Donno works over what the man had said while sitting at the counter, drinking his coffee. Ren had sent him, which makes this easy to double check on. He's tapping at his phone before the dregs of the man's coffee has even cooled, frowning as he waits for her to respond.

"Donno?" Ren asks, looking a little concerned as she peers down at her screen. "I'm preparing for a meeting. Is everything alright?"

"We had a visitor today," he says. "Claims you sent him our way to find a couple of missing people. Just checking in to make sure."

"Oh," Ren says. "Yes, he's telling the truth. I figured you could help better than anyone else. It requires someone someone loyal who will keep things quiet, and you and Tonya were my first thought. I hope that's alright."

"Yeah," he says, relaxing now that he knows the guy was on the up-and-up. "It's fine. I've got some researching to do. Talk to you at the normal time?"

Ren smiles. "Looking forward to it."

They hang up at the same time and Donno peers over at where Tonya is hard at work in her usual spot in sight of his preferred standing spot. He has a growing list of things to do, but for now, he sets to work cleaning off the counter to close for the day, already thinking about the best ingredients for a blackberry crumble.

-x

On the way back to the bar, Donno squints at the clock and pulls over to grab his ringing phone. "Hey," he says, turning the brightness of the phone up as much as he can.

Ren pauses, squinting as she tries to locate him in the gloom. "Where are you?"

"In the car," he says. "Researching those people we're supposed to find. Guess they're off camping under a fake name. I'm on my way to Tonya to see what she wants to do."

Ren hums. "What do you want to do with it?"

"Whatever she wants to do," he shrugs.

"Alright," Ren says with a soft chuckle. "But your opinion on it?"

He glances over at the papers and exhales. "Money's always good."

She laughs. "That is an understatement, my friend." They sit quietly for a few moments, then Ren asks, "Did anything come from Hoyt's mother yet?"

"No," Donno says. "Tonya's keeping this close to her chest. I'll keep an eye on things."

Ren nods approvingly. "Good man."

"If this pans out," Donno says, free hand tapping against the steering wheel as he turns his focus back onto the missing people whose files are piled up on the seat next to him. "Might be off the grid for a few days. Seems easy enough, but who knows. This area always makes everything more complicated than it needs to be."

Ren nods. "That is very true. Well, camping. It sounds like fun." She's lying, it's clear in every flick of her gaze, and Donno smirks at her.

"Open invite, you should join us."

"Ha," Ren responds, blanching. "No, no, I think it'll be better for the two of you to go alone."

"I made her a blackberry crumble," Donno says suddenly, and Ren quirks an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, did you now?" she asks with a small smile.

"She thanked me for choosing to stay with her," he says, still not quite looking Ren in the eye. He doesn't regret it, necessarily, enjoys life as it is now- but it still feels weird sometimes, to be this far away from Ren, after all of the things they'd experienced together. And while she's still trying to figure out life after her father's tight reigns on her and her brother had crumbled to dust.

"Well, look at you two," Ren says with a small smile that Donno notes out of the corner of his eye. "How cute. She's good for you. And vice versa."

He glances at the screen then and takes a breath. "You think so?"

"I know so, Donno," Ren tells him. "My life became much more... complete when you came into it. It makes sense to me that you can do the same for her."

Donno's glad for the darkness, because he's pretty sure his face is doing things right now that he would never be able to live down. Instead, he chooses to nod quickly. "Right," he says, clearing his throat. "Well, I should get back on the road. Same time next week."

Ren smiles. "Same time next week."

He gazes into the darkness until his vision adjusts once more, Ren's afterimage fading away. Exhaling slowly, he pulls off back onto the road to continue on to Tonya's to figure out their next step.