Chapter Text
The week before Loren left was miserable.
She was absolutely ecstatic to be getting out of her parent’s house, and the whole family was relieved that she’d still be close, but Davijaan didn’t have the courage to ask about anything more than superficial details. He was happy for her, really.
“It’s just that I know a lot is going to change,” he tried to explain to Cody one evening as they cleaned up from supper. “We’re still going to be friends, I don’t think anything could change that at this point. But what if she starts acting like Hawk and only comms me every six months? What if she’s so busy she doesn’t want me to visit? She’d have to come up to visit her family sometimes, right? I’d at least get to see her then, right?”
Cody heaved a sign and loudly scraped the last of the stew into a bowl. Davijaan snatched the pot away from him and started scrubbing. “Sometimes friends take breaks," he said, shoving the bowl into the conservator. "I haven’t talked to Rex in forever. So what. I’ll comm him again sometime and ask how he’s been, and we’ll be fine. So what if you don’t see her for a few months? Spend your time with someone else. What was his name? Teren? With the dots?”
“His name is Aron, and they’re not— they’re… hm.” The cluster of five small circles on his cheeks did rather look like dots. He turned off the water and put the clean pot on the counter. “That’s not the point.”
“Davijaan. It’s fine.” Cody sounded confused and exasperated and he cringed, knowing he shouldn't be as worried about this as he was. “She’ll be an hour away.”
“I know, I know. But I’m still going to miss her. A lot. And I don’t know— and. Well. I’m…”
… Might as well. At this point he just felt silly keeping this to himself. He ran a finger through the water pooling on the counter from the dripping pot. “I’m sort of sweet on her. Have been. For a while now. Um. Since she moved back here.”
Silence. After a few seconds he forced himself to turn around and look.
Cody’s expression was hard and cold as ice.
“So Wolffe’s not delusional,” he bit out. “Good to know.”
Davijaan stiffened. “What did Wolffe—”
“He said you were sweet on her, and to keep an eye out. I said he was talking out of his ass, because you would have told me something like that.”
“I was going to, I just…” he gestured helplessly, trying to encompass the enormity of his distraction for the last year. Cody’s expression softened into something hurt.
“It’s not like you had to tell me, but why didn’t you?” he asked, low. “You always did before.”
“You weren’t like this before.” Cody flinched. Davijaan took a step towards him and then stopped, standing awkwardly next to the sink. “I’m sorry. But you were so unhappy. And it felt… wrong to tell you about all the good things happening to me. Especially when… when I didn’t want to include you in all of them.”
If Cody hadn’t come upstairs that day, he didn’t know when he would have tried to introduce them. He was happy his brothers liked Loren, and happy Loren liked his brothers. But their friendship hadn’t been something he’d wanted to share.
“That’s not how this works.” Cody slowly shook his head. “That’s not… I would have been happy. To know you were happy.”
“Would you?”
He looked away.
“Cody… Cody, you hardly talked to me for months when we moved.” He took another step forward. And another and another, until he was standing close enough to touch. “You teased when I told you I’d found Loren again, but you didn’t ask about her. You didn’t ask me anything about anything.”
“I would have been angry.” Cody finally met his eyes, distant and sad. “I would have been happy too, but…”
“I know.”
“It made me so angry that you were— you were fine, and I wasn’t, and you could do things, and I couldn’t. Angry at myself, mostly.” His gaze sharped. “I don’t think I’m angry anymore, but I’m not sure what I feel instead.”
They stood there for a moment longer, just looking at each other. It felt like he was seeing Cody again for the first time, in the yellow lamp light in their house in the mountains. His face was so familiar, every line and curve and expression and scar, and yet the strangeness of the last year seemed to have warped it into something unrecognizable.
After a long while, he reached out and grabbed Cody’s sleeve, and tugged him over to the couch. He sat them both down almost on top of each other, and then they just sat, watching shards of sunset cut through the open window and across their dusty red rug.
The silence was overwhelming. Davijaan wanted to say something— to drown it out, to distract from it— but he didn’t know what. And he knew that would help him more than it would help Cody.
Just as he was starting to dread sitting like this for the whole evening, Cody snorted, and elbowed him in the stomach, and asked, “Remember when you came crashing into my cabin going on about General Kenobi?”
