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Chapter 1

The basement office was starting to get to him. He looked around and wondered if this was his life now as he could smell the dankness with the musty scent that was in the hallways as well. He was one of the best the newspapers had called him. They had said he was the one to get the case closed. That was how his supervisors had put out the call to every station in the country. He was an asset to be used. He felt like a used tissue or one of the handkerchiefs that the older generation used over and over.

He felt like he was used. There was no getting around that fact. He was burning out quickly between the two things he was currently doing. Things were getting rough. Things were getting lonely as well. He knew what he wanted out of life, but a detective who could hunt any clue and find the most hidden facts couldn't figure out how to get a girlfriend. He knew he had problems. He just didn’t know how to work around those problems. It was the same day every day, no matter what.

Max Anderson rested his head on his arm as he leaned into the desk. He knew he had made some sacrifices for his jobs. He hoped he hadn't ruined all of his life in choosing this pathway. As he looked around the office, he knew he wanted to go out and work in the field this weekend. He honestly needed to get out of the office and outside doing something other than grading papers. Some fresh air to stimulate his blood was needed. He needed to use his skills other than going over files for others.

All the students were the same. He had been doing this for four years now. He was working the two different things in being a professor and super detective, according to everyone who talked about him. He certainly didn't feel that way. Max knew that he wasn't all that much older than most of the students when he started this new journey. He had started when he was twenty-four. No one had really thought he would go as far as he had. Most of all him. Max had shocked himself more than anyone he had met along the way. They all assumed that he would do great things.

He was surprised from the moment he came back from overseas. He had lost part of the use in his arm. Therefore, he wasn't useful to the army any longer. However, as he worked to build up the muscles in his arm again, he was able to get the use back. He had already been discharged, so while in college, he applied for the police academy. He went through the schools and then worked his way through the ranks rather quickly. It was a small district. So as people retired from it, he could move up. Then at Twenty-five, he was in charge of the entire department. He was known as the one who could get things done. People knew despite his age, he would be the future of the force.

His supervisors all saw that he was good. He was even more than he thought he was. It was time to use that to the benefit of everyone in the area. When they brought up the idea of using him as the newest professor, he jumped at it. He had a lot of input in the program from basically rewriting it from the other manuals he had seen that didn't really ever get used. He wrote his own instead starting from scratch.

As the professor, the first year he had made up his mind, there had to be a few lines he couldn't cross. He would never date a student though he had seen a few of the professors do just that for a few favors in changing the grades. The professors, when they met, would often talk about the young female students. It almost turned his stomach. To regard these young women as nothing more than pieces of meat who could get the older men off was disgusting. He would never say he didn’t look at the women. He was male, after all. He could admire the female form without being a perv about it.

He needed a break. He got up and stretched his long legs and stretched. He decided to go get a breath of fresh air. He walked up the back stairs that were down the long dark hallway that nearly half of the lights never had worked in the time he had been there. He continued up the stairs and out the door that was there in front of them. He propped open the door so he didn't have to fish out his keys.

That was when he spotted the lone female in the field looking up to the sky. He knew who she was without thought. She was the one student he had ever thought of as something more than just a student. Though he knew that could never really happen. He had tried to push her out of his thoughts but even when he had tried to move on, and he had run into her over and over again.

Now was no different, he thought. She was like a small little fairy that was always around when he needed to steady himself and think about the next move he was going to make, either for work or his life. He decided to just watch her off to the side of the building. He would be concealed for the most part. That way, whatever she was doing, she wouldn't be embarrassed if he saw her.

She had an issue talking to him. When she was his student, there had been an incident early on in the year. She had wanted to say something to him, but she froze. That was when another person came into the room, and he looked away, and she bolted out of the room. He had watched her ever since. She was nearly perfect even though she was young.

She was stunningly beautiful, but he thought she had no idea. He had watched her over the years as she grew as a person. The school had not broken her in any way, and she had instead stayed busy and kept to herself. She was the smartest of the that year as well. He knew he could watch her for years and never get tired of it. She was the one woman who had gotten under his skin and stayed there.

The fact she had helped him with one of the hardest cases he had that year, as well as something he couldn't get over. He knew he was stunted when it came to dating. He didn't trust women. Most women, that was. All stemming from his first real date. That had gone horrible. He knew he had to get over it. He didn't know how, though.

She was staring at something in the sky. Max watched the tiny elfin woman in the field. She didn't seem to notice that someone was there watching her. He could feel the cool air fill his lungs, and it felt so much better than being in the office. However, now that he saw her again, he knew he would be full of images of her over the past few years for the next few weeks.

He knew he was never going to be able to fight himself on the idea of her being perfect, though. She was simply that. She had grown over the past few years. He closed his eyes and wished for her to be happy one day. That was all he could really do. He did hope one day she could find someone who would keep her on that pedestal he had placed her on. She deserved that much in life.