A/N: A little bit of dialogue in this chapter comes from another Hollows fan fic (re-written some) but I figure since we're already playing with borrowed characters I could borrow these totally amazing lines. Also very sleepy over here so I hope there aren't too many spelling mistakes and other weird stuff in this chapter.

Anyways, on to the story! And yes we do make totally awesome beds in Sweden!

Listening to: Red Blooded Woman by Kylie Minogue

-Ten-

- In the Wee Hours-

(July 12th)

It fluttered against my stomach again but I was too tired to move. The bed was too comfortable and smelled too good. It trailed across my bare stomach again and nerves I hadn't known I had all over me suddenly went haywire. With a jerk I opened my eyes and moved away from the object touching me; tickling me.

Blinking in the bright afternoon sun I looked over at Ivy, who had a half smile on her face and a feather in her hand. She was wearing a black nightgown, which she hadn't been when I last saw her. Then she had been mostly dressed. I at least was still in my sweat pants and unzipped hoodie. My bra was one of my really old ones, I had bought at the "your first bra" section and had little purple hearts all over it. Strangely enough that hadn't seemed embarrassing last night.

"Finally, I thought you were going to sleep all day," Ivy said, dropping the feather on the bedside table. She looked completely at ease with me in her bed.

I wasn't sure what I felt about having spent the night with her. There hadn't been anything other than kissing and well… Ivy's shirt had disappeared at some point; but due to both me being injured and Ivy insisting we had waited years so a few days wouldn't hurt. I was torn between being grateful and pissed off at her for it. Too confused to say something intelligent I said the first thing that came into my head. "My god your bed is soft."

"It was made in Sweden." She smiled. "And the sheets are Italian, with a tread count nearly as ridiculously high as their price."

"Too bad I am wearing too much clothes to really appreciate them," I said looking down at the kicked off cover and my still mostly clothed body. The bandage wrapped around my upper stomach hid the wound there but looking at it made my curiosity rise. "What happened? How did I get shot?" I asked, abruptly changing the moon in the room. Remembering her words and reaction at the hospital I nearly added, "who did you kill?" but managed to keep my tongue in check. But I really did want to know and no one had bothered to tell me anything.

She frowned and the smile that had been playing on her lips vanished. "I rather not talk about it," she turned slightly from me looking out through the open window. I followed her gaze out on the lovely summer day.

"Come on Ivy," I did my best to sit up but despite the brimstone and a long night's sleep I was still not feeling much better. "I can't remember any of it. Talk to me." I took her wrist to make her look at me instead of the garden. "Nothing you tell me will make...I mean it won't matter what you did. I just want to know."

"You really don't remember it," she whispered and turned slightly back to me. When I let go of her wrist she instead caught my hand and looked at it. "I see it when I close my eyes."

"See what?" I asked when she didn't continue. I wonder just what she saw. She had killed someone. I knew it wasn't the first someone but it still had to be hard. Maybe she saw the guy just before he died. Or maybe all the little sociopath children he never would father. Maybe an imagined grieving mother, sister or lover.

"Your eyes," her voice was barley even a whisper. "You saw me do it. Kill him. And afterwards when you were bleeding out in my arms you had this look in your eyes." She took a deep breath. "Like you could see the monster inside."

"Ivy-"

"No." she turned her gaze back up to my eyes. "Rachel when I realized you didn't remember the details." She shook her head and sank back down onto the pillows next to me. "I was happy. I was so happy and relieved. I'm glad you still can't remember any of it."

"But I want to remember Ivy," I said not looking at her. I didn't just want to remember. I needed to. I was sure it couldn't be as bad as she said. I could never ever see Ivy just as a monster. That wasn't possible. Or maybe it was? I shivered at the thought. Ivy's black eyes and her lips covered in blood. It wasn't a memory it was just a scary picture my mind cooked up. I knew Ivy had a dark side but she wasn't a monster. She wasn't.

"I will tell you if you truly want to know but-" she grabbed onto my hand, desperate. As if she was afraid I would jump out of the bed and run away from her at any moment. I might want to remember but I suspected Ivy having to retell the night she killed someone and nearly watched me die would do her so much more harm than it would do me good.

"It can wait," I quickly said and squeezed her hand. She turned her head towards the ceiling and sighed.

"Thank you," she whispered and closed her eyes.

Just then I wanted to tell her I loved her and that she was beautiful. But that would sound way too sappy and she already knew both those things. So instead I said, "I'm really glad I met you. Don't ever forget that." She only smiled still keeping her eyes shut.

My stomach growled slightly but I ignored it. Such a trivial thing as food really didn't seem to matter. I glanced at Ivy; she looked like the sleeping Snow White. Hair as dark as ebony, lips red as blood and skin as white as snow. A princess. I smiled at that and half closed my eyes. I might have to wake her with a kiss. Later.

