Gabriella woke up at seven the next morning. When she went out to shower, Amelia was alone in the living room, ignoring the paperwork scattered on the table in front of her. She turned and smiled at Gabriella, but she looked as nervous as Gabriella felt. She must not know if James was coming in either. There wasn’t really anything to say, so Gabriella just smiled back and kept moving toward the bathroom.

By the time she was showered, brushed, and dressed, she was within half an hour of her shift starting. There was no point sitting in the pink bedroom doing nothing until then, and she could really use a coffee. So she headed back out, humming quietly to herself in an attempt to block out as many of her thoughts as possible. Everything was out of her hands right now.

She heard voices in James’s office as she walked toward the living room and tried not to get her hopes up. But no, that was him. They were talking too quietly to hear clearly from the hallway, but his voice was there. She moved toward the office, but hesitated before going in.

“It’s alright,” she heard Amelia say softly. “Listen, I’m not going anywhere. But you should take your job back.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t be in charge, though,” James said. “I don’t even like it. I put you all in danger in a job I don’t even like.”

“James,” Amelia said, as Gabriella moved to find something to occupy herself in the kitchen. “You were a victim here. I need you to understand that.”

James’s response was too quiet to hear over Gabriella’s very intentional banging of the cupboard doors, but she didn’t want to hear it anyway.

A moment later, the coffee was on and she still didn’t feel right going into the office and interrupting that conversation. So she started straightening up the kitchen instead. She rotated some apples so they’d be more likely to get eaten, cleaned and filled Fang’s food and water dishes, and pulled out the all-purpose cleaner. There was plenty of actual work to do, but she’d get situated in a few minutes.

James and Amelia walked out of his office as she was scrubbing at an old coffee stain. “That came with the house,” Amelia said, clearly recognizing what Gabriella was doing. “Don’t even bother.”

Gabriella set down her sponge and looked at James. Like the other night, he was wearing long pants and a heavy sweater, this time with a turtleneck underneath. That was normal enough, even though she knew he hated turtlenecks. It was just barely spring. By the time the weather warmed up, maybe he’d feel a little better. She wasn’t concerned.

At least until James reached for a printout that was sitting on the counter between the kitchen and dining room and she realized he was wearing a pair of thin black gloves. He read the printout and she did her best not to look at the gloves or make it obvious that she’d noticed them. But then she glanced at Amelia, who caught her eye. Amelia smiled grimly, then turned to the coffee maker.

“Oh, thanks for making another pot,” she said.

“Of course,” Gabriella replied, her voice softer than she wanted it to be. “I was about to pour some. Want one?”

“Sure.”

“James?”

James looked at the pot, then at her. “I’m fine,” he said, with a forced smile. “I just had one.”

Had that ever stopped him before? But she poured two mugs and handed one to Amelia. “Welcome back,” she said to James.

He hadn’t moved to hug her and she wasn’t sure if she should try to hug him instead. He hadn’t touched her since that day in his apartment. So she stayed where she was and smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re back.”

James nodded. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll be, um…”

He motioned toward his office. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t quite run to the office, but he moved quickly with obvious desperation. Gabriella knew it wasn’t about her, and she wasn’t taking it personally. She really wasn’t. They were standing right where something horrible had happened and it was his first time back here since then.

Amelia started to say something, but Gabriella shook her head. “I know,” she said. “Don’t worry. Trust me, I understand.”

“Do you want to go over the Abbott family’s information before everyone else gets here?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah, actually,” Gabriella said, looking away from James’s office, where the door was still open. She could see him sitting on the far end of his couch, as far from everything as possible. “I’ve got a few questions about the paperwork from the fifties.”

“Yeah, me too,” Amelia said with a laugh. “Let’s take a look.”

Everyone else arrived over the next couple hours. Madelyn got there first. She did the same thing Gabriella had done, clearly wanting to hug James and not sure what to do. James barely looked at her as they sat in the living room and after about twenty minutes of this, Madelyn all but pushed James into his office and closed the door behind them. 

By the time they came back out, Graham was there. He didn’t seem surprised to see James, so he must have known he had decided to come back. He clapped James on the back, then sat down on the couch and joined in the conversation about last night’s Bruins game that Amelia was attempting to keep going. 

Bradley was the last person to arrive. He came in, looked around the living room, and Gabriella saw the tension leave his shoulders as he realized James was there. He didn’t say anything as he came in and sat down at his usual computer, but he stayed facing the group instead of immediately getting to work.

Finally, Fang made her way out of the gray bedroom. She meandered through the group, collecting her well-deserved attention before jumping up between James and Gabriella on the couch and settling in with a leisurely yawn.

Once everyone was there, Amelia started up the staff meeting. Gabriella expected her to acknowledge that James was back, or maybe explain what was going to happen. Was he going to take back over as captain immediately or was she going to stay in charge for a little longer? But she didn’t say anything and Gabriella got the feeling that Amelia wasn’t sure either. 

She glanced over at James a few times as she went through the cases for the day, then handed it off to Bradley, who started on the new creature that Graham was going to be dealing with in the Leominster State Forest today.

“Alright,” Amelia said after Bradley finished his detailed introduction to the size of the creature’s teeth. “Assignments. Graham, you’re not going to believe this. Cryptid hunt. Gabriella and Bradley, since you worked so well together over at the O’Toole House, I have you both on the Abbott case. No demons this time, though. Madelyn, you’re on comms with both teams. James, you and I are on paperwork this morning, then in the field for O’Malley around three.”

James looked over at her and she looked steadily back at him. There was a whole silent conversation there that Gabriella was not a part of. But eventually, James nodded. “Yeah,” he said, voice slightly hoarse. “Sounds good.”

“Great,” Amelia said. “We’ve got a ton of paperwork to go through together.”

She smiled. After the strain Gabriella had seen there in the past few weeks, the way Amelia forced herself to be alright, the smile she was giving him was genuine.

“Alright, team,” she said. “Head on out.”

***

END

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North County Paranormal Unit continues in Lancaster Green (NCPU#12)