Chapter 6: To the Trees

"So, anyway, as I was saying," Elliott stated, returning to the conversation they had been involved in before Christian burst through the door, "we think Giovani and Zabrina may have entered the Amazonian rainforest. There's just no sighting of them after they landed in Peru. So, we are sending a team in to see if we can track them in there."

"In the rainforest?" Aaron asked, attempting to clarify.

"Yep, I know it sounds impossible, but we are giving it a shot," Elliott responded.

Aaron shook his head. "Wouldn't it make more sense to continue to monitor all major airports near the rainforest? They'll have to come out eventually, once they think the coast is clear."

"Well, of course we will continue to do that," Elliott replied. "But I don't want to just sit around do nothing while he's still out there." Aaron raised his eyebrows, causing him to further explain. "Okay, so I'm sitting around doing nothing... but my people need to keep working."

Aaron stifled a laugh. "You're not going down there yourself?"

"Hell, no," Elliott responded. "It's hot down there, damn hot. And the bugs are huge. No way am I going down there."

Aaron couldn't hold his laughter back any more. Of course, he knew Elliott wouldn't be headed to the Amazon any time soon. "All right. Keep me updated then."

"Sure thing. Any word on our number one bitch?" the burly man asked, scratching his head, his curly brown hair left disheveled but of little consequence to him.

Aaron shook his head. "Ever since she took the IAC out of her eye, there's been very little on the newsfeed about her. It's possible she was seen at an airport in Mobile a few days ago, but no one is sure it was her, and they didn't get any clean video."

"I still can't believe that is possible. I can't imagine having my IAC cut out of my eye..."

Aaron nodded in agreement, a baffled expression on his face.

"Is she still riding with Cowboy Sam?" Elliott asked, returning his focus to Laura's whereabouts.

"Hard to say," Aaron replied, leaning back in his chair, a look of defeat on his handsome face. He wasn't use to not knowing what was going on, and having Laura and Giovani on the run without being able to track them was beyond frustrating.

Elliott nodded his head slowly. He wasn't too surprised that there had been nothing to report. He was fairly certain the boss would keep him apprised of any new developments. After a few moments he said, "Well, it's getting late. Or early, depending upon how you want to look at it. I think I'll get back to my apartment, and see if anything interesting is happening in the world..."

"Tell her I said hello," Aaron replied. He wasn't fooled by Elliott's attempt at aloofness. He was aware that it had been a while since Elliott had spoken to Cadence, and there would be no other reason for his friend to be so vague about his intentions.

Dragging himself to his feet, Elliott stretched, feigning nonchalance, before adding, "You know, she'd probably be happy to hear from you. You could just pop in and say hi, how's it going, what's up, that sort of thing.”

Shaking his head, Aaron said, "I don't think she'd appreciate that."

"You never know. She hasn't said anything bad about you in at least a few weeks. I think she's starting to get over it."

"Highly doubtful," Aaron replied, absently toying with the perfectly straightened objects on his desk. "I made my choice--my horrible, horrible choice--and there's not much I can do now to fix it."

As much as Elliott heard the torment in his friend's voice, his comments abstracted a bit of a chuckle as he thought about how the result of Aaron's poor decision making had, at the very least, solved one problem for him. "At least Eliza's gone because of it," he mumbled as he made his way to the door. "Maybe it was worth it after all!" he yelled over his shoulder as he reached for the doorknob.

Aaron knew he was kidding, for the most part, but he also knew he would endure another hundred years with Eliza to have Cadence back. "Have a good night."

"You, too."

"And don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out."

"There it is," Elliott replied with a laugh, closing the door behind him.

Distracting himself by checking the newsfeed was one way to keep his mind off of the conversation they just had regarding Cadence, but the distraction didn't last too long, and for a moment he entertained the suggestion of checking in with her. The last few months had been almost impossible to endure. He hadn't spoken to Cadence since she'd left to deliver a ring to the parents of one of Jack Cook's victims. She hadn't told Aaron she was planning to leave for good the same day, and by the time he realized she intended to set off on this journey without telling him goodbye, it was too late. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to apologize and talk her into staying if he’d had the opportunity, but the possibility haunted him. He missed her almost more than he could bear.

What very few people truly realized was the extent of his involvement with Cadence. He had made a promise to her grandmother shortly after she was born to personally protect her at all costs. For years, he had watched over her himself, checking in with her several times a month. She never saw him, never knew he was there, but he watched her grow up from the shadows. It wasn't until she was a freshman in high school that he realized that the adorable little girl he had protected from afar for over a decade was becoming a young woman. Shortly thereafter, he grasped that his feelings for her were beginning to change as well. He removed himself from the situation immediately. After all, he had known her since she was in diapers. He assigned her care to another member of his team. He didn't see her again until that night at the Eidolon Festival when Cadence's friend Drew was swept away by the Vampire, Carter. Though he was hopeful that his infatuation had faded, he found out pretty quickly it had, in fact, grown. With Cadence, he was constantly waging a war within between the allegiance he had pledged to her family to protect her and his own attraction to her. It had become difficult to balance the two, and he had eventually determined he could do both. However, he had sabotaged that possibility himself twice now, and it wasn't likely he would get another opportunity to show her how he really felt.

Sighing, he rubbed his hands through his short brown hair and picked up the newsfeed from Nevada. He knew she was somewhere in the state and was hopeful that he would get to live vicariously through someone else for a bit just to have the opportunity to see her face for a few moments. Unfortunately, when he realized precisely whom he would be living through, it did very little to alleviate his pain.