When Xavier and Nate returned to Elias's apartment, they must have seen at a glance that the atmosphere had shifted. The joy of the return was gone, replaced only by the horror of all the revelations.

Although Adrian and Eli tried to offer the rescued pair some distraction in the form of movies and conversations about what had changed in the world of cinema, celebrities, or gossip over the past year, everyone remained aware that it was only a temporary pause from the real problem. None of them could fully relax.

“What did we miss?” Nate asked. His tone wasn't as light as usual, but he was clearly trying to provide some level of normalcy despite the circumstances. 

No one answered. 

Perhaps they didn't know where to start, or perhaps they simply didn't want the rest of the team to feel the same desperation they did.

In the end, it was Adrian who broke the silence, which was joined by a confused Nate and Xavier, whose face didn't betray what he was feeling inside. 

“Can we go next door for a moment?”

Without waiting for an answer, he stood up and headed toward Eli's bedroom. Nate and the team leader followed him automatically, though the brunet cast one last quick look toward the others on the couch, as if checking what they thought of it.

Jamie understood that Adrian had decided to get them up to speed without having to repeat all the painful facts directly in front of the people they concerned most. 

The hero in glasses was grateful to him for that.

Before he could think more about what was happening behind closed doors, Elias regained his full attention by sitting closer to him. Jamie could feel his warmth along his entire arm and leg where their bodies touched. 

Green eyes automatically sought warm brown ones.

This time, Elias didn’t offer any words of reassurance, but instead gave him a gentle smile, and Jamie caught himself returning it.

While Adrian was taking care of his physical health, Eli was keeping him from another mental breakdown, and for that he was grateful.

After the past few hours, during which both heroes had made sure that Jamie and Creed weren’t alone for even a second, it seemed that even the stranger had become less guarded in their presence and dared to relax.

At least something positive in a sea of bad news.

Silence continued in the room until movement sounded from the next room and footsteps followed after the door opened.

To Jamie’s surprise, the medic and the team leader headed toward the couch, but Nate went the other way and left the apartment before Jamie could ask where he was going.

“He'll be right back,” Xavier assured him, noticing his look. He sat down on the couch with them, taking the same section as Adrian and Creed. It seemed the brown-eyed hero was the only other person the stranger tolerated near him, albeit at a safe distance. The same couldn't be said for the team leader, even though there was another person between them.

“I hope you got some rest.” The words of the oldest man in the room didn’t seem directed only at the two rescued men, but also at the other two heroes.

“We did,” Jamie assured him, not trying to cause any more trouble.

Xavier’s look made it clear he saw through his lie, as he always did, but fortunately he didn’t comment on it.

“Did you manage to arrange for us to work from here?” Elias took over the conversation and steered it in a different, more practical direction.

Xavier nodded, but then immediately added, “Tomorrow one of us still has to go there. Nate found out he’ll need more than one laptop. But after that, we’ll be fully based here.”

“And what about patrol? Do you want to make a new schedule?”

The blond’s question made Jamie wonder whether there was something more behind it. Maybe he didn’t want any of them to be alone, but at the same time it seemed Xavier was determined to take on this responsibility himself, and Eli noticed that too.

“We’ll come up with some kind of system,” the team leader assured him. Even though he wasn’t the tallest on the team, nor the one with the biggest muscles—that was still Nate, who had access to a gym even at school—he still had the voice with the strongest authority, so very rarely did anyone argue with him.

Despite that, Eli didn't give up on the questions. “What about today?”

“We’ll work something out,” Xavier said. “But you’re staying here. With Jamie.” There was something in his look Jamie couldn’t quite read, because it felt like there was more behind his words, but it lasted only a moment before it disappeared. 

Moreover, he did not investigate it further since his attention was quickly caught by Nate, who had returned, and the dark-haired hero immediately recognized the object in his hands.

“We had an idea,” were the words with which the brunet handed him the notebook. Jamie took it immediately and with a quick flip through realized that unlike in his memory, there were no blank pages that had mysteriously disappeared.

“We tried to solve the last cases you had noted down,” Adrian took over the explanation. “Amelia Ross was one of them. Unfortunately, out of the three open cases, we were only able to close one.”

Jamie lacked his last memories, so he flipped to the last written pages to refresh his mind. Amelia’s case was the last one entered; a few pages earlier was a cyber-attack case, and before that…