Disclaimer: Blatantly aren't mine. I'm not making any money from them. Please don't sue me? The lines from the song quoted at the beginning are from Sarah McLachlan's "Steaming".

Spoiler warning: This continues (kind of) from season 7's "Bulley Woolley" with a bit of a twist on it, and then will go AU from there. Other than that there isn't anything else obvious.

Notes: This is the third part in a (hopefully) long-running Karen/Grace fic. Please, no flaming. I'm always happy to receive constructive criticism but if you have an objection to f/f pairings (I will say now that this will NOT be a graphic pairing - it involves a femslash couple but if you're looking for girl on girl NC17 fic, you're gonna be disappointed) then this isn't the fic for you. Thanks to Linds for beta-ing again:D

Part Three: Just Ask Me to Go

This isn't the kind that always lasts,

If you want me to go just ask me to go I'll go

Stretching luxuriously, Karen reached an arm out, kicking her left leg to the edge of the bed and corkscrewing her body further down into the sheets.

"You know, for such a small person you sure take up a lot of space in bed."

Karen's eyes shot open in surprise, and, as she rolled onto her right side, she found herself a mere few inches from Grace's amused grin. A slow smile crossed Karen's face. "You can't talk," she responded, her voice husky and deeper than usual from sleep. "I saw you hogging the covers last night."

Grace shrugged, turning onto her back. Karen missed the closeness of her breath on her face almost immediately. "What you gonna do."

Silence enveloped them for several minutes, and Karen almost felt herself drifting off to sleep again, until she heard Grace's giggle. "Hmm?"

Grace bit back another laugh. "I'm just remembering," she choked out through her mirth, "all those times you called me a big lez. Never thought you'd be right!"

Karen stared at the ceiling uncomfortably, not quite sure how to respond. Every instinct in her body screamed to make a joke out of it, to withdraw, but she steadfastly ignored it. "I'm sorry," she said finally, her voice lower than usual and distant as she turned onto her side, facing away from Grace.

Her laughter ceasing abruptly, Grace sat up in bed, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder and forcing her to look at her. "Hey. It's okay. I'm sorry."

"No, I mean it, I really am sorry," Karen insisted, her voice shaking slightly. "I – I said a lot of mean things. And I always wanted to say I'm sorry, but we don't do that, so I never did. And I'm sorry."

"Kare. Anyone ever told you that you babble?" Grace wondered briefly when she'd started using the shortened version of her friend's name. Jack used it often, generally when he needed a particularly extortionate amount of money, but she'd never gotten into the habit. It was softer, though, than her full name. And that seemed right, after last night.

Her rapid apologies dying away, Karen smiled sheepishly. "Jackie, all the time. And Stan did." Grace's breath caught in her throat. Stan. Of course.

Noticing the look on her friend's face, Karen frowned. "Grace – what's the matter?"

Shaking her head briefly, Grace dismissed the thought that had scared her so suddenly. "Never mind." She paused. "You miss him, don't you?"

"Well, of course," Karen said in bewilderment. "You know I do. I love him – I've not stopped just because he's gone. Grace, what's…" her voice trailed off as she stared at Grace with growing comprehension. "Oh, no. No. Absolutely not. Is this what you think last night was about?"

"Wasn't it?" Grace asked directly, sitting up and wrapping the sheet around her, causing Karen to giggle at the delayed attempt to maintain her modesty.

With a sigh, the darker haired woman lay down again, pulling Grace with her so that they were lying side by side. After a moment's thought, she reached for her friend's hand, intertwining their fingers. "No. I miss Stan so much, Grace – you have no idea. But this – this is something entirely separate. I wanted this long before Stan died."

"What?" Grace sat up abruptly, pulling her hand away, noticing too late the hurt crossing Karen's face. "How long?"

Karen couldn't resist. "Well, honey, you know you're blessed in many ways. But I never saw one of those last night…" she let her voice trail off suggestively, and Grace frowned in confusion.

"Huh? Karen, what – oh!" Her eyes widened. "No! Euw! Could you please be serious for just one minute?" she demanded. "I'm not kidding, Karen."

"And nor am I," Karen said flatly. "Well… maybe a little bit then. But Grace…"

Grace waited for several minutes, seeing the turmoil of confusion, hurt, hope and weariness settle on her friend's face before the blank mask replaced it. "What?" she asked, finally.

"I don't know." Eyes wet with tears, Karen looked into the deep brown eyes. "I really don't know where we go from here, Grace."

"Or even if we do." Hating herself for saying it, Grace sat up again, grabbing her top. Hadn't she sworn only last night that she would never walk away? "I – I think we need to figure out if we're going to go anywhere from here, Karen." Her voice caught on the next word. "Separately."

Dressing in silence, feeling rather than seeing the silent anger emanating from her friend, Grace turned towards the door. "I'll see you at work?"

"No." Karen choked on the tears. "No, it's fairly obvious where this is going to go. I quit."

"No, you don't!" Turning back abruptly, Grace wiped away the lone tear making a single track down her cheek. "Kare – I'm sorry. I don't know any way of doing this without hurting either of us, because we can't go into this lightly. I'm not willing to risk our friendship. Please, just come into work tomorrow. I'll wear a horrible blouse, you can make fun of it, and we won't even bother working on the new contract. Please?"

Seeing her friend's final nod, Grace made to leave once again when she was halted by Karen's voice. "Grace – whether you want it to or not, everything's changed. We can't go back to the way we were. Don't even bother trying."

"I won't."

Grace left quickly, falling over her feet through her tears, dropping oddments from her handbag in her haste. And Karen waited a full five minutes before she let herself hide under the covers and cry.