Page 41 of A Quiet Man

Still no weirdness from Justin. This was amazing.He really has changed.

The clattering, chair scraping, and loud talking were almost deafening. But in the midst of chaos, Tomas saw a surprising amount of helping: passing food, dishing for the younger kids, like a hurried assembly line of food. Clearly, there were manners at work here, even if they were more wolfish than most.

Tomas glanced down in time to see Riley lavishly loading his plate for him. "Riles, I can't eat that much."

"Just try. You're not working today." He gave Tomas a pat on the back and pushed a fork into his hand. "You know I worry when you don't eat."

Tomas groaned inwardly but couldn't help smiling a little too. He couldn't really dislike Riley's protective instinct, even if it got out of hand sometimes.

The kid next to Tomas — ah, it was Carson! — looked at Tomas's plate wistfully.

"Here," Tomas said, and gave him half of the enormous pile of meat.

Carson's smile was sheepish but grateful as he dug in.

"How's school?" asked Tomas, who had to raise his voice to be heard in the noisy kitchen. Even though he could ask that later because he was here partly to help with homework, it seemed polite to say something now.

Carson shrugged but didn't speak. He was eating too fast and would probably have choked himself on ham if he'd tried. Tomas gave up the attempt at conversation and turned back to Riley in time to see him adding a sweet potato to Tomas's plate.

"Riley," he protested.

"Eat something, Tommy."

Tomas glanced again at Auden to make sure he was okay. He looked happy over there, with the little kids he was listening to and eating with, then he shrugged, gave in, and started eating.

#

"Cody? Hey, buddy?"

Tomas found himself standing up and raising a hand to try to catch the fox shifter's gaze. They were at work, just another normal day, or so he'd thought. Now Cody was walking past quickly, his expression an odd mixture of blankness and distress and his gaze far away. His skin seemed oddly gray, and Tomas was too unnerved for him to worry whether he was attracting anyone else's attention.

Everyone else moved out of the fox shifter's path as if he was carrying something communicable and deadly. Tomas stepped into his path and blocked his way. "Cody?" he asked, lowering his voice a little. "Are you okay, man?"

Up close, he saw the fox shifter was trembling. It pissed him off and freaked him out in equal measures. "Did something happen?"

The fox shifter leaned in to him slightly, as if for support. Tomas threw caution to the wind and put an arm around him, then led him the rest of the way out of the squad room like a loyal wingman for a bro who'd had too much to drink. But neither he nor Cody qualified even remotely as a bro.

It was a cold day, but he knew Cody wouldn't mind the cold — one more gust of wintertime, interrupting the arrival of spring weather — so he took him right outside where they could talk. It was windy, and he was shivering; Tomas decided just in case he was cold, it would be best to look after him. He slid off his jacket and wrapped it around Cody.

Cody closed his eyes for a moment, hugging the jacket around him, trying to steady himself. "Thanks," he managed. He was still looking awfully gray.

"You're not going to faint on me, are you?"

Cody shook his head, trying to smile. He didn't manage it very well.

Tomas kneaded his shoulder. "Something happened, huh? You want to tell me? Or you need to go home?"

Cody's gaze looked glazed and far away for a moment as he struggled to find words. "I can't do that, can I?" He looked at Tomas for help.

"Yeah, of course you can leave for the day. Don't even worry about it."

"But the captain—"

"I'll talk to him, believe me. Don't worry. You want a ride home? You're in no condition to drive."

Cody seemed to be struggling to focus on that, as if it was a challenging decision and he couldn't quite figure it out. Finally, he mumbled, "My — my car. I can't leave it here."

Just then, Riley burst out the exit, heading straight for them, a look of compassion and concern on his face. He was also walking with his toughest strut, the one he seemed unaware of having at all and only used when he was worried about someone and was ready to defend them. It made him look like a real badass.