Chapter Eight: A good friend’s comfort

I had been about twenty minutes that Rory and Terry had been hanging out before Terry had gone deep into thought.

“Hello? Earth to Terry!” Rory teased waving his hand in front of his friends face. He grunted in response. “Terry?” his friend had the look in his eye that said ‘I’m-off-in-my-own-little-world’ so he decided to mess with him a little. “Do you wear pink fuzzy slippers?” he joked.

“Yeah” Terry said not thinking. Rory couldn’t resist laughing. A second later Terry blinked a few times before the initial “Wait, what?” he asked still blinking. The red headed teen laughed harder. “What’s so funny?” he questioned. Rory finally was able to stop and shook his head.

“Let’s just say you had a ‘The lights are on, but nobody’s home’ moment” he said grinning, but then it was gone when he saw his friend glaring “Terry your eyes” he pointed out seriously. The fifteen year olds eyes fell to the ground and he closed them as he took a deep breath. Over the years, sometimes when he glared or got angry his normally hazel eyes turned a dark gold, similar to a lion’s eyes.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize” the hazel eyed teen apologized.

“Meh” his friends said shrugging. “Don’t say sorry, ya can’t help it sometimes” Terry gave a small smile. Other than his parent’s Rory was the only person he told about what happened in London. All of it. Rory turned on the television.

In her own home after she had finally calmed down, Rachel also turned on her television to keep her busy until Jeff came back from talking with Luke. It was in the middle of the afternoon news.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the phone started ringing. The blonde muted the TV and picked up the receiver.

“Hello?” she answered.

"Hey... Rachel? This is Steven" He replied. Soon after he left Baltimore he was in an accident that gave him abilities, unfortunately his parents were killed before he had discovered them. Rachel still had not shared with Jeff or Luke that he was Seattle’s Osprey.

"Oh Hi. I thought we were still playing phone tag" she joked.

"Yeah, we have a way of missing each other. So how do I know this is you, Miss Rachel? What if you're really not talking to me and I'm conversing with your voicemail" he grinned through the phone. She chuckled.

"Oh it's me. My voicemail isn't as pleasant to talk to" she said smugly.

"Oh yeah, found that out last call. Thought I had a wrong number. Nah, just kidding!" he gave a soft laugh. "Just trying to catch up on things. You doing alright...?"

"I'm fine" she said unsurely.

"Good to hear... last time I talked you said you kind of had your hands full with that guy..." Rachel heard a growl, "Bah, can't remember what his name was..."

Earlier Steven had called when Rachel was almost in tears, when she was going to tell Luke and Jeff.

"I'm sorry I couldn't talk. I was a little upset" Her voice was softer then normal. "It's just nerve wreaking, knowing he's out there" she gave an involuntary shiver.

"Hey, I understand... every now and then we need our space. I'm kind of under a little bit of stress about my own personal freak to deal with... you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, I'm better now. Luke and Jeff said they were going to look for him later" that last sentence came out hoarsely. "Anyways. How are you?" she asked. "Besides the personal freak that is" Steven chuckled,

"Oh, I guess I can't complain. It's kind of quiet apart from my 'missions'. Max is really busy with his school... college and all that. I'm ok. Kind of needed somebody to talk to. Sometimes it gets a little too quiet..." she heard the phone shift to his other shoulder and she could tell he was smiling, "Pretty nice of Jeff and Luke. I bet it's nice to have guys like that to lean on."

"Yeah it is, you know I'm here if you need to talk" she shifted a little in her seat.

"Yeah, so, I finally found this one demented guy who's wanted for murder. He's pretty slippery though... he's got away from me twice already and is still on the loose. I'd like to bring him to justice as soon as... oh, you probably don't want to hear about stuff like that right now."

"I really don't mind Steven. You can talk to me about it, but that's only if you want" she said.

"Sometimes this 'hero' business isn't all it's cracked up to be in those comic books I used to read. You and Jeff should go do something fun to loosen up. We're both workaholics." She could almost picture Steven as he grinned.

She shifted again, laughing a little

"Yeah, but I'll worry about loosening up after Monsoon is put away... again" she added that last part distastefully.

"Yeah, that's my problem." he laughed, "I can't stand to leave a job undone." He said. "Well, just wanted you to know I'm still on the face of the earth. Don't sweat Monsoon too much... you guys can handle him, I'm sure. You've done fine on everything so far. Try not to discouraged... and I'll see you later, kay?" he said rather abruptly.

"Alright then" she heard the base’s consol beeping "Speaking of Monsoon, I might just have a lead. I'll talk to you soon" she shifted again, she was sitting on something uncomfortable. "Bye, Steven"

"Yea. Bye. Weird how that works. I've got a lead too." She chuckled after they both hung up, things were weird sometimes. Rachel stood and looked at her now unoccupied seat.

“I was sitting on a dog bone the whole time?” she asked herself picking up Lily’s bone. She sighed throwing the bone towards the dog, making sure to miss and she went on her way to the base.

“You told me that Miss Hawkins had talked to you about why you were at that building, right?” Rory whispered. Terry nodded.

“Yeah,” he whispered back “She said that, she and some of her friends were there that same day, and that one of them saw me” the hazel eyed teen’s gaze hit the floor.

“Did her friend see anything?” his friend asked.

“If he did she didn’t mention anything about it” Rory nodded. “You know, I think there more she’s not telling me” his friend nodded again.

“Yeah there’s gotta be somethin’ else, the story doesn’t add up” the red head stood up.

“Where are you going?” Terry asked. Rory smirked.

“I know where she lives. I think maybe if we talk to her we might get lucky, if she lets something slip”

“If were lucky” Terry repeated. “I think we should wait until tomorrow though” Rory’s jaw dropped.

“Why?”

“I saw her today at school, even though it’s her day off. She looked upset about something” he said. The red head arched his eyebrows.

“Alright, we’ll wait”