Chain Reaction Generation One Summary: Part One

First of all, thank you for your interest in my Sims 4 legacy story Chain Reaction.

I will try to keep this summary as short as possible, but this won't be easy as there are 53 chapters in the first generation alone. You're reading this because you are a summary-reading person, i.e. someone who wants the basics so he/she can get to the more current chapters, so I shall endeavor to do just that. It's a bit long, but it's certainly faster than reading all the chapters.

    Part of the reason that generation one has so many chapters is that it starts when Brielle McKinney is a teen. This pic shows her as a child, which is why it's dark and somewhat blurry as in a memory. Her father Jett is abusive, but Brielle does her best to get by.

     This is one of her favorite childhood memories: camping.

     Brielle's older sister Nyla ages to adult, and a baby brother Logan is born. Jett's abusiveness to Brielle gets worse, and she runs away.

      She drops out of school and lives like a beggar, but she doesn't see herself that way. She sees herself as being independent and free. Her friends from school try to talk some sense into her. This is Grayson, and he lives next to her childhood home, the 'boy next door.'

     Another close friend is Alexander Goth.

      He's really worried about Brielle living in the great outdoors, so he invites her to visit.

     Expressing his concern, he tells her she can live there with his family.

     She slips out while he does the dishes.

     Brielle always goes to the park to see if she can find food left by picnickers, and she also harvests the rocks and sells what she finds. She also likes to fish. However, she doesn't like to draw attention to herself, so she often goes at night.
     Tonight, someone else is out for a stroll. Afraid he'll turn her in to the authorities as a runaway, she tells him she's eighteen.

     Even though he kind of scares her, she's attracted to him. They lie down in the dirt, and he lets her teach him all she knows about different constellations. Truth is, he already knows everything she tells him, but he lets her go on anyway. That he already knows becomes apparent when he starts teaching her. He is, after all, a college professor that starts his first day tomorrow, and teaching comes naturally to him. She likes his voice.
     When she accuses him of only pretending to 'learn' all that stuff she told him, he points out that there are probably plenty of things she could tell him that he doesn't know: her name, for example. She tells him, and he steers the conversation to get her to ask for his. It's Graham.

(BTW, Graham is a game-made townie. Nice work, huh?)

     They sit up and look at each other. Graham almost kisses her, but she stands up before he can, panicked some that that was what he was about to do.

    They stand back up, and, after making sure she's not a student at Sim City University, he asks her out. He uses the excuse that they could talk about how his first day as a college professor went. She tells him no, now scolding herself internally for lying about her age.

    He doesn't give up, trying a different angle, and she agrees to meet him at the museum the next day.

     She gets 'home' and continues to berate herself for lying.

     Still, she goes and meets him at the museum.

    So, they sit and talk about how his day went. He admits to her that he wanted to make sure she wasn't a student because it's unethical for teachers to date students. Brielle continues to beat herself up about her 'little white lie.'

     Later in the evening, they stand in the back courtyard of the pub, and she finds out that Graham has misinterpreted her silence as she'd beat herself up inside from her lie. He wants to make sure she knows he considers this a date and that he'd like to go on more. Her conscience screams at her to say no, that this is a good time to tell him the truth, but she doesn't listen.

     I think you can figure out her answer and his happy response.
     They walk to go into the back entrance of the bar. When Graham opens the door, Brielle sees her father inside. Panicked, she backs away with no explanation.

    Graham doesn't understand, thinking he'd done something wrong, especially when she runs away. He chases after her for a little while, but she's faster than him.
     Brielle goes 'home' and feels wretched. She decides she needs to tell him the truth about her age, knowing it would be better coming from her instead of him finding out from someone else should they be out and see someone she knows.
     Figuring the best way to find him would be to go to SCU, she sells some rocks and buys bus fare to the campus. She asks for directions from some students, and they point her to the right building. She doesn't know Graham's last name, but she sees new lettering in the entrance to the building, directing her to a 'Prof. G. Taylor' in room 106.

     Graham hadn't slept much the night before, so he looks tired when he responds to her knock. He looks up expecting to see a student but gets surprised to see Brielle. 

