by ID Johnson
Gesturing towards a chair on the other side of a small table, he said simply, “Sit. I’ll be back.” He slammed the door so hard behind him that the entire room shook.
Despite having such a small window of time to return for debrief, every single member of the team was punctual. No one dare be late when Aaron was this angry. The three Independent Hunters were noticeably missing, however, and those who had left the scene last, such as Elliott, knew they had been extremely angry at both Cadence and Aaron and had been mumbling about seeking vengeance.
Aaron stood at the front of the room with his arms crossed for a few minutes before he began. The same visual supports that were up earlier were up now, a reminder of the mistakes they had made. This mission had been a disaster from the very second they walked out the door and while Cadence was certainly to blame for taking them off protocol, she wasn’t the only one at fault. Finally, after a few minutes he began, saying, “Alright guys, let’s start at the beginning.”
Some of the team members had assumed they should turn Cadence’s vision off, and they had done so. But she could still see from Aaron’s perspective and from Christian’s, so she decided to observe from the latter’s trying to see if she could ascertain whether or not she should just pack up and leave right now or if there was a possibility she might get one more chance.
Aaron had crossed over to the map of the bar. “Our first problem, in my opinion, started right here.” He gestured at the map and waited to see if anyone said anything. The room was silent. “What is wrong with this picture?” When no one volunteered any comments, he looked directly at Shane and waited.
Shane cleared his throat. “I had the restroom windows marked incorrectly on the map,” he finally admitted.
“That’s exactly right,” Aaron said, taking out a marker. “You had the bathrooms marked on this side of the building, not over here where they should have been. So, our cut-off, Paxton, who was supposed to be watching the bathroom windows, was on the wrong side of the building. Which leads us to another problem. Guys, if you’re supposed to be watching something—a window, a door, a car, a building—and you can’t see it, you’ve got to take responsibility for letting me know so I can help reposition you.” He waited to see if anyone was going to say anything, but though they were all nodding, no one did. “Paxton, did you notice that you were not in front of the bathroom windows? The windows on that side of the building were small and there was no way a full grown man was going to be able to escape through them.”
Paxton looked at Aaron nervously. When he finally spoke, it was just above a whisper. “I was confused. I saw that Smith was on the same side of the building as me. We talked about which one of us was out of position, but we didn’t get it settled before everything went down.”
Aaron nodded his head slowly. “Alright, that’s a start. So, if you are ever in a similar situation again, what do you think you should do?”
Paxton looked at Smith who was staring at the floor. After another long pause, he said, “We should let you know and if we don’t have time we should just make a decision.”
“There you go,” Aaron said, deciding spending any more time on those two was pretty worthless. “Then, we had another issue. Shane, I could not get ahold of you on IAC. I knew there was a problem. I was trying to get you to fix it and you were not answering. What in the world were you doing?”
“I’m not exactly sure, to be honest,” he said, scratching his head. “Cadence kept yelling at me about something and it made it really hard for me to hear anything else.”
“Really?” Aaron asked a sarcastic look on his face. He couldn’t believe Shane was trying to pin this particular problem on Cadence. “That’s what happened? Are you sure about that? Because I have the recording. We can go over it.”
Shane thought for a second to see if he could come up with a better answer. “Well, she was trying to tell me something. I don’t know what. And I was trying to listen to what was going on in the building and relay the information to Meagan because she didn’t have access to the IACs in the bar and I wanted her to know what was going on.”
“You don’t know what Cadence was trying to tell you?” Aaron asked, attempting to give Shane one more chance to come completely clean.
Shane shook his head no, hoping Aaron would just let it go. But it wasn’t Aaron who had to call him on it. “She was telling you about the bathroom windows, remember?” Meagan chimed in. Shane looked at her like he wanted to strangle her, but she kept on talking. “She said that she thought someone was out of position and that the windows were on the wrong side of the map. Don’t you remember that?”
“Thank you, Meagan,” Aaron said. She smiled, happy she could help. “What did you say to Cadence when she told you that you had made a mistake?”
Shane’s first instinct was to lie and try to cover his own ass again, but he realized that, if he did so, Meagan would throw him right back under the bus. “I didn’t say anything,” he admitted. “I just ignored her.”
Aaron was nodding his head again. “And you ignored me.”
Shane said nothing more, looking at the floor.
“Alright, from that point forward, we were in an Emergency Procedure. Clearly we did not plan for Cadence to attempt to chase the Rogue down. I will be speaking to her shortly and determining the consequences for her actions.” He surveyed the room and saw that everyone was staring at the floor, so he continued. “As far as how the rest of you handled the EP situation, I have no complaints. Meagan and Shane, you held your positions as instructed. Paxton and Smith, you took care of the humans at the bar. Christian and Elliott you worked quickly to handle clean up protocol, and everyone else did what was expected, held the perimeter, ready if called. Our three friends who decided they didn’t need to come to this meeting broke protocol as well. I will handle that separately. Are there any questions?”
“I have a question,” Christian said, raising one figure in the air.
“Go ahead,” Aaron said crossing his arms across his chest and feeling unbelievably tired for one who needed little to no sleep.
