28 Cantina time (2/2)

Tables and seats within the cantina were unoccupied at such early hours. Not an unexpected sight to Karen, yet it didn't seem to discern Linda quite the same. Instead, her friend disappeared swiftly behind the food counter into the employee-only part of the kitchen, leaving her to choose one of the many free places.

Once she picked one of the popular seats near the windows, followed Aminata behind, albeit at a painfully slow pace. To the tall dark-skinned woman clung now an eerie silent glum.

Not a single word slipped her mind after she sat down, nor while she hunched over the furniture, and neither during the extended period during which her dark brown eyes pierced the wooden table.

Maybe she couldn't call it a déjà vu, seeing as the roles were now reversed, but Karen's brows furrowed at the sight, nonetheless. To see the cheerful, albeit also slightly annoying, woman at such a low point, it stung in her heart.

Unable to bear the sight, she reached out, hesitant, but soft, put Karen her hand on the crossed pair of her opposite.

"Are you okay? You seemed quite hurt by the harsh words of your partner."

Aminata looked up like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching car, before she stammered an answer.

"Oh, it's not… just that. He's been very outspoken about his opinions before, even if less… blunt."

"What is it then?"

Thinking back, it had seemed to her like the logical conclusion to draw. The chasm within their agency that the two mirrored had existed since long before her training started, and even though she had preferred not to join either side of the debate, like many others, it was hard not to flinch whenever the two clashed.

Her misjudgement, though, only made her listen more attentively.

"Its just… when he said I should be out there, tracking down who did that. I… I know he doesn't blame me for what happened, but I still stood idly by when it did."

Karen couldn't help but twist her smile at that assessment.

"You're sure he doesn't blame you? He seemed quite angry…"

"Oh. no. That's because of his…"

A swift motion to the part above her lips clarified what she blamed for his heated attitude.

"He reacted the last time the same, even if the dust explosion got that day every other hair on his head, but the mustache."

The smooth but tousled red locks she had seen, together with the act he had displayed, made it easy for her mind to conjure up an image of the furious man. Quite the entertaining view, which let her suppress a chuckle.

"A very prideful man, I see."

"When it's about his appearance, then yes. Definitely. Although… hm… honestly, I don't even know how it happened this time. He went out right after the train got… well, derailed. A distraction, so I could escort the train personnel."

Tied to her thoughts, Aminata continued to nibble on her lips while she murmured. Which left Karen to ponder on how to cheer her up. At least until Linda arrived, with the promised breakfast.

"Oh, the attack? Did you see anything?"

"No… not really. I only heard the report from the driver. The Archdemon supposedly jumped from a bridge onto the tracks, grabbed the locomotive at full speed and simply lifted us over his shoulder to ram the thing headfirst into the ground."

The sandwich was halfway to her mouth as Karen felt goosebumps running down her spine. That image alone was disturbing, but the casual way Aminata described the scene made it sound like an everyday occurrence for field agents like her.

"That sounds terrifying! Weren't you afraid?"

"Of course I was! It's already a wonder we didn't get injured during the crash, but after we came to a halt, Mr Lesage went out like nothing happened, guns blazing and all, with no hesitation."

Similarly caught at her curiosity, Linda let not pass a moment to drill for more.

"What happened then?"

"Well, in one moment I see how he jumps out of the crashed train, then just a blur in the next. And where he had been, the backhand of the Demon. Almost double his size!"

The young woman stopped at her explanation, the arms stretched apart to give a comparison, and swallowed. Only for Linda and Karen to interject with coincidental synchronicity.

"What did you do?"

"I was about to follow Mr Lesage's order to grab the civilians and run, but then… I heard the beast talking… Threatening us not to try! And promising to do us no harm if we stay put."

Clearly distraught by the events, Karen hesitated to continue pressuring the topic, rather sinking her teeth into the bland breakfast. She came not around admitting to the feeling of hunger that suddenly set in with it, but Linda's attention remained focused on the story.

"And?"

"Ugh… well. As shameful as it is, I just… stayed. I might not trust the words of a creature from hell, but I'm not suicidal, either."

Aminata's irritation stayed completely obvious, as she clutched to her other arm, the head dropping downwards. Seeing that her noisy friend was about to speak up again, Karen threw her a cautious look, readying her leg to interrupt further re-traumatization.

Linda had none of it, though, meeting the gaze with her own, as if to address her with the words instead.

"Understandable. And you reacted right. Thanks to your calm behavior during an emergency, were not more people harmed. Who knows, maybe your partner wouldn't have survived without your quick help, either."

"I guess…"

That side jab at her was blunt and infuriating. How did Linda come to draw such comparisons, and that at such an inappropriate time?

Gnawing the sandwich pieces to shreds with her teeth, Karen quickly wanted to throw her friend the piece of mind she called for, only for Linda to put a premature end to that thought.

"Oh, hey Diego. So early in the canteen?"

She straightened quickly, surprised by the sudden arrival. A motion that didn't seem to catch the psychologist's attention.

"Good morning to you too, Linda. I kinda expected you to bring Karen up, so I came right here after that tenuous meeting with Stephanie."

With the audible exhaustion in his voice caught Diego even Aminata's attention, whose assessment carried a side note of guilt.

