"Am I in trouble?" Thalia asked as she looked at her boss. Diana was looking down at paperwork and tapping her fingers on the desk. Zoë stood next to the desk with a fixed frown on her face; a serious frown. "Oh man, what did I do?"

"We need to have a talk, Thalia," Diana said directly as she sat forward. "This is very serious."

Zoë shook her head and looked away. Thalia spoke, "Okay. What did I do? Seriously?"

"I need your badge," Diana stated bluntly.

"My badge?!" Thalia almost shrieked. She tried to keep her cool, but her composure was cracking. "I swear I didn't do anything wrong! I-"

"Your badge, Thalia. Now," Diana demanded. Thalia looked over at Zoë, who wouldn't meet her eyes. What the hell had she done?

"Fuck…" Thalia hissed as she grabbed her badge and threw it on the table. "This is bullshit! I haven't done anything wrong! I followed all the protocols and busted those Exterminata bastards!"

"Which is why you're getting a promotion," Diana intervened. Thalia was in the middle of pointing right at Diana's face, but she froze. She slowly lowered her finger and bit her bottom lip to stop from saying anything else.

"A… promotion," Thalia repeated after a tense moment. Zoë looked at her and smiled. "You knew about this?"

"I did," Zoë confirmed.

"It was her idea," Diana supplied. Thalia looked in between them.

"Fuck you guys… Respectfully, of course," Thalia muttered nervously as she looked at Diana. Her gaze moved to her partner. "Not so much to you, though."

"Thalia, you have more than proven yourself for this promotion," Diana praised. "Without your hard work, we would not have been able to bring down Exterminata. There is still plenty of work ahead, and I think it's only right that you log in all those hours with a new pay grade."

"I… thank you," Thalia stuttered as she was handed her new badge. Her thumb felt along the grooves and engravings. Then, she looked at Zoë. "So, this means I'm the same rank as you."

"Not exactly," Zoë said with a small smile. "I've been promoted. To our European headquarters."

Thalia lost her smile instantly, "But..."

"I leave in three months," Zoë confirmed with a sad smile. "After I train you to take my spot."

Thalia stared at Zoë. On one hand, it was great news. Zoë was the second in command to Diana, and she helped run the place. Zoë had a hand in all kinds of cases they did along with the ones that she helped her partner. And Thalia was going to need a new partner.

"That's great and all," Thalia began. "But, you're my partner. And my friend."

"I'm going to keep in contact, Thalia. I'll also be down here for business as well. You're not going to lose your only friend," Zoë assured with a small smile. Thalia rolled her eyes but smiled as well.

"I'm going to miss you," Thalia confessed as she stood. She held her arms out. Zoë shook her head slightly and stepped back. "Come on. You have to give me a hug."

"Fine," Zoë relented after a moment of consideration. She allowed Thalia to pull her into a tight hug. "I'm going to miss you too. Now, stop. You're embarrassing me."

"I know," Thalia said as her smile widened. "Who the hell am I going to get to be my partner?"

"You don't have to pick immediately," Diana commented. "You can wait if we have any new recruits or find someone without a partner."

"The hard part is finding someone who wants to be your partner," Zoë jabbed.

"You are so mean to me," Thalia complained teasingly with a roll of her eyes. She looked at Diana. "And, thank you. Again."

"You earned it, Thalia. I know you and I butt heads at times, but I'm happy to have you working here," Diana said honestly. Thalia nodded and tried to tear the huge smile from her face. Diana did not hand out compliments lightly. "Now-"

"What the fuck is your problem!?"

Thalia's head whipped behind her to look at the closed office door. She looked back at the other two, "Should I handle that?"

"You should," Diana agreed. Thalia nodded and then turned toward the door. She sighed and walked out of the office. A frown morphed her face; the last thing she wanted to do was solve some kind of argument, but since that was Zoë's job, this would be good practice.

"You're a fucking piece of shit!"

Thalia shook her head as she rounded a corner. She stopped and studied the two people in front of her. One of them was Naomi. She was slightly new to the Hunters but had fitted in mostly well. At the moment, she had her hand raised and was stabbing her finger into Hylla's chest.

"What the hell is going on?" Thalia asked as she walked toward the two. Everyone in the room was staring at them, and anyone who wasn't in the room was making their way in there to see what was going on. Hylla just stared at Naomi.

"This bitch worked for Exterminata!" Naomi yelled. As she stabbed her finger into Hylla's chest again, Thalia let out a deep breath. Whelp. She was hoping they could avoid this topic. Forever preferably. "Why the fuck is she here?!"

