"Can't date," came Madison's voice.

"I'm in the process of curling up and dying here."

“How much longer is she scheduled to be here?" Heda asked, trying hard not to laugh.

"Three more blocks," Billy said.

"And she goes on the air again when?"

The big man looked at the board.

"Current play time puts it at twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds."

Heda grinned at him, then opened the door to the booth and went inside.

"Who's there?' Madison asked from under the desk.

Rather than respond, Heda got on her hands and knees and started to crawl towards her friend. She waited until Madison's lips parted, a sure sign that she was scanning to see who was approaching her. When the look of recognition crossed the girl's face, Heda kissed her before she had a chance to say anything.

‘Oh Mother Earth, she's good,’ Madison thought, kissing back in spite of herself.

"Now why don't you come on out and finish up so that we can get out of here and do some flying?"

Madison was actually liking her current situation. Heda had almost pushed her all the way onto the ground when kissing her and was mostly on top of her. The notion that IT might finally happen, and with a woman like this, was almost more than she could stand. But she allowed Heda to take her hands and pull her out from under the desk, helping her stand.

Madison, with her back to the glass, said, “They're making fun of me aren't they?"

Heda glanced over and saw Billy and Sasha high-fiving each other and getting a little lip action of their own.

"Nope. Not at all.”

Twenty minutes later, the two of them were on the road up to the mountains, Listening to a John Mellencamp CD that Madison was happy to sing along with, her earlier public exclamation temporarily forgotten. Heda loved her companion's voice. It wasn't a great “pop” voice, but it was sweet and sexy, and definitely added a whole new dimension of yowza to “Hurts so good." She was content to just listen to Madison all the way until they reached the parking area.

They pulled into a lot that Madison knew about that was otherwise unoccupied. For obvious reasons, she tended to avoid the more popular areas and other shifters, and Heda was honored that she was being allowed into Madison's private world.

Heda was out of the jeep and naked in a heartbeat, then noticed that Madison was "looking" around.

“What's up?"

"Uhm . . . just looking for a place to change."

“What's wrong with where you're standing?"

“You can see me."

Heda cocked her head.

“And that's . . . bad?"