Sawyer rolled his eyes as he raised his hands and locked his fingers together behind his head. "Are you going to frisk me now, Roark?"
"What the hell?" Roark whispered. "Sawyer?"
Sawyer slowly turned to look at his former commander, friend, and fellow detective when they were on the police force. "Hello, Roark."
"You're alive."
Sawyer didn't reply to that statement. He wasn't sure what he was doing could be considered living. Technically, he wasn't dead. Whatever the mechs had injected into his system prevented that, but he wasn't really living either.
"Fuck, man, we all thought you died down in Colorado Springs." Roark shook his head. "What happened? Why didn't you let us know you were alive?"
"I couldn't." He wasn't thrilled that they knew now. It just wasn't safe, not for any of them.
Roark frowned. "Where have you been?"
Sawyer smirked. "I've been around."
"Sawyer—"
"Hey, look, it's been nice seeing you again, but I need to get going." Sawyer reached down and grabbed his gun. His heart sank when he heard a rustling in the bushes, and then the rest of the unit he used to belong to stepped through the trees, including Stefan.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" Betrayal clouded Stefan's eyes.
"I have to, Stef."
"No, you don't," Stefan insisted. "You can—"
"Holy shit!" one of the others exclaimed. "Detective Lewis Sawyer. I never thought I'd see you again."
Sawyer grinned as his gaze pinned on the brown-haired man standing next to Roark. "Hey, Frankie. I see Roark finally found your frozen ass."
Frankie grimaced. "Yeah, I was playing a popsicle in California."
Sawyer's eyebrows lifted. "California?"
Roark's jaw clenched. "His parents moved him out there after they put him in cryostasis."
Well, that explained why they hadn't found Frankie in all the years they'd been looking for him.
"It's good to see you out, Frankie."
Frankie grinned as he leaned into Roark. "It's good to be out."
"That man searched everywhere for you." Sawyer pointed to his former commander. "I doubted we'd ever find you, but he never did. He always knew he would. I guess he was right."
"We kind of never thought we'd see you," Frankie said. "Where have you been?"
"That takes a longer answer than I have time to give right now, Frankie." Or ever. He took a step back. "I need to get going."
"You're really leaving?" Stefan asked as he took a step forward. "Just like that?"
"I have to, Stef."
"No, you don't," Stefan insisted.
They'd already had this conversation. Sawyer needed to go before he caused more pain to appear in Stefan's eyes. It just about killed him every time he looked at the man, both because of how much he wanted to stay and because of how much he knew he couldn't.
Without another word, Sawyer turned and started to walk away.
