Falling in Love : I love you, Today and Forever

Aria was completely oblivious to the drama that was taking place in her best friend's life. She was more concerned about mending her broken friendship with Ian. She had not spoken to him since the day she had met her Dad. Ian had, however, tried to talk to her a lot of times. But every time, she would run away before they could even meet, and at times, when they were in a group, she would give him a cold shoulder. The man had become a stranger in a few days and she was treating him as air, invisible. Even her colleagues had noticed their abnormal behavior and wondered what had happened between them. 

Now that Aria and Noah's relationship had returned to normal, there was no need for her to stay angry with her friend. She had missed him a lot and wanted to just hug him. 

Early morning the next day, she had left to meet her friend after eating the breakfast Noah had prepared. It was the first time she was eating something prepared by him but her mind was somewhere else to acknowledge the delicious taste. She did not even realize that the food tasted different than she usually had and in a hurry, she rushed out of the house after giving a small peck on his lips.

Noah could only blink his eyes seeing her hurry away like a hamster. Though he wanted to give her a drop till the hospital, he had not brought any new set of clothes and he had to talk about something important with Oliver. So, he did not offer her one, not that she needed it anyway. However, he was depressed that she had not complimented his food which he had prepared for her with so much love and care. There was no change in her expressions as she gobbled down the food on her plate like a baby elephant. His face darkened as time progressed and he was dumbfounded when she had not uttered a word even after licking her plate clean. 

Seeing her run away, he could only shake his head in despair and decided to get back at her later that day. He threw the plates in the dishwasher and was just about to leave the house when Ivy entered in. She had a huge smirk on her face as she raised her eyebrows playfully at him. She was grinning ear to ear and she folded her hands, blocking his way to the door. She stared at him like a school teacher who was waiting for the kid to admit his mistakes, only here she wanted him to admit something else.

Noah saw her determined gaze and he was sure that the woman would not allow him to leave if he did not spit out the truth before her and anyway, he did not have anything to hide before her. So, he was fine with it. "We made up." 

That was all it took for Ivy to exclaim in excitement. She jumped in joy and punched her fist in the air. "I knew it. You guys had to reconcile when I was the one who planned everything." She boasted patting her back with pride and arrogance. She looked as though she had successfully cracked the solution for the most difficult on earth. Even nuclear physicists would not have been this happy after their inventions and experiments were successful.

"Oh really? What did you plan?" Noah asked, suddenly intrigued by her words. He too imitated her and folded his hands as he gave her a questioning gaze.

"I was the one who left you two alone yesterday. Otherwise, was it even possible for you to talk, let alone reconcile?"

"You are right. I need to thank you for your quick thinking and help." Noah acknowledged her efforts this time and even smiled at her cheekily. 

"I don't need your gratitude. I need something else." Ivy said mysteriously and Noah leaned forward to see what she wanted. He was interested to see what she had in mind now.

"I want a cute and chubby niece or nephew as soon as possible. So, buck up and get to work immediately. Start producing them." Ivy said in all seriousness, her face remaining straight as she muttered those words. Noah was stunned by her demand and he could not help but let out a helpless chuckle. Ivy wanted the same thing which many people around him wanted. Everybody wanted him to make a baby as soon as possible. But nobody knew that he had not even had sex with Aria and with the speed, they were going at, he was sure that they would need at least another three years to reach the stage others were eagerly waiting for.

Noah was yet to make love to her and these people were already demanding things as though they were a baby-making machine. How could he say that they were not vending machines that could push out babies if they inserted money into it? It was not that he did not want her, he was only making sure that she was comfortable with him before he took the step. He did not want to scare her, not when they had just got together. He would take his time with her and only when she was ready would he do all the things he had in mind with Aria and everything he wanted to do was nothing less than dirty.

"What if I request you the same thing?"

"What do you mean?" Ivy asked feigning naiveness when she clearly knew what the man was telling. It was better to act dumb at times when she would be the one with her neck on the guillotine. 

