QT UK - Another tease of Chapter 12

Still waiting on CorruptingPower's final thumbs up on a few details in the 2nd section of this which we'd already discussed...so the usual caveats apply that the odd detail might change, but here's a fairly meaty chunk of what I'm working on.

I think I said previously that I have 9 scenes planned out minimum for this chapter(s) before I'm going to do a public release, and this puts me at 8500 words just from the first 3...so it's going to be pretty hefty by the time it's done.

If I'm Honest is in the works but I'm not happy with everything that I've done so far so it's going back on the chopping block and getting reworked. I'll have what I've set myself as a target to you by the middle of next week though. I'm going to have junked something like 5000 words total between the two stories this month for not being quite as good as I want things to be...and am still going to be giving you almost 15,000 between them. So safe to say the writers block seems to be behind me for now...

******

26th October 2020

Aoife woke to find Hayley watching her, the other woman back in position in the hallway outside the bedroom door. It was light now at least, meaning the jump scare she got came less hard than it would have done otherwise, but not so soft that it didn’t cause the green haired engineer to swear loudly in surprise.  

She had been allowed to sleep, fitfully, eventually, with the door being locked when neither Anas nor his sister-in-law had been able to stay up to watch her any longer. She’d been far too cold, with the renovations of the house not yet extending to the central heating in the back bedroom, leaving her breath clouding the air even as she pulled the blankets she’d been given around her. But that wasn’t the main reason she’d slept like shit. Nor was the fact she couldn’t leave to use the bathroom like she needed. Rather the weird mixture of fear, sadness and guilt was more than enough to keep her from settling and she’d instead ended up getting up several times in the night to test the window, despite knowing that the recently reglazed glass wasn’t suddenly going to yield to her efforts any more than it had done previously. But that wasn’t the point. She just needed a way to try and shift the feelings that sat tangibly on her chest; like some b-movie monster, looming in the dark.

As she stirred, Hayley didn't move. The previous day, the blonde woman had mostly stood outside the room, arms folded, but now she was sitting on the exposed floorboards, back leant against the hallway’s wallpaper. She looked terrible, her breathing shallow and laboured, a faint sheen of perspiration visible on sallow skin, but that’s not what Aoife noticed about her first. Instead, it was the look on her face, and how intense her eyes were, even with the obvious fatigue they were struggling against. 

Aoife had never seen anyone look as angry at the world as Hayley did, cold and quiet as iron. Hard enough that you could forge an edge into it.

For once, finding some snarky comment to snap back with didn’t come easy to Aoife and she stumbled, half awake, over her own discomfort. The last thing she wanted to do was pity the bitch who’d dragged her out here. But it was almost impossible not to, even if it sat alongside her own fear and resentment, and she heard herself simply mumbling with what little derision she could muster.

“Morning.”

The scarf was back, wrapped around Hayley’s face, and there was no acknowledgement of Aoife’s ‘greeting’ as the blonde coughed into the faded wool. The attempt to clear her chest was weak however, little more than a wheeze that rasped and rattled through what energy she seemed to have. It took her several seconds more before she recovered enough to be able to speak.  

“I shouldn’t have let Anas take charge of asking you questions…waste of damned time…”

That felt hard to argue with. They both knew Hayley only had so much of it left. One of them knew it from the broadcast she’d seen at Taymont, and the other from painful personal experience she barely had a name or context for. Just the understanding that what she’d watched happen to her husband was happening to her too. It was one of the things that Aoife had laid there with overnight, trying to remember just how long the footage had implied Hayley would have left if she had DuoHalo. Hours? A day or two at most? She’d never seen anyone actually die. The idea of being there for it terrified her. And she hated that that was the weird, selfish little issue that she kept going back to, the thought demanding she keep vividly picking at it. 

“Yeah, well,” she replied, “who says you’d have done any better?” 

Hayley picked up on the resentment that was still obvious in Aoife’s voice, and responded flatly. “You want me to give you an apology for bringing you here?”

Continuing to rouse fully, Aoife shifted to sit up. She was still dressed in her clothes from the day before, having slept in everything but her coat to keep away the chill, but everything felt grubby and unpleasant now. Her stomach growled, and she realised someone had left a banana for her next to the bed, but she wasn’t exactly in the mood to eat either.