“He saved my life, asshole!” Davijaan cuffed the back of his head none too gently. “Swooped in and saved my life! I'm allowed—”
“I can't believe you like his accent.”
“It's distinguished.”
“It's annoying.”
“You just got tired of listening to him talk all day.” Davijaan huffed. “I’m sure if you heard it in the correct context, such as a gentle reassurance that you were doing fine and hadn’t actually made a mess of the mission… You see?”
Cody laughed, and relaxed, and then shifted around so he could look Davijaan in the eye.
“Mr. Yang offered me Loren’s old job,” he said, easy as anything. “He said Maraso doesn’t want to go back to doing it full time.”
Davijaan raised an eyebrow and tried not to look flabbergasted. “And?”
“I said I’d think about it. It’s mostly flimsiwork. Which I know I can do.”
“Huh.” He leaned back into the couch so he could comfortably take more of Cody’s weight. “Do you want to?”
“Maybe? I want to do something. I feel like I can do something, finally. Like…” He pressed a hand against his chest, and then curled it into a fist and let it fall against his side. “Not sure if I want that something to be more flimsiwork.”
“I think you should look for a job. Somewhere else. I think, I think—” He blinked and cleared his throat. “Maybe Mx. Calen will hire you to dust bookshelves.”
“Maybe.” Cody cracked a smile. “We’re going to be here for a long time, aren’t we?”
“I hope so.”
“I hope so too.”
***
Loren moved to Kyurem on a clear day so cold Davijaan’s eyes stung when he blinked.
The only ones scheduled to work that day were him and Maraso, so the rest of the family could help her move. He was handling Mrs. Yang’s passenger flights again so they could take Glimmer for the luggage. Loren had a lot more than a single stack of crates this time around, and he helped her and the twins load the cargo hold while Mr. Yang settled some flimsiwork details with Maraso.
Before the family boarded, Loren, grinning maniacally and practically vibrating from excitement, flung herself at him for a hug. She squeezed him so tight for a split second he thought she was going to try and pick him up, and then she started giggling and rocking them back and forth and then he started giggling too because what was she even doing— But she was happy, and settled down after a few seconds of giggles, and finally loosened her hold on his waist and stepped back to look at him properly.
“You have to come visit,” she declared, beaming.
He swallowed hard. She made it sound so simple. “Of course I’ll come visit.”
“Every week.”
“Every week?” He snorted. “Sure you’re not tired of me yet? We’ve seen each other almost every day for the last six months.”
“I will never be tired of you.” And then she kissed him on the cheek and danced up the gangplank, calling over her shoulder— “I’ll see you in a week, Odd Ball!”
He stood stock still in the middle of the hangar while the rest of the family boarded until Maraso, smiling, tugged him into the office to get out of the way of take off.
***
Cody asked around at a few different places, but it turned out that Mx. Wu was delighted by the prospect of having him dust their bookshelves. He wasn’t paid much, and only worked two days a week, but he always came home smiling.
***
Because of their work and because of their somewhat regular appointments with Dr. Lin and also because Loren was gone and they had nothing better to do, he and Cody started spending more time in the village. Sometimes they ran errands, sometimes they explored. Sometimes together, sometimes on their own.
Usually people made a point to stop them and say hello. Occasionally they spoke in Pantoran, and smiled at his and Cody’s stumbling responses, and said they were glad to see them settling in.
The grocer started recommending things they hadn’t bought yet, especially meats, telling them what it was and how to cook it and its whole history as a traditional Pantoran food. Cody persuaded Davijaan to start walking home from work with him, and the first time he showed up at the pristine library Mx. Wu gave him an extended tour and asked what his favorite genre was. When he said he didn’t like to read they gave him such a horrified look that he ended up going home with a healthy dose of shame, a laughing brother, and a stack of audio novels of all genres.
The young father with the crying child came into the Yang’s village office to schedule a flight while Davijaan was there doing flimsiwork, and ended up staying and asking him about how he’d enjoyed Tyan’s Night and informing him that yes, there had indeed been something in the tea. He never mentioned his name, but spoke freely about his child and his work and the ice fishing trip he was planning as though Davijaan already had all the context he needed.