     He gets her to explain why she ran away, the entire time thinking how clever she was to decide to find him here and how much it means to him that she felt the need to find him that much.
     She tells him a half-truth. She says she 'left' her father's house because he would beat her, and she'd seen him at the bar last night and panicked.
     Somewhere in all this, she finds out he's twenty-eight. Oh yeah, it was him and his previous thoughts about why she'd run away from him, worrying that he was too old for her. He doesn't think eighteen and twenty-eight is too terribly bad. yeeeeaaaaahhhh..... but..... hm.

     He thinks about how brave her leaving her dad like that was and tells her something to that effect. Then, he points out that he's noticed she, at times, smells like a campfire. She admits she's homeless. Her emotions spiral downward, making her tell him that he doesn't deserve to have to deal with her crap. She's crying, still not able to voice the words that she's only sixteen.

     He's all like 'crap, shmap. I don't care if you're homeless.'
     Brielle decides she doesn't want to tell him her real age, at least right now. She doesn't want the wonderful-ness to end.

     After he finishes work, he takes her to his new house and fixes them something to eat for dinner.

   During and after dinner, they get into a discussion/argument about Graham being worried about her and wondering if she's freaking out because of their 'decade' age difference. Brielle tells him she didn't expect him to react the way he did at his office earlier, that she'd expected him to break up with her. That he hasn't has really thrown her.

     He tells her doesn't care about the age difference, that he does care about what happens to her, and that if they ever do break up, it won't be because he's a heartless jerk.
     Brielle can't stand it anymore. She wants to tell him her real age, but he stops her, saying that today has had enough of a roller coaster ride of emotions.

      So she stays. They sit and talk. He finds out that not one but two guys have asked her to move in with them (Grayson and Alexander). What he doesn't know is that she'd be moving in with their families. He just sees it as guy friends wanting her to move into their spare bedrooms.
     He asks her to move in with him, saying he'd rather sleep on the couch since he doesn't have the '2nd bedroom' option than dropping her off somewhere in the woods for her to go live in a tent. He apologizes for being stubborn about it. When he hears about her sister, he offers to drive her to her house. Brielle chooses that option.

     Brielle resents Nyla for growing up and moving out and not helping her with their father. Brielle doesn't know that Nyla would take the larger share of the abuse from Jett while Brielle was a child. That's why the abuse got worse when Brielle aged to teen. Nyla had wanted to take Brielle from their parents and had gotten a room ready for her, but then no one could find her since she'd run away.
     Brielle introduces Graham as a friend, begging him not to tell her sister they're dating. He misinterprets her begging to mean that she doesn't want her sister teasing her. Nyla thanks Graham in a stiff voice for bringing her sister to her. Graham notes the lack of true sisterly affection. The truth is that although grateful to Graham, Nyla's emotions are spent when it comes to Brielle. She wants her safe, but she's emotionally exhausted.
     However, not emotionally exhausted enough to prevent her from asking Graham out. He says no, that he's already in a relationship with someone he's falling in love with. Brielle hears him through the wall.

     Brielle discovers that Nyla has bought her some clothes and things in addition to fixing up a room for her. She also gives her a phone. Her phone bills stopped getting paid by her parents when she ran away. Graham is the first one she calls.

     She also tells Graham about a man's shirt she found in her closet and how she'd decided to wear that as her pajamas. The mental image of Brielle walking around in nothing but an oversized man's shirt gets firmly implanted into his thoughts.

     Later that day, Brielle takes Graham to her old campsite so they can pack up her stuff. He can hardly take his eyes off her now that she's had the resources to really fix herself up. She tells him she's going to to back to school. He interprets that to mean she's going to college, and he's happy.

     They go to his house again, and things start to get a little out of control while they make out, her very-bare legs almost pushing Graham over the edge. She stops him, and he drives her to her sister's house.

     He stops her at the door and admits that it's soon, but he knows he's in love with her.
     They agree to meet the next day, Saturday, in the park for a picnic.
     Graham then goes out to the pub, hoping to find Brielle's dad and take him out back to beat the s--- out of him.

      But something he learns makes him abandon his plan.

      The next day, Graham tells her that he'd met her dad last night and that he'd learned of the man's runaway daughter, his SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD runaway daughter. His last hope is that she has a sister she's never mentioned.
     Her "I can explain" tells him exactly what he doesn't want to hear.

     She tries to explain everything to him, and Graham does everything he can to prevent her from even touching him. She says she tried to tell him several times but that something would always happen to make her not go through with it.
     She tells him, "I'm still me; you're still you. The only difference is now you know."