“Well it’s not like I’m going to get one, is it?” 

Hayley gave as much of a shake of her head as her energy allowed. “I don’t want to be doing this to you. But I’m not going to just go quietly. I promised my husband I’d do whatever I could to keep Layla safe.” Layla. At least Aoife finally had a name to put to the hungry crying that kept coming from elsewhere in the house, even if knowing it just made things harder. “And I’m going to rage against whatever this is. Until I can’t anymore. Because if it’s her or you? I pick her every time.” 

Aoife couldn’t work out how much Hayley was trying to reiterate that to herself. It hadn’t escaped her notice that, from the moment they’d arrived, Hayley had refused to step into the same room as her and had done her best to keep using her scarf as some feeble substitute for a mask. At least some part of the other woman’s conscience felt the need to tell herself that she was doing what she could to minimise any harm she was causing. But then that obviously only went so far. And even as the rest of her words faltered the conviction in the blonde woman’s voice for that final statement was unmistakable.

Not that it really mattered at this point. Aoife had seen on the report just how transmissible DuoHalo was and she knew any damage had already been done. She’d had enough time the night before to reason out that she was almost certainly infected now too, no matter what value Hayley put on it. And no matter how well she felt or how abstract the idea remained, sitting just out of reach of what she could bring herself to grasp at. She just worried about how and when the thought of it would come crashing down into her.

It was real enough for her to remain bitter at Hayley, however, and she tried to force herself to be dismissive. “Yeah, save the speeches. You sound like a shitty super villain.” 

Hayley made a face, and left Aoife feeling guiltier than she expected. She hated that. She wanted to stay angry, not feel ashamed. It’s not like she asked for any of this to happen to the other woman, so why was she being made to feel responsible?

“Besides, why do you keep thinking I know whatever it is you’re looking for?”

A weak shudder went through Hayley’s body, and Aoife couldn’t tell if it was a cough or a chuckle. “What choice do I have? I don’t have time on my side anymore. If I don’t let myself believe you do then that’s it. I’d rather let myself think there’s at least something I can still do. You’ve all taken everything else from me.”

The worst part of the answer was that, unlike the day before, it was unguarded enough that Aoife didn’t think Hayley was trying to pick her words to cajole her into opening up. It did at least give her confirmation of what she’d already half puzzled out, as to why the pair of them had switched from damaging Taymont’s satellite dish to their current actions. And she could respect the logic, unable to exactly deny that she was above kidding herself like that either, if it let her cling onto what she needed to keep her going. 

“Besides,” Hayley continued. “I am right. Aren’t I?”

Aoife didn’t bother to make the denial, choosing to glance out through the curtains rather than look at the other woman, in the direction of where the wind was stripping the final browning leaves from the trees in the valley. Hayley chose not to push her further, leaving her to grapple with her own thoughts for several minutes instead, accompanied only by the sound of a broken gutter, trickling, clock-like, onto the window ledge outside. When Aoife looked back to her, the blonde sat with her head hung down, eyes closed, so frighteningly still that it was impossible to tell if she was still breathing or not. 

It was only when Layla started crying, elsewhere in the house, that Hayley moved again, looking up in the direction of the noise. She looked like she was considering trying to move, only to remain where she was when she heard Anas’ footsteps heading to comfort his niece. 

“Do I not deserve to know what it’s going to take to keep her safe,” she asked, exhaustedly, with a look back at Aoife that was as biting as the cold. “What gives any of you the right to do this?”

“I…” 

Aoife hesitated, and Hayley continued, quietly. “Is whatever it is so god damned important? That you have to take that from me too?” 

“I don’t know.” 

The protest Aoife gave was strained. She didn’t have a good answer to any of this, or how she was meant to start finding one. But Hayley took the words as another denial that she knew anything about what was going on, and it caused her anger to show. “Is it just not enough to let people like me die? But you’ve got to make sure we do it blind and scared? Is that it?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Aoife didn’t mean to raise her voice, but the accusations made her feel pushed into a corner and she shoved back. Her frustration spilt over, and her words blurred together the way they always did when she was worked up. “I don’t know why I can’t tell you. Or what I’m even meant to be fucking doing anymore, ok?”

