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[h1][b][u]Target Locked #10: Thoughts of a Lonely Heart[/u][/b][/h1]

	[b]Location: Minutes from Kayla & Mia’s Apartment, French Quarter, Lost Haven
	Time: Night time (~11:30pm)[/b][/center]
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	It had been a long journey back home from the manhole entrance near the garage. Still covered in Michael’s blood, Kayla was glad when she drove up to the area she kept her bike recently. While she normally parked it at the apartment complex, her turns as Fletch as well as the attack just outside of her apartment after the bus bomb meant she kept it away to keep her identity as close to a secret as possible. Though that was not without a lack of caution as a few people knew of her identity. First, there is Jai and Racheli. Those two came as close to being her friends as it had been for a long time, despite the annoying flirting between them. Then there’s Michael Garth, learning of her identity after being Rach for a little over 2 days. And although it hadn’t been very explicit in revealing the information, she had a suspicion that if Roadblock looked further into the LHPD HQ raid she pulled off that he would know. Still, there could be worse people to know about her such as the Penose. A topic she needed to get back to now that everything was back to relative normality. Pondering on the thought, she shut the bike and most of her gear in an abandoned garage she managed to buy in the past month before making her way back to her apartment.

	Using her agility and quickly developed parkour, Kayla stealthily made it back to her office room in her apartment, silently closing the window as to not wake Mia up if she was in. Archie returned to his perch on a high shelf to sleep for the night. Peering through a crack in the door to the living room and satisfied that Mia was sound asleep, Kayla dove into her room to quickly change out of her clothes into her orange flannel dressing gown. With the bloodied clothes, she hid them under the bed until she had the opportunity to wash them under her roommate’s radar. Satisfied with how the clothes are out of sight, she trundled from the bedroom into the bathroom.

	Moments later, hot water was running down from her head as she stepped into the shower. For a moment, with everything hidden by the steam, she fully relaxed as the heat loosened the tension in her shoulders, back and legs. The caked blood slowly came off with the running water, turning the floor of the shower red. Running her fingers through her hair, she slowly began to wash the blood off. In that moment, with her back slightly uncomfortable from the hot water from the minor scald, Kayla thought back to Racheli and Jai’s interactions with each other on their way out from the sewers. She remembered the feeling she had when she noticed them. The gnawing feeling of anger of seeing those two together. [i]No,[/i] she thought. If that had been the case with two people flirting with each other, then she would have felt that whenever she saw couples in public. The sadness within of seeing other people happy with each other and her longing for Jason was felt enough and often to know she was feeling something else. It was specifically seeing those two together in that way that changed her emotions. Slowly, the realization of what those feelings were caused Kayla to tense up. [i]That wasn’t anger…[/i]

	[color=e38c2d]”Am I… getting jealous?”[/color] she muttered to herself. She remembered that feeling of jealousy and envy whenever she saw Jason with other women. It was just fleeting as she had upped her game for her ex-fiancé to notice her. Realizing those emotions were back, Kayla slowly lowered herself onto the floor, sitting under the running water of the shower. Placing both her arms on her knees and resting her head on it, she sat there solemnly as her thoughts drifted off to nothing.

	After sitting for what seemed to be an age, Kayla got back up and turned the shower off. Standing there drip-drying, she grabbed a cleaning cloth from near the toiler and wiped away whatever was left of the blood. Once it was cleaned enough that the blood seemed to be gone, Kayla reached for a towel and dried herself off before putting her dressing gown on. As she left the bathroom and slowly walked towards her bedroom, Mia’s room door opened slowly. The sleepy blonde-haired Mia peered around the corner, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes to figure out where the sound was coming from.

	“Oh hey, Kayla,” Mia spoke groggily, stepping around to reveal the pink pajama set with repeating Pusheen motifs on the trousers and a big Pusheen unicorn on her sleeveless top. “Didn’t hear you come in.”

	[color=e38c2d]”Sorry if I woke you up, Mia,”[/color] Kayla replied, stopping by the door to her room. [color=e38c2d]”Tried to be as quiet as possible, you needing your sleep and everything.”[/color] 

	Mia yawned. “Don’t worry about it. Haven’t been sleeping well for the past month now, with everything.”

	It couldn’t be helped that Kayla yawned, the exertions of the evening finally catching up to her. Still, she couldn’t help but frown. [color=e38c2d]”Any news on Mark?”[/color]

	“Unfortunately, he still hasn’t woken up yet. But he’s looking better to the point he might wake up soon.”

	[color=e38c2d]”That’s at least good to hear.”[/color] She smiled faintly before turning to head in her room.

	“So how did your evening go? Had fun with Jai and Racheli?”

	Kayla froze for a moment. A pang of the mixed emotions was etched on her hidden face. [color=e38c2d]“Yeah, everything went ok. I’ll talk more about it in the morning, ok?”[/color]

	Mia pursed her lips in annoyance. “I suppose that you do need your sleep after a long day. But I want all the juicy deets.”

	With the goodnights said, both women retired for the night. Kayla took down her night medication and slipped under her duvet. Her thoughts returned to the image of Jai and Racheli in the sewer. Feeling more upset than before, she curled up into a ball and allowed for sleep to take her.