Bad day

Rocky almost cringes as Jess withdraws, wishing there were some way he could just take all this pain away from her. He hated her being scared of him too. Perhaps that's what hurt the most.

"It's okay, Jess," he soothes. "You're okay now. He's gone... no one is going to hurt you."

Seeing her finally move a bit closer to him, he shifts his weight to sit down next to her against the wall. "Come here," he offers gently. "I promise nothing's going to happen to you." God, please help her trust me.

Noticing her shiver, he takes off his leather jacket and moves to put it around her shoulders, drawing her close at the same time until she's resting against him.

"You're going to be just fine." Rocky closes his eyes. Why... why the suffering? Please send Your peace.


Reese races after Peter, wishing he could fire a shot, but he couldn't - not in a residential area where he couldn't see everyone. He flies through the open window headfirst, landing in the grass to do a summersault back to his feet. Sprinting behind Peter, he's just not fast enough though. Making it to the parking space just as the jeep peels out, he stops and catches his breath. It wasn't worth a car chase. Not in the dark.

Holstering his gun, he slowly walks back towards the apartment, grabbing his phone at the same time. "Angelica? He was here. So was another guy - apparently a friend of Jess'. She got roughed up, but I don't think Peter got as far as last time. At least it didn't look like it. I'm heading back in now."

Getting back inside by way of the door, he sees Rocky and Jess still huddled on the floor, and it almost breaks his heart. "I'm not calling anyone else in," he tells Angelica quietly. "She's too shook up. I'll try to get her to come down to TJY though so we can at least get an official statement."

Rocky hears Reese's last statement and leans his head down closer to Jess. "Can you come with me?" he prompts softly. "I promise we'll be safe the whole way."

Seeing the other man's genuine gentleness, if Reese had any doubt of Rocky's intentions or truthfulness of being a friend, it dispersed.


There's a staleness to the morning air. The night had been quiet and long. The team had decided the night before that they would go back in to the Agency site today, and no matter how many people, they would try to get in. With no word on Angel, they couldn't waste anymore time.

Ryder is the first up, awake long before the others. Getting a cup of coffee, he wanders in his bare feet out to the back porch and just stands in the gray light, looking out.

Carson is soon to find him and ambles out onto the porch to join him, remaining quiet.

"We can't go in today," Ryder mentions calmly.

Carson turns to him quickly. "What?"

Ryder continues to look out into the trees, taking a sip of coffee. "We can't go in today," he repeats.

"Why not? We decided we would."

"We just can't."

Carson crosses his arms. "Well we are. We can't wait."

"It's not a good day."

"How do you know that?"

"I just know."

"That's not good enough." Carson shakes his head. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but it's not going to work."

Ryder still doesn't look at him. "I'm not playing games. Today is a bad day."

"Have you been in touch with your contact to know this?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"You wouldn't understand."

Carson shakes his head, frustrated. "Keep your craziness to yourself, Ryder. We're going in whether you like it or not." Spinning around, he heads back inside.

Left alone again, Ryder sets his coffee mug down on the railing, still staring in the same direction. His jaw was tight, the look in his eye one of weariness of someone with little sleep.