Ever since the strange case involving Carmen's attempt to drag Suhara out of retirement, Ivy visited Suhara often and had formed what felt like a fairly close friendship; though she could tell that the elderly Japanese man still didn't fully trust her. She couldn't say why; but she knew that whenever they talked together in his apartment, drinking tea, there were always certain issues that he never mentioned. The most prominent, of course, were anything dealing with his time with the Seniors and especially Carmen. Ivy had simply assumed that Carmen's venom-tinged insults during that strange case (and her current occupation in general) had caused him to avoid mentioning her or even thinking about her; and that was just fine with Ivy, becuase she felt that the less Suhara thought about that backstabbing ex-Senior the better. So she always took care never to mention anything related to Carmen, but listened instead to Suhara's teachings and his stories about his life before working with the exiled Senior. Her favorite stories were the ones about Catherine LeVrai, an adventurous young woman who had once worked for the Agency and whom Ivy liked to compare to herself.

But today she needed information. After going through case file after case file, as well as several journals (one of which had entries by Carmen herself), she could see that Carmen had seemed to enjoy her life at the Agency, and Ivy couldn't figure out why she would want to leave when she seemed to have been happy the way she was. She was also disturbed because she could sense that the two Seniors had been very close, and Carmen's exploitation of Suhara just for a challenge seemed utterly ridiculous now. The whole case was just plain wrong. It made no sense. Ivy didn't want to cause Suhara any pain by bringing up the subject, but she had a feeling that if she could get her questions answered, it would help her achieve her goal of finding out just what was wrong with the engimatic young woman; and maybe then she could also find a way to help Suhara cope.

Suhara was pleased to see her as always when she knocked on his door, and after sitting her down and giving her something to drink, he started chatting as usual. Not sure how she should go about this, she stared at the tea leaves in her cup until he asked her if anything was the matter.

"Uh..." she began, wondering how she was going to phrase this. "Can you tell me...uh...about..."

He smiled gently, knowing she was curious about something but wondering why she did not ask with her usual blunt enthusiasm. "What is it?"

Ivy shifted uneasily. "Tell me about...uh, your work...with her."

He looked at her quizzically, but still smiled. "Her? You mean Catherine?"

"No..." she frowned. "The other her."

Suhara stopped smiling, and a shadow passed over his face. "I'm sorry," Ivy began apologetically, embarassed. "It's none of my business, I shouldn't have asked you that..."

"No, it's all right. I thought you'd ask sometime." He sat down next to her, looking solemn.

"You don't have to say anything, I mean, if you don't want to..." She felt stupid, intruding on him like this.

"Bright Eyes was one of my favorite people." he said, sitting back.

"'Bright Eyes'? Is that what you called her?" Ivy asked, startled.

He grinned. "No, that was what Rodger called her. It was sort of a joke, you know; you couldn't see her eyes. That nickname later became her Donnekahshaie codename."

Ivy nodded. She had read about Donnekahshaie.

"Always curious, she was, and constantly getting in trouble when she was younger. Of course, that was partly Rodger's fault." he smiled as he remembered. "Those two were inseparable, even though they were the most different people I'd ever seen. Rodger was loud, obnoxious, had little work ethic and was constantly making jokes. Carmen was much quieter, though more active, and she loved her work and did it well."

Ivy interrupted. "So she was fond of her work?"

"Yes..." Suhara looked at her. "You're wondering why she left, aren't you?"

She looked at the floor. "Yes...and...well, why she did what she did when, well...I mean, why she was so mean to you, and why she said those things..."

"Ah." he said, almost sadly. After a moment, he told her, "Ivy, I must confess that when you were here that day, I told you a lie." She stared at him and he continued, "I said perhaps I did not offer her enough challenges, and that was why she left. The truth is, I didn't think at that time that you really thought much about her, and only had any interest in her becuase that was part of your job. I remember you tried to comfort me, telling me it was not my fault that she chosen the life she leads. I knew it was not my fault, but I also knew that she may not have chosen that life as willingly as you might think." Ivy just stared at him as he spoke.

