Well-timed

Both Maria and Steve were surprised and highly amused by Noah's reluctant compliment and appreciation of the two of them and they couldn't let the moment pass by without making a remark of their own.

In a sarcastically mocking voice Steve said, "Oh my, who would have thought that the mighty Noah would ever admit that someone other than himself or his beloved wife was great. Did someone check from which side the sun rose today?" Everyone but Noah himself let out a chuckle because of Steve's words, while he sat at the table with an unamused expression on his face. Maria almost immediately followed Steve's words by saying, "It might be a once in a lifetime but I consider this far from a miracle. Who thought I would receive a compliment from Noah one day. I don't think my stomach could take another one. I will take comfort in knowing that you were forced to speak in such a way by my darling Laila. Otherwise I would be in need of a bucket right here and now."

After each of them had a dig at Noah, Laila turned towards him and smilingly put a hand on the side of his face to comfort him from the mocking he was receiving. This seemed to release some of the tension that had built up in his jaw and he covered Laila's hand with his own as he smiled back at her. Laila's moment to turn his mood had been well-timed because moments after Steve and Maria's words took another turn as well. A more positive turn.

With a gentle smile on his face Steve said, "All jokes aside, you know that my help is yours whenever you wish for it and I don't need any praise or appreciation in return nor is any needed for me to be willing to provide my help. Sure it is nice to hear it once in a while but I know you don't mean the things you say and our years of knowing each other has proven me well enough that you are a good friend. One who will do every bit of what I have done for you and more. So, I am fine with you saying things the way you always have and I will hear the words in between the lines when I need to."

Noah was very caught off guard by Steve's words and he looked at him with slightly widened eyes. Though they had known each other for many years, having met when he was a freshman in college and building a company together, they had never had a conversation like this. Maybe it was just men being men and not voicing their feelings as often and well as they should, maybe there simply never was a need to, but hearing everything said so straightforwardly he couldn't help but feel a bit touched. Noah hadn't expect that a confession like this, from someone like Steve, would affect him like it currently was but he didn't exactly dislike it.

But before he could respond and process Steve's words, Maria gave him her share of kind words. "Yeah, I suppose that if I could pick any guy I want who would be deserving of my sweet Laila, that I would probably still end up with you. We might not always see eye to eye but even someone like me can see that you are a good guy. You should know better than anyone else how much that means coming from me."

Noah was completely at a loss for words. He wasn't a very outspoken person when it considered his feelings, at least not to anyone other than Laila. Now he had been forced to do so by Laila's hand and though he had hated it while it was going on, now that he had done it and seen what it had brought forth, he was glad she had. This proved that Laila really did know him best and understood what he needed better than he did himself sometimes. Of course he would never admit it in front of Maria and Steve. Instead he changed the topic of conversation.

He scraped his throat and said, "Yes. Well. Alright. I think we have tackled the motive for wanting to go to Olivia's house. As for the next big hurdle, the cameras, I think I can help with that. I will assume for a moment that if Olivia has camera's in and around her house, that they will be wireless cameras. Wireless cameras send their recorded footage to a cloud using WiFi or they contain a memory card that needs to be manually emptied of its footage. Either way we will have a signal from the cameras that we can pick up and trace down to a certain location. Perhaps we can even hack them if they are there and replay a still scene over and over again while you are in that particular room. All I need is my laptop and a few gadgets that my company has developed a couple of years ago."

This was when he was interrupted by Steve who said, "That is right. I completely forgot that you are quite the skilled hacker. I am sure you will have no problem getting into a few home security cameras."

Noah didn't respond and just raised his voice a bit in order to get the attention of the room again and said, "AS for Olivia showing up here so soon after I did, like Steve said before, we have just started trying to throw Olivia's trial off. I don't know what went wrong today but I will certainly look into it. Either I will be able to make sure that it was coincidence or our double agents have some vigorous explaining and training to do." Noah wouldn't have to wait long for an explanation because at that moment Noah's phone rang and the display showed that it was coming from the office.