Ships Ahoy!

The Prodigal

July 4, 2014.

It had been exactly twenty-nine years and eleven months since he'd left her. Just shy of three whole decades.

And Oprah was still lonely.

Over the past thirty years, not a day had gone by when she didn't miss him. The way he'd whipped his sunglasses off when he came to work every morning. Faithfully working alongside and supporting her on every odd case they tackled. The way he'd called her his own baby doll. Wrapping his arms around her in a warm and loving embrace. Oprah missed it all.

At first she'd tried calling him multiple times, until she remembered (falsely, as it later turned out) that he probably hadn't taken his badge with him and probably had a different phone number now. Next she'd thought about setting out to look for him herself, but decided against it upon thinking about how big Toronto was, let alone anywhere else in the world he might be. So in the end she'd kept it all inside. Or tried to, at least. Often it escaped in the form of raising her voice at her agents, which she regretted somewhat as turning her into the bully she'd told him she despised. Still, she could never bring herself to breathe a word about the whole thing to anyone.

Not even to her new adviser. Not even Oscar.

Oprah had toyed with the idea about possibly developing not just an affection, but an attraction for the Lab Director. He had taken her mind off her emotional relapses and helped to make them shorter, that was for sure. And he was cute, the way his chocolate-brown eyes darted back and forth nervously, the way his deft fingers moved as he began working on some gadget or sewing project, the way he was always more than eager to help her out with whatever she needed—especially like that entire ordeal with finding a pet. But the fact was, Oscar just wasn't like O'Donahue. Never had been. Besides, there was the small matter of his wrecked relationship with Olive, and she couldn't intrude in any way if she wanted to keep her own rule.

No, in the end it all boiled down to O'Donahue not being at her side anymore.

But today, at precisely two o'clock in the afternoon, that was all about to change.

It was the two dashes that did it. The sight of them on the display in Oscar's lab might have triggered one of her relapses, if it hadn't been for Otto's blissfully ignorant question of what they were. Suddenly she was all business again, and the memories and emotions pressing at the edges of her mind receded. A little surprised, Oprah took a step backward and found all three pairs of eyes on her as she declared a pivotal decision for herself.

"You're off the case, and I'm on it."

Their surprise mirrored her own. "So, you're going to catch the bad guy...alone?" Otto asked incredulously.

She shook her head and smiled a little. "Not alone. It's time I paid a visit to my old partner. O'Donahue." And for an added flair, "Dun dun DUUUNNNNNN!"

Now, here she stood at the edge of the beach, squinting in the bright afternoon sun at the very fishing pier where her world had been shattered nearly three decades ago. The two dashes that had served as the excuse to rip her partner from her side were gone, of course, covered over several years back when the wooden planks were paved with concrete. But it was still the same pier. Though she didn't exactly know how or why, something told her that she'd find him here. And sure enough, way out at the other end of the pier, stood a lone figure.

Oprah suddenly felt her chest tighten with fear. She couldn't do this. She wasn't going to be able to do this. He wasn't going to want to talk to her, he'd just blow her off like he did before. But the sight of her three agents' shocked faces were imprinted on her mind. She'd told them. Mentioned her partner's name for the first time in almost thirty years. So she had to try.