"Hey, babe. How are you? How's Brazil?"

Garfield was engaged to his fiancée, Jia Baez (Ji•a •Bye•ez) for four months. They were dating for three years before then, but ever since the engagement, there's been sharp waves of friction and complications that suddenly arose in their relationship; as if the universe was waiting for Garfield to engage to put a terrible twist on the love story.

The couple decided to take space from each other for at least a week and change, real space. Even so much to leave the home they shared together back in Ohio on a whole. So, Garfield voted to return to his hometown, Brooklyn, and Jia decided to go to Brazil, where her generations of family were from.

Jia returned, curtly. "Just fine, thank you. And yourself?"

Garfield nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I'm okay, to say the very least. Believe it or not, I'm wrapped up in a homicide case over here."

Jia harshly replied, "Garfield, I told you to stay out of trouble. You need to give your mind a break."

"Jia, do you think I want to be caught up in cases? Do you think they just walk up to me and say "pick me, pick me"? And with 'pick me, pick me', he distorted his voice and added hand gestures to emphasize the point.

"Well, there's something called boundaries. You don't have to pick up every case that comes your way."

"I didn't, though. You're jumping to conclusions and I didn't even get the chance to tell you how everything transpired."

"Okay, go ahead, then." Jia sighed disgruntledly.

Garfield explained, "I found a dead man in the garbage dump of the complex I'm staying in. Then, I identified myself to the police. After that it was a motion of things."

She spoke coldly, "I understand that, but how did you get involved in this? This homicide isn't even in your own state, why does it concern you?"

Garfield shook his head, feeling frustrated.

Talking to Jia sometimes was like talking to a wall.

"Listen, Jia. I've got everything covered. I asked the Supe if I can get in on the case, and he okayed it. Can you trust for once that I know what I'm doing is best?"

"Yeah, just don't come running back to me when your mental health is on a thread."

"Jesus, Jia," Garfield bit back some curses, and smoothed his hand over his face to rinse away the anger rising. "That isn't the point of us taking space from one another. I mean, yes, my mental health has to do with it. I meant to take a break while I was out here. And I see your point, I'm really not taking a break when we look at the grand scheme of things. But can you not throw this in my face, please. This time apart is something we both agreed was needed."

"M'kay." Jia responded in an indifferent manner.

Garfield took another breath, "Anyway, tell me about your trip. Do anything fun yet? How is your family?"

Jia dryly pronounced, "Trip's going just fine. Nothing more than the last time when we both came here. Fruits, rivers, forests, soccer. My cousins are good. In good health and learning."

"Oh… okay, then."

There was a loud silence between the two of them.

Jia then said, "Well, I have to go. Family outing."

"Oh," Garfield smiled softly. "Cool, uh… have fun."

"Mhm, thanks."

Jia ended the call.

"God, help me." Garfield placed his phone on the kitchen counter, letting out a deep exhale. He situated his strong hands on the edge of the counter, and held his body up in a slightly leaning position. Garfield stared mindlessly into open space for about a minute or so.

Then, he lit a spliff.

For the past while, Kevin Morgan had spent most of his days behind dark, opaque curtains, away from all blue-light emitting screens, and battling bouts of dizziness and earth-shattering migraines. Kevin had contracted a grade three concussion, which was usually classified as such when there was a loss of consciousness at the force of impact.

In addition to the concussion due to the bottle-at-the-bar attack, Kevin had a bruised right eye which had torn ligaments. Not only was Kevin barely able to handle the appearance of daylight, but he was barely able to move and see through his eyes.

Viviana, Kevin's wife, recently married, gently knocked on their room door, where Kevin was resting.

Viviana called, "Kev?"

Kevin replied, "Viv."

"The lawyer's with me, the cousin I told you about. Uncle Alvaro's son, you've met him."

"Manuel?"

"Yes. He's here to discuss some logistics about the case. Can we come in?"

"Yeah." Kevin wasn't fully in the mood, but he was fully dressed and alert, so why not take advantage of it.

Kevin's brain was sloshed with painkillers, so anything more than three words felt like he was spewing soot. His brain was buzzing, preparing for the next devilish headache, and his left eye was straining from having to hold the weight of his available vision.

"Good morning, Kevin. Nice to see you again."

Manuel reached out to shake Kevin's hand, but honestly, all Kevin could make out were shadows. And he didn't have much strength in his body to do a proper greeting.

Kevin murmured with pained, closed eyes, "Isn't a good morning, but hey, I guess."

"I can imagine where you're coming from. Your friends told me all about the fiasco a couple of weeks ago. You're lucky, you know. Lucky to be alive."

Kevin wondered what his friends Hunter and the others had told Viviana about the bachelor party at Scarlet.

Having a lawyer in his own bedroom only led Kevin to think of the worst possibility. To be fair, Viviana wasn't plotting his demise, so that gave Kevin some sort of console. Still, Kevin felt on edge about the whole ordeal.

Kevin opened his mouth to speak, but Manuel smirked like a hound.

"Save your breath. I'm not expecting you to recall much."

Nonetheless, Kevin remembered everything in great detail.

Kevin was wrong, he was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, and he had the karma coming for him.

Kevin tried to speak again, but released nothing but a faint groan.

Manuel continued, it was like he was rubbing lemon on a wound.

"This was sheer recklessness resulting in damage. Emotional and physical damage, more precisely. Someone needs to be held accountable for allowing this to unfold the way it did. Plus, there needs to be a robust compensation of some sort, you know? I mean, the injuries you contracted are absolutely horrific."

The man wanted to file a lawsuit.

A legal action against a strip joint was not something Kevin wanted to present to his employers, current and future.

Viviana tenderly stroked Kevin's head and cheek, "This is upsetting. We just got married! Our honeymoon is supposed to be in a week, but there is no way we can have fun with Kevin in this shape."

"You can just leave him," Manuel shrugged apathetically, "Take a solo trip."

"Shut your trap," Viviana hissed, then thought, Of course you would say something like that, as someone who has cheated on every girl they were lucky enough to come by.

She reinforced, "The accommodations, the venue, the activities… the Maldives aren't something a street thug can afford."

Kevin sighed in despair.

Manuel stated with a devious smile, "What happens in Brooklyn, stays in Brooklyn. Now, don't go run ratting any business out to anyone. We won't execute any action from our end yet, but that means that you all stay tight-lipped as well."

Viviana sighed, wishing she picked a more serious lawyer.

She understood what people meant when they say not to mix your personal life with business, especially when your family was the business.

The lawyer continued the mocking, with a deriding laugh, "I still can't believe what your friends told me. Who gets jumped by tosspots right before their honeymoon!"

hi loves!! FINALLY got around to updating SFU after a good four months i hope u enjoyed this chap the small peek of new characters in our plot (: updates comin soooon!!!!

- D.