The day had been a busy one.

It had been a good thing that Molly had used the week that it had taken her and Lucas to reach OED V as a vacation, as when she finally walked into the office the next morning after landing, her job had swamped her. Sure, she had changed offices, even changed planets, but HHI didn’t care. It was business as usual, the moment her feet had walked into the company’s lobby. Even more so, with all the people that had wanted to welcome her back, which on one hand had been nice, but on the other, an incredible waste of time.

So, when 1700 hit, Molly had walked out, rolled her eyes at the fact that her uncle had left early for the day (could she even had done that too? Or had that been why there had been more on her plate in the afternoon?), and walked out of the building, hoping to get maybe a hot bath before Calvin got home.

The thought accompanied Molly until the moment she opened the front door to her and Calvin’s house, only to be greeted by Boomer, Cal’s old black Labrador, who uncharacteristically barked at her.

“Hey buddy, what’s wrong? It’s just me you goofball.” Molly said with a smile as she tried to get past the large dog, only for him to step in front of her and bark at her again. Was something wrong? “Is everything okay?” She tried to kneel down and pet him, but the action only resulted in more barks, and in Boomer pushing her against the door, scratching his front paws on the wood of the door frame. “Boomer? You’re scaring me buddy.” But the barks continued, although Molly could see his tail happily wagging on his backside.

“Calvin?” Molly shouted to the seemingly empty house, hoping that her husband could at least help her in the door, if not even explain to her what was going on. Her gaze scanned what she could see of the other rooms in the house past the foyer, hoping for a quick answer, as Boomer barked once more and nuzzled her against the front door again, not letting her through. Until her eyes landed on what seemed to be a wicker picnic basket on the kitchen table. Molly could barely make it out through her position the living room, but she wondered what it was doing there. The basket, the blanket next to it, all seemed oddly familiar, until she finally caught on.

“Wait… do you want me to step outside again?” Boomer barked excitedly and wagged his tail faster. “Alright, alright.” Molly said, shaking her head in disbelief. Opening the front door, she stepped back outside, closing the door behind her.

There was a smirk on her face when she begrudgingly pressed the doorbell.

Molly