Acacia shot up from her bed when her phone buzzed against her mattress. She grinned girlishly and picked up her device from beside her pillow as she tried to suppress her giggle. Craning her neck to her bedroom door, she got up from her bed and placed her hand on the knob.

She opened her bedroom door slightly and scanned the entire proximity of the hallway. All the lights were off, downstairs included, which means that her parents are asleep. After she closed the door behind her, she picked up the phone.

“Hey!”

“Ace, I’m here. Are you ready?” Zack’s small voice filled her ear.

Ace rushed to her closet and stared at herself through the full-length mirror behind the closet door. She is wearing an oversized sweatshirt and tight purple pants, having dressed up after telling her parents that she was going to bed. Zack had promised to pick her up from her house and bring her to the school rails for some skateboarding. It was enough to motivate her to get ready ahead of time.

She has never touched a skateboard in her life and does not intend to, but the only reason for her to tolerate it is the man outside her window.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” She breathed out.

“See you soon!” Zack hung up.

Acacia ruffled her wavy blonde hair several times before quietly stepping to her window. She had left it open in preparation for her escape plan out of her own bedroom. For a night out with Zack and his skateboarder friends, she went very far in the planning to make her action of sneaking out easier.

She climbed out of her window and looked down to make sure that Zack is directly below her. Blinking at the distance between the edge of her window and the boy below, she let out a nervous breath before jumping down two stories from the edge. She bit her lips to prevent any noise from leaving her body as Zack caught her with his pair of firm arms.

Zack held her for a couple of seconds, smiling down at her as she managed to catch her breath. She stared at him, breathless but smiling. She waited for him to put her down.

He completely disregarded the fact that he had to put her down, too mesmerized by the beautiful girl in his arms right now.

With a shy smile plastered on his face, he allowed his thoughts to leave the present time. He is so lucky that the girl of his dreams would sneak out of her house for him, especially when she usually stays on the safe side of the line. Ever since Rian introduced the two in the beginning of freshmen year, he knew he wanted Acacia Kovacs to be his. Lately, he believe that he is one step closer to his goal, and as hard as it is for him to express his feelings to her, he will make it happen.

Unless she does not feel the same way.

“Hi.” Ace said breathlessly.

Zack snapped out of his thoughts and placed her back on the ground softly.

“Let’s go!” He mumbled to her, leading the blonde girl toward the direction of his car.

His old Camry is parked just a block down from her house, made for convenience and discretion, which has never failed before. They have done this three times prior to now and neither had gotten caught yet.

The car ride to the school was silent and uneventful, both completely focused on the quiet road at night. When he pulled up to the school parking lot, they saw that Zack’s friends were already here. Several cars are parked in consecutive parking spaces and Ace can see several kids riding their skateboards up the rails at the front of the building.

The two arrived to the entrance steps of their high school, gaining the attention of several of the kids at the top of the stairs.

“Zack, my man!” One of the kids yelled.

“Didn’t think you’d make it out here.” Another said.

Ace shuffled awkwardly beside her taller and buffer friend, making an effort to shrink behind him. She did not know these people very well and doesn’t feel confident enough to talk to them. They are the skater kids after all.

“Of course, why would I miss a chance to come out here and kick your ass?” Zack shot back.

“OOHH!” Erupted from the group.

The pair climbed up to the top of the stairs as Zack dropped his skateboard on the floor. Ace handed him his helmet, which she had been holding under her arm, and watched him put it on his head.

Acacia sat down on the steps as Zack rode his way down the rails. Just as he reached the bottom of the steps, he did several flips with his skateboard and landed on the floor, feet directly above his skateboard. Several cheers filled the atmosphere, all encouraging him to do several more tricks on the rails.

The blonde girl clapped several times with a huge grin on her face.

Zack did several more runs down the rail, receiving positive feedback from his friends during the process. He stumbled slightly during his last run and nearly fell on his rear end but managed to stand his ground.

His friends laughed, giving him a few pats in the back as he made his way up the steps toward the girl at the top. She shot him a small smile when he sat down beside her.

