Kylee hasn't been all that present in the office as of late due to her ongoing work with Fleur, and she's honestly rather glad for it considering what a mess the offices must be at the moment. But by the beginning of April the bank proposals are all drawn up, mostly sent out, and the entire operation has turned into a waiting game - without approval and backing from the Gringotts goblins, nothing more can be done. And Kylee is feeling a bit guilty over the fact she's been fully neglecting her other two specialties in favor of this one, even though she did set Desmond up with Baylee and asked Fergus to keep an eye out on Mungo's while she was busy elsewhere.

So when Fleur tells her that there's nothing more they can do, Kylee decides she should probably get back on point with her other two consultants, and owls her sister to ask if she's free to grab lunch. Baylee rather quickly replies with an affirmative and they meet up in the Alley before heading to wander Muggle London in search of a decent-looking pub.

"So you're finally free of the bank?" Baylee asks as they walk, and Kylee hums.

"You make it sound like I wasn't having fun." She grins at her twin, "But yes, I'm finished there for now - Fleur and I are just waiting to hear back on a number of things. I'll still need to drop some things off with Landon to take to the Muggle Parliament for perusal and hopefully approval, but that's out of my hands."

"Literally, since it will be in his." Baylee declares, laughing at her own terrible humor, and Kylee grins and rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, very clever Bay. But enough on that, I actually was hoping you could fill me in on what you and Desmond have been doing?"

Baylee's eyes immediately light up. "Oh absolutely, but I should warn you that he's an even bigger nerd than I am - there's a lot we've been doing, and like, maybe half of it is actual work and the other half is pure freaking out about how awesome my work is."

Kylee laughs at that. "Glad to hear you had fun - though you keep that up you'll make me think you don't want me picking up this specialty again."

Baylee hums. "I mean..." She hedges, and Kylee shoves her lightly.

"Don't even, he's going to be too busy once the school stuff picks up again anyway. You'll work with me and you'll like it." She jokes.

They don't actually start talking work until they decide on a restaurant (a little out-of-the-way Israeli place that looks interesting) and put up an anti-eavesdropping bubble around their booth, at which point Baylee pulls out a thick file and Kylee stares at her in disbelief.

"Seriously? You brought that with you? What if you'd dropped it? We're not supposed to take work outside of the offices!" She says, slightly dismayed. "Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if the leaders found out?"

Baylee sighs. "It's fine Ky, it's all coded anyway - anyone who doesn't already know what they're saying wouldn't have any clue. Besides, I charmed them to stick to the side of my bag, so they weren't going anywhere without my say-so." She offers a grin that Kylee pointedly doesn't return.

"Still too big of a risk. But since you have them," She allows, "I suppose we may as well use them. What have you and Desmond done?"

As it turns out - a lot. Kylee is honestly a bit blown away how much her twin and her coworker have accomplished in the time they've been working together, and it honestly makes her feel a bit ashamed over how little she and Baylee had really done in the far longer time that Kylee had been running point on Beasts and Beings. She's wondering now if maybe Desmond really should just take over this specialization. He seems to be better at it.

Her frustration obviously shows on her face, because her sister pokes her in the side mercilessly. "Hey, what's with the pouting? You're supposed to be excited that we got so much done!" She says, frowning a bit herself. "Des and I worked really hard on all this you know."

Kylee quickly tries to push on a smile. "I know! I know, and it's awesome Bay, it really, really is. It's... it's a lot more than we got done is all. I'm wondering if maybe Desmond should just take full control on this front is all. You two seem to work really well together."

Baylee gives her a flat stare. "Really sis? Des is great, don't get me wrong, and I think it could definitely be good to keep talking to him on the curriculum front, but if you didn't notice we didn't really get anything done in regards to literally everything else in this area. He's just not good at focusing on things that don't connect to his main interest - Jarvis recently had a breakthrough with the merpeople and Des - bless him, really - immediately tried to turn it into a lesson plan. He didn't even ask what the agreement was before wrapping it up into his hyperfixation. So he's great, but please come back."

