Kai stood at the front door and stretched as he looked out. It was a beautiful place and it would have been a perfect retreat for Melody. He wondered again as he had countless times the night before which scenario came first: Had the Society been told of the team’s arrival and that’s why they were surrounding the woods around the cabin, or did they know of Melody’s presence and had been watching her when they discovered S.W.A.T.’s arrival? 

     He was used to having their surveillance compromised the more embedded it seemed their mole was getting. The idea that it had been for her, though, and what they could have been planning sent a chill across his skin. 

     He’d looked through her file again that morning and the pictures of the assault. They’d seen worse from the corpses of the young girls the cult had killed, but Melody’s attack was close to what they’d suffered. He wondered again how she had lived these last few months with the scars on her body and in her mind. 

     He walked back inside and watched his team check and clean their weapons. He picked up the file from a table where he’d left it the night before. He flipped through the pages until it came to her personal information. 

     His team had been impressed with her scholastic history and had even suggested she could help them to decipher symbols they had found on more of the monoliths. He knew she was capable. It was if she would want to or be emotionally capable that were the real questions. 

     “Hey, Neal!” called out Jack as he looked through the window. “Is it doe season?” 

     Kai and the others looked out as Jack quietly opened the door. 

     “I didn’t bring my bow,” Neal replied as he joined them. “Whoa! She’s beautiful,” he remarked as the visiting doe slowly approached the steps. 

     Before anyone could react, Melody ran past them screaming, “Nooo!” 

     She had just set her plates outside of her door with no intention of seeing them when she heard the remark about hunting. She looked up in time to see them looking out and remembered the doe she’d been feeding each morning. 

     Kai and the team stared as she stood on the steps between them and the deer with her arms held out as if to shield her. 

     “Leave her alone!” she frantically yelled. “Don’t you dare hurt her! She’s done nothing to you!” 

     She took another step backward until she was in the soft grass. She was barefoot and still in her night clothes but didn’t seem to care. 

     “Easy, Melody,” Kai called out as he stepped to the end of the porch. 

     He glanced around the tree line and knew he had to get her to come inside before someone hiding in the woods could take her. 

     “Don’t!” Melody screamed. “Leave her alone! She’s scared and she knows you want to hurt her!” 

     Kai watched as Melody looked around for the doe. The deer had already bounded into the forest. He didn’t miss the way Melody’s words sounded more aimed at herself than the deer, and his heart began to ache at her pain. 

     “No one’s going to hurt her,” he calmly promised.  

     He gave a quick glance back at his men who had joined him on the porch. 

     “We won’t hurt her, ma’am,” Mateo promised. 

     “Come back up here with us,” Kai coaxed, trying to remain patient through his growing concern. “You have my word, no will hurt her or you.” 

     Melody wiped away her tears with her sleeve and remembered she was still in her night clothes. She wanted to get dressed, but she was still afraid for the safety of the deer. 

     She watched Kai look around. When she saw him looking behind her, she had thought he was looking for the deer. As he scrutinized the surroundings more, she realized she was probably in danger. 

     She looked behind herself one last time to be certain the deer was gone. Then she put down her arms and folded them modestly in front of her chest. 

     The men backed away inside as she started to walk up the steps. Kai moved aside for her to go in, but she went to the swing, instead. He watched as she sat at one end and curled her legs up beside her. She wiped away a few more tears, and he wondered what she was doing. Certainly, she would know it was dangerous. 

     When she glanced toward him, he furrowed his brow in question. It looked like a beckoning glance, as if perhaps she wanted to talk. He stepped inside and grabbed the file from the table. 

     “What do you want us to do?” asked Paul. “I’m assuming you’re gonna see if she has anything to help our case. Do you need your phone?” 

     Kai looked at the table where he’d, also, left his phone and shook his head. “The homicide detectives did the same thing. I don’t think she’ll talk if she’s being recorded again. Just stay inside and monitor the perimeter. I’ll try not to be too long. And get an update on that backup,” he said as he neared the door.