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not quite first time at equinox

"You'd think a tea shop would be on your radar Jeremiah.." Algie chuckled, following the detective into the shop. It wasn't like Jeremiah had much time to shop with work and everything else, the two of them not even having had time to go out together in months aside from their weekend football matches at Darlene's.

"Hullo Eve.." Eve was given a wave of the hand and a smile, the knowledge of one another still in the realm of casual and pleasant acquaintance. The last purchase he'd made was well and gone at this point and it was time to restock.

prophecy

"Hey, Mercer?" said a haggard and subdued Leila one afternoon at the police department. She'd taken a few sick days after they'd returned from their nightmare with Autumn in Other Ashdown, but her return made the offices no less quiet -- normally her presence meant a steady stream of brightness and laughter as she consulted people or chatted with them in the hallway. Now she was looking at the detective with a curious squint, as if the eye contact was triggering the onset of a migraine.

"So... when you jump... you're going to want to jump again, right after that, even though there isn't a foothold."

It was a shaky sequence of still images, burned into her mind's eye, that wouldn't leave until she described them to him. The same thing had happened earlier in the morning, just do the far left side, all the way down, with an officer who had a known habit of buying scratch cards.

prophecy

Jeremiah had likewise taken a couple sick days. It had taken longer than he liked to admit to warm back up properly and longer still for the pain to fade back down to levels where he could work without wanting to ...

Not going to think about it.

"Afternoon, Townhome, have a seat." Business as usual, otherwise it would have been Leila. He raised his eyes up from his desk and withheld the frown he wanted to let show. She looked like felt inwardly. Yet the information ...

"I'm going to want to do what?" He could not have heard her right but ... what? "Is that even possible?"

first time at equinox

"You get the Kenyan-" Algie was always resistant to change, no matter how much he trusted Eve's judgement, "I'll get the normal haul. It's all going to the same place anyway."

It hadn't been announced that they were living together now but both seemed to be easing into the sharing of that information with friends and relatives very slowly.

prophecy

"Yeah, it's already clearing up. Thanks for humoring me." Leila sighed with some relief, resting on hand at the desk while reaching down with the other to retrieve something she'd placed on the floor. "That's not why I stopped in, though, believe it or not. Remember how I was kind of a pushy a*****e a while back? I never got around to properly apologizing... so Eve and I got you a little something."

She produced a deep purple gift bag, which had a tea set for two -- a nicely sized teapot along with a pair of matching cups -- as well as a small jar of clementine marmalade. "Yeah, so, sorry for forgetting my boundaries back then. This is also to commemorate your new living arrangement, by the way."

Oh yes, they'd noticed the rings. Of course they had.

prophecy (with gifts)

Jeremiah blinked and Leila was treated to a brief pleasantly surprised look on his face before it flickered away into something more appropriate for work. The detective lieutenant had an image to maintain and all.

"To be fair, there was a lot going on that I couldn't talk about that you're now are of ..." He waved a hand to show that it was water under the bridge. Jeremiah was leaning forward to take the purple gift bag and opened it up.

Leila Townhome was further treated to a rare sight: the silver-haired man's cheeks turning the faintest bit ruddy red. It was faint and faded but it had been there as he carefully handled the present.

"Ah," he started and then smiled - a bit stupidly, happily - at her. "No apologies needed and I like the gift. I'm sure Alg will too." Jeremiah looked towards her and that smile was still there. "Thank you, Leila." Not Townhome, not at this moment. There was a distinction.

the hand-off (not to be confused with the foot-off *bricked*)

Jeremiah had come prepared with something that would be able to carry Heliodora's severed foot back to his own home for storage. It was still something he was uncomfortable with keeping hidden (and they both had written up reports of the entire incident by this point).

"My apologies that I did not do this sooner." His eyes flicked towards Leila and then back to what she was doing. "I wasn't expecting to lose a week's worth of memories."