Come back to us

Scott returns Sapphire's hug and manages to smile at her as she pulls away. "I'm doing alright." He gives a little shrug to show that there were still plenty of things he was working through, but he was here. His eyes were tired... his frame still thin. But he was looking a little healthier than a couple months ago, and he seemed to have gained at least a little more peace.

He had talked with Hope a long time last night about how he'd been during his house arrest... the things he'd thought of... how Gunner had helped him... and how he wanted to started again. He wanted to find strength again and he knew it wouldn't come overnight but... he was finally ready.

"I'm, um... trying to rebuild some of my photo albums since I don't have all of them anymore," he mentions to his sister. "Thought maybe sometime I could shoot some new pictures of you... if you'd let me."


Reese sits quietly, listening to Katie speak. He doesn't seem to have known this was coming, yet he doesn't seem surprised either. Slowly, he nods. He could be rough on his agents... he could throw orders around like the best of them, and push his agents to their limits. But in the end, he cared about everyone here like his family, and there were even a special few who had somehow made it to the softer spots in his heart.

"Okay." He calmly gives his approval. "And I hope you will take advantage of using some of your sick leave for this." A glint in his eyes reveals that he's allowing her to stretch the rules for this. "I don't remember many times where you've been away that it hasn't been connected to an Elite incident, and seeing as though you were out of commission for quite a while a couple times... I think you'll find you have more sick leave than you think."

A gentle smile reveals that he cares. "Come back to us, Katie. We'll be waiting for you."


"Jason!"

Jason groans and pulls his pillow over his head. He didn't know why his friend was here, but he didn't care right now. "Go away," he mumbles.

"Not on your life. Come on, get up."

Jason only growls.

"Alright. You asked for it." Con comes all the way into Jason's bedroom and grabs a hold of the bed's mattress. It takes little effort for him to lift it up and dump Jason onto the floor.

"Conrad!" Jason gets himself untangled from his bedsheets and glares up at him. "What is your problem?!"

"Me?" Con looks innocent. "You're the one that's sleeping the day away. I came to tell you to get your hind end in to work instead of feeling sorry for yourself all day."

"Maybe I'm sick."

"Sick in the head." Con rips the sheet away from him. "Good thing I came too. Trooper had to go out so bad he was just about ready to go through a window." He sets his hands on his hips and waits, but Jason doesn't move. "Look, it's no secret what's been happening the last few days. I may be half deaf, but I do still hear things. And the last thing you need is to mope around alone. So come on. You and I need to go check out a club down on Fresno Ave and see if someone Brown's been tracking is there. Reese wants us on it."


Gunner spins his rootbeer float around on the counter of the ice cream shop, his eyes constantly bouncing around the room, back to his desert, to the door, then around once again. One leg bounces without him realizing it.

"Can I get you anything else?" a waitress inquires sweetly. "Up for a sundae after that?"

Gunner's eyes pause to rest on her own. "I don't like ice cream."

The young woman raises her eyebrows. "You're... in an ice cream shop... eating a float."

Gunner remains expressionless, his voice monotone. "For the rootbeer."

The waitress eyes him for a moment before turning around and giving one of her other waitress friends a look that said she thought this guy was a few french fries short of a happy meal.

Only when she's turned does the corner of Gunner's mouth twitch. He takes another sip of his float and looks down to spy a newspaper on the counter. Pulling it towards himself, he figures it might occupy his mind for a while. If he was going to be a fish out of water, he might as well try to grow legs like everyone else around here. Unfortunately, he'd never gotten the hang of fitting in... not that he could remember anyway.