Yaz pulled into the lot, parking next to the blue car that she now knew belonged to Jo. They'd moved it here, after their first cup of coffee, Yaz agreeing to drive the rest of the day, which probably had nothing and everything to do with her need to have a fraction of control over the situation she'd been thrust into. She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel and tried to keep her eyes locked ahead of her, tried to hold onto the voice on the other end of the line. Her mind, however, being more traitorous than usual, kept working its way back to Jo, who still hadn't exited her car, still hadn't taken the smell of fall that seemed to cling to her and left Yaz alone she could fully exhale.

She waited another moment, and when the door still didn't open, she glanced over, at last, her fingers stilling. Jo had her hands pressed right to the heater vent, one curled around the other, the cup of coffee she'd insisted they stop for - Yaz had opted for a hot chocolate in the hopes that she might get a full nights rest for once - was pinned between her thighs.

Her eyes were unfocused, staring into the nothingness of deep thought. Yaz didn't want to be the one to pull her away from that place, however eager she might be to get home, however much she needed to have a few uninterrupted hours of sleep to get her head on right again. She watched her for another moment, debated on saying something, anything, but she only managed to bite the inside her lip and wonder what had caused Jo's mind to slip so far away from the present.

Did it have anything to do with her? No, of course not. Yaz shook herself. More than likely, Jo was thinking about the case, simply lost in a haze of questions and mental recreation. Probably she was just trying to figure out how to put the right facts into the right slots, working it all like a giant, exceptionally morbid, puzzle.

A puzzle they'd be doing together for the foreseeable future…

"Boss?" Jones asked, on the other end of the line. "You there?"

Yaz blinked a few times, jerked her eyes away from Jo to focus on a safer spot, somewhere in the distance. She couldn't keep doing this. She knew that. Her ability to focus, even when everything came crashing down around her head was one of the reasons she'd been assigned this case in the first place. Feelings, personal life, it all came second. She couldn't lose that edge now, not here, not just because a pretty woman happened to be assigned as her partner...

Keep it together, Khan...

She wanted to blame Jo, lash out at her, demand she just...please, please, get out of the car until she could get some rest. Tomorrow, tomorrow she'd be back at normal. It's ridiculous though, she can't blame Jo for being beautiful, so she let the feeling go as quickly as it came on her, and shifted her attention back to the phone.

"Here," Yaz confirmed. "Say that again, bad connection."

What was one more lie with the way today had already gone anyway?

"New skin," Jones said. "You know, the bandage thing, cover up a wound."

"Right," Yaz said. "That's what was used on his stab wounds?"

"Yeah," Jones said, and she could feel him holding back a sigh. She sat more upright, reminded herself she was exhausted – mentally and physically, and she could hardly be blamed if her mind kept slipping off task.

"Thanks," she said when Jones offered no more follow-up. "Check in later."

"You got it, boss," Jones said, a pause then, "Everything going okay with the new girl."

Yaz's eyes slipped to her, then away again nearly at once.

"Yeah, fine," she said. "Bye."

When she hung up, tucked away her phone, and turned back to Jo she wasn't surprised to find her looking back at her.

"What was used on the wounds?" Jo asked.

"New skin," Yaz said, tipping her head back onto her headrest. She reached up, rubbed at her forehead, the beginnings of a headache forming. "The liquid bandage…we'll look more into it tomorrow. Good work today, Jo. Real good. I'll see you tomorrow, first thing."

Please don't call me before then. Yaz didn't say it out loud; she hoped the exhaustion in her features said it for her, that Jo got the message anyway. Once again, at the thought, the feelings of guilt burned bright hot in her stomach. She hated to send Jo away with a good job; she hated not going home and giving the case the extra hours it silently demanded of her. She pushed the feeling away, ignored the growing lump inside her chest, though it threatened to cut off her air supply. If she didn't want tomorrow to be a repeat of today she had to let it go, she had to let herself sleep enough hours to feel human again, and tomorrow she'd be ready to take on the world, to be the Yasmin Khan that they all expected her to be.

"Right," Jo said, picking at the top of her cup, and then looking up at Yaz again. "Um...Yasmin. Yaz, I mean. About earlier, before I go, did you want to talk about that? You know, with Miles."

