stayed there, drinking his coffee quietly, until he was done and decided to leave. Rose was rather confused by his behavior, even going as far as asking herself if she’d done anything wrong. She thought that maybe they’d been seeing each other too much lately and that she hadn’t given up on a night of work for him. Father Bryant already knew that she was late on the schedule she gave him, and he was a nice man. He wouldn’t mind if she didn’t come once if she told him she needed to rest. 

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize that the man watching the flowers was now standing in front of her, visibly irritated that she was ignoring him. She apologized profusely, but was happily surprised when he asked her for a rather complex bouquet for his mother. That was, she thought, a very lucky mother. 

***

Even if she was lying about many things, Karen could never take away from Rose the commitment she’d put in her shop. She was driving there more times than she’d been able to. She understood now why it was always taking her hours to come back.

Karen didn’t like that sudden invasion of Rose’s privacy, but it was a necessary evil. She didn’t even think that she was a bad person at heart. Vanessa could’ve manipulated her, or offered her money. One of these people might have something to say about her that might give Karen a lead she could follow. She didn’t want to disappoint Foggy, and she surely didn’t want to break Matt’s relationship, not now that he was finally managing to balance everything quite well. 

She checked the name next to the wooden gates. Pop’s greenhouse. Karen smiled. That was the kind of name that would’ve drawn Rose to work with them. She parked her car and entered the place. It smelled different from Rose’s. Maybe because there was much more dirt here than the inside of Rose’s shop, or maybe because Rose had a tiled floor that could be cleaned up properly. 

It wasn’t long before an old man walked over to welcome her. “Hi,” he said with a warm smile. “Can I help with something ?”

“I hope so,” Karen replied. She pulled out the picture of Rose she’d found on her website and handed it to him. “I’m writing a piece on small businesses opening in Hell’s Kitchen. Ms Parsons told me she’d been working with you,” she said, not mentioning that Matt had stolen a receipt from the counter on the same morning to confirm that it was the right place. “Can I ask you a few questions ? Maybe mention you in an article, it could get you more traction.”

The man sighed. “Depends what you want to know,” he said, walking back inside. “She’s nice, that’s about it.”

Karen followed him, trying her best not to step into the piles of dirt on the ground, and sadly failing. “Did she tell you where she came from ? Any late payments ?”

“What are you gonna write exactly ?” he asked, his smile gone. “Doesn’t seem like good advertisement to me.”

“I know,” she scoffed, “but my boss doesn’t want me to write about failing businesses. We want to give people hope.”

“Right.” He stopped and handed her a glass of iced tea. “Well, she’s a good customer. I told her never to tip Tommy, but I know she keeps doing it. Business must be good if she can overpay him.”

Karen quickly noted that she needed to talk to Tommy and smiled at the man. “So you’d say that she’s nice.”

“Yeah. Wants to make people like nature again. She’s good,” he added. “I don’t know about her sales, but she’s got the passion.” He took a sip from his glass and shook his head. “Either she’s gonna make it, or she’s not. But she never talks about money, only about the plants.”

“I’ll cross my fingers for her success, then,” Karen said before giving him the glass back. “Do you mind if I take a look around ?”

He shook his head and left before she could thank him for answering her questions. He wasn’t a very talkative man, but it wasn’t a surprise to her. She only came to make herself a better idea of the kind of person Rose was, and he hadn’t been very helpful. ‘Nice’. Karen already knew that Rose was nice, and apparently enough to make an old man want to protect her reputation.

It was rather weird however that she’d been spending so much here. Rose had actually never spared herself any expenses when it came to her shop. She’d given Matt everything about her charity project for the church, and there was no way she’d be able to afford that. Not only that, but Rose never really seemed concerned about financial issues. Someone had to pay for it. 

It wasn’t long before Karen found who she was hoping to be Tommy. Young, and not very happy to be working here. She waved at him as he was watering his grandfather’s plants. He quickly dropped the garden hose and ran towards her. 

“Hi, I’m a journalist, and I’d like to ask you a few questions about one of your customers,” she said. 

Tommy looked behind her. “Have you seen my-”

“I have,” she laughed. “But I was thinking that maybe you’ve had more contact with her since you’re delivering the plants. Rose Parsons ?”

“Hell’s Kitchen, right ?” She nodded. “Yeah, she’s nice.”

Again with that, Karen thought. “Anything else ?”

“No, I don’t- Oh, wait. Yeah,” he added, getting all of Karen’s attention. “There was a woman looking for her last week. I wanted to ask if she’d been there, but I got distracted.” He pointed at Karen as if struck by genius. “You’re writing about what happened to her, right ? Her face ? Do you know who did that to her ?”

