"Hey, you headed back?" Jason heard the person on the other phone ask him as he looks on to his team making their separate ways while they were in New York.

"Yeah." He sighed as he looked back at the memorial.

"You OK?" The person on the other side asked again, worry in her voice.

He nodded as though the person he was talking to could see him do so.

"Jace…" the worry was even more evident in the tone of the person on the other head.

Realizing that the person on the line was waiting for a reply, he clears his throat and says, "Yeah….Yeah, I'm okay, Mandy."

He hears her sigh in relief on the other end and closes his eyes as he rubs his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm making you worry again."

"Of course not," she responds vehemently. "You're not making me worry….I know you well enough to understand what's going on."

He nods again as he listens to Mandy reassure him.

"If anything, you are making me hungry." she jokes, making him chuckle and ease the tension in his body.

"You're not hungry." He says as he takes a look one last time at the memorial, breathes in, and starts walking away.

"Oh you know that, don't you…" she continues to tease him.

"Oh yes, I know so," he smirks as he continues to walk into the crowded streets, headed to the hotel she was staying in. "You just miss me."

He smiles wide as he hears her laugh on the other end of the line. "I'll be there in 10"

"Make that 5. I'm HUUNGRYY" he laughs again and teases her back "You just can't keep away from me, can you?"

"Whatever." She huffs. "I'm hanging up. If you're not here in 5 minutes, I'm gorging on all these damn burritos I ordered just so you can't eat any."

He laughs out loud again "Alright, alright….be there in 5." as he sprints on over to the direction of her hotel.

"Good," she says with a chuckle. He could hear that she was about to hang up the line and suddenly blurted out "Mandy!"

"Yeah?" she answers.

"Thanks for coming," he says as he stops just right in front of the hotel, looking up to the top, grateful that she flew in from god knows where just to be there for him.

"Anytime…you know that," she answers wistfully. "Now get your butt up here….I know you're outside. You're not that far from here….I'm really hanging up" and she did.

Jason chuckles as he puts his phone back in his pocket, again, looking up towards the hotel building, he breathes in deep, lets go of his worries, and takes a step forward.

He was ready to just live.