The first crash came at 2:13 in the morning.

Metal hit concrete hard enough to shake the hallway walls.

Evie jerked awake immediately.

For one confused second she stared at the ceiling trying to figure out whether the building was under attack again.

Then somebody shouted downstairs.

Not shouting.

Panicked.

“KANE—MOVE.”

Another crash followed.

Furniture this time.

Evie shoved the blanket off and ran into the hallway barefoot.

The safehouse lights glowed dim red overnight mode. Doors opened up and down the corridor while half-awake mercenaries stumbled into the hall holding weapons and terrible attitudes.

Dominic already had a knife.

“Where’s the breach?”

“No breach,” Sofia snapped while grabbing her med kit. “Nightmare.”

Another violent impact echoed downstairs.

Then Kane’s voice:

“I WOULD LIKE TO FORMALLY RESIGN.”

Evie sprinted down the staircase two steps at a time.

The living room looked like a war zone.

Coffee table overturned.

Broken lamp.

One couch shoved halfway across the floor.

Kane stood pinned against the wall trying very hard not to die.

Cassian had one hand fisted in the front of Kane’s shirt hard enough to lift him partially off the ground.

No gloves.

That hit Evie first.

Cassian never lost the gloves.

His breathing sounded wrong.

Too fast.

Too rough.

Grey eyes unfocused like he was seeing somewhere else entirely.

Not the safehouse.

Not Kane.

Something older.

Something worse.

Kane grabbed Cassian’s wrist with both hands.

“Boss.”

No response.

“Cassian.”

Nothing.

Cassian shoved him harder into the wall.

Kane winced.

“Okay, wow. You are fully not here right now.”

Dominic moved first.

Cassian reacted instantly.

Knife appeared from nowhere.

Fast enough to stop everybody cold.

The room froze.

Sofia swore quietly under her breath.

Cassian turned toward Dominic automatically, body shifting into combat stance before the movement fully finished.

Like his nervous system skipped directly past consciousness.

Evie saw it happen in pieces.

The knife.

The breathing.

The way Cassian’s eyes tracked exits instead of people.

Then Kane made the mistake of grabbing his arm again.

Cassian slammed him sideways into the wall hard enough to crack drywall.

Everybody moved at once—

“DON’T.”

Evie’s voice cut through the room sharply.

The team stopped.

Cassian didn’t.

His grip tightened again.

Kane looked one second away from spiritual evacuation.

“Evie,” he said carefully, “little help?”

Cassian’s head turned slightly toward her voice.

Tiny movement.

Not enough.

Evie stepped forward slowly.

No sudden movement.

No panic.

Her heart hammered hard enough to hurt, but she kept her hands visible anyway.

“Hey.”

Cassian’s eyes landed on her.

Still wrong.

Still somewhere far away.

Evie swallowed once.

Then kept talking.

“You’re in the safehouse.”

Nothing.

“Kane’s alive.”

Kane lifted one hand weakly.

“Debatable.”

Cassian didn’t react.

Evie moved another step closer.

Dominic whispered behind her:

“This is a terrible plan.”

“Yeah,” Kane choked out, “noticed that too.”

Evie ignored both of them.

Cassian’s breathing stayed rough.

The knife still hung loose in one hand.

Evie looked at it briefly.

Then back at him.

“Okay,” she said softly, “I need you to stop trying to murder HR.”

Kane made an offended noise against the wall.

“We don’t HAVE HR.”

“Exactly. Staffing crisis.”

Tiny pause.

Cassian blinked once.

Small movement.

Evie saw it immediately.

Good.

Still in there somewhere.

She kept going before the moment disappeared.

“You know what this reminds me of?”

Nobody answered.

Evie nodded once like the conversation made perfect sense anyway.

“Raccoons.”

Sofia looked deeply confused.

“…What?”

Evie pointed vaguely.

“Raccoons steal hot dogs at baseball games all the time.”

Kane wheezed:

“How is this helping?”

“I’m building atmosphere.”

Cassian’s grip shifted slightly.

Not released.

Just less crushing.

Evie took another careful step forward.

“I saw one fight a seagull over half a churro once.”

Silence.

