When Mandy eventually came back up from her smoke, the first thing she did was check under the mat to see if Colton had come by yet and let himself in.

She didn't think much of it when she lifted up to find that the key was still there, where she'd left it, and just shrugged as she picked it up to let herself in.

"Jax?" She called out as she locked the door behind her. "I'm back! Did Colton show up yet?"

She listened for a minute or two for a response, growing just a little concerned when he didn't respond.

"JAX!" She shouted, even louder this time, as she started to head towards the bathroom.

"JA- "

But this time, she was cut off when Colton was the one who came rushing up to her, from the direction she'd been heading and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Mandy! Mandy, no!" He shouted, looking visibly panicked. "Don- Don't go back there, call the police!"

Mandy's growing concern, turned panic, only worsened when he said that.

"Why? What happened?!" She demanded as she tried to get past him, to no avail. "WHERE is Jax?!"

"He's dead. Jax is dead!"

"What?!" Her, still raised, voice cracked. "Colton, what are you talking about?"

"I- I don't know, I got here, a-and the door was open…" He explained in his panic. "So, I just came in. I thought that was a little weird, so I looked around to make sure you guys were okay and I saw that the bathroom door was shut and when no one responded to my knocks….."

He decided to spare Mandy most of the grisly details in his explanation of how he'd gotten the door open and found the body when he saw just how horrified the look on her face was.

She gripped onto him tightly as he held her and let her sob into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Mandy." He whispered gently to her. "I'm so sorry."

Still at a loss for words, she just continued sniffling into his shoulder.

Sometime later that evening, Sam was just getting home from work when she noticed Colton's car parked near where she normally parked her motorcycle.

She let out a particularly exasperated sigh as she parked the bike and prepared herself for whatever drama she was about to walk into.

Her initial disgust, however, quickly shifted to concern when she started her walk towards the front of the apartment building and saw the number of police cars that were crowding the area.

She then began to race for the door, out of sheer panic from what had happened to Kinsey and

When she finally did get up there, she immediately saw Colton and Mandy standing out in the hallway, just in front of her apartment which was now taped off with police tape.

Colton had his arm around Mandy, apparently comforting her, as they talked to who appeared to be the same detective that had questioned Sam about Dani.

"Miss, you can't be here. This is an official crime scene." Another cop, who noticed her lingering, rushed over to tell her.

"Well, I live right here." She explained assertively, pointing to her front door. "What's going on?

"It's okay!" Mandy called over, with another sniffle, upon overhearing and looking over. "She's a friend, she kn- " She cleared her throat. "...she knew him."

The cop backed off her and his expression shifted to one that was just a little more sympathetic.

"Sort of…" She added to what Mandy explained. "..I mean...I know Mandy a little bit better, what's...going on? Was he….?"

"I'm afraid so…" He answered gently. "...are you okay?"

"Define okay." She sighed, unlocking the door to her apartment. "Excuse me."

Kinsey rushed over to embrace her, as soon as Sam stepped in the doorway, followed closely behind Asami, who was barking excitedly over all the commotion.

"I'm right here." She reassured, holding her tightly. "I'm here now, is everyone okay? Asami, hush!"

She looked back up and over Kinsey's shoulder to find Cory and Seth on the couch, just before looking back to Kinsey as she eventually pulled away from her.

"...well, Jax isn't." Seth finally answered.

"SETH!" Kinsey shouted at him.

Cory just hit him with the magazine she'd been reading.

"Ow!" Seth whined. "I didn't say it was funny."

Sam sighed, setting her stuff down "Will somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on?!"

Seth sighed. "Well, I was listening up against the door….. til Kinsey banished me to the couch."

Kinsey just let out an irritated sigh at that and allowed him to go on.

"...Apparently someone broke into Mandy and Jax's place, after Mandy went out for a smoke or something…" He continued. "...Colton got there just before she did, found the door left open, and found the body in the bathroom. Sounded like it was pretty gruesome."

"Yeah, Mandy seemed pretty shaken up when I saw her in the hall." Sam sighed. "...but she and Colton were talking to that detective, I couldn't get anything out of her. You really got all that through the door?"

