The next day Celeste was back to her normal routine, although the nasty scar on her eye spoke otherwise. Camille may be a crazy cat-lady witch but she knew her stuff, as no hard pain followed from the day before, only slight aches from when she moved her eyes too suddenly. Her thoughts continued their radio silence as the day progressed but she supposes that eye-trauma can shut anyones mind up for a while, even hers. The rest of the day consisted of updating the “murder board” as Lily liked to call it, with different leads she spent the last few hours finding. She sat in silence with Jack as he read his book, another sci-fi he picked up the other day. With each flip of the page he fell deeper into the story, the headphones on his ears echoing a soft beat. 

Ever since it became clear that Jack’s mother was not planning on returning, they made quick work in moving the lease over to their names. The upgrade from the couch was a plus, especially since she finally had her own room— all her different collections finally finding a home, different band posters littered her walls, echoed by her mcr poster that hung above her bed- watching over her every night. Sharing rooms with different foster siblings every few months always irritated her, the change in pace a constant she hadn't felt in forever. 

Her finger ran the scroll wheel through the document she had pulled up on their computer, red eyes scanning the words with blacked out names, until they landed on a familiar sur-name. Wallace. 

“Didn’t I beat up this guy’s brother?” She paused in her scrolling, that thought seeming much too loud and in the air than she intended. 

“Yeah, he was part of the goons from last week’s amazon hide-away right?” Jack responded from behind her, his headphones at his side while he was rummaged through the fridge for his signature yogurt snacks and she brushed it off as her tiredness as she continued scrolling, piecing together the revealed information. 

Her little slips kept on occurring, especially during mundane tasks: such as pouring her morning cereal, the words slipped as soon they entered her mind, “God, this blue is just like Lily’s hair.” The words were out in the open, and she could only pounder on it before smiling at her own thoughts, the colorful blue pieces did hold the same shade. And as she laid down to bed that night another thought made its way into the air, “I should set an alarm for tomorrow,” fingers already pulling up the clock app from her phone, it couldn’t be concerning if it was helping her. 

They’re consistency grew as days passed, any concern trampled as the occurrence melted its way into her daily routines,  “Music sounds nice about now,” Celeste was already popping in one of her cd’s, the drum intro flooding the room and every single one of her senses. 

“Yeah this is fine.” 

Mummering to herself before bed became a pattern, if she went over the next day's plan she would always manage to stick to it, no matter how tired she got near the end. The darkness of her room encompassed her, leaving her only with her now vocal thoughts, it was slipping past her mouth the moment it appeared in her mind, “I should find that Wallace guy tomorrow.” 

Her mind was set as she slept another dreamless night. 

True to her words, Celeste had found the guy fairly easily, mingling around where he shouldn’t, and with a quick roughing up— and hot flames to the face, Celeste was walking home with names and a meeting location in the next week. 

“That was kinda fun,” she was smiling along with her words, docs absorbing her landings as she hopped from rooftops. Jack was ecstatic to hear the newfound information, his compliments towards her improvement only brought more drive towards her flames. 

Her days consisted of a normal routine: wake up, eat, work a couple of hours at her nursing job, clock off then nightshift. It was consistent, even when the tiredness racked her bones to the point of her passing out as soon as her head hit the pillow. Her lunches and dinners with Jack were nice, they switched off cooks every other day, their convo’s growing more and more into newfound information and different missions. She couldn’t remember the last time she sat down and talked with Jack about anything other than work, but she wasn’t going to complain, especially with the progress they managed to make. 

And time continued, her own voice became a familiar sound and she would forget that it wasn’t just in her head. The constant flow of thoughts helped her figure out connections more easily, her decision making mostly a one and done deal half the time. She couldn’t find it in her to care much, even as her time with Jack slowly fizzled away, alongside with Lily who she hadn’t seen in who knows how long— probably a couple of weeks. Camille would find her late nights, making different potions that gave her enough energy during her late night missions. The small understanding from the woman became a nice presence when she arrived home at ungodly hours of the night. 

“I can just go straight after work.” There was hardly any fight in her mind after uttering the phrase. The progress was enough to note towards, her half-assed apologies accepted through a small smile from Jack, his freckles already losing their prominent darkness as fall continued on.