"Winslow? Wiiiiin-sloooow! Winslow! Wake up!"

Winslow grunted and rolled over. That voice was far too cheerful for this time of the morning. He blinked up at Melody's smiling eyes.

"I want to show you something. Come on! Up! Before you miss it!"

He felt as though he could do with another hour or two of sleep, but he dragged himself out of bed for her. After he'd situated his mask and his voice machine, he wearily dragged himself after her. The air outside was bone-chillingly cold, as was expected during December. He followed her up to the top of the roof.

"What's so important that you had to wake up this early?" he asked grumpily.

"That!"

She pointed to the sunrise. The potential snow clouds gathering on the horizon were colors he didn't think he had a name for. There were varying shades of turquoise, purple, pink, orange, red, yellow, gold, and white.

"Our Father does a lot of amazing things," Melody said softly, "but I like his paintings the best. Especially these."

Despite his overwhelming sleepiness, Winslow had to admit it was a pretty impressive view. The skyscrapers were outlined in glowing colors and the world was turning a rosy hue pitted with blue shadows.

"It's times like this that I miss my wings terribly," she told him, "when I'm up here, I almost feel like I can fly again. Like if I just jump off…"

His hand coming to rest on her wrist was no accident. She glanced down at it.

"Oh! Oh, no! I promise you I won't try to," she laughed, "that'd be silly. I'd splat like an egg in this body."

She jumped up as far as she could, but landed hard enough to jar her whole body.

"Ouch! Yeah…much too heavy. Oh, well…"

He saw her back twitch under her shirt.

"They were the purest white," she told him, "whiter than the snow that's coming. And huge! When I had them spread all the way out, they made me twice as wide as I was tall! I could go and go and go and never get tired. I seem like I always need to rest now."

Winslow stared off into the horizon trying to imagine what that must be like.

"I've been all around this country and over several others," she told him, "if I ever get my wings back, I'll take you. I've been to castle ruins in Ireland and Scotland. I've been to the North Pole and the South Pole. The polar bears really don't mind you being there unless you try to pet them. I scared one by accident once…"

He laughed.

"Everybody says men are violent," Melody told him, "but that's not always true. The women bears are the meanest ones when they have babies because they're so scared something bad might happen to them. It's kind of how Father is. He hates it when anyone messes with us."

She moved closer to Winslow until she was close enough to kiss him. For an awkward moment, he thought she was going to. But she didn't. Instead, she whispered in his ear:

"Want to know a secret? When I get scared, I don't stay scared for long. Know why? I know when I'm down here, even though I can't see Him, I know He can see me. Father's not going to let anything horrible happen to us. If He can see me, He can see you, too. Everything. Yeah, he saw all the bad stuff you did like killing that man, but He sees the people who hurt you, too. And if Mr. Swan truly did all those horrible things to you, He already knows about it."

Winslow got a cold chill that had nothing to do with the wind.

"He'll help you, Winslow. Just ask when you want it."

She looked down.

"I see Mr. Swan. I wish it would snow already…I think I could get him with a snowball from here!"

The image of Swan getting nailed in the face made Winslow grin.

"And I see…oh, is that Phoenix?"

Winslow joined her at the edge.

"That's her," he confirmed.

Melody grinned.

"I remember her! That's the girl you fell in love with! Uh-oh…she looks kind of sad."

Winslow frowned.

"Maybe we should go and talk to her," Melody suggested.

"If we can get her away from Swan," Winslow grumbled, "he doesn't let her out of his sight."

"She was out of his sight last night, wasn't she? I'll keep him busy for you if you want?"

He thought that over. The longer Melody was around Swan, the more likely something terrible was to happen. But he didn't want anything to happen to Phoenix, either.

They went down the stairs.

"Mr. Swan!" Melody hopped on the banister and slid down. She miscalculated her speed, however, and zinged straight into him. They both crashed to the floor. Melody saw Winslow's black-gloved hands snare Phoenix and pull her behind the corner when her vision stopped blurring.

"Ouch! I'm sorry! These pants are more slippery than I thought!" she apologized, disentangling herself. He grunted as he struggled to stand.

"Accidents will happen," he grunted. She placed her hand on his back. A few seconds of white light and song later, he was no longer doubled over.

"I forgot to thank you for taking me and Winslow to all those places last night," she told him, "the most wonderful thing happened! I had a dream! I think it was all those paintings we looked at. I dreamed I could go in and out of them. I know it's not real, but it was still really cool."

He stared at her. It took him several doses of the pills he carried around in his briefcase before he was that alert.