As we lay there, our hands clasped together, our bodies touching slightly and the sun streaming in I felt a strange sort of peace. There was no need to talk, to move or do anything other than be there. It was different from what I imagined my first morning in Ivy's bed would be like, but it was a good different. Everything in my life had been rushed spur of the moment decisions; from my prom dates to my sex partners and all my jobs. Maybe slow was the key.

Ivy's silky voice suddenly brought me out of the half asleep state I was in. "Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?" I turned to look at her. Her eyes were open but she was still facing the ceiling and her hand held mine as hard as ever.

"Did you just recite poetry to me?" I frowned.

"Yes, I think perhaps I did." She smiled sheepishly and turned her head slightly. "Only it's not poetry – it's Shakespeare," she whispered close to my ear.

"What does it mean?" I asked, too tired to try to figure it out on my own and fight the effect her closeness had on my brain's higher functioning center.

"It means," she pulled back from me. "I'm glad you came around."Sitting up she continued, "for all your bravery this – us - was something you never had the courage to face before."

"I hadn't figured it out before," I argued wanting to sit up too but the bed was just too comfortable.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night," she patted the bed before getting off it. "As long as you're sleeping in this bed, I don't care."

"Hey," I called after her as she headed out of the room with a towel and a set of clothes in her arms. She only smiled over her shoulder at me. Groaning I laid back down on the bed. It really was heavenly soft. A faint smell caught my attention. It wasn't mine and it wasn't Ivy's.

(June 30th)

I think it was the dream that woke me. I had been having it a lot. It was almost always the same. I am walking on a road in the woods and all of the sudden a gigantic cat comes out and tells me I'm lost. But I tell the cat I'm not lost, just following the road. Then I walk past the cat, turn the corner and fall off this gigantic cliff. While I'm falling I'm screaming and then just when I'm about to hit the ground the cat laughs and I wake up.

Or maybe it was the noise that disturbed my sleep.

Like someone moving in the kitchen. I looked over at the clock. 7 AM. Way too early to even consider getting out of the bed to check, seeing as I had just landed in it a mere three hours ago. I couldn't believe some humans got up this early.

There was the noise again. And something that sounded like the fridge being opened. Maybe I should drag myself out of bed. Only to say hi to Ivy and apologize for yelling at her. Yeah. I looked at my empty water glass. As good of an excuse as any, I reached for the glass. There was some dust in it, because it had been sitting there empty for a month and I turned it upside down to let the particles "fly" away.

A low laughter that wasn't Ivy's made me stop before I got to the kitchen. Someone moved something plastic. Like a grocery bag. Ivy spoke but the wall made her voice too muted for me to hear the words. Another person answered then silence. I stood frozen for a moment. Ivy rarely brought strange people home with her. Maybe it was someone I knew. Maybe it was Ciric. Maybe she was here for a visit. Yeah, that seemed likely…

Tentatively I walked into the kitchen. Early morning light was coming in from the windows but the scene in my kitchen wasn't anything like the lovely morning. Ivy's head was buried in the crock of a short blonde's neck. Ivy didn't move or react to me walking in, but I suspected she had known I was awake almost before I did. I stared at the blonde, the glass in my hand suddenly feeling slippery.

"Skimmer?" A paralyzing fear went through me. Skimmer was in jail. She couldn't be in my kitchen. Not in my beautiful beloved kitchen. She just couldn't be.

The woman, after hearing my voice, drew in a deep breath and Ivy pulled back from her. Blood colored her lips and teeth but she made no move to wipe or lick it away. The blonde woman turned to me, still looking mildly dizzy from the bite and accompanying neurotoxins. Thankfully she looked quite different from Skimmer once I got a good look at her.

She was tanned, healthy looking with green eyes. Dressed in a more official looking business suit than Ivy's leather and halter, she gave off a professional air. Like she had just left the office. Still, it wasn't the same kind of perfectly cut attires Skimmer had worn. There was also another gigantic difference from Skimmer. This woman was a werewolf not a vampire. That was strange. A werewolf letting a vampire bite her. But I guessed it took all kinds to make the world go around.

"Did you have the dream again?" Ivy asked me as if the other woman wasn't there, totally ignoring my miscue about her being Skimmer. The stupid vampire still had blood on her teeth and I think she knew it and was using it to distract me. Or piss me off. She was also moving with that strange grace that was usually only hers when the sun was down.

"Yes," I said, feeling stupid as I held up my glass. She took it and headed over to turn the tap on. I walked around the table and desperate to hold on to something I found an oven mitt. Ivy noticed me staring at the were and turned.