Kylee laughs, definitely feeling better. "Alright, yeah, I could see that." She acknowledges. "Especially since you hyperfixate as well - we should have someone on board looking at the big picture."

Baylee sticks her tongue out playfully, and Kylee is definitely feeling a lot better.

"That's great about Jarvis, by the way. We should set up a proper meeting to discuss what that looks like and the implications for moving forward sometime soon?"

"I'm free Friday afternoon?" Baylee offers, and once they confirm the exact time she packs away her files and the twins spend the rest of lunch catching up on life rather than work.

"Ooh! Last time I was in the Initiative offices Tristan Morgan was there with the II." Baylee says as their bills arrive, giving Kylee a sly grin as they each put out money to pay for their meals. "He asked where you were, you know."

Kylee can feel her cheeks heating slightly, but she ignores them. "Really Bay?" Before she can fully dismiss the topic her sister interrupts.

"Yes really! He likes you, I can tell, and I think you'd like him too! Have you talked to him at all? I could introduce you properly!" Baylee persists eagerly.

Kylee attempts to intensify her irritated look. "Baylee. No. We're not doing this, okay? Not right now. No offense to Tristan, but I think we all kind of have better things to be worrying about than going on dates, don't you think?"

Baylee pouts. "Aw, really? Desmond has a whole girlfriend and he doesn't seem distrated."

"New relationships are more time consuming than older ones." Kylee protests. "You already know the person. Starting something new right now would be a distraction at best, and I just can't afford one at the moment, alright?"

Baylee purses her lips, but nods. "Fine, fine, I suppose that's fair. But when the year is up let me set something up? Seriously, you two would get along."

Normally Kylee wouldn't promise anything - but she has talked to Tristan, and honestly she could see herself being friends with him, if nothing else. "Alright fine. But not until the Initiative's contract is over. I need to stay fully focused on work right now."

Kylee immediately regrets the promise when Baylee grins dangerously, but there's no going back on it now. At least it'll be a few months before she has to really start worrying about it.

They part ways on the Ministry lift, as Baylee exits on level four and Kylee continues on to the seventh floor. When she steps out into the offices, she's struck by how quiet it is. There are people milling around, writing up reports and flipping through scrolls, but no one is really talking with anyone else which is a bit unnerving. Kylee steels herself and heads straight for the specialists' desk cluster, where her target is thankfully already seated.

"Afternoon Fegus." She greets with a smile, and he glances up with a matching grin.

"Afternoon Kylee, good to see you. Feels like it's been a while." He notes cheerfully. "How are things going with Mrs. Weasley and the bank?"

Kylee settles into her seat next to him, sighing heavily. "Overall good? We're in a waiting game now." She tells him a bit of what she's been up to - it's always been easy to talk to Fergus, and she figures opening with casual conversation will make it easier to transition into her actual questions for him afterwards.

He hums when she finishes giving him a very basic overview. "I think it's good that you're giving the Goblins so much sway honestly, any changes are more likely to be stable and long-lived that way."

"Oh absolutely. But no one likes the waiting game." She grins. "Speaking of, since my schedule just freed up in a major way, I was wondering if and how things have been progressing on the Mungo's front?"

Fergus grimaces, and something in Kylee chills at the expression. What had gone wrong while she was away?

"I don't really have anything I can report on that. Healer Caldwell hasn't been in contact at all since you asked me to step in for you, so there's been no movement at all on the medical front." He explains apologetically, and Kylee's dread subsides somewhat. At least it wasn't some massive catastrophe, though Healer Caldwell going full radio silent also isn't a great sign.

"That's alright, she tends to only reach out if something has happened." Kylee assures the older man quickly. "I'll owl her now to tell her I'm back on task and see if she has any updates."

Fergus nods and Kylee heads back to the lift so she can head up to the Ministry owlery - may as well reach out to Healer Caldwell now and hope for a response by the morning.

Instead, she gets a reply just before she heads out for the day, having spent the rest of her afternoon writing up a formal report on the banking situation for the leaders, which is a pleasant surprise.

