[OP: "Happier"--Marshmello, Bastille.]

About 3 days after these events, Mercury had had enough of bottling up his thoughts about it.

So he told Hazel what happened.

He was at his house, though it was more of a small apartment that Hazel could barely fit through the door of, but for one person it was adequate.

"All that time, does she say anything about not being happy?" Mercury concluded the latest round of complaining/venting. "Nope. Then it's just done. Poof! Nice knowing you."

"Hmm." Hazel had barely said a word this whole time except, "Coffee?"

"I don't know." Mercury finally was petering out. "I guess if that's what she wants. I mean, we were together mostly because she was into it anyway. Why should I worry about it?"

"Mmm." Hazel nodded.

"Are you just gong to say 'mmm' and not anything else?" Mercury said.

"It sounds like you've thought it out more than enough," Hazel said.

"That's...it?" Mercury said.

"Did you expect me to have insights to what women think?" Hazel asked.

Granted...that one was on Mercury.

"But...I don't know. If it were you, wouldn't you...think anything? It wouldn't piss you off?" Mercury griped, shrugging with his arms folded in an irritated manner.

"I might be. It's hard to say. I've never gone after that sort of thing," Hazel said.

"Never? You never had a girlfriend?"

Hazel thought. "I suppose a long, long time ago, I had schoolboy crushes like other people, but not since my sister died. I didn't focus on anything else."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but isn't it a little unusual to obsess so much about your sister? I mean, no other family or friends?"

"We had no other family I'd care to think of, and none alive now. And friends didn't last long after I became focused on Ozpin. You can imagine they thought it was mad."

"I can see that..." Mercury sighed. "Well, I'm in the same boat. I just thought we were in this together."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out," Hazel said flatly, though he surely meant it, in his way. "But if she was being honest, she must think it's for the best. And you should respect her wishes."

"Oh, I won't stalk her," Mercury said. "I have my pride. I just don't get it. Nothing was wrong and then everything was wrong."

[Men are so clueless, am I right?... Not just men, sadly.]

Someone rapped on th door.

"You get visitors? Or is that a delivery?" Mercury said, casually taking a sip.

"It's probably Raven." Hazel got up.

"It's what?--" Mercury almost spat out his coffee.

Hazel opened the door.

It was Raven.

"Hey," she said with her usual brisk way of speaking that never denoted any real emotion. "There's something I should probably tell you about before it gets out of hand. Maybe over coffee?"

"Not today," Hazel said. "I have a situation already."

Today? Mercury thought. What the frick? Had this happened before?

"Are you kidding me?" he said.

"Black?" Raven looked past Hazel--barely. "Oh...well, I won't need to bother now. At least I don't think I will.... Depends. What's going on here?"

"You!" Mercury suddenly remembered he was pissed at Raven. "You b----! This is your fault too."

"Watch it," Hazel warned him. "I won't have anyone speaking to women that way in my house.  Or anyone else, for that matter. Unless they do something to warrant it first."

"Hmm, chivalry from you is weird," Raven said. "But not entirely unpleasant, at least when my subordinate is the one daring to sass me." She glanced at Mercury.

"You backstabber!" Mercury said.

"You have to excuse the boy. He's been...having a difficult week," Hazel said.

"Because he got dumped, right?" Raven said.

"See? She did know!" Mercury said. "Tell her to get lost."

"It sounds as if this might answer your question," Hazel said.

"Step aside." Raven waved. "I think I need to have a little talk with him personally."

Hazel let her in.

"Oh, no, no, I really don't need to hear it," Mercury said.

"Sit down and shut up." Raven put her hand on the table.

He'd stood up, but he sank back down, sullenly.

"I'm not big on sympathy, Black." Raven eyed him sternly. "And between the people in this room, I think we can be honest with each other. I've heard plenty about the crap you were pulling when you found Cinder."

"Cinder's been found?" Hazel spoke up.

"He hasn't told you that yet? Good G--I mean, how did that get passed over?" Raven was surprised. "Yeah, she's found all right."

"Is she a problem?" Hazel frowned.

"It didn't sound like it, at least if we don't make her one," Raven said.

"Whatever Emerald told you, I didn't do jack s--- to Cinder," Mercury said. 

"So you didn't antagonize her when the situation was already pretty dangerous and you knew there were Irasci around?" Raven said.

"Blame them then," Mercury said.

