𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑: @detectivejdarling 𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: leila's apartment – twelve years ago
IT WAS NEARLY HALF PAST SIX, and the sun lingered in the sky; a small consolation for the otherwise miserable early spring weather. Leila sat at the far end of the table, a highlighter balanced between her thumb and index finger. A handful of flow charts were sprawled across the wood, various notes scrawled in the margins in handwriting that was only just legible.
One diagram after another, the pages of her notes slowly started to blur at the edges, as if her brain was trying to shield itself from the onslaught. Leila leaned back in her chair just enough that it squeaked, eyes half-focused on a diagram she’d already traced three times without actually absorbing a single thing.
Green eyes rose just beyond her book, to the source of her split focus. She looked over at Jo—half in awe that she was still there, rooted to the couch as if she belonged there, as if there wasn’t anywhere she needed to be. Surely she’d have gotten bored with the sighs and frustrated scribbling, the crinkle of paper as she discarded a chart and started over. But she stayed, and that was the part of the officer she was still trying to parse.
Catching herself staring, she cleared her throat. “Right, I think my head is going to explode if I keep looking at this,” she admitted, exhaling a laugh that didn’t quite make it to relief.
She stood and crossed to the kitchen, rifling through the drawers until she found what she was looking for. Holding up two takeaway menus, she glanced back at Jo. “Pizza or Thai?”
