"And then Mitch offered me a ride home, and I said I didn't want a ride home, but he kept asking, and I kept saying no, and…" Blossom was rambling. She didn't care; Mrs. Bellum was listening intently to every thought free word that cascaded out of Blossom's mouth, and had been for some time now. Initially, Blossom had started explaining the events of the day very cautiously by, for example, cutting out from her story how she flew, with a deliberate use of Chemical X, to the hospital. As she kept talking, however, Blossom found it easier and easier to open up, and before long she was blurting out the events of the day exactly how she remembered them, complete with ugly unspoken thoughts and ugly unseen actions. She'd even make references to notions she had earlier that day, and would then have to explain the backstory behind them. Blossom's mouth was dry and aching from talking so much, but she didn't care. "And then finally I turned invisible and flew away from him but – did I tell you I could turn invisible?"

Mrs. Bellum nodded her head slowly and slightly without interrupting Blossom's flow of speech. Blossom had, at one point, randomly dropped in that detail, since she had skipped over that part originally.

"Well, I did, and I got here as fast as I could, because I realized I had left my briefcase here, and I was really wet and all because of the rain, and…" Blossom was speaking faster than her mind (or Mrs. Bellum's, probably) could process what she was saying. Mrs. Bellum was listening. Mrs. Bellum was kind of like the best parts of a big sister and the best parts of a mother, all rolled into a woman who was, technically, Blossom's boss and political rival. Such a catharsis in front of Mrs. Bellum should have been unbearably awkward based on Blossom's official relationship with her. However, the one sided conversation flowed more naturally than a chat with Buttercup ever had. Post-Incident, that is. "And then I came into your office and grabbed my briefcase and almost walked out, because it would be embarrassing for you to see me cry, but then I called you Buttercup and you told me to stay, so I did, and started telling you everything, and then-"

"And then you caught up to the present," Mrs. Bellum finished for her.

Blossom's train of thought came to a sudden, abrupt halt, solely out of a lack of things to say. What happened next hadn't happened yet. "I guess I have," Blossom said dumbly, with a little grin of relief after finally having released the pressure that had been building inside her for the past twenty four hours or so. That's all she had really needed, Blossom realized. Someone to vent to. Someone who'd listen.

Mrs. Bellum took some time to process all that Blossom had said. "Well, I can't say that all that news is comforting, but I'm glad to know that Buttercup's all right. From the sound of it, though, you were more concerned about Mitch than anything else."

Blossom stiffened suddenly. Had she really spent that much time on their conversation in the coffee shop, so much that it became the focus of her ramblings? "Was I?"

Mrs. Bellum shrugged. "Almost everything you said about Buttercup was attached to a comment about how Mitch said it. I was just wondering why that was."

"It's just that… he seemed to know an awful lot about Buttercup… and even though he's chief of police, and he'd have access to all that stuff… and then he said he tampered with-" Blossom froze. She had said all that stuff out loud, hadn't she? To the Mayor of Townsville, no less. "You're probably going… going to fire him now, a-aren't you?"

Mrs. Bellum dismissed Blossom's anxiety with a wave of her hand. "Calm down, Blossom. I have known that for ages Mitch had wiped your and your sisters' criminal records clean, because I helped him do it."

Blossom's jaw dropped.

"He doesn't know, of course. But I don't really mind… because it still feels like he's hiding something from me."

Blossom's jaw dropped further, but this time she had the sense to scoop it back up, and level it with the rest of her unbelieving face. Blossom shook her head to clear it, but all that did was invite that pressurized feeling again. Stress, probably, was the closest word to it. Blossom had made the mistake of asking for too much information from Mitch, and all those thoughts had clouded her mind with an irritating omnipresence. She didn't want it to happen again is it didn't have to. "Does it have anything to do with Buttercup?" Blossom asked softly.

"To be honest, I'm not sure," Mrs. Bellum answered unhelpfully. "It might, but not in any way related to the things that happened today. This has been happening on the scale of years."

"Then I don't want to hear it," Blossom stated resolutely.

"I'll respect that," Mrs. Bellum said. "You're just exhausted from all the stress you've had. I can tell you later, when you're up for it." Blossom noticed that she had become a little more colloquial since Blossom had started talking. That, and she hadn't so much as touched her report for the state the whole time.

Blossom stared at her feet sheepishly, suddenly aware again that Mrs. Bellum was her boss. "I should probably go now, so you can finish that report for the state."

Mrs. Bellum tilted her head at the report and brushed the papers to the side. "It can wait." Then, upon seeing Blossom attempt to get up, "Blossom, you know I'm not going to let you leave until you're feeling better, right?"

"I'm fine, Mrs. Bellum," Blossom mumbled, feigning a smile. "I just need some sleep, that's all. Maybe some food. And the talk really did help a whole lot." Blossom wasn't lying, but she knew that Mrs. Bellum's last statement afterwards just brought up a whole new slew of questions about Mitch and Mrs. Bellum and this whole secret deal that didn't have to do with Buttercup. And the original stress from Buttercup's fiasco that morning was buried underneath there, of course.

"Blossom, stop." Mrs. Bellum delayed Blossom's standing upright, but only slightly. Blossom's briefcase was almost in hand. "If you're hungry, I have a granola bar I never ate." Mrs. Bellum pulled out a little white rectangle from a drawer in her desk and slid the bar across the table to Blossom.

Blossom would have ignored it, until she remembered that all she'd had all day was a cup of coffee, and that wasn't even solid food. Her stomach made a perfectly timed growl, and Blossom was forced to sit down, cursing her body for its trivial, high maintenance need of food. Blossom tried as hard as she could to eat the bar gently, but once the scent of actual, physical food hit her nose, she attacked it ferociously.

"My heavens, Blossom!" Mrs. Bellum exclaimed, laughing a little, "It's not going to run away, you know."

Blossom didn't respond until she had finished eating the bar, which wasn't very long at all. "Sorry," she said, embarrassed. "I haven't eaten since yesterday."

Mrs. Bellum probably looked sorry for Blossom, or worried for her. Who knew, besides Mrs. Bellum herself, what was going on under that hair? "Not a problem, Blossom. I would have done much worse, trust me. I just wish I had something else to give you."

"I have food back at my apartment, which I can now get in to." Blossom pointed to her briefcase to refer to the key inside.

"Right. And I have a report to finish." Mrs. Bellum pointed to her work. She paused for a good while, though, watching Blossom sit silently and stare at her feet again. "Blossom?"

"Hmm?" Blossom responded absently, still either deep in thought or out of it completely.

"You're sure you're fine?" she asked out of what Blossom felt like was genuine concern.

"I'm fine," Blossom assured Mrs. Bellum with a lie. But there was one thing… Yes, it would be an oversimplified, unanswerable question that would reveal absolutely nothing, but Blossom felt like asking it anyways. "Actually, Mrs. Bellum, I do have one question."

"M-hmm?"

"Is Mitch a bad person?" Blossom realized just how ridiculous it sounded coming out of her mouth, but it was too late to turn back now.

Mrs. Bellum sighed ominously. "It depends." Because that would help Blossom sleep at night.

She probably shouldn't have asked. "Good bye then, I guess," Blossom muttered before grabbing her briefcase and making a near beeline for the door.

"Good bye, Blossom. See you Wednesday, and until then, don't stress out too much. Okay?"

"I won't," Blossom said on her way out. She lingered by the door a while before actually leaving. "Thanks for the talk, Mitch. It really helped, even if I learned some stuff I could have done without."

Mrs. Bellum didn't have the heart to tell Blossom that she wasn't Mitch.