It wasn’t that people hadn’t gone out of their way to speak to him before. They had, often and insistently, especially in the early days, and it had almost driven him away from the village completely. But it was different, now. There was something almost fond in their attention. It wasn’t all distantly curious questions about him and his life; they talked about themselves and their lives and about the village, and their willingness to share made it a little easier for him to share in return.
***
A few weeks after Loren moved, Aron invited him out for drinks on his next off day.
“There’s a couple of us try and meet up every other tenday or so,” he’d said, ernest but clearly trying not to be overwhelming. “Mostly old school friends. It’ll be good to have a new face.”
Kyurem seemed like a long way to go for a drink, but he was going to be down there anyway to see Loren, and he was genuinely curious as to what this part of Pantora had to offer in terms of bars and clubs and related company. He hadn’t bothered to explore on his own, because that wasn’t the point of going out for drinks, but if he was invited…
He arrived late and left early. He didn’t dare get even tipsy, but he was surprised by how little it took to get Aron and the other Pantorans loud and laughing. He did eat a lot of fried food and met a half a dozen new people— who already knew exactly who he was, because there were only two humans living in Amaura and that was a novelty all on its own. He was surprised to find he was more amused than annoyed by this point.
He got along well with Aron’s friend Onnero. They spent a solid hour discussing the quality of the hiking trails around Amaura, which he was pleased to discover he knew enough about to discuss for a solid hour. Another of Aron’s friends, Dellen, asked him if he had any good stories from the war. He deflected, and nobody asked again, and he thought maybe he wouldn’t mind coming to the next one.
***
Since the visit Davijaan and Wolffe commed each other almost every day, and he still got the occasional message from Hawk and Jesse and even Gregor. He was pretty sure Cody had started sending his daily and weekly check in messages again too, because he started to bring up Rex and Fox and Gregor in conversation more often; mentioning what they were up to or asking if Davijaan remembered that-time-when. And once—
“I talked to Kenobi today.”
Davijaan almost fell flat on his face as he fought with a boot. “What!? How?”
“Over the comm, like normal people.”
“Jedi don’t count as one of those.” Davijaan frowned at the stuck buckle. “Are you sure any of us count as one of those?”
“There’s got to be some kind of line.”
“Fair enough. How’s Kenobi? What did he want?”
“He’s fine. Just wanted to make sure we hadn’t died yet.”
Davijaan snorted and started picking at the metal joint.
He’d never outright said it, but back in command track Cody hadn’t had high hopes for his future Jedi general. Or for the Jedi, in general. Or maybe it had been ‘17 who hadn’t had high hopes. Cody and ‘17 had seemed to have a lot of the same opinions.
Kenobi had basically set all his expectations on fire. While Cody’d rarely had anything nice to say about the man, he’d begrudgingly decided to respect him in truth a few months into the ordeal of their partnership.
“Fantastic. Glad he hasn’t kicked the bucket. Again. Will you come help me—”
And Cody got the armor repair kit and helped him fix the buckle, and didn’t mention Kenobi again that evening.
***
He did end up visiting Loren once a week. Or she would come up to spend time with family, and visit him. Really the only things that changed were they had more to talk about and less interruptions, and he was so relieved he didn’t know how to put it into words.
He liked her apartment. It was the third story of a three story building; all one room except for the fresher. It was big, and full of her things— bright yellow and green and blue woven hangings and shelves of datapads and books and a desk with mountain peaks carved on it— and her.
They would sit on the low couch and sometimes she would try to teach him a game or a craft, and sometimes Fenna would come up from her apartment and join them and laugh at Davijaan’s inability to count stitches.
Sometimes they would just talk. About work, about their families, about Pantora. Sometimes about the planets they’d visited during the war.
She had so many stories of interesting people she’d met and the interesting things they’d had to say, both on Coruscant and off. The professor who’d hated her writing style and tried to fail her because she wouldn’t change it; the old man who used to stand outside of the CorNN building and curse the Republic and harass the employees as they came and went; the old woman who served a meal of bark tea and stale bread in the ruins of her former home when Loren arrived to interview her.
He didn’t have many stories, having set foot on few planets outside of Coruscant, but he would describe the colors of the skies he’d seen. The purple and orange sunset of Teth, the dusty beige horizon of Boz Pity, the grey and blue clouds of Cato Neimoidia. He never brought up Kamino, and she never asked.
Every time they said goodbye she kissed him on the cheek.