Healer Caldwell is short and to the point as always, simply stating that she'll be by for a meeting in the morning. Kylee wonders if she maybe shouldn't have stated in her initial letter that she was flexible - she would have liked a little more time to prepare.

Still, she tells the leaders, and Mrs. Weasley mostly looks amused by Healer Caldwell's presumptiveness.

"That's fine, there aren't any other consultant meetings scheduled for that time." She confirms with a faint smile. "Consider the meeting room yours for the full morning. We'll expect the report by the end of the day tomorrow."

"Of course." Kylee confirms, and heads out for the evening. The fact Caldwell had responded so quickly and demanded an immediate meeting suggests that something has definitely changed since the last time Kylee had seen her, which begs the question of why Caldwell hadn't spoken with Fergus. Kylee had made sure to write Caldwell to tell her about the situation, and she's relatively certain that Fergus had reached out as well. She supposes she'll ask in the morning.

However, when Caldwell arrives in the meeting room at exactly nine the next day she gives Kylee no time to ask any questions.

"I was quite pleased to receive your owl yesterday." She says briskly. "The Mungo's Potions Department had a major breakthrough a few weeks ago, and based on early testing it looks like we'll be ready to mass produce Pepperup Potion for Muggles before the end of the month." She's smiling, a rare expression on her face which at the most cheerful usually only reaches vague amusement, and Kylee can't help being swept along in the excitement.

"Really? That's amazing! So to be safe we should probably assume an early summer release then." Kylee observes, and Caldwell's smile fades to its more familiar wry grin.

"Most likely." She agrees. "But I'd already begun working some of the logistics with Mungo's financial department, so hopefully there's something that we can get started on immediately."

Kyle hums. "That reminds me - why didn't you run any of this by Fergus? He reached out to you, right?"

Caldwell makes a slight face. "He did, but I must confess I was uncomfortable speaking with anyone but you on this matter - you're well-informed, so I don't have to waste time explaining basic healing concepts with you as I would someone with a different background." She admits. "I would have reached out soon had you not contacted me first, but I wanted to wait and see if you would return soon."

Kylee is definitely flattered by the comment, but also a tiny bit annoyed - how much further along could this process have been if Caldwell had just talked to Fergus? She doesn't voice these thoughts, however, opting instead to focus on the good they'll be able to accomplish now that things are in motion.

"So how would distribution work? I assume Mungo's already has a system set up, but is it easily transferable to the Muggle economy, or would there need to be any major adjustments?"

"It all seems straightforward so far." Caldwell says. "Standard pricing covers our costs, so we wouldn't have to change anything on that front-"

Kylee feels her heart momentarily stutter. "Um, actually... it might." She says apologetically. "That's actually what I've been working on with Fleur the past few weeks - the conversion rate is an absolute mess, so pricing could get complicated."

Caldwell blinks at her, brow furrowing. "How difficult is one Galleon, two Sickles and fifteen Knuts to convert?" She asks, a bit incredulously.

Kylee grimaces. "Incredibly, believe it or not. We're having to do a total system overhaul right now, so conversion rates are going to be fluctuating soon as well, which certainly doesn't help anything."

Caldwell groans. "And here I thought I was bringing in some great news to help soothe all the crap you guys are dealing with right now." She sighs.

Kylee manages a small smile. "Well, it is great news. And I bet we could work something out in terms of bulk-buying that could temper the cost somewhat?"

Caldwell purses her lips. "It's possible, but who knows how large those bulk orders would need to be? The average citizen in need of cold cures only needs on potion after all."

Kylee hums, then looks out the window of the meeting room towards the larger Initiative offices. Caldwell is right, of course, but Kylee wants that win - they could really use one right now.

"I'll ask around." She decides. "Maybe someone else will have an idea of how we can use this?"

Caldwell tilts her head in acknowledgement, standing up in one graceful movement. "Sounds like that's all we can do for now. Keep me updated on the situation."

"Of course." Kylee says, but the Healer is already out the door.

Kylee exhales slowly, leaning back in her chair and tapping her fingers on the table in a random beat, trying to think who would be best to talk to about something like this. Everyone in the office has strengths and weaknesses, and after ten minutes of pondering she realizes she should probably just ask everyone, which could be a long process considering how rarely they're all in the office at the same time.

