Even though lunch has hit, people are still being social. The little fake tree has been decorated with ornaments, and everyone agrees that the best gingerbread house was made by Tempest, Callie, and Marcellus. With all of the food together, they make an actual meal. They make pasta for them all, with the pasta sauce on the shelf, and even the people who don't like tomatoes don't complain about the new change.

Elodie and Tempest do most of the cooking. They laugh over pasta sauce, wondering what their grades were on the community psychology exam, which would surely be out if they had access to the internet.

"It might not even be the storm anymore," Elodie laughs. "Fucking campus WiFi."

Tempest wears the softest of smiles, one that feels all too familiar. It's an old friend who felt lost in the blizzard, who through the white snow she thought might not return. The friend lives on even through the cold and the storm.

"Yeah, terrible campus WiFi," she agrees.

In the other room, people are taking turns letting Jerry teach them how to play the bucket drums. Now it is Moonie's turn. After trying the pattern Jerry explained to her, Moonie flips the drumstick around her fingers just as he does, and it clammers to the ground. Maverick smiles at them as Jerry scoops up the drumsticks.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of it," Moonie smiles.

Jerry's brows furrow. Moonie is doing anything but getting the hang of it. Other people outside of Jerry might be surprised to know that one can be bad at the bucket drums. Surely those people would be convinced if they had spent a second with Moonie. She grips the sticks as if they are rockets she's worried will shoot out of her hands. Her natural feel for tempo is as steady as a baby's first steps, and in some ways just as nerve-wracking. Jerry is worried she's going to knock him in the face every time she goes to hit the garbage can.

"It's getting there," Maverick agrees, his eyes looking from her to piercing Jerry, praying he won't say a word for once.

Jerry obliges, albeit reluctantly.

The other musicians, Marcellus and Benedict, escaped to a back corner of the room to avoid the sound. There, Callie and Marcellus have talked Benedict into playing a pin the nose on the reindeer game. With Benedict up first, Callie and Marcellus have spun him around two times too many.

Benedict juts into the table as he stumbles, trying to find his way, "very funny."

"It is," Marcellus smiles. He and Callie subtly props each other. Benedict gets to the wall, and their jaws drop.

"No way," Callie moves over in front of him, peering at the blindfold. It isn't see-thru as far as she thinks. At least, when she mocks poking Benedict in the eye, he doesn't flinch the way he should.

"What?" Benedict takes off the blindfold, to see the nose perfectly positioned on the reindeer. He laughs.

Not wanting to join in on any reindeer games, Darlington and Galilee sip their hot chocolates on the couches. It's pleasant, Galilee thinks, to be here. Even if these kind of events are too much unless she is behind the lens of a camera, people seem to be okay today. Tomorrow is going to be harder for a lot of them. Galilee imagines that's why the big day was planned for today. People are going to need their peace tomorrow.

Darlington smiles too. In August training, in addition to the fish bowl, they talk about a tandem bike model of leadership. It is not Darlington nor the others to be in front steering. This thing, this looking at maps and calling out directions, this nudging an arm to get the bike going down the right path, this thing he does isn't here today. The idea was Tempest's, the organization of activities was Moonie's, and the décor was Callie's. He just pedalled a little harder.

Ro doesn't know what Darlington did at all. She's not even there. Since Elodie mentioned peanut butter in a room on her floor, Ro takes it upon herself to sneak a copy of the master keys out of the safe. No one is allergic, apparently, and peanut butter might make the return to pancakes tomorrow tolerable. When the office door shuts behind her, the noise from the other room becomes a hum behind the walls. Closing the door in a way opens the circuit. The electricity doesn't buzz in the air around her. Yet, when her fingers touch the metal handle of the safe, she gets a shock.

"Fuck," she manages, jumping back.

Even now, fuck this building. She grabs a marker off the boardroom table and writes her own aggressive F on the door. She caps the lid and whips the marker across the room.

"Hadley this is Damon, come in Hadley."

Ro's head whips around to the source of the crackly sound. The walkie-talkie.

Her hands fumble, the fury in them quickly burning into nerves as her hands try to wrap around the walkie. She worries it is a second too late when she hits the button.

"This is Ro from Pearcher House on the line. Is this Burns Hall?"

No sound comes from the walkie. She hurries out of the room and goes into the kitchen, where Tempest is just now straining the pasta. Elodie is turning off the burner with the sauce.

"Hurry," Ro says to them, looking up. "I've got someone on the line."

She darts out of the room. From their spot in the kitchen, Tempest and Elodie can hear Ro talking on the line.

"Again, this is Pearcher House on the line. Are you talking about Hadley from Burns Hall?"

Being safe and being rushed aren't easy tasks, but they manage. Throwing the pasta and sauce together and shoving it in the microwave so it has a place to stay warm, Elodie and Tempest hurry out of the room. Ro walks in and they barely manage to catch the door to keep it from locking behind her.

"Wait, you guys are at Pearcher?"

The line crackles, loud enough that every head in the room turns. They all stare at Ro, stare at the walkie in her hand.

"Yes," Ro manages, eyes wandering around the room. They lock on Darlington and she brings over the walkie. To him, not through the talking function, she speaks. "I think it's Hadley."

Darlington's eyes go wide. The others begin to gather around, sitting on the couches, standing behind Darlington, or in Moonie's case, curling up onto the floor. In the basement, you cannot hear the whistling wind. Darlington swallows and presses the button.

"This is Darlington from Pearcher House. Is this Hadley?"

A beat passes. Ro is worried it was a one-off, or if walking here was just far enough to cut off the connection. Heartbeats are too loud in this waiting room.

