Call out, and find out.

“Hey Jessie.” he said it casually. To her, it was the voice of a stranger.

Jessica flinched and wobbled uncertainly until the water damaged railing settled back into position. When she met his eyes, he was relieved to see recognition looking back at him. He’d had the irrational fear that she would look up at him ask him who he was.

The surprise in her voice was apparent. “Leon?”

“The one and only,” he said with a stage bow, and parked himself on the bench across from her. “Whatcha reading there?”

“Oh. Uhh... nothing special. Philip K. Dick.”

“A Scanner Darkly, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Cool,” he said. That was all he knew about the author, so the conversation died quickly.

Cicada song filled the spaces between their words.

It looked like a battle raged on her face as she thought of what to say, before settling on, “Leon... no offense or anything, but why are you here?”

He looked out across the dark water. "Seemed like the place to be."

She gave him a skeptical look. "Were you... looking for me, by any chance?"

"Guilty as charged. Been a little while since we talked, so I thought I'd drop by to say hey.” A look of delight spread across her fine features.

Then the unexpected melody of her laughter drifted out into the night to intermingle with the clicking of the summertime cicadas. It was a pleasant sound.

"All this time, and today is the day you come to say hey?" she asked, still smiling.

"It had to happen someday, right?” He joked. She didn’t laugh.

Instead, she turned to look away from him and muttered, “Did it?”

It was a resentful question.

Neither of them spoke for awhile after that. He spent the quiet moment of reflection taking pictures of her with his invisible camera. The ones of her obscured chest and bare feet stirred feelings in him that were less than brotherly.

He didn't know how to fill the silence. The cicadas offered their support, but it wasn’t enough. Mercifully, she spoke first.

"Thanks for coming out here." Her eyes seemed far away while she spoke, but the anger towards him appeared to have been momentary. “It amazes me sometimes, that I can stay here for hours and hours, and no one comes to find me."

Jessica tilted her head back past the edge of the gazebo's roof, and looked up at the stars. She added, "Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be able to do pretty much whatever I want. It's just... well... maybe it would be nicer if I couldn't, you know?"

She wasn't berating him, wasn't complaining, and yet... I've been letting her down for a long time, whether she blames me for it or not.

"I was the one who found you last time too. Guess you just can’t shake me,” he said.

She hopped off the railing gracefully, her petite little feet making almost no sound as they met the hard wood of the deck.

"At the time, I wished you hadn’t found me. But I’m glad you came looking this time around."

“Were you getting bored out here by yourself all the time?” With only books to keep her company, he supposed she must have been.

“More like lonely.” Before he knew what was happening, he was wrapped in a tight hug. “It really sucked,” she said weakly. He couldn’t tell if this was the amplification of emotions Cammy had mentioned, or if she was just that happy to have been found by someone.

Either way, it was all he could do to hold her tightly against his chest. Words of comfort welled up inside of him, but in the end he didn’t have the courage to say them. Holding her would have to do, for now. He thought he heard the muffled sound of crying, but it didn’t feel right to ask. Better to let her feel whatever she needed to feel.

"We could try to be a family again,” he said, more of a statement than a question. Then there was no question about if she was crying or not.