Sighing, she stands up. Better get started, then. Hopefully they can get something positive out of this yet.

Alex isn't sure what exactly Kylee wants when she approaches his desk, but he knows she's been bugging everyone the past few days about something medicine-related, so he assumes it has to do with that. What he doesn't quite get is why she's coming to him of all people - he doesn't know crap about any of the work she's doing, and frankly found it boring back when he was still being forced to sit through it.

Still, he's attempting to be more cooperative these days, so he forces on a flat smile as she approaches. Her own expression is mildly apologetic, so his distaste for the upcoming conversation is probably obviously plastered across his face despite the minimal attempts to disguise that fact.

"Hey Alex, I won't be long, I promise. I imagine you're still pretty busy with the meetups?"

He's not, actually - they're really running themselves at this point, though he still attends most weekends to keep an eye on things and note possible adjustments needed. Still, he doesn't say anything, simply raises an eyebrow - let her think she's wasting his time and maybe she'll be quick with whatever nonsense it is she's peddling.

She clears awkwardly. "I'll be blunt, I need help." She offers when it becomes clear Alex doesn't intend to speak. "We're ready to begin selling Pepperup Potions to Muggles, but the pricing is proving complicated unless we sell in bulk." She explains. "We could just wait until the banking stuff is cleared, but that could take months, and I guess I'm hoping for a win in all this - plus, getting people the cure for the common cold would be helpful for everyone."

Alex blinks. That... he gets that, actually. With everything that's been going wrong lately they could use a concrete win, and getting everyone Pepperup really would be a universal good. "I mean, retail centers buy bulk, don't they?" He points out. "Could you work something out with them? Or hospitals could work as well I guess."

Kylee blinks, and then grins. "Of course! That's absolutely brilliant Alex, I can't believe I didn't think of that myself - thanks!" She's off again before he can even respond, and he's not sure what he would have said anyway. 'You're welcome?' 'Shouldn't that have been obvious?' He ends up shrugging and going back to his own work.

A few more rights organizations have reopened communication with the Initiative in the past month, so he's trying to get some of them to come out to the meetups to talk face-to-face and get a sense of what the Initiative actually stands for. Reception isn't quite chilly, but it's not super warm and welcoming either, and it's proving more a fight to engage them than he was hoping it would be.

Still, he's pushing through it - even if only one out of every five groups that he invites actually shows up he'll count it as a victory. Which is honestly rather naive and idealistic, but he's found that if he thinks in more positive terms his daily reports end up looking better, and the leaders are less likely to have any questions about his work, an outcome that is well worth forcing himself to locate silver linings in every interaction and failure he goes through.

As lunch approaches he finishes up his last invitation, and decides to send them off before heading out to eat. He wraps each scroll individually, marking which organization they're going to along the outside, and then shoves all of them into his bag and heads for the lift, ignoring Fergus's half-wave as he goes. He may be trying out this whole "working together" thing now, but that doesn't mean he's planning to turn into Mr. Sunshine - recent events really only reinforce his original concerns over how viable this entire attempt can be (though admittedly he'd never thought it would be the Muggle world causing the majority of the problems).

Once the messages are sent and lunch is consumed, Alex returns to the office, only to find a man leaning against his desk, chatting idly with Fergus. Alex scowls and slows his pace - he recognizes the man as Drake Jarvis, a member of the Internal Investigation. His being by Alex's desk can't mean anything good.

"Can I help you?" He asks sharply once he's in earshot of the Specialists' desks, and Fergus looks over at him sympathetically. Alex only spares him a brief glare before turning his annoyance full-force onto Jarvis.

Jarvis, rudely, doesn't seem phased in the slightest by the snapped question. In fact, he grins like Alex has just told an excellent joke (and this is why Jarvis is Alex's least favorite II member). "I hope so! We need you to come down and answer a couple of questions, if you've got the time." He's still smiling, but his eyes flick pointedly over to Alex's empty desk, and something tells the teen that Fergus has already ratted on his not having anything else to do today. So he grits his teeth in a feral grin.