"I've had the chance to observe you on the job when there's no Mind Grimm around, Black. I don't need to blame them," Raven said.

"Are you really going to do this now?" Mercury said. "I knew you put the idea into Emerald's head."

"Actually I didn't." Raven folded her arms "Whatever your impression of me is, I don't encourage people to break up, usually. It's up to them. But she voiced some concerns to me about teamwork, and I had to acknowledge I've had the same ones. Claw and Piper were bad enough when we started this, but I've seen them pull it together a little more. I thought, naively perhaps, that you were also taking the hint to start trying to be more amiable. But it doesn't sound like that's what happened."

"Raven," Hazel broke in.

She paused.

"I'm not condoning his behavior," Hazel said, as if this was a normal thing, "but Cinder Fall is not exactly a normal person. Perhaps judging him solely by how he treated her is unfair."

"I'm well aware Cinder is infuriating, but it's not just her." Raven put a hand to her eyes like this was giving her a headache, but then she lowered her hand and frowned at him again. "And under the circumstances, picking a fight like that was still foolish. Let me explain something to you, Black." She gestured widely. "When I put a team together, I put my trust--however frail it is-- in that team to do what needs to be done. I assigned you and Sustrai together because I thought you were reliable with each other, and then you said you were fine with the other two. I blamed them mostly for the way the first mission you went on ended. Somehow you've survived this long. Great. I thought the dilemma was over...but it's not. I've looked into it. While no one has said your behavior is stopping the teamwork altogether, they have all said that your comments and dismissiveness do not help keep things running smoothly. All of them acknowledge that you can fight well enough and you're handy against Grimm, but for making the team feel like they're in sync, you're lacking. And more than one person said that you only seem to really care about Sustrai's wellbeing and only save the others out of obligation."

"So? I don't have to like them, do I?" Mercury said.

"No..." Raven said slowly. "I can't ask you to like them. But a team develops its own feel, or personality, for lack of a better word. And that depends on if they feel the others at least want them to survive. Not just for a mission, but as individuals. It sounds cheesy, but there's just no other way a team functions. I don't really buy that dumb Ace Ops' crap Harriet used to say about not being friends and keeping personal feelings out of it. Friendship might be putting it strongly, but you're colleagues. If I asked you right off to name anything about your teammates that you like, would you do it?"

Mercury frowned. "I probably could if I wanted to."

"I didn't ask if you could. I asked if you would," Raven pressed.

"Why would it matter?" Mercury shrugged.

"That's what I thought." Raven straightened. "Well, in case you were wondering, this is why she dumped you."

"Excuse me?" Mercury said, and he meant that in a "step off now" kind of way.

"Emerald can't be wasting her time being partners with someone who's not interested in partnership," Raven said. "Which is why I'm reassigning you."

"What?" This was a new blow. Mercury sat up straighter.

"Easy..." Hazel warned.

"What...? She's being totally unfair. Are you listening to this? Do I even get an opinion here?" Mercury said.

"Why should you? Everyone else has already voted," Raven said.

"They voted?"

"Not in so many words. I didn't ask them outright. I wouldn't let them make this call for me." Raven shrugged. "But with the information I've gotten, I've decided it's the best choice. Schnee agrees with me, by the way, so don't go to her to get this revoked. And, I'm pulling you off the most dangerous assignments."

"You've got to be kidding me," Mercury said.

Raven shrugged. "You're talented, Black, I won't lie to you about it...but if you can't build your team up, you're better off working either solo or working jobs where the worst you'll get for bad teamwork is wasted time and not wasted lives."

That was...harsh.

Hazel sighed.

Raven softened finally. "If you want to quit, it's up to you. If you decide to stick it out, and your teamwork improves, I'll reconsider putting you back on high level missions. I'd be sorry to lose your Silver Eyes over this...but on the other hand, if they only work because of Emerald, they're not that useful to begin with. And I've never been one to let people's talents talk for them better than their actual words. People are jackasses in bandit tribes, but they will have each others' backs, and they know it. At least to enemies. And enemies are the Grimm and people who want to kill us, not people we just don't like. Seems to me you've not changed your attitude at all no matter who you worked with. Maybe we should have had this talk a long time ago, but we're having it now."

She paused. "All right, it's only fair to give you a chance to respond. What do you think?"

"You really want to know that?" Mercury said tightly.

