He heard the blinds being drawn open before the bright ray of sunshine hit him full-on. He flinched before he groaned and turned, throwing his arm out to his right. But instead of feeling the curvaceous body of Mary, he came up empty.

"Rise and shine, director."

He cracked open an eye slowly and saw her standing in front of the open curtains, with her back to him. Her long dark-brown hair was a bird's nest but with the sun rays shining down on her, she looked as beautiful as ever. That was until he noticed the oversized shirt she was wearing.

"Nice shirt," he said, turning in the bed. She turned to face him and she smirked mischievously.
"Thanks. I stole it from an unsuspecting guy I'm seeing," she replied.

Director Gray chuckled and rubbed his eyes as he sat up slowly. He turned to his left to check the time and he said, "You know, I planned on wearing that shirt today."

It was currently 7:14 a.m, meaning he still had some time before he went to work. He stood up straight and stretched, with a yawn. Then he went into free fall, until he put his arms out in front of him.
He landed on the dark tiled floor and started his usual workout. He was on five push-ups when he felt an extra weight on his back. He turned his head slightly and saw Mary sitting comfortably on him.

"You... are not wearing anything until you look like a human being," she told him as she went down and up again. Director Gray continued at a steady pace and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I mean... you look like you've been living a cave for the last month," she replied him.

"I don't know about cave. More like prison," the dark-skinned director muttered under his breath.

"Huh?"

"Hmm?" he replied innocently.

The nurse of the two stared at the back of his head intently before she stood fully; while he was still doing push-ups. He fell flat on his stomach with a groan.
"Yup... I deserved that," he said.

Mary stepped off his back and walked over to the cabinet by the queen-sized bed. She opened it and brought out a hair clipper. "What you deserve... is a haircut. Now get off your Neanderthal butt, and come over here."

She patted the stool under the cabinet for him to sit. The director chuckled lightly and rose to his feet. He thought of taking off his grey t-shirt but it was already dirty, so there was no need.

"Have you... have you done this before?" he asked his girlfriend skeptically as he sat.
"Not really, no. But how hard could it be?"

"What?" the director stood suddenly and backed away from her. She snickered before she laughed outrightly.
"You're such a baby. Sit... I know what I'm doing," she assured him after she calmed down.

Director Gray eyed her suspiciously as he sat slowly. She turned the clipper on and she went to work on his hair, the clipper letting out a low buzzing sound.

"So... when'd you come home last night?" Mary said for small talk sake. She was more focused on his hair.
"I don't know. 11 or so? I was pretty tired. And trust Horatio to make everything worse."

"What'd he do this time?"

"It's not what he did. It's what he said..." The dark-skinned director paused as he remembered the events that transpired in his office the previous night. He remembered how Katherine imitated Councilor Horatio, causing him to shake as he held back laughter.

"Hey! Hold still! And what's so funny?" Tufts of his dark hair fell lazily to the ground as Mary stopped to analyze what she was doing. She reached into the cabinet and brought out a large comb, then proceeded to run it through his hair.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just remembered how Katherine was mimicking Horatio. It was spot-on," Director Gray explained with a small smile. He didn't notice the look that passed across his girlfriend's face. She continued shaving his hair but her eyebrows became furrowed.

"Kat was there?"

"Oh yeah. I offered to drop her off, and get this... she said her boyfriend was picking her up."

"Really?"

"Yep... I'm as surprised as you are."

They remained there in silence, save the buzzing of the hair clipper. Director Gray loved the way Mary made him feel at ease. Even with all the shit currently going on, she made him feel happy. And it wasn't like she didn't know what was going on; she did, she just never talked to him about it. Instead, she'd try to distract him and cheer him up. He remembered her rules of the bedroom. One of them being, "We leave our business lives outside this bedroom."

Director Ayaz almost broke that rule when he called the night before the prelims. Which was why he left the bedroom to pick the Turkish man's call. But as fate would have it, the rule would be broken anyway. By her, of all people.

"How are the RITs holding up, John?" the nurse of The COSP asked calmly. He wanted to look up at her in surprise, but he couldn't; else he risked messing his hair up. So instead, he replied, "Uh-huh. They're AITs now, remember?"

"Whatever! How are they?"

"They're handling themselves well. They're strong, those kids. They'll pull through. They have to," his voice became lower with every word.

"Have they gotten anything more out of Dominic? Do we know what they're planning?" Mary pressed on. Katherine has asked her to talk to John, but she didn't really hold up on her end. If she had talked to him then, maybe what happened wouldn't have happened. So, to hell with her bedroom rules, she was bringing their business lives into it.

"Nothing as of last night. All we know is whatever they planned, it failed. Meaning they're trying to get back on their feet, just like us. I mean, no one saw this coming," Director Gray replied.

"I know what you mean. A whole new bunch of evos coming out all around the world? It's unheard of," Mary agreed with him.

