Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Hey, are you ok?” Stacia’s concerned voice cut through Melody’s thoughts like a needle through fabric. Startling her out of the stupor she’d fallen into, she’d accidentally stabbed her finger with the seam ripper held in her hand.

Melody drew in a hissing breath as she quickly dropped the garment on the table before she got blood on the fabric. “I’m sorry, what?” she asked absently, her tone perhaps a bit annoyed even though she didn’t mean for it to sound that way. Her gaze never meet Stacia’s as she got up from her chair to get a napkin or Kleenex to press against the stupid wound.

“I asked if you were ok, you were just sitting there staring at the outfit.” At a closer glance it might have appeared she was looking through it at something not physically there but Stacia knew her friend well enough. “Somethin’ on your mind?” she poked cautiously, “Trouble in paradise maybe?”

“...No.” Melody’s reply was delayed long enough for her statement to be taken with a brick of salt and grain of doubt. “Everything’s fine,” but not, and she knew that Stacia would see right through her white lie.

Melody sighed, finally looking up at her work bestie, shoulders sagging in weary defeat. “It’s complicated,” she finally admitted truthfully. “But we’re working through it,” kind of…

“Whoever said relationships were easy was a bald-faced liar. But if Harvey’s worth fighting for, don’t give up. Wait here…” Stacia turned away from the workstation and disappeared down the hallway where the breakroom was located. Though Melody had no idea why she’d left, it did give her a moment to herself to consider the dull, lingering ache that had settled uncomfortably next to her heart.

Never had she felt loss so acutely as when Harvey had disappeared before her. Not even when her mother went missing and was presumed dead, she was too young at the time to realize the gravity of those words, and both her brothers and their father had done all they could to make sure she was mostly unaffected by her absence.

Fortunately, he came back, but not unchanged.

Harvey was still the same physically, but to be so close yet emotionally out of reach. Melody didn’t know if she should give Harvey space or if she should hold onto him tightly, if only to remind him that he was still alive and there were people here who cared about him, even if they weren’t privy to what had happened with the Calamitous Hallow.

He’d dived into work, filling his days presumably to keep busy so he didn’t think about what he’d experienced and the gravity of what his absence would have meant to her… to his mother… to Desiree.

“Here,” Melody blinked, her eyes focusing on the first aid kit that Stacia had gone to retrieve.

“Thank you…” she accepted the little blue plastic box and opened it in her lap. From it she took out one of the wipes and a band-aid, then passed the kit back to her friend. “We’re both kind of going through our own things, and I’m struggling with how to be supportive.” Before, it’d been easy, but now she just… was full of self-doubt and wasn’t sure how to navigate the reality of death and grief derived from absence.

“I wish I had an answer for you,” Stacia reached out and placed a gentle hand on her friend's knee.

Before she could add more to that statement, the phone on Melody’s workstation vibrated indicating she’d received a text. She reached for it, and true to form, Stacia leaned over after Melody had unlocked the screen.

“You two are so cute it’s disgusting,” Stacia smirked, a small chuckle escaped her as she shook her head. “Both thinkin’ bout each other in the middle of the workday… worrying… Yeah, he’s a keeper.” She waved her hand in a motion like she was telling Melody to get going. “Go take a break, or the rest of the day off if you need to. We’re not critically behind, so do what you need to do.”

Melody seemed to hesitate, but eventually nodded her head. “Thank you.”

She then began typing a reply to Harvey,