She wanted to hate Hayley, something in no small part she was succeeding at, but she was long past the point where tired pettiness felt particularly good. She’d never been one to let authority tell her what she should do rather than what she thought was right, so why was she holding onto this so tightly?

Probably because she was so scared by everything going on around her that it was natural to simply plant her feet and refuse to move, stubborn in the face of anything resembling sense? Or because she was still second guessing what Ethan would want, and worrying about what it would mean for her imagined sense of him? The first one certainly sounded enough like her to be a large part of the reason. But the second?

She was forgetting that that line of thinking ran more than one way. If he could honestly look her in the eyes and tell her that she needed to let Hayley go through this, was that really the man she wanted him to be either? That she needed to be someone she wasn’t for him. Everything had turned around her so much that she didn’t know. And for every answer she could come up with, it felt like she could find another, just as convincing, that argued the opposite. 

“I just…Ethan said…he was going to…”

As Aoife wavered, Hayley’s expression turned incredulous, as if for the first time she was allowing herself to see just how many conflicted thoughts the engineer had beneath her refusal to talk. And realising just how much of a mess she was pinning her expectations upon. Ethan’s name in particular seemed to make her face curl in disapproval, betraying some sense of how inane she thought Aoife’s reasons must be compared to her own.

“Jesus christ, you can’t seriously be…” she started, aggravation and disbelief barely contained. “What do you mean you don’t know why?”

She prepared to berate Aoife further, but before she could the pair of them were interrupted by Layla’s cries growing louder. The noise pulled Hayley’s attention away and caused her to pause, seemingly left trying to decide if she had the will to continue wasting what energy she had left.  Her daughter won out, and she began to labour to her feet, hands needing to find the doorframe to help lift herself. But even as she did so, her gaze remained judgemental, not willing to leave without a parting shot once she’d caught her breath again. 

“You better work out pretty quickly what you do know. Or you’re going to have to live with the choices you’re making.”

Aoife realised that, as she’d been watching the other woman struggle, she’d been picturing how easy it would have been to push past Hayley in her current state and simply make a run for it. She could take the chance that Anas was too busy with the baby to react quickly enough. She could find her phone, or the car keys or any number of the possible escapes that she’d been running through her head. It wasn’t like her not to find some way to act and impose herself on a situation, and she definitely wasn’t about to let herself be some damsel in distress. But it was only as Hayley had spoken that she realised what was stopping her.

Maybe she did need to stop overthinking things and just act already. But she also knew how wrong walking away would feel. If she was conflicted, it was only because she was fighting back against what her gut was telling her was right. Elsewhere in the house, Layla was still crying, and while she knew the kid was probably just hungry, she could almost start to convince herself there was some sort of dramatic irony to the sound she was missing.

The door began to swing closed, ready to shut Aoife away again if she let it. But she rose from the bed instead, quickly making her way to catch it. Hayley already had the key halfway to the lock, and for a moment, as Aoife’s hand tried to press it open, the blonde weakly pushed back.

“Wait…I’ll talk.”

Hayley stepped away, and the door swung open.

*****

27th October 2020

“Do you want some of this?”

Farah slid a hand between her legs, scooping some of Ethan’s cum out from between her folds. With a smirk, she held it up to show Alex, offering her coated fingers to the other woman. The redhead blushed, still laying nude, propped up on the pillow alongside Ethan. She hadn’t managed to cum yet herself, having only watched, strumming herself, as Farah had ridden their shared partner, and her arousal continued to get the better of her embarrassment for long enough for her to give a small nod of her head in response.

Ethan watched Farah crawl back down the bed towards her, carefully offering her hand to Alex and chuckling as the other woman lapped up the seed with her tongue. Alex’s back arched, and she plucked at a pink nipple, kneading her chest as the vaccine-induced climax shook through her. The redhead had continued to remain outwardly confident in her own heterosexuality since Ethan had met her, and had avoided the subtle invitations to experiment with Farah and Evie she’d been given by the pair. However that apparently didn’t extend to licking orgasms second hand off another girl's fingers, no more than it did to masturbating as she watched Ethan’s cock thrusting into them.

For a second, as Alex came down and her eyes fluttered back open, it looked as if Farah might attempt to steal a kiss from her, but the cricketer hesitated just long enough for her self awareness to return. Instead, she opted for giving Alex a knowing smile, before slipping from the bed.