Ever since The Surge; as Dominic called it, happened, a bunch of people - people who have no evolved ancestry line - started coming out, developing abilities. And The COSP was rallying around, trying to recruit as much as they could. Director Gray guessed that they were doing the same thing. Which meant, it was a rat race!

"Have you... have you talked to him?" Mary asked solemnly. Director Gray moved to shake his head in the negative but she held it firmly.
"I send him texts every week but I get no response. I think he needs more time," he replied somewhat dejectedly.

"But it's been a month."

"He needs more time, Mary."

As much as Director Gray was right, time wasn't a luxury that they had.

«»

"Y-yes... of course... absolutely, Mr. Mayor. I'll call you when I have new information."

He waited for the call to end before he dropped his phone on his desk. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger as he sank into his revolving chair. The man was tempted to run a hand through his midnight-black hair. He had been trying to keep the peace together, but the people of Crestville City were uneasy.

The alliance of The Crestville City Police Department and The COSP didn't help matters. He only agreed to it because he thought it'd ease the minds of the citizens. Instead, it agitated them even further.

They didn't feel safe knowing that their protection was in the hands of a security firm they knew nothing about until a few weeks ago.

When Director Gray came to him, he explained how newly evolved people were popping up all around the globe. And the director feared they were going to pop up in Crestville City soon.

And he wasn't wrong...

Weird reports had been coming in for a while. From someone controlling water to someone not getting burned by fire. So, to protect The COSP's secret identity, these people; and in retrospect, the world, Director Gray and The Mayor agreed to allow The COSP pose as a private security company that wanted to bolster the security of Crestville City.

They even got The President of the United States to sign off on it!

He honestly thought it would work. What he didn't expect was for The COSP to be parading kids around crime scenes, investigations and other official police business. He had questioned Director Gray and the dark-skinned man replied, saying, "There's an adult with them at all times! We're not breaking any rules here. We're just trying to save the world!"

He was technically right. But the public had quickly lost faith in The COSP. It didn't help that there was absolutely no record of The COSP anywhere on earth.

Shockingly though, that wasn't his main concern. He knew the brewing unrest wouldn't stop unless the cop killer was caught and brought to justice. That was the only way Crestville City would calm down.

About a month ago, he had a meeting with The Mayor and The Commissioner of Police to deliberate on how to catch the cop killer at large; Whyte, as John Gray called him.
After much back and forth; which involved The Mayor and The Commissioner arguing on whether to involve Interpol, they agreed on keeping it in-house. Meaning, they weren't going to involve anyone outside of Crestville; or New Jersey at the very worst.

He remembered he had drinks with Dr. Julia Roberts later that night. He smiled at the fond memory. Speaking of the psychotherapist, he hadn't heard from her in a while. He picked up his phone and dialed her number.

"Hey, this is Dr. Julia Roberts. I'm not here right now so just-"

He ended the call and dropped his phone back on his desk. The noise from the precinct wasn't as profound as it usually was. Morale was desperately low.
The CCPD needed a win; a big one, if they wanted to get their morale high. Also if they wanted to get the public back on their side.

It was finally summer and he didn't hear the usual hustle and bustle from Crestville City as he usually did. Normally, during the summer, there'd be a large influx of tourists and visitors but it seemed the news had spread.

Crestville City was no longer safe!

His phone vibrated continually, enough to bring him out of his thoughts. He checked and saw that Julia was calling him back. He smiled a little before he picked the call and spun in his chair.

"Ah... Julia. ¿Qué pasa?" he asked with a small smile still on his face.

"How many times do I have to tell you, Daniel? I don't speak Spanish!" came the response of the therapist.

"And how many times do I have to tell you, Julia? Take classes!"

"I think I have better things to do than take Spanish classes."

The captain of the Crestville City Police Department gasped in shock and grabbed his chest in mock hurt. "How dare you?" he let out.
They both shared a laugh. It was nice to laugh seeing as they were both facing different problems in their lives. Him with the whole "Crestville no longer safe" thing and her... well, hers was a tad bit more complicated.

"How is he, Julia?" he asked after they had both stopped laughing. There was silence on the therapist's end of the line. The captain figured she was thinking of how to phrase her words.
"He's... he's not fine, Daniel. But he's currently sleeping, so that's a good thing, I guess," she finally replied.

"Yeah," he said softly, deep in thought.

"I just don't get it. Everything was fine. You said it yourself that he's in good hands. So... what happened to him?" Julia asked, sincere concern and worry in her voice.

"I-I don't know."

He was lying.

He did know what happened to the person in question. Director Gray told him everything. And he could understand why he was currently the way he was. No one would remain the same if what happened to him, happened to them.

"Oh... looks like he's waking up. Um... I'll call you, okay?" Dr. Roberts said hastily and she ended the call.

"Yeah... okay," Captain Ruiz said to himself.