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Before he set to work putting it together, Liam Kincaid turned every piece of the fifteen hundred-piece puzzle over so that its cardboard side showed. He had a headache; Zo'or and Sandoval were being their usual sunny selves. He'd almost had an argument with Da'an and to top it all off his shaquarava were bothering him. Insomnia was the perfect conclusion to his day.
Liam stared at the dull brown pile of tiny pieces in front of him. This was a quirk he had inherited from Sandoval; doing puzzles backwards. Pretty soon - or at least so it seemed to Liam - he had the borders done and was starting to work on the interior. Finally he finished the puzzle and carefully turned it over to reveal a scene of mountains mirrored in a crystal blue lake. Liam stared at the picture, wishing he could go there and hide.
If only it was possible for him to solve his problems as easily as it was to put this puzzle together.
He wondered over to his tiny kitchen and poured himself a drink, then went into his bedroom. Liam pulled the bottom drawer of his dresser out and fished a hand inside the opening until his fingers came into contact with a cool plastic surface. Augur had built the little storage area and used it to keep some of his more personal effects when he occupied the apartment. What Liam kept there was a small fireproof safe, not even a foot square, with no circuits or technology to betray its location to any searchers. He spun the dial to the correct combination and pulled the door open. Inside where a few pictures of Beckett and Sandoval that HoloLili had found for him, his mother's lightening bolt pendant, the Taelon puzzle Augur and Lili had given him as a child, pictures of the people he knew and some still of Ha'gel taken from various security cameras.
Liam pulled out one photograph of each of his parents and laid them in a row on the bed. He had a part of each of them inside of him, and yet he still could not fathom his family. Liam looked at the image of his Kimeran parent and stared down at his palms while began to glow with an unearthly light. He ached with a child's sense of loneliness. Liam put the pictures pack in the safe and replaced the drawer before he returned to the living room to scoop the puzzle back into its box.
He located his black leather jacket on the counter and headed for the embassy to try and patch up his disagreement with Da'an. He knew it was the only thing that would help him ease the ache inside right now. If that did not work, though, he could always break out the butterfly puzzle.