"Of course, anything to help the Investigation." He replies tightly through his teeth.

Jarvis beams.

They take the lift down to the second level, and Alex follows Jarvis to what he assumes must be an Auror interrogation room - small, windowless, and with only a single table set up in the center. It's like something out of a Muggle cop show, though with magic mixed in Alex thinks forcing him to give them the answers they want will be a lot easier than attempting to beat it out of him, the way the main characters in those shows usually do. Despite his unease, he takes the seat offered to him by Jarvis, who plops down in a chair on the other side of the table.

"So standard procedure, I do need to ask if you're comfortable taking Verasiterum for today's discussion, or if you'd rather not." Jarvis says, and frankly Alex wasn't expecting to even be given the veneer of an option - not that he thinks Jarvis will actually respect if he says 'no' here.

So he rolls his eyes - hard, to make sure Jarvis picks up every ounce of sarcasm - and replies, "No, it's fine, I'll take it. I've got nothing to hide."

Jarvis hums, still annoyingly unfazed. "Awesome - some people have allergies or bad memories from the war, so we always make sure. Just to double-check, you're not just saying what I want to hear? Because seriously, we can do the inteview without it, we may just have more followup questions later."

Alex frowns. Jarvis seems genuine, but still, he doesn't trust it. And besides, he really doesn't have anything to hide, and if taking a truth serum means he won't have to deal with this again then he's happy to take it.

So he repeats his acceptance, and Jarvis grins at him. "Cool. Let me just grab a dose - woud you like it in tea or coffee? The stuff is bitter, so a lot of people prefer taking it with something."

"I'm fine, let's just get this over with." Alex replies tersely, and Jervis shrugs.

"Well, I'll at least get you some water - trust me, you'll want it." He grins like they're old friend joking with each other. Alex just glares at him.

It takes another minutes before Jarvis presents him with a small vial and a bottle of water, the latter of which Alex pointedly ignores as he grabs and uncorks the former, tossing the potion back like it's a shot.

He immediately regrets it, but pride keeps him from grabbing the water for a solid thirty seconds before the burning in his throat overwhelms it. He's surprised when the water instantly washes away the taste and soothes the burning. He stares at the bottle suspiciously, but it had been sealed shut when he'd grabbed it, the the chances it had some special additional potion in it is probably minimal.

Jarvis has the audacity to laugh. "Told you. There's something in Verasiterum that tastes bloody awful, but whatever it is reacts with hydrogen which completely nullifies the taste. Which is convenient, really, and very lucky for us!"

Alex just gives him a flat stare again, swallowing reflexively and waiting for... something. Shouldn't he feel different after having taken a truth serum?

Jarvis chuckles again. "You won't notice anything until we get to questions you normally wouldn't want to answer." He says, grinning when Alex shoots him an irritated look. "Everyone thinks it will be instantly obvious when they've been dosed, but if Verasiterum was evident immediately it wouldn't be much good for information-gathering missions, which is what it was originally developed for."

Alex sighs. "Can we just get on with it? I'd like to go home at some point."

"Oh, this won't be too long, I promise." Jarvis says quickly. "Just a few standard questions, and they're nothing personal."

Alex raises an eyebrow, and Jarvis nods firmly. "With that out of the way, we're going to start easy: are you working for Yurina Nakayashi, or anyone outside of the Initiative efforts?"

"Technically I'm working with a number of external groups." Alex says snidely, "But they're all human rights groups - none are connected to Yurina or her network so far as I'm aware. If you wanted to double check any of them, I'd suggest starting with the ones that reached out to us first."

Jarvis hums, noting something down. "Cool, I figured as much. Do you have any suspicions on who might be the mole reported on a few weeks back?"

"No." He admits, grimacing. "I honestly figured if there was an insider working for Yurina it would be among the witches or wizards - why would Yurina hire a Muggle? She hates Muggles."

"She's pretending she doesn't though." Jarvis hums, "And she's apparently a very convincing speaker - I think that's something we can see with how effectively she's manipulating the media on both sides of this."