    This crushes him. He says she's not still her because everything started with a lie.

     He crushes her right back when he says, "I don't know you, and I'm not interested in playing pretend."

     Although hating every step, he walks away. He truly feels he doesn't know her. How can he trust anything about her if it started with a lie?

     Brielle is devastated for days, hardly eating. Nyla lets her be.
     Then, Brielle decides she's had enough moping and will try to get on with her life.

     Nyla has a new boyfriend, Fred, who lets himself into her bedroom one night to 'chat.' Brielle was awake, playing on her new phone. She worries what might've happened had he found her asleep. Hopefully, her worries are unfounded.

     Now that she's back in school, the 'boy next door' Grayson can't hold it in anymore and tells her how he feels.

     After his parents do their best to embarrass him, the two of them go outside to talk. He asks her out, and she decides to say yes.

     He's happy, but Brielle knows it's not his arms around her that she wants. She tells herself to get over it and be happy she's made him happy.

     She tells Nyla that she and Grayson are dating, and then she goes to take a shower.

     While she dries herself off, she hears one half of a conversation as Nyla talks on the phone. It's something about someone asking if someone is okay, but he or she doesn't want to speak to 'her,' Brielle, obviously. Who would call Nyla to ask if Brielle is okay?
     Nyla tells the person that Brielle had just gotten home from being at her boyfriend's house.

     Brielle and Grayson have their date.

     During the date, a college guy comes and sits on Brielle's other side, saying he remembers seeing her at SCU with Professor Taylor. Brielle had told Grayson (since their mutual friend Sade had actually seen hers and Graham's breakup) that Graham was her tutor and that his mom had died. The college guy blows that story when he informs Grayson that Professor Taylor and Brielle sure didn't look or act like a student/teacher relationship.
     Grayson storms off. Brielle rounds on the college guy angrily, and he just smiles and asks for her number since she's obviously dating other people. She just growls at him and runs after Grayson.

     She quickly explains everything, telling him the absolute truth. He says he's upset she didn't tell him the truth anyway, but he can at least understand how she wouldn't want to get the professor guy in trouble. She promises to tell him the truth from now on.

     She's so grateful she kisses him, taking him by surprise.

     His surprise doesn't last forever, and he mildly 'scolds' Bri for doing the kissing first, that that was his job. He makes up for it. It's a really sweet, simple kiss compared to what she'd grown accustomed to, but she likes it.

     She and Grayson date for weeks, grossing out their friends with their PDA as Brielle works at teaching him how to really kiss. After that first one, he'd gotten sloppy, but he was a studious learner.
     Her phone beeps at her, indicating she has a text. It's Graham! He wants to meet her at the park in Willow Creek at 10pm. She says she will.

    Once she gets there, Graham realizes the stupidity of meeting her here, alone, at night, but he tells himself that if she was going to do anything bad to him that she'd have done it already. She tells him that it's nuts for him to even think she'd do anything like he implies. Then, he scolds her for agreeing to do it, that how does she know he's not going to snatch her away or something along those lines? Again, she tells him that won't happen. "Oh? And how do you know that, Brielle? Because you know me oh-so-well after dating me half a week?"
     Their conversation goes around and around in circles as Graham wants to know why she'd gotten another boyfriend so quickly and if her doing that means that he meant nothing to her. The entire time, she can see him struggling. What she doesn't know (and I'm going to outright tell you since you're not reading the nuances in the scene) is that he's also struggling because he just wants to pull her into his arms and kiss her breathless. He thought it would be easier if he knew he was looking at a sixteen-year-old, but his mind refuses to see anything but the Brielle he's always known (note, he's thrown out the 'I don't know you' junk) and not a minor. He still sees the eighteen-year-old, and it drives him crazy!

     Staying more than an arm's length away, he asks her if he means anything to her at all. She tells him he does but that it's not fair to ask him to wait for her to age up. Well, actually, she can't finish the sentence, but he knows what she means.
     "But I will," he tells her.
     So, they decide to keep most communication via phone calls, keeping the discussion neutral and not crossing any lines. However, it's driving Graham crazy. One: she doesn't break up with Grayson. Two: he wants more.
     During the end part of their discussion at the park (back up a sec), he realized he may have found a loophole to their age difference problem. If he could get her parents' permission...But where is her father? (back up again) He's missing because he'd stolen Graham's identity that night at the bar and is on the run.

