Oliver Jacobs was in a free fall, figuratively speaking of course.

Only a few short years ago he had been at the top of his game. CEO for Jacobs & Jacobs Security, Oliver had been building the company and building his own bank account. The mutant problems had been great for business and that was how he had marketed things. Jacobs & Jacobs had been a security company specializing in anti-mutant security systems. There was no paper work to show the secret testing that had been done with young punks plucked off the street. There was no money trail to show how Oliver had been able to design systems that seems to work so well against mutants and best of all, during those years, noone had even wanted to ask questions.

Those had been the good old days and then things changed. His loser nephew had decided to return from Europe and stick his nose into where it didn't belong. While he had been in Europe, Oliver had been able to ignore the fact that a mutant had cropped up in his own family. He had been able to ignore that somehow the genes in his famile were so f***** up that a freak like that could come out but with Luke at work every day it was much harder. And then the registration act began.

His lose nephew was forced to step into the background and once again Oliver had been in his hay day. Along with gaining record profits he had been able to shuttle funds into anti-mutant organizations that wanted to keep the camps intact. He had been, and still was completely unaware that his nephew had been using company funds to help fund the lawyers that were fighting against the camps. All he knew was that when the camps fell, so did his world.

He could see the bottom as it rushed up toward him.

He didn't know how to change things when suddenly a life line was thrown his way. Some of his associates from the prior years popped back into his life. It was the chance he had been looking and hoping for and he'd jumped at it. The men had been paid, the trap had ben layed, and still his nephew and his mutant friends had escaped. Two times money had changed hands and both times the traps had failed. It wasn't just that Luke was lucky, on his own he should have died at either of the occurences. It was the fault of one... creature.

"Ms. Sara is here to see you."

"Send her in!" Oliver called as he put on a smile and stood up from behind his desk. It was time for a new plan and a guarantee that a certain feline would never interfere again!

Sara's tail flicked at the front desk of Jacob's and Jacob's security. she hadn't used the front desk before, and this using a formality like talking to the secritary and waiting to be invited into the the higher levels of the building felt odd. She'd been here before. She knew where the offices were, and she knew that this time she had already been invited in. So why was it she was told to wait to be invited in a second time. if it was completely her choice, she'd walk straight into the office.

Unfortunately this also had to do with her job. She didn't know how things were really going to turn out working for Slate. Sara had a stash of money built up for herself and Ayesac, but she couldn't be sure of what was going to happen in the future. After a few months ago, at the Kabal meeting of the inner circle, Sara wasn't sure how long she would be taking commissions from them. From Slate.

Sara wiped the thought from her mind. It was time for business. not frustration and regrets. Especially when there were more pressing matters at hand. Sara busied herself with one of the many pamphlets at the desk as she waited for the secretary to give her that nod that meant the second invitation had been issued. Maybe busting into Kaz's warehouse a year ago really had had some sort of effect on her. Sara shook that thought from her mind as well.

Despite Sara was looking at her pamphlet, she could still hear the short conversation over the line that the secretary had with Uncle Oliver. She heard him tell her to send Sara up, and Sara disappeared around the corner before the lady had a chance to look up and tell her to go. The pamphlet stuck under the crook of her arm.

Sara took the stairs, practically floating up them with her swift movement. Not the elevator. Till she found good ol' Uncle Olive's office and she let herself in. "Good afternoon Sir. I was a little surprised when you called my cell phone and not Luke." Sara said as a form of a greeting.

"Sara, good to see you again." Oliver greeted as the feline made her way into his office. Walking over he offered a firm handshake before turning back to take his seat behind the desk.

"Disinfect... disinfect my hands, chair, and the whole office." He mentally noted as he looked across the desk at the cat. "Luke doesn't know about my calling you here." He offered as the beginning of an explanation, "You see, I've heard about some of the trouble my nephew has gotten into. His taking over the company has made him a lot of enemies and as I understand it, it is only thanks to your bravery, loyalty, and special abilities that he's still alive."