"Go wait in my room," Ivy said to the blond. The woman didn't need any directions to get there and I clutched the oven mitt a little closer to my stomach, gritting my teeth. Ivy could have whoever she wanted in her room…in her bed… It wasn't any of my business.

I walked over to get the glass and noticed a see through plastic garment bag. The thing I guessed that had sounded like a grocery bag earlier. The dress inside it was nearly prettier than the one Ivy had been wearing earlier tonight. With a more formal look from it. It was green and black and I imagined the colors would go wonderful with Ivy's complexion. Not that there wasn't anything that didn't work on Ivy. Maybe pink, because I had never seen her wear it.

"Do you need Jenks tonight?" She asked casually before handing me my water as I put the oven mitt down. "I have something to take care of." That usually meant something bad. I took the glass looking over my shoulder to were the blonde woman had disappeared.

"Who is she?"

"Who?" Ivy asked, licking her lips. Finally the distracting blood was gone. Up close I could see her pupils were fully dilated. But she wasn't vamping out. It took me a moment to realize what was going on.

Ivy was high.

Once I realized that the stink of brimstone was unmistakable.

"God Ivy, the woman in your bedroom?" I put the glass down. I wasn't going to drink the water. "Or are you so high you already forgot her?"

Ivy smiled. "Relax love," she said her accent scarily like Kisten's when he did his fake British one."No need to sound so completely outraged." She stretched and glanced at me with dark eyes. "I'm not high. I'm on brimstone."

"Same difference," I argued as I put my hands on my hips. My attempts at stern were probably slightly hampered by my adorably illustrated PEACE- LOVE- CATS t-shirt.

"It was in the food, I didn't know," she said heading over to the fridge. Bullshit, I thought. She would have smelt it. "I didn't get high on purpose, Rachel. I'm past that." She looked insulted by the fact that I would think otherwise.

"Then what's her name?" I asked as Ivy pulled out the OJ carton.

"Who?"

"The woman in your room?" I glared at her as she poured her juice into a tall glass.

"Oh her," Ivy shrugged and took a long drink of her juice. "Matilda something."

"So why if you can't even remember her full name is she in your room?" I asked feeling red spots grow on my cheeks. I knew Ivy had people she shared blood with. Blood-partners, she called them. She usually never had them over when I was around. I was fairly certain she never even brought anyone to the church. But I didn't think this werewolf was one of those blood-partners. For one she wasn't a vampire.

"She wanted me," Ivy said coldly as she put the carton of juice back in the fridge. I tightened my fists.

"Everybody wants you," I said loudly as she lifted the glass to her mouth and took another generous swallow.

She shook her head. "You don't." She slowly put the juice glass down, picked up the plastic garment bag, and headed for her room and the woman waiting there.

(July 12th)

I sucked in a deep breath and blinked. The memory had been so intense I could have sworn I was just standing in the kitchen, not lying in Ivy's bed. I could still feel the anger and confusion. I still remembered the blood on Ivy's teeth. The thought of her sinking those teeth into another random blonde made me feel slightly dizzy. She might not merge her auras with them but I remembered the incredible feeling of her teeth in me. Knowing full well how selfish it was, I was still more than sure I never wanted her to do that with anyone other than me.

Jenks flew in through the open window and stopped abruptly over me, nearly falling out of the air. "What are you doing in Ivy's bed?"

"Sleeping?" I muttered as he buzzed around me. "Or at least I was. What's up Jenks? You need Ivy? She's in the shower."

"Tink's Titties," Jenks swore. "Are you guys together?"

"No, Ivy is in the shower," I grinned."Geesh keep up." Jenks grinned too, before a serious expression cross his face.

"You didn't let her bite you did you?"

"No, but I'm thinking of re visiting my um…standing… on the whole blood balance thing-"

"Rache," Jenks moaned. "For once in your life stick with the smart choice. Ivy might seem all cuddly but we both know-"

"That she's a monster? Jenks, you don't understand." I got up with only some mild pain from my wound and shuffled over to Ivy's closet. I wondered if the beautiful dress was still there. "You never had her bite you. You don't know how wonderful it is."

"What if she binds you? Hu? Think of that?" Jenks stopped in the air right in front of my nose. "You ever think of what that would do to her?"

I smiled. "Your concern for me is touching but I'm just going to have to trust her. I mean I do trust her," I hobbled to the left around Jenks. "I really do."

"Yeah, you're not trying to convince yourself at all," he muttered and rolled his eyes. I opened Ivy's closet. The dress hung on the inside of the doors looking even prettier than in my memory.