"Oh, I imagined she'd get stressed out with everything happening right now."

"That's an understatement. I haven't seen her that pissed off in years."

An overt hint of concern hung in his voice, which quickly changed its target once he seemed to recognize who had talked to him. Caught on the side of his blind spot sunk Aminata back together.

"Oh, you must be Aminata. I… I have heard what happened. You and your partner are welcome to stay here for the time being."

For someone capable of reading people like a book, had Diego an unparalleled talent to say things he couldn't take back. No well placed cough could distract from that.

The man still waited just a moment longer, perhaps hoping the damage might fix itself before he turned to Karen, to take his chance and escape the situation.

"That said, I actually wanted to talk with you, Karen."

"Yes?"

"Alone, if you don't mind."

She didn't feel like it was a good idea to leave the two alone with each other. Besides the itch she felt on her foot, who'd only be relieved by Linda's shin, she doubted that the blame Aminata put on herself was so easily quenched.

So darted her eyes once more to the encouraging grin of her friend, while she followed Diego to a table far enough away to keep the facade of privacy within the empty hall.

As soon as sitting down, Diego bowed forward to whisper, with admittedly still loud enough voice to have anyone listen who really wanted, and so close to him, even if not.

"Stephanie and I settled on a compromise, so I wanted to ask if you'd be alright with working only fifty percent for the moment. We'd spend the other half with sessions here, starting tomorrow, if you have nothing against it?"

"Sure. That sounds reasonable."

"Oh… that was easy… good, then. That was actually all… ah, no. Wait."

It took a moment for Karen's interest to get back going, her thoughts somewhere stuck at the conversation a table earlier, but after first pulling his mobile device from his pants, followed her own shortly after.

More than just a pleasant surprise, she quickly grabbed it from his grasp, only to notice that the current battery percentage was at full percent.

"Your phone. Might be useful for calling Warren and telling him the good news. Not that you show up unannounced. He doesn't like that."

"Where do you have it from?"

The question seemed unnecessary the moment she spoke it out, still a part of her hoped for a different explanation than the one she got.

"Sebastian gave it to me back in the hallway."

Not giving an answer, Karen jumped from the chair, her eyes shooting towards the entrance to the cantina, where she glimpsed familiar blonde curls.

The sound of something solid falling left no doubt that it was who she thought. He had the tendency to drop things when surprised.

"Huh? What was that?"

Diego wasn't the only to notice the loud noise, so did the other two women as well, but Karen had her attention only on the pulse that echoed now within her ears…

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Dreary clouds drifted through the sky beyond Karen's windshield, like ships across the ocean, to which hulls she looked up to, from the bottom of the sea.

Helpless stared she after them, how they all moved onwards, while she remained trapped, suffocating. Chained to multiple anchors.

Maybe Linda was right, and one weight that kept her in this state could be the guilt she felt.

Not that she would ever tell her that…

Karen pulled her eyes away from the hurried procession above, aiming them instead towards the gym opposite her parking spot, while she opened the seat belt.

Time to move.

Still, Karen's fingers clutched to the edge of her door as she exited the car, her shoes scraping against the gravel.

A sigh escaped her while she waited for a moment. Perhaps the wind might change its mind and pick her up after all. Taking her away to new horizons, far from here…

It was no use.

Distracting herself would be the best right now, especially when the other choices were as abysmal as pondering on if to open the message Sebastian had left on her phone, or to crawl back into bed, and drowning in the misery alone.

Her mind made up, Karen walked towards the entrance and pulled on the locked doors, sending a rattle through the hallway behind it. Warren had during the call promised to give her a key once she was there, and that he'd show her around.

But before she could cram once again for her newly recovered mobile device, to inform him about her arrival, appeared the man in question, opening the door with as much of a welcome as she had expected.

"There you are… was about time."

His wild eyes threw an almost judgemental gaze at her, like a teacher catching her during the lecture with a phone.

The effect was about the same as well, and Karen put her device reflexively away, garnering an almost amused growl from Warren. Besides that slight slip, though, remained his mouth grimaced under his beard and his bushy eyebrows furrowed, just like his usual self, with no sign of acknowledgement regarding his earlier display of empathy.

Maybe he expected her to bring it up, or it was his usual disregard for formalities. Either way, before Karen could even think about greeting him, turned the man around, only murmuring as much as a vaguely invitational grunt.

Used to the spleens of her old trainer, but still surprised enough to almost miss the closing door, she hurried after the old man through the hallways.

With the speed he put forward, it didn't take long before they reached their target. A fairly spacious office with an adjacent locker room and showers.

Not wasting any time showing her around, the man threw her a keyring, waving dismissively towards the furniture while he talked.

"Here's the office. Documents are in the cabinet, copies are on the computer, and that are your keys for the doors, your locker, and the fire alarm."

"Don't I have to sign something?"

Warren pulled his thick eyebrow in response up to eye her from top to bottom, like she had asked the stupidest question in the world.

"At most, you could change your clothes. But for the first day, who cares? Paperwork can wait. The students not. Or you might get to see how to reset the alarm on your first day already."

Karen couldn't quite prevent herself from blinking at what she thought to be the very first joke she had ever heard him utter, only to see with how much vigor he turned around and walked away. Crushing that impression.

Maybe the training license had not been such a good idea…