"Because she's our mole," Thalia answered. Naomi whipped toward her so hard that she almost flicked Thalia in the nose. Thalia wasn't sure if she would be mad or in pain.

Naomi stared at Thalia. It was Phoebe who chimed in from the corner, "So, she gave us all of that information? In exchange for what? A lot of money? Pizza? Immunity?"

"I was given immunity in exchange for everything that I know about Exterminata," Hylla spoke up as she watched Naomi. Her gaze moved around at the rest of the Hunters as the temperature in the room went into deadfall.

"And how the fuck do you know about Exterminata?" Naomi demanded, even though Thalia was sure they had established that about thirty seconds ago. Hylla remained silent.

"So, um, that report about a werewolf almost getting dissected by Exterminata? The werewolf that works at Elysium. And the report said that all of Exterminata that were there were killed, but then all that information appeared out of nowhere," Phoebe began. "Hylla is the reason we have all that information?"

"Not really helping, Phoebe," Thalia shot down as she gave her friend a look.

"Calling it like I see it," Phoebe challenged.

"Yeah... just stop. Please," Thalia pleaded, annoyance leaking onto her face and body language. She looked at the rest of her coworkers who all looked tense. Exterminata was not liked by the hunters; because one group was full of bloodthirsty monsters that dissected all kinds of creatures for fun and their own sense of justice, and the other group was legal professionals.

"This is bullshit!" Naomi called out. "You let her work here!"

"Not me. Not really," Thalia muttered to herself more than anyone. "Look, why don't we all just walk back to our desks and get back to work?"

"Fuck that!" Naomi protested.

"Why don't we- nope. Okay. That works. You can just do that and... great," Thalia trailed off as she was helpless to watch what had happened. Mostly because she wasn't going to throw herself between Naomi and Hylla. The girl was scrawny, but she had a solid right hook.

And Naomi used that right hook to catch Hylla right in the nose. Afterward, she seemed to debate if it was worth losing her job or not. And she seemed to have decided on the former. Thalia swore under her breath as she rushed between the two. Thankfully, Hylla didn't swing back. She just placed her palm on her now bloodied nose.

"Naomi! What are you doing?" Zoë demanded as she rounded the corner.

"Punching this piece of shit!" Naomi snapped. "You know what Exterminata did!"

"We do," Diana announced as she seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Come, Naomi. Go to my office."

Naomi shook her head and stormed toward Diana's office. Zoë shook her head as she looked at Thalia. All Thalia could do was shrug, "Might need some training on that conflict resolution."

"Take care of Hylla," Zoë muttered as she walked away. Thalia sighed and looked at everyone that was watching them.

"Back to work!" Thalia snapped before she looked at Hylla. "You okay?"

Hylla just shrugged and kept her hand to her nose. She turned and walked toward their kitchen area, with Thalia following behind her. There wasn't much to say as Hylla grabbed a rag and ran it under some cold water. She placed it to her nose.

"Sorry," Thalia began.

"I've had worse reactions to people finding out who I work for. Well, worked for," Hylla muttered as she leaned on the counter and lowered her head.

"You're supposed to-"

"I don't care."

"Fair," Thalia admitted defeat with a shrug. She leaned on the counter as well, placing her back to it. "Everyone will get over their hate for you. Eventually. Maybe."

Hylla grunted and didn't say anything. Thalia continued, "How's Reyna?"

"She's good," Hylla said after a few moments. "She picked up an early shift today to learn some more about being a bartender. Some guy named Malcolm is training her."

"Malcolm's cool. He one of the veteran guys during the day," Thalia explained.

"Hope he knows how to write in Spanish."

"Right. Cause she can't read English."

"I've been trying to teach her. Not as fucking bad as teaching her to drive," Hylla sighed and lowered the towel. "Fuck. That hurt a lot more than I thought it would."

"She's got a nasty punch," Thalia said with a smirk. Hylla shook her head and grabbed her phone as a notification dinged. "That Reyna?"

"Yeah. Asking me who the fuck named it 'an old fashioned'. And why the hell is it called that," Hylla complained. As she talked about her sister, a small smile crept onto her face. Thalia studied Hylla. If there was only one thing that they had in common, it was that they loved their siblings.

"So, I need a partner because mine is going to Europe in a few months. Assuming you stay around for the long haul, you'll need a partner. One who won't punch you in the face," Thalia offered. Hylla studied her for a few moments.

"Do we have to ride to crime scenes together?"

"Once you're off your leash, yeah."

"Are you going to listen to that shitty music?"

"Every fucking time."

"Can we at least trade off picking music?"

"I'll consider it."

"Fine."

"Now, let me set that nose, partner."