Carelessly, Kiera checked, wanting to know what time it was. How long had she been in here? If felt like ages and her feeling was on the money. Wow…that long, she thought, seeing that it was nearly midnight, the dawn of a new day. A new day that was just as fraught with danger as the one that was about to end. With her eyes, she scanned the quiet, practically empty coffeehouse, wherein she felt agitated. Why wasn't anyone hassling her, giving a reminder that the place was about to close?

Oh, that's why. Withdrawn, her fatigued eyes fell on the neon sign. When not reading the glowing lettering backwards, as she was doing, it blazed, giving notice that the cafe stayed open twenty-four hours, seven days a week. She could freeload here all night if she wanted to. Could she?

"Would you like a re-filler-up?"

"Thanks," Kiera replied, a weariness fraying her voice. The way the waitress was eyeing her, Kiera had a good suspicion that she had her pegged as a guarded woman with no place to go. No one could care less that she was out on her own at this hour, soaking up cups of coffee like a sponge. Kiera could barely keep her eyes open, but she had to. At least until she found someplace relatively safe where she could shut them.

"How 'bout a nice slice of pie? Dutch apple?"

Kiera remained silent, lost in thought, and not about whether or not to have pie. She was in no mood for anything sugary.

"I can top it off with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream," the waitress enticed, licking her own lips. The pie wasn't homemade, but it was close enough. An average slice was the width of two slivers.

Kiera declined with a shake of her head. "No, thanks. The coffee's fine."

She only had a suspicion, nothing concrete to go on. Maybe this lethargy was connected to Alec's success with turning on Travis' CMR and there was linkage with herself and him. How freaky was that? And, how fraught with danger. The risk was too great of his finding her.

Having Travis in her head had been beyond horrendous. It was as though he were violating her. "Protector—I'm coming for you…"

Kiera cringed, reliving the specter of that substantial reality.

The diminutive flickery flame on the candlewick cast quivering shadows on the small, thin shade that sheathed it. Kiera sat at a booth, made for two. She was alone, feeling consummately solitary, her emotions all over the place.

The run-in with the Freelancers had badly shaken her. Who were they, really? What was their agenda? Were they timeline police, whose mission it was to protect it, keep it anomaly free? Was she considered an aberration in the grander scheme of things?

She was bone tired, looked it too, and now her head was throbbing so much. Sleepily, she nodded at the waitress, appreciating her attentiveness. Why not, Kiera thought, stay right here? She had no place else to go; she was certain of that. Her straight arrow partner, whose physique had become even better since she'd burst into his life, had looked at her sideways at the stationhouse. His glower left little doubt how he felt about her. He didn't need her staying at his home; preferably, he preferred her not being underfoot. In so many unsaid words, she had seen in his taut eyes that he was done with her. That visual warning he'd shot her left little doubt, as though he'd burned her with his blistering eyes.

She needn't show her face at his door since, ultimately, they had come to a parting of the ways. Did he consider them still partners? Whether he still did, or didn't Carlos had made up his mind. Their strained interaction was no way to operate efficiently. Could they go on much longer like this?

Doubtful. He was doing the only sensible thing; he was breaking off whatever understanding they had seemed to have. They'd been great together, at first. Now…it was the opposite. They were just too different to have a copacetic working relationship. And, if they didn't have that, just what did they have?

She no longer knew. Carlos and his scowling, his tacit and vocal way of conveying that her way of conducting investigations was way out of control, were making it clear. Both of them had stayed too long at the fair.

She must go her own way; he had already gone his, so it appeared.

Following a protracted yawn, Kiera morosely reflected.

Shaky ground, was shaky ground; she didn't fool herself. How could she do that? She was a realist from the future. Their relationship had solidly hit a wall. Its condition, critical. Stubbornly, she had promised herself that she was never seeking shelter under Kellog's roof. His boat of unnatural delights was off-limits. What business did she have there? She should have never set foot on his vessel in the first place, only to rue that decision every time she thought about what she'd done.

