The cup sat on his desk, in front of a chair meant to be filled by her, and he...he had his hands on her file among other things. In truth, he was using the few spare minutes to catch up on some emails. Had he mentioned how boring this was? For the time being, the detective sighed, frowning at the screen until at last...there was that knock.

"Do come in."

Glancing up, Jace had half a mind to stand up to welcome the other in, hands skimming down his crinkly uniform shirt. "Morning, miss Parker. Glad you made it."

A lot had happened in the past 48 hours. Too much for Alex to even begin processing. It was still difficult to believe they had made it out alive and relatively unharmed after their trip to the ranch, much less that Andy was alive. Renee had confirmed that his ribs weren’t broken, only badly bruised, and had deemed the stitches on his chest done at the ranch good enough to keep. No use wasting their already dwindling medical supplies. The only thing he could do was get fresh reusable bandages for his chest every so often and wait. There was no reason to keep him in the infirmary, though part of him was unsure if he should use his injuries as an excuse to stay with Andy. The thought of sleeping in his own bed was too tempting, however. The three of them had been able to talk for a while, and each sibling needed their own time alone to process everything. As much as Alex loved his siblings, he needed some time away from his family for a bit.

After taking a shower and changing into blessedly fresh clothes, Alex went downstairs to look for Cass after he heard nothing from her bedroom. He heard her before he saw her. Peeking into the living room, he sighed as he saw his sister’s crumpled form tucked into Sol’s as her muffled cries carried throughout the room. Definitely not something to interrupt. He backed away from the living room and wrote a note that he was going to Maya’s for a bit and not to worry about him. While he wanted some time away from the house, he also didn’t want to be alone, and Maya had been his closest friend so far in Redwood. They both understood what it was like being brand new in town and feeling the need to be closed-off due to heartbreak. He just needed to be with someone who wasn’t going through life-altering event after life-altering event. 

The sun was beginning to set as he walked to Maya’s home, trying to begin to process everything that had happened. It wasn’t until he arrived at her door that a pit of anxiety formed in his stomach. Perhaps he shouldn’t have come. It was late, after all, and it wasn’t like she had invited him. He could tell her that he was back in one piece, and let her decide to let him in or not. There. Maybe that would make him less pathetic.

Knocking on the door, he waited for her to open it. Finally the door opened. Alex couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was every time he saw her. “Hey,” he greeted softly. “I just, uh, wanted to tell you that we made it back.”

@mayaxtaylor​

The clothing styles here were something that Ryu didn’t think he was ever going to get used to. He hadn’t seen anything like it back in Japan, or even at sea or in Britain. It was bizarre and fascinating, and, creepy as it was, he found himself staring down random strangers as they passed, though when they turned his way he conspicuously forced his eyes to look the other way. He didn’t think that was working very well.