"Did someone give you coffee again this morning?" he asked wearily.

"No! Where's coffee? Coffee where? Show me!"

Despite his hangover, he laughed.

"So…there's not any? Well, Crudbuckets!"

She crossed her arms.

"When my assistant gets here, I'll have her bring some," he said patiently, "now, where did Phoenix go?"

Of course, by then, Winslow had dragged Phoenix up to the roof and they were well away from Swan. As Swan kept looking and Melody kept interrupting and distracting him, Winslow and Phoenix were watching the world transform on the roof.

"What's happened to you, Phoenix? You aren't anything like you were before," Winslow protested.

"How would you know how I was? I don't even know you! This is twice you've hauled me up here, and for what? You know what I think, Mr. Paradise Phantom? I think you're jealous because you didn't make it and I did! And I was willing to do what it took!"

Phoenix wrenched her arm out of his grasp.

"Please, Phoenix, listen," he pleaded, "you're not happy. I can tell you're not. You don't love him, you just love what he can offer you! He steals more than just songs, Phoenix! He steals people's souls! He took mine and now he's going to take yours and destroy it!"

She stared at him darkly. Now that the light was better, he pulled a deep breath in and yanked his mask all the way off. His shaggy blonde hair caught the light from the rising sun and turned a rich gold. His eyes were as blue as the turquoise sky above them.

"See? I don't look exactly the same. My head was crushed in the record press when I came here to try and get my music back. I have to use this thing to talk because my vocal cords were destroyed. But I'm still the same inside!"

"No," she said, eyes filled with tears, "you're not. As far as I knew, Winslow Leach didn't kill people. He didn't blow things up and electrocute people and strangle people to make a point! That Winslow is dead! And you? You're just the corpse he left behind…"

She began to cry, much to Winslow's horror. He moved to comfort her, but she threw his arm back off her shoulders.

"Don't touch me! Swan may not be perfect, but he's not a murderer! If you love me so much, why don't you just leave me alone and let me be happy?"

Winslow felt a tear trickle down his cheek. He felt naked enough without the mask, but his heart was exposed now, too.

"That's why," he choked out, "because what makes you happy right now will hurt you! Even if you never want to see me again, please just leave this place! Go and never come back! Just do this one thing for me and I can rest in peace knowing I saved you!"

She shook her head.

"You can't even save yourself."

Her heels clicked as she walked down the stairs. Winslow watched her go. The crushing, agonizing pain from seeing her in Swan's bed was no longer there. It was replaced by a dark emptiness, an ugly realization that she'd called him on his flaws. He stood there for a long time, chilled down to his soul. His tears felt like ice on his cheeks. Looking up at the sky, he cried out:

"She said you'd help me! Here I am, Lord! If you are there, help me! Show me it's not all in my head!"

His throat hurt. Feeling nauseated and dizzy, he had to sit down for a few minutes before he could get back inside. He hoped Melody wouldn't be upset that it was all for nothing.

"There you are," Swan said affectionately when Phoenix entered his office, "I was wondering what kept you."

"Just a little…delay. Sorry."

"Did you have a nice talk with Winslow?" Melody asked, "He really misses you."

Both Swan and Phoenix gave her strange looks.

"He isn't bothering you, is he?" Swan asked.

Phoenix shook her head quickly.

"No, no. It's all right. I took care of it. I don't think it'll happen again."

Melody, for some odd reason, was frowning heavily.

"I hope he's all right," she muttered. She found herself wondering if she'd made a mistake in being so open about what had happened.

"Well, here's our coffee," Swan said a little too cheerfully, "let's talk about tonight's show, shall we? Phoenix, this is Melody. Melody, Phoenix. The two of you are very impressive on your own, but I think you might be even better together. What do you say?"

Melody suddenly felt like she was suffocating. The very air around Phoenix seemed to darken a shade or two, though neither she nor Swan noticed the difference. Melody swallowed quickly.

"Well…maybe I shouldn't," Melody backed out quickly, "she's been doing this longer than I have and I don't want to intrude…"

"Nonsense. The crowd will love you both."

Melody couldn't take the tension any longer.

"Excuse me. I need to….uh…empty…again."

She ducked into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Where did you get her?" Phoenix asked.

"Don't worry, Darling," Swan said, "she's just a mental case that Winslow picked up off the street. You have nothing to fear from her!"

"If you say so…" Phoenix muttered, though she doubted that.

The toilet flushed conspicuously and Melody returned.

"Let's go to the studio and get started, shall we?"

He noticed that Melody and Phoenix kept their distance from each other as they walked down the hall.