"I suppose I can take it." Raven was not as bulletproof as she liked to act, but she wouldn't say so.

"I think that you could have asked me first," Meri said. "Anyone could have said something about this."

"Mercury," Hazel said slowly, "people did say something."

"What?"

"I went on one mission with you, and I heard people talk about it," Hazel reminded him. "Emerald has spoken to you a lot about how your words and gestures affect other people. People she wants to make a good impression on. Have you given that any thought?"

"I...but...no one really would take that that seriously," Mercury said.

"If I've learned one thing in years of leading different groups of people, it's that they are easily offended and they hold grudges," Raven said. "We can talk about wanting people to be mature, but reality is, it's not that common. We all like to be treated better than we deserve. On the other hand, have you thought about what it's like for them to deal with your crap? They've overlooked your remarks out of a wish to keep things moving along. So have I, for that matter. And this is not news to you. We've all told you to watch it. You have blown us off."

"You know, you're not my mother, all right?" Mercury said. "You're my boss. I didn't work for you to get popular, I did it to pay bills."

"Valid reasons." Raven brushed off that insult surprisingly well. "But I wish you'd consider, then, that you'd pay more bills if people wanted to work with you more. There is a reason I've not put you on anything but the high stakes ones. People are willing to overlook more when their lives are going to be that much in danger, but the lesser stuff, they'd just as soon decline. I thought you'd learn that in time. I guess not everyone is as perceptive as I am."

"You didn't think to tell me--in a different way?" Mercury amended.

"This is the different way, Mercury!" Raven actually used his first name, loudly. "I'm not dismissing you. Not yet. But are you not hearing me? If your ill timed rudeness and lack of consideration had compromise their lives because of a grudge, I'd probably have to dismiss you. Or at least demote you. I'm trying to save your a-- here. "

That got him to shut up for a moment.

Hazel had had time to think, and then he said, "She's right."

"She's right?" Mercury repeated. Not that he didn't think Raven had a point--sort of--but Hazel not backing him up yet again made it worse.

"She's right that this is letting you off easy," Hazel said. "It's not public, and it's not dismissal. No one has to know why this happened except your own team. You can save face this way, and if you accept it, you can regain your standing with the base. Otherwise, you could just get booted out, and it could be worse."

"Oh yeah, and if I made it public why, you're going to have a hard time finding another team of people to work with, and to be blunt, you don't have a Semblance and you're not suited to solo fights," Raven said. "Your skill set works better if you have a team to buffer the enemy and round out your weak points."

"Did you just throw that up to me? I can't help that," Mercury said.

"I'm not your babysitter or your therapist, Black," Raven said. "I'm not here to tell you that you're precious and special no matter what and that your lack of power isn't a problem for you sometimes. I'm not going to BS you. It does make it harder--but we allow it because you're good, and your Eyes thing gives you a huge advantage in most fights. But it won't if you focus on the negative. This is up to you." She frowned at him. "I think I'm being generous, all things considered. But we do go back a ways, and I don't like to crush potential."

"Generous...yeah," Mercury said.

"She's being kind," Hazel said. "In her way. What if someone had gotten hurt? What if Emerald had?"

Mercury winced.

"Okay...maybe I did screw up there," he said, "but it was one time.... Cinder's just trouble."

"Hmm, Zapato told me you caused more fighting than she did," Raven said.

Mercury shuddered. "That guy is weird."

"Actually I think he's much smarter than most of our pilots who used to work for Atlas are," Raven said candidly. "Not a mindless follower. I'm planning to monitor Fall just to be sure she's not up to anything, but I highly doubt she is after what I did hear. And I'm not going to make trouble for her if I can help it. I hope she'll return the favor. I hope you will also.... I think that's about all I had to say."

She turned to leave.

"Wait a minute," Mercury said. "This explanation why you're moving me, but not why Emerald decided to go the extra mile to dump me also. Did I offend her in some way?"

Raven paused. "Not all girls are the same. I can't tell you what's going through her mind. But if I had to guess, she wants more than your will to offer. You hold people at arm's length. I don't know if it's your past or just your nature. And she's trying to do it different."

"Yeah, you know, you're not the most cuddly person either," Mercury said.

"Mercury..." Hazel warned again.

