loyalty | s. scola

- THREE

Stuart Scola took the job offer at Twenty-Six Fed for a lot of reasons.

He needed a change, needed something fun, and he owed Jubal a favor. Twenty-Six wasn't all that bad, either. He liked the work they did, and Kristen was a good agent, if only a little green. Still, he remembers what he was like as a newbie, and he's pretty sure that they still tell some of his stories at Quantico, so he's giving her grace. She's already doing better than he did, and she's doing good a field agent.

OA and Maggie were great agents, too, and he's a little stunned at how much the three of them have grown on him in such a short time. He likes it here. He has friends here, and sure, he's not the best at making personal connections, but there's potential here.

Something that makes him want to stay, that makes him want to talk and open up.

It's a start to something new, and he thinks that's why seeing Ava again is throwing him so much.

He doesn't see her for five years, and then he literally runs into one of the biggest ghosts that he's tried to leave behind. She looks as beautiful as she did the last time that he saw her. She cut her hair, but the way that she softened when she saw him, the visible change in her demeanor, the way she smiles, that was the same. Still seared into his memory like the taste of her lips and the way that she left.

Ava seemed to come with an instruction manual to his heart, and even now, though dusty and worn, she still has it.

"Hey, I've been looking all over for you."Jubal corners him in the empty kitchen, where he's sprinkling cinnamon in his coffee.

"You've found me."

Jubal leans against the counter, close enough that Stuart knows that whatever he's about to talk to him about is not work related. He takes a sip of his coffee to avoid saying something rude, like 'go away.' He's not the most open, he never has been, and he knows that he never will be, and today has been... A Day, to say the least.

"Look, I know that you and Ava have some history," he says quietly. "I just wanted to check in on you."

"I'm not made of glass, Jubal, I can work with my ex-girlfriend perfectly well."

"No, I know. But I've heard the rumors... and I know Ava. And you."

"I wouldn't put too much stock into grapevine rumors, Jubal." Stuart laughs sharply, "Really, I'm fine. Ava and I are good."

His words are not an outright lie, but they're also not the truth, either. He and Ava were complicated. They never had a label for what they were doing, but it had felt like a lot more than sex. At least, to him it had.

He'd really liked her, and she'd left, ducked his calls, and used her work to ghost him. He can't hold it against her, because then all that would be doing would be making him a hypocrite. He's done the same to other woman, and he's not proud of it, but he understands. She was also K&R's unit chief, and she was busy, too.

She left without so much a phone call, and while he's been there and done that, it had hurt.

He doesn't hold grudges, but that sting hasn't gone away. He can compartmentalize like the best of them, but he is, at his core, an emotional person. Despite what he likes to believe about himself. He can't quite quiet down the part of him that she hurt when they're alone.

Jubal looks at him for a few moments, quiet, before nodding. "Right, right. But if anything does come up, though, you'll talk to me, yeah?"

"Yeah," Stuart lies. "Of course I will."

He takes his leave, making his way out of the room with a pat on Jubal's shoulder before heading back to his desk. Kristen greeted him by tearing the bottom end of a list of names off and handing it to him.