How many times did she need to remind herself?

Move on…it didn't mean anything, Kiera bore down on herself, feeling her eyes water. He took advantage of your vulnerability that weird night; he's good at that. He does it to anyone he thinks he can get away with doing it with. He's doing it to Alec and Alec thinks he's helping him even up the playing field in the future...

Scoffing, Kiera gave a perverse, hollow laugh.

Kellog was using Alec, worse than how he'd used her. Why did she let him continue with the mind games and chicanery, the manipulation he was so good at?

She had supplied the answer; he was good at it. Far too good; better than she was, by far.

The way Kiera felt now…so far from home, with not a friend in this world, left her numb, effectively immobilized. It was as though this half-lit,

She thought about her husband…and then for a reason inexplicable to herself, of Carlos, again. This time, hot tears in her red-tinged eyes eagerly got fatter as painful realization hit. He was no longer an option, she sorrowfully thought, absent-mindedly stroking fingers through her hair. All that had transpired since Gardiner's death, their increasing difficulty not seeing eye-to-eye on how to proceed, the disagreements and heated arguments the dissension, had produced this rift. Their estrangement weighed heavily on her mind. She needed Carlos, and not just for his innate ability to get to the heart of thorny police matters.

He was a good cop, she thought for as many times, but an even better friend. As things stood now, she wasn't sure he saw her that way. There was more than a good chance that he no longer considered her his. She was unsure just how he saw her. No, she knew as he had grown increasingly frosty. When he looked at her, it was as though he saw red and regretful having become involved.

Alec, she still had Alec. Would he mind if she turned up on his doorstep? He would if Emily were with him. More times than not, she was with the boy phenom.

So, where could she go? Not the least bit sorry, she had allowed the short-term lease on her first place to expire. In the interim, she'd used the restroom at police headquarters to bed down. She had done that at least twice. Another time she went to the movies, had stayed and seen some meaningless movies until the theater had closed down. Then, Kellog, letting his ulterior motives be his guide, had extended the invitation for wanting her to stay aboard his floating den of inequity.

Happening to glance down at her now refilled cup of piping hot coffee, Kiera looked up, eyeballing the red-haired, spunky waitress. How many cups had she had? The chipper livewire was all smiles and aiming to please flashed in her big, blue eyes. She motioned for her server to move in closer and related, "I know I've been here for a while…"

"Hey, what's the rush? We're open all night."

Nodding, Kiera answered, "I know…" As her voice trailed, her mind raced. Maybe Alec wouldn't mind if she went to him.

The waitress was about to head back to the counter, there were a few things she had to organize. Kiera, as though what she had in mind to ask the waitress was brewing, stopped her. She allowed her look of inquiry to sink in for her observant server. Then, before the waitress took off and she lost her nerve, Kiera quietly, pliantly requested, "Do you think it would be okay if I—"

Kiera's mobile phone rang, cutting her off. Seeing who it was, her mind went blank. She made no move to respond to her phone, seeing who it was calling. Unbelievable. She was floored, bedeviled by perplexing questions. What now? He couldn't stop himself? He wasn't through chewing her out? He couldn't hold back from calling her every narrow-minded thing he could think of? She didn't have to answer. Like a mule, with arms across her chest and a sour expression scalding her face, Kiera didn't budge.

"Aren't you going to take that?" the surprised waitress inquired.

"I'm thinking it over," Kiera countered, sounding spiteful. The fingers of her right hand crept to the cellular device. They closed over the persistent noisemaker and pulled it into her hand. She counted to three, then answered.

"Yes, Carlos."

At the other end, he barked, "Where the hell are you?"

"Here?"

"Where's here?"

"At this coffeehouse, five blocks from the station." She heard his stiff breath of impatience in her ear.

"Are you all right?"

"Perfectly. Full of coffee though. I've had about three, no going on four cups."

"Were you planning on spending the night?"