"That's nothing, he can pinpoint an exact Friends episode from across the hall, if his neighbors are watching it loud enough." Kinsey admitted with a half chuckle.

"Yeah. We don't choose our super powers in this life, Sam." Seth added.

"Oh, is that what we're calling it?" Sam scoffed with just a little bit of a smirk. "Do I wanna know if they have any leads this time?"

"Yeah, some witness said they thought they saw someone in the Ghostface costume leaving the area, but that he was gone before they could get a good look at him." Cory answered. "One of the cops was talking to the person when I got home."

"What else is new?" Sam sighed. "Anything else?"

"Just that." Kinsey answered. "...pretty sure the cops had only just gotten there when Seth and I came back in from walking Asami."

"Well then, I guess that answers my next question." Sam chuckled humorlessly, only smiling a little when she looked back down at Asami, who was wagging her tail a mile a minute, and reached down to scratch her ears. "Come on, Asami. Let's go get you some food, yeah?"

Asami jumped right up and ran right ahead of Sam to race her to her food dish.

"That's my girl." Sam chuckled, following closely behind her.

Even later that evening, when Sam was bringing Asami back in from one last outside potty break for the night when she ran into Mandy again in the hall.

She looked somewhat more put together than she was earlier and was carrying an overnight bag over her shoulder.

"Sam!" She called out. "I'm glad I caught you, I wanted to check in with you before i left."

"With me?" Sam's tone was a little more perplexed than she'd intended.

"Yeah, you know….see how you were holding up."

Sam chuckled a little at the idea. "Your roommate gets brutally murdered, and after you finally get done being harassed by the cops, you're worried about me?"

"Well...yeah, I...I heard about what happened to your girlfriend...and your dog." She looked down to find Asami staring up at her, wagging her tail, and reached down to give her a little pet. "Plus….."

She sighed, deliberating on how best to phrase what she was about to say as she looked more sympathetically back at her.

"...plus...it's...not exactly a secret where your last name comes from…...It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that all this can't be much easier for you."

"...Thank you…." Sam replied quietly. "...but, umm, we're okay now. Just hanging in there."

Mandy nodded.

"What about you?" Sam asked when it got quiet again. "..how are you holding up?"

"The truth?" She sighed.

Sam offered her a reassuring smile. "You can tell me."

Mandy just shrugged. "Just trying to make it through the night…" She reached into her pocket for lighter and box of cigarettes. "I don't...usually smoke these in here, but…." She trailed off, sticking one in her mouth and bringing her lighter to it."

Sam glanced around. "I won't tell if you won't."

Mandy nodded and held the box out to Sam before she put it back in her pocket.

"No thanks."

Mandy chuckled as she reached for the cigarette that was in her mouth.

"More power to ya."

"Just never appealed to me." Sam chuckled.

"Alright, well you don't gotta brag about it." Mandy teased,

"Fair enough." Sam chuckled, looking again at the bag she was carrying. "So, what uh….what are you gonna do now?"

"Uh, for now, I'm gonna go spend the night over at Colton's. Maybe two." She sighed. "Look, I know you don't really like him or whatever, but he's just being so sweet about all this. I don't even know what I'd be doing if it wasn't for him."

Sam rolled her eyes.

Ohhh, did she have some ideas about that.

She just smiled instead. "Hey, Whatever keeps him out of my hair. Right?"

Mandy couldn't help but laughed at that. "Fair enough….." She sighed again. "After that, I'm….not really sure. My dad was talking about coming to stay, help me sort shit out or whatever, but I don't really know beyond that."

Sam nodded. "I understand."

"Oh, uh. While we're on the subject…" Mandy added. "You might see or hear my dad over there tomorrow. I guess Jax's sister is coming by to get some of his things together and I just want someone else over there while she's doing that, just to give you a heads up."

"I appreciate it, we are admittedly a little more jumpy over here, considering."

"Understandably."

Sam nodded. "Well, I should- I should probably get going, but uh, let us know if there's anything we can do for you. You know where to find us."

Mandy smiled at that. "Thanks…..I'll see you around then."

"Yeah, see ya." She reached down to Asami, who'd started getting a little antsy to get moving again, and gave her an extra head scratch before leading her the rest of the way to the apartment.