Welcomed distraction

Hunter's grin spreads, his eyes twinkling. He ambles up behind Alice to look at her cards. "You could learn this game in ten seconds flat." He laughs. "But that doesn't mean it's less competitive with this group."

Leaning down, he slings an arm over one of her shoulders, reaching around with his other hand to point to the cards she was holding. It doesn't take much to explain the game. The rules were simple, and they didn't have any bizarre house rules to contend with. "So if there's a blue seven down there, you could play your blue five, or your red seven, see?"

Kyle eases down in a chair across the table, grabbing some cards to shuffle absentmindedly. He glances to Hunter and Alice, watching them for several moments.

"Hey." Chloe nudges him with her elbow. "You awake?"

"Me? Ha!" Kyle grabs his can of pop, downing another mouthful. "You bet."

Chloe giggles. "Is it just me, or are you kinda wet?"

"And sandy," Kyle clarifies.

"How on earth did you manage that?"

"It's a long story involving a spider and my pantleg."

"I don't think I wanna know."

"Smart woman." Kyle grimaces. "I need a shower."

"So go take one."

"And miss out on all this fun?" Kyle glances around the table, his eyes pausing over Hunter and Alice again. "I'm not gonna be a party pooper." Her looks back to Chloe with a silly grin. "Not to mention, I'm not gonna pass up wooping everybody's butts."

Chloe's jaw drops. "Not mine! You're gonna be on my team, Bud."

"Well alright then." Kyle hands her the cards. "Madam Dealer, you're up." Glancing back across the table, he cups his hands over his mouth and speaks loudly. "If the training session can come to a close, we can actually play this game."

"Be nice," Jordan chides teasingly. "It's not every day that Hunter finds something he's smart enough about to teach someone else."

Hunter looks up and throws both men a smirk. "Thanks, guys." He cocks his head down and around to see Alice's face. "I think we need to knock these brutes down a peg or two, what do you say?"

He straightens and ruffles Alice's hair teasingly. Grabbing the chair next to her, he sits down and tosses Chloe the extra cards to shuffle. "Alright, lets go!"


Scott stirs a little as Sapphire gets up to leave, and curls up a little tighter, his head sinking further into his pillow. A few second later though, a sweet scent wafts through the air, and the corner of his mouth upturns. He didn't have to look. He knew Hope was back. And he knew that she would stay.

Rick sees Hope and gives her a warm smile, knowing why she was there. He respected her for it.

"I set up a cot in the corner," he offers. "It's going to be a long night around here, so if you get tired, feel free."


Reese stands up from his desk, giving Phinox a nod. "I appreciate your role in this, Simon. Be careful and make it back as soon as you can. We'll be waiting, but if we don't hear from you by three, we'll start to move on our own. Good luck."


After having spoken to Reese, then checked in on Wyatt and the monitor to find that all was quiet with Katie, Carson makes his way over to Nate's desk. He hadn't slept yet... he still needed to. But right now, he felt this was more important.

"Nate..." He approaches slowly, trying to keep his head together. The stress was getting to him, and in a bad way. But he had to keep going. "I just spoke with Reese, and he wanted me to let you in on this..."

Taking only a minute or two, Carson explains what Sapphire had discovered. "...so when Ty gets here, Reese wants us to question him and find out who it was that came. Scott's not going to say at this point. I think he's just scared. But we need to know who was able to get in."

Just as he's finished, the door to the main floor opens and Ty steps through, back for the night. Carson lifts his eyebrows. "Speak of the devil. Your call whether we grab him now or later... but the sooner the better."

Though most likely none of this had anything to do with Katie, Carson needed something to keep himself busy, and working on this was enough to keep his mind distracted from his friend that was in so much danger, at the mercy of the Agency.