The rest of that evening’s shift was spent with the three men going over every possible scenario they could come up with, followed by a possible response Hunter might be able to perform. 

With a half an hour to go before sunrise, Hunter and Kai returned home. Hunter was visibly, understandably nervous. Even Annabelle was aware of it. As the two men sat at the foot of their bed, the cat leapt up and rested her head gingerly on Hunter’s thigh, purring heavily. He absently stroked her head.

“I know how anxious you have to be feeling,” Kai said. “But I believe in you. You’ve got this.”

“We have absolutely no idea what kind of ‘this’ I’ll be walking into,” Hunter countered. “All the planning and ‘what if’ scenarios we came up with could be worthless once I get inside.”

“True, but,” Kai said, tenderly taking one of Hunter’s hands and clasping it tightly in his, “I’ve watched how you work these past months. Even when it’s combing through paperwork or walking through an apartment, you have a knack for picking up details. You think logically, but you allow for the unorthodox. And that’s what you’re going into - a strange, unorthodox situation. As long as you keep that situational awareness about you… I think you’ll do fine.”

Hunter saw the slightest of twitches in Kai’s eyes as he spoke. “And you’re not worried about what will happen.”

“I’m petrified,” Kai said with a small, sad smile. “But there’s precious little I can do about it until night falls again. Which reminds me, do you have the anklet the lab made?”

“Yeah.” Hunter lifted his right leg. An anklet that appeared to be made of braided brown leather strips hung gently at the ankle.

“Good. Remember, it’s an impact-sensitive beacon. Inside one of the braids is a gyroscope that measures your pace. If you happen to get into a scrape of some sort - fall down, hit something - it’ll go off and transmit a silent panic signal to HQ. They’ll mobilize the team getting set up near the InnerCore building.”

“Right,” Hunter said. “Love… you’ll be going to sleep here in a few and I’ll be heading off to InnerCore. Could we just spend it… quietly?”

Kai nodded. His features were already going dull and the shadow of his veins began to appear. He shifted up in the bed and got under the covers. Hunter got up to set the thermostat to Kai’s preferred sleep temperature… 58 degrees. He then rounded the bed and climbed onto his side, wrapping an arm around Kai. They laid there, embracing in silence until Kai had succumbed to his death-sleep. Hunter gently climbed out of bed again. He looked at his phone. 8 a.m. 

He crossed to the bedroom door, turning out the lights as he opened the door. He took a final look at his partner, resting peacefully in bed.

“I hope I see you again, love,” he whispered, more to himself than to Kai. “Sooner, rather than later.”