Asher had never hugged me as tight as she did until she jumped out of the limousine to greet me. And as if I didn't think her hugs were suffocating before, I certainly thought that now.

"Don't ever disappear again, you hear me?!" She cried into my shoulder.

"Ah! Owh!... Asher~" I struggle against the pain of my already bruised muscles. A gentle hand began to push my friend away, it was Stanley with a sympathetic yet awkward gaze settling between us.

"She's hurt..." He said softly, Asher pulled back and gave me a good look before gasping and releasing me from her hold.

"Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh (Y/N) I'm sorry did I hurt you?!... What happened to you in the first place why are you always getting into trouble!? I hate you!" She continued crying out her frustrations full of tears, but in the next second pulled me back into another light hug, making sure she held me loosely this time. "I'm sorry, I just... it scared me." She mumbled into my shoulder. 

I started to rock her back and forth with her, I let her weep and struggled to keep my own emotions from spilling too. I pull back and see a patch on her collarbone, right where the knife had dragged across her skin. "I'm glad you're okay, Ash."

Stanley awkwardly rubs at the back of his gold-haired head as Asher and I share our moment, I give him a kind smile which he returns. Asher finds interest in Stanley as he stands by, getting on her toes to peek at him over my shoulder.

"Miss Asher, I believe Master Levine is awaiting the presence of his new guests." The limousine driver called from the driver's seat.

"Oh... yes yes... let's get out of here," Asher says with a rising blush on her face, especially as she looks past our recruit, Stanley, The park ranger  We all file into the limousine, and I start to get quite hesitant about where it was that we were going. I saw one of my travel bags on one of the seats along with familiar items previously held in my apartment. "I may not have got your favorite things... I was in a hurry." Asher explains.

"Did you at least get some of my things too?" Stanley says with a peal of awkward laughter trying to break the ice. Asher snickers, but hides her face. "I'm Stanley, Park Ranger and informant for Francis Levine." Asher excitedly threw out her hand for him to shake.

"Nice to meet ya... and uh no... I didn't get your things." Asher says in a tone lower than I expected, it seems the pink hue of her cheeks hasn't died down as much. Stanley smiles for the first time in the frame in which I've known him, his cheeks fill out with two sharp dimples indenting his skin. He shakes her hand.

"Pleasure is mine."

The driver started up the luxurious limousine and had us rolling down the streets of Lonhurst's suburbs.  Lenhurst city rolled on by until it was soon on the horizon. My eyes flickered as the warmth of the car's interior took my mind away, I knew the solace I was beginning to feel would be brief as I still had so much to know... but it seemed as if the universe slowed things down just for me to have a moment... a moment of peace within all this chaos.