A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Water cascaded down from the faucet and into the porcelain sink below before it was occasionally caught by two hands and splashed upwards. Droplets of the liquid trickled down skin and joined the rest of the substance down below. Pitch black locks were soaked with it and pushed backwards while some of the strands spiked upwards in a haphazard manner. A hand reached out and switched off the water before the same hand retrieved the somewhat stiff white hand towel.

Drying off his face, he placed the towel aside while his dark brown, almost black eyelashes blinked off any remaining water. He opened his eyes soon after and rested both hands on the edge of the plastic counter, which was made to look like it was constructed out of marble. His eyes stared into the rectangular-shaped mirror, which was more like a sheet of glass glued to the wall. Outside of the bathroom, he heard a slight shift of movement, but his teammates weren't talking. They were memorizing the subway blueprints he already had committed to memory since last night nothing had happened out of the ordinary.

There had been one instance around two in the morning by Deidre's and his spot. They had heard rustling coming out from the subway entrance, and the vibration sensor had picked up footsteps. At the time, he only had been awake, and he cautiously had peered around the tree. With his night vision camera, he unfortunately only had seen a rat by the sensor. Well, they now had some idea of what other things might be down there. Then again, rats were to be expected in such places.

Other than that, other critters had examined their equipment before carrying on with their own tasks. Nothing else had come out of the tunnels, and none of the trigger objects had been moved either. Some of the animals that had spotted the objects had attempted to eat them, but they had dropped them soon after. Otherwise, the night had been clear, which meant that they would move into the subway with extreme caution. If the ghost or being could put people into a trance, it most likely was intelligent enough to stay clear of them and their equipment. Last night only gave more weight to that theory.

Pushing his hands off of the counter, he grabbed a comb and smoothed out his hair into the style he preferred. Once done, he ran his right fingers over the stubble on his face, but it wasn't too much at the moment. He would shave after their search into the subway. Complete with his morning routine, or rather afternoon since they all had slept through the morning and into the afternoon due to their investigation last night, he exited the small hotel bathroom and entered the main room.

In somewhat of the center of the room and towards the bed closer to the window, Nick noticed that they had positioned the desk there. Deidre and Ren sat across from each other while Chris sat on the bed and in the middle. They were all hunched over the table and reading the blueprints of the subway. Stepping over to them, he asked, "How are all of you holding up?"

Chris rested her chin on the palm of her left hand. "I think that I'll have it in another hour or two, but" she pointed with her right index finger, "we're bringing this with us, right?"

"We are, but we shouldn't rely solely on it. If we lose it, we need to know still how to get out of there. Those tunnels easily can become a maze even if they're not as complicated as others." All of them knew what he was referring to, and they understood that he had been lucky not to lose the map back then.

Crossing his arms, Ren nodded. "Right, I'll probably finish within the hour." His green-hazel optics stared up to Nick. "And, we're heading out early tomorrow morning?" he asked to double-check one more time.

"Yes, we could head out today, but that would give us less time. I only want to be in there when the sun is out. Even if it's dark in there still, we at least will have sunlight when we get out." His eyes scanned over them. "We all know that these things generally become more active at night, and given the information on this being already, I don't want to be in its home at night. Last night, we still had some chance since we were outside of the subway. Going inside will be different as I'm sure you're all aware of."

"And, we're not going all the way in, are we?" Deidre questioned, her brown optics looking to where the gates were in place.

"Right. The deepest point just means that we have nowhere else to go, and we could trap ourselves in there if this thing is incredibly dangerous. I don't want that to happen." Nick pointed to the midway point. "Ideally, we only want to head halfway in before we turn back. That still gives us plenty of ground to cover and escape if need be." Switching his attention just to Deidre, he asked, "And, how are you doing with the blueprints?"

"Maybe another five minutes." She leaned back a little. "Are you wanting to pick up lunch?" He nodded, and she hummed back. "Okay, why don't you wait for me in the lobby? You should relax a little."

