When the battle was over, and it became clear that not only had they escaped immediate slaughter, but that the Templars were letting them go, May had run up to Isabela and given her a passionate kiss.

She'd then gone and done the same thing to Fenris, Merril, Sebastian, Varric, Aveline, and some hapless mage who'd followed them out of the Gallows. Isabela couldn't remember the last time she'd seen May so happy. She got the feeling that May had half expected everyone to decide to run away or side with Meredith, and the joy of being proven wrong had overcome her usual prickly nature. She'd even said something genuinely kind to Sebastian about Elthina being proud of him.

But the majority of May's affection was directed at Fenris. If anyone could have been expected to think that murdering every mage in Kirkwall was not only reasonable but necessary, it was him, and May kept staring at him like he might vanish at any moment. The two of them had holed up in one of the corners of the warehouse to talk about their feelings, every now and then Isabela would hear fragments of heartfelt declarations about affection and staying by your side forever.

It was enough to make you sick.

May had looked at her like that once, when she'd come back with that damned book. But Isabela had refused to admit that May had had much to do with her decision, and then she'd run away again. For three years. Hard to expect anyone to want to talk to you about forever after that.

And oh look, now they'd started kissing. Isabela decided to stop torturing herself and go talk to Aveline.

The guard captain was in her element here, giving orders and organising boring things like supplies and watch schedules. For the moment they were holed up in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the docks, but this could only be a temporary solution, and it wasn't clear where they were going next, or if there even was a "they" any more. Things were a mess.

"How's it going, big girl?" asked Isabela, sitting down on a box of nug harnesses or whatever it was that used to be stored here.

Aveline gave a pained smile. "Not too bad, considering. I mean, we could be dead, right?"

Isabela laughed. "That's certainly one way to look at it."

Aveline sighed. "Hawke never makes things easy does she? I've got Varric rounding up some supplies, and I've tried to organise the guard so that no patrols pass near here, but it was hard enough keeping the Templars off our back when it was just a few apostates hanging around Hawke, now she's made herself a symbol of mage freedom. We'll be lucky if the Chantry doesn't decide to annul the whole city. I hope Hawke has more of a plan for the future than canoodling in dark corners and causing trouble."

Hawke had a knack for getting herself (and to a lesser extent, everyone else) out of trouble, but maybe she had bitten off more than she could chew this time. "Do you think she should leave Kirkwall?"

"She's going to have to. It's just not safe for her here."

"But it is for you?"

Aveline gave a stoic little shrug and Isabela wanted to hug her. "I have responsibilities here. And I should be alright, Meredith's orders were…unreliable enough that I think I can be forgiven for following Hawke, though I may have to step down as guard captain for a while." Good old Aveline. Kirkwall would be back on it's feet in no time. Aveline looked at Isabela. "What about you?"

"Oh, nobody cares enough about me to try very hard to kill me," she said. "Not since Hawke took care of Castillion and the Arishok, anyway. I'm thinking of moving on, though. I'll miss you all, but seven years is a long time to stay in one place, and Kirkwall's just no fun any more."

"You're not going with Hawke?" asked Aveline with surprise.

Isabela made what she hoped was a convincingly ambivalent wave of her hand. "Probably not. I'm getting a bit old for the whole running-and-hiding fugitive-of-justice thing."

Aveline frowned. "Have you told her that?"

"Not as such," said Isabela. "But I doubt she'll mind. I'd just be in the way." Dammit, she'd been trying to avoid thinking about this. Things had been…comfortable between the three of them. She was going to miss what she'd shared with May and Fenris more than she wanted to admit to herself. But it was one thing to stumble over to Hightown whenever the Hanged Man got too lonely, and another to tag along like a particularly unreliable third wheel now that they were on the run from the Chantry. The sensible thing to do was be happy for her…friends, and move on.

Aveline stared at her in disbelief. "Andraste's breath woman, are you really that stupid?"

"What do you…hey!" cried Isabela in protest, as she found herself being dragged by the arm across the room.