“That was brilliant!” She complimented enthusiastically.

“Thanks…” He scratched at the back of his head humbly.

The two stared at each other with remnants of their smiles left on their faces. Zack leaned in closer as a test to see how she would retaliate. He is never a man of words, mainly reliant on his actions to get his desired results. His heart pounded harshly and rapidly against his chest as he inched closer to her lips.

Ace noticed him eyeing her lips for a brief moment when he leaned in. She has no idea what his intentions are behind it. Still unsure of what he is trying to do, Ace remained unmoving and waited for the feel of his lips on hers. She breathed heavily, feeling the pounding of her heart and then her patience wearing thin.

Just when Zack’s lips are mere inches from brushing against hers, a loud slamming noise forced both parties to move away in sudden motions. They both turned to the source of the noise to see that one of Zack’s friends had landed a nasty fall down the steps.

Without shooting Acacia another look, he got up frantically to assist his friend.



“Ace?” She felt a slight nudge against her upper body.

She did not know if she is still in a trance or asleep; she just knows that someone is shaking her.

“Ace, please don’t be dead.” A whisper against her ear forced her eyes to slowly flutter open.

A groan left her lips as her dark brown eyes met the flat ceiling of the room. When she stretched out her right hand, she felt a tug of a chain as well as an extra weight against it. Her head shot to the direction of her hand in alarm and backed up in surprise when she saw it handcuffed to another person’s hand.

“Thank god.” Zack sighed in relief.

Wordlessly, Acacia glared at their conjoined hands and tugged at the handcuffs impatiently.

“I woke up about five minutes ago and it was already on us. I have no idea what happened or what is happening.”

The blonde detective sat up from her position on the mattress and scanned the room. Her dark eyebrows crinkled in confusion when she took in the plain dark brown walls. There is a door on the left side of the room but nothing else is in the room, just the queen-sized bed and the door.

She blinked several times as an attempt to get a grasp of what is going on.

“How long was I out?” Ace asked drowsily as she turned back to look at Zack.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh my god, where is my badge?” Ace nearly shouted as her free hand extended into her coat pocket.

She found the contents of her pocket empty, which frightened her.

“We’re trapped in this ugly room, handcuffed to each other and you’re worried about your badge?” Zack asked in disbelief.

Ace blinked again, shaking her head profusely as the events outside of the warehouse slowly came back to her. She backed up from Zack and pointed an accusing finger at him with her free hand.

“This is your fault!”

“Hey, I didn’t know we were going to get stuck in the neck by some weird sleep syringe!” He replied defensively.

Acacia’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the buff man and rolled out of the bed from her side. Her force nearly pulled Zack down on the bed. He shook his head at her but complied to her decision to leave the bed. She led the pair off the bed and made their way to the door.

“We have to get out of here.” She muttered to herself.

“Yeah, they took your gun so we’re not leaving here anytime soon.” Zack commented.

The blonde placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it several times. As expected, it is locked.

“If I had my gun, I would’ve shot the shit out of this stupid handle.” She growled angrily.

Ace tugged at the handcuffs once more and forced the pair back to the queen sized bed. Both sat down comfortably on the mattress but continued to stare each other down unkindly.

“This is your fault, you know?” Ace started.

Zack scoffed.

“Yeah, because you and Wallace weren’t hiding a case from me this whole time.”

“It is my job to keep Wallace’s information to myself so don’t you dare guilt trip me into this!”

“I didn’t have to follow you out of your precinct today but you guys made it so I did. We are in here because of you.”

Acacia extended her free hand out and slapped him across his right cheek in one swift motion. The recipient of the assault backed up in the same form of fury.

“If you weren’t such a fucking dumbass, intervening in my investigation, I would’ve got the information that I needed and arrested the suckers.”

“I can’t believe you just slapped me.” Zack said in his calm voice, regardless of his anger.

The blonde sighed loudly and fell back onto the bed, sending Zack down beside her.

“Okay, we have to talk about negotiations. You can’t always be the dominant force around here, Ace.”

“What?”

“You don’t get to move us without my permission.” Zack said firmly.