***
The Yangs kept having them over for supper. Every week.
Davijaan wasn’t sure why Mr. Yang always insisted, but the food was good, and there was never any rush to be anywhere, and fewer Yangs overall to contend with. So it was actually sort of relaxing. And usually family suppers were on days Loren was visiting.
One day shortly after the snow banks had started to melt around the edges, Davijaan and Cody arrived mid-morning at the Yangs for a cooking lesson.
Davijaan had only agreed to come the once, and he spent most of the two hour period watching Cody and Mr. Yang prep and stuff half a dozen grouse and trying not to burn the sauce he was in charge of. Unfortunately he’d never been good at multitasking.
Mr. Yang was as talkative as ever, but he was softer than he usually was at work. Davijaan didn’t know if it was being in his own home or being with Cody. He spoke a little bit about everything— an upcoming vote on the school budget, an old friend grieving his wife’s death, how the quarry operated, how his business was run, what he planned to plant in his garden boxes in the spring.
Cody asked clarifying questions, but for the most part listened. For lack of anything better to do, Davijaan listened too, and tried to put faces to the names in Mr. Yang’s stories.
Loren was visiting that day, and at one point she peaked into the kitchen and grinned knowingly at him. He wasn’t sure what the joke was but he liked being in on it.
Instead of going home and coming back later for supper, he and Cody stayed at the Yang’s house all afternoon. They ate the grouse and tubers and burnt sauce for lunch and then spent hours picking over the leftovers and talking with Loren and the twins about everything and nothing.
There was a whole lot of talking about nothing involved in all these new acquaintances, or friendships, or whatever they were making with the people of Amaura. But Davijaan knew enough about talking to break a dangerous silence and talking to use up empty time and talking to distract from pain to know that nobody ever really talked about nothing. This wasn’t so much talking about nothing as it was an invitation to talk back.
That night after supper and clean up, the family migrated to the living area, and took Davijaan and Cody with them.
Cody was engaged in quiet conversation with Loren’s grandfather, and Loren herself ended up sitting between her brothers and arguing about some holofilm she’d sworn she’d never watch. Davijaan couldn’t quite hear what was being said but it was loud and enthusiastic.
Mrs. Yang’s lip twitched when he caught her watching him watch Loren, and she beckoned for him to come sit with her. He did, just a little bit scared, and she took one of his hands in both of her own and turned to face him fully.
“Did my daughter ever tell you why I moved here?” she asked, quiet, a faint smile softening her features.
“No.” He shifted, feeling incredibly awkward in the face of her calm. “Your— Mr. Yang said you needed a change of scenery, and you liked the mountains.”
“Yes. And no.” She tilted her head in brief acknowledgement. “I was in an accident. The hyperdrive malfunctioned and threw us into realspace hard enough to break a wing. One of my passengers died.”
Davijaan’s horror must have shown on his face, because she stopped to pat his hand. The thin lines around her eyes deepened.
“I couldn't fly anymore after that,” she continued, quiet, steady. “My parents convinced me to get out of the city, explore the planet. See new things and make new memories. The mountains were my last stop. I spent three days here, and fell in love.”
He blinked. “With Mr. Yang?”
“Later.” She patted his hand again, her smile returning, her eyes starting to glow. “Dhanse came into my life much, much later. First, I fell in love with the sky.”
***
Spring in the mountains was cold and wet and wretched. Overnight snow storms turned into rain showers, and snow banks became sheets of ice as they melted to slush and then re-froze, and melted and re-froze and melted and re-froze for a tenday until the night time temperatures finally settled above freezing.
Once everything stopped freezing solid all over again every night, wet and wretched became wet and disgusting. The yard underneath the snow was soft and muddy and liable to hold boots captive until they could be freed by inconvenienced brothers. The formerly dry river overflowed its banks and washed out part of the dirt road, which wasn’t dirt anymore so much as a very long mudslide.
Davijaan hated it. Everything was dripping all the time, usually on him, and everything was filthy which meant that he was filthy, all the time.
But the tundra was a bright, new green. It even smelled green. Like Pantoran tea but also like dirt and bruised leaves and damp moss. There were dandelions blooming along the road and the pine trees had bright new growth. As the sun rose earlier and earlier and set later and later he walked to and from work every day, damn the mud, and just reveled in how good everything smelled. He usually arrived home sneezing so bad he couldn’t see straight, but it was worth it.
