Time to pack up for the day. She gathered her things: notebook, water bottle, the lamp she’d plug in again tomorrow morning. The converted conference room still didn’t feel quite right as a therapy space, but she was making it work with small improvements and gradual settling.
Jade stepped into the hallway, locking the door behind her. The department hummed with late afternoon activity as shift change approached, and a few people nodded as she passed, faces becoming more familiar each day. Julia appeared from around a corner, coffee mug in hand.
“Hey, Jade, how’d it go?” she asked as she got closer.
Jade kept her expression neutral. “About what I expected. She’s resistant.”
Julia’s smile was knowing. “Yeah, that tracks. Do you think she’ll come back for another session?”
“Yeah, she’ll come back,” Jade said, her tone equally as knowing and confident.
Julia pressed her lips together. “What makes you so sure?”
Jade adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “Because she cares about her job, and deep down, maybe really deep down, she knows she can’t keep going on like this.”
Julia studied her for a moment, something like respect in her eyes. “I hope you’re right, Jade. We need her, but more than that, she needs herself, and for her to have that, she needs help.”
“I know,” Jade said, keeping her eyes trained on Julia.
They parted ways at the main corridor, Julia heading back toward the offices while Jade made her way to the exit. The fresh spring air hit her as she stepped outside. It was cool and tinged with salt from the harbor, carrying the cry of gulls overhead. She breathed it in, letting the day settle as she crossed the parking lot toward her car.
And that’s when she saw it.
Maddox’s older Ford truck was still parked in its designated spot near the back. The driver’s side door was closed and the windows dark, but Jade could just make out the shape of someone sitting in the driver’s seat. Zeus’s head was visible in the passenger seat, pressed close to Maddox.
Maddox was still here. Not inside working, not gone home, just sitting in her truck, not ready to face whatever waited for her in an empty house. Jade recognized the pattern instantly. She’d done the same thing for months after coming home from her last deployment. She sat in her car outside her apartment, not quite ready to walk into the silence, not quite ready to face the pace where no one needed her, where there was nothing to do except sit with her own impossibly loud thoughts.
The loneliest place wasn’t the battlefield but coming home to the unfamiliar quiet.
Jade didn’t approach her or wave. She just unlocked her own car and slid into the driver’s seat, giving Maddox the privacy she clearly needed. But as she pulled out of the lot, her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror one more time.
Maddox was still there, still sitting, still not ready.
Next week, Jade thought, turning onto the main road.I’ll try a different approach and figure out what she loves. That’s where vulnerability hides.
And maybe she could focus more on Zeus or the work itself or what drew Maddox to K-9 handling in the first place. Sheneeded to find the passion beneath Maddox’s fortress, and the rest would follow naturally.
Jade knew how to be patient. She’d been doing this work long enough to understand the healing didn’t happen in one session, or even ten. It happened in the small moments, in showing up and offering space without demanding someone fill it.
Maddox would come back next Tuesday; she was sure of it. And Jade would be ready.
3
Maddox arrived at Jade’s office at exactly 2 p.m., the same way she’d arrived last week: on time, in uniform, and her walls firmly in place.
But this time, she brought Zeus with her.
The converted conference room looked more settled now. Books lined the shelves, a few framed certificates hung on the walls, and a small succulent sat next to the pothos on the windowsill, catching the afternoon light. It was starting to look less like a borrowed space and more like Jade belonged here, which irritated Maddox more than it should’ve.
“Officer Shaw.” Jade looked up from her desk with that same calm expression, the one that suggested nothing Maddox could say or do would rattle her, not even Maddox bringing Zeus. “Come in. Zeus can make himself comfortable wherever he wants.”
Maddox walked to the same chair she’d taken last week and sat with the same rigid posture: knees together and hands flat on her thighs. Zeus circled once before lying down at her feet, his weight a comforting pressure against her boots.
“How was your week?” Jade asked, settling into her own chair with a notepad balanced on her knee.
“Fine.”
“Any difficult calls?”