"I do trust her. Even if I didn't," I said while I thought about the woman from my flashback. Matilda something. "It would kill me thinking about all the people she were with. Sharing blood with-"

"I would stop,"¨Ivy's low voice from the door made me spin from the open closet."…for you. If it bothered you." She was in dark casual clothes and her hair was still wet from the shower.

"Tinks little… I better go." Jenks looked around. "Try to not kill each other while I'm gone," he muttered cheerfully. He flew towards the window then back to Ivy that was just standing in the door looking at me looking at her closet. He whispered something to her, way too low for me to hear and she nodded looking grave.

"Ivy." I took a few steps towards her. "I don't want you to stop with the blood just because of me. I mean you're a lot nicer on it. No offence," I said.

"But-" she started, but I interrupted her before she could start to argue.

"And I said I wanted to give the blood thing another tr-" now it was her turn to interrupt me.

"And you also said no one was ever going to break your skin again." She shook her head. "You forgot?"

"I changed my mind."

"Just like that? No, Rachel. I won't do it." She kept shaking her head. "I'll stop or you'll have to deal with me getting blood someplace else." She reached for a towel and begun to dry off her hair, as if the conversation was over and done with.

"Yeah, like Matilda?" I blurted out. Ivy frowned and turned to me. "I can smell her," I added sourly.

"I," Ivy said slowly and frowning deeply. Confused, like she really had no clue what I was talking about. Then she smiled. "The blonde who was here?"

I didn't say anything just zipped up my hoodie and sat down on the bed. All the loud talking and arguing was making my middle hurt.

"She wasn't a blood partner or anything really," Ivy walked over and sat next to me. "She was here to fix my dress. She's a dressmaker."

"Your dress? She was here to fix your dress?" I asked, while looking into her soft brown eyes. "But you fed off her."

"Yes because she asked me too. It wasn't…we didn't. The reason you can smell her on my bed is because she sat there. That's all she did. Sit." Ivy looked over at the place I had been sleeping and bit her lip. "Can you really smell her? I barely can."

"That's not the point," I waved the issue away. "The point is we can share blood. We proved that before, even if it didn't end so well." Or maybe that was putting it lightly - I had slammed a ley-line into her because I thought she was Kisten's killer.

"That's under stating it." She got off the bed and begun to braid her hair. "Can't this be enough? For now at least?" she asked slowly. "Why does it always have to be all or nothing with you?"

"You were the one who said it was either both sex and blood or nothing," I reminded her.

"Long ago," she found an elastic band and snapped it around her completed braid. "Isn't this enough new for you? It is for me."

"But this isn't new for you," I exclaim. This was just new to me. But I was handling the I made out with a girl thing pretty well. At least I thought so.

"Not the girl thing, god Rachel," she groaned. "I mean this is the first relationship I have started wanting it to last." I opened my mouth to protest, but since I really had nothing to protest with I just sat there with my mouth open. "Yeah. Skimmer, Kisten, Glen. I never thought I would make them work. I never ever planned five years ahead and thought about them there with me."

"But I thought you and Kisten-"

"We were never going to get married, no matter how much our parents wanted us too." She shook her head to emphasize it. "Even before I met you, I…I never ever could have married him. Or anyone. So this long term thing is new for me too."

"I never thought about it that way," I said suddenly feeling stupid. Ivy raised an eyebrow as if to say "I figured you hadn't." I scratched my nose and got off the bed and over to her closet, wanting a distraction. "What is the dress for anyways?" The green and black dress was still in its plastic garment bag. I guessed it had been taken out and altered but it still looked the same as in my memory.

"There is a formal party. Hera, Rynn's old scion is having her first public appearance as an undead. And Rynn will officially announce who has taken her place," Ivy sighted and reached out to touch the plastic bag. "This was my mother's dress at some point. Piscary gave it to her," there was enough disgust in her voice to make me almost hate the pretty dress. Just then I noticed her looking at one other dress in the closet. A white one. My stomach lurched.

"Sounds fun," I tried my best at a cheery voice as I turned us away from the closet. She just raised an eyebrow. "Okay not fun but…" I remembered her asking me to come along to the costume party. She had wanted me there. Thought it would make the evening more fun. "…I could come with you!"

"That would be a statement, bringing you would indicate-" she started.

"That we are together?" I reached out and took her hand. "Isn't that what we are?"

"Yes," she said after a second, a strange look in her eyes. "I guess we are," she wrinkled her nose and looked down at my clothes, probably cataloging everything she knew was in my closet trying to figure out if there was anything fancy enough. I already knew there wasn't. "But I don't think you have an appropriate dress for this event."

"I guess we're going shopping then," I said and squinted up at her.

A sly grin spread across her face. "I guess we are."

Thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm sad to say I'm considering putting this one on hold to write another fic I can't get out of my head. We'll see…