Kendra's mouth fell open. The SDALA had hidden something that Noah had been looking into, but what could it have been? 
Nicholas was nodding along as Jolly spoke. "They were investigating the government too closely, he died, and it all got swept under the rug. No one talks about it. It was erased from SDALA memory."
"Did you guys have to do the erasing?" Kendra asked, looking from Nicholas to Jolly. They only looked at each other. The silence was enough of an answer.
"Only those who were involved with it," Nicholas said quietly, dropping his eyes to the countertop, like he was ashamed to have done it. "I was supposed to erase it from Noah's, too, but... he begged me not to. So, I didn't and he acts like he doesn't remember what happened."
Despair. It was despair that hollowed out her stomach. The SDA not only covered up something to do with the government, but they also erased the memories of anyone who was involved, including wanting to get rid of Noah's. "Why didn't you?"
"He loved him," Jolly said quietly, setting his pen down. "He didn't want to forget him."
Kendra looked down at her tea mug. It all made sense now. How he tried to close himself off and not get close to her, and how spectacularly that failed, and how wonderfully it turned out. It made sense that he made her promise to never leave him, why he was so scared of losing her. Because he loved his old partner. And it was happening all over again now, exactly what Noah did not want to happen.
She bit into her lip, and scrunched her face up, but she couldn't fight it back; a tear slid from her eye. Her throat ached from the lump in it as she tried, and failed, to not cry in front of the two men.
"Don't cry," Nicholas said, touching her shoulder as another stupid tear fell. "You will make me cry, too. I'm a sympathy crier."
But Kendra couldn't help it. Noah didn't want another partner, because he didn't want the same thing to happen to him again. And yet, it was. She could feel it in her stomach, the sadness, and deep below that, the blossoming love she felt. Fuck, this won't end well, she thought as she dashed the tears away, but more fell.
"I... I umm..." she stammered, and then she felt Nicholas pull her into a hug, silencing any incoherent thought she attempted to make out loud. And then Jolly's arms were around her, too, the two friends cocooning their newest friend up between them. 
"We miss him," Jolly said quietly, "but it feels good to talk about him a little."
Kendra swept her fingers at her eyes, and then patted the arms around her. "Thank you for telling me," she said quietly. After they comforted her until she stopped crying, Jolly's arms slipped from around her, Nicholas's falling away too, and as he pulled away, Kendra could see then he was patting his eyes, too. 
"Why was it covered up?" Kendra asked after a few minutes, sipping her tea quietly. And then the worst sound imaginable rang through on their phones and on Nick's laptop. Kendra pulled up her phone to look at it.
It was a meeting invite, scheduled for an hour from then. Attendance: Mandatory for all agents and all specialists.
"And so it begins," Jolly said, setting down his phone and leaving the counter to wake up Nick, and Kendra heard the sound of footsteps above her, Noah awakened by the email.
—
The five friends all gathered into the rarely used meeting space, Noah's hand falling from the small of Kendra's back as they walked through the open double doors into the quickly filling room. The group took a seat near the back and to the side, where Cash had waved them over to. He looked tired on his first day back.