Otherwise...

Hal still didn't say anything yet, and simply continued to eat his ice cream as Sam leaned her head on his shoulder. Finally though, he set his own bowl down and moved to put his arm around her shoulders, and kissed the top of her head. "Quit beating yourself up." 

He sighed and looked down at his empty dish. "You may not care how I feel, but here it is anyway. I gotta be honest - I'm floored. I thought you had better sense than to do that with Aaron. From an Elite agent's perspective, I'm disappointed and upset, and I feel like you betrayed the Elite's trust." He paused as his hand gently rubbed her shoulder. "From the perspective of... well, my heart I guess... I can understand doing what you thought was right. The Elite's always been based on those gut feelings, and if the FBI wasn't involved, you probably wouldn't even have been suspended."

He drew back and turned a little to face her, bringing a finger under her chin to tilt it up so he could see her face. "I wish you would have stopped Aaron, then talked to someone about letting him go. But what's done is done. You're on suspension, Aaron is free - for the moment at least - and Reese and Kirk are at each other's throats. Surprisingly enough though... the sun's still gonna come up tomorrow. And that means you need to accept the situation and quit feeling sorry for yourself." 

Though his words were stern, his tone was gentle, as was his touch as he brushed aside a stray strand of hair. "And just for the record - I'm awfully glad you were born a girl instead of a boy. And I'm awfully glad you chose the job you did. Otherwise we wouldn't have met."


Hunter's eyes widened and he poked Ryan in the ribs. "Hey... you stay away from him." He looked at Dylan next. "And you keep your trap shut, no matter how hard she tries to pry information out of you." 

Dylan held up his hands. "You just keep her away from me then, 'cause I can't promise I won't let something slip... you know... accidentally." 

Eli laughed. "I think Ryan's right. I think it's gonna be fun having him around."

Though Dylan was still physically a short ways away from the group, he grinned. They were nice. And they accepted him. And that's all he really wanted. 

The chatter continued for a while longer as ice cream was finished up, and someone put some music on, too. It was getting late, but no one really wanted to leave yet. Right in the middle of a conversation, Zan's phone started buzzing. Not recognizing the number, he ignored it, but the same person called back two more times. He sighed as he finally stood from the floor. "Sorry - I better see who this is." He went to the kitchen to answer it, then came back just a couple minutes later. He didn't sit down though, and instead, slipped on his boots. "I gotta go. That was Tony calling from the hospital. Jett was in some sort of car accident." He gave Destiny an apologetic look. "I need to go make sure he's okay."