Page 33 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

“Sully said that she is going to need us, and that makes me worry too. She isn’t weak, so if she needs us, then that suggests that things are going to happen that are really fucking dangerous. I don’t like that. I don’t want her in danger,” Griff adds.

“We will figure it out,” Van says with confidence that I don’t think any of us feel, not even him. He adds, “Together.”

That is at least something that we can all agree on. Together is what we do best, and now we have Neith that is a part of that.

“Anyone want another beer?” Doc says as he gets up, draining the last of his current one.

“I’ll take one,” I reply.

Once he’s back, Van clears his throat, looking a bit awkward, which immediately makes me pay more attention. Van never looks awkward,

“What’s up?” Reed asks, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He seems to think about it for a moment and then shakes his head, “Nothing.”

I frown slightly, “Are you sure? It’s us.”

Van smiles, “Yeah, I know. It’s all good, I realized that it wasn’t something that needed to be said.”

I admit that I am curious now, but I don’t think that he’s going to tell us. If Evander decides later down the line that it is something that he needs to bring up, then he will. That’s how we work.

“It’s going to be interesting figuring out the dynamic with an extra member,” Ransom mutters.

“Two,” Doc smirks. “I have a feeling that I am going to be coming on more jobs with you.”

I raise my eyebrows, “What about the lab?”

He loves that place. We usually only see him on the jobs where someone has died, and he’s there to pick them up or if we go into the lab for whatever reason. He comes on the occasional job with us, but it’s rare. Of course, we see him plenty outside of work, and he spends most of his weekends here with us unless he’s working on something interesting in his lab. He has his own room and everything, he just hasn’t officially moved in, well I suppose he has now, I smirk.

“I’ll still be there, but I will be with you guys more.” He sighs, “I know what you are all thinking, and I meant what I saidearlier, I did need the push that Neith gave me, but I have been toying with the idea of switching it up so that I work more with you guys as part of the team for a while now. I guess I have just been nervous to step away from what I have known for so long,” Doc replies.

Ransom raises his eyebrows, “And?”

Doc chuckles, “And I wasn’t entirely sure that you guys really wanted me here and fully in the team.”

There it is.

We should have known. Like the rest of us, Doc has some shit in his past that has deeply affected him, and it has been a while since we pushed the issue of him being a part of the team because we didn’t want to pressure him. But he could have thought that we weren’t asking as much anymore because we no longer wanted him on the team.

“You silly fucker,” Reed says in his blunt way that has everyone, including Doc laughing.

“Somehow, Neith being here has already changed things for the better, and she doesn’t even realize that she has done anything,” Ransom mutters.

“It’s Neith,” Evander says like that is all the explanation that we need and to be honest, I am starting to understand that it is.

The ringing of Van’s phone has us all raising our eyebrows. It’s really fucking early in the morning. I frown, hoping that we aren’t about to get called on a job because not only have we had no sleep, but Neith has only been asleep for an hour, if that.

“It’s Ty,” Van tells us since we are all looking at him curiously.

“Maybe they have found something in the woods?” Griff suggests.

Evander shakes his head, “I don’t think so, one of the agents would have rung me not Ty himself.” He presses answer, automatically putting it on speaker so that we can all hear.

“Hey guys,” Ty says, and we all reply. “Is Neith there?”

Van raises his eyebrow slightly, “No, she has gone to bed. We haven’t slept yet.”

I’m reasonably sure that he threw that in there to make sure that Ty wasn’t about to send us off on a job. We won’t go; it wouldn’t be safe for us too when we are as exhausted as we are. If Ty gets the underlying message, he doesn’t say anything, and it becomes pretty clear why.

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