The smell coming from the kitchen woke Francine up. She sat up in bed and listened for awhile. Someone was moving around. She quickly put on her robe and grabbed the baseball bat that she kept near her bed. Creeping out the bedroom, she silently made her way to the kitchen. At that moment Arlen came out and poured a glass of water to hand to her.

"Good morning," he said cheerfully.

"What are you doing?"

"Making an omelet. You do like eggs and cheese, don't you?"

"Where did you find all this stuff?" Francine asked looking at the small carton of eggs, block of Monterey Jack cheese, and a small bowl filled with julienne potatoes, chopped onion, salt, pepper, flour, and egg¹. She watched as he took a spoonful of the mixture and flattened it, then placed it in a pan.

"It's amazing what you can come up with when you use a bit of imagination and some odds and ends." Arlen smiled. "Sit down. The potato pancakes are just about ready, and the omelet just needs a dash of a secret spice and then breakfast is served. I couldn't find any oranges or grapefruit, so I hope water is okay to use as a drink." When she didn't move from where she was standing, he walked around the island and led her to the small breakfast nook. Moments later he set a plate with half of a large omelet and two potato pancakes in front of her and told her to eat up. When he returned with his plate, they ate and talked about small things, like what they liked to do, what they wanted in the future.

As they cleaned up, Francine decided that she needed to go to the store for more food. She was about to mention it when Arlen spoke up.

"I don't know about you, but I think you need to get more food soon. I don't think I can come up with another meal on what is left." His eyes twinkled. "Why don't you get dressed, and then we can go on some errands."

Francine nodded her head in acceptance. Last night the weather report had predicted highs in the seventies and no rain. Part of her, the side that she kept hidden most of the time, wanted to go out and enjoy the day. The practical Agent side of her kept saying that it would be easier to watch her charge indoors. The battle raged on inside her as she got dressed. By the time she joined Arlen in the living room, the battle had been won, and they were going to go out and enjoy the day.

"Where are we going?" Francine asked as Arlen pulled her through the park.

"You'll see," was the mysterious reply that she got from her companion. Before they left for the store that morning, Francine called Billy to let him know that they were going to enjoy the day. She could hear the touch of amusement in Billy's voice before she hung up with him. They had gotten the groceries in record time and put them away before Arlen decided that the best way to enjoy the day was to have a picnic lunch.

He requested permission to drive, and now two hours later, they were heading for a quiet spot along a river that flowed through the park. Soon they found themselves in a clearing. "Here we go. Welcome to my refuge from the pressures and stresses of life."

Giant oak trees shaded half of the clearing, in the distance you could hear the sounds of a waterfall. Francine took in the sight slowly. In the span of ten seconds, she heard at least twelve different birds. "This is a beautiful place, Arlen."

"I'm glad you like it. Emilie and I used to come here in the spring and summer. This was our place, where we could let go of everything."

"You must miss her a lot."

"Yeah, I do. We'd been dating for three years before her accident in December." Arlen looked out over the brook that ran along the edge of the clearing. His eyes lost their sparkle. He softly added, "I've been meaning to come out here since the weather turned nice."

"We can talk about something else if you want," Francine suggested. She knew what he was going through. After Jonathan died in November, she'd been holding everything in. Despite everything that happened between them, she missed him more than she ever thought she could. Amanda offered her to be there if she needed to talk, but after the investigation, she just kept to herself and went back to business as unusual.

Arlen didn't seem to hear her. He kept staring out at the brook in a stony silence. Suddenly he said, "Emilie used to say that the brook was the place to put your problems. It takes your troubles and joins up with others and eventually gets lost when it goes over the waterfall."

Francine didn’t respond. She looked out and let go of some of her emotional restraint. Arlen looked over and noticed a few tears falling on her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you or make you cry." He paused for a moment. "You ready to eat?"

Francine wiped the tears from her face and nodded her head. They ate and talked about life and death. As they packed up she confided, "Thanks for listening to me. I needed to let go."

"Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me your story and for lending an ear as I talked about Emilie." They left the clearing, both feeling more at peace with themselves than they had been earlier that day.

As they approached Francine's car, two masked men greeted them.

"Hand over the notes."

"Notes? What notes?" Arlen asked. The smaller of the two produced a gun.

"Don't play games with us. The big man doesn't like it. Now, hand over the notes, and you and your girlfriend can go." Francine bristled at being reduced to the rank of a girlfriend.

"Who's the 'big man'?" Francine asked playing the innocent blond they had assumed she was.

"None of your business, Blondie." The thug was going to say more, but instead was knocked out by a quick upper cut to his jaw.

"Get in the car!" Francine shouted to Arlen. It took a moment for the connection to be made, but she realized that the "notes" that they were after were the scraps of paper that Billy had taken to the boys in cryptology. Arlen managed to dodge the other thug and lock himself in the car. Part of him wanted to help Francine, but another part said that she needed to do this on her own. Within a minute, the other thug joined his partner on the ground. Arlen unlocked the driver side door for Francine and they pulled out of the park. Francine didn't say anything about where they were going, but wherever it was, they were going to get there fast.

Billy paced back and forth after Francine told him what happened at the park.

"Who is this 'big man' that they mentioned?"

"I don't know. I didn't find any mention of anything that might lead to him in the notes that Amanda made for me. I tried to reach them at the conference, but they weren't available to take any calls," Francine replied. Arlen sat on the couch in wonderment. He was given a guest pass to identify him and had ridden a coat closet to the lower level of the building. At least it wasn't a ride in a telephone booth, he thought.

"I had those notes that analyzed in crypto. They can't figure out the code that was used." Billy leaned on his desk and asked, "Doctor Brubaker, can you remember anything that might give us a clue as to how the code was written?"

Arlen was startled by the question. "I… I can decipher the messages," he stammered. Billy and Francine looked at him questioningly. To their unvoiced question he responded, "I was the one who wrote it in the code after I translated it from the original German."

"I know you said that you knew what the messages contained, but why did you encode the messages?" Francine asked.

"I didn't want anyone to know that I had the messages. I guess I failed in keeping that a secret, huh?"

Billy spoke into his telephone and soon another agent knocked on his door. Billy accepted the package that the agent handed him and then handed it to Francine. Francine placed the plastic sheet that contained the notes in front of Arlen and gave him a pad of paper and a pen. Forty-five minutes later, Arlen put the pen down and handed the pad of paper to Francine.

"Here it is. I used genetic codes to create the encryption. Whatever letters weren't covered by the amino acid symbols, I mixed up and drew them out of my hat," he explained.

"Good work, both of you. Francine, I have an agent watching your apartment, just in case. I'll inform our office in Europe of this new hideout. Enjoy the rest of the weekend." Billy dismissed them, and for once Francine didn't argue about not being included on a high profile mission.

"Come on, Arlen. It's my turn to cook. Have you ever had a homemade Quiche Lorraine?" Francine asked Arlen as they left the office. His response couldn't be heard as the doors to the bullpen closed behind them.

'Francine can cook?' Billy thought, shocked. 'This seems to be the year to surprise me.' Billy noted the shocked looks on some of the agents and chuckled to himself.

"Let's get back to work, people," he barked as he shut the door to his office.