“I understand that Cadence broke protocol and disobeyed directives, I get that. I know what she did was impulsive and dangerous, perhaps a little insane. But, does she get any credit at all for actually killing the Vampire?”
Aaron checked the room again and noticed a few heads nodding in agreement. Most of them stopped when they saw him looking directly at them.
“You know, that’s something that Cadence and I are going to have to discuss,” he said hoping his tone would convey that this was not a topic he wished to say more about.
Christian wasn’t done, however. “Good,” he said, nodding his head. “Because, I just feel like, maybe if we were utilizing our people better . . . “
“Alright Christian, you made your point . . .” Aaron asserted.
“I mean, maybe we should have let her participate in the first place and then she wouldn’t have had to break protocol.”
“Yes, I understand what you are saying. All I can say to you is that, sometimes there are circumstance that you don’t understand that require certain procedures.” Aaron was ready for this conversation to be over, but clearly another member of his team had finally found his voice as well.
“Man that’s just . . .. that’s just screwed up,” Elliot was saying shaking his head at Christian.
“What?” Christian said, gesturing wildly.
“You’re going to sit here in a debrief and try to call Aaron out on something you know nothing about?” Elliott continued.
Aaron waved him off, “Elliott, it’s alright. Just let it go.”
“She’s not even here. She’s not even here to defend herself,” Christian said, his frustration starting to show in his face.
“She doesn’t need to be here,” Elliott yelled. “At all! Anymore!”
Now Aaron was starting to lose his cool. Over the IAC he sent both of them a directive not to say another word or else there would be dir
e consequences. Aloud he said, “Alright, we’re done. Go home. Everyone needs to review Set-Up Protocols. Leave.”
The majority of the team members left as quickly as possible. Christian lingered for a second just to make sure Aaron didn’t want to say anything to him in private. He knew he had overstepped his bounds, but he didn’t feel like the situation was handled correctly at all and he was beginning to get frustrated at Aaron’s inflexibility when it came to following protocols. Still, if the conversation were going to continue, he’d rather have it over with. Since Aaron did not look in his direction, he finally decided to exit.
Elliott was the last one to leave. “I’m sorry, man,” he said.
“You should be,” Aaron stated with all seriousness. “If I tell you to let something go, you’ve got to let it go.”
“I know, but man I told you this was going to happen.”
“No, no this had nothing to do with that,” Aaron said adamantly.
“You know it did. She thought you’d let her get away with it because she’s your girlfriend. And look what happened. All the information Henry had, all gone, down the tubes.”
Aaron said nothing, just shook his head. There was nothing he could say that would change Elliott’s mind, and now he was wondering if it was possible that Elliott was correct.
“Alright, brother,” Elliott said, patting him on the shoulder as he walked to the door. “Good luck. Man, you’re gonna need it.”
Of course, Elliott had no idea that Cadence heard every word that he said. He had assumed that Aaron had turned her feed off, but the leader had purposely left her on. Despite his frustration, Aaron wanted her to know how the debrief went, what the others had to say, that he recognized the contributions she had made, and that he realized that others had made errors as well.
As Elliott made his way out of the building, Aaron walked back to where he had left Cadence. He opened the door but didn’t go in at first. He just stood in the doorway looking at her. He could see she had been crying, but she wasn’t just then. After a few moments he finally entered, pulled a box of tissue off of a shelf, slammed it on the table and sat down across from her, his arms folded across his chest.
She looked at the tissues, but not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry, she vowed not to use them. She resolved not to touch the box. Though she wanted to speak, to ask him the dozens of questions she had burning in her mind, she waited for him to go first. After all, he was clearly the one in charge here.
He wasn’t exactly sure where to begin. After considering his options for what seemed like an eternity, he finally asked, “What in the world possessed you to disobey my directives and give chase to a Vampire on your own?”
“What does it matter?” she asked. “What’s done is done.”
“Yes, yes it matters. It matters a lot, quite frankly. You’ve always done exactly what I’ve asked you to do until tonight, until it really counted.”
She sighed, “I can’t even explain to you why I did it. I just . . . had to. It was instinct. I saw a Vampire getting away, and I had to get him.”
“I want you to realize that never, in over 150 years of working in this field have I ever, not once, seen a Hunter do something so reckless and stupid. Not one time.”
“Then, I guess, I’m just an idiot,” she said dryly.
“No, you see, that’s the thing," he said, uncrossing his arms and leaning towards her, elbows on the table. “You’re not an idiot. It’s like you weren’t even listening to me. At all.”
“I wasn’t. I wasn’t listening to you. Literally,” she admitted
“Then what were you listening to?”
“Nothing!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air. “I was just reacting. I wasn’t intentionally disobeying you. I think I did hear you once, while I was sprinting across the parking lot, but what you were saying wasn’t registering. “
“You could have gotten killed.”
“I know.”
“You could have gotten that baby killed,” he added.
She nodded her head. “But I didn’t.”
“Thank God. How did you know I would be able to get there in time? What was your plan if I hadn’t”
“I just knew you would,” she said emphatically.