As if there could have been any doubt what she'd meant in the first place. Yaz shifted, the space inside the car seemed to be shrinking around them. She'd been hoping, trying, to avoid this question all day, thought, clearly foolishly, that they were still too close to strangers for Jo to be willing to return to the subject.

Still, she'd been right there. She'd seen it all, and if Yaz said nothing then the speculation – even if she suspected Jo would keep it close to her chest – would only grow larger.

"He's an ex," she said, forcing a shrug, hoping it came off casual enough to hide the fact she felt sick to her stomach. "Not a great one. Clearly."

Jo waited for her to elaborate, and maybe it'd be some sort of catharsis to just spill the story between them, but she wasn't ready for that yet. She wasn't ready to heal, not if healing meant she'd first have to acknowledge, have to come face to face with the wounds he'd left behind in her. She glanced over at Jo, found her hazel eyes soft in the lights of the parking lot. Yaz held her breath, begged it would be enough, and she was certain that her exhale of relief was audible when Jo gave her a quick nod. Yaz could have hugged her for it if that wouldn't have just been opening her up to a brand new set of issues she'd eventually have to deal with. Instead, she focused on breathing, clenched her hand around the wheel as Jo reached out for the door handle.

"Wait," Yaz said, suddenly, seeming to surprise both of them. She hadn't planned to say anything, but she found she just couldn't quite send Jo away with that look on her face. "Um, I just wanted...you said, earlier, with Miles...you're a doctor?"

"Was," Jo said, nodding and looking back at her, settling back into the seat again though her hand remained on the door. "Well, still am. Just not practicing…as you can see."

Yaz nodded. She hadn't exactly been forthcoming with her own issues, and she had no idea what kind of feelings Jo might have for the work she had once done - if she'd parted with it on good terms or not. Still...she'd always been a bit too curious for her own good.

"Why'd you leave," she said, after a moment. "That is….if you don't mind telling me."

"To tell you the truth," Jo said. "I'm not sure. Wanted a change of pace, like a challenge too much for my own good….mostly, I was looking for a new way to help people, the old job…it all got too much with the bureaucracy of it all."
"And you don't….feel that in police work?" Yaz asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Fair point," Jo agreed and glanced out the window. "I guess I just feel freer here. I better get going, you look like you're about to faint on the spot…can you get home okay?"

"Be fine," Yaz said, swallowing her yawn. "Thanks..."

Jo nodded, opened the door, and slid out, she leaned down gave Yaz a small smile.

"See you tomorrow, boss," she said, and the smile grew, teasing and light and Yaz had to roll her eyes, even if the word hit her differently than it ever had when Jones said it.

"Jo?" Yaz said. "Glad you're here."

"Thanks, Yaz," Jo said, and Yaz continued to stare ahead until the door shut until she was sure Jo was gone.

When she felt safe enough to do it, she glanced to her right, watched as Jo climbed into her car, and started it up. She darted her eyes back to the front, waited until Jo had backed out of her space and only then did Yaz put her own care in reverse and start her journey home.

Jo threw back the sheets on her bed, climbed up, and tucked them in around her waist. She dropped her head back against the headboard, closed her eyes. She hated the silence, the way it seemed to grow larger in moments of stillness. She hated the way the air suddenly became too thick to get a full breath, and more than anything else, she hated that anytime she found herself alone all the hope inside her threatened to jump ship the moment she showed any sign of weakness. Swallowing around a growing lump in her throat, she pushed down the surging feelings, tried to focus on keeping her breathing normal.

She could do this.

This job had been the right choice, Jo reminded herself. With a lot of luck, her new partner might even become her new friend. The thought drew up the corners of Jo's mouth. She had little doubt Yaz would be a loyal and fierce friend. So, the move here had been for the best, even if it had been, essentially, her running away from her problems, away from the ghost of a woman who lived but still haunted Jo's halls and mind all the same. She'd had to leave it behind, had to move on. She couldn't have stated in that state or state of mind a single day longer. No, this, all of this, had truly been for the best.

She sighed. Maybe if she repeated a few more times she might finally fully believe herself.

