The club was filled to the brim with people and hazy smoke curled around every movement in the room. Thomas grabbed my hand and led the way towards the back corner of the bar where the band was currently taking a smoke break. We found a small table for two and sat down, easily blending into the darkness. Thomas' eyes roved the room, prepared for any sign that it was time to strike. As I followed his gaze around the room, I noticed that the current bartender was none other than the George who had taken me to see Louis the first time.

Thomas had also noticed who was currently serving at the bar and pulled his hat lower over his eyes. His hand that was resting on the table was clenched into a white-knuckled fist. I reached across the table and relaxed his hand with both of mine, and then kept it within my grasp to ensure he continued to relax. Thomas looked quickly over at me and smiled briefly, then continued his lookout.

We sat gazing around the room for about forty-five minutes before we saw Henry head down the back hallway towards Louis' office. About five minutes later, Alice and John also made their way down the hallway. We waited another ten minutes before Thomas stood up abruptly, turned, grabbed my hand and pulled me close to his side and we walked down the hallway to Louis' office as well.

The door was slightly ajar when we approached, and Thomas pushed me gently behind him against the wall, holding up a finger to his lips. He then proceeded to creep to the edge of the door and stare in past the crack. His face became tense as he watched, and he winced when a loud thump echoed out of the room. Thomas reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a handheld gun and looked back at me. He nodded, then abruptly turned and opened the door, gun pointed straight at Louis' desk.

Hands grabbed me from behind, and I whipped around in time to see George before he wrestled me to the ground. I looked up and Thomas lay on the ground, blood oozing from his head, his gun had slid across the floor and almost out the door towards me. Louis sat back in his chair laughing and smoking a cigar. "What a treat!" he proclaimed to the room. "I caught all of my favorite jewel thieves in one night!" As George dragged me into the room, I looked over to see Alice, John, and Henry unconscious and propped up against the wall, each with a pinstriped man beside them. I was the only one still awake, and I had no idea how to handle this situation. George pushed me to the edge of the rug, and my knee stung as it hit Thomas' gun that still lay on the floor, unnoticed.

Louis slowly got up from his desk and came around to take a knee in front of me. His big muggy face leaned close, his brown eyes alight with flames of excitement. "It seems my sapphire has returned to me," he puffed into my face. George cackled, and the other pinstriped men smiled knowingly. Louis reached out with his sweaty hand and grabbed my chin, tilting it up so he could get a good look.

"She'll get us at least a thousand, boys," he proclaimed to his men and again smiles circulated the group. Louis looked towards the other prisoners for a moment, and I took the chance to quickly break George's grasp on my hands, grab the gun I was sitting on, and put its barrel against Louis' temple.

Louis froze, shock registered on his face for a split second before he relaxed again and called off George from trying to stop me. "Fiesty," he whispered, half disappointed and half intrigued. "We could get more money for a gun toting woman, eh boys?" he said to the men, who this time did not laugh.

I shoved the gun deeper into his temple and got real close to his face this time, "you let me and my friends go and I'll let you keep making deals, you hear?" Louis laughed, and moved closer to the barrel, and towards me, "you're one girl in a room of men, what are you really going to do?" I cocked the gun and pressed harder, sweat dripping off my hands making the gun slippery.

The door suddenly banged open, and everyone jumped as someone in a dark suit entered the room, two guns in hand, one pointed at Alice, John, and Henry, the other at me and Louis on the floor. Fear flashed across Louis' face as the figure stepped forward. George scrambled off into the corner whimpering. As the man stepped closer to us yet again, the low light flashed across his face and Robert came into view. My stomach dropped, the last thing I needed was Robert to ruin our plans once again.

One of the pinstripes slowly began to move his hand towards his coat pocket, and a shot rang out across the room. The pinstripe fell to the floor in a shout of pain as his hand became a bloody mass attached to his arm. "One more move and you all lose more than a hand," Robert said to the room. The tension increased tenfold in the room.

Louis looked into Robert's face, betrayal sinking into every fold of his skin, "Robert, I thought you decided who your real family was," Louis spat. "I have," was all Robert replied, then three more shots rang out. George fell against the wall where he had been cowering, the other two pinstripes fell to the ground holding various body parts in pain. The only one left was Louis.

Robert gently moved me away from Louis and held the gun up to his temple himself. "Any last words?" Robert breathed into Louis' face. Louis opened his mouth to answer and another shot rang out. Louis crumpled to the floor, a smirk still etched on his face.

Robert quickly bent down and began to check me over. "I'm fine, check them," I said pointing to John, Henry, and Alice's bodies piled against the wall. I turned and began slowly to check Thomas over. I lifted his head onto my lap, and the pool of blood seemed to grow before my eyes as it was revealed on the floor.

"Thomas?" I whispered. He lay still. Alice, John, and Henry had come to while I waited for Thomas to respond, and the three quickly crowded around Thomas and I. His breaths were shallow and slow, and fear stopped me cold as I held my breath, waiting, just waiting.

Alice stood up and began surveying the room, John and Henry went to Robert and began to discuss in low voices what had just happened. I watched Thomas so closely that time felt as if it stopped dead in its tracks. Alice returned to my side and bent down next to me, holding a book in her arms. "Joan, is this any help?" she asked as she held out 'Utopia' to me. Tears began to sting my eyes as I remembered how Thomas had saved me from near death using the book. 'Wait!' I thought, 'the book! That was the answer!'

I quickly opened 'Utopia' and laid it on the floor next to Thomas. Nothing happened as the dusty book sat on the dirty floor next to Thomas' blood. The tears began to flow from my eyes as I stared at his limp body and the pool of blood that began to seep into the cover and the last few pages of the book. I leaned forward and my tears began to fall on Thomas' face as I bent to kiss him one last time. As our lips met I felt myself melt into nothingness. Everything went black, but I didn't care, Thomas was still with me.

We stayed in the dark for a long time before Thomas' eyes finally fluttered open and stared up at me first in surprise, and then in happiness. He pushed himself up enough to kiss me again and then I lost consciousness yet again.

When I woke up, I was laying on the floor and fluorescent lights gleamed down into my eyes. I could feel things stabbing into my back and my neck and my arms and I shifted slightly to pull out some books that were serving as my bed. I slowly began to prop myself up when someone came running down the aisle of books towards me. A young man with a library ID card hanging from his polo came and started asking a thousand questions. "Are you okay? What happened? It's late, why are you still here?" he pressed as he tried to pull me to my feet. That's when I heard another voice, "she has fainting spells every once and a while I've found," I turned around to see Thomas, dressed in jeans and a Queen t-shirt.

He stepped forward and propped me up as the library assistant began to put the books away. "We should go," Thomas said, and the two of us made our way back to the main floor of the library. It was dark outside, and the rest of the library was deserted. "Thomas, how are you here? Are you okay?" He smiled as we walked out the sliding doors, "I found where I really belong," he replied. And with that we headed into the night, just waiting for adventure to call once again.