On one such afternoon after he’d heaved himself up the steps, pausing on every third one to sneeze, he was greeted on the porch by both Cody and Loren.
Cody had the audacity to laugh— as if he hadn’t seen Davijaan sneezing his brains out every day for the last three weeks— but ushered him inside and took his jacket. Davijaan kicked his boots off and then Loren turned the sink on and helped him drink some water and wash his face, which mostly fixed the problem.
“You really ought to ask a doctor about this,” she said, concerned, handing him a dishcloth.
Davijaan grunted and finished cleaning himself up, having no intentions of asking Dr. Lin about anything he didn’t have to. It was just sneezing. Something dusty in the air. He was fine. They’d all be sneezing too if they walked around outside as much as he did.
“I’m fine,” he said, folding the cloth and hesitating to set it back next to the sink. It ought to go in the wash. “Good to see you. Thought you weren’t coming up this week?” He was supposed to go down to see her tomorrow, but he wasn’t about to complain about an extra visit.
She took the cloth from him and set it on the side of the table closest to the stairs, so somebody would remember to carry it down. “I had the day off, and Cody wanted to ask me some questions, so here I am.”
She’d gotten another part time job keeping books at a merchant’s warehouse, and spent all the rest of her time writing and editing and sending articles all over. A few had been accepted, but none had really taken off yet. She’d said it could take years, though they both hoped it wouldn’t.
“Questions about what?” He looked at Cody, surprised.
“About the article.” Cody looked back, steady and even and with just the slightest hint of, ‘don’t question me, I know what I’m doing.’ Davijaan rolled his eyes.
“Just about the interview process, and where I intend to send it. Things like that.”
“Wanted to know the details before I agreed to anything.”
Davijaan froze. “Wait, are you…?”
Cody’s head tilted slightly. “I’m thinking about it.”
“Oh.” He swallowed. “Good.”
He offered Davijaan a smile that might have been a smirk and might have been a grimace.
“Well.” Loren started collecting her bag and poncho. “If that’s all, I should probably head back. I didn’t tell my parents I was coming up and if anybody sees me on the road I’m going to get all sorts of nosy questions.”
Cody huffed a laugh. “That’s all. And thank you, again.”
“It was my pleasure. See you at supper?”
“Next week,” he confirmed, and went to get the door for her.
On her way out, she paused in front of Davijaan. “And I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, and hesitated, and then leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
His face flushed, but he managed to nod, and return her smile, and watch her walk out the door without making a fool of himself.
When the door shut he turned and found Cody gaping at him. “What the hell was that?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared. “What did it look like?”
“That—” he gestured to his cheek “— was a very natural and practiced gesture. You didn’t even flinch.”
“And?”
“Davijaan.”
He sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides. “She just… started doing it. A while ago.”
“You said you were sweet on her and left it at that! You didn’t tell me she—”
“She’s not!”
Cody sputtered.
“She hasn’t said anything!” Davijaan threw his hands up, exasperated. “It’s probably really fucking obvious how I feel. She probably knows. She probably would have said something if she felt the same way.”
“You can’t just make assumptions, blockhead! You have to confirm crucial information yourself!”
“This is not a campaign!”
“It's not not a campaign!”
Davijaan let his head fall back and groaned. “Cody.”
“Davijaan.” Cody narrowed his eyes. “Have you told her?”
“No,” he forced out through gritted teeth.
“I cannot believe—” Cody spun on his heel and started pacing the floor. “All this time I thought— You implied— You should have clarified—” He planted himself in front of Davijaan again and waved a hand at the door. “Tell her! Ask her. See what she says.”
“No.”
“If you didn’t have the decency to tell me you can at least tell her!”
“I don’t want to.”
“Davi. Come on.”
He buried his face in his hands and groaned again. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m telling you what to do! I’m telling you to talk to her!”
“And then what!” He looked up at Cody, feeling a little bit like the floor was about to fall out from under his feet, throat dry and heart pounding. “After the talking, then what? I don’t know— I don’t know the rules of engagement. I can’t make a plan of action. And she matters too much for me to— to not think about this.”
Cody raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. “I bet she knows the rules.”