 

     The police eventually find and arrest Jett. Graham wants to strike a deal: he'll drop the charges in exchange for his permission to date his daughter.

     Laughing, Jett assumes he means Nyla, and he's like 'sure!' Then, when he finds out it's Brielle, he calls Graham a sick bastard. He threatens to expose Graham's unnatural attraction and relationship if Graham doesn't drop the charges.
     I'll go ahead and put this in now: Graham drops the charges, and Jett walks almost scot-free.

     Furiously devastated, Graham calls Brielle, wanting to talk to her. He hadn't told her about his little plan beforehand, but he wanted to talk about it now.
     HOWever, when Brielle answers the phone, she's crying like crazy, and it sounds like she's running. All Graham can get out of her is that Fred, Nyla's boyfriend, did something to her when she forgot to lock her door. A ball of lead forms in his stomach as he puts two and two together. (oh, the cliches! lol)

     Brielle hangs up on him, and he can't get her to answer again. He's in Lucky Palms, hours away from Willow Creek, but he remembers he's in a police station. He gets the cop to contact the WCPD and have them looking for Brielle, not to mention Fred.

     Several days later, they find Brielle. She'd made herself a lean-to from sticks and leaves and was in very poor health since she hadn't had the resources she'd had last time, not wanting to risk at all being seen. Graham gets to see her only a few times, but each time, she can't stay with him long.
     The Goths become her guardians, not adopting her. This fact isn't lost on Graham, how they didn't outright adopt her, and he suspects he knows why. Still, he asks Mortimer if he can date Brielle and gets a vehement NO. Then, Mr. Goth puts out a restraining order on Graham. Brielle never finds out any of this at the time.

     All Brielle knows is that she doesn't see Graham anymore. She'd lost her phone and forgotten his phone number, thinking she's switching one or two numbers but not sure which. But, if he doesn't want to see her...and she doesn't want anyone touching her anyway.

     She falls into the deepest depression of her life. What Fred did to her scarred her for life emotionally, and she trusts no one, especially grown men that remind her of her father and Fred.
     She drops out of school for the second time, planning on taking her exam to get the diploma. Alexander helps her study when she lets him.

     Finally, she invites over Grayson, who's still technically her boyfriend. He'd been afraid to visit her because he didn't want to stress her out. She does her best to explain to him what really happened, and she flinches and backs away when he goes to hug her. She tells him she doesn't want to drag him through this mess, and she breaks up with him. It breaks his heart, but he tells her he'll be there for her if she should ever need him.

     She, very slowly, starts becoming more social, finally eating dinner with the Goth family. Alex tells her he's happy to see her sitting at the table, and he squeezes her hand. She very quickly tells him not to touch her. She whispers it, but she wants to scream it. Alex feels terrible.

     She continues to come more out of her shell, but she's never going to be the same. She lets Bella take her shopping and spoil her, and she's friendly with Alex. She doesn't have much to do at all with Mortimer, but he understands why.
     She also starts becoming best friends instead of regular friends with her friend Sade. They also go shopping frequently to spend Bri's very generous allowance.

     One afternoon, she's shopping by herself when she sees someone she hasn't seen in months: Graham. Only, he's sitting on a bench and flirting with some older woman! Should she approach him? She stands there dumbly, and the woman notices her. After she speaks to her, Graham turns his head and has to quickly swallow his gasp.
     Brielle cryptically mumbles to Graham, reminding him that he didn't wait like he said he would. She calls him a liar and storms off.
     Yeah, I know. She has no right to talk, but that's what happens.
     The woman tells Graham she'll meet him in the cafe later, and Graham follows after Brielle.

     Like with everyone else, she won't let Graham hug her. He tries to explain his new girlfriend, also reminding Brielle that she'd continued to date Grayson. She tells him they broke up.
     He tells her about what Mortimer has done with the restraining order, warning her not to trust them.
     Graham eventually does touch her, holding her shoulders, and Brielle is surprised it doesn't make her sick. Then, she gets mad again about that other woman.

