He doesn't say anything else and I don't either but something in my chest shifts — not all the way, not cleanly — just enough to breathe around.
We wait in the hallway for whatever comes next.
***
They don’t call me back in right away.
We wait in the hallway long enough for the fluorescent hum to settle into something constant. Long enough that the adrenaline from the room drains off and leaves something quieter behind it. Dalton’s hand stays at the back of my neck. Not moving. Just there.
Sven opens the door.
“Back in,” he says.
We go.
The room is the same.
Tomlinson looks up.
“Thank you for waiting,” he says.
I sit. Dalton stays beside me.
Tomlinson folds his hands on the table.
“The Board has reviewed the submitted statement and the investigative findings provided by Kane and Kade.” He glances briefly at the folder. “We find the documentation credible and the pattern of behavior established.”
A beat.
“The death of Curtis James is hereby classified as an act of self-defense.”
The words land clean.
No reaction from the woman with the tablet. Len shifts once in his chair. Gavin doesn’t move.
My jaw unclenches.
Tomlinson continues.
“The prior designation of unknown causality is removed from Alex’s file.” His eyes come back to me. “The associated risk elevation tied to that designation is no longer applicable.”
The woman writes something down.
Gavin speaks.
“The original assessment relied on incomplete information,” he says. His voice is even. “That assessment is now revised.”
Not apology.
Tomlinson nods once.
“That revision, however,” he says, “does not resolve the entirety of Alex’s classification.”
There it is.
I don’t look away.
“You present with a constellation of traits that remain outside current institutional frameworks,” Tomlinson says. “Alpha expression without prior identification. Multi-bonded configuration. Demonstrated control under stress conditions, but not within parameters we have precedent for.”