Raven frowned at the wall. "I've never been that good at closeness, it's true. I let it...I let a lot of things scare me." She clenched a fist and then unclenched it. "But I've been working on changing that. As much as I can now. I'm never going to be the perfect mother or friend or sister.... I've accepted that. But I can be better than I was. Maybe I'll be what they call 'good' one of these days. But seems to me good just means  you're 'what they need'. We're all fixer-uppers when it comes to how we relate to each other, especially us ex criminals.... Still, you can push someone forward, or you can hold them back. I've never known Emerald to be that picky about who she hangs out with as long as they were helping her, so my guess is you're not helping her anymore. Or she's not helping you. End of story. Usually people dip when they feel that way."

"You would know," Mercury said.

"That is enough," Hazel said firmly. "Throwing insults at her won't change anything, Mercury. You're still the one who's in trouble either way."

Raven shot Mercury an annoyed look and then walked out of the apartment quickly.

"So everyone hates me, that's it?" Mercury said.

"That did seem to be your goal at one time," Hazel said. "But I believe the fact is they do not hate you, but they do wonder how much you really like them. That's the message I was hearing, but I'm not always insightful on these matters. Perhaps you should ask someone who is."

Mercury winced. "Yeah...look, can I crash here for a while? Everyone at the base is going to know about this soon enough, and I don't want to deal with it. Plus Emerald lives there, and that's..."

Awkward, he thought.

"Yeah." Hazel didn't ask him for more reasons.

[Well, Hazel is...not father goals maybe, but father figure goals for someone like Mercury, I guess.]

* * *

Hazel left Mercury to think about things on his own and caught up with Raven not that long afterward.

They had starting getting an occasional cup of coffee sometimes to discuss work.

At least Raven said it was work related, though often the topic changed several times.

But this time Raven was pretty clearly still upset, and as usual she hid it by acting annoyed. She and Yang really were alike.

"That idiot doesn't know when someone's trying to help him," she complained. "And if I were Sustrai, I'd have dumped him a long time ago. I've heard the way he talks to her."

"He's never been very polite..." Hazel noted. "But I wouldn't criticize him too much. The kid had a hard life."

"And sometimes you have to grow up," Raven said. "I have had my fun being antagonistic to people, but when I really need something from them, I can act like a freaking adult."

"Maybe he'll learn," Hazel said.

"I don't think you really disagree. You're just trying to go easy on him," Raven said.

"I think the discipline was warranted," Hazel said. "I used to worry he'd run his mouth to the wrong person working for Salem and end up killed. And it almost happened. I thought now it wouldn't matter anymore, but the Mind Grimm reappearing makes it different. No one can harbor resentments if they're going to fight those things."

"Yeah...and that's another of the problems we have now!" Raven sighed. "I guess this really isn't going to be easier just because the gods are gone."

"We were warned that it would not be."

"I know..." Raven sighed again. "I just.... Would it be too much to ask that problems just get smaller and smaller instead of morphing into new and almost worse problems?"

"Objectively, I don't see how it's worse. The world could have been wiped out."

"But the world is messed up." Raven gestured at the city. "And we're trying to put it back together, God helping us...but that help seems so...small. A miracle here and a slight interference there, and the rest of it is hard work."

"Would you rather not be able to do anything?"

Pause.

"Well, no..." Raven said. "It's just...hard to." She sighed. "Now I'm the one b----ing about it."

"Would you have told Black that to his face 3 years ago?"

"I.... It wouldn't be the first time I had a conversation like that with someone who works for me," Raven reflected. "But in that amount of detail...probably not. I guess I did learn something from Shine--take the things about people that they don't like and hit them with it like a brick."

"Is that really what she does?"

"No...not all that,"Raven said. "I don't know, what's that one verse? 'Speak the truth in love', [Ephesians 4:15 reference] and 'grace seasoned with salt'? [Colossians 4:6] It's not just what you say, it's how you say it. I never used to care about that."

"Who's going to replace Black for Sustrai's team?"

"I'm not sure yet." Raven frowned. "He's hard to replace. Unless Ruby wants to hop over here for a while. We've gotten used to the Silver-Eyed Warrior thing.... We haven't found anymore so far."

"So you looked."

"On the downlow, as the kids would put it, we've had an ear to the ground," Raven said. "But it seems like they really are extinguished."

Uncomfortable look from Hazel.

"Or, not active," Raven shrugged. "If we find any, I guess we'll find out if anyone else can activate those powers now or if it's just us special people who have a way to still use it. With the gods gone, who knows if there'll ever be any more born? Summer had it--it might be genetic, but it's just a theory."