Then Kane, still pinned against the wall:

“…Honestly that tracks.”

Evie nodded seriously.

“Right? Tiny criminal hands. No respect for society.”

Cassian stared at her.

Still breathing hard.

But slower now.

The knife lowered half an inch.

Evie kept talking.

Not fast.

Not dramatic.

Just steady.

“One raccoon broke into a convenience store near my apartment last year.”

Another blink.

“They caught him inside the nacho cheese machine.”

Dominic whispered behind her:

“That’s horrifying.”

“He died doing what he loved.”

Kane started laughing weakly despite the situation.

Big mistake.

Cassian flinched instantly at the sound.

The room tensed again.

Evie moved fast before the panic reset fully.

“Hey.”

Cassian looked back at her.

Evie kept her voice low.

“You’re home.”

Silence.

Rain tapped softly against the reinforced windows.

Nobody moved.

Then finally—

very slowly—

Cassian let go of Kane’s shirt.

Kane slid down the wall immediately.

“Oh thank God.”

Cassian stayed standing in the middle of the destroyed living room breathing hard like he’d run miles.

The knife slipped from his fingers onto the floor.

Metal clattered softly across concrete.

Evie stepped closer carefully.

Close enough now to see the exhaustion hitting him all at once.

His eyes focused properly for the first time.

On her.

Then the room.

Then Kane rubbing his throat against the wall.

Cassian went completely still.

“…Kane.”

Kane lifted one hand.

“Still employed.”

Cassian looked down at his bare hands.

Long silence.

Then quietly:

“…Sorry.”

Nobody in the room spoke after that.

The word landed too strangely.

Like hearing a wolf apologize for biting somebody.

Evie reached down slowly and picked up the knife first.

Then set it carefully onto the table out of reach.

Cassian watched the movement.

Didn’t stop her.

Another good sign.

Sofia finally exhaled.

“Well. That shaved ten years off my life.”

Dominic pointed toward Kane.

“He almost died.”

Kane looked offended.

“I am the victim here.”

“You talked during a tactical nightmare episode.”

“I process stress conversationally.”

Evie looked back toward Cassian.

He still stood there motionless.

Shoulders tight.

Eyes exhausted.

Like waking up embarrassed him more than the violence.

Evie jerked her head toward the hallway.

“Come on.”

Cassian frowned slightly.

“Where.”

“My room.”

Kane looked up instantly.

“Oh, that’s huge.”

“Shut up, Kane.”

Cassian stayed where he was another second.

Then followed her upstairs quietly.

No one commented after that.

Mostly out of survival instinct.

Evie’s room stayed dark except for rainlight slipping through the blinds.

Cassian stopped near the doorway automatically.

Didn’t come farther in.

Evie climbed back onto the bed and pointed beside her.

“You’re not sleeping alone after all that.”

“I’m fine.”

“See, normal people would know that sentence sounds fake.”

Silence.

Cassian looked exhausted enough to fall through the floor.

Evie lifted the blanket slightly.

“Come here, Ghost.”

Long pause.

Then he sat carefully on the edge of the bed.

Still fully dressed.

Still tense.

Evie leaned back against the pillows.

“You know,” she murmured sleepily, “if raccoons ever organize politically, humanity’s done for.”

Cassian looked at her.

The room stayed quiet a second.

Then:

“…Probably.”

Evie smiled weakly.

“There he is.”

Cassian looked down briefly at his hands again.

Bare knuckles.

Old scars.

No gloves.

Evie reached over blindly and shoved the blanket toward him farther.

No speech.

No dramatic moment.

Just space beside her.

Cassian stayed sitting there awhile.

Then eventually lay back carefully on top of the blankets beside the wall.

Still leaving distance.

Still awake.

Rain tapped softly against the windows.

Evie’s voice drifted through the dark a few minutes later.

“You almost killed Kane.”

“I noticed.”

“He’s gonna milk this for months.”

“…Yeah.”

Another quiet pause settled between them.

Then Evie mumbled into the pillow:

“The raccoon with the churro won, by the way.”

Cassian looked toward the ceiling.

And sometime before sunrise—

still fully dressed,

one arm hanging off the bed,

close enough to hear her breathing—

he finally fell asleep.