"So you do think she's behind the Muggle sabatoge too?" Alex guesses, and Jarvis nods.

"The timing is too suspicious otherwise." He explains. "And the fact there's just enough information to suggest it might be true without really confirming anything is very much her style - send people chasing their tails and you don't have to worry about them chasing you, at least not for a while."

Alex blinks. "...Did you have any Verasiterum?" He queries, "I feel like this isn't stuff you should be telling me."

Jarvis laughs. "Nah, I'm just chatty - Clary says it's my worst and best quality as a hit-wizard. I only have one more question actually, then you'll be free to go: do you think Yurina is behind this? Or is it possible that a Muggle or Muggle-adjacent person decided to engage in espionage on their own, without external prompting?"

Alex can practically feel his brain screech to a halt. That... he hadn't thought of that, actually. Yurina has been such an overwhelming antagonistic force he'd just assumed she must be behind this as well. But...

"It's... possible." He admits after a moment. "I hadn't thought of it before you brought it up, but... the last war was only twenty years ago, right? There could be Muggles who were affected that we don't know about."

Jarvis frowns. "You make a very good point." He muses. "I hadn't thought of that, but with the Deatheaters in charge of everything, some stuff might have fallen through the cracks no matter how much we tried to clean up afterwards." He sighs. "Well, that's all I need from you today, but it'll take a couple hours for that Verasiterum to wear off, so you'll probably want to be somewhere private, or with people you normally would be honest with anyway. You can also hang around here until the effects ease up if you want, but I'm guessing the Auror offices aren't exactly your ideal place to chill when you're going to be pretty open about, well, everything."

Alex grimaces. "Yeah, not my ideal place." He agrees wryly. "I figure I'll just head home then."

"I can have your stuff gathered so you aren't pestered in the offices." Jarvis offers, but Alex waves him off.

"I don't talk to anyone up there, so I doubt anyone will bug me much." He says confidently. "I'll be in and out without any trouble."

Luckily his claim isn't comedically proven wrong the moment he gets to the seventh floor, and he does make it to his desk without interruption. Fergus is still sitting there when Alex arrives, and he glances up curiously as the teen begins packing up his things for the day.

"Safe to ask questions?" He checks, and Alex can't help smiling faintly. Annoying as Fergus and his over-friendliness can be, he seems like a nice guy at the end of the day. There are definitely worse people to be around - Kylee and Desmond would probably both immediately start prodding him for information on the interview.

"Not really - tomorrow?" He replies, and Fergus nods.

"Got it. Have a good afternoon off." He offers. "Oh, and if it strikes your fancy, there's a lovely little Wizarding pub that does delivery called The Howling Hag - great comfort food. I hear that headaches are common after-effects of certain serums."

Alex can't help releasing a startled laugh. "Um, yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." He adds, and Fergus grins at him easily.

"Of course, what are friends for?"

Alex mulls over that as he exits the Ministry. Are they friends? He wouldn't have thought so - Fergus is friendly with everyone, but he's also a lot older than everyone, so Alex really saw it as more an older-brother type friendliness than friend-friendliness.

But... he also doesn't hate the idea of it. Of the other specialists Fergus is definitely the least annoying, and the most willing to hear him out when he's frustrated, has been from the beginning. Maybe they are friends.

Or maybe the Verasiterum is messing with his brain. He shakes his head firmly and sets out for home, though when he arrives he does end up putting in an order at The Howling Hag.

He likes comfort food.

Aruna has been keeping herself generally busy in the past few weeks, but she's been especially determined to distract herself with work recently. She'd been one of the first people to be brought in for questioning by the Internal Investigation, and she knows she'd absolutely blown it. She'd refused their truth serum, worrying about what she'd be forced to say, only to realize all their questions were harmless and all she probably accomplished in turning down the serum was to make herself look guilty. She's relatively confident that she's the primary suspect right now, even though she really hasn't been doing anything, nor would she want to. Everyone is working so hard - really, she does enough with her utter failure to consistently be a team player, why would she want to make things any harder?

