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Jim and I explained what happened in Roy's office, while he made coffee and tea. "Here," he said, passing me a mug of Earl Grey just the way I like it.
"I should warn Tom," Chance said, walking into Jim's office to make the call.
Jim sat down beside me at the table. "Are you OK?"
"Probably not. Dealing with Roy seemed to be OK, but now that the FBI's involved it's even scarier."
"I'm not sure they are legitimately involved," Jim said. "I suspect they're involved because of the lab, but they can't say that without letting us know they have an installation in the forest."
"I told Tom he might be getting a visit from the FBI. I told him what you said about them not having jurisdiction. He's doing good. They're sending him home today."
"Thank goodness," I said. "So, what do we need to do about this FBI thing?"
"Ball’s in their court now," Jim said. "We'll have to wait and see what their next move is. My guess is they'll find someone in the LEI to agree to let them run things as long as the LEI is involved."
"What about the evidence we turned over to Roy?" I asked.
"That's up to Roy," Chance said. "He took possession of it. They'll have to get it from him."
Chance and I went to Hairy's for lunch so I could check in and pick up some more clothes. We stopped at the store on the way back to Chance's and I bought the stuff I wanted to have at his place. It was weird. We didn't talk about it, but I'm sure Chance knew I was getting stuff I wanted to keep at his place. I thought it might freak him out. I've known plenty of men who weren't comfortable with a woman leaving a lipstick at their place until they were engaged or officially living together. For Chance and me, it was just for convenience sake. I'm not sure either of us worried about some deeper meaning. If I thought too much about it, I would definitely freak out.
Once we got to Chance's and put things away, I realized I had no idea what I was doing there.
"Want a cup of tea, Babe?" Chance called from the kitchen.
"Sounds good," I said as I walked up behind him. "Is there stuff we need to do?"
"Yeah, let's go to the office."
I followed Chance upstairs with my tea.
"I uploaded your photos," he said as he sat down and clicked the mouse. It brought up a screen full of black.
"Fudge."
"Don't be upset. It was dark, you were scared, and you weren't that familiar with the gear. He clicked again, and a photo came up that was a little better. "This is the best one. I can see what I think is the squatch over here." He pointed to the far-right side of the screen.
"Well, that certainly doesn't prove anything."
"It doesn't matter. Now that we know they're out there, we can go back and get all the pictures we want."
"Wouldn't your dad and Harry have taken photos, if they spent so much time observing the creatures?"
"Probably. If they did, we just haven't found them yet. Maybe there are more hidden clues or legal restrictions. Who knows? We need to go through all Harry's stuff in detail. I'll ask my mom if there's any place my dad might have secreted something away. She wasn't a fan of his cryptid hunting, so it's more likely that Harry held onto things for safe keeping."
I got up and paced around the room. Chance stood up and wrapped his arms around me. "You need to relax, Babe. I can help with that."
He pulled me in for one of his brain-freezing kisses. When I was able to form a thought again, Chance was sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa. I was sitting between his legs with my back to his chest. His hands were on my shoulders massaging my muscles. "You relaxed, Everly?"
"Um," was all I managed. Between the kiss and the massage, I was feeling like my body was melting into him.
"Close your eyes and tell me everything that happened when you got to the observation point."
I relived the events of that night like I was narrating a movie playing in my head. Whenever I stopped, Chance urged me to continue, and I did. When I finished, my head dropped back against his chest. I was exhausted all over again. Chance pulled me up onto his lap and cradled my head against his chest. I don't know how long we stayed that way before Chance said, "Can you get up, Babe? I need to move."
I stood up and stretched. I felt drained. Chance got up and put his arm around me. "Sorry to make you go through that again, but I needed to hear the whole story. You up for some questions?"
We went down to the kitchen and ate slices of the pie I brought from Hairy's while Chance asked me questions about what I told him. He seemed particularly interested in what happened after the first shot was fired.
We spent the evening relaxing. I was still exhausted, and I could tell that Chance was working on a plan. I could almost see the gears turning in his head, but we snuggled on the sofa and watched a movie.
I guess I was still catching up on the sleep I missed when we were in the woods. Even though I started to worry about how our night would end, I woke up around three in the morning, snuggled up to Chance's chest. This time, I had changed into my pajamas before we put the movie on.