Robin made Gabriella take two days off from work to recover. She thought it was unnecessary when he said it, especially since he essentially kicked her out after a full day of work. She didn’t love the idea of going back to her own apartment, but Robin had called for the mysterious Father McEnerney to come in and bless it. So that, along with the fact that all the protections the team had left on it last night were still in place, eased most of her concerns. She felt comfortable going there instead of going to her mother’s, which would require her to confess everything that had happened.

So she took two days off and slept. When she wasn’t sleeping, she was eating takeout, then crawling back into bed. Gabriella was actually proud of herself that she could sleep full nights in this apartment after everything that had happened. The lights stayed on and she’d stuffed about half of her belongings under the bed to fill up any space underneath. But she’d done it. And the enormous amount of sleep she got over the two days off made her feel fresh and ready to go when she got back to the headquarters a few days later.

As she walked into work, the first thing she saw was James sitting at one of the computers. He wore headphones and clearly didn’t notice that she’d come in. “Alright, pulling up the specs now,” he said to the person on the other end. “It looks like there’s a cellar door over on the other end of the house. Do you see it on the property? They might have filled it in.”

Gabriella didn’t greet him when she walked up the stairs. As she’d left for work that morning, she’d thought maybe she was over it. Mistakes happened, after all. And he seemed genuinely upset when called out. But then, walking in here and seeing him working like nothing had happened, that infuriated her in a way she hadn’t expected.

So instead of saying anything, she pointedly ignored him as he turned around to see who had come in. She walked into the kitchen and began searching through the pile of papers on the counter for her time card. Once she’d located it under a Chopsticks menu, she started filling it in for the week, pointedly keeping her head down and her hand steady as she wrote.

“Gabs,” James said from the doorway a moment later.

She turned and glared at him. Now, seeing him up close, he looked like a mess, with red-rimmed eyes surrounded by dark circles.

“Gabs,” he said again, “I’m so sorry.”

She looked back down at her time card without a word. Why did he have to come in here? Didn’t he see that she wanted to be left alone?

“I thought I did everything right, but I must have missed something,” James continued.

“Yeah, apparently you did,” she snapped.

He flinched as Gabriella looked up at him, her eyes stinging with tears now. “I don’t understand why you’d cut corners,” she said. “You knew it was my first case. Why wouldn’t I be the one it went after?”

“I…”

She shook her head. “Save it,” she muttered, then turned and walked out of the kitchen through the dining room doorway.

As she was passing through, she glanced into Robin’s office. He was at the desk and had very clearly heard their entire exchange. “Gabriella!” he called out warmly. “Welcome back! Come on in!”

She walked into the office and he motioned her into a seat. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Um, better, thanks,” she said, still vibrating with adrenaline after her confrontation with James.

“Good, good,” Robin said. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

She smiled back as he nodded, then glanced down at some papers on his desk.

“So Gabriella,” he began. “Now that you’re back, we’re going to continue your training. You passed the first set of modules with flying colors and as soon as you’re able, we want you back in fighting form exercising. But I’m going to be working with you on some self-defense training. Prevent anything like the other night happening again.”

He laughed, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to. Right, there had been a monster under her bed. Somehow being back here made that feel a little more real again.

“You’ll be working with me on that,” Robin continued. “It’s nice out today, so I figure we’ll start in the backyard. Do you have any assigned tasks this morning?”

“I think I’m on the cleaning roster to vacuum,” Gabriella said.

Robin waved her off. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll have someone else do that.”

She cringed inwardly. That was very nice of Robin, she figured. But whoever ended up with her chores was going to hate her if they didn’t already. While everyone had been shaken at the meeting the other day, she’d noticed that nobody came outside to check on her afterward. Not that she had wanted any company. But maybe they blamed her for the fact that James had gotten in trouble.

Robin clapped his hands together, jolting her out of her thoughts. “Alright then!” he said. “Go finish your time sheet and I’ll meet you in the backyard. We’ll be doing some basic knife work for now.”

“Wait,” Gabriella said. “What exactly is the weapons training going to be? I don’t remember it from the handbook.”

“The handbook is a little out of date,” Robin explained. “Bradley is due for an update. But since our work is so varied here, we’ve adopted various kinds of weapons training as well. Knives, wooden stakes, occasional firearms. I have yet to send anyone into a situation where they need to carry a gun and I pray I’ll never need to. But it’s important to be able to protect yourself from anything, corporeal and not.”

It had never occurred to her that she might have to carry a gun, and Gabriella really didn’t like the feeling that accompanied this realization.

***

Despite the images that “knife work” conjured up, Gabriella spent surprisingly little time actually holding a blade during her training session with Robin. Instead, he mostly talked about the proper ways to hold it and defend herself from someone else who also happened to be holding a knife. By the end of their brief session, she could disarm him if he came at her very slowly, but that was it.

“And now you’re dead,” he said good-naturedly after he moved toward her faster than last time and she wasn’t able to grasp his wrist and twist.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be, you’re training,” Robin said. “You’re doing great, you just need to practice. How are you feeling?”

Her injured arm was burning a little, but she tried to ignore it. “Good,” she said.

“Excellent,” Robin said. “Alright, I noticed that you have a weights exercise routine scheduled today. How about you take some pressure off that arm and do an aerobic exercise instead?”

She nodded gratefully. “I’ll do that.”

“Perfect. I’m going to go back to the mountain of paperwork in my office. I’ll see you for the afternoon meeting.”