“The police still have no clue, sadly.”

“Shit. So yeah, I didn’t know she’d been attacked, so I forgot to ask about the other woman.”

“Did she tell you who she was ?”

He shook his head. “She had an old picture, asked me if I’d ever seen her. I told her about the shop and she left. Do you think she did it ?”

“A man did it,” Karen told him. He seemed relieved not to have caused someone harm. “Can you tell me what that woman looked like ?”

“Well, uh… dark hair. She had sunglasses on, so I can’t help you with that, but uh… yeah. She looked good for her age.”

“How old would you say she was ?”

“No idea,” he scoffed. “Old enough to be her mother, maybe ? Little older than mine, but definitely younger than Pop.”

That wasn’t much, but neither ‘Pop’ or Tommy seemed to have anything bad to say about Rose. Karen couldn’t blame them, she was indeed a very nice person. She thanked Tommy for his help, promised not to tell his grandfather that he’d talked about a customer again, and walked back to her car the same way he got back to the garden hose. 

She considered calling Matt. Tell him that they had it all wrong, that the worst Rose had done was to spend money she didn’t have. Still, she wanted to know about the bug, and the lies. It came from somewhere, and she’d find out even if it meant that she had to go talk to every person Rose had ever encountered since her arrival in New York. On the other hand, there was a new woman involved in Rose’s life. A woman with a flower shop had never had that much mystery surrounding her. 

Instead of calling her friends, Karen decided to still visit the print shop Rose was always coming back from with a bad mood. Whatever they were doing to her there, she didn’t like that. Maybe they’d have something to tell her about Rose that wasn’t ‘nice’. 

The shop didn’t look big, or very high-tech oriented. Too small to print things on a large scale, but in good shape. They were visibly doing enough money to still be there. From her research, Karen had already found that it had opened 24 years ago. The owner had changed twice, which wasn’t surprising. She entered the print shop thinking that it would just be another dead-end. 

She changed her mind the second she walked in and saw the man sitting at the front desk. 

The colors on his face were matching Rose’s to perfection. Karen didn’t know how long bruises took to heal, but the facts were right here in front of her. His arm was in a cast, his neck pretty badly bruised, too. She was sure of it, she’d found the man who’d attacked Rose only a week ago. 

“Can I help you ?” he asked. 

Karen swallowed back the questions she was ready to ask and looked through her purse. “I hope so,” she said with a smile. “I’m a journalist for the New York Bulletin, and we’re currently working on a piece about small businesses opening in Hell’s Kitchen and their marketing strategies.”

He looked at her and frowned. “You want to meet the manager ?”

“Oh, no. No need to bother him. See, I talked to one of your customers, and she told me that she was hoping to get people to come back to her shop with funny little cards and-”

“No way,” he scoffed. “The one with the flowers ?”

“Yes,” she immediately replied. “You know her ?”

“Not personally,” he said with a shrug. He checked around him and leaned forward. “I read what they put in the boxes after printing, okay. And I’ve seen her cards. Do you know how much money she spends on these jokes ? And tips on how to take care of a plant ? I mean, it can’t be that hard,” he finished with a condescending laugh. 

Karen understood why Rose didn’t like coming here. This man was all but nice, but it didn’t explain why he would’ve attacked her or why Rose didn’t mention him to the police. He was wearing a mask, but anyone would’ve known that it was a strange coincidence. Rose came here on the very next day, surely she’d noticed. 

“Well, it’s about her,” she replied. “I was wondering if you had anything to say about her, but it’s clear you’ve told me everything I needed,” she coldly added. 

He rested back on his chair. “I didn’t know you were friends. Sorry about that.” He looked for something on his desk, visibly embarrassed. “Well, she’s uh… she’s nice. Polite, and everything. I’ll admit she’s had good jokes recently, given our similar color palette.”

Karen forced herself to smile. He’d noticed that she looked at him. “How did it happen ?”

“I didn’t fall down the stairs, that’s for sure,” he laughed. She didn’t. “I think not everyone is okay with two men holding hands yet,” he added as a wave of guilt ran through Karen’s body. “Not writing a piece on that, uh ?”

“I’m… I’m sorry. Well, I think I have everything I need… I didn’t get your name.” He pointed at his badge. “Nice to meet you, Randy.”

She left as fast as she got in, almost running back to her car. He seemed sincere, but so did Rose. One of them was lying, and she’d never met that man before. She drove away, asking her phone to call Matt. He didn’t reply, which had always been a habit of his. 

Foggy answered however. “Foggy, it’s me,” she said. “I’m coming back.”

