Friday dawned bright and cheery, but Amy's day didn't begin so pleasantly. She woke up late – no doubt due to a sleepless night tossing and turning over Alex - and bustled urgently around the flat getting dressed and ready for the day. When she finally dashed into the 5th floor of Homicide a little after nine, all heads turned towards her as she made her way into her office.

"Detective Fox?" a voice called out when she was just meters from her door. It was well-known and familiar and it put her at ease for a moment. She turned around with a smile on her face.

The assistant commissioner beckoned Amy into her office with a flurry of hand signals. Inviting her to sit down, Bronte James still had that executive, polished look about her – like she could do a million things at once, still have the kids fed by 6 and have a clean house. Not to mention a high ranking position in the force, There had been so many things Amy had admired about Bronte when she had gone through the academy and then up through the ranks of the system, and it was nice to be working near such a good friend again. If she had any doubts, Amy always knew Bronte was one she could turn to and rely on, so she sat down breathing a heavy sigh that felt like it'd been held in for days.

"So…" she had the most welcoming vibe about her, with anyone she met. "Settling in Amy?" she asked. Bronte sat in the chair beside Amy instead of behind the big wooden desk that Amy noticed was a lot nicer than her own.

There was something about Bronte though that seemed to have changed and Amy noticed it the moment Bronte opened her mouth. She was still the same old Bronte – the reliable, friendly Bronte – but she had that same over the top-ness about her that the other people on the 5th floor seemed to have – with the exception of Ned. A kind of false caring attitude. It was as if Bronte had been with this crew too long, and didn't have the same mentor like quality for Amy as she used to.

So Amy lied and told her everything was going great, because the feeling she was getting from Bronte was something of a lie too, and she felt disappointed down in the pit of her stomach.

"You've met everyone have you?" she continued. Amy knew it was standard welcoming procedure to ask, and it was also standard answering procedure to lie through your teeth if you wanted to be taken seriously and not thought of as a straight laced wimp.

Bronte got up then and headed for the door to let Amy back into the noisy office. Once a chatterbox whom Amy could never get away from, Bronte shuttled her out of her office still bubbling about what a fantastic team everyone on the fifth floor was and how much she was going to love it there. Amy walked out clutching her files and briefcase in a stunned silence.

Melbourne was so different to Mt Thomas. Even the people were different. What had happened to the person who had got her through the academy? Who had encouraged her to become a d? Who had handed her her certificate and shook her hand that day more than a decade ago?

Had she been tempted too? The way Barron had? The way Ned had refused to be?

She waited for him on the front steps. He'd insisted on making his own way to Melbourne and to her place, and she hadn't argued. But now that she was waiting, she was champing at the bit to see him again.

Finally, a little after six that dirty familiar truck pulled up and still like a little kid in so many ways he bounded out and almost tripped on the curb as he went to retrieve his luggage from the boot. Amy chuckled to herself as she walked across the lawn to meet him.

"Hey stranger," she greeted him, resisting the temptation to throw her arms around his neck for the feel of something so homely again, after so long.

He dropped his bags at his feet and threw his arms around her though, giving her a tight squeeze and a peck on the cheek, seemingly ecstatic to see her. She chuckled again, loving the feeling of a little bit of Mt Thomas in her life again. "It's so good to see you Amy!" Evan exclaimed. He rolled his eyes and he went to pick up his bags again. "I thought I'd never get here!! The traffic was a nightmare!"

He chirped on and on all night long as they sat out on the rooftop garden of Amy's block of flats and drank coke and ate Shapes. It was all Amy had left in her pantry. She realised then that she had been so preoccupied with work ever since she'd arrived that she'd taken little time to look after herself. Evan was worried. But he could never say no to BBQ Shapes, and went to grab a handful more as the sun set over Melbourne.

"So Amy," he leaned forward and patted her on the leg. "Tell me about work! Is it fantastic?" He said it as if he thought she'd immediately say that yes, it was fantastic, but she didn't, and her moment of hesitation immediately caught his guard.

"Not as fantastic as I thought it'd be, to tell you the truth," Amy said quietly. She didn't want to dampen their night catching up, and felt guilty at bringing the mood down, but Evan wasn't deterred. She loved how he was always there for his friends.

You're my piece of mind

In this crazy world

"How do you mean?" Evan gently probed, scraping his chair quickly across the pavement to be closer to hers. He grabbed the box of Shapes and offered her some more, but she shook her head, refusing. Shrugging, he grabbed a hefty handful for himself and urged her to spill her guts.

Amy shrugged, not knowing where to even start. How could she tell him that the force she had worked so hard for most of her life was riddled with corruption? That the person who had once acted as her mentor and got her to where she was today had possibly been tempted by the other side? That she missed Mt Thomas more than she cared to admit, and wondered everyday if she had made the right decision in leaving?

"There's so much you're gonna learn Jonesy," she sighed. "It's tough."

Evan nodded his head solemnly in reply and she was grateful he'd stopped asking questions. With his silence came her verbal dirahheoa though and the next few hours flew by as she told him everything that had happened since she'd arrived and everyone she had met and everything they had said and done. By 10 o'clock, when it became too dark and too cold to sit out on the rooftop, they went inside and Jonesy was quiet as he tried to digest everything Amy had just told him.

As they bid goodnight to each other and she settled into her bed, while he tried to get comfortable on the couch, both seemed pleased to have each other in their presence. A weight had been hauled off Amy's delicate shoulders when she had told Evan everything she had encountered at Homicide, and it still also felt great to have an old friend so close by. Work couldn't be nearly as stressful now.

And, whether she liked to admit it or not, Evan was her link to her past – her past in Mt Thomas and the way she had lived happily there – and most of all her link to Alex, something that failed to come up in conversation on the roof top, because Amy pulled out every stop to make sure he wasn't bought up. It would've been too painful, even though having Evan sleeping on her couch was a cruel comfort. He was Alex's best mate, and that would now be where Amy's association with Alex begun and ended.