"She'll have a hard time not having someone she can rely on as well on her team," Hazel said.

"Tell me about it. Claw and Piper have done well enough as backup, but they're just not...competent enough." Raven made a fist. "Can't expect too much of them. They need another stronger person to round it out."

Hazel thought. "I could fill in for while."

"You're not a huntsman."

"I did before."

"True.... I mean...I guess if no one cares..." Raven thought. "Just to keep an eye on her?"

"Black will take it easier if someone we know is watching her," Hazel stated. "And maybe she'd rather it be someone she knows if she has to have a replacement, and you can't spare anyone from the other teams anyway."

"That is true. We're still stretched so thin. Once Beacon's third-years and Shade's graduate next year, we'll have a lot more people ready to join the forces, but till then it's going to be tight," Raven admitted. "I guess I can ask."

* * *

Emerald was so relieved she could have cried--probably did in private--that Hazel wanted to help out.

Claw and Piper actually were okay with this, surprisingly. Apparently their impression of him from before was that he was pretty harmless as long as he wasn't pissed off--even though he was an ex criminal, but they hardly knew anything about what he'd done, so they assumed he was just a henchman more than the type of terrorist they associated Cinder with.

[Still funny to me that Hazel probably has a higher body count than Cinder, even if he didn't like that fact, but people just innately trust him more.]

Hazel performed on missions as well as he usually did. No one complained that he had no license. They weren't in a position to turn down help.

Well, it made the first month of Mercury being removed more bearable for Emerald.

She was noticeably depressed though. Claw said it could affect how the Grimm would act--which was the closest to concern she'd express.

"Is it really true that you asked for Mercury to get removed?" Piper, who really had a problem with having a filter, asked Emerald outright after a few weeks of him not being with their team.

Emerald didn't bite his head off--which was almost worse than if she'd been snippy.

"It wasn't just my decision, but we talked it out and agreed on it being the best solution," she said. "He's still a huntsman. He's working with other teams."

"I'm not sorry," Piper said. "He always made me feel small."

"Small?" Emerald was surprised. "But why? We always--I mean, I thought you looked down on us."

"We did, at first." Piper was candid. "Then I think, to be honest, Claw and I were a little afraid. Both of you are terrifyingly powerful. At least again Grimm. Black's not bad against humans either, and you were famous for razing Beacon."

"But we didn't really personally--"

"I know that now. I didn't at first," Piper said. "And you faced gods? We heard you tell Zapato that part. But you seemed like regular kids. It's pretty intimidating."

"Really?" Emerald couldn't believe it. She was used to people being scared of her Semblance, but her herself? Usually they thought she was a wimp.

"But after you let us stay on your team," Piper said, "I wondered if it was for revenge, or if you were trying to be the bigger person. After a while I decided you were trying to be the bigger person, and Black...he just seems to like to be in charge of us, after what we said the first day."

"Mercury isn't like that. He's not a bully," Emerald insisted. "He didn't trust you, that's all. He doesn't trust many people."

"Fair enough," Piper said. "We didn't trust him. But I got the impression he'd never trust us, no matter how much time went by. Once we made a bad impression, that was it. Our mistake, maybe, but not much of a team that way."

"He made you feel small just with that?" Emerald said.

Claw, who was sitting close but not engaged in the conversation till now, looked up. "It makes people feel small to think they'll never be able to get past a negative view of them. As Atlesians, we've had...plenty of remarks thrown at us also, by the angry Mistralians. I'm sure you have too."

"Yeah...some," Emerald said.

"I imagine someone with your Semblance could get revenge on people, and they'd never know it was you," Piper noted. "I was a little worried you'd use your Semblance to torment us and we couldn't prove anything. But you never have."

Emerald shrugged. "I don't use it that way."

"Yeah...and you've been fair," Piper said. "I'd even go so far as to say I was wrong about you when we first met.... But Black...well, he might not be a killer anymore. He might not even be a criminal. And he seems to care about you, so he's probably not heartless. But that's it. That's all I know about him. He won't open up to anyone but you, and maybe your other friends."

"Did you ever try to tell him you were sorry?" Emerald said.

"I thought I made it clear enough that we'd changed our minds," Piper said. "It's just...not enough. But why did you get him removed if you didn't think that?"