"She's right. I know that you stayed up this morning and looked over camera footage from the night to see if anything popped up on camera that we didn't notice," Ren pointed out as he chuckled a bit since Nick glanced away briefly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I woke up from a dream, and you were gone from the bed. I saw you at the desk with the cameras when I sat up." He chuckled again. "You didn't even notice."

"I wanted to make sure," Nick argued back, though, not with a harsh tone. It was friendly and embarrassed. "Anyway, I still had some sleep."

Deidre smiled softly and shook her head. "And, you being here is only distracting us more, so go take a nap in the lobby or just relax like I suggested." Nick grew more embarrassed by that comment, and he released a drawn out sigh. "Good. I'll be there soon." He waved his right hand tiredly before he grabbed his grey coat and exited the room, having changed earlier into a black sweater, storm grey skinny jeans and black casual shoes.

The door closed behind him, and the three of them returned to their work. Well, that was the case before Chris commented quietly and in a teasing voice, "Maybe, he'll have a dream about her." Ren, though, rolled his eyes and placed his left hand on the back of her head before he pushed it forward a bit into the papers. "Ow!" she cried out, pouting to him somewhat, but he only raised an eyebrow. "Fine, fine, I'll get back to work." She pouted a bit more before she did focus once more on the blueprints, but the whole exchange had caused Deidre to laugh a little bit, which brought a smile to both Ren and Chris.

Outside the room, Nick sighed and hung his head. He still could hear them, and he leaned against the wall next to their room for a brief moment. He was glad that they were operating under a happy and light atmosphere while still taking their work seriously. It took the stress off of their shoulders and gave them more energy for their search tomorrow. And, he understood that once they were in the subway all of them wouldn't be goofing around. They comprehended the risks, and they wouldn't run off on their own to prove that they were brave or some other reason like that. That gave him relief, but he didn't regret examining the footage and losing some of his sleep. If they missed something, he needed to know. Any small detail could mean the difference between them entering the subway and not venturing in, but he hadn't caught anything.

Admittedly, though, he was exhausted, and he would require sleep at least that evening before tomorrow. Otherwise, he'd be putting his team's safety at risk. Slipping his coat on and shoving his hands inside the pockets, he began to head down to the small lobby. A short nap would serve him well, but Chris's comment rang in his head. It would be nice to see her again even if it was just in his head. The downside to that would be that it would give him false hope.

There was no doubt that he couldn't visit her outside of his dreams unless he was a hundred percent certain that the creature was dead. Otherwise, there would be an explosion of issues stemming from that encounter. He was lucky that he even had escaped the creature a second time and with the lives of all of his teammates. That probably wouldn't happen again, and he didn't desire to tempt fate.

Much to his annoyance, his recollection of his kiss upon her forehead back in Faller's Grove made his heart skip a beat. He tried to remind himself that she had sacrificed Brent back in Cankerfell tunnels, but that didn't hold too much weight with him. Sure, he hadn't forgiven her for that action, but he found that he also couldn't blame her too much for it anymore. After that note she had left for him, he knew that she was trying to prevent more people from dying during her game and deals with the creature. Nick understood that she felt guilty for her past actions, but she wanted to survive too; she didn't want to be forced into having a child with the creature. It made sense to him, and his acknowledgement of that only made his heart skip another beat at that memory of his kiss.

Walking down the stairs to the first floor, his steps were slow as his mind fixated on that moment in time. He was glad that he hadn't kissed her upon the lips since he felt that would've been too much of an intrusion given that she had been asleep at the time. Still, a part of him did want to kiss her again even if it was on the forehead once more, and that made him irritated at himself. His team mattered more than his own selfish want, and he couldn't risk their lives over something like that. Nick pushed back some of his hair and messed up the locks in the process, but he didn't pay that any mind. Rather, he groaned quietly to himself. Hopefully, lunch would distract him from such thoughts.