Pausing a moment, Oliver waited to see if Sara would make any comments. It seriously burned him up that he had to sit here and thank this creature for ruining what had been carefully laid plans but that was the only way to push forward. If he was going to finally accomplish his goals he had to make sure that she was out of the way. Even as they sat in the room Sara was being assessed. Video of her movements were being taken in order to better understand her physical strengths while other experts were estimating what sort of senses she might have thanks to her obvious feline side.

"How difficult would it be to kill her?" Oliver pondered as he watched the honey colored beast looked back at him through her light brown eyes, "Will we have to elimate her before or after we get Luke?"

"It's good to see you too." Sara said with a small, closed lipped smile so as not to flash her pointy teeth. she took his firm hand shake in a gentle hold that was still considered firm. This was Luke's uncle after all. And technically still one of Sara's bosses even after Luke took his company over. Sara had to be nice, respectful, and turn her impatient mood into a good one.

"Luke doesn't know about my calling you here."

"Well that explains why he's not sitting in here for this meeting then, doesn't it." Sara sighed. be nice she reminded herself. The words had been spoken politely, but when they were out, it occurred to her that they could easily be taken the wrong way. "My apologies but I've never done anything involving Jacobs & Jacobs without Luke being directly involved." the confusion and curriosity was clear and evident in Sara's voice.

"You see, I've heard about some of the trouble my nephew has gotten into. His taking over the company has made him a lot of enemies and as I understand it, it is only thanks to your bravery, loyalty, and special abilities that he's still alive."

Sara shrugged. Her eyes tilted down at the desk for a moment then back up to Uncle Oliver's "Yeah well. It was nothing really." The last time in the cafe, Sara had had her moments of being in trouble as well. She might be dead if Luke hadn't of grabbed her and pulled her behind the cafe counter. Sara could heal, as long as she wasn't shot in the head.... again. "The loyalty between us works both ways. He has watched out for me as well."

As far as the bit Uncle Oliver said about Sara's special abilities, she just shrugged one shoulder. Some special abilities. she had no control over them. The fact urcked her.

"Yes, well, Luke's loyalty is one of his best attributes as well as one of his worst weaknesses. That's actually why I called you here today. Let me explain." Oliver said slowly, carefully weighing each word in his head before speaking. On the one hand it might come across as he was trying to mislead the feline but on the other hand it could just be looked on as befitting a serious conversation. Obviously this wasn't something that Oliver was taking lightly so that meant he had to be truly concerned about something, or at least, that's what he wanted Sara to think.

"After hearing about some of Luke's situations, I've been to think that my nephew is forgetting about his own safety in his desire to help others. Now, quite obviously there's nothing wrong with helping others. I applaud his actions and his desire to help both his fellow man and fellow mutant but he must think about his own safety. As you've already seen, Luke's actions have made him even more enemies than they have friends."

Looking at Sara, Oliver did his best to try and judge her reaction. Her curiosity had been obvious a few moments earlier so the key was to tease and toy with the cat until she pounced right where he wanted her. The visualization of a cat stalking a piece of yarn before finally pouncing only to be seized up in the arms of a master was quite comical and he had to work hard to hide any amusement that was fighting to come to the surface. Whether Sara knew it or not, Oliver would soon be the master while she became the helpless little kitten.

"Luke needs someone nearby to watch his back. He would never consent to hiring any sort of body guard or security but he wouldn't think twice about one of his friends hanging out with him every so often. I don't really know many of his friends and I was wondering if perhaps you might have some suggestions."

Since when, that Sara had met Luke,did he not put himself in danger. Especially for others. That was actually how Sara and Luke first started talking, after the sushi restaurant. He tried to help Sara when she had been attacked by a street gang. and what did Sara do? she stole his cell phone.

Sara was silent as she weighed what Oliver had to say in her mind. Sara tried to decide exactly how she felt about this. She knew that if she were in Luke's place, she wouldn't want help at all. Then again, look where that had gotten Sara before, and she healed.

