Neil woke to the sound of movement in the other room. Despite the late night, the Foxes were up and about by mid-morning. Today was the day the team cleared out for winter break, and most of them had long enough flights to sleep on. Allison, Renee, and Dan were flying out to Bismarck together around lunch time and would split up after they landed. Two hours after they were in the air the rest of the Foxes would be en route to LaGuardia.

Neil had passed Matt's invitation along the week before exams and let Nicky do most of the work from there. Nicky's original plans to go to Germany for Christmas derailed when Andrew got committed. He didn't want to get that far away from Aaron. Unfortunately Erik couldn't take enough time off to come to the States. That meant Matt was Nicky's only chance for a fun holiday.

None of the so-called monsters of the team were sure why Matt was being nice to them, but Nicky was too excited to spend New Year's in Times Square to really care. Wymack claimed to be happier than Nicky was about the arrangement, since their absence meant he could finally have some peace and quiet. Aaron had to get permission from his lawyer to leave the state, but they'd settled that easily enough.

How Neil was supposed to tell any of them his plans had changed, he didn't know. There was no way he could tell them the truth. None of them would let him go through with it. It was a small miracle Kevin was going along with this. Kevin knew more than any of them what Riko was capable of, so he knew what was waiting for Neil in West Virginia. Maybe he trusted Neil to hold his ground; more likely he knew what Riko would do to the Foxes if Neil refused. Neil didn't know and didn't care so long as Kevin kept his mouth shut.

Neil pushed his blankets aside and sat up. He lifted his pillow to get his phone but hesitated at the sight of Andrew's armbands. Nicky's voice in the other room jarred him from his thoughts. Neil dropped his pillow again, then realized he had a way out. He grabbed his phone, flipped it open, and put it to his ear. When Nicky pushed the bedroom door open without knocking, Neil struck up a conversation with no one at all.

"Yes, I saw it," Neil said, glancing at Nicky to acknowledge his entrance.

Nicky had his mouth open on a greeting but went quiet when he realized Neil was on the phone. Instead of leaving, Nicky got comfortable against the doorframe to wait him out. Neil had counted on Nicky's curiosity. In the months since they first handed Neil this phone they'd never once seen him make a call on it. Neil signaled to Nicky that he was almost finished and half-turned away.