Cece Writes A Book [COMPLETED]

Chapter 10 - "Now you're just making up words."

Cece was out of the coffee shop faster than you could say pancakes, her computer clutched in her arms and her backpack half unzipped as she hurried home.

The Hendrix case was turning out to be bigger than she had thought and she needed space to think. She wondered if they had any yarn at the house as she tried to think about the best way to unravel the mystery. In all the movies, the detectives always used yarn to draw connections between data and timelines.

Cece didn't have much information, and what she did have was already clearly and easily connected, but she still thought yarn might help make everything official.

She exploded through the front door, dropping her things on the floor as she rushed into the kitchen. There was always a ninety-five percent chance she would find one of her siblings there. She lucked out by finding Elliot and Tristan both sitting at the table a large assortment of food between them.

"Do we have yarn?" Cece asked, entering the kitchen like a whirlwind. It took both her siblings a moment to take in her hurried entrance.

"Does Millie Kate knit now?" Elliot laughed.

Tristan grimaced. "Don't make her a knitter," he said. "I don't think that is an aura you want your main character to have."

"Who cares about Millie Kate?" Cece barked. "Yarn, do we have it?"

Her frantic energy continued to swell as her siblings answered in such a casual manner. Did they not know that the safety of their lives and those of the American people rested on Cece finding yarn?

Elliot narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized Cece. After a minute, she pushed imaginary glasses up on her nose as she asked, "why do you need yarn?"

Cece growled in annoyance and Tristan stopped eating and studied her along with Elliot. "There's something," he said.

Elliot nodded. "And it's not Millie Kate." They both sat back in their chairs, letting Cece stand and wait with the weight of the world resting on her shoulders. "It's something new," Elliot theorized. "And exciting."

"You have no idea!" Cece snapped.

"And important," Tristan added, amazed at the vehemence in Cece's tone. "Let's hear it."

Cece shook her head in disbelief. She didn't have time for this.

"Come now," Tristan grinned. "Let's hear what all the excitement is about."

Cece paused for only a moment, national security weighing heavily on her mind, but her excitement about all that she had observed won out. She sat quickly, motioning for her siblings to lean in close as she spilled all that had happened over the last few hours.

"And she didn't take her sunglasses off? Ever?" Tristan asked after Cece had relayed the last of her mystery.

Cece nodded her head, appreciative of the curious look in Tristan's eyes. He understood the significance.

"She clearly didn't want anyone to be able to ID her."

"She must be good," Tristan mused.

Elliot eyed her siblings suspiciously. "Or she didn't bother taking off her sunglasses because she was only in the coffee shop for a minute," she suggested. Cece and Tristan both poo-pooed this theory.

Cece smiled understandingly at Elliot. It was hard for some people to face the truth, to accept that the world around them was not what it seemed. It might be frightening for Elliot to think that the man at the table across from her at the coffee shop could be a cyber-terrorist, but Cece didn't have that luxury. She couldn't pretend when so much counted on her figuring out what was going on before it was too late.