"No, this is Damon."

Callie's eyes widen. She knows him. Being a year above him, they haven't taken many classes together, but Damon is the kind of guy who is hard to ignore. Even now, only through a walkie, he has stolen all of the attention in the room.

"He's from Greer House," she says.

"Not Burns Hall?" Darlington asks.

Callie shakes her head again, and so Ro jumps in, "he was trying to contact Hadley though. I swear he said his name."

Darlington crackles on the walkie again, "you're in Greer House?"

"Not anymore," Damon's voice is metallic. "Greer's at the bottom of a hill. It's buried now."

The line goes silent. Darlington pushes through, "buried?"

"Yep. We got a small avalanche two nights ago, but it was enough to catch the dumpster behind the building which slammed into one of the upstairs windows. It got too cold inside too quickly, so we got out through the tunnels."

The line goes out. Marcellus thinks about their building. It is on flat ground. Greer House is much closer to Burns Hall than they are. Actually, Pearcher House is relatively isolated.

"Sorry, the tunnels?" Darlington asks. "I thought new buildings weren't connected."

"Well, they are. We walked through the tunnels together for two hours before we found Burns Hall. Navigating them is difficult, and a lot of them aren't safe. Ceilings caving in, wet paths, exposed electrical wire. Are you guys safe at Pearcher or do you need out?"

The group looks around at each other. Darlington doesn't even want to answer. If they are right, and the tunnels are connected to new buildings, they would be connected too, but so would thirty buildings or so, maybe with multiple doors. A good chunk of those would be residence buildings. They might be able to regroup and pool resources.

"We just got enough food to last us another week," Darlington answers. "We've got heating and electrical, so we should be fine."

"If that changes, call back the line. We've got someone with it twenty-four-seven."

"Sure thing."

"Also, find your tunnel just in case. Ours was in our storage closet, and so was Burns Hall's. Hadley went down a few hours ago to try to make contact with Townsend Place. Michael from our house didn't want to risk the tunnels and tried to make it there. Nobody's heard from him since. If Hadley or Michael or anybody comes your way, let us know."

Tempest puts her hand on Darlington's grabbing the walkie from him. She can't see his face but doesn't need to look. Hadley is missing. She presses the button, "thanks, Damon. We will keep you posted."

The walkie line cuts and they all stare at each other. Darlington blinks looking forward. Benedict opens his mouth just as Darlington stands. He walks to the storage closet and unlocks it with his keys. The others gather in the hall behind him.

"It's not safe," Maverick whispers, looking over at Tempest. "Should we stop him?"

"I don't think we can," she whispers back.

Callie is the one who straightens her back. She walks over to Darlington as he throws object after object out of the closet. If he needs to, he's going to tear the shelving unit apart and they both know it.

"Keep it together," she tells him. "That's your whole thing! Calm under pressure, right?"

"Don't yell at him," Moonie's voice is so loud even though she is attempting to whisper.

"This is your whole insufferable thing!" Callie shouts, grabbing him and pulling him back.

Marcellus rushes in, and with two people on him, Darlington concedes. He doesn't even need to be dragged. Together, they sit him down on the floor, each in a spot beside him.

The hallway is empty. Quiet. There is no one to watch them. No fishbowl. Two people at least have disappeared. They are eleven in their building, but there are more resident assistants across campus. Darlington only knows about the ones who report to his super. Burns Hall has nine, Greer House has eight, Townsend Place and Webster Residence have ten, and Little Hall has two. Each building is understaffed. Little Hall is only for masters and exchange students, and the staff in Little get to leave early. Just on his super's team, there are forty-eight people who are on the walkie rotation and should be here, and there are at least two that are missing, potentially more if no one has contacted Townsend. Who knows what Webster's like?

"New vote," Galilee says. "Go search the tunnels or do nothing."

"Search the tunnels?" Tempest asks, raising her hand.

She'd rather spare the arguments because if Darlington finds that door, and there is no word from Hadley, he will sneak out on his own. They aren't the kind of people to sit idle. Doing something, even something that is the opposite of helpful, is their nature. Darlington cannot sit back while Hadley is suffering. Hadley couldn't ever stop Darlington from being dragged down with him.

Tempest swallows. That's how he is about the baby, and now she can see it. Maybe she can refuse to drag Darlington down, but that doesn't matter to him. Doing nothing is going to hurt more, even if doing something is practically worse.

Then, Maverick joins in, because they are a team, even across buildings, and the coach may sideline some players but at the end of the day, they all get back on the bus and go home. Moonie joins him, because she has his back, through thick and thin.

Elodie knows it is the right thing to do, so she joins in, and so does Callie. They both might not like his pompous aura and his tendency to embellish himself, but they would both agree that a cocky Darlington is better than one pouting on the floor.

They have enough votes then and there that it doesn't actually matter, but Darlington hasn't put his hand up yet. Slowly, the rest join in. Benedict might think it is incredibly stupid, but he organized them to go outside and that went okay. Marcellus is mostly indifferent but cannot help but wonder about the foundation. His engineering skills might come in handy. Galilee also agrees because they do things together or not together. Ro reluctantly raises her hand, hoping to see the fireworks on a ceiling in a basement is enough to force her underground for each other. Jerry joins in just because everyone else is, and he's not about to be the one on the outskirts.

With that, Darlington nods, "let's get going then."

~~~~~

Shorter but also just as sweet I think. Big dramatic stuff going on though. Let me know what you think in the comments, or if you have any predictions! I can't wait for this to progress urgh.