"Good afternoon Christian," Guffery greeted as he entered.
Christian nodded in return as he waited for him to step away from the door. He took a deep breath, wondering what was going on.
And then the slight Chinese girl stepped out from the door.
"Two hours. You know the drill," Guffery insisted with a nod as Christian's eyebrows rose.
He left, and Christian became unrestrained again.
"Hey," he began softly, noticing the girl had her eyes to the floor.
She didn't reply.
Christian hesitated for a moment, before making his way over to her. As he drew near, she took a step back.
"Vanessa?" he whispered as he stopped, "what's wrong?"
"What isn't wrong?" she replied instantly, her voice also soft.
He frowned, taking in her body language.
"You haven't been here as long as Em..."
"She's stronger than I am. You should see the trio."
Christian hesitated, his eyes drifting to the floor.
"Have you seen Casey?"
"He freaked out. I don't think anyone's seen him yet. I don't know what happened."
They stood in silence for a moment, before she finally lifted her eyes to somewhere around his waist.
"You didn't put on much weight. Everyone said you were skinny."
Christian looked down at himself,t hen raised an eyebrow.
"I haven't varied much from this, but I've been working out," he insisted.
"Not enough. The Spider's doing?"
Christian blanched at the sudden mention of Craig and closed his eyes. When Vanessa realised, she looked up at him.
"Something happened," she realised verbally, before reaching up to touch his face.
Christian opened his eyes and turned away, but let her touch him. He knew what she was doing.
She settled her hand at the side of his neck, and began to rub it with her thumb. Christian could have moaned witht he relaxation he felt, but he held himself back.
"He died?" she frowned suddenly.
"In February," Christian agreed, closing his eyes again and hanging his head.
"I went into training. Came out for a two week break in May and haven't gone back."
Vanessa nodded, mainly to herself, before pulling her hand back.