Rain or Shine | Soulmate AU 1.5 |

5

Lake and Rowan aren't gone for very long. They return with a few files with different names written on them, throwing them onto the large conference table with matching hardened expressions. The pair are nothing but efficient if they need to get something done fast.

"Steven Hale, father of three. Has a daughter and son in the same preschool as Bella's. League reject. Watch-listed when surveillance picked him up at multiple meetings with that anti-League group that wants to abolish the whole organization together," Lake rants, speaking fast and pointing out corresponding areas in the thickest file.

"What do they call themselves again?" JD says, swinging himself around in one of the computer chairs, "Gold Crows or something stupid like that? What a buncha loons."

"We can discuss how delusional they are later, JD," I say tonelessly. "Tell me we have an address."

"We do," Rowan pipes up, flipping through the folder that Lake laid out on the table. "He's over in Long Island. Lives with the wife and kids. It's early, though, and they should be out. He hasn't been able to hold a job down longer than a month since he failed the entrance exam."

"Alright," I say, standing and gesturing to the door, "let's go get him."

The team files out one by one with similar determined faces. I grab Flint as he's passing and pull him aside.

"Get an interrogation room ready, hm? Don't want too many people on this one in case the kids are actually home." He nods in agreement and heads off in the same direction as the others.

It's only Lake, Rowan, and I who actually head to Long Island. Wendy and Cally are on voluntary leave for the time being. Tony and Cecelia are still out checking practically every hospital in the state even though I have a feeling they won't be finding Bella at any one of them. Nick's been running interference with D.C for the last couple of hours or so and has expressed just how unhappy she is about it. It's a necessary evil, though, and I prefer it over League teams creating their own rules. They won't admit it, but the powers that be in D.C learned a lot from what happened with my old team, for better or for worse. Having to relay everything back to them when we need to make a move is preferable to the alternative.

The trip to Staten Island feels way longer than it normally does. Rowan drives with Lake in the front seat at my insistence and I use the time in the back seat to shake my legs and squirm around in the backseat. I've never messed up this bad as a captain before. I've always been the one to have my entire life, and pretty much everyone else's by extension, together. There's never been a time when I couldn't be reached during a crisis. The mean side of my brain keeps straying back to the fact that those few hours I wasn't reachable can mean the difference between life and death in situations like this. Captains are appointed to League teams to lead point for a reason. I can't have a bunch of agents making decisions without any direction, and yet I was edging right into the time frame where they may have been forced to do so.

On the tiny sliver that is the bright side, this outing will be a good dry run of how Lake and Rowan will work together in the field. They're unaware that I've been making observations of their performance in the field, but it's unofficial anyway. I'm thirty-one. The average age of retirement for League agents is around fifty. Captains typically stick around into their mid-to-late sixties to ease the transition from captain to captain better. With this all in mind, I do still have a good thirty years ahead of me, but having a plan in place is always a good idea. I don't have the authority to appoint a captain myself, but my recommendation will play heavily into who the higher ups in D.C choose. I love the entire team equally, but Lake has become a bit of an exception.

I was worried about who I'd choose before the kid came along. Cecelia and Tony have been talking about starting a huge family for a while. Wendy and Cally are only consultants and a majority of their lives exist outside of the League. JD is a really sweet kid with a wicked sense of humor, but he struggles with taking things seriously at times. The only place Nick is really assertive is in the field, which is fine for her current position but not a captaincy one. Flint is our tech specialist and he does research on his own time on top of maintaining a relationship with his counterpart, so placing a captain position on him would be too much.