#int. Anthony Lockwood

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@lockwd liked for a song-based starter and got [Heavy in the Morning by KAWALA]

The house was quiet. It was a gloomy morning in Marylebone, evident in both the gray sky and in Ellie's lack of energy. A little before nine she made her way down to the kitchen of 35 Portland Row. Always a time that felt too early in the morning for the blonde, yet she couldn't sleep anyways. Holding the source had been her worst mistake yesterday, the dread and anger was something hard to shake off.

There'd been a case yesterday, one that turned out to be more dangerous than they had anticipated. A type two visitor when they'd been expecting a type one. They'd barely made it out. Plus, George was away visiting family this week, so their research wasn't nearly as thorough, and it showed. Lucy had been there last night, but Ellie was sure she heard the girl leave earlier this morning.

That left her and Lockwood.

She rubbed some sleep from her eyes as she walked into the kitchen. She'd hoped putting on her glasses would push away at least the physical fatigue. It did not. Just like brushing her teeth and splashing some water on her face had failed to do so too.

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The blonde looked over Lockwood's various notes and underlinings on the papers. He'd covered the bases pretty well, with his sight, Lucy's listening, and her own touch, even in the chaos of unpreparedness, they were able to gain some insight despite lacking George's in-depth research abilities.

Ellie nodded, everything should be fine, given the source was last seen covered in iron netting. "Hopefully, given our luck with Murphy's law though...," she trailed off then took a sip of her tea. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. She didn't like thinking that way but they needed to be careful given how yesterday went.

"I'll go with you," she stated. She didn't plan on letting him go there alone, even if it turned out the source was properly secured like they hoped. She didn't have plans today anyway, lately, their cases had been taking enough of her time that she didn't worry about finding other things to do.

The way they had left things, it had been such chaos and desperation. That was nothing new but it didn't feel right, somehow. Lockwood looked at Ellie as she settled down at the table with him and mulled over the papers. His attempt at contributing to the research included more scribbled notes on the events of the night, describing everything they had seen, heard and felt. There were also more words underlined on the copy of a newspaper article.

He nodded and smiled a little. "Good, that's good. In that case everything should be fine." If the source was secured there was nothing to worry about and they should have no problem getting their commission reward.

Lockwood noticed the way mentioning the pocket watch made Ellie pause, like it bothered her. It couldn't be much fun feeling the memories of death. "Perhaps I'll go and look for it in the daytime, it'll be easier to spot. We need to collect it for DEPRAC and I need to speak with our client."

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Ellie took a sip of her tea, trying her best to hold back a grimace. She'd always been more of a coffee person but even then it was mainly for the caffeine. Now that she was in England however, she was trying to get herself to drink more tea since that was what her friends drank.

She was thankful for Lockwood's honesty, she knew that he wasn't one to always show his true feelings so it was nice to hear him say something other that wasn't akin to feeling great. Cases didn't always go smoothly but it had been a while since something had gone so wrong. They'd had a rhythm going for a bit there but with George gone, they'd been thrown from their routine.

She leaned slightly closer, setting her glasses atop her head to get a better look at the papers Lockwood had laid out. Ellie ran through yesterday's fiasco in her mind. "I think we did?" She was maybe ninety percent sure of that. She could remember holding the source —a golden pocket watch with a thin chain attached— one minute and then the next thing she knew it was thrown to the floor with a silver chain net atop it. But with their quick and dramatic exit from the dwelling, she wasn't sure it entirely worked.

"It was definitely that pocket watch," she got an uncomfortable chill thinking about that watch. "-but I'm not sure where it ended up before we left," she added.

That was the side effect of their job, wasn't it? There was no proper sleep schedule and the things they went through made it difficult to want to shut your eyes in the dark. Even with a protected house. He smiles sympathetically and abandons his research for a moment. "It was a rough night." Their sleeps were bound to be disturbed by the dissatisfactory way things had ended on the case.

"Just fine," he replied and added, in all honesty, "could have been longer." The lack of research had bothered him since they had gotten home and it had been on his mind even when he woke this morning. He knew it was his fault that they hadn't been prepared, but he was a little bothered by the fact that George was absent. Really, it was because it had become very evident just how mediocre he was at researching compared to their spectacled friend.

"I'm trying to fill in some gaps in what we know about last night's visitor." The reading part was fine, it was writing it down in notes that he didn't enjoy. "The source... do you think we secured it?" They had all had to make a run for it and everything had happened so fast in the end.

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As usual, Lockwood seemed more ready for the day than her. Even on a normal day, she still wasn't exactly a morning person. After being with the agency for this long she found it hard to wake up before nine. "Mornin'" she greeted with a soft smile as she walked past where he sat at the table. She grabbed her favorite mug from the cupboard then made herself a cup of tea, making sure to grab a caffeinated tea bag. She leaned back against the counter, stirring her drink with a spoon.

She gave a shrug, "Could've been better could've been worse," she answered honestly as she walked to the dining table and sat down. She set her drink down to let it steep then ran a hand through her hair. She normally would've replied with a lie and say she slept fine but given how exhausted she'd appeared last night she doubted he'd believe her anyways. "What about you?" she asked.

"Good morning," he says with an easy smile. He's sat with a paper in hands, tea and slightly burnt toast in front of him. There's no telling how much he has slept. He appears wide awake and ready for the day. With the disaster from yesterday, Lockwood has tried to go over their notes and flesh out their research this morning. He is not as clever as George in this area but he is giving it a go. Although he knows they're all up to it, he feels responsible and always a little guilty when they haven't been properly prepared and things go wrong.

"Have you slept well?" A silly question to ask given the action of the previous night, but it comes out of him like a reflex. It's another way of checking up on how she is doing after all the chaos.