The anger and frustration were building in his voice as he exclaimed, “You just knew I would get there in time to save a freaking baby dangling out a window?”
“No, I didn’t know if we’d be able to save the baby,” she said, the tears stinging the backs of her eyes again. “But I knew you would get there in time to save me.”
Aaron leaned back in his chair, his hand brushing back his hair. He was quiet for a few moments, considering everything she had said, trying to come up with a fitting response. His conversations with Elliott were fresh in his mind, and even though he wanted to believe this was all about an instinctual response, at this point, he just wasn’t sure. His heart was telling him one thing, but his logical mind, the one that put his team and his Passel above all else, was telling him something different. “Listen, Cadence I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to . . .” he began but that’s all he got out before she interrupted him.
“No, Aaron, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I get it. I understand,” she said, just managing to hold back her tears.
“Do you?” he asked, not sure how that was possible when he didn’t quite get it himself.
“Yes, I do. It’s fine. It’s just fine.”
“Okay,” he said quietly.
They continued to sit in silence for a few more minutes before Cadence asked, “What’s my punishment?”
He had been thinking about that a lot. Even before Christian had said anything he had realized, despite the fact the whole idea from the beginning revolved around capturing Henry alive, Cadence didn’t know that. She had done her job as far as catching and killing Vampires was concerned, and she had done it better than any new Hunter he had ever seen. Despite the fact that she had broken protocol and put the entire team at risk, he felt that telling her he was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with her was punishment enough. Though she had said she was fine, her eyes were telling him something very different. He suddenly felt inclined to be lenient. “Why don’t you take a few days off? We’ll call it a suspension, but it’ll just be an opportunity for you to go see your family, to visit your friends, whatever you need to do.”
“Okay,” she agreed, devoid of emotion.
“Alright then,” he said, standing and pushing his chair in. “You should go home, back to your apartment. I’ve got some things to work on here.” She stood and slid past him to the door careful not to touch him as she squeezed by.
She covered the short distance back to her apartment building as quickly as she could. Hopeful that the tears would wait until she reached the solace of her room, she avoided contact with everyone in the lobby as she made her way to the elevator and climbed to the twenty-second floor. She was slightly distracted by the amount of messages she was receiving on the IAC, and though many of them were positive, she decided to turn it off. It would be better if she simply did not think about tonight’s events at all.
After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator door finally opened. Stepping out of the elevator, she was surprised to see Christian leaning against her apartment door. He was still wearing the same clothes he had on for the hunt. He looked almost as despondent as she felt, and even though she was in no mood to discuss the events that had transpired, she was happy to see him.
As she approached, he opened his arms and she let him envelope her, burying her head in his chest, her tears held back only by sheer will power. He smelled of leather and a slight hint of cigarette smoke, something Cadence had never noticed before. Perhaps her renegade actions had driven him to lighting up. His arms were strong and she felt solace in his embrace.
After a few moments, he spoke, concern and sympathy evident in his tone. “You holding up?” he asked, gla
ncing down at her.
Cadence pulled back a step but he did not loosen his grip around her. “I’ll be alright,” she said, hoping it was true.
“Good,” he replied. “What you did out there tonight was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. To think that it wasn’t completely appreciated makes me furious. I just wanted to make sure you are alright, that Aaron didn’t tear you down, too much, and to let you know that I, for one, am convinced that you are a super-hero.”
She had to smile at that last bit. She didn’t feel like a super-hero, not right now anyway. “Thank you,” she said, using the same quiet tone he had spoken in. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support.”
It was getting late and Cadence was tired. She was also very aware that Aaron could return to his apartment at any moment, and while she honestly didn’t care if he saw her talking to Christian or not, she was not prepared to have to see him again so soon. She tried pulling away again and this time Christian allowed her to, still keeping his hand on her hip. She dug in her pocket for her key, absently thinking about how much easier it would be when they updated the lock on her door, inserted the key and pushed the door slightly ajar.
Fully aware of Christian’s hand caressing her side, she hesitated for a brief second, knowing that inviting him in would complicate matters. Yet, she was certainly attracted to him, and it was getting more difficult by the minute to send him away. Taking a deep breath, she asked, “Would you like to come in for a few minutes?”
In reply, he leaned forward, bring his lips down on hers hungrily. With one hand, he pushed open the door, gently guiding her inside of the apartment with the other. He continued to kiss her, leading her over to the couch, not bothering to turn on the light, releasing her only long enough to allow her to drop down on the sofa and then joining her, finding her lips again.
Cadence quickly found herself breathless. Her mind was already cloudy with the events of earlier, and she found it much simpler to let her body respond, rather than lending any thought to what was happening. As his mouth explored her neck, her earlobe, she became extremely aware of his hands. She was hesitant, having only been intimate with Jack, she wasn’t sure that she was ready to take her relationship with Christian so far within the first few days. In fact, until this very moment, he had been nothing to her but an attractive friend. Now, with his lips caressing the nape of her neck, she realized she had a decision to make, one she needed to make rather quickly.