“Do you mind if I use your shower,” she asked Ethan casually, already beginning to make her way in the direction of the en-suite. “I’ve already interrupted enough of your morning together.” 

Even though he’d just come, it was hard not to be distracted by the sight of Farah’s ass as she walked away. “It’s not interrupting if you need me you know?”

Farah paused at the doorway to the bathroom, stretching her freshly healing arm. “I’m pretty sure it still is. But thank you.” There was a brief smirk as she caught Alex looking at her too, and drew out the motion, lingering in the attention she was receiving, before blowing the redhead a kiss. “And thank you for the audience.”

Realising how intently she’d been looking, Alex blushed again, failing to find a sarcastic quip like she normally would before Farah disappeared.

Ethan had spent the night back in his old, standard, hotel room rather than the honeymoon suite he’d been sharing with his partners. Still not even 48 hours since Aoife had last been seen on site, he’d quietly decided he needed some time to himself. But he should have realised that with his team growing, space to think was something which was going to quickly start coming at a premium.

As it was, he was glad that it was Alex that had been the first one to come looking for him. She’d barely had any time to get her head around what had happened to her either, and the imposition of another crisis on top of things had robbed her of some of the care she was badly due. She hadn’t wanted to talk, not really, but she hadn’t wanted to be alone in the room that had been allocated to her, near to Rhys’ team, either. And so they’d ended up simply sleeping next to each other, with Alex using a borrowed t-shirt as nightwear, each oddly soothed by the other’s presence. Something that lasted until Farah’s interjection the next morning.

Farah had lasted longer than Evie, but it still hadn’t even been five full days before the serum had started to itch its way through her libido, unable to be entirely relieved by the sapphic hook ups with her new teammates. The knock at Ethan’s door had come at exactly 8am, implying Farah had forced herself to wait until a time that wasn’t inconveniently early, apologetic as she’d mumbled her way through an embarrassed explanation, of the way she was passing the point of distraction with how much her body was starting to crave him. Evie had at some point made a suggestion that Gemivax would run ‘hottest’ in the first few weeks after administration before gradually easing up, but she hadn’t sounded particularly emphatic either. Not that Ethan had been able to muster much in the way of reluctance with Farah in front of him. And it was as if his own arousal had responded in kind to her, a brief shroud that left other concerns just hazy enough to exist alongside his urge to make her feel better.

They’d ended up fucking with Farah on top, with it unclear exactly how much the disinhibition from the vaccine was playing into her desire to show herself off as she rode him, and how much was simply just her natural exhibitionist streak. What did seem more certain was that without the serum’s help it was unlikely that Alex would have been quite so open to staying to watch in the way she did. She hadn’t felt comfortable enough to participate directly, but her clothing hadn’t lasted long either, fucking herself with her fingers as Farah had leant back to give the best possible view of the way Ethan slid inside her with each roll of her hips.

However, as the moment passed, and the sounds of the shower drifted with steam through the half-open bathroom door, he felt the stress and worry creeping back through him. No matter how much Farah’s energy might be able to pick him (and the others) up, for Ethan it was only ever going to be a temporary reprieve until he knew Aoife was ok. Something that left him feeling stuck in limbo, phantom like, fighting to affect the course of things around him in a tangible way rather than watching it all pass right through him.

Special Branch were still swarming around the place, their tones accusatory and questions pointed, suffocating the Hall under a blanket of enforced reassurance. He’d spent much of the previous day answering the questions of one of the female detectives, a brunette called Collingwood, who while not outright saying that they’d put special attention on his interactions with Aoife, did little to stop him feeling like any word he said might be used against him. She at least hadn’t openly judged the way he was also obsessively filling his spare moments by continuing to assess the CCTV footage he’d been given access to. Instead, she’d simply asked him to provide her with anything he thought was relevant, even seeming impressed when he’d produced a small list of licence plates that he’d identified as being in the area so far.

“Pity she’s so shy,” Alex said, her voice husky as she rolled onto her side to face him. The affectionate sarcasm came just in time to stop him from slipping into introspection, and he wondered if she had been able to tell he was at risk of getting caught up in his own head.