“I do, because I’m the detective here.”

“We’re both stuck in here together and helpless, we’re equals.”

“Yeah, okay, because my four years of academy training is equivalent to your stupidity back there…” She scoffed sarcastically.

“Hey! You can’t hold that shit against me!”

“Oh yeah? Then who am I supposed to blame for being in this position right now, Zack? I am a trained detective for Baltimore’s 12th precinct and I’m stuck in a locked room without my badge, without my gun, and without my phone. Oh and I’m also handcuffed to my ex-boyfriend, who is the last person I want to be handcuffed to right now. So tell me, Zack, who should I blame?” She bellowed, nearly hyperventilating.

Zack sighed in frustration, scratching at the back of his curly brown hair. He still cannot believe that their reaction to being locked in here is pinning the blame on each other. It scares him how much they are arguing.

Ever since their break up, their best option is to snap at each other.

“Hey…” Zack turned his head to face her.

She is staring straight at the empty ceiling, and sighing in frustration.

“There’s a light over there.” Zack murmured, pointing at the light bulb in the back corner of the room.

The said light bulb is lit up and plugged against an in-wall outlet. Ace didn’t even notice it during her once-over at the empty room.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Ace asked, exhausted.

“Is there anything that can get us out of here?”

The blonde rolled her eyes.

“How is a light bulb going to get us out of this room?”

“I don’t know.”

Silence followed immediately after. Ace is still frustrated at how she ended up here, and frustrated that Zack intervened in on her professionalism on the job. He should have been rational enough to stay away from the field, especially when all possible dangers could ensure.

She is having a hard time forgiving him right now.

“What do you want from me, Ace?” Zack finally asked, tugging at the handcuff to get her attention.

Sighing, the blonde turned to her ex-boyfriend.

“Honestly? I really want a potato salad right now. So unless you can magically make me a potato salad with that light bulb over there, don’t talk to me.” She snapped.

Zack chuckled at her comment, earning a glare from her in return. Her patience is definitely wearing thin and Zack is just testing it and pushing her to the edge. He has never annoyed her more than he is right now.

“Remember the first time I made you potato salad?” Zack asked aloud.

There was a silence for several seconds.

“It was January of our freshmen year.” Ace said.

“Yeah, Rian told me you have an undying love for it. I spent about two months trying to nail the recipe. My family had several meals of my potato salad as a result. They were my harshest critics, well, I asked them to be. I wanted to impress you and so I had to perfect it.”

Ace has never heard this story before. She did not know that Zack was attempting to impress her at the time. It is a tragedy that she is only hearing about this now, when they are trapped in an enclosed room.

“Wow, that was very sweet of you.” She whispered.

“I was madly in love with you, Acacia.”

She managed a smile.

“As was I.”

He reached over to her with his free hand and brushed some of her fallen hair away from her face. She laughed softly when he did it, earning another one of his weak smiles.

“So how long would it take for Wallace to notice that you’re missing?” Her voice was indifferent.

Zack bit his lips and woefully thought of what had happened just this morning.

“Shit, we had an altercation this morning. I stormed out of her apartment in a fit of anger. She’ll probably just think that I’m ignoring her. She won’t even notice my absence.”

Sighing, Ace closed her eyes and shook her head.

“Iverson will notice if you do not contact him or come into work. And Rian, of course. Oh and Breck too!”

“True.”

“How long do you think it will take for them to find us?” Zack asked fearfully.

“I don’t know.”

Iverson, my hopes are on you, She thought.

“So while we are stuck here, let’s just make the best of it, okay?” Zack held out his hand for her to take.

Acacia glanced at the hand in confusion.

“How?”

“Well, for starters, let’s just stop arguing okay? The last thing I want right now is to die angry.”

She chuckled and placed her hand over his. They shook hands several times before releasing their grip on each other.

“Alright, fair enough!”

Notes

Yay another flashback! Oh and they're handcuffed together. Wonder what's gonna happen to them! I know, but you don't but yeah! The handcuffing part, kind of inspired by the TV show,Castle.