As Li Jie slumped lifelessly over a dining room table eating breakfast, someone suddenly clapped him hard on the shoulder.
He jumped and whipped around. Sure enough, there was that dark face again.
"Hey! Dale? Why are you back? Didn't you have another week off?"
He looked Wilson up and down. "Something's wrong. Why do you... look so worn out? Are you hurt?"
"No, nothing like that."
Looking haggard and defeated, Wilson tossed his shoulder bag onto a chair, took a hamburger from Li Jie's plate, and stuffed it into his mouth. "Hey, Otis."
"Hey, Dale. Finished your vacation?"
Otis put two rolls and a few slices of pizza into a bag, then grabbed a glass of juice. "Sheriff, I'll take this back to eat. You know..."
"Okay!"
Li Jie waved him off, then turned back to stare at Wilson. "On a scale of one to ten, you look twelve kinds of wrong."
"Ahem..."
Wilson cleared his throat and sank lower in his chair, asking in an extremely quiet voice, "Buddy, have you ever..."
"Hey, Sheriff!"
"Hello, Miss Smoak."
Li Jie greeted Felicity Smoak as she came in. "I heard you're heading back this afternoon?"
"That's right." Felicity served herself some salad and waffles. "I wrote up a basic improvement plan. If you have any questions, you can call or email me anytime."
"Oh, thank you so much." He pointed to the Black officer beside him. "Darnell Wilson, my partner." Then he gestured across the table. "Felicity Smoak, a tech and networking genius from Queen Industries in Star City. The kind who can talk directly to satellites."
"Hello, Officer."
"Hey!"
Wilson immediately gave the network administrator an enthusiastic wave. After watching her take her plate to a table a little farther away, he turned back to Li Jie. "Buddy, that's