Sveta leaned over me, half-hugging me from behind as I clicked through the images.

“I was thinking of a name to do with swans,” Ashley said, as I clicked.

“An awful lot of the bird names are taken,” I said. “It was a trend once. What were you considering?”

“Swansong,” she said. “If I go with the white costume.”

“I can check, but I’d have to go through my paper stuff,” I said.

“Isn’t that kind of a bad omen of a name?” Sveta asked “Like, last dance or ‘I’m going to retire today’?”

“I like bad omens,” Ashley said.

“I like this one,” I said, indicating an image. “I have a folder for you too, Sveta, just so you know.”

“I’m curious what you’re thinking.”

“All over the place,” I said. “Lots of stuff where I might not even remember why I saved the image in your folder.”

“Guys,” Tristan said.

He had our attention. His phone was to his ear.

“Rain’s nearby. He wants to know if he can bring Erin.”

Just like that, the mood of the room shifted.

We exchanged looks, and there were tentative nods, some real nods, no vetoes or refusals.

Tristan gave the A-okay. He hung up.

The silence lingered for a few seconds.

“I like Erin,” Kenzie said. “And I’m really glad Rain’s coming back so soon.”

“Yesterday was hard on him,” Tristan said. “And… Coño, it was his night last night.”

“His night?” I asked.

“His dream,” Tristan said. “It’s always hard.”

“Sounds like a good dream to me,” Chris said.

Tristan picked up an eraser from by the nearest whiteboard and threw it at Chris.

“I like this one,” Ashley said. She tapped the frame of the laptop screen.

“Elaborate,” Sveta said. “You’d have to draw it on every time you went out in costume.”

“It could be projected,” Ashley said.

“It could,” I said. “If it’s easy to do, we could do that. I think the thing to do would be to make sure you look good if the projector breaks or loses power, and then build on that.”

“Like the wig idea,” Sveta said.

Ashley sighed.

Rain opened the side door of the headquarters, letting Erin in first before following.

I’d gathered myself together earlier in the day. For the first time since the Patrol block job, I felt like I almost had my feet under me.

Tristan had said Rain had dealt with a hard night on top of a hard yesterday. It showed. Something hollowed out, something wounded. He looked like I’d felt after Snag had gotten his hands on me.