Gwen helped Anna stack the plastic crates with glass cups and divvy them up so each could take a stack out to the tables. "It was a bit odd but I thought, 'must be because she's gone'."

"Odd how, exactly?"

"Just the performances were…" Gwen titled her hand from side-to-side as her face scrunched into a wince. "Not the best."

"Maybe it's because we got a little used to hearing Mr. Bates." Anna flipped two glasses and set them top-up on the table. "Were they really that terrible?"

"There was one good one. She had this amazing set and it was a bit like listening to Johnny Cash with a nicer set of pipes."

"So, June Cash then?" Anna finished the table and dragged her stack to the next one.

"Should you really be lifting that when you only just got out of hospital?"

"I'm fine." Anna caught a glimpse of the calendar on the wall, "What happened, to the good set?"

"Other than impressing me?" Gwen snorted, "Minute she finishes her rendition of Way Down We Go, which I love by the way, this woman comes up to her. They have this really intense, whispered conversation and then the woman left in huff."

"The girl turned her down?"

Gwen shrugged, "I've no idea what she did or didn't do. I wasn't close enough to hear what they talked about but the woman I'll assume got rejected looked angry enough to blow off the roof and the three floors above us."

"What'd she look like?"

"Cute red head. Looked like she'd been playing for awhile but when I got a word in she-"

"Not the musician," Anna set one of the empty glass crates on the bar and pulled another full one toward her. "I'm talking about the woman who left in a huff."

"Kind of ferocious. Like she'd got about ten ways to kill you and might just pull out a shotgun and do it." Gwen snapped her fingers, "She was like that character on Orphan Black, the foster mom."

"Right." Anna bit the inside of her cheek and kept her back to Gwen. "Ever seen her in before?"

"I haven't but a few of the players talked about crossing her path a few times. They swapped some stories and they think she's got a record label to represent. Probably someone working to get Dark Country or Dark Jazz back to center stage."

"Like that'll happen." Anna finished her second crate and took the empty ones in her hands. "Finish with the glasses and then make sure we've got enough wrapped silverware yeah?"

"Got it boss." Gwen whistled and Anna turned before she could disappear through the swinging doors, "Mr. Bates hasn't called you or anything has he?"

"Why would he?"

"I don't know. He left a message this morning, when you were getting discharged, to say he had something to show you between the lunch and the dinner rush." Gwen handed over another empty crate and Anna adjusted her hold to better manage the stack. "He seemed excited about it."

"Should I be afraid?"

"In terms of that man? I'd only be afraid that he'll make you pregnant just by looking at you." Gwen laughed a second and then covered her mouth with her hands. "I'm so sorry Anna, that was-"

"It's fine."

"No, it's so insensitive and-"

"Gwen," Anna cut her off, "It's fine. Just finish the glasses and get the silverware out. We need to be ready for the lunch rush."

Anna used her shoulder to push through the doors and winced a second as a flash of pain went through the tender region. Heaving the crates toward the industrial sized steam cleaner, Anna worked between Mrs. Patmore and Alfred as they bustled around the kitchen to start pots and pans on the stove. She got to her office and closed the door behind her only to freeze at the sight of someone in her chair.

"It's rather dark in here." Vera circled a finger in the air, "I think you need to replace a few bulbs."

"I need a few things but bulbs aren't high on that list." Anna locked the door, "What brings you here?"

"You weren't around last night." Vera tsked, "I thought we had an agreement."

"I was in hospital."

Vera looked her up and down, "You look fine from here."

"Because I spent a night I couldn't afford in hospital after that skeezebag I traded my soul to save came back."

"Oh," Vera clapped her hands together, pursing her lips in a dramatic attempt to make it appear she thought the whole thing romantic. "Did he tell you what a mistake he thought he made and how he just loves you and was too foolish to see it before?"

"It wouldn't matter if he told me he tattooed my name on his heart, I don't care about him."

"Isn't that just how it is?" Vera leaned back in the creaking desk chair. "We think we're in love but discover it's just selfish and lustful and we're disappointed in the end."

"I hope you're not about to set fire to my chair. I don't have the money to replace it."

"This place is falling down around your ears, that's for sure."

"Then do something about it." Anna rubbed a hand over her face before putting both hands on her hips. "What do you want?"

"The best voice last night refused me."

Anna shrugged, "That's not my problem. My job, in the description you so generously gave me at my most desperate moment, was to provide a platform. It didn't say anything about pushing people into your waiting arms."