     She admits it's ridiculous for him to wait for her to age up, that he's obviously not getting what he needs and that girlfriend is proof of that. Graham says he'll break up with her, that this was only their second date. He begs Brielle not to give up hope in them. He says the other woman was a quick-fix band-aid kind of relationship like she had with Grayson. He tells Brielle he loves her.
     She looks up at him, lower lip trembling, and tells him he doesn't know her. (going back to when he'd broken up with her after finding out her age)

     Meanwhile, just as Graham had feared, the reason the Goths didn't outright adopt Brielle comes out: Alex is in love with her. He says he has been for a long, long time and asks her if she'd ever consider giving him a chance but that he knows she's not ready for something like that. The way he says it is so sweet that it makes Brielle cry. He can't take it.

     Hey, wow, who knew Alex could kiss like this? Certainly no 'training' needed for this teen. And this doesn't make Brielle sick. She likes it until she starts thinking about what she's doing.
     When they both come up for air, she tells him she can't. She doesn't say for sure whether or not she means can't as in not ever or can't as in can't right now. I don't think even she knows. Alex takes it to mean the latter.

     Brielle's birthday finally rolls around, and the friends go out to celebrate. (The blonde is Sade.) Sade tells Brielle that she thinks she sees her old tutor standing over there watching them. Bri's heart beats fast. Graham! But he never approaches her.

     As the night wears on, Alex professes his love again and goes way overboard by proposing, or...proposing to propose as he sort of puts it.
     Brielle, standing in horridly green lighting, tells him no, that she doesn't feel that way about him, that the kiss they shared was nice but that it was just a reaction not a feeling. She breaks his heart and then crushes it under the heel of her shoe. And then she feels terrible for hurting him.

     Sade had left with that college guy that tried once to ruin Brielle's date with Grayson. Grayson had left even before that. Now, Alex is gone too. It's early morning, and Brielle is alone.
     To Graham, you could insert the word 'finally' before the alone.

     He sits down next to her at the bar where she pouts and introduces himself. She tells him she doesn't want to play games, and he tells her it's not exactly a game, that each of them had claimed he didn't know her. So, he thought they could start anew.
     He flirts. Bigtime. It overwhelms her, and she retreats to one of the sofas, not exactly wanting to leave. She likes the flirting, but she doesn't really know how to handle it.
     Graham is now kicking himself for laying it on too strong. (my constant use of cliches is just killing me hehe) He goes to sit next to her and apologize. She tells him how Alex had just proposed and how she'd turned him down flat and how awful she feels.

     He reaches over to hold her while she cries, and not only does it not make her sick but she likes it. It's been so long since she's actually liked someone touching her that it only makes her cry harder. Graham keeps holding her while she does and talks to her, saying things like that was his biggest fear, how much he's missed her, etc. This starts to irk Brielle, not liking how he acts like the two of them getting back together is a sure thing. She hasn't forgotten how he was with that other woman. (yes, the double standard again) She pushes him away and leaves the bar.
     Standing outside, she thinks about what she just did and regrets it. She wants to get back with Graham, but she doesn't know how to handle it. She feels terrible for pushing him away, and she tells herself she'll just go to his office and apologize to him there. Then, he calls out to her from across the street.

     Standing an arm's length away, the two of them talk, and Graham asks her out on just a simple date. Brielle likes that. They agree to meet in the evening at the paddleboat next to them, which has been converted into a restaurant.
     Brielle then goes and packs her old bookbag full of her things and leaves a note for Bella and Mortimer, thanking them but saying she has to leave now. Not knowing what else to do, she goes back to the boardwalk. Then, she decides to get a job at the bar she'd just visited the night before. She finds she loves being a bartender, that it's like chemistry, her favorite subject in school.

     They go on their date, and before the waiter even shows up, Brielle grills Graham on his relationship with that woman. He explains everything to her, and she determines the woman was using Graham, cougar style.
     Graham never asks Brielle to explain her relationship with Grayson. He doesn't need her to, but he doesn't resent Brielle asking him to explain. He accepts her insecurities as products of her past. Just saying this because it becomes a theme that I didn't even realize was happening until it was pointed out to me.
      During their conversation, however, Graham requests a subject change to the two of them, saying he is full-on asking for another chance, a real chance. Brielle happily agrees.