“Farah? Yeah, she’s a total introvert.” He still wasn’t quite sure how intimate Alex wanted him to be with her, another thing to second guess, but as he chanced reaching over and caressing her face, she smiled and let him. “Sorry if that was an awkward position to put you in.”

Alex responded by leaning in and kissing him, gently, although he was pretty sure it was at least partly to shut him up. 

“I’m a big girl. I can tell you when I’m uncomfortable.”

“Ok. Fair.” He knew she was right, and that he was worrying too much. If the circumstances were different he might have found it easier not to.  “Got any plans for after breakfast?”

It was Alex’s turn to suddenly seem thoughtful. She’d been brought onto Project Upstart as a programmer and web engineer to help build an online platform for Gemivax and Averna to go alongside the public rollout, but had quickly been insistent that Nia’s plans weren’t ambitious enough for the timeframe she was being given. It was odd for anyone to say Nia lacked vision, but Alex had been insistent that if they just wanted her to build a website with a handful of videos and corporate talking points on, they might as well just use Squarespace.

“I’ve been trying to do some digging into how Delphi’s user credentials are set up. The IDs are all highly anonymised but have some really basic information available with an API so the government can track demographic uptake, including whether an ID is vaccinated or not. If I can get their engineers to play nice then it would be fairly trivial to use those IDs on a less privileged site and set up a web portal with content for people who’ve been vaccinated. Set it up with things like reporting for adverse reactions or give support information. And give us somewhere to keep putting out media that isn’t being used for the initial release. You could make all those hours of interviews you’ve got exclusive for people who’ve been vaccinated for instance.”

It was still an adjustment for Ethan whenever he was made to stop and appreciate just how dynamic and talented the women he was paired with were. And Alex spoke with a casual enthusiasm it was hard not to believe in, or smile along with. But it wasn’t the details of what she was proposing that caught his attention first.

“I get the feeling there’s an ulterior motive for wanting to poke at Delphi’s systems here.”

Alex’s response was the driest he’d heard from her yet. “No, what could possibly have given you that idea”

Nia had been given a lot of promises so far, by Delphi’s contractor, her fellow board members at Averna, and the various relevant arms of the government about what was going to be done. But while there were investigations being conducted, forensic IT specialists apparently brought in to check out what they were euphemistically calling Alex’s ‘misplacement,’ no one had been able to offer her anything concrete. He didn’t blame her for wanting to take things into her own hands with everything that was going on, but he also worried about her putting herself back in a position where she could get hurt or obsessive.

“I don’t suppose you’re going to listen to me telling you to be careful?”

Alex made a theatrical show of considering it, tapping a finger to her chin. “Listen, maybe? But I’m still going to do it. Not least because it’s a good idea.”

He gave her another small kiss, wanting to let her know she had his support despite the note of caution. “Hard to argue with that. What’s Nia said?”

“I’ve not told her yet. I thought maybe once things feel less tense you could help me with a pitch for her. We could package up some content that wouldn’t get used otherwise and let me show her what I’m picturing.”

Things being less tense still felt very far away to Ethan, still feeling like he was trying to keep putting one foot in front of another on a path it was hard to see. And Lukas was still taking a lot of the slack of his existing workload as he did so. But he wasn’t about to turn down Alex either and he summoned up some optimism for her, even if the weak smile he gave her probably betrayed his misgivings. “Sure…when things are less insane, I promise. Just, give me a few days for all this stuff with Aoife to work itself out.”

Alex’s hand brushed reassuringly against his arm. “It’s ok. I get it.” He could feel the blue of her eyes resting on him softly for a moment before she smiled. “You’re doing that cute little frown again”

He gave a short laugh, not quite sure if he really did pull a face when he was thinking too much, or if his partners had just taken to teasing him. “That’s not a thing.”

“It’s definitely a thing.” The redhead grinned at him, before forcing herself to sit up, trying not to allow herself to get caught up in how easy it would have felt to stay lying there on the bed together. The movement caused what little of the sheets were still covering her to fall aside, the full heft of her chest left on show along with the sheen that remained between her thighs. “What about you,” she asked. “Plans for the day?” 

Ethan sighed. He knew she was trying to help keep his head on things he could control, but it just drew him further back towards reality. 

