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“Maybe.” It was all the hope she allowed herself.

Teddi nudged her knee, dipping her chin to catch her eye. “You remember when we took your shitty car down to Inlet Bay to camp that summer?”

She smiled at the resurrection of the memory. “God, how could I ever forget.”

“We got that flat tire before we even left Fort Collins, which was the first sign we never should have gone. Then we got there and they’d double-booked our camping spot so we had to squeeze in at the edge of the reservoir and we slept outside.” Vera shook her head as Teddi snickered, squeezing her fingers. “Oh my god, and then you ended up falling in the water when you tried to go pee in the middle of the night and you woke everyone up when you screamed? I’ll never forget the look on your face.”

Teddi laughed so hard she rolled forward, causing a bloom of warmth in Vera’s chest. She missed her laugh. The way she did it was so carefree, squeezing her eyes shut when something got her good. Vera took it in like a forgotten song.

“To be fair, that water was freezing and I only had cotton shorts and a tank top on,” She argued half-heartedly as Teddi wiped her eyes.

“I seem to recall warming you up pretty easily after that.”

Something pinched her heart, undeniably sweet as it ached. “Yeah, you were always good at taking care of me.”

Teddi’s gaze traced her face as her laughter gave way to honesty. “I always liked to.”

Vera pulled her hands back, putting the distance between them that she needed. That time of their lives was over and skipping down memory lane wasn’t going to make it any easier to deal with when she went back to D.C..

Teddi’s face fell before recovering quickly with a soft smile.

“It’s been a long day and tomorrow is only going to be worse,” Vera said as she moved to take off her boots. Teddi let it go without a fight.

In silence they both prepared for bed, using the bathroom in shifts, the edges of their days-long tension now softening. They’d been friends once. Before the passion between them nearly burned them alive, they were good to one another. Maybe, she dared to think, they could be friends again. She needed a friend in her corner.

Chapter 15

Vera

Vera came out of the bathroom dressed in shorts and a t-shirt to find Teddi turning on a police scanner. The frequency crackled and then fell into silence.

“J let us use her newest model.” She explained excitedly, the black box shining in the yellow desk light as if showing itself off.

“Lucky. Civilians always get the good stuff, we have to wait forever for them to decide our gear is old enough to change out.” She fluffed her pillow before laying back, the angle all wrong with lumpy excess. “When do you think was the last time this place had guests?” She tried folding it in half.

Teddi laughed quietly, a husky sound that pulled up the edges of Vera’s lips. “I’d guess decades, not including the poor unfortunate souls that have gotten lost and tumbled into the upside-down that is Sylen.

“Poor suckers.” She replied as she stared at the same popcorn ceiling Al had in the office. Definitely asbestos. Nothing she hadn’t slept under before, unfortunately.

An assignment she did a few years back had her on a cot in an abandoned hotel-turned-homeless-encampment for weeks. They hadn’t gotten the evidence they needed but she’d come away with a new respect for clean sheets and a lack of mildew.

“Hey, Vera?” Teddi stopped fiddling with the box and shut off the desk lamp. She lay tucked beneath the covers, her eyes on the same outdated ceiling. Only a sliver of moonlight streamed between the thin curtains now, the room drenched in the dark.

“Yeah?"

“Thank you for trusting me.”

The words gutted her, leaking out a feeling she tucked away since her nightmare began. Hope.

All she could manage was a hum of acknowledgment as she closed her eyes and rolled away.

Teddi was asleep for three hours before Vera’s phone vibrated.

Unlocking it, she dimmed the screen before reading.

An unknown number with a Wyoming area code.

Vera sat up. Checking to make sure Teddi was still asleep, she typed out a reply.