After a few steps Isabela found herself staring down at May, who was kneeling with Merrill in front of the escaped mage from the Gallows. Fenris was standing nearby looking awkward.

"Hey. You. Hawke." said Aveline.

"What?" asked May sharply. "You can see the woman bleeding to death in front of you, yes?" She groaned as she stood up. "I'm really beginning to regret killing Anders, this healing business is a pain."

Aveline looked down at the mage and her expression visibly wavered. The woman had a large stab wound in her side and was sitting in a slowly expanding pool of blood.

"She's not going to die," said Merril to May, chidingly. She smiled at the mage. "It's just a bit of a nasty scratch, I'll soon have it fixed right as rain. I did ask Hawke to help but I can do it on my own, really."

"Right," said Aveline. She stood a little straighter and looked May in the eye. "Hawke. Tell Isabela how you feel about her."

May raised her eyebrows at Aveline. She then looked Isabela up and down, her eyes pointedly dawdling along Isabela's various landmarks. "I think she feels very nice," she said with a smirk. "Would you like me to demonstrate?"

Aveline grimaced. "That won't be necessary. I was just trying to…"

"No, no, you did ask." May sidled up to Isabela and ran a hand up her chest. "Isabela," she said. "Where you would like me to feel you?"

Aveline made a sound of exasperation and let go of Isabela's arm. "You know what, never mind. Work it out amongst yourselves." She turned around, face red, and stomped back to her lists.

May snickered.

Isabela put her hand on May's. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Absolutely," said May. Isabela pulled her to a more isolated part of the warehouse. Unfortunately, it wasn't a very large warehouse, so it was likely that everyone would still be able to hear what she and May was saying if they decided to listen. Ah well, it's not like they didn't have plenty of blackmail material on her already anyway.

Isabela took a deep breath. "Look, May. You know that feelings aren't really my thing. But I just wanted to say that I…that I'm really glad I met you. Whatever happens, and whether or not we ever see each other again, I'll always care about you. I want you to know that."

May's face lit up with one of her beautiful smiles. "Thank you," she said. "Isabela, I hope you know that I…" She stopped. The smile slowly faded. "Wait, what do you mean, whatever happens?" Her eyes widened. "Were you thinking of leaving? Again?"

"Not…necessarily," said Isabela. "I can hang around if you like. I just thought, you know, that you and Fenris might want to be…Ow!" May had punched her in the shoulder. Being a mage, she had the upper body strength of an eleven year old girl with a hangover, but it still hurt.

"You…you idiot. Of course I want you to hang around. I need you. I would sacrifice every person in this room if I had to to keep you with me. "

"Hey!"

"Every person in this room except Fenris. And even then I'd have to think about it." Isabela could hear Fenris muttering under his breath about whether or not it was too late to throw in his lot with the templars. "Andraste's ass, Isabela, what do you want from me, a marriage proposal? I've been in love with you for seven years. Are you of all people telling me that it's impossible that I could care about two people the same time?"

"Oh," said Isabela. "Um. No?"

Fenris snorted. He'd stopped even pretending not to be listening, but was still standing a little distance away. Isabela could feel her face burning.

"Oh like you're any better," she said to him. "Maybe I was just worried you'd assert your manly dominance if I got between you and your woman."

"And here I thought you were both my women," he said. "But it seems I am superfluous." Isabela sometimes got the feeling he was jealous of the easy friendship Isabela and May shared, he never seemed to realise how much they both cared about him. Not that Isabela had any idea what that was like.

"You could never be superfluous, Fenris," said Isabela with affection. "Where else would we find someone with such a magnificent…set of tattoos." She grinned at him.

Fenris smiled at this, and walked the few steps between them."Well then, Isabela, know that you are not superfluous either. Without you, May and I…"

"Would never again find such a magnificent set of breasts?"

"Would probably kill each other. But that too. I would not gladly part from you."

And from there things descended into a truly disgusting display of feelings and emotions, there may even have been multiple uses of the 'l' word. Possibly even from Isabela herself. But these were chaotic times, and sometimes even she could not resist the temptation.