She glanced over at her nightstand, eager to find something to take her out of her feelings. The usual stack of books was there, but in the dim light of her sadness, they'd lost their vibrancy, looked cold and unappealing. Instead of flipping their pages, she settled on the remote, scooping it up and flipping on the TV. Jo bumped the volume up louder and louder until her ears protested, but she'd finally managed to drown out the voice taunting her from the recesses of her mind.

Jo slid down in bed, pulled the blankets up to her chin, and closed her eyes once more. If there were any mercy in the universe she wouldn't be dreaming of her new partner tonight. Even more so than the murder, which alone would haunt her all around the edges for the rest of her life, she couldn't bear to think about Yaz tonight. She wouldn't dream about Yaz tonight. She refused.

She heard music, somewhere beyond her dream, somewhere beyond the documentary she'd fallen asleep to hours ago. Groaning, Jo lifted her head, forced her eyes open, and tried to blink away the cobwebs that were clouding up her thought process. She knew that noise...Oh! She reached out, flipped on her lamp, and scooped up her phone. Flipping it, she looked at the caller ID.

Yaz.

She'd added her name and number to her personal phone as well - with Yaz's permission of course - if a bit too eagerly. Still, it had been nice, with a new phone and a new life, to add a single number in there that wasn't just for work...even if Jo didn't know yet if she'd ever feel comfortable enough to use it for anything else.

Jo shook her head, tried to recapture her focus. The person calling her was not potential friend Yaz at the moment, and she had to act accordingly. She pressed the screen, brought the phone up to her ear.

"Yaz?"

"Jo," Yaz said. "It's Yaz."

At least she sounded less exhausted, Jo noted.

"I'm here," Jo said, pushing herself upright.

"There's been another murder."

Jo froze mid-movement, her hand tangled up in the blankets that she'd been shifting off of her. She didn't know what else she could have been expecting really, had no doubt that Yaz would have been woken up for anything else, and Yaz wouldn't have continued to pass it down to Jo if it had been something lesser, or if it could have waited until they'd met up in a couple of hours anyway.

So, another murder - one that must have at least a passing resemblance to the one they'd been working the day before. Two murders in as many days. Her mind went to a serial killer at once, to the facts she'd learned from books, the knowledge, and profiles she'd worked on in the recent past. She held it there, hovering just out of focus for her to look through when she'd hung up with Yaz, on the drive to the scene.

"Serial killer?"

"It's looking that way," Yaz said. Jo could hear movement on the other end, the rustle of fabric, likely Yaz getting herself ready for another long day. Jo swallowed thickly. "I'm about to head out the door, I got the address."

Jo scrambled to grab a piece of paper, scribbled it down.

"See you there," she said. Yaz hung up and Jo rolled out of bed, her heart pounding.

Yaz had slept, thankfully. Not quite enough to ease away the pain that had been aching deep inside her, but enough to leave her functioning again, enough that she felt bad about having to call Jo before the sun had risen. She sighed, slipped on her boots, and laced them up. She'd get a coffee on the way...she'd get herself and Jo a coffee on the way - it was the least she could do considering she'd been the one to have to pull her out of sleep, to wake her up with such awful news.

It was their job, of course. She had no reason to feel guilty, but the thought of Jo spending another day freezing didn't settle right inside her mind. It was just a coffee, coffee for a co-worker. People did that all the time.

Yaz let out a long exhale. The sleep hadn't done near enough to settle the pull Jo seemed to have on her, but even if she couldn't get rid of it just yet, she knew how to push it off. She could ignore it until it faded on its own.

Grabbing her keys, Yaz headed out into the hall. It was quiet, so early in the morning, and she preferred it that way. She locked up, slipped into the empty elevator, and leaned against the wall until the door opened the lobby. She headed out the parking lot, lit up in patches by the lights scattered around the edges. Her car was on the far end due to coming home late yet again, and when she reached it she froze at once. Her stomach felt heavy, and she was thankful she hadn't tried to eat before leaving. Yaz looked around her quickly, moved more into the light, yanking out her phone. She redialed the last number, and when Jo picked up she asked her to come quickly before hanging up and pulling out her flashlight, her gun.