Eva heard the singing from the warehouse long before it came into view. The sound wasn't unusual. The workers at the Yransea warehouse were prone to singing work-a-day songs, keeping the rhythm of their labors and the pace of their teamwork. Eva had grown accustomed to the sound of their voices, their banter and laughter, as much a part of her everyday as the scratch of her pen across the ledgers and the salty scent of the sea.

But the voices had dampened along with the season, winter bringing a tense quiet to the warehouse, a quiet that had arrived along with news from the Escape. Two had been lost at sea. Master Fraiser was gone.

This spring morning though, the singing was different. This singing was loud. It was raucous. It was celebratory. As if life, more than business, were returning to the warehouse. It made Eva smile. Her steps quickened, avoiding the puddles as she hurried to the building.

Her feet took the stairs with an unconscious eagerness she hadn't felt since her first working days, fingers slipping down the buttons of her coat so that it was hanging open as she passed the first office door. Out of habit, she glanced in, towards Hudson's desk.

Light shafted in through the windows as the sun rose in the sky. Hudson sat at his desk, a pile of ledgers and pages in front of him, but he was looking towards the door expectantly having heard Eva's footsteps on the stairs. At the sight of her beginning to pass his door, he smiled. "Guid morning, Eva."

Eva froze. She took a step backwards, and looked through the doorway again. Hudson was there. At his desk. Like before. She looked away, to see if her vision would clear, then looked back. Hudson was still there. Just sitting there, smiling, a hint of mischief in his eyes. He was really there. Eva shifted her weight. "Hi."

A few steps away, Rhys had come to his own doorway to watch. Eva looked towards him, and he offered her a little nod, his faint smile warming in encouragement.

It took her a moment to find her voice again. When it came, it was thin with the breath held in, and the emotion barely restrained behind it. Her eyes returned to Hudson. "Welcome back." She smiled and let her eyes linger a moment. Then she turned and moved on.

Rhys gently caught her arm as she passed him, steadying her, his voice a low, gravelly whisper. "Alright, lass?"

Eva nodded and turned her smile to the older man. Her eyes were filling with tears, and through the blur she could see the same emotion in Rhys' eyes. Her heart pounded in sync with the singing of the workers below, the tune jaunty and light, and feet stomping so loud it was shaking dust from the beams over their heads. She let out her breath and nodded once more. He returned the nod.

As her feet carried her further down the hall towards her office, she raised her voice to be heard by Hudson and Rhys over the singing. "I'll be in my office when you're ready to talk numbers, Hudson."

His voice called back, light and amused. "Aye, I'll thank ye tae speak o' th' numbers, though I dinnae think I'll care tae listen."

Eva laughed, and she could hear Rhys' laughter joining behind her, the warmth of it easing the tightness in her chest. Then she stepped into her office and turned to quietly shut the door behind her, leaving her to cry in private.