"And you don't think that's part of it?" Vera used her hands on the desk as leverage to push herself to stand. "You don't think you've got a responsibility to get people to choose what I'm offering them? You think it's just that you can find yourself blameless in the role you play in their destruction?"

"Trust me, the damnation of my soul is interesting enough when I don't have to dwell on the souls I've already sacrificed for mine." Anna set her jaw, "It's not my job to make yours easier."

"What if I made it your job?"

"Then I'd demand a renegotiation of terms." Anna crossed her arms over her chest, watching the tiny flicks of flame from Vera's fingers leave black marks on her desk as the woman rounded it to stand toe-to-toe with her. "If you want more then I do too."

"Escape? Freedom from your original bargain?"

"I sold my soul to you to save Alex Green's life, I know what that means."

Vera laughed in Anna's face. "You've no idea what that means of you wouldn't have done it. Your inability to comprehend the gravity of the deal you made that night, in desperation and fear, was what made it possible."

"If you're here to make a point, I don't need you telling me I backed the wrong horse." Anna flicked her gaze to the floor a moment, "When he ran off with another woman I got the picture then."

"No, you didn't." Vera cackled a bit, "You mortals are so small minded. Your pain is all you care about and when you feel pain you think it's the end of the world but you've no comprehension of what pain really is."

"Then explain it to me, Satan, since you know." Anna fired back, "I'm tired of you lording whatever it is you've got over me. I've not the patience for it and I'm done being frightened of you. You already own my soul, you don't get my dignity too."

"You're not in a position to make that decision." Vera's voice stayed even but Anna flinched at the edge in it. "You gave me everything when you agreed to that deal and don't ever call me 'Satan' again."

"Why not?"

"Because he's far worse than me." Vera snorted, "I'm more of a lackey in that department. An agent, as it were."

"You're Hades then?"

"It's how I can make deals." Vera took a deep breath, "What you're about to discover is that I can make your life miserable if I want to."

"It's already miserable."

"Not since John Bates entered it."

Anna froze, the blood in her veins turned to ice in a moment. "What did you say?"

"His comments to you in hospital were, touching, but just the kind of thing you needed to hear." Vera bent to put her mouth near Anna's ear. "Didn't you ever think that, maybe, he's just like Alex?"

"There's a world of difference between the two of them."

"Talents on the stage or in bed aside," Vera backed up a pace, "John Bates is very good."

"It's not your night. That was yesterday and you struck out."

"Doesn't stop the fact he's got skill."

"He's not for you."

"I'll decide that."

"I thought you said I'd decide that." Anna tightened her fingers on her own arms, possibly giving herself bruises to keep her voice even. "If that's what we're discussing."

"You'd change the terms of our agreement to keep him away from me?" Vera's eyes flashed, "That's interesting to me."

"Is it?" Anna swallowed but a niggling doubt at the back of her mind had her wondering if she already blew her lead.

"We'll not be renegotiating your contract, at the moment." Vera chuckled to herself. "Poor Ms. Smith, always losing her head over a man. Must be exhausting to be run ragged by your hormonal urges."

"He's a good man and that's not for you."

"That's for me to choose." Vera shrugged, "Everyone's got their breaking point, Anna, and if you're actually interested in saving his soul you won't try to keep him here. I can find his price and he'll pay it. They always do."

"He's too good for that."

"No one's too good for that." Vera pointed at Anna, "You weren't."

"I was a fool."

"Everyone's got the point where they'll be fools." Vera took another look around the office, "If you could manage to be here the next time I come, it'll give me a lot of comfort. I don't like dealing with your minions."

"My employees aren't for you either. They're not performers and I need them if I'm going to keep this place going."

"It's not going well though, is it?" Vera scoffed, "I thought it was a mistake to build a bar on the crossroads but you put yourself in this position and now you're paying for it."

"I've been paying for it for a long time now." Anna finally dropped her gaze, "I don't need you to remind me of everything I've lost, thank you."

"You don't?" Vera pouted again and Anna raised her head, "Then it's too damn bad you made a deal with a denizen of the Devil instead of an angel. They might give two shits about your feelings."

"They might." Anna exhaled, "Do you have anything else you want to throw in my face before you remind me of what I owe you?"

"No, I think I've reminded you of the expectations I have for you." Vera raised her right hand, "I hope you don't inconvenience me again."

"Why? Because you've so much else to do?"

"Because I don't want to drag myself back to this hole unless I need to. There are far more interesting people in the world than you and the performers you drag through here."

