Page 104 of Second Chance

“Yeah. There had to be a heart buried somewhere under those suspenders.”

“Tony…” Colette shifts awkwardly on the couch. “Should I…”

“Hm?”

“Suppose Daniel is right about all this. Suppose we should have kept a closer eye on Andrew and on Lily. Should I… I suppose I am responsible for Sean?”

“I don’t know if you’re responsible for him. He’s an adult. But you could see how he’s doing. Daniel says he was there for most of…everything.”

Gianna nods. “He’s kind of a dick, but he probably needs some help to get out of this.”

“He’s definitely neck-deep in the drugs part of it.”

Colette groans. “I’ve never even smoked marihuana. I’m not qualified to help. I don’t… What do I say?”

It’s not a question Tony can answer. He’s glad Gianna’s here, just as firm and clear as she was with Lily before.

“You can tell him we know about Lily, that she’s safe and getting help, and he can too. Also, he’s probably better off if he comes forward and explains what happened.”

“All right.” Taking a deep breath, Colette pulls out her phone. “Why does the thought of calling a student make me so nervous?”

Tony pats her shoulder. “It’s not something you usually do. But he’ll appreciate it. And it’s a good thing to do. Maybe the whole advisor thing will work out better than you think.”

For all the buildup, Sean’s phone number goes straight to voicemail. It’s disappointing, but Colette leaves a well-spoken message all the same. Tony hopes it’s enough.

Meredith joins them shortly after, freshly showered and looking much less exhausted than Tony feels. Lisa comes out of the bedroom and tells them Blake is trying to get Lily to sleep.After a careful knock on the kitchen door, Tony starts handing out plates and food and getting everyone situated somewhere in the mess of the living room. Eventually, Daniel emerges from the office.

Tony’s filling up a plate for him when the buzzer sounds. It’s probably his mom, back to cook some more. She’ll be annoyed he made breakfast already, but she’ll pretend she isn’t, which will be comforting in its normalcy. He buzzes her up without checking on the intercom.

Tony expects her with such certainty that when he opens the door to Detective Taylor, he wonders whether she’s a sleep deprivation hallucination. Did he wish for her to intervene so strongly that she showed up as a badly dressed, poorly tempered Mary Poppins?

She looks about how he feels, no less disheveled than she was at 4:00 a.m. the day before.

“You people, I swear,” she mutters as she pushes past him into the apartment.

“Uh, Detective,” Tony tries, but she won’t let him.

“I told you all specifically not to get involved, to let us do our damn jobs. You ignored everything I said, got yourselves in trouble, made it my problemagain, and now, here Professor Rosenbaum is, no worse for wear, eating breakfast?”

“Hi,” Daniel offers weakly. “Sorry for all the extra work.”

“Detective, would you like something to eat?” Meredith offers.

“No, I would like some goddamn answers.”

Meredith gives her a coffee anyway, and she takes a quick gulp.

“So,” Taylor says pleasantly. “Explain to me why my prime suspect had to tell me the kidnapping was solved and not any of you.”

Tony purposely doesn’t look at Emilio.

Emilio shrugs. “No one else here was going to make the call. Couldn’t do nothing.”

Fierce satisfaction nearly bowls Tony over. He wasn’t expecting to feel so pleased about it, but he wanted Emilio to do it. He hinted at it; he’s the one who got Emilio to come here to force Daniel into facing the consequences of Lily’s actions. Guilt follows closely behind the satisfaction though. Is this why Tony had to use Emilio’s car to jump-start the engine? Was Tony planning this in his subconscious?

Unable to stop himself, he looks over at Daniel.

Daniel’s looking back.

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