On watch…

The easy rapport they'd shared earlier began to dissipate with each passing minute. Brenda noticed it when she'd brought K.D. down after putting her into her pajamas. She knew he was tired and she tried to ignore it. But he seemed to be ready to snap her head off every time she opened her mouth. She found herself biting her tongue and trying hard not to snap back.

It didn't help that is was almost six and Bianca still wasn't answering her phone. If it had been anyone else, Brenda would have been worried. But the one thing about Bianca that Brenda could always count on was that she always came in late. Most of the time, Brenda let it slide but now that the Lodge was opening and she had other things to take care of, it was becoming clear she needed someone more reliable to tend bar when she couldn't do it herself. She'd have to add finding a bartender to her list of things to do. Ellis offered to handle happy hour, as well as baby-sit—and she was grateful for the offer. But it pissed her off to be in a position where she had little choice but to accept.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one settling into a sour mood. Ellis was beginning to regret coming... He thought he was helping out by offering to baby-sit; and, Brenda had accepted fast enough. But when it came time to actually turn K,D. over to him, she'd started waffling. Although she wouldn't say it outright, he knew she didn't trust him to take care of the little brat.

Any other time, he'd have just tuned her out. But the issue of trust was hitting too close to home. He'd already asked for her trust even as he was betraying it by withholding information—information that she deserved to know. That betrayal wasn't sitting well with his conscience and it was nagging him almost as much as she was. And, there was going to be hell to pay when she found out what he'd been keeping from her. He'd waited too long to bring her up to speed and with each new development it was becoming harder to come up with an excuse for why he hadn't been straight with her from the beginning. She'd have a shit fit if she knew ecampelos had been under 24-hour surveillance for several weeks. But that was nothing compared to what her reaction was gong to be when she found out a new Portal had opened near the old campground and that someone had been using it to bypass their security perimeter. They hadn't been able to back trace the Portal's origin and discover who was behind it until last night. When it turned out to be someone from Brenda's old team, he'd realized just how big of a mistake he'd made in not keeping her in the loop. He didn't know why yet, and there wasn't anything to gain by telling her anything until he knew that. But somehow he didn't think she'd see it that way… And clearly, ignoring her wasn't going to be an option, either, for fuck sake.