Vanessa doesn't even bother changing the channel back to her anime, ever since Kyro left she been stuck here pacing. She takes a glance at the door, if a client came in they assume she's crazy. She have to come up with so excuse for her worry like, she waiting to hear back about a sister in surgery. Even if she knows she doesn't have sister. Then she has to kick them up, and write down the lie just in case they came back. Can't get caught up in her lies. She knows it's not healthy to creating all these hypothetical but one can never be too vigilant, especially dealing with someone as supernatural as Kyro.
And it isn't just that paranoia of someone coming in that bothers her. It is also the fact that Kyro is close to danger and she is here, stuck and unable to help him. She knows she would only be a hindrance in that car, logically is aware of that. Aware that there was no way she could have helped him there. There was not even a way for her in Poland, it was too dangerous as he said. However, she can't help but wish that she was there with him now, providing backup. She is his partner and they work best together.
Seeing the car swerve off the road makes her grip the chair in fear and anticipation. That has to be Kyro's doing. She watches the car disappear, hidden by the trees. The police cars miss the sudden turn and continue forward on the road. It's going to take them a bit to turn around and catch up to the car.
The News helicopter isn't as slow, immediately trying to follow the car, but the canopy is too thick to see what is going down on the ground. Then, seconds later, smoke starts rising from one part of the forest, a clear signal. The camera is on it at once, tracking it, but again they are still unable to see what is happening.
Vanessa's knuckles turn white as she clenches down harder. The clock on the wall slowly ticks away but as each moment passes no new information is given on the screen, just the smoke slowly disappearing. The camera instead focuses on the arrival of a firetruck at the scene and the movement of a police officer entering the forest. All worthless information in her eyes as none involve her friend.
Her eyes are glued to the screen but she still manages to catch the door to the office slowly creaking open. She scrambles for the TV remote, muting the remote and preparing her preset lie. Finally, releasing her death grip on her chair, she puts on a pleasant smile and looks towards the door to greet the newcomer.
It's slightly open, but no one pushes it further. No one steps into the office. She frowns in confusion. Someone had to have opened the door, there is no way it could have opened itself. Unless it was a ghost haunting their office, but she is sure she would have noticed one during all of these years working here.
She steps up towards the door, pulls it open herself and pokes her head into the hallway. There is no one. The frown on her face deepens. It could have been a prank, she thinks and shrugs, going back inside and making sure to close the door.
However, before she can sit in her chair to continue watching the News, she trips over something that hadn't been there before. Something that meows loudly once she kicks it. Looking down, she confirms that it is in fact mister Snuggles, looking at her with sad eyes.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. I keep telling you to not get in the way when people are walking or you'll get hurt." Vanessa scolds the orange tabby cat as she bends down and picks him up. He starts purring the moment she starts petting his fur. She coos at him.
"You must have been lonely with everyone out of the office, haven't you? I know, I've also been lonely. Come on. Let's see what Kyro is doing. Hopefully not causing a lot of trouble, or I'm going to get grey hairs from worrying. I'm too young to become grey." She tells Snuggles, and he meows back as if agreeing with her. She grabs the remote with one hand as she settles down in her chair again, cat in her lap.
"What is happening, come on." She mumbles as her leg bounces showing how nervous she is, disturbing Snuggles in his attempt at sleep while she flicks through the channels. "If anything happens to you Kyro, I swear I'll- " She doesn't get to finish her threat as she finally manages to find the correct one. The screen is now showing the anchor in the studio.
"We have just been informed that Charon and Marie Reed are safe. The ambulance is checking them for any injuries as we speak. We will have more updates on this situation for you all soon. In other news..." The anchor drones on, but Vanessa isn't paying attention to her anymore. They are safe. Kyro managed to get them out somehow.
She pushes up from her chair and strides over to the door of the lab. Vanessa doesn't need any audible cue to know when Kyro is back after a mission. She knows he is back once the job is done and right now she needs to check in on him.
She puts Snuggles back down in the hallway. He immediately tries to get back inside, but she is having none of it. "Snuggles, listen, I can't play with you right now okay. But I promise I will later. And I'll even bring in your favourite treat tomorrow. How does that sound?" The cat stares at her for a second, before turning around and strutting down the hall. Probably looking for Chris to target him next.
She shakes her head at the cat's antics, before she runs back inside and straight to the crime lab. Kyro is, luckily, already putting his gear away into the safe when she pokes her head through the door, and not half naked. Not that she hasn't seen him naked before. A long and close friendship like theirs tends to include several accidents like that, but she still tries to avoid it if she can.
Kyro doesn't turn around when she enters, closing the door behind her. He just keeps staring at the safe he just locked up, face blank, thoughts probably miles and miles away. Her shoulders sag, hating to see him so defeated. She has suspicions about what is causing him to behave like this. They've been friends for so long and she can almost always read him like an open book, even when he tries to hide.
