I was scared to walk into the office the next day. After my blow up in the morning and my surrender that night, I was embarrassed, to say the least, of my childish actions. Elliot walked in at his usual time and I waited for him to sit down and verbally assault me.

“I sent the subpoena out two nights ago,” he said as he took a seat in his chair.

I turned my attention towards him, “but… you didn’t know. If….if I’d-“

“Oh I knew,” Elliot said grabbing a random file from his table and flipping it open. “I knew you would say yes.”

This put me back a bit. I didn’t like that he foresaw my decision before I did. I didn’t like knowing that I was predictable to anyone, when even I couldn’t have guessed I’d agree. “How did you know?”

Elliot shrugged. “I knew you’d do it for him.”

I gritted my teeth together. The topic turning towards something that wasn’t easily discussable.

“You know,” Elliot continued. “You two are just …fascinating to watch.”

I felt my legs give a warning shake for him not to continue, but he obviously failed to catch it.

“You guys attract each other like magnets. It is amazing really. When one of you moves, the other follows. You just… have a love unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” he shook his head down at his folder.

I raised my eyebrows before sighing out, “as long as he doesn’t touch me, I’m fine.”

“What?” Elliot asked, though I knew that he had heard me.

“I don’t really want to talk about this… at all,” I said again, turning back to the desk.

Elliot sat silent for a minute. “Me and Duke need to meet with you tomorrow to start coaching you for the bench. Around 2 sound okay?”

I grimaced silently. Noting the first of many negative points about signing up for this. I cursed my persuasive brother, but more myself for falling for it. Or for him.

“Yes, sir. Am I done for today?” I said, shuffling the last of the M’s into the file cabinet.

Elliot sighed. “I suppose so. Did you have a good first week though?”

I shrugged, “It can only go up from here, right?”

Elliot grimaced at me, “I’m not that bad of a boss, am I?”

I chuckled and shook my head sarcastically, “Don’t get me started.”

Elliot smirked, “Get out of here!”

I moved towards the door, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Elliot.”

---

I walked out to my car, watching my feet step over the broken glass and cigarette butts that seemed cemented into the parking lot’s asphalt. A sudden noise caught my ears though. The sound of boots against metal. I looked up.

Sierra was sitting on the edge of her beat up station wagon as it was parked next to mine. She jumped off the edge, nervously.

“Hey,” she said with a fear in her voice.

“Hey. What are you doing here?” I asked.

She looked down to her shoes. “I just wanted to… apologize. In person. For reading your journals. And telling Mikey about them.”

“It’s okay,” I muttered. “I mean, it was bound to happen. It’s not like I was hiding them or anything.”

“Still. I shouldn’t have done it. That’s not what friends do.” She looked up at me finally. So sure that she was in need of reprimanding.

The edge of my mouth tightened into a grin at the sound of the word friends. It was a word I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

“How about I make it up to you?” Sierra clapped her hands together. “We… can… go get ice cream?”

I thought about it. Looking up at her and seeing the apology in her eyes. “Only if we can go get Mikey first.”

Sierra grinned at the idea of her self-prescribed redemption. “Sure!” she smiled.

“Just follow me home,” I moved towards my car.

----

I pulled into my driveway and killed the engine. Sierra was close behind me as we filed through my front door. I dropped my keys into the basket and looked up to find you. I heard your small cough and I turned towards the living room.

You were sitting on the couch across from Mrs. Shea. You looked up at me and gave me a short nod. As if to tell me that it was okay to proceed.

I motioned for Sierra to follow me and made my way into the living room. We both took a seat across from Mrs. Shea. She looked up at us. Like she was coming out of a bad dream.

“Gerard,” she said dreamily. Her face breaking into a pained smile. “So good to see you.”

I forced a smile towards her, trying to be as polite as possible. “You too. This is Sierra Kusterbeck. She’s helping on the case also.”

“Nice to meet you,” Sierra said cheerily, but you could hear the caution in her voice. The same caution Duke had used on me last night.

Mrs. Shea smiled genuinely for a moment, but the smile fell and she turned back towards you. “You can continue, Michael.”

My eye caught onto the two white journals stacked on the coffee table. I wanted to reach out and touch their perfect white covers, but I didn’t want to risk making Mrs. Shea uncomfortable.

You looked down at the pad of paper you’d been taking notes on. “So Anthony never talked about Reynards when he came back? He never mentioned anything about it?”

Mrs. Shea gave a stifled sigh. “No. Every time I tried to talk to him or ask him anything about his time there, he changed the subject or would just talk about his schoolwork. It was… very worrying.”

You scribbled down a couple notes. “Well, thank you, Mrs. Shea. It means a lot for you to be doing this.”

She waved her hand at you. “No, no. Thank you. This should have been done a long time ago.”

You looked sideways at me. I knew the intention of the look. Trying to prove your point. I looked back down at my hands, trying to ignore it.

“Well, we will be in touch. You will be getting the paperwork for court in the mail as soon as they schedule a date,” you continued.

“Thank you, Michael,” she collected herself physically and emotionally.

You walked her to the door and I reached out towards the journals. Sierra quickly slapped my hand away. I looked up at her.

She shook her head. “Later. You know you’re not gonna want ice cream after reading that.”

I pulled my hand back, understanding.

“What’s up?” you said coming back into the room and sliding your hands into your pockets.

“Ice cream!” Sierra bubbled.

You gave me a quizzical look, but I just rolled my eyes. “She’s treating us.”

You shrugged. “Well, I can’t argue with that. Shall we?”