“Hello?” Cadence said, praying that it wasn’t a telemarketer.

“Just look him firmly in the eye and say, very calmly, ‘Elliott explained that to you. Don’t you remember? Remember what Elliott said?’” It was Aaron, and while she was a little shocked that he knew exactly what she had been talking about, she was relieved to have some help.

Despite the fact that she had taken the phone call, Jack was still standing right in front of her, demanding an answer with eyes growing narrower by the second. She pulled the phone away from her ear for a moment, and looking Jack directly in the eyes, she said as calmly as she could, “Elliott explained that to you. Don’t you remember? Remember what Elliott said?” Cadence watched in astonishment as Jack’s expression went from anger to calm serenity.

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Elliott explained that to me. I remember now. Thanks, Cadence,” he said patting her on the shoulder.

If Cadence had thought Angry Jack was odd, Serene Jack was even more peculiar, and she really didn’t want to wait around to see which Jack appeared next. “Okay, Jack,” she said smiling, “I’ll talk to you soon, but I need to take this phone call, okay?”

“Okay,” he said politely. “Talk to you later, Cadence,” and then he turned and walked toward the house, as if the trance had solved all of his problems.

“How the hell did you know what I was talking about?” she asked, pulling the phone back to her ear and walking over toward a corner of the yard away from the house.

“Look up,” he replied.

At first she was confused, knowing he couldn’t mean directly up. Instead, she looked out toward the rooftops. She saw nothing on Drew’s parents’ house, nor did she see anything, or anyone, on the neighbors’ houses. However, when she peered off into the distance, she could see black clad figures on top of houses two and three blocks away. “Your people can hear me from all the way over there?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “when we want to. I don’t make it a habit of eavesdropping on you everywhere you go, but some of my contacts are reporting some unusual behavior centered around Jack, and we wanted to see if he would say anything to you.”

“Well then, you already know that he did,” she said.

“Yes, yes, I do,” he said matter-of-factly.

“I really wish I knew when you were spying on me,” she said slightly irritated that who knows how many Guardians had just been listening in on her discussion with her ex-boyfriend but even more so that he was talking to her in the curt little manner he used for business purposes. She found it particularly annoying. She had been looking forward to talking to him this afternoon since he had promised to call her after the funeral. If he was going to talk to her like this, she would rather not talk to him at all.

“You will know in a few days when we implant the IAC,” he responded.

This tone of this answer was a little friendlier, and she began to think perhaps he realized he was being short with her. “Well, why don’t you just bring it over later and put it in yourself?” she asked.

“Ha!” he smirked. “You want me to place an IAC? Are you crazy? You’d end up needing eyeball-removal-surgery.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that remark. “Well, could you at least, please, attempt to find some way of letting me know when your enforcers are scoping me out? I mean, what if I want to tell my girlfriends how mean my new boss is, and you’re spying on me, you know?”

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“Then, I guess you will only be able to tell them how awesome your new boss is, just in case I’m listening,” he replied.

“Not saying that right now,” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry I was blunt earlier. I wasn’t trying to be rude; I was just trying to give concise directions to alleviate a problem. Cadence, you’re going to have to get used to me giving you directives in that tone. It doesn’t mean that I’m angry with you or belittling you; I’m just trying to direct the movement of thousands of individuals all at the same time. Do you understand that?”

She did understand what he was saying, but she didn’t like it. She also didn’t feel like pressing the subject so she said, “Yes, I understand.”

“Good,” he said in a much calmer, sweeter tone. “Now, how did it go today? Are you all right?”

She took a deep sigh. “I’m all right,” she said. And she was. Not good, not perfect but all right.

“I’m glad. It will take time, but you can move on from this. We’ve all lost loved ones, and there’s never an easy way through it, I know, but you’ll make it, one step at a time.”

“I know,” she said quietly. She really wished he were actually there with her and not just on the phone.

“Cadence, I have to go,” he said, “There’s a problem that needs my immediate attention, and I can’t keep flipping between talking to you and IAC.”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

“I’ll talk to you later though, all right?”

“All right, bye.”

“Bye.”

“Good luck with your… thing” she said aloud, even though he’d already hung up the phone. She was beginning to feel a headache coming on and pressed her palm against her forehead. This relationship was getting more difficult by the hour, and she had no idea what she was going to do about it, if there even was anything she could do about it.

She decided to go tell her friends goodbye and head back to her house. Just as she was making her way up the treehouse ladder, she heard her text alert. “You really don’t want me to do that implant, but I can stop by this evening, if you want.”

Taylor and Sydney noticed the grin on her face immediately. “Who’s that from?” Taylor asked.

Cadence could feel herself blushing, but she didn’t want to say too much. “No one,” she replied sheepishly. “It’s just this guy from my new job.”

“Oh!” Sydney said, looking at Taylor and then back to Cadence. “What’s his name?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Cadence answered. “I don’t really think he’s into me anyway.”

Returning her attention to her phone, she typed, “Yes.” She hesitated for a minute wondering if she should say more, but that would do. She sent the message and then returned to the arduous task of saying goodbye to her heavy-hearted friends.

“What are you doing?” Elliott asked, a pleading look on his face. “You know this never ends well!”

Elliott had been standing nearby the entire time Aaron was talking to Cadence on the phone, and he had also seen the text. “I know, I know,” Aaron admitted. “And, I’m not intending to start anything this time,” he said adamantly.

Elliott snorted, “The hell you’re not. I have seen the girl, you know. I am a male. Sorry, gonna have to call bullshit on that one, bossman.”

Aaron sighed. The Nevada sun was beating down on them, despite the fact that it was December. They were attempting to coordinate the destruction of a Rogue Vampire by a veteran Hunter. They believed the Rogue to be holed up somewhere along this particular hillside. “I’m really not,” he insisted. “She just needs someone to talk to right now, that’s all. And,” he added, “as much as I want to run the other direction and hide, I just can’t seem to do that.”

“Which is an indicator to me,” Elliott concluded, “that you are smitten with this girl, and you’re going to end up in the exact same situation you do every single time this happens. You realize you can’t have a relationship with a subordinate because every time you give a directive, she gets her panties in a wad, and then you end up breaking up, and she leaves the team.”

“You make it sound like I’ve dated thousands of team members, Elliott. That particular scenario has only happened twice, and both of those situations were much different than this one. Most recently, let us not forget, she did not leave the team, and she is, in fact, presently a member."

“Yes, and how is that working out for you?” he asked sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter! Because nothing is going on between Cadence and I, okay?”

“Okay,” Elliott said, not believing him one iota. “If that’s the case, I’m going to see how she feels about men shaped like teddy bears!”

“Go for it,” Aaron said, raising his hand up as if to say he wouldn’t try to stop it. “Now, let’s catch this Vampire so I can get back to Iowa.”