"Because you want them."

"I want quality, Anna, not the crap you've given me." Vera lowered her voice. "Use John Bates to get those with quality in here or I take his soul."

"You're leveraging him against me for more souls?"

"Yes, I am." Vera snapped her fingers and she vanished in a flash of red and black, leaving only a burnt smell behind.

Anna coughed at the smell and pushed the window open, using the wood block to keep it in place, and jumped when someone knocked on the door. Taking a breath, and trying to keep her voice even, Anna called out. "Yeah?"

"Mr. Bates is here and he's asking if you'll go upstairs with him."

"Now?"

"Apparently he couldn't wait. Said he's got to prepare for his set tonight and needs to run something by you now."

"Lunch rush is about to start."

"And we've got it." Gwen's voice muffled slightly by the door, "Should I tell him to pick another day?"

"No," Anna shook herself, noting the unfinished work on her desk. "I'll… I'm coming. Just manage it without me."

"Will do."

Anna left the office, keeping the door open to let more of the smell out. She dodged around a small girl who gave a mousy squeak as Anna passed and ducked under a tray Alfred worked into a warmer. Using her uninjured shoulder, Anna pushed through the swinging doors and saw John tapping out something on the bar as he noted a few things in a notebook.

"I thought you couldn't play since you got your fingers injured." Anna pointed to his still bandaged hand and John looked up in a hurry.

"I can't but I found someone to play guitar for me while I sing." John winked, tucking the little notebook and pen away. "Thought I'd call in the help of a friend."

"That's short notice."

"He was on his way here anyway." John shrugged his shoulders, "Ready?"

"Not that this'll be a big deal but, in future, please don't tell me you've got a surprise. I hate those and everything they stand for." Anna followed him out of the bar and turned almost on a pivot toward the little door between the bar and the empty storefront next to them.

"Who doesn't like surprises?"

"People like me." Anna accepted John opening the door for her and started up the stairs to the threadbare landing. "I've had too many surprises and I don't need more."

"Even good ones?"

"Those are the worst because they never last as long as the bad ones." Anna shifted in the corridor as John took out a key and unlocked the door to the room where he saved her from Green just the day before. "What are we doing here?"

"I needed you opinion about it."

"Why?"

"Because if I do anything to this space it might affect your work." John pointed above them. "It's got a large ceiling space, about two stories worth, and I think I could turn it into a nice little studio space that would then serve as the lobby for a hotel."

"Hotel?" Anna snorted, "You've only got this room."

"Not quite." John shoved his hands into his pockets. "I've got the floors above this and everything else to the end of the block."

"That's all one building."

"And I bought it."

"Help me understand." Anna shook her head, "You said last night you only bought this space."

"No, I said that I owned this space. I didn't say how much other space I bought."

Anna paced around the space as John explained his plan. "And what you meant was the whole building?"

"Yes."

She sucked the inside of her cheek, "How much money do you have, exactly?"

"I'm comfortable."

"That's what super rich people say so poor people don't feel bad about their impecunious circumstances."

John stopped, "Did you just use high class vocabulary to no feel guilty about your financial situation?"

"I was a journalism major and worked as a journalist." Anna defended and then shrugged, "I get 'word of the day' on my phone."

"Doesn't stop you trying to defend yourself with big words."

"Trust me, you've not seen me using big words yet." Anna gestured toward the wall, "So you're taking the idea he had about a juice bar or whatever?"

"No, because that's stupid. You're got a diner downstairs so why the hell would you need a juice bar?" John snorted, "You were obviously the brains in that relationship."

"That's debatable." Anna squinted around the room before sighing, "At the end of the day I think your decision to lower my rent was a mistake."

"I thought you might say that but that's just because Gwen told me not to tell you the whole truth at hospital."

Anna stopped, turning on her heel to face John. "I do hope your next comment isn't something ridiculous like you got rid of my mortgage and saved my credit."

"No, I didn't save your credit."

"And you didn't answer the first part of that question." Anna closed her eyes and held up a hand to pull at the bridge of her nose. "You paid my mortgage didn't you?"

"I may have."

Anna dropped her hand, "Great, another thing I owe you for."

John tried to come over to her but Anna backed out of his grip. "What? I'm not allowed to do something nice?"

"I don't need charity."

"At the risk of being pretty rude, because there's no nice way to avoid the bluntness in this next statement, but you do." John waved his arm out. "I've seen your house. I've ridden in your car and I've seen your bar. You're hanging on by a thread because you're noble and stubborn and everyone you trusted abandoned you."

