Chapter 17: "Leave me alone": Tiffany and Stuart

"Leave me alone!" Stuart heard a male voice from inside Tiff's apartment. Then the sound of heavy footsteps and soon, he became face to face with the man he recognized as Tiff's brother Brian storming out of her apartment.

Tiff called her brother before she saw Stuart standing outside.

"Sorry, I came to pick you up. We've got a case."

She tried to keep her composure. "Okay, just let me get my stuff."

The ride to 26Fed was spent in silence. Stuart's attempts to engage Tiff into conversation were met with short answers or no answer at all.

Once they got to the office, he was determined to get some answers from his partner. But his plan was thwarted when they were assigned to different partners.

Tiff was avoiding him, he's sure of it. Even when they're in the JOC, she barely talked to him. When they were in the break room while all the agents ate lunch, she stayed away from him. Stuart was absorbed in his thoughts until OA's voice came through. "Scola, Scola!"

"What? You don't have to yell!"

"I've been trying to talk to you about the case." Taking in his friend's distractedness, he became considerate. "Did Doug keep you up last night?"

"No."

"Did Nina..." then he immediately backtracked, "on second thought, don't answer that, I don't want to know."

Confused, Stuart said "Sometimes, you're weird, Omar."

OA glared at him. "You're the one who's weird, Stuart. You're the one staring into nothing."

He knew he was right. He had to focus on the case. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"As I was saying..."

At the end of the work day, Stuart cornered his partner. "Hey, why don't we relive our tradition of going out for a drink?" When Tiff tried to refuse, he continued "I'm not taking no for an answer."

They sat at their chosen booth in their favorite bar. He spoke first, "So aren't you going to tell me what happened?"

"Shouldn't you be at home now, spending time with Doug and Nina?"

That's when it dawned on him. The reason why she avoided him - she didn't tell Stuart about her problems because she didn't want to burden him.

He softly smiled at her. "Just because I have a kid, that doesn't mean that I'm no longer your friend."

Her eyes widened before looking down on her drink. At her reaction, he knew he was right. "It's nice to have help sometimes," he paused. "Like when your baby ran out of diapers." Tiff softly laughed at that.

"I'm here for you no matter what," he said as he covered her hand with his. When she nodded, he dared to ask "Ready to share what happened now?"

Notes:

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