This is set during the scene in the principal's office. Very short and quick.

"He didn't mention anything," Ellie said, her eyes pleading with him to believe her. She'd said the same thing in the car just ten minutes before, he remembered. He refrained again from speaking his thoughts in response: that her denial meant almost nothing. Twelve year old boys were not known for their emotional honesty, and usually kept a multitude of secrets - some more malignant than others - that they didn't tell their mothers. Ellie was a good parent who loved her child and had nothing but the best intentions, but he knew from experience what she did not: there were many things about her son she didn't know. Unfortunately, she was most likely facing a very rude and scary awakening in the next few hours.

A rush of pity or concern or some other unfamiliar emotion washed over him then, and Emmett found himself unintentionally gentling his voice again as he spoke to her.

"It's your call. You want to talk to the kids or find the teacher?"

Carver's tone didn't escape Ellie's notice. She searched his face a moment, dreading what she'd find there. He was being kind again, giving her choices, letting her take the lead. Was it possible he was just trying to be nice to her, given the situation?

She wanted desperately to believe that was the case, but knew better. Her boss was obviously anticipating a bad outcome, trying to prepare her for...something. Somewhere in the dark corners of her mind she knew the myriad possibilities, but if she indulged those thoughts, allowed herself to wallow in them even for a moment, she knew they would bring her to her emotional knees, and probably her physical ones, too.

Ellie swallowed back the panic once more and made a choice. There was no way she could speak calmly to Tom's friends; shaking information out of them felt like too reasonable an option right now. She felt desperate to DO something, to take action. Pounding the pavement for signs of Mr. Conroy and his wife would have to suffice.

"Teacher," she breathed out. Extra words suddenly felt like a waste of precious time and energy. Ellie wondered for just a moment if this was how her boss felt all the time; if his terseness was borne not of poor manners or condescension but rather this unrelenting desperation that suddenly felt like a huge weight on her chest, so heavy she could barely breathe. But she didn't have time for speculation now. She had to find her son.

Carver looked her in the eye and nodded once. He wanted to reassure her, to tell her it would be okay. He wished he could promise that they'd find her boy and her world would return to the way it was before he came into her life. But he couldn't. No matter how this ended - and it might not end well - he knew that everything had changed, and there was no going back.

"Call me if you need me," was all he could say as he watched her go. Ellie looked back sharply. It was the most frightening thing he'd said to her yet.