"And you want to ride in and save me?"

"I want to help where I can." John exhaled, "I know I can't fix all the damage that Green did to you, because the wanker got in his licks before time and tide caught up to him, but I can do this and that's what I did."

"At the risk of casting aspersions, since there's no way to ask this without doing that," Anna crossed her arms over her chest, "What do you hope to get?"

"Who said I'd get anything?"

"The fact that no one does anything for free."

"Anna," John drove a hand through his hair hard enough to rip out strands. "There's no ulterior motive here. There's nothing but the desire to make your life easier."

"Why?"

"I told you, at hospital, why."

"Because I'm strong and I need someone to make it so I don't have to be strong anymore?"

John threw up his arms, "How is that you could take the act of simple kindness as an affront to your honor?"

"What would you call it?"

"A bloody great risk because I wanted you to have one less thing to worry about as you recovered and tried to get your life back together."

Anna gave a bitter laugh, "I had wrenched muscles. It wasn't anything to worry about."

"That's why you've now got hospital bills you can't pay?"

"That's none of your business."

"Because you define yourself by your pain, Anna." The tone in his voice stopped her responding. John took a breath and continued, "You've spent so long struggling you don't know what it's like to not struggle. You don't have any idea what it's like to have someone help you, without something attached to it, because you've only been used. You define yourself by your struggle and without you're afraid you'll have nothing left so you cling to it like a security blanket."

"That's what you think?"

"That's what I know, Anna." John motioned to the room around him as if he could set the scene with no props. "You don't think I didn't define myself I my shit marriage to my ex-wife by the way we hurt one another? You don't think I didn't comfort myself in the depths of my high functioning alcoholism by justifying each drink with a horrible memory or a way to self-flagellate? You don't think I-"

"Shut up!" Anna put her hands over her ears, "I don't care why you think you know me or how but you've got no bloody idea what I've suffered. You don't know what I gave up to be where I am."

"Because you hold it so close you won't let anyone see it." John shook his head, "You're so convinced no one could understand you never give anyone a chance."

"Trust me, you'd not have the foundation for it."

"How about you stop patronizing me and just give me facts instead of your little side hints." John kicked at a beam, sending a burst of dust into the air. "I'm tired of you being all mysterious about why you don't want me, about why you need your pain, about this deal you made to save an ungrateful bastard."

"It's none of your business."

"Then stop trying to act as if you can do anything about it if you're determined not to." John forced a strangled noise of frustration. "There's nothing worse than someone who refuses the help of others and won't help themselves so they just complain about it."

"When have I ever complained" Anna motioned around them. "I'm not one to broadcast my issue or my frustrations."

"Maybe you should. It'd do you a bit of good to finally have the world understand your pain."

"Don't you use that tone with me."

"We're not in a position for you to order me about." John huffed, "That's your terms, not mine by the way."

"Don't think you can use that against me."

"I can't use anything against you, apparently, because then it might mean someone has a chance of understanding you, which you clearly don't want." John sighed, the argument hanging between them in the air. "I'm here as what I hope would be a friend."

"You're not my friend," Anna fired back, "You were just a good two-time shag."

"And nothing else?"

"What, do you want a third round as gratitude for saving me yesterday?" Anna opened her arms, "Fine. We can go another round and have that be it."

"I'm not here to treat you like a prostitute."

"You can't want me for anything else."

"I already told you what I wanted from you."

"Then you're either naïve or a liar." Anna set her jaw, trying to keep tears from her eyes and emotion from her voice but failing at both. "Because the minute you have whatever it is you think you want you'll be gone and I'll be broken all over again."

John's eyes widened and Anna drove her hand furiously over her eyes to try and clear the tears but only managed to smudge her makeup. "Is that what you think of me?"

"It's what I think of everyone because that's what everyone's meant to me." Anna pushed past him for the door. He tried to grab for her but Anna knocked his hand away, biting at her guilt when his injured hand took the force of her deflection and he hissed in pain. "Just… Just leave, John. Leave my bar to fall into ruin and me to go with it. I'm not worth whatever you'll have to pay to save me."

"Anna?" John held his hand as she opened the door, "It's not like that."

"It's exactly like that." She turned to him, "Save yourself before you regret what you've done here."

"I don't regret it."

"You will."

"I don't believe that."

"You should." Anna let the door bang against the jamb behind her.