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The inside of the pub was dark and quiet. It was a good old-fashioned building, with heavy oak tables and smoke stains on the ceiling from bygone years. Alex swirled a glass of white wine with her right hand. "You know, the last thing I did before I died was have a drink at a bar. Well, two drinks actually. The one I bought for me, and the one I bought for Hal. By the time he showed up, I was half drunk. I guess it helped numb tha pain a little later. Not a lot, but a little."

Tom looked uncomfortable. His big ears stuck out, even more obvious in the half-light of the pub. He didn't really fit in with is pullover and his trainers. He looked too young to be at a bar, even though Alex knew he was twenty-one. He'd told her all about the unfortunate mess that had been his twenty-first birthday. With Kirby, and Annie and Hal.

That was another era, thought Alex. An era before me. Before I stumbled into the café and into their lives and this strange, strange world.

"So, Tom," His head perked up and he looked at her with the most honest eyes she'd ever seen. She'd never met a person like Tom. He was almost like more of a little brother to her then a flatmate.

"Wot?" He asked.

"Tell me. What's it like, being a real boy now?" She put her elbows down on the table and leaned closer.

He looked at her for a moment uncomprehending, then nodded his head, understanding. "It feels like... like sommit is missing." He pressed a big, calloused hand to his chest. "Sommit that was evil, but a big part of me, yeah? Like this thing wot identified me for my whole life is jus' gone. Like the wolf jus' walked away and left me here." He stopped, and then looked back down at the table. "I wish Allison were here."

"Maybe you could ring her up," suggested Alex. "Invite her to visit." Tom half shrugged, half nodded.

"Wot about you and Hal?" He asked.

"Me and Hal?" She laughed, and then turned serious. "I honestly don't know. Like I told him yesterday, all of this is still ten kinds of weird. I don't know if I'm really in the mental place to be making relationship decisions. Hell, any kind of decisions. I actually think I might still be in shock." She rested her cheek on her hand and sighed. "What do you think about new Hal? Good Hal. Not rip-out-your-fucking-throat-and-drink-your-blood-like-a-black-eyed-luny-with-fangs Hal."

"I think he seems fine. Like himself, right. He's a good man, he is. In his heart."

"Do you think Bad Hal- Lord Harry- is gone from him? Is he just good now? Or is it more like- did you ever watch Star Trek?" Tom shook his head. "Well there's this episode where Kirk- He's the captain- He gets spit into two different people. One of them totally evil, the other one good. In the end, it turns out that they can't survive if they stay separate. It's like, the good and the bad have to come together to make him a whole person. I dunno. 'suppose it's like that? That Hal can't survive without Lord Harry, and vice versa?" She sat back in her chair, crossing her legs. "Food for thought," she mused. She swallowed her last sip of wine and looked at him like she expected an answer. He just shrugged a little. "You are like the king of non-comitment. Say, you finished with your drink too?"

He looked down at his empty bottle. "Yeah."

"Any good?"

He didn't have much of a head for alcohol, and it never sat very well with him. He only ever really drank when he was angry or upset. "McNair didn't ever allow really allow me ta drink," he said by way of explanation, "Said it messed with your judgement and your perception of depth, and that if a vampire jumped yah while you were drunk you were more liable to hurt yourself then 'im. So i guess I never really developed at taste."

"Oh, that's too bad, I guess. What do you say we head over to the Safeway- Morrisons- down on Penny way. Say, isn't Penny Way a Beatles song?

"Nah," Said Tom as he stood up and put on his coat. "You're thinking of Penny Lane, I reckon."

"Look at you, mister Pop culture encyclopedia!"

Tom looked at her sheepishly. "McNair and I had a cassette in tha camper when I was little. We jus' had some Beatles, Clash, and XTC's English Roundabout. Dad used to let me listen to 'em while we was setting up camp sometimes. Said I focused better with the music. I wrecked it one full moon, I think. He used to lock me up in there durin' the transformation. Said it was too dangerous for me to go out with him. We might rip each other up or sommit."

"Oh my god, you mean you might've attacked him?" They left the pub. It wasn't very late in the day, but the sky was already dark and overcast.

"Maybe. The wolf does funny things to your head. We was always careful to drag out chickens far apart from each other, just in case. We was a pack and all, but that don't mean it was safe for us to be close. He turned real mean as a wolf. They used to use him for dog fights, vampires did. It was before I was born, or turned. But I think it changed him. Made him hard. On me and the world. He didn't trust nobody. Not even George and Nina, although they was Werewolves too. He was a good man, though. I wish you could have met him Alex. He would 'ave loved you."

"Yeah, me too." Secretly she knew that she and McNair would not have gotten on very well. From what she'd dealt with from Tom, she got the feeling that McNair'd been more then a bit old fashioned. He wouldn't have approved of her swearing, or her wearing mens clothes. It wasn't terribly far to the Safeway, but a light misting rain had begun to drizzle down, and she was relieved when they stepped into the bright halogen light of the Safeway.

"What do you think we should pick up?"