He walked past her and back into the house. Gabriella stood in the yard a moment longer, enjoying the cool breeze. Then she turned and reluctantly headed toward her workout.

***

When she got down to the basement, Madelyn was on the exercise bike with headphones on. She looked up at Gabriella as she walked in. “Oh, hi,” Madelyn said, pulling off her headphones.

“Hi,” Gabriella said uncertainly.

“How’s your arm?”

“Um, fine.”

“Good.”

“How are you?”

Madelyn shrugged. “Alive.”

Gabriella couldn’t quite tell if that was a joke or not. So instead she just smiled and started walking toward the empty treadmill as Madelyn put her headphones back on.

Gabriella had forgotten her own headphones. She was so used to pop punk blaring if Madelyn and Amelia were working out together that she hadn’t packed her headphones in days. She considered running upstairs to see if they were in her bag, but she was already so unmotivated that she knew going back out might actually kill her workout.

So instead she just silently climbed onto the treadmill and punched in her workout. Today it was a twenty-minute run, a good warm-up according to the cheery Foundation exercise instructions. From there it was weights and a machine she still wasn’t entirely sure how to use. The treadmill’s belt started moving, and she began to run, adjusting her speed until she was at a comfortable pace.

Gabriella tried to lose herself in the workout, in the repetitive pounding of her sneakers on the treadmill. But it wasn’t working. After resisting for what felt like five minutes, she stole a glance at the screen timer.

Two minutes down, eighteen to go.

She could hear the tinny sound of music coming from Madelyn’s headphones, but it wasn’t clear enough to hear. She sped up, waiting for the ache in her calves to fade out. The first five minutes were always the worst part of a workout, right? Once the body was settled in and the muscles warmed up, it was so much better. She had to be there by now.

Two minutes and thirty seconds.

Gabriella started moving through her modules in her mind in an attempt to focus on anything other than the timer in front of her.

Vampires.

Vampires were real. There were different types, and each area had its own type. There was a nest in Westminster, but the Foundation hadn’t given the go-ahead to take care of it. James didn’t know why.

James.

James had nearly gotten her killed. She’d been so confused that night, but now it made perfect sense. It hadn’t been something new that coincidentally got into her apartment. It was a monster that latched onto her on the case and made its move when she was vulnerable.

Three days later, the thought still made her shudder. It was suddenly too cold in the gym.

Five minutes. And her muscles didn’t feel any better. That training guide was a crock of shit.

She looked up as Madelyn stood up and carefully walked over to the paper towels. She pulled one off, sprayed it, and went back to wipe down the exercise bike. As she moved, she softly touched the objects she passed, like she was bracing herself just the slightest bit in case she fell.

She didn’t look at Gabriella as she cleaned off the exercise bike and threw out the paper towel. As she walked toward the door, Gabriella gave her a short wave. Madelyn nodded and waved back, but her small smile didn’t reach her eyes. Then she turned and walked out the door.

Madelyn clearly hated her, Gabriella thought as a stitch began to spread through her side. But why? She hadn’t gotten in trouble, at least not any more than everybody else. Was it because James got in trouble? Was she into James or something? Was everyone siding with him?

No, Madelyn had her own stuff going on. She probably didn’t even think about Gabriella, let alone actively hate her. It was nothing.

Six minutes.

***

An hour later, Gabriella was freshly showered. She got dressed quickly in the pink bedroom, which now had a duffel bag sitting on the bed across from the one Gabriella had slept in last time. As she walked out, she heard voices coming from the living room.

“Bradley, you’re better than this.”

Robin’s voice was sharp and tight and Gabriella winced in unexpected sympathy for Bradley. She walked forward a little hesitantly. The last thing she wanted right now was to get involved, but she had training materials in the living room that were already overdue.

“Robin, I’ve cut everything that I can possibly cut,” Bradley said, apparently not affected by Robin’s harsh tone. “I’ve budgeted us down to the penny, I’ve pushed off the bills that can be pushed off to pay the ones that aren’t. I’ve reclaimed every single stash of petty cash we have in banks around the state. Today alone I’ve sent three requests to the Foundation for various parts of the budget to be expanded and I’ve got four more to send before I go home. I don’t know what else you expect me to do here.”

“Find something,” Robin snapped. “This is your job, not mine. Find wherever this money leak is coming from and plug it.”

“It’s not a money leak,” Bradley said in a long-suffering tone that made Gabriella realize this was an ongoing discussion. “Everything is accounted for. We just have too many expenses and not enough money to cover them.”

“That’s not possible,” Robin said. “Fix it.”

As she stepped closer, Gabriella could see Bradley’s face. He looked puzzled for a second, then his face smoothed back into the unreadable expression she was getting more familiar with.

“Boss, you’re asking me for the impossible.”

“No, I’m asking you to do your job. Or else I’ll find someone else who will.”

Robin stood up and started walking away from Gabriella and toward his office. Bradley stood up too, picking up a pile of papers from the table. As she walked into the room, Gabriella could see her own papers beside his.

Bradley looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. “What do you want?”

He looked so disdainful of her that her explanation dried up in her throat. She managed to point to the papers and clear her throat. “Just need my papers,” she said.

“Oh.”

Bradley started to walk away, brushing past her as he walked down the hall toward the bedroom at the far end. Through the open door, she could see that half of it was set up almost as another office, with a computer on a neat desk and an office chair. Bradley turned around and gave her a hard look, then walked into the room and closed the door.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 14