“Queens!” the woman laughs. “So Lyons wasn’t lyin’.”

Roman laughs as well. “Claudia! I’d say I missed your puns, but it’s only been, what, a few months for me comparatively?” When Claudia puts him down, he turns towards the other woman and grins. “And who are you? A friend of Claudia’s?”

The woman smiles almost knowingly. “We met before,” she says, voice deep and incredibly familiar.

Roman blinks a few times and then beams. “Oh! Good for you! What do I call you now?”

“Minerva Bellini,” she says.

“Minerva,” Roman repeats. “Well, I guess I have to update that old Founders statue, huh?”

“If you’d like, but I like surprising people.” She winks and then looks past Roman at Bernie, awkwardly avoiding their gazes. “Bernie, it’s good to see you well.”

Bernie clears his throat and hops off the bench and wanders over. “Yeah, well... Glad to be well. You’ve done a great job with the garden here, uh, Minerva...”

Claudia playfully punches Bernie in the arm. “Look at you! Last I saw you was before I was forced to retire. Nice beard.”

Roman frowns. “Retire?”

Claudia frowns up at him. He can’t help but note the distance between that frown and his eyes. He may have always towered over her, but Claudia has definitely shrunken with age. “Yeah, after the ‘Incident’ which really needs a better name than that. I got a bad injury that took a lot of time and work to heal. But in the meantime, the new heads put me on a desk job and I couldn’t stand that. Retired soon after.”

Roman looks at Minerva. “And you...?”

Minerva shrugs. “With you gone, it didn’t feel right to continue to head the organization. I suppose I could have taken Theodore as my deputy head, but it felt better for all of us to let him take over as head... I assume you met Scarlet.”

“Yeah,” Roman hums. “Nice gal...”