Kay slowly walked down the hall, heading for his room after having spent the last three hours with Zed at the mortuary making the arrangements for Elle's funeral and burial. This all felt like a dream to him but why couldn't he wake up from it?

"Kay?" he heard a voice call. He turned to find Aileen coming down the hall towards him, a sad expression on her face. What in the world was she doing there? She hadn't contacted him to let him know that she was going to be in the area.

"Kay, I heard about Elle. I'm so sorry. I know she was a good friend," Aileen whispered as she reached out taking his hand.

"She was a good agent," Kay murmured as he looked down, willing himself not to show his emotions, not here in the middle of the hall. "We're all going to miss her."

"Here," Aileen said. She recognized the mask that Kay had put on, how hard he was trying to fight his emotions. She reached out, pushing the door to his room open and leading him in. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not much to say," Kay said as he walked over to the couch and dropped down onto it with Aileen coming over and sitting beside him. "Elle wasn't at rollcall this morning. Zed sent me to check on her. I came in and found her stiff and cold on the floor."

"How did she die?" Aileen asked gently. She hated to see Kay like this. Although he gave no outward signs, she could tell by the look in his eyes how much pain he was in. She reached out and took his hand again. She knew all too well how hard it was to loose someone, remembering what she had felt when her old partner had been killed by the inanimate.

"Choked on a sandwich," Kay murmured as he shook his head. "You know, I was going to stop by to talk to her about a case but I decided to wait until morning. Didn't want to disturb her." He forced down a sob as he thought of it. "If I had just stopped by she would still be here!"

"Kay, you couldn't have known," Aileen told him.

"I should have known! I could have saved her! I knew exactly what to do but.... A lot of good that did her. I was sleeping while she was in her room dying!"

"Kay, this is not your fault!" Aileen said as she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. "If you could have done something to save Elle, I know you would. This is just one of those horrible things that happens sometimes. Please don't blame yourself. I'm sure that isn't what Elle would have wanted."

Kay shook his head, trying to get control again. He knew that Aileen was right but it was still too hard to think of what had happened rationally. He forced his thoughts to turn from Elle. He couldn't deal with that know. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Working a case. Some aliens for the Haradi System raided Arbis a couple of weeks ago. Got a lead that they might be heading here." Aileen told him. If Kay didn't want to talk about Elle right now, she wasn't going to push the issue.

"Haradi? Aren't they...."

"Graverobbers. Right. They did quiet a bit of damage."

"Need some help with this?"

"Kay, I don't know if that's such a good idea right now with what happened to Elle so fresh," Aileen told him.

"I can't just set around here thinking about it. The work will be good," Kay told her with a persuasive look. "So, what data do you have on them? Any patterns to the raids?"

Aileen sat back on the couch with a sigh before beginning to recite what she knew about the Haradi attacks. She still wasn't sure this was a good idea, especially considering the nature of the aliens but how could she turn Kay's offer down? And maybe this would be good for him, keep his mind off of what had happened, keep him from blaming himself.