“Have you seen them ?”

“Yeah, and I have good news, and bad news.”

He sighed. “Start with the bad. Please, don’t make it too bad.”

“I think I found a suspect in her aggression,” she said. “A guy from the print shop. Doesn’t like her, hurt badly enough to have been Matt. He said he broke the guy’s arm, right ?”

“And that he wasn’t in any pain, or trained to ignore it.”

“I think he did it. But she saw him the next morning, Foggy. Why didn’t she tell anyone ?”

“What if she doesn’t think it could be someone she knows ? Did you tell him your name ? I don’t want you to-”

“It’s fine,” she stopped him. “I told him I was with the Bulletin. Even if he calls, Ellison won’t tell him it was me. Good news ?”

“Please.”

“She’s nice,” Karen scoffed. “Two people from the greenhouse, and even that guy at the print shop, they all agree. She’s nice.” She stopped the car, waiting for the light to turn green. “Oh, and a woman was looking for her at the greenhouse.”

“Jessica ?”

“Older,” she replied. “The boy didn’t give me much, but Matt told me there was a woman at the shop yesterday. Anyway, I think… Foggy, she saw the guy at the print shop, she’s spending money she doesn’t have, she lied and most likely bugged my apartment. I get that you want to trust her but…”

“I know,” he said, letting out a long breath. “I’ll tell Matt when he comes back from court.”

He hung up. Too fast for Karen’s taste. She knew how hard it was for him. It was just as hard for her. She’d been the first to let Rose into their lives, to trust her, to ask Matt to let go of his weird habit of spying on her. He listened to her, and now here they were. More than disappointment in someone she trusted, Karen was now disappointed in herself for not trusting her friend’s instinct. 

***

Rose’s phone rang. She put down the pots she was rearranging on the shelf and took a quick look. And then, after seeing that it was William, checked around her. There was nowhere safe in this place anymore. “This is Rose Parsons, how may I help you ?”

“I have an extraction order for you.”

It took Rose all of her self-control not to scream at him. “Sure, can I ask you what kind of flowers you’d like ?”

“The kind smelling like Karen Page showing up here and asking about you,” he replied. “Marianne’s sending me away in case your friend asks her friend to come finish the job.”

Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She’d thought that this was over. Was Jones convincing enough ? Was that the reason why Matt had been acting weird in the morning ? “Just a second, I’m going to take some notes if you don’t mind.”

“Take notes all you want, but you’re leaving New York tonight.”

“Hm, I don’t think that’ll be possible, Sir.”

“And I think I’m gonna knock you out, tie you up and put you in the van with the rest of your stuff,” he insisted. 

Rose repressed a laugh. She would’ve been having fun, if it wasn’t for the mess her cover was in at the time. “Next week, then ? Is that okay with you ?” she asked. 

William sighed. “You may be away from all of us, but I’m working with Marianne. Your father is coming over every single day,” he explained. “If you decide to stay for another week, I’ll be the one to tell them that.”

“Well maybe you could put me on the phone with your superior to talk about financial arrangements ?”

“Screw you. I don’t even know why I called, I’m on paid vacation.”

She laughed. “I think you’ll both enjoy it, Sir. Thank you for reaching out, I’ll be sure to have everything ready. Have a nice vacation, then.”

Rose hung up. She was furious. She took care of everything, secured her cover in every possible way, made sure that there was nothing to ever be held against her. And yet, it still wasn’t enough. They were still after her, looking into her life. Her life had nothing interesting, why wouldn’t they trust her for good ? Was it because of her relationship with Matt ? Were they all traumatized so deeply by the shit they’d been involved in that they couldn’t trust someone who was nice to them ? 

She considered the extraction. She really thought about it, knowing that it was her best option. The one she would’ve considered in any other mission. But this, all of these people coming after her, it had to mean something. She was probably getting too close. Either they were all afraid of what she might’ve found and there was no extraction to ever happen, or they were all a bunch of untrusting people ready to do anything to find the truth no matter the consequences, and she’d personally recommend them all for recruitment. 

***

They hadn’t thought about how to get in. Matt was now standing in front of Rose’s backdoor, and it was locked. He should’ve stolen a key. He’d been lucky enough that her security system had been down for the past two days, due to the electricity in this part of the building being unreliable at best, but he hadn’t thought about how to get inside. It was one thing to break into a place holding illegal activities. No one would ever think of reporting a B&E. It was another to break into his girlfriend’s apartment, whose only crime appeared to be a little too nice for her own good. 

