37. April 10th

APRIL 10TH

Waters

In the darkof his office, he sat staring out the windows to the buildings across the way, but he wasn't seeing anything. All his brain could see was Kubrick as he slunk out of her bed and left without saying goodbye. Or telling her, "I love you."

It's not like you had a choice. And telling her that would have made it worse.

His watch dinged with a text notification. Four a.m. He'd been sitting here for hours, mentally paralyzed. Reaching for his phone, he swiped the screen, entered his passcode, and pulled up the text. It was a photo of Kubrick leaning her head against the War Room doors. He could read the pain in her posture.

She'll get over you.

Three bubbles started popping up, but after a minute, they disappeared and never returned. Apparently, Demon thought better of whatever he was going to say.

She deserves better than you.

When they'd arrived back at Tribe, Waters didn't even look at anyone. He had just headed straight back to his office. When Midas tried to call out a question, he heard a whispered, "Leave it," from TB. He didn't need to see TB to know that he was probably flashing a warning with his eyes as he continued down the opposite hall to where they would strip down and stow their gear.

Once inside his office, he hadn't even bothered to turn on the lights. He threw his gear in the corner, then threw himself into his desk chair, and swiveled around to look out the windows. He'd been sitting there for hours.

His watch beeped, this time with a call notification.

Great. I so do not want to deal with this right now.

Knowing it was useless to pretend he didn't hear it or that he wasn't here still, Waters swore under his breath and booted up his computer. After running through the security protocols, he clicked the audio chat feed open that connected him with his boss.

"Yeah?"

"Where the fuck is Demon?"

"Don't have a shit hemorrhage. Demon's with Kubrick."

"We need him here."

"You never specified you wanted everyone here," Waters explained. "You ordered me here. So, I'm here. But I need him there, and right now that trumps whatever you fucking want, so that's the trade-off. Let it go." The last three words were quiet and put an end to any further discussion. It was deathly silent on the other end of the link. "If that's all, I'm really tired, and I'm—"

"No, that's not all, fuckwitch," God grumbled. Waters couldn't help the sad smile at the invective. Kubrick had infected them all with her creative swear words. "Of all of you goons, I thought you were the smart one."

"Well, I've proven you wrong on that one. Twice now. Should I make sure my beneficiaries are up to date? Oh, wait. Dead men don't have any."

"This is part of why I originally didn't want you all attaching yourself to people. It gets messy. It creates problems. I don't like messy or problems."

"I'm sure you're safe from a bad Yelp review. Don't worry."

"Save me from idiots," God mumbled. "I have no words for this situation."

"And yet you keep talking."

There was muttering on the other end of the phone. Normally, that would have amused Waters, but now all he wanted to do was get off this call and drink until he forgot his own name. Not that he would, but that's what he wanted. And he also knew it wouldn't work. He might forget his own name but nothing else.

"Sarah is still fucking you over, even now, two years later."

"She has nothing to do with this."

"She has everything to do with it, Taylor. Don't forget. I know you. I know what you're thinking before you do. She's always been a part of the equation. She always will be. Your body is covered with that equation. It's time to let that shit go."

"Your rule was in place long before Sarah."

"I'm not talking about my goddamned rule!" There was a pause. God's voice came back calmer and quieter. "I'm talking about leaving people vulnerable. You're doing it again, just in a different way."

"I'm dead, right? I don't exist; therefore, I'm not vulnerable. Demon's there protecting her to keep her from being vulnerable. We can work without him right now. One more body won't make a difference. There was no way in hell I was leaving her there unprotected from dickwad. End. Of. Story." There was silence. "Look, this conversation will just go in circles and piss us both off. Can we please focus on the bigger picture, which is Ka-Bar?"

"We are not done with this conversation by a long shot."

Yes, we are most certainly done, but that's beside the point.

Waters ignored him. "I'll talk to Steel. We move forward from there. I want to be in Cairo, or wherever we need to be, by the end of next week at the absolute latest and get this shit done and off of our books. Then it won't matter anymore, and things will go back to normal."

There was a snort on the other end of the link. "They'll never be normal again." Then, there was a click, and the link was severed.