"I thought he might be too...constrained," Emerald said. "He should get a chance to not have to work with me all the time, right? I mean...he sure didn't seem happy that way." She frowned. "I guess I shouldn't be talking about this to you."

"As your subordinates, you shouldn't ," Claw sniffed. "As your teammates, it's probably normal to discuss these matters."

"Not gonna lie, Babs, you're so Atlas when you talk like that," Emerald said. "If I wasn't used to Winter, I'd be put off by it."

"We're taught to be professional in the Atlas army," Piper said. "And inflexible. For better or worse. I can't say I understand why things are different now since Schnee took over. I liked it just fine before. But this is the hand we're dealt, as they say. Might as well make the best of it. You're not so bad at leading. I might never get what it is you all went through to get here.... Still, can't we at least be okay with each other? That's what I think."

"I think that also," Emerald said. "I just thought if I said it, you'd make fun of me. I mean...how can I ask you to see me as just another coworker?"

"Or as a hero?" Claw said.

"I don't think of myself as one," Emerald said. "It's just a title. Those medals..." She pulled hers out. "Sometimes I look at it to remind myself that I really did change sides. Maybe someday, I won't have nightmares about what I saw before I did. It's not the stuff that happened to me that haunts me, it's what happened because of me."

They looked at her somberly.

"I don't know, perhaps I understand that," Claw said. "Atlas fell.... Mantle was crushed. It haunts us all. It always will, probably."

"But that medal proves that you did something about it," Piper said. "At first I resented that you had it--I think we made that clear...but now I think I understand. You have it to remind you that stuff has to keep changing and we have to keep working, not because you're just already a hotshot who doesn't need us."

"Yeah...I guess that is kind of how I see it," Emerald mused. "But you think Mercury didn't?"

"Maybe he did, but I saw no sign of it," Claw said. "You know him better. I didn't like to say anything, but I think you should have booted him off before. But we acted unprofessionally also, so it was not our place to tell you that."

"I'm not a perfect leader," Emerald said, "or person. And I didn't always put in the effort to get along with you either."

"So neither did we," Piper said. "And I won't even say I'll never have a problem with you ever again...but I guess if you're working to make those kinds of choices to make the team stronger, I can try to overlook that. We all need to put our personal issues aside and help the people of Remnant."

"Agreed," Claw said. "That is more important than our grudges."

"Yeah, okay." Emerald nodded. 

Hazel smiled slightly.

Emerald later moved to stand near him, near the cockpit.

"Weird," she said. "It's like...it's like I impressed them by making that decision. I didn't even want to do it."

"You don't have to talk about it," Hazel said. "But if you want to...I'll listen. I don't know exactly how to help."

"Same," Royal, who, as always, was flying said. "Or I could put in my headphones."

"I...y. You both already know what happened," Emerald said. "I just wish I felt better about it. Is it weird to say I miss having Mercury on the team? He was such a prick, but...he was my prick. At least for while I thought he was. But maybe that was wishful thinking."

"Nothing wrong with having standards, Sustrai," Royal remarked.

"Your other teammates respect you for making a choice that was in their best interest over your personal preference," Hazel said. "That's what a leader should do. I can't tell you what Mercury really wanted. I'm not sure the boy knows himself. But you didn't ruin his life by this. He has power to redeem himself if he wishes. I think the commanders made that clear to him. It's not your problem."

"Yeah...well, he hasn't spoken to me since," Emerald said. "And I haven't tried to talk to him. What could I say? I know he's going to blame me for him getting reassigned, and I don't think he really understood why I felt like I had to split...but if it was a lie, you know...I could keep living that way. Pretend we were agreeing, when we weren't. Still--" She sniffed. "--I didn't really want to just act like strangers. Ugh, I don't know what I want. This is not the stuff to talk about on the job either."

"Better now than once you have to fight..." Royal remarked.

Hazel put a hand on Emerald's shoulder. "It's all right that you're confused. This is...new to us all. But your gut instincts have always been good. If that helps, I think you should trust them. Given enough time, maybe Black will understand."

Hazel hoped that was true. He had no idea.

Emerald hoped he was right also.

[Ouch.

I know some people may not like this development...and I think most will say Mercury deserved it.

I wouldn't judge him too harshly myself, but I do think Emerald did the right thing. But our Hazel is really pushing his comfort zone trying to help with this situation. Still, that's why we love him.]