Hawkeye watched with delight as Veronica came in with Officer Anka at her heels.

Anka’s claws clicked on the floor with each step, her beautiful inky tail waving swiftly back and forth. Her slender muzzle was upturned at an angle, and she gazed at her handler’s face with sparkling eyes, as if she were desperately longing for even the slightest instruction.

“Hello, Anka,” Lobo said happily.

Anka turned to him, sat down, and looked up at him. Her expression conveyed pleased expectation.

“Ask her to find the stranger’s scent in this room,” Veronica advised Lobo.

Lobo pressed his forehead to Anka’s, resting one hand on the silken fur of her back.

They stayed like that for a moment, then Anka’s tail began to wag furiously again.

Lobo stood and backed up a few steps.

Veronica unclasped Anka’s leash and the dog took off like a rocket.

They all watched as she thundered down the first row of files, snout low to the ground, tail swishing loudly.

She must have found nothing amiss there. She continued up and down each aisle.

“How will you know when she finds it?” Hawkeye asked.

“She’ll sit and bark,” Veronica said, her eyes still fixed on the dog. She looked concerned.

Anka made her rounds a second time, her tail wagging less briskly than before.

“It’s storming out there,” Veronica said. “That always makes it harder to track outdoors, though there ought to be clues in here. We know someone hit you.”

Anka finished up and returned to Veronica. Looking up into her mistress’s eyes she sat down in a manner Lobo could only interpret as dejected.

“Sorry, girl,” Veronica said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have woken you up in the middle of the night to do this. We’ll try again in the morning.”

Lobo knelt beside Anka again.

“Good work, Anka,” he told her. “You did your best.”

Lobo proceeded to scratch behind her large ears until her eyes twinkled again and her mouth opened in a big grin, her pink tongue lolling out the side, over her enormous teeth.

“Are we going to call the police?” Hawkeye asked, hoping that this time the answer would be yes.

But the others turned to Brooke.

“I think we need to get law enforcement involved,” she said. “One break-in where nothing was taken and no one was hurt could be a fluke. Two break-ins and an assault is serious stuff. We can’t risk our safety just because I want to buy the building.”

“Agreed,” Veronica said.

“Do you want me to call?” Brooke asked.

Veronica winced. “If we do that we’ll be up all night waiting for them. Tell you what - Anka can sleep in my room tonight. She’ll alert us if there’s any foul play. We’ll call first thing in the morning.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lobo said.

Hawkeye personally thought it was a terrible plan to wait until morning. But he suspected that Veronica was eager to give Anka another try at tracking the intruder before surrendering the crime scene to the police, and he hated to deny her that.

Everyone trailed out and he followed.

But he heard a noise in the kitchen on his way to the stairs.

Trinity.

He went in and sure enough, there she was, slipping an ice cream sandwich out of the freezer.

“Hello,” he said softly, so as not to startle her.

She gave him a guilty smile.

“You’re hungry?” he asked.

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep,” she said. “Did they call the police yet?”

“No, but Anka didn’t find anything, so they’re going to let her try again in the morning and then call.”

She frowned and he loved that her thoughts were so aligned with his.

“Are there two of those?” he asked, indicating the ice cream treat.

“What?” she asked. “Oh. No, this is the last one. Take it.”

“No, no,” he said. “I’m not really hungry, I just wanted to keep you company.”

“Seriously, please take it,” she said. “I need to talk to you anyway, and I don’t want my mouth full of ice cream.”

She sounded somber and her eyes were wide. He felt something catch in his throat and he couldn’t answer.

He accepted the wax wrapped packet she pressed into his palm, but didn’t open it.

“Hawkeye, you’re… Well, you’re an amazing person,” she said. “The woman who has you for a mate is going to be one lucky girl. But that woman is not going to be me.”

She paused, as if waiting for him to say something.

He bit his tongue to avoid asking a question, or begging her to change her mind.

“There’s so much I want to do with my life, and I can’t do it with you,” she said.

Though he could tell that she thought it was an explanation, he was more confused than ever.

“I care about you a lot,” she went on. “And I want you to be happy - really happy - even if that means I have to know you’re with someone else.”

Her voice broke on the last two words and he was horrified to realize that he had never loved her more than at this moment.

She took a deep breath.

“After I finish this file digitizing project for the academy I’m going to go away,” she said. “That will make it easier for you.”

Then she turned and slipped out of the room.

The ice cream was melting in his hand, leaving a sticky trail down his arm.

He sent it a cooling thought and it froze solid again.

He only wished he had a power sufficient to fix his melting heart.