When he was finished Sara's lips tightened slightly in thought, then st shrugged. "I don't know really. Luke frequents Xavier's sister school, but even I have trouble tracking him down from time to time. The man keeps himself very busy."

Admittedly with how busy Luke had been, that's who Sara had managed to avoid telling him about her sight going in and out. In some ways, Sara still wished that Luke didn't know.

Oliver watched the feline carefully, mentally cursing over the fact that she wasn't making this easy on him. Most people would have immediately offered their own assistance in watching Luke's back but obviously she wasn't like most people. He would have to watch her even more closely to learn how she ticked before any future moves could be made.

"Xavier's Sister School?" Oliver asked, feigning ignorance as best he could, "I've heard of them in the papers of course but I don't really know anything about them. Do you know anyone that I could contact? Perhaps someone that Luke would trust?"

The ultimate goal was to get Sara to stick close to Luke as much as possible but if he were able to gather some other intelligence as well then Oliver would consider the meeting even more successful.

"Please forgive me if I seem at all nervous." Oliver added, doing his best to cover it up if this creature happened to sense something wrong about his attitude, "Even being open minded, I must admit it's difficult to get used to the fact that I'm talking with a young woman that looks like a lion that has learned to walk upright and talk. Please don't let my own instincts offend you."

He was starting to be pushy about the questions and it made Sara a little uncomfortable, though the only outlet of this discomfort that was shown was through the twitching of her right ear. only the people that knew her exceedingly well, picked up on this tell. Instead her head tilted to the side. though much of her discomfort was relieved when the apology and explanation was made. In fact little to Sara's knowledge, she was getting too comfortable.

"It's alright." Sara said with a slight shake of her head. "I'm used to it. I had to get used to this look too, because when I was younger, I looked normal." Sara shrugged, removing the memory from the front of her mind.

"If you contacted the mansion, yourself, you could ask for Shawn, Sam, or Raina." Sara suggested. "Other than that, I'm not really sure. Like I said before, Luke is hard to keep track of, even for me, however, I suppose that I could try."

"Normal, heh. Yeah right." Oliver thought to himself while doing his best to maintain the current expression on his face. Thankfully that half smile with a touch of uneasines was always close at hand when a mutant was nearby so it wasn't much of a struggle.

"Shawn, Sam, and Raina." He murmured to himself, writing the information down on a pad. He waited a few moments, acting as though what Sara had finally said wasn't completely clicking and then he looked up with just the right mixture of curiosity and hope.

"Could you really? I know that Luke trusts you and it would really put my mind at ease to know you were nearby. I'll give some of his friends a call of course, but if you could keep an eye on him for a while, I'd really appreciate it!"

The kitty cat had lept right into his trap and Oliver had to hold himself back from jumping with glee. He had almost accomplished his goal. There was just one more step...

There were warning bells going off in the back of Sara's mind, but to be honest where ever she went' she felt warning bells in the back of her mind. her mind had cried wolf so often, even about Luke, that maybe, Sara was trying to reach past them. She was trying to trust and despite the fact that she had avoided telling Luke about her returning of her sight, she liked to believe that she was making progress with the trust thing.

Talking with Luke's uncle was a good thing too. because maybe, just maybe, by continuing to help Luke, she could manage to continue to help herself.

"We'll get through this." Sara said, trying to sound reassuring to Luke's uncle. After all. The attempted killings had already failed twice. They had to be running out of sources. right? "It's only a matter of time before we figure out who's been trying to murder your nephew." Who's trying to murder Luke.

"I hope they're running out of sources, but at least it'll be a comfort knowing a powerful being like yourself is watching Luke's back." Oliver said with a smile, doing his best to look appreciative but not overeager, "And, I know it's old technology, but would you mind carrying this beeper?"

Reaching into his desk drawer he pulled out the little black box and held it out for Sara, "That'll just let me get in touch with you without making it obvious to Luke that someone is monitoring him."