Matt wrapped his jacket around his hand and gave a sharp blow on the window. She’d think that someone tried to rob her but left without anything. That wasn’t that bad. If they didn’t find anything against her, he’d offer to pay for it. She’d refuse, but he’d find a way to repay her and clear his conscience. 

Once inside, he made sure that he didn’t leave any part of his suit on the broken glass, and waited. 

This was not a criminal lair. This was a woman’s apartment, and he didn’t have the first idea on what to look for. Karen said ‘anything out of the ordinary or that would explain why she doesn’t care about money’. Foggy said ‘for God’s sake, don’t look into her underwear drawer’. None of them were helpful. 

He walked all the way to the shop’s door on the other side of the living room, knowing that she was never locking it. If Karen wanted to know about money, he’d need the accounting books. 

For a second before he told Rose that he wouldn’t be coming with her that night, Matt had thought about her father. She’d told him that he was an accountant. He’d considered the idea that Rose’s family could’ve been involved in some sketchy business. Foggy agreed with that. It was going pretty well with what she’d told him about her mother leaving because of lies. The father could’ve been laundering money, given some to his daughter. It was perfect, but it didn’t explain Vanessa. That was why he was here, late in the evening, searching through paperwork he couldn’t read. 

Until he found a sturdier book. Large, thick, with a hard cover. The typical budget book they sold everywhere. He grabbed it and secured it in the back of his pants. He’d bring it back before Rose could notice anything, but Karen needed to take some pictures of it. As he was turning around, waiting for a genius idea to come to his mind, something caught his ears. 

Something was buzzing around. He knew that sound. He’d heard it the night before, in Karen’s apartment. He followed the small electrical current and ended up in front of a small shelf, currently holding a few potted… whatever these were. He recognized the smell, but couldn’t put a name on it. Matt ran his hand across the metal, waiting to feel something different. 

There. On the left, hidden between two metallic planks. Someone, most likely the same person who’d bugged Karen, also placed a mic inside of Rose’s shop. There was no doubt about it anymore, whoever was doing this was after Daredevil. Matt should’ve been worried about it, but he was now only relieved that Rose might’ve had nothing to hide. Instead, she was just another victim of people who wanted to hurt him. 

He replaced the book he’d taken down, and walked back to her apartment. On his way out, he stopped and decided to check around him just to be sure. He rushed to the bathroom and immediately found the one on the toilet paper shelf. Badly hidden, and it surprised him that Rose hadn’t seen it herself, but it was there, also transmitting. 

Knowing that someone might’ve heard him, Matt left the apartment by the same window he’d broken before and walked away. People were there, but too many of them to have been a problem. The only lonely souls were in the apartments surrounding him, and none of them was calling the police after witnessing a crime.

***

No one saw what Matt had done, except for the usual watcher of the place. Dex had spent so many nights here that he was now a part of the decor, according to Matt’s sensible ears. But he’d seen everything, heard him when he entered the bathroom and left the bug untouched. 

Dex now had options. He could’ve left. The flower girl would’ve come back and called the police, or her friends, or changed the window herself and pretended that nothing happened. He could’ve gone there and tried to find everything the lawyer didn’t see. He would’ve learned in her accounting book how much money she’d been spending. He would’ve found her laptop, maybe even realized that a large chunk of data had been very recently removed from it. 

Instead of these two very viable options, Dex chose the third one. He had plans, and one of them had a time restraint. Things had to move faster or everything would go to waste. For it to work perfectly, he needed the mysterious girlfriend to be angry. Angry people made mistakes all the time, Dex knew that. He’d made a mistake when he’d brought Julie’s body to Fisk. He was different, now. 

But she would be, and she’d let him know who she was working for, since her mother didn’t seem to be ready to talk. 

***

There was no denying it, Rose Parsons was a nice woman. So nice that she’d done everything to make it easier for her supposed boyfriend and his best friend to break into her place. There was no topping that, in her opinion. 

She’d planned a nice evening out with Matt. She’d called Father Bryant, told him that she wouldn’t be coming that night. But when she told Matt about a surprise, he’d told her that he wouldn’t be able to make it to church that evening, because of that new case he was working on. She was disappointed, but kept her smile wide and told him they’d go on another night. That was when she understood that she was the next case, and that they’d likely be searching her apartment. 

As soon as she’d closed the shop, she got rid of every little piece of information they could ever use against her. The usual cleaning, since most of what she had was in her head. She’d turned the cameras off and called the office to ask if there was anything she could do legally against the company who sold her defective equipment. If she had to call the police, she didn’t want any of them to be in trouble. Her place was ready to be visited, and she was ready to be followed. She’d left Karen to follow her. She recognized her car as the one driving off when she’d left Vanessa Fisk’s place, surely driving them to think she had something to hide. Rose had a plan for it too, but tonight had to work first.

