Neil meant to ask about Kevin, but the phones reminded him of another problem. He could bother Kevin for a better explanation of his deal with Andrew. This other question was something only Andrew could answer.

"Why did the Oakland PD call you?"

"Right for the throat. Maybe not so spineless after all," Andrew said, amused. "Children's Services is opening an investigation into one of my foster fathers. Pig Higgins knew I lived with them, so he called me looking for testimony."

"But you won't help him."

Andrew flicked his fingers in dismissal. "Richard Spear is an uninteresting but relatively harmless human being. They won't find anything to pin on him."

"You sure?" Neil asked. "Your reaction was a little extreme for a misunderstanding."

"I don't like that word."

Neil hesitated. "Extreme?"

"Misunderstanding."

"It's an odd word to have a grudge against."

"You don't have any room to judge other people's problems," Andrew said.

Andrew swung his leg over the bench and got to his feet. Neil guessed that meant the conversation was over. He reached for his workout shorts as Andrew left. The door had barely closed behind Andrew before it was pushed open again. Andrew was right; Kevin looked thoroughly annoyed he'd had to delay practice for them. Neil expected some sort of scathing rebuke, but Kevin's angry movements spoke for him.

They finished changing as quickly as they could and worked out their stress on the court. Andrew was waiting for them when they were done, looking half-asleep on his feet, and they went back to the dorm together. Neil changed for bed in the bathroom, pushed his discarded clothes aside with a foot, and sat on the side of the tub. The overhead light glinted off the curved surface of his phone where it was nestled in his palm.

It felt like an eternity before he could open it. He slowly scrolled through the menu and wasn't entirely surprised to see Andrew had already filled out his contacts list. He'd even set a couple speed dials. Andrew was first, then Kevin, then Wymack. Neil had no idea why the team's psychiatrist was programmed as an emergency contact. He had no intention of speaking to Betsy Dobson again. Neil deleted her information.

When his contacts list refreshed, Neil went to his call history. One name was listed with two timestamps beside it. It wasn't his mother's name, but it wasn't his father's, either. Neil would learn to live with that one day at a time.

-

Neil's phone went off the next morning and startled five years off his life expectancy. Neil was packing his things to leave his Spanish class when he heard the distinctive buzz. He dropped his textbook immediately and dug his phone out of the depths of his bag, mind going a million miles an hour on everything that could be going wrong.

A message was blinking at him in his inbox. Neil's heart slowed a bit when he saw Nicky's name attached to it, because Nicky was the last person Neil thought would be the bearer of bad news. He opened the message anyway and found a two-character smiley staring back at him. Neil waited to see if anything else came through, but that appeared to be it.