A distraction, that's what he needs. That's the only way to bring his thoughts back to the present, so she does her best, clears her throat before starting to talk.
"Did you cover your tracks?" Is the first thing that pops into her brain, and she blurts it out immediately. She does actually need to know, worried about his safety making her itch.
"Hello, Kyro. It's nice to see you again. How has your day been?" He does a poor impersonation of her, turns around to look at her, eyes no longer unfocused. She is glad to see that but she doesn't mention it, just scoffs at his comment instead.
"Oh please, we saw each other not even an hour ago. And I already know how your day has been. A lot of other people know too since it was pretty much all over the News." Vanessa goes for casual, like she didn't just spend the last eternity agonizing over his safety, wondering if he were going to come back out of that car alive.
"Fine, fine, have it your way. Yes, I covered my tracks, just like I always do."
"Except when I do it for you." Vanessa points out.
"Except when you do it for me, yes, that is also true." He concedes.
"Did anyone else see you?"
"Apart from the two of them and the dead guy? No, no one else saw me." She nods at his answer, pleased, but now another question eats at her.
"He's dead then? You killed him?"
"Well the two of them were gagged, tied and blindfolded in the back so, unless another person teleported in and killed him while I wasn't looking, then yeah it was me." He snaps at her.
"Kyro!" His anger almost instantly diminishes at the reprimand, as well as at the sight of her hurt face. He doesn't want to snap at her, but he is angry. Mostly just angry at himself.
"You know I worry." She says gently and he nods, mutters a quiet „Sorry" at her, which she easily accepts. "What happened exactly? They couldn't show it properly on the TV. The helicopter camera couldn't catch what was happening underneath the trees."
"He's still in the car. Well, his body is. I killed him. I teleported to the passenger seat and then I killed him. There was no other choice. Everything else was too risky. And he was-" He starts to defend himself, but Vanessa stops him before he can go on.
"I get it. I know. You weren't the only one who recognized him from the photo they showed. I know you hate taking a life and that you would only do it if you had to." She reassures him, staring at him hard, willing him to accept that she isn't judging him for his choices, that she believes he did the right thing. When he nods, she continues her questioning. "What did you do with the weapon?"
"I gave it to the mother, told her to pretend she was the one who killed the kidnapper. She didn't seem to have a problem with that. Honestly, I think she could have really killed him herself if she had had the means to do it. And if she hadn't been tied up too." He comments with a frown.
"Do you think the women are going to reveal what you did?Tell anyone you have powers that are beyond anything any other human can do?" She starts biting her nail after she asks, a bad habit she can never break. In the past, before she met Kyro, she never had any nervous habits like that. But she also didn't have anyone to be nervous about, like she has now with Kyro.
"They won't say anything."
"Are you sure?" She asks, needing the additional confirmation to settle down the anxiety making her squirm.
"Yeah I'm sure. Their eyes were covered for the most part, so they can't actually confirm what I've done anyway. And once I released them, the daughter was too scared to see or realize much of what was happening around her, and the mother was too grateful that I helped save her daughter to reveal it to anyone." Kyro answers, sure of himself and of the two women.
"Well then, this ended in the best way it could have. Now, tell me how you feel?"
"I feel like I don't know if I should have killed him. Do you think I should have killed- "
"I meant physically." She interrupts him before he spirals down into more "what-ifs" and "could-have-beens". "I know you well enough to know how you feel mentally right now."
"I feel fine." He says, but he doesn't sound very convinced of that himself. Vanessa looks him up and down, assessing him. Kyro is standing a bit straighter now, not as slumped as he was when she first walked in, but she still doesn't like what she sees. She doesn't like that she can see all of that weight pressing down on her best friend's shoulder as he struggles to bear it.
"I can't see my best friend in front of me. All I can see is a cheap zombie replacement." She grins at him, teasing, and he smiles back, small, but it's still worth something. „You really do need to head home now and rest up." She starts pushing him towards the door as she says that, not even waiting for his retort.
"I have been moving non-stop for the past week." Kyro agrees.
"The past month you mean. But if we're really being honest, I don't think you've stopped a day since you were born. You don't know how to relax." Vanessa jabs at him, her bony elbow jabbing into his ribs. He only grins wider at it.
"Do you plan on going to see Terry?" She inquires.
"I do have to solve this case."
"I'll take that as a yes then. After sleep though." He nods, accepting her words for the order that it is, as she gives him a final push out the door.
"Hey, Vanessa." Kyro turns around from the office door to stare at her. She looks up at him. Kyro gives her a light grin, "I missed you."
"I missed you too, Kyro." Vanessa responds with her own grin.