It was late august and the heat of the summer was subsiding, the sky was a dusty orange on that particular afternoon, an afternoon a few months after Beth first made contact with Alison and a week after they had first admitted feeling for each other.

Alison had taken a walk, a walk through her little suburban village and onto the outskirts along the forest, a walk she would've never taken without Beth's gun training. Alison still felt as though she was drowning in the whole clone situation but Beth had given her a small sense of freedom, freedom from her old fears, fears like the hooligans that hung around on the edge of her small boxy community; even though they were just rebellious teenagers, Alison didn't feel comfortable walking alone in the evening in that strange part of Bailey Downs where the cookie cutter landscape met the woods.

Today however she was excited and a little anxious to get there, her and Beth had decided on meeting there because Alison wasn't comfortable with Beth and Donnie in the same house, especially now that she was cheating with her. Alison moved fast past the houses and to the narrow path that lead to a small dug out spot that had been used as a fire pit; it was a little ways in the woods and surrounded by trees.

When Alison arrived she knew Beth wouldn't be there for another twenty minutes so she settled herself on one of the delpitated benches that had been dragged around the pit, she sat listening to the birds whose calls were slower and heavier than usual as an evening haze seemed to be affecting them too.

It was only in those few orange lit moments when had Alison realized she felt whole with Beth somehow they fit together and she didn't need to wash the moments with beth down with wine or pop a few pills to keep from going down hill; Beth wasn't like Donnie who would be alright for a while but then Alison would grow tired of his constant questioning, Beth had this steady air that Alison liked and even at times envied, she was calm and funny even when things were flying overboard and Alison just wanted to soak in her presence.

Alison stared up at the sky, waiting for Beth was hard, she had so much she wanted to talk with her about, but most of all she just wanted Beth to stroke her hair and tell her everything would be alright and that the clones were safe. Alison knew that wouldn't happen but she hoped for it anyway, even before they had discovered their attraction to one another and were just friends Alison had felt like she could share more with Beth in the first few days of meeting her then with Aynsley who she'd known for years. Aynsley was nice enough a bit too perky even in the times she'd confided in Alison about her marital issues which if Alison was honest bored her.

Alison had been sitting there lost in her own head for a while and the sound of a car pulling up interrupted Alison's thoughts calling her back to reality. The reality of her marriage, her own clonage and the fact that she was waiting for her the woman of her dreams in a clearing littered with ashes and empty beer bottles.