Aaron watched his best friend walk out the door and continued to ponder his comments. Of course, Elliott had no idea that Cadence heard every word that he said. He likely assumed that she had turned her feed off, but the leader had purposely left her on. Despite his frustration, Aaron wanted her to know how the debrief went, what the others had to say, that he recognized the contributions she had made, and that he realized that others had made errors as well. The thought that his best friend might actually be right was more than a little unsettling.

Once everyone was gone, Aaron walked back to where he had left Cadence. He opened the door but didn’t go in at first. He just stood in the doorway looking at her. Clearly, she had been crying, but she wasn’t just then. After a few moments he finally entered, pulled a box of tissue off of a shelf, slammed it on the table and sat down across from her, his arms folded across his chest.

She looked at the tissues, but seemed resolved not to use them, or even touch the box. Her mouth opened, like she was going to say something, but she closed it. He imagined she had dozens of questions burning in her mind, but she waited for him to go first. After all, he was clearly the one in charge here, or at least he thought he was.

He wasn’t exactly sure where to begin. After considering his options for what seemed like an eternity, he finally asked, “What in the world possessed you to disobey my directives and give chase to a Vampire on your own?”

“Does it matter?” she asked. “What’s done is done.”

“Yes, yes it matters. It matters a lot, quite frankly. You’ve always done exactly what I’ve asked you to do until tonight, until it really counted.”

She sighed, “I can’t even explain to you why I did it. I just... had to. It was instinct. I saw a Vampire getting away, and I had to get him.”

“I want you to realize that never, in over 150 years of working in this field, have I ever, not once, seen a Hunter do something so reckless and stupid. Not one time.”

“Then, I guess, I’m just an idiot,” she said dryly.

“No, you see, that’s the thing," he said, uncrossing his arms and leaning toward her, elbows on the table. “You’re not an idiot. It’s like you weren’t even listening to me. At all.”

“I wasn’t. I wasn’t listening to you. Literally,” she admitted

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Then what were you listening to?”

“Nothing!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air. “I was just reacting. I wasn’t intentionally disobeying you. I think I did hear you once or twice, while I was sprinting across the parking lot, and before I jumped the fire escape, but what you were saying wasn’t registering.”

“You could have gotten killed.”

“I know.”

“You could have gotten that baby killed,” he added.

She nodded her head. “But I didn’t.”

“Thank God. How did you know I would be able to get there in time? What was your plan if I hadn’t?”

“I just knew you would,” she said emphatically.

The anger and frustration were building in his voice as he exclaimed, “You just knew I would get there in time to save a freaking baby dangling out a window?”

“No, I didn’t know if we’d be able to save the baby,” she said, the tears streaming down her face again. “But I knew you would get there in time to save me.”

Aaron leaned back in his chair, his hand brushing through his hair. He was quiet for a few moments, considering everything she had said, trying to come up with a fitting response. His conversations with Elliott were fresh in his mind, and even though he wanted to believe this was all about an instinctual response, at this point, he just wasn’t sure. His heart was telling him one thing, but his logical mind, the one that put his team and his mission above all else, was telling him something different. “Listen, Cadence I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to...” he began but that’s all he got out before she interrupted him.

“No, Aaron, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I get it. I understand,” she said, her tears drying up. She sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand, still refusing the tissues.

“Do you?” he asked, not sure how that was possible when he didn’t quite get it himself.

“Yes, I do. It’s fine. It’s just fine.”

“Okay,” he said quietly.

They continued to sit in silence for a few more minutes before Cadence asked, “What’s my punishment?”

He had been thinking about that a lot. Even before Christian had said anything he had realized, despite the fact the whole idea from the beginning revolved around capturing Henry alive, Cadence didn’t know that. She had done her job as far as catching and killing Vampires was concerned, and she had done it better than any new Hunter he had ever seen. Despite the fact that she had broken protocol and put the entire team at risk, he felt that telling her he was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with her was punishment enough. Though she had said she was fine, her eyes were telling him something very different. He suddenly felt inclined to be lenient. “Why don’t you take a few days off? We’ll call it a suspension, but it’ll just be an opportunity for you to go see your family, to visit your friends, whatever you need to do.”

“Okay,” she agreed, devoid of emotion.

“All right then,” he said, standing and pushing his chair in. “You should go home, back to your apartment. I’ve got some things to work on here.” She stood and rushed past him to the door careful not to touch him as she squeezed by.

Aaron didn’t turn to watch her walk out the door, but the second he heard it slam behind her, he began to question everything.