To Be Like the Guardians

Part 1: The Plan, Chapter 3: Episode

Haven Avery tried to concentrate on the screen in front of her, which displayed a map of all of the Fearling and Nightmare attacks that had occurred this week. The light blue office walls seemed entirely too optimistic for the day with the sheer number of attacks she was looking at, and the office itself was entirely too small for all of its occupants- Matt, Haven, Angelia, Duran, and Mallory. Everyone's light blue t-shirts and pants crowded the area with that color, although Matt and Haven had a gold stripe that ran from the tops of their shoulders down their arms, and Mallory a silver one. Everyone's white tennis shoes matched the floor, and the L.E.R. sun on the right side of the chests had their first initial and last name under it.

"It's worse," Haven heard Mallory whisper to Matt behind her. "I've been hearing them more often this month than any other." She could understand why Mallory didn't want to stress her with her work and wedding plans and all, but she thought she could take it.

"Do you need a break?" the Asian man asked him, and Haven's heart glowed with love for his kindness. "You could take a break to deal with this if you want."

"No, it's alright. I'm fine. It just makes me lose a little sleep, is all. Besides, I wouldn't want to put more stress on you, with your wedding tomorrow." Just the thought of it sent Haven's heart reeling. She didn't want anything to go wrong, though she was excited. Everything was planned out already, but she had had no idea that she would still be this worried about it. Oh, look, a new attack was reported. Agent B. Howard, last night.

"Do you still think you can handle the business while we're on our honeymoon for four days?" Haven asked Mallory, not turning to face the two men behind the pine desk. Matt and Haven would've planned a longer honeymoon, but with all that was going on at work, they didn't want to be gone for too long. They would take a longer vacation once everything had settled down, once the Fearling and Nightmare attacks lessened, if they ever did.

She and Matt were the top people in charge; Angelia and Duran had wanted to do more specific tasks and thought that four people at the top was entirely too many anyway, and Duran had grown tired of being an unofficial group leader. Mallory was second officially on the totem pole, since he also did more general work.

"I'll be fine," Mallory replied.

"You should check in with the Guardians again," Haven said. "Just to be safe. Or Whisper."

The door opened, revealing the blue-toned woman herself, in a pink blouse with her L.E.R. pin on it- she was an honorary agent, though she didn't fight and her name wasn't on the cave wall, unlike all of the other agents- and jean shorts. On the right side of her face were her normal violet markings, larger toward her largish nose and smaller toward her ear. Sometimes she came with Sneak in tow, and sometimes she didn't. Today, it appeared, she was alone. "What about me?" She looked at Mallory, and it took a second for the next mental message to reach Haven. "I can sense that it's worse. Whatever he has."

Mallory nodded.

"I don't think he should stay here by himself," Whisper continued.

"Exactly what I'm thinking," Duran said, looking up from the paperwork on his clipboard in the corner. "We need to appoint someone to look after him while Matt and Haven are gone, since they won't be able to like they usually do. I can't; I'm too busy."

"So am I," Angelia said, next to Duran.

"Don't worry," Mallory said. "I can handle myself. I don't plan on doing what the voices tell me anytime soon."

"Even the best of people sometimes fall," Whisper said. "Could Fiona look after him?"

"She's working on something," Haven said, looking up from her screen. "Some kind of sentinel, I think. She could, but she wouldn't like it." Fiona Garcia. Duran had trusted his college friend enough to hire her for the L.E.R., but for some agents, she wasn't the easiest to work with. Particularly for Beth Howard, who had moved her hallway campaigns from the school to the L.E.R. headquarters.