Snidely, Kiera retorted, "I was…" No lie.

"It's past midnight."

"Yeah. I've been telling time since I was four years old."

Carlos breathed again, trying hard not to lose his already strained patience. "You'd better be joking about staying there instead of..." He coughed a little for stirring effect. "Aren't you coming home?"

Kiera didn't know what to say. She just listened to the intensity, the earnestness of his angry-sounding, expressive voice, reading her the riot act. It was beautiful. He hadn't known where she was, but she wasn't with him. She gulped some air, preventing her from sobbing full-on.

"Well? I was about to send out a search party. Of one—me."

"I'll be right there." She decided she needed to tack on, "I should have called."

"Yes, you should have. I'll have your tea waiting. Get a move on." Carlos ended the call with a finality all his.

Mashing her upper lip down on her lower one, Kiera rose from the round wooden table, making sure she stuffed her phone into the side pocket of her jacket.

The waitress gauged from her actions that she wouldn't be finishing the coffee she'd just poured her, but she wanted to make sure. "You won't finish that?" She canted her head at Kiera's cup.

Paying for all that she had consumed at the register, Kiera smiled pleasantly at her and replied, "No I've got my favorite tea waiting."

"Was that your husband?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Boyfriend?"

"Not exactly." But most assuredly her friend, a very concerned one. One she knew she could count on, regardless of how bad things got. Kiera smiled, and near the door, preparing to leave she simply extended, "See ya."

"Uh huh," the waitress returned. "See ya around."

Heading into the new day that looked as dark as night, Kiera smiled, grateful for another chance to prove she hadn't entirely forgotten how levelheaded she could be, depending on the circumstances.

When she arrived at his apartment, he didn't give her the chance to say anything. Drawing her inside, all he said was, "You weren't going to come here, were you?" After she nodded, and he led her to where her tea waited for her, he continued, "Kiera, if you don't know this by now, you never will."

"Know what?" she asked, sipping her tea, peeking at him with big round eyes over the rim of her cup as she sat at the roomy counter.

Rolling his energetic eyes at Kiera, Carlos reiterated for so many times, he'd lost count, "We are partners, you got that? I've got your back…" He knew how that sounded and went on with a knowing smile on his lips. "And you sure as hell better have mine. I'm not going to say it again."

"Oh, really?" Kiera bantered, seeing as how his tone had turned the tide.

"Don't get cute," he mockingly warned.

"You mean like…" Kiera shamelessly winked at him. "Garza?"

Aghast, Carlos croaked, "Y-you heard?"

"Every juicy word," Kiera goaded and held up her index finger, tapping the side of her left ear. "Superior hearing." She felt she needed to work in, "I missed the end of your enlightening conversation because I had to see Alec."

Low and behold—Carlos had gone almost beet red. It was a good thing she was incapable of reading minds, after what he'd thought once Garza had accused him of what she had. Struggling, he stammered in that abashed way he had, "S-she's psycho. Just trying to get a rise out of me." Hot under the color, he began sweating. "We're professionals."

"Absolutely," Kiera, concurred, but still looked wonderfully content to keep him sweating, looking as adorable as he did and deliciously uncomfortable. Garza and her inane accusation, Kiera mused, picturing Carlos ticklishly in the throes of telling her she was a beaut with his arms around her.

"Not news, but what I want to know is." Primly, Kiera coughed, then winked at him salaciously. "Is she really banging Travis?" Without another scathing word, she downed her lukewarm tea, fluidly got up from the stool and sauntered into the room once his, now hers. "Night, Partner." She peppered him with additional winks, scattergun style, meant to up his uncomfortableness.

Speechless, Carlos looked after her as she went her way, resolutely telling himself to keep his mouth tightly shut. He didn't trust himself. Was she leading him on, or was he imagining the incredible?

Shaking off the dilemma, he sighed after he'd taken a deep breath. She was here, safe and sound. That was all that mattered, guaranteeing that he would rest easier, tonight.

Maybe...