Alice's author note: I apologize for the long wait; I've just been out of ideas for this chapter and also I've been busy with school stuff I just begun my first year in high school (Sweden). I considered letting Clay write this chapter instead. The chapter is also out of schedule, I've been trying to update every Saturday…

When they returned to their motel room, they packed up quickly. They usually didn't spend any waste time, and always got out of town quickly. The faster they were on the move, the calmer they both felt. As Altair finished packing his last bag, he threw the car keys over to Malik, which the one armed man caught without any problem with his one hand. He raised an eyebrow at him in question, but Altair just shrugged "I'm too tired to drive" he said simply, heading out of the door as quick as possible.

Malik followed Altair out as fast as he could "are you really sure I should drive, I mean I do have one arm…" he said and Altair stopped and looked at him, and Malik didn't like the dark circles that were under the other man's golden eyes. "Malik, I gave you the keys, are you driving or not?" Altair said, he was already by the passenger door, and Malik just shrugged and opened the door to the driver seat.

20 minutes later, half way out of town, Malik turned down the music and threw a glance over at his hunting partner who was looking out the window. "Where are we going next?" Malik asked, and threw Altair a glance in the rear mirror. "Minot, North Dakota. It's just a usual quick burn the bones ghost hunt." He said, voice a bit muffled since he was leaning on his palm, his heavy lidded eyes watching the road speed past them outside. "Malik hummed a quick agreement and kept his eyes on the road and turned the music back up. Soon Altair was silently snoring in his seat.

After driving all the way from the East side of state Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota, with a quick night stay at a motel between, and small talks about the next hunt, they finally arrived. Malik and Altair was standing in the doorway to a young woman named Lucy Stillman, the woman opened her apartment door and her lips made a tight line when Altair and Malik held up their badges. "FBI, we're here to investigate the death of Clay Kaczmarek." the woman, Lucy, looked pale but opened her door further and forced a smile. "O-Of course. Come inside I guess, do you want anything to drink? Coffee?" Malik gave a quick nod, and they stepped inside. The apartment was neat, with a lot of white furniture, the rooms where very bright. A lot of thick books where neatly stacked in bookshelves and a few where lying around on her coffee table, they were all science books.

They sat down by her kitchen table, and she held out a cup for Malik. "So, what do you want to know? About Clay?" She asked, fumbling with her cup and looked over at Altair and Malik. "We just wanted some more… personal info about the guy." Altair looked around in the kitchen, he thought it was slightly creepy that almost everything was white; sometimes he just couldn't believe people's taste. "You worked with him in the same lab, right? We heard you were good friends." He finished his sentence and locked eyes with Lucy that was sitting at the other side from him and Malik at the round table. "Well…" She murmured. "He was a very nice person. We were both new there, so we got along because of that I guess…" She said and looked away quickly. "We went of a few dates and so on… Then he took suicide." Altair and Malik shared a short glance. They were pretty sure that Clay hadn't taken suicide.

In their motel room, Malik was sitting by his laptop, going through Clay's files. "Ok there is definitely something behind Clay Kaczmarek's death." Malik murmured to himself as Altair stepped out of the shower with towel ruffled damp hair and wearing shorts and a too big T-shirt. Malik tried to concentrate on the notes he had made on his laptop and it was extremely hard for him to not look at his partner. Hunting partner he silently corrected himself.

Altair lumped down on the bed and dragged a hand through his wet hair and looked at Malik. "How many ghost attacks have there been?" He asked and put his hand down next to him on the bed as Malik looked up. "Three. I suspect Lucy is next. Who should take the night watch?" He said sounding half-amused, which was unusual for the black haired man. "I should." Altair said and yawned as he stretched. "I was thinking of sleeping anyway. I'm tired." The tan man raised an eyebrow at that. "How comes? It isn't late" He looked at the clock on the laptop. "In fact, it's only 8:37 PM." He looked suspicious at his hunting partner; Altair sighed and gestured for Malik to come over to him. With a puzzled look on his face, Malik walked over to the golden eyed man slowly. He stopped in front of him and looked down at Altair sitting down on the bed. Altair grabbed the black haired man's shirt and pulled him down and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. It lasted for only a few seconds, but the simple kiss was rather passionate and desperate from Altair's end and Malik looked at him in pure shock, his cheeks flushed an obvious red. "What was that about" He almost whispered out as he reached up with his only hand to touch his lips. "I wanted to try it." Altair said and crawled under the blanked of his bed, back turned to Malik. Malik didn't know if Altair was pretending to be asleep or if he actually fell asleep that fast. Either way he had a deep sick feeling in his guts that something wasn't right.