"When you left and didn't come back, I went out looking for you, for I wanted to find the answers to the same questions I'm sure you have now, and I wanted to know why she was now suddenly interested in me, after not hearing from her in ten years. I remember the netsuke you showed me, and wondered, not without pain, why she would be giving my gift back to me. Even from that moment I could sense hostility and rejection, but that only made me all the more curious as to what was going on."

"But what about those awful words she said to you in the theater?" Ivy demanded. "How do you explain that?"

He sighed softly. "When you've worked with a person for a long time," he explained, "you know what they're feeling just by how they stand, move, or speak. I knew her quite well; we were once very close. Even though we had not spoken to each other in ten years, I could sense what she sensed.

“She was quick to speak some very evil words to me. I knew, from years of working with her, that whenever she was afraid or unsure she always put on an act, an offencive stance, to protect herself. She did not want to confront me. She did not want to say what she said. In the museum she did the same thing; she spoke first, and I remember it was a bitingly bitter speech too. She did not want to say those evil things, but she had to; that made her angry with herself, but she directed her anger toward me."

"But why did she have to say those things?"

With a distant expression, Suhara said, "She did not wish for me to spend my life mourning for her. She is ashamed of what she has become, and became angry when she discovered I was sitting at home thinking of her. She was ashamed because I still cared deeply for her, even though she is no longer the honorable person she used to be. She knew that in order for me to stop thinking about her and to get on with my life, I would have to become so angry with her that I would betray her; to you. If you remember, her words were aimed at my ten years of inactivity. That is why she said those things; so that I would become angry and betray her, and stop thinking about her."

In a soft voice, Ivy asked, "And did you?"

Suhara bowed his head. "I could never get angry with her. I've known her since she was a child. We were very close when we worked together." He buried his face in his hands. "The one thing I want most is to talk to her, like we used to do. But her shame is too great, and she cannot face a friend she has deserted and now dishonored."

Ivy put a hand on his shoulder. "You still miss her, don't you?"

He nodded sadly. "I want to help my old friend, but there is nothing I can do. She cannot face me, and even if she could, I cannot save her from the fate that awaits her."

There was a short silence, then Ivy asked, "But why did she leave home, if she was happy? Why do we hear all this stuff about her being bored?"

Suhara looked at her for a long moment before speaking. "How much do you know about the Case of the Crystal Chandelier?"

"Uh...I..." Ivy stuttered, suprised that a Senior was talking about the fiasco case. "Not much. Just by definition."

"You know she was an orphan...she didn't have any family?"

"Yes."

Suhara's eyes bored into Ivy. "Her Senior friends were her 'family.' All the Seniors were very close. Then, during the case, almost all of them were killed. Ivy, imagine that you wake up one morining and find that someone had killed all you had worked with and played and laughed with all your life, and you'd never see them again, and their ghosts would haunt the halls and the Computer Room."

"But I'd still have Zack, and she still had you."

Suhara shook his head. "For six months, many of the Seniors were Presumed Dead. We were scattered across the world; assasins still hunted possible surviviors; our communications system was down. I thought she was dead; she most certainly thought I was dead. She had no place to go, no one to turn to, and the memories of her dead friends haunted her. So she left."

"But why did she become a criminal, of all things?"

Suhara thought for a moment. "I can't answer that. But I knew that something else must have happened to her in the six weeks we were separated. Something very terrible, something soul-shaking, or she would have stayed to rebuild ACME. Even though I knew her well, there were still many things about her that were a mystery to me. Sometimes she would do something strange without any explanation, and I could never get her to tell me why. She is keeping a secret that has destroyed her life, and I cannot help her."

Ivy felt that she had asked him to say too much. "I'm sorry...I think maybe you told me things that are too...well...personal..."

Suhara shook his head, and looked into her eyes. "After ten lonely years, it is good to have someone I can finally talk to."

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