Trinity spent the next day in a haze.

She and Hawkeye had worked late into the night trying to get as much accomplished as they could before the fumigation, so she’d wound up sleeping late.

When she woke up, she found that he had slipped a note under her door.

Trinity,

These past few weeks you have taught me more about being human than any movie I could ever watch. I’ve learned to laugh and to understand love and friendship. I’ve also learned about generosity and selfishness.

I can see that you are hurting, and it is hard for you to work with me right now. I don’t ever want to make you hurt, Trinity.

But selfishly, though I respect your decision, I want you to think it over for just a little while.

If you will leave a list of file names for the remaining documents I will finish the digitizing project so that you can get away and take some time for yourself.

And when I’m done with the project, you can come back. This place is your home and it’s not right for you to be run out.

If the time away changes your mind, I will be here waiting for you.

And if you still don’t want to be with me, then I will go back to Stargazer.

Yours,

Hawkeye

She read it twice more and would have read it a third time if tears hadn’t blurred her eyes.

Then, before she could overthink things, she began to pack.

She might have a life here, but she couldn’t let him go back to that lab. There was no way she would sentence him to a life un-lived, and that was what he would have if he returned.

The day seemed to move in slow motion. She hadn’t realized how much stuff she had, how many memories had happened in her time at the academy. She’d moved in with nothing but a suitcase and a backpack and a hope that it wouldn’t be boring.

Trinity peeled a strip of photo-booth pictures off the wall and gazed at herself with her two best friends, cheeks pressed together, eyes crossed and grinning. There had been so many good times.

She slipped down to the old admin building to grab some boxes, and was relieved not to run into anyone.

At noon, she grabbed an ice cream sandwich and ate it on the fire escape. The metal rails felt like a skeleton around her. She had never noticed how austere their favorite hangout actually was. It always felt warm and inviting out here when she had a friend or two by her side.

Or Hawkeye. It was beautiful out here that night with Hawkeye.

She scrambled back inside when her thoughts turned back to him and dashed up to her room to continue her task.

When everything was packed, she cleaned until the suite was sparkling.

She had a few boxes and of course her old suitcase and backpack to load into the car, but that could wait until later. She couldn’t bear to bump into anyone and have to explain and say good-bye.

She waited on her bed and watched the sky turn pink, then deep blue, and finally fade into darkness.

Then she sat at her desk and grabbed the pen and paper that were the only two items she hadn’t packed.

Dear Hawkeye,

Thank you for your letter. You have a generous heart (and that has nothing to do with anything I’ve ever taught you). I will never, ever forget you.

Thank you for finishing the project. I’ll have file names ready for you to start tomorrow.

But I can’t let you go back to Stargazer.

I’m leaving in the morning, and I am not coming back. Take good care of my friends, and take good care of yourself.

Love,

Trinity

She folded it once and stood.

Now there was nothing to do but pace the room until she felt like she might be ready to get a little sleep. In the morning, she could go to the chapel and enter in file names for Hawkeye. Hopefully she’d go early enough that he wouldn’t be there and she could get out without seeing him again.

But pacing the floor wasn’t enough, not when her throat was sore with all the tears she hadn’t cried.

Without giving herself time to chicken out, she slipped out of her room and slid her note under Hawkeye’s door.

Then she headed down the stairs and out the back door.

A real walk would do the trick.

It had been drizzling on and off all day, and the humid air felt good in her burning lungs.

She went behind the kennels, just in case Veronica or Lobo decided to visit with the K-9s.

The new academy loomed in the darkness ahead.

When she turned the corner to see the chapel the moonlight on the boxwood labyrinth nearly took her breath away.

She turned to the chapel, wishing she could go in and ready everything now.

A note was affixed to the door.

Fumigation completed. No occupancy until: 6pm tonight

She stared at the sign.

There was a technician’s number in the corner. On a whim, she tried it.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Safe Exterminating, Patrick here,” he said.

“Um, this is Trinity, from the police academy,” she said. “I’m at the old chapel, I think you fumigated today. Is it safe to go in?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” he replied. “Didn’t I leave the sticker?”

“Yes, you did,” she assured him. “But the admin here seemed to think it needed twenty-four hours”

“Oh, no,” he said. “This was just a quick spray for potato bugs. You probably could have been there all day, honestly, but we like to be cautious.”

“Thanks,” Trinity said.

“Anytime.”

She slipped her phone back into her pocket and pulled out her key.

The chapel was totally dark, and there was a weird smell, but she figured that must have been the spray for the bugs.

She didn’t dare turn on a light for fear that someone would wonder why she was here so late in the evening. The last thing she wanted was to talk to anyone.

All she had to do was use the low light on her phone to examine the last couple stacks of boxes and then type up a couple hundred file names on the computer. It would take an hour, two tops.

And then she could pack up her stuff and drive away, hopefully without bumping into anyone.

As soon as she entered the room, the smell grew stronger. She was wondering if maybe the exterminator had been wrong about going back in, when she heard the sound of shuffling feet in the darkness.

“Hello,” she called out, holding her phone up for light.

Suddenly there was a large, masked man rushing toward her from the darkness. She stepped aside, but they still made contact as he rushed past. Her phone spun through the air and skittered across the marble floor, along with something else - something hollow and metallic - that must have come from the intruder.

“Run,” the man said in a muffled voice. “Run.”

She heard the sound of a door crashing open and a hiss as it clicked shut.

The door to the outside didn’t make that noise.

That was the interior door to the rest of the new academy.

On instinct, she followed him.

She reached the door but it was locked. Of course, that was a security feature. You needed a keycard to enter the doors leading to the dorm. And she didn’t have her lanyard on tonight.

Something acrid began to sting her lungs.

Smoke.

She spun around, hoping to make it back to the door and get outside.

But all she could see were flames, spreading far too fast.

The smell on the way in clicked into place.

Not bug spray.

Kerosene.

Like from the space heaters they sometimes used in the drafty rooms of the old buildings.

Sirens sounded in the distance as Trinity took it in.

How did anyone even know so fast? She hadn’t called for help.

The floor was starting to burn, catching the tapestries hanging from the walls.

Heat pressed in on her as the chapel filled with light from the flames that licked the beams of the ceiling. She was thankful for the height of the room. Most of the smoke was too high to really affect her.

But she was almost completely encircled by flames.

It was too late now to reach the exit door and get back outside. And the one behind her was locked.

There was a crash as the door from outside was flung open hard.

“Trinity,” the familiar voice came from the doorway.

“Hawkeye, no,” she screamed. “Don’t come in here.”

But he was already coming straight for her, walking steadily as if there weren’t a chest-high wall of flames between them.