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"Your brother won't be happy if he hears you haven't been eating." Erica took a seat next to Myles. "Here, at least snack on something small." She handed him a bag of trail mix and a bottle of Gatorade from the vending machine. it wasn't the most healthy of options out there but it beat hospital food by a mile depending on location and day of the week.

She knew better than to try and convince him to get out of the waiting room and stretch his legs for a bit. "Those worry lines will become wrinkles if you're not careful." Erica nudged him with her elbow to try and pull him out of his stupor.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Myles." She leaned back in her chair and seemed to just deflate a bit after having such a long and, well to be frank, unusual kind of day.

"I'm just sorry that the other officers weren't taking your concern seriously. I would have expected more professionalism from them especially since Jeremy is one of our own." One of the hardest workers in their precinct, thinking back on it, she couldn't recall him ever taking a vacation since she was hired on. If he wasn't training new recruits then he was on patrol, and when he wasn't doing that there was the backlog of reports he was helping with. Married to his work, not that it was a bad thing.

"I honestly wish someone would have called me," She could have sworn that Jeremy had given Myles her number but if not she would fix that later.

Erica's eyes wondered around the empty room. "So," she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes."Do you want to explain to me what happened back there? With the slab..."

"Myles," her brows furrowed in concern as she turned in the chair to face him fully. "You're not under interrogation."

"I know you don't have much reason to trust me after all you went through. But I'd hope after all the years you've known me that you'd at least trust Jeremy's judgment in me." Erica was fairly certain that he wouldn't have gone on patrol with her as often as he had if he didn't believe she'd have his back. "I'm not looking to get you or your brother in trouble here. I just want to understand what's going on."

"Jeremy didn't seem surprised by it so I assume he already knows."

"First off, I don't think you're crazy."

"If anything I feel like I'm the one that's been going crazy. Monsters hiding in alleyways, people disappearing through mirrors. Not exactly things I can include in a report." Erica's expression seemed wary if not skeptical as if she half expected him to pull a Houdini on her. "I've run into guys wearing military uniforms with weapons you'd expect to see at a fantasy fair just disappear into thin air."

That was a difficult incident to explain when she got to the precinct, why she had discharged her firearm; wasn't exactly something that they easily turn the other cheek too. "So what differentiates you from them?"

It took many moments for Erica to process all that very pointed yet still ambiguous information. Dark outfits, military weapons, monsters; all indicators that the individual sides with this chaos but, as Myles clearly stated, it's not that black and white.

Good could be bad and bad could be good because apparently they could switch sides. The whole concept of what he was trying to explain was confusing and had she not of dealt with individuals like that first hand, Erica would have been completely lost.

"I think I'm kinda following." Felt like she was talking to a Cheshire or perhaps it was the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland; it had been so long since she last watched the movie that she couldn't recall which one spoke in circles and which one spoke in riddles, chances are it was both but that was besides the point. "Basically it comes down to a general rule of thumb; actions speak louder than words and non-military or non-dark colored outfits are ones that can usually be trusted but not always."

Fantastic.

"How long has Jeremy known that you can..."She squinted one eye at him, not too sure what exactly it was he did. "change outfits so quickly?" Ok, so it was definitely more than a quick costume switch but there was definitely a strength there that Myles didn't have when he looked like the boy she had put into a bullet proof vest.

“I understand wanting to help keep people safe. But you don’t have to put your life on the line to do so. That’s our job.” No doubt Jeremy had said similar words to him but it might help Myles to realize that it wasn’t just his older brother trying to be overbearing or tell him what to do.

“And as his partner, it is my job to keep him safe,” Erica added. “Believe me when I say I am truly sorry that I wasn’t here for him this time.” Had she not of been on vacation, this would have never happened. The first day he didn’t show up for work she would have gone looking, with or without her captain’s permission. Even now, she was still fuming inside that Myles’ concern wasn’t taken seriously and not enough was done to try and find Jeremy.

“I know It’s not something you want to hear, but I do understand your brother’s point of view, and he’s not wrong in thinking that way.” He’d spoken about it several times when they were on patrol together, but as of late the complaints were fewer and Erica wondered if Myles was the reason why. “Whether it is terrorists of vigilantes, both function under their own set of rules and it’s often the city, and its citizens, that pay the ultimate price.” Buildings collapsing, not to mention the influx of patients sent to the hospital in the aftermath of a more catastrophic event. Thankfully this year seemed to have calmed down significantly but there were still a few months left for things to go back to how they were.

“Trust must be earned, however, I hope that after almost three years you could believe me when I say that your secret is safe, Jeremy will be safe… I’ll talk to Drew to make sure he understands this as well.” She did worry that the hazing might get to him and something might slip by mistake. “We may not be family, but when I agreed to be Jeremy’s partner it wasn’t just to have his back or support him. If anything were to happen I would make sure you were taken care of.”

“He may not say it out loud but I suspect you’re one of the main reasons he works so hard.” Erica placed a hand on Myles’ knee and gave it a squeeze.

Erica’s expression shifted to a soft smile.

Even though Myles was a young adult, he still carried with him childlike tendencies. His innocence was evident and she believed that he was just trying to do the right thing. “You have nothing to be sorry about.” She reached up to muse his hair a bit then brushed his bangs out of his face. “He’s alive because you didn’t give up. You followed your gut and remained persistent. That’s truly an admirable quality, Myles.”

“You’re still young, with your whole life ahead of you. You’re going to make mistakes, that’s just a fact of life; we’re human, it’s how we learn. But as long as you understand and accept the consequences then don’t stop what you’re doing.” Jeremy would kill her for telling him that but there were worse things in this world that Myles could be involved in and she actually believed him when he said he was just trying to protect people. Unfortunately, as she recently learned firsthand, there are some battles she is not equipped to handle and there may come another time when he may be their only hope.