That was her last attempt. If it didn’t get them off her back, she’d accept the extraction. She didn’t want that, but she was ready to do it, for the good of the mission. Someone else would take over, use her notes, and end it. She’d move on to another mission, and no one would hold it against her. All of her previous assignments were successes, and no one wanted to take that one in the first place. 

She emptied another bag of clay balls on the bottom of the planter and took a quick look at Karen’s car. If it ever came to it, Rose was ready to give her advice on how to follow people. Taking her own car had been her first mistake, but staying less than half a mile away from her had been the most notable one. At least now Rose understood why that woman always seemed to find herself in trouble. 

“I thought you weren’t coming tonight,” Sister Maggie said, sneaking up on Rose, as per usual it seemed. 

Rose turned and smiled at her. “I had a change of plan.”

“Resting wasn’t good enough anymore ?”

“Apparently not,” she sighed, still disappointed. “But it’s fine, I may be able to finally get something done tonight.” She finished leveling the balls and took her gloves off. “You want a drink ? I have water, iced tea, coffee, and uh… no. You don’t drink beer, right ?”

Maggie smiled at her. “I don’t. But I wouldn’t mind some tea.” She sat next to Rose as she was looking through her many drinks. “You came prepared.”

“I didn’t know how long I’d have to stay.”

“I have rarely seen someone so committed to their work,” she said. “But no one is forcing you to be here.”

“I am,” Rose laughed. “I can’t let you live around that mess without feeling guilty about it. I swear I’m-” The alarm on her phone rang. She excused herself and took a look at the notification her alarm system was sending her. She’d turned it off, too. It didn’t make sense that it was working now. Did the electricity go off and on again ? She’d really have to do something about it. “I’m sorry, I… It’s my shop.”

“Something wrong ?” Maggie asked with a concerned look. 

“I think someone broke in.”

“You can leave it all here,” she replied, already walking back to the church. “I’m calling the police.”

Rose barely listened to the end of the nun’s sentence. She was already in her car. She crossed Karen’s car without giving it a look. She had to look surprised and scared. Now, she was only hoping not to drive past Matt and Foggy on their way out. That would be embarrassing for them, and they’d become persons of interest for the police. 

Before Bees’ Paradise was even on sight, the police forced Rose to stop her car. She wondered how a small breaking and entering could cause such commotion. An officer approached her as she was popping her head out of the window. 

“Miss, we’re gonna ask you to take another road,” he firmly said. “We’re investigating here.”

“Right, but my shop is right on the corner and-”

“The flower shop ?” he asked, looking through his notes. “Bees’-”

“Paradise, yeah,” she finished, getting increasingly worried. Surely Matt and Foggy didn’t go there with a bat and break through her stuff. “Is there a problem, officer ? My apartment is right there, there’s no other way for me to get there.”

Instead of telling her that it wasn’t his problem, he looked around and motioned someone else to join them. Rose got out of the car and waited until detective Mahoney joined them. He didn’t look happy, and she wanted to know what happened to her shop. 

“Ms Parsons,” Mahoney said, holding his hand out to her. “I’m sorry to tell you that-”

“What.”

“Your shop, as well as your apartment have- Ms Parsons, come back !” he added, shouting at the woman leaving everything behind.

Rose ran as fast as she could. She turned around the corner and stared in shock at the state of the shop. Cops were everywhere, taking notes, pictures, samples of glass and dirt, looking for fingerprints. She walked past them, ignoring their warning, and entered. She didn’t need a key. She didn’t even need to open the door. She walked over what was left of the bay window in the front, just like everyone around her was doing. 

The inside wasn’t much prettier. Everything had been broken. From the lamps hanging on the ceiling, to the shelves she’d spent days putting together, to the plants she was supposed to sell. Even the floor had been smashed completely. The cash register had been destroyed, as well as the expensive counter she’d begged Marianne to get her. 

She ignored the pain in her chest and the tears on her face. She kept moving, all the way to the door of her apartment, that had been forcefully removed before visibly being thrown to the center of her living room. Her couch had been lacerated, her TV was laying on the ground under her only bookshelf. She didn’t bother stopping by her bathroom and walked straight to the small bedroom on her left. Her clothes were all over the floor. 

One thing hadn’t been touched however. Her bed was still intact, only covered in the dirt of the plants she’d kept alive for years. The pots were broken, the stems cut. Nothing to save from it. 

Rose sat on the edge of the bed, slowly, and stopped crying. There would be no extraction to talk about anymore.