The park was a beautiful place in Spring. The main path wound past green lawns, a duck pond and pretty Magnolias and white blossom decorated the whole route. Recently, Valkyrie had been taking a different route home from the Sanctuary, via the park. The fresh air helped to calm her stress. Today, when she had dropped Tanith back at the hospital, there was no way she could concentrate on her work after what she had witnessed. After trying, and failing, to catch up on her work, she set off back home.

As she trudged along the path, earphones in, she couldn't help but reflect on what had happened that day. She couldn't work out what was going on between Tanith and Sanguine. As a detective, it bugged her that she couldn't get her head around this one. She felt betrayed by Tanith for not confiding in her, but at the same time confused at why Sanguine was acting so odd. The change of attitude, the look in his eyes, the scar on his chest. There was no other way to explain all the things she'd seen than a relationship between them. But it wasn't just that, there was something else. It was like there was some kind of arrangement between the two of them. Like they both knew something she didn't. That bothered her. A lot.

She ducked as a shuttlecock whizzed past her head. She was just about to curse the idiots who had decided to play Badminton at three o'clock on a weekday afternoon, when a girl caught her eye. It was the reflection, sitting on a bench in the shade of a large willow tree.

Valkyrie tugged her earphones out and ran towards her. The reflection looked wide-eyed with panic as she saw Valkyrie approach. She tucked a piece of paper she had been reading into her pocket. Before Valkyrie could speak, the reflection stole the words from her.

'What are you doing here?'

'I took a detour on my way back from work. What are you-?' Valkyrie was cut off by her ringtone. It was Fletcher calling, so she answered it.

'Hello?'

'Yes?'

'Are you still at the supermarket?'

'What do you mean?'

'Well, I just thought, if you were still there, you could get me some mustard. We're running low. What's taking you so long anyway? It's been almost an hour.

'Fletch, I've been at work.'

'Yeah, and then you went to the shops to pick up some groceries.'

Valkyrie cut him off.

'Why does Fletcher think I'm out buying groceries?'

The reflection decided there was no point in lying. She would soon be out of here anyway.

'Because that's what I told him.'

'You were at Uncle Gordon's? Impersonating me?'

'No look, I just needed some information from your library. But then Fletcher came and he thought I was you. I told him I was, or you were, going shopping because I needed to escape'

'Who told you you could go into my library and talk to my boyfriend? I hope you didn't lay a finger on him.'

'No, much to his disappointment.'

'What was this 'information' you needed then? And what was that paper you slipped into your pocket?'

'I'm trying to board the Midnight Hotel, since I have nowhere else to stay. I needed the information from Gordon's library. I'm sorry, I had to take a page out of one of the books. I'm using it to work out where the hotel will stop next. Then I'll be out of your hair, I promise.'

That's exactly what Valkyrie wanted.

'That would be good. You know, I have enough stress in my life at the moment without you swanning around pretending to be me. My best friend and a murderer are falling in love. Erskine told me to lead an official Sanctuary investigation against you after that...incident.'

The reflection blushed at his name.

'Oh, I'm sorry about that. It was a stupid thing to do. I haven't been human for long, I'm still learning things. I just want to start again, is that too much to ask?'

Valkyrie felt a pang of guilt as she realised that she did just treat the reflection as another one of her problems. Now that the reflection was a human, perhaps she ought to be shown more empathy. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

'I'm so sorry. You're right, I've been really out of order. I've just had one heck of a day.'

'You said your best friend was falling in love with a murderer... Tanith, you mean?'

Valkyrie nodded.

'Tanith and Billy-Ray Sanguine.'

The reflection, not quite believing Valkyrie, could think of nothing more to say than 'Oh!'

'If you'd seen the two of them... I just know there's something going on between them. As much as I would love to beat the living daylights out of Sanguine, Tanith clearly sees something in him that I don't. And Tanith's definitely not the sort of girl who would let someone take advantage of her.'

'No,' agreed the reflection,'she's not. What about Ghastly though?'

'Tanith and Ghastly are both still in hospital, but I doubt she's told him. I dread to think what he'll do when he finds out - she means everything to him.

They sat in silence for a moment, watching the two boys playing Badminton.

Valkyrie got up to leave. She realised she would probably never see the reflection again. Before she parted she said a few words.

'I know I've been a crap excuse for a friend, but will you come back to visit me one day? Maybe drop by at the Sanctuary some time?'

'Yeah.' replied the reflection 'Yes, I think I will.'

A/N - Please review!