“I’m meant to be having a meeting with producers from CBS and ARD that I set up last week,” he replied, name checking the equivalent US and German broadcasters. “We’re trying to get an understanding set up to share news and footage directly, since governments are naturally twitchy and a lot of the news agencies like Reuters are really struggling to give anyone much at the moment. I wanted to make sure we’re including segments on what the rest of the world’s doing to make it seem like a real international pushback against the virus.”

The meeting had been arranged days earlier, back when it was expected that things with Jess and Alex would be problem free and everyone would be able to give it the attention it demanded. What  tentative contacts Ethan had had with the other broadcasters had been cagey so far at best, filtered through intelligence agencies and layers of government approvals, with the scheduled conference call meant to be the first real opportunity they’d have to actually start sharing. Like the UK, he knew the Germans had their own serum, and the impression he got was that they had to be ahead of the game in their rollout, based on how much less willing they were to allow the US authorities to dictate terms to them.

He’d also had tentative interest from NHK in Japan and RAI in Italy among others, but the biggest omission so far in wanting to be involved were the French. He’d learnt from Nia that they had their own vaccine programme, a joint venture with the Swiss and the corporation Novartis, tapping into the large pharma sector that existed in Zurich. But the whispers she’d heard off the record were that their efforts had been beset by significant side effects, and Evie was convinced that the French government had begun approaching other countries to attempt to purchase doses to make up the shortfall.

The other main subject of rumours was the supposed collaboration between several of the Nordic and Baltic countries, who were said to be pushing ahead with distribution of their vaccine despite the side effects. The stories he’d heard talked about increased territorialism from women towards anyone not in their team, along with gains in height and muscle mass that went beyond the simple regenerations other countries were experiencing. Normally he would have decided any so-called ‘Valkyrie Vaccine’ was just people getting deliberately over-imaginative; but then was it really that much more unbelievable than what he was already living?

“I’d rather not be doing it today honestly,” Ethan continued, already weary at the idea of having to give it focus he’d much rather was elsewhere. “But it can’t be rescheduled and if I step back then it means letting Rhys handle it.”  

At the mention of his name, Alex immediately made a face.

“Yeah, exactly. He could do it, but that doesn’t mean I want him to.”

Rhys had, in fairness, been a strong voice in favour of getting the meeting organised. It was hard not to see his argument that they should be framing Gemivax as a British success story given the UK was one of the only countries to have its own working vaccine programme. The slight nationalistic slant wasn’t something Ethan could say he was entirely comfortable with, but Rhys was also probably right in arguing that it would help uptake in certain demographics. The issue however was with how difficult it was to deal with the other man since getting back from Nottingham, his pride and principles both wounded enough that he’d settled for sniping and posturing to try and reassert his ego. He’d been outwardly consolatory to Ethan, probably due to wanting to maintain his own self image as someone decent, but the petty bullshit was more than the younger man really wanted to handle. And that was before even touching on things with Aoife.

Nia had taken pains to assure him that telling Special Branch they were preparing Aoife to join Team Barclay was just a necessary story to avoid too much scrutiny, one they’d revise when she was safe, but it made even being in the same room as Rhys an uncomfortable reminder and pushed him closer to doing or saying something rash.

“Besides,” Ethan added, not wanting to get stuck thinking about Rhys. “It would be nice to compare notes on how the different vaccines work, see if what they’re saying about them all having different quirks is true.”

That caught Alex’s curiosity. “Such as?”

“Such as the US version having slightly higher rates of regenerations, or how Gemivax supposedly lowers inhibitions far more than the others.” He looked towards the bathroom, and the sound of Farah humming to herself as she showered. “She’s about a week away from openly getting herself off in the studio at her current rate,” he joked. “And Evie’s not much better. It’d be nice to know if that’s something everyone’s dealing with or if it’s just us.”

She looked thoughtful, as if weighing up how much of an impact it was already having on her, and her gaze also wandered in Farah’s direction.

“Plus I want to ask if anyone knows if the rumours about the Nordics are true.”

Alex laughed, “so that’s what does it for you? Got it.”

“No. But if Evie’s going to tell me I should be glad I’m not there, whenever I talk about side effects here, I want to at least get it corroborated.”