     After dinner, Graham asks where she's planning to go. She says she's left the Goths and that she'll probably go stay at a hotel. He begs her to stay at his place instead, worried and protective. He swears he'll sleep on the couch. She agrees, and he hugs her.
     Again, Brielle really likes it, and they hold hands on the way back to his car. She wants him to kiss her when they get there, but she doesn't yet have the guts to either initiate or ask. So, she tries to tell him with her body language what she wants. Graham gets it, but he thinks she's only doing that because she thinks that's what he'd expect. He does not want to press his luck in any way, so he kisses her forehead. Brielle feels like crap.
     She spends the night at his house, and he keeps his word, staying on the couch. The next morning, she wakes up to the smell of pancakes. They eat breakfast together, Graham having a weak moment when he learns (indirectly) that Brielle is wearing very little under his bathrobe. She apologizes for mentioning she'd forgotten to pack pajamas.
     She still wants him to kiss her.
     He mentions an organization that could help her get on her feet, saying he wants to help her achieve what she's always wanted: independence. He says it with so much love in his eyes that Brielle can't stand it anymore.

     She kisses him, and he pushes her away! He warns her how close to the edge he is, how she has no idea what she's doing to him in wearing that bathrobe and little else with that 'just woke up' look.
     She kisses him again, wrapping herself around him so he can't as easily push her away. He can't resist anymore. Here is the woman he's yearned for for a year and a half passionately kissing him, he violently kisses her back.

     In little breaks in the kiss, he tells her he so badly wanted to kiss her last night. They each find out what the other was thinking, and Brielle tells him that she doesn't know how or why, but that it's okay when it's him. He wonders just how far 'okay' goes when he acts like he's going to carry her to his bedroom. She lets him know that's too far, so they spend the morning kissing, making him skip the paperwork he was going to do at work.

      After Graham goes to work (phrase that will repeat itself), Brielle gets a phone call. It's Alex, worried about her. He finds out she's at Graham's house (guesses) and gets furious. Brielle now finds out that he'd threatened Graham to stay away from Brielle even though the restraining order was void since Brielle was no longer a legal ward of the Goths.
      Alex swears that Graham will pay for not listening to him. Brielle yells at him, wondering where her friend went.

     Brielle contacted that foundation, and they helped her get an apartment. Graham drives her over to it, acting fatigued. She doesn't know if that's normal after-work behavior for him or not, lately at least.

     They go inside and tour her empty apartment, but to Brielle, it's a palace because of what it represents. She's so happy that she tells Graham she loves him. Then, she realizes she's never actually said it before. It makes Graham's whole day...week...year...life.
     He makes a simple meal of mac and cheese, and as they eat, he casually mentions how he got fired. Shocked, Brielle asks why. He tells her that word got to the dean that he'd dated a minor. The college has a severe no-tolerance rule. Even though it was a year and a half ago, that apparently didn't matter to the man.
     Brielle knows Alex had something to do with it. Graham agrees, letting on he'd already come to that conclusion, but he knew there was nothing he could do. He got a severance package, and he was going to start looking for another job, though he'd probably never teach again. Brielle is eaten alive by her guilt.

     That evening, they go try out her apartment complex's hot tub. She hears the story of his last girlfriend before her, a woman named Courtney.

     Graham has an extremely difficult time finding another job. For some reason, every opportunity is botched somehow. Even today, he'd driven two hours for an interview. The museum sounded excited to hire him on the phone, but when he got there, they acted like they'd already made up their mind not to.
     It's like someone is sabotaging his chances...

     Brielle guesses correctly, and she confronts Alex about it. He doesn't deny it, proud of his little project. He admits to wanting to make Graham look worthless to her because that's how he sees him. Brielle begs him, as a friend, to stop interfering. He relents and says that he could never deny her anything she would ask of him, and this is no exception.
     Before she walks away, he tells her that when Graham hurts her, he'll be there for her. She assures him that won't happen.

     Finally, Graham finds another job, but it's ten hours away...and on the desktop (they've been on the laptop all this time). He doesn't want to leave Brielle, so she says she'll go with him. They have a small misunderstanding with her thinking she'll get her own place and him thinking she just agreed to move in with him, but then they clear that up and look for Brielle a new apartment.
     She despises everything they go see, but when they get to Graham's house....

     She's knows she's home, and she tells him. He's happy. (just in case you can't tell)

     Graham...doesn't....tell Brielle what his job actually IS nor does he tell her how he got hired in the first place. The woman in that picture is Courtney Springer. The Courtney Springer, ex-girlfriend. Or, should I say AGENT Springer.
     Graham has been hired by the S.I.M.S. to do extensive research into cases, basic desk job really as far as they go. His first directed target: Mortimer Goth.
     Dun dun dun!

I broke this in half for internet-loading purposes.