But she doesn't think the II would believe her if she told them that, not that she ever would - that's far too personal and things like that is why she refused the serum in the first place.

She confesses all this to her therapist at their weekly session, and he smiles sympathetically.

"It's a difficult situation to be in, but remember that Muggle law enforcement work without truth serums all the time - I'd imagine the II can do their job just as well." He says soothingly, not that it's very comforting. Aruna knows first hand how often the cops get things wrong, has seen it time and again in the courts. "And besides, if they really couldn't do their job without it, they likely wouldn't have asked at all, just slipped you some in a mug of tea or something."

"I guess." She allows, since that does make sense. Still, the worry remains, trailing every thought as she goes about her life, eyes half-peeled for a possible Auror tail (though she supposes with magic she probably wouldn't be able to see them anyway, so really being too alert would probably just make her look guilty without actually helping her spot them). She tries to remind herself what her therapist had said, but it doesn't really work. She's still jumping at every shadow as if she has something to hide.

And, she supposes, she kind of does. She refused the serum for fear that she'd be forced to talk about her ex. She doesn't want anyone to know about him, to know how she'd fallen apart and is still, two years later, desperately trying to piece herself back together. She doesn't want to see the look of pity on her coworkers' faces that's so common among those who know. Doesn't want the empty platitudes from people who have no idea what it actually feels like to lose someone they care about, or the unintentionally rude comments on how long ago it was. She knows it's been two years, but everyone heals differently.

She doesn't always believe what her therapist tells her, but that one she's come to recognize as definitely true.

But she still feels bad about the entire II situation, which is maybe why when Kylee bursts into her office one afternoon practically vibrating Aruna doesn't immediately flinch and request she leave again.

"Can I help you?" She asks slowly, and Kylee tilts her head slightly.

"Maybe. Sorry for barging in, I just had a couple quick questions that I'm hoping you can answer? It's fine if not, I know not every lawyer knows every law."

"I wasn't a practicing lawyer." Aruna points out immediately. "I was just a legal consultant of sorts. So I actually know a lot about a variety of laws." She's not sure why she was so quick to share that, but she supposes her guilt and worry are teaming up to make her want to prove how useful she is to the team.

Kylee blinks, then grins. "Oh, awesome! Sorry I didn't know." She replies. "So do you know about international trade law? I'm specifically trying to work out stuff surrounding conversion rates for bulk purchases in the medical field - what the taxation around it is, if there are discounts, stuff like that."

Aruna frowns. "I know people who specialize in that field." She says after a moment, somewhat reluctantly - those people are all very familiar with her, and more importantly with her former engagement, and the idea of reaching out to them is less than appealing. "I could give you their contacts, if that would be useful?"

Kylee nods hopefully. "Would you? I don't want to impose on anyone, of course, but the sooner we can get this finished the better it'll be for everyone - it really would be a  huge help."

"I, yeah, it should be fine. It's been a while but at least Brown was always annoying enthusiastic about helping everyone he could - we always figured he'd burn himself on his optimism eventually, but last I saw he's still at the firm." Aruna offers awkwardly. "So probably start with him?" She quickly scribbles out a few names and numbers, privately a bit startled (and a bit proud) she can still rattle them off from memory, and she holds the paper out to Kylee.

"Most of these are landlines." She warns, "So no texting."

"Got it! Thanks a million Aruna, this is fantastic." Kylee says, grin so bright that Aruna can't help responding with a small smile of her own.

"It's fine, it's my job after all." She deflects, and Kylee waves happily, clutching the note tightly in one hand and closing Aruna's office door with the other, leaving the law expert once again in the silence of her room. It's only then that she realizes she'd never asked why exactly Kylee needed the contacts, and she mentally smacks herself. How can she be a better team player if she doesn't know what the team is actually doing?

Still... she'd helped. And that feels pretty dang good, despite everything else going on. So she'll go ahead and chalk this one up as a definite win.

Author's Note: The short note on this chapter in early planning was just "Kylee on a mission" xD And also some II stuff got thrown in for good measure (and Verasiterum worldbuilding which I of course threw in as well because I'm predictable xD).