She climbed off the bed while Ethan spoke, nakedly making her way over to where her phone sat on the hotel room’s desk, next to a pile of her neatly folded clothes from the day before, and Ethan’s open laptop. He’d woken early, well before Farah had arrived, and not wanting to disturb the then sleeping Alex, had sat at the desk to pour over more grainy footage of cars driving past nearby fields and hedgerows. As Alex reached for her phone, ready to check her own messages, she stopped, regarding the laptop screen and the folder full of CCTV files displayed there.

“So, what you’re actually planning to do today is to torture yourself with this for as long as you can, then show up stressed and unprepared to the meeting, isn’t it?” For a moment Ethan couldn’t tell if it was an accusation, before realising her body language and tone were nothing but sympathetic. “Am I warm?”

“That…probably sounds about right, honestly,” he confessed, feeling like she probably should be judging him for it, even if she wasn’t. 

“Have you worked out how to tell Nia you want her on the team yet?”

Alex’s question was blunt enough that Ethan wasn’t sure how to respond, left trying to deny that it was something he’d lain awake picturing, trying to visualise how this might all work out. 

“I’m not going to…” he started to respond, but she saw through his bullshit, dryly stopping him from finishing.

“Riiiight, of course you’re not.” Alex circled back across the room towards him. “Because she’s really that stupid. I’ve never even met the legendary Aoife Ryan and even I can tell how you feel. Nia’s going to be waiting for you to say something when they find her you know?”

Ethan wanted to protest, not least at the fact that any of that hinged on the idea that she was out there, safe. But it was something he wasn’t willing to voice due to how sick it made his stomach to even consider otherwise. Alex, however, already seemed to have an uncanny ability to tell what he was thinking by looking at him.

“When they find her,” she repeated, with emphasis. She paused at the bedside, looking at him before bending to place her lips on his forehead. “There’s the frown again.”

Knuckles rapped, firmly, on the door to the bedroom, interrupting them both, before being followed by the broad Yorkshire accent of Det. Cons. Beth Collingwood.

“Ethan? Do you have a moment for me please.”

The detective’s tone was as brusque as always, with a flattened affect that did its best to draw you into filling the silences for her. It didn’t hint at what she wanted, and he felt his heart flip at all the possible outcomes that might be waiting with her on the other side. He grabbed one of the Taymont monogrammed dressing gowns, and hurried to answer, doing his best to only crack the door and preserve Alex’s modesty.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, tying the belt to his robe, “I’ve got company.”

Collingwood glanced past him only for a moment, before fixing him with her attention. “It’s fine, I'd be more surprised if you weren’t with one of your Team.” She was a little older than Ethan, with an appearance that screamed unassuming professionalism. From the unfussy cut of her shoulder length hair to the drab grey of her coat, hung open over a singular pop of colour from a rust coloured jumper, hands firmly out of view in the pockets. 

She stood there sternly studying him, as if there was something to see that he wasn’t aware of, before speaking again. “I’ve had some officers asking for any footage from private cameras nearby and looking to see if they could spot any of the vehicles from your list on them.”

Not for the first time in his dealings with Collingwood she gave a pause, just long enough for him to be unsure as to whether she was expecting him to reply, before she pulled a freshly printed photo from her pocket, passing it to him.

“They came up with this overnight, from the petrol station in Taymont Village two days ago. It’s the best frame they could find, but the 4x4 there is one of the ones from the list you gave me.”

The fuzzy security camera shot mostly took in the forecourt of a petrol station which Ethan knew vaguely was just outside the nearby village, with only a thin strip of the passing road visible at the top of the image. The shape of an ageing Land Rover, already grainy from magnification and with its edges blurry from motion could still just be made out as it half-disappeared from the frame. What immediately jumped out at Ethan however, was the definite flash of long green hair that could be seen through the rear window, belonging to someone on the back seat.

“I wasn’t expecting anything to come from what you gave me, but I’ve been wrong before. Does that look like it could be her?”

The picture trembled in front of him, and Ethan realised his hand was shaking, knowing in his gut that it was Aoife he was looking at. Carefully, he passed the photo back to Collingwood, doing his best to try and grab hold of the anarchic mess of emotions that had just burst out in different directions. 

“Yeah, I think it might be…”