Davijaan said nothing. Cody stepped forward and slipped a hand under his shirt and tickled him.
Shrieking and flailing, Davijaan collapsed into a heap on the rug. Cody followed to keep tickling him.
“I bet there are tons of rules,” Cody grinned, mercilessly tormenting Davijaan’s poor, poor sides. “I bet you’ll have to ask all sorts of embarrassing questions to figure them out. I bet you get laughed at a few times. In fact, I think I’m gonna comm Fox and set a bet for—”
Breathless with laughter, Davijaan smacked at his face. “Do not.” If he told Fox, Fox would tell Wolffe. And then his life would be over.
“Like you could stop me.” Cody caught his wrist and pinned it. “Now hold still.” His free hand found the back of Davjaan’s neck and pinched. Davijaan thrashed and squealed. “I’ve been neglecting my brotherly duties.”
Davijaan kneed him in the stomach and when he bent over, gasping, grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him down onto the rug. “Stop! We’re done! We’re done, you bastard.”
Cody grumbled and groaned, but stopped. They lay side by side on the floor regaining their breath, giggling off and on, lungs and stomachs aching.
Flinging a hand in Davijaan’s face, Cody panted— “You want to know what I think?”
“No.”
“I think you’re thinking about this too much.”
“Leave me alone.”
“You don’t know how she feels, you don't know the rules— you’re only working with half the information you need. Obviously you can’t make a plan. Gathering information is the first step.”
“This really, really is not a campaign.”
“I thought you’d talked to her about this already."
"Now who's making assumptions?"
"How have you not talked to her about this?”
Davijaan thumped his head against the floor. “She probably had all sorts of people falling at her feet on Coruscant. She probably has all sorts of expectations!”
Cody levered himself up on his elbows. “Probably. But you’re not going to know what her expectations are until you ask. You should go do that by the way. Right now.”
“Right now?”
“Right now.”
“She just left!”
“So she’ll have time to get home and put her things away before you come pounding on her door to confess your undying love.”
“Shut up.”
“You do, thought, right? Lo—”
Davijaan rolled over and shoved his face into the rug.
When he let Cody back up for air, he was laughing.
“Where do you even get lines like that!?”
“Well, if you ever bothered to read a book, maybe—”
“No!" Davijaan shoved him back down. "Forget I asked.”
Eventually he let Cody get up, and let Cody pull him up, and then slumped on the couch and contemplated turning into a hunk of rock. Or maybe a pile of mud. That way Cody wouldn’t try to touch him again.
Cody stood directly in front of him and crossed his arms. “You know why you should tell her?”
“Will you stop?”
“Because you never got the chance to tell anybody else.”
And, he hadn’t. But that wasn’t just because leave was short and his feelings faded fast, it was…
“It's different with her.” He swallowed, looked away, caught himself and looked back. “It’s not just, you know. Fluttery feelings, or whatever. I mean, yes.” He sat up straight, trying to communicate how serious this was.
“Yes, she’s beautiful and funny and I always want to be around her, but she— She sees things so differently. The whole galaxy. And it’s like she can see right through me, too. And it’s kind of terrifying. But also really exciting? Being with her…” he glanced out the window, to the tundra and the mountains and the blue blue sky. “Being with her is like flying.”
Like having something solid under your feet even when you’re so high up you can’t see the ground. Something constant amidst the chaos.
“Huh.” Cody tilted his head, amused but maybe also understanding. “Well, then.” He gave Davijaan a critical once over, and then dragged him to his feet and shoved him towards the door.
“Wait! Are you really—”
“Yes.”
“But—”
“No.”
“What if she doesn't—”
“Then at least you'll know for sure!” Cody flung his jacket into his arms and kicked his boots towards his feet. “Go. Now.”
“You know, just because you can snarl like ‘17 doesn’t mean—”
Cody snarled. Davijaan put his jacket and boots on.
“Forget about neglecting brotherly duties, you’re abusing brotherly privileges,” he grumbled. “Privileges that are abused are revoked, asshole.”
“Uhuh.” Cody opened the door with a grin. Davijaan glared.
He made it two steps outside when Cody’s hand came down heavy on his shoulder.
“And. I am happy for you.”
Davijaan swallowed hard, and turned and hugged his brother tight, and then rushed out the door.