She stood on the balcony of the apartment overlooking the city. She had so many questions, so much she needed to know. The city sat there, glittering in the night, oblivious to her problems, offering her nothing.
She was tired of never being heard. It had all started so long ago, when she and Adam had first gotten together. There had been no understanding from either of their families for a very long time, and some would never get to that point, she knew. Then it had escalated, with Adam keeping secrets from her. Now here she was, in a foreign country where she didn't speak the language and couldn't read the signs, where she knew exactly two people, neither of whom could help her.
Although she had been distant recently, she knew she could ask Doris what to do. But Doris would tell her to go home for Steve's and the others' sakes. Oddly enough, she could sense that Doris' advice would be to return to her family.
But Adam was a part of her family now too. And she knew what he'd say if she brought up these concerns to him. Besides, he had already made his position on the whole matter quite clear.
And deep down she supposed she knew her position on it too. But while she could see to a point miles ahead of her, she couldn't even currently tell where she was standing. She had no idea how to get from one point to the other. But she knew she couldn't continue on like this for much longer.
As she thought of the considerable dilemma she had landed herself in, the city sparkled unchanging beneath her.
Steve watched the sunrise from his living room window. He drank his coffee, went for a run, got ready, and left for work as he always did. Only things were not as they always were.
He tried to bury what had happened underneath a deep layer of staying busy. He took Catherine out on dates. He spent time with his friends. He went on so many runs through the deep forests and across the beaches that he collapsed at the end of the day due to exhaustion. He fixed everything he could around the house even though nothing really needed it. He couldn't fix the one thing that was really broken though.
He hadn't even noticed he was doing it that first morning, but by now, two months later, it had become customary. Instead of taking his usual route to work he now drove past Kono's house instead, which was only slightly out of his way, or so he told himself. Her car sat in front of it since her leaving, untouched. The curtains were closed and provided him no sign of life beyond them. He knew she'd call if she returned, or he'd hear it from Chin, but he always wanted to make sure for himself first. Even if he told himself he was just checking on her house for her.
He had thought that her dating Adam would be the most rebellious thing they could ever expect from her. He had been wrong, obviously. If he had known that one day her relationship would lead to her getting shot, to fleeing the country with Adam for his safety, he would have done more to prevent it. Hell, he would have done more than nothing, which was what he had done. He had told himself it wasn't his place, that she was an adult who could make her own decisions, and that it could never really go that far, could it?
He felt like he was just meeting her on the beach for the first time and had blinked, and this kid he was so used to having around was now an adult who was gone.
He didn't deal well with people leaving. First his mother, then his father, then, to a certain extent, his sister, who visited occasionally, usually long enough for them to argue about something, and disappeared again. Catherine too, even though it was always for work, so he could understand that a little better. But Kono? No. He expected her to be there the way he expected Chin to be dependable or Danny to rant at him over nothing. And now she was gone, and he didn't know how to deal with it. So he stayed busy, and he drove past her house every morning, and he did his best to not look at her empty office at work, the final reminder of his day that she really was gone.