The plan had come full circle and though he kept smiling, Oliver could feel his breath freeze in his lungs. If she didn't take the beeper then the whole plan would be lost. If she did take it, well, his employees would have a leg up during their next attempt.

"I hope they're running out of sources, but at least it'll be a comfort knowing a powerful being like yourself is watching Luke's back."

Oh this devious man did not know how to give a cat a compliment.

Sara's shoulders eased slightly back as she sat there with the man Oliver Jacobs. of course she was going to look out for Luke. It's what she had been doing, much to her ability, all along. however with the beeper, and Oliver's ut most confidence in her, err, I mean cooperation with her through the beeper, Sara could feel it. things were going to work up.

Nope. Definitly didn't know how to compliment and butter up a cat.

Sara took the leaned forward to take the beeper out of Oliver's hand. She'd heard of these things, and seen them in use on the streets. Some business men still used them to look down at when they chirped like their cell phones. Or vibrated, or what ever it was they they had trained their pet beepers to do. however Sara did have a cell phone. She'd gotten it for work like this and her number was on file. She was a little confused as to why she needed a beeper as to get a hold of her, when she carried the cell phone everywhere. But if this made Luke's uncle feel better, she wasn't going to argue. "I suppose." Sara turned the small little divice around between her hands. "Is this it then?"

She was taking it! The missions was a success and as the feline monstrosity looked down at the small device in her hands, Oliver felt his smile broaden ever so slightly. He would most deffinately have to have a celebratory brandy whenever she left. Maybe he'd even call up that number and see if Valarie, or whatever her name was, was available. This most deffinately deserved a celebration after all!

"I can't think of anything else. Thank you very much Sara. I know this has to mess up your schedule but I really appreciate it." Oliver said with a smile as he stood and held out a hand as a gesture to seal the deal, "I'll of course be glad to pay you for your time just let me know how many hours you have to spend on this."

It was an easy offer to make and it slid off of Oliver's silver tongue without the slightest hesitation. After all, if he had his way she would never be able to claim a single check. No, things were most deffinately looking up!

Sara's trip to Romania was going to become more complicated. At least the part about still keeping an eye on Luke. Maybe she could set up some of teachers to take her place. something would work out. Sara would think of something.

"I can't think of anything else. Thank you very much Sara. I know this has to mess up your schedule but I really appreciate it."

Sara froze for a moment. She was still staring at the small little beeper in her hand, but her right ear twitched. She'd never trusted Luke this fast. Why was she so quick to trust his uncle? Plus, she thought the man's heart just hit a different beat. The man was clearly under a lot of stress...

Sara mentally slapped herself. Of course he was under stress. This business with Luke was stressful on Sara, and she wasn't even family. She had to get better with this trust thing.

"I'll of course be glad to pay you for your time just let me know how many hours you have to spend on this."

"It's appreciated but not needed." Sara said as her eyes finally darted up to Oliver's. "Since this is it, I believe I will take my leave." Sara rose from her chair, quite smoothly with a flick of her tail, and extended her hand.

The handshake was firm and Oliver looked directly in Sara's eyes with a smile. He was doing his best not to show the discomfort he was feeling and hopefully Sara would overlook it because of his explanation earlier. After all, even she had admitted that her looks took some getting used to!

"Take care of yourself Sara. I'll contact you if I get any information that could help you and Luke."

Oh yes, he was a silver tongued devil. A better liar and trickster you could never find... or at least that's what he kept trying to tell himself. Unfortunately it is exremely difficult if not impossible to make the human body accept the lies that the mind creates. Something about teh body makes it want to tell the truth by exuding more perspiration, increasing the heart beat, and so many other signs. Of course those could also be read as nervousness but that was beside the point.

After the goodbyes the feline finally left and Oliver sat back down with an internal sigh of relief. Digging into a cabinet behind his desk he removed a small glass as well as a large bottle of whiskey. "Celebrate... I'm celebrating." He murmured as his shaky hand tried to pour the amber liquid. He refused to admit that he needed to settle his nerves. After all, that just didn't fit the image of a silver tongued devil, now did it.