"I think you know what I mean. But if you want, I can elaborate it for you." Noah shrugged as though the topic was not at all embarrassing to him and smiled at her evilly. "What I meant was for you to give me and Aria a niece or a nephew. That sounds even better right?" He stressed, enunciating each word carefully as he observed Ivy's face. Her expressions changed from ignorance to shock and finally, it settled on embarrassment. She was too shy to meet Noah's eyes.

Trying to ease the awkward situation, she diverted the topic the next second. "Where is Aria?"

"She has gone to work."

"This early?" Ivy asked perplexed. It was only eight now and usually, her sister's day shift did not start before ten unless there was an emergency.

"Yes."

"Did she have breakfast?"

"Yes, I made sure she did."

"Good. My forgetful sister has the habit of skipping breakfast sometimes. So, I make sure that she completes her food every morning."

"I'll make note of that. Ivy, I wanted to speak to you about something important." Noah's face became serious all of a sudden and seeing him, even Ivy's playfulness vanished.

"Sure. Tell me."

"Shall we sit?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"Ivy, I needed your help in something." Ivy nodded for him to continue and Noah spoke when he noticed that he had Ivy's complete attention.

"I want to track down all the people who killed my mentor and poisoned your father. I want your help in this matter."

"Sure. I can help you with this because this is the next case I am working on."

"What do you mean? Do you know something?"

"Not exactly. But one of my sources informed me something about organ traffickers. He has sent me a location where the local dealers are going to meet."

"What do you mean by local dealers?" Noha asked suddenly making her halt from speaking. He did not know much about this issue and he wanted to make sure he had all the information he needed before he took the step to deal with this issue.

"Local dealers are the ones who operate and work in that particular city. They are in charge of hospitals in that city and it is like their area. These people are the ones that kidnap people and send them to the hospitals which are involved in these kinds of crimes. Also, they are the ones who send all the information to the higher-ups. To put it simply, they are like the department managers in your company."

"I understood now. What have you found out?" Noah nodded at her and her words sunk in.

"My source told me that there is a meeting that will be held in the city and many dealers from other cities would be here too. There is a possibility that the mastermind might come here. But I doubt that."

"Why do you think so?"

"Put yourself in his shoes and think about it. If I were him, I would not want many people to know who I am and how I look, lest they should get back at me when the police or someone caught them. It is better to operate behind the scenes and have control over the situation. If I am not wrong, his trusted subordinates will be the ones to lead the meeting."

"Hmm." Noah was impressed by Ivy's analyzing skills and she was really an amazing person. Her mind worked better than he had imagined and he had to give credit for her keen observational skills and her knack for not missing even a small point.

"When is the meeting taking place?"

"In two days."

"Two days? Are you going to go alone? No way. I am not going to allow you to go alone." Noah's voice changed all of a sudden and he stared at her, his eyes sending out orders to not go against him.

"Don't worry. I am not going alone. Do you think your friend and my possessive boyfriend will allow me to do that? He has ordered Kaito to accompany me."

"Good." Noah finally relaxed. If Kaito was going with her, then he had no worries. The man was quite talented and he was the one person Noah could trust to keep someone safe after Ronnie.

At that moment, Ivy remembered something and she pushed herself straight from her slouching position. "Noah, I need your help with something."

"Go ahead." He prompted, his eyes thinking about something she could not fathom, but she ignored it.

"Can you help me to find someone?"

"Who?"

"When I was going through all the hospitals that were shut down after my Dad performed a sting operation on them, I noticed a person with the surname Grimes in every hospital's management. It looked like he or she was a trustee. But what was confusing was, every hospital had a different person with that surname. Some were males and some females. I tried to search for their information, but I found nothing."

"Grimes? Why does this surname seem familiar to me?"

"Do you know them?"

"I don't know but I feel that I have heard that name somewhere. Anyway, I'll try to find out about them." Noah furrowed his eyebrows thinking hard where he had heard it, but he could not remember anything.