"No, actually things ended okay. She kind of got tired of living down here. You know, stealing and hunting to survive. She wanted a more normal life. I couldn't imagine doing the nine-to-five thing. I thought we had it all, but I didn't love her enough to go with her and she didn't love me enough to stay."

"You miss her, don't you?" Jane said. For some reason, Red's answer was important to her.

"Yeah. Yeah I do. No one ever really got me like she did. This room,"

Red said, waving her arm around, "was the two of us trying to pretend we were normal. I liked it." She sighed.

"Natasha . . . that was her name . . . she's dropped by a bunch of times. Her Talent is basically that she's invulnerable. She's a little stronger than most people, but mostly she just can't be hurt. So she's working as a bodyguard for a major movie company down in Hollywood." Red stopped and looked at Jane, seeing if the mention of Hollywood caused the girl any painful memories. But Jane looked . . . content, so Red continued.

“She earns damn good money, and she still tries to help out by sending donations our way. Sometimes I think it would've been easier if we hated each other or had a bad breakup. But we didn't.

We just weren't together anymore." Red scrunched up her eyebrows.

"I guess this is a silly question, but you DID realize I'm gay, right?"

Jane actually smiled a very pretty smile.

“Yeah, I got that."

“Listen, why don't you go get cleaned up. I've got to talk to Tarloh and the others." Red was suddenly very aware of the Jane's proximity.

"Okay," Jane said.

"I. . . Red, I'm afraid of what will happen when the others . . . look at me."

“You've got nothing to be afraid of. If you Like, you can crash here tonight. If you'd be more comfortable that is." ‘What the hell are you thinking?’ Red thought to herself.

"I. . . I'd like that," Jane said as she stood up. The two of them walked back down towards the opening and out into the light of the Den. Tarloh and the council had been discussing some of the same possibilities that Red and Talia had earlier, so she joined them while Jane went off to clean the gunk off her. She knew people were staring at her, but she tried not to let it bother her. One thing did stop her . . . it was a large green stain were she had pulverized that one Hellspawn. Strangely, she no longer felt any guilt or remorse about obliterating her enemy. After all, she hadn't started that fight.

Jane showered quickly, but realized she had no clean clothes to change into. Luckily, Mindy came into the shower area and Jane was able to get her to go snag a robe for the time being. But Mindy promised to clean Jane's stuff personally, because they had been a gift from Red. When Mindy got back and Jane finally had something to wear, the lycanthrope gave Jane a big hug.

“What was that for?" Jane asked.

"For being amazing tonight," Mindy said.

"Not amazing enough," Jane replied absently, looking at the half-dozen Strays that had lost their lives defending the Den.

Jane tried creeping back towards the lower platform, but this time she encountered more people. The meeting had broken up, but not much had been resolved. The lycanthropes were going to take shifts for the day, keeping watch while everyone else rested. As Jane made her way, a number of people, some whom she knew and some she didn't, hugged her or clapped her on the shoulder. She didn't sense any fear any trepidation that she was some unstable monster. She was one of them, and she had done well by them that night.

Jane got back to Red's room, but Red herself wasn't there yet. She stared at the little world that Red had created for herself, and Jane realized she felt safe there . . . she felt good there.

“Hey," came a voice from behind. Red walked in, looking tired.

“It looks like I've got the last shift, so I figured I could . . . get some sleep." Red seemed nervous.

“Listen, Jane, when I told you that you could stay here, I. . . I didn't want you to think that you had to . . . you know, do anything. I just thought of Jane was just staring at Red's lips again. She realized she'd been doing that a lot since she had come to live in the Den. And she no longer kidded herself about why. So she stepped forward and kissed those lips. For a moment, time stopped.