Detained

After they had stopped laughing and Laila had talked to them both a bit, she found another excuse to leave the room and let the two of them be alone for a moment. When Laila stepped out, Steve grabbed hold of Maria's arm as she averted her eyes and he said, "So, you are going to be my private nurse, hmm?" Maria still didn't look him in the eyes and said, "Well, I didn't have much of a choice there, now did I? You are sick and can't take care of yourself. I wouldn't be much of a girlfriend if I left you on your own in a situation like this." Then she turned around and said, "But no funny business! You heard the doctor. You have to rest and you can't overexert yourself. If you try anything funny, I'll hire a male nurse to take care of you and I'll go back home. You hear me? Promise me you won't try anything."

Steve chuckled and said behind a closed fist, "No funny business. I promise." Now that that had been settled, Steve continued to gently swing Maria's hand back and forth with an amused smile as he enjoyed how his girlfriend was still feeling a bit awkward about the situation. While he did, he said, "But do you realize that was the first time you called yourself my girlfriend in front of a stranger? Heck, it might be the first time you called yourself that in front of anybody, except for Laila perhaps. You calling yourself my girlfriend like that, made me quite happy. The more I hear it, the more I realize that it isn't just a wild dream of mine but that it is actually happening. That it has actually HAPPENED."

With reddened cheeks and a slightly defiant look in her eyes, Maria said, "Well, it is the truth isn't it?" After this she added in a more confident tone, "So, you had better start believing it. Now that you have gotten me to agree and dragged me into this relationship, I won't be letting you leave so easily. At least for now, you are stuck with me and so I have to make sure that you stay alive long enough to suffer the consequences of your decisions." Although Maria was using humour to deflect the awkwardness she was feeling inside, along with any uncertainty she was feeling in these moments from the hurt she had suffered before, Steve didn't need any humour to convey his feelings. Without a second of wavering, neither in his words or the look in his eyes, Steve said, "I might be stuck with you for now but you are stuck with me forever. Not just in this life but also in the next."

Maria didn't quite know how to respond to those words and again used humour to let Steve know how she felt. "So, I guess I should be prepared for wedding vows that don't have the line 'Until death do us part' then." But with these words, she had told Steve more than what he had expected or hoped for at such an early stage of their relationship. He had already been happy that Maria had agreed to become his girlfriend and that she had felt ready to open herself up for that but hearing this, it became clear that Maria had possibly opened up for even more. For her to mention anything related to marriage, gave him hope that the day that he would be calling her his wife, would not be far off. He could already imagine how much joy it would bring him to hear Maria call him her 'husband' or herself his 'wife' as the word 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' had already brought him so much joy that he could hardly believe it.

In the hallway Laila was calling Noah again. She had spoken to him late last night, just before she went to bed and he told her about how Harold had been caught by some police officers before he had managed to cross the border. Harold had stepped inside a gas station to buy something and that is when someone recognized him from the news and called the local authorities. They arrested him on the spot and he was taken into custody.

They only found out about this sudden development because the boss of the shadow and the bodyguard had informed the shadow who then told Noah. By the time the two of them found out, they had already arrived at Olivia's vacation house. Since there was not much they could do at that point and not much was known yet, other than that he had been taken into custody, Noah and the shadow decided to spend the night at Olivia's house. The plan was to head to the police station the next morning to talk with the officers at the station where Harold was being detained.