"Saurial wants a word with us, Brian."

Brian looked up from the technical manual on wiring codes he was reading, to see Lisa standing in the doorway to his room in the dorm block. "Oh?" he commented, marking his place in the thick book with his finger. "Any idea what about? That sounds sort of… ominous."

The blonde smiled at him. "I doubt it's anything bad. She seems in a very good mood even for her, and is wandering around with a sort of 'I know something you don't' look."

"Something you'd be familiar with from looking in the mirror?" he said with a raised eyebrow and a quirk of the corner of his mouth. She shrugged, still smiling.

"It's not impossible I have a passing knowledge of that sort of thing. But I think she's probably got good news."

"You think? I'd have thought if anyone would know it would be you."

The girl glanced over her shoulder, then lowered her voice. "She's impossible to read, they all are. My… intuition… can't get more than vague impressions. All I get is that she's in a good mood which even Alec could have worked out."

"Hey, I'm not that obtuse," the boy himself said as he came out of the room on the other side of the corridor. "What's all this whispering about, you interrupted my game."

"Good, you're here. Come on, both of you, let's go. She's waiting for us in the office."

"Who is?" Alec asked, looking mildly confused. Lisa grabbed his shoulders and turned him around, then urged him to walk. "Who?"

"Saurial. Come on, don't keep the lizard girl waiting. Brian, hurry up!"

The sound of a vexed Alec being forcibly propelled down the corridor by their team-mate, if that was even the right word these days, faded away. Brian shook his head, carefully marked his place in the book with a sheet of paper he'd been making notes on, put it away, and got up to follow the pair.

Lisa was certainly acting somewhat differently these days, he reflected as he went after them. Calmer in a hard to define way. But at the same time obviously having a wonderful time. Working for Mr Hebert agreed with her, and becoming friends with the Family and Amy Dallon, as well as Taylor Hebert, had done wonders for her overall attitude. It wasn't nearly as smug and annoying as it had been at times, although she could certainly do that if she wanted too. On the whole, though, she gave off the impression of someone who had found their place in life and was going to enjoy it to the hilt.

He sympathized. While he didn't like to remember how they'd ended up here, he was glad they had. Being more or less stuck in the DWU compound wasn't ideal, but it was much less onerous than it could have been. He was being well paid to do work he both enjoyed and was good at, had somewhere warm and comfortable to sleep, got fed well, and had made a lot of friends that he certainly wouldn't have if he'd kept going down the path they were all headed in before the job against Lung. Sometimes he woke in a cold sweat remembering that day and it took a while to get back to sleep again.

The situation with his father and his sister was still sort of up in the air, but he had hopes it would work out sooner or later. It was certainly closer than it had been before, and now none of them needed to commit crimes, risk their lives, or those of anyone else, or work for that bastard Coil. Which was something he was still a little ticked off at Lisa about, not telling them who was paying the bills, even though intellectually he knew she didn't have a lot of choice at the time. Whatever, it was in the past and he'd more or less gotten over it.

Alec seemed to be enjoying himself, but he was easily amused, and Rachel was very obviously exactly where she wanted to be and would probably fight to the death to keep everything she currently had, as well as protecting the people she clearly saw as… He shook his head a bit, he never could work out quite how the girl thought. Pack, maybe, although that was almost certainly not right. Not quite family, but certainly a group of people she felt very determined to stay on the right side of and help however she could.

Rachel was a hard person to like at times, and found it hard in turn to relate to others, but when you got her loyalty, you had it pretty much unconditionally. The DWU had managed that en-masse, which was impressive whichever way you looked at it.

"Stop pushing, will you?" Alec's voice squawked, drifting back to him and making him grin a little.

"Well, start walking properly then, you idiot," Lisa replied in aggrieved tones. "Or do I have to carry you?"

"Think you could?"

"Damn right I could. Now move."

There was a loud put-upon sigh that echoed up the stairwell, but the other boy apparently gave in. Brian followed them down, still grinning a little. Sometimes it was weirdly like having two sisters and an annoying little brother with those guys. They might not be a gang any more, but they'd become strangely close through proximity, shared hardship, and a very scary night of near death followed by miraculous salvation.

A couple of minutes later all three of them were walking across the yard down the side of the main building complex towards the BBFO office. "I'll go get Rachel," Lisa said as they entered the side yard. "Back in a minute."

Brian nodded and followed Alec towards the office door, which opened as they reached it to reveal a smiling Saurial. "Hi, guys, come on in."

"What's this about?" Alec demanded as he went through the door, the reptilian cape standing aside to let him in. "I was right in the middle of a massive firefight, I nearly had that bastard Protomancer in my sights."

"Your game can wait, Alec," Saurial chuckled, not at all offended. "Sit down, I'll get you a coffee. You want one, Brian?"

"Thanks," he replied as he followed his friend to the large table which had sprouted more chairs around it since the last time he'd been in here. Sitting down he looked around curiously, seeing that there were now bookcases which were filled with what looked like high level textbooks on a wide variety of subjects from where he was, along with magazines and other paperwork. The table had a number of them spread across it, making him pick one up curiously and flip through it.

The book was some sort of mathematical theory one, full of equations so dense he couldn't make anything at all out of them. Half the symbols at least were entirely new to him. "It's fairly basic but a good primer," Saurial remarked as she came back and handed him a mug. "I think I got this the way you like it." She gave Alec another mug, then put the third one she was carrying down on the table next to him.

"This is basic?!" he exclaimed in horror, looking at the book again, then up at her. She looked amused and nodded.

"Fairly. You need a decent grounding in number theory to understand it, but..."

He put the book back and gave it a suspicious look, then pushed it a little further away. "I'm not even sure it's real math."

"Not your hobby, then?"

"Not so much, no."

All three of them looked over to the door as it opened to admit Rachel, the canine form of Angelica, and Lisa. The dog looked around alertly, wagging its tail, then after a look at Rachel who made a small gesture, trotted over to sit in front of Saurial, appearing pleased to see her. The lizard-girl squatted down and scratched the small dog's head between the ears, making her tail wag even faster.

"She looked happy, Rachel," Saurial said, glancing up at the auburn-haired girl who had stopped next to her.

"Likes you," Rachel said shortly. "Knows you're friendly. And scratch in the right place."

Saurial grinned, scratching a little more with the tips of a couple of talons, which Angelica seemed to appreciate, then stood up again. Both the girls took seats, Lisa picking up her coffee and sipping it. "Want a drink, Rachel?"

"No." The girl thought for a couple of seconds. "Thanks."

"No problem," Saurial replied as the other three stared at Rachel, who looked back with a somewhat embarrassed and truculent expression. Brian was privately amazed, that was almost a human response. Being here really was good for the young woman.

Moving to a position at the end of the table where she could see all of them, Saurial sat on her tail, then leaned forward and put her elbows on the table with her hands folded in front of her. She examined each of them in turn.

"Stop channeling Monty Burns and get on with it, you scaly menace," Lisa finally said with a sigh.

Smiling suddenly, Saurial stopped the rather intense observation that had been making Alec look mildly worried and Brian wonder what was going on.

"Aww. I was having fun."

"I presume you got us all over here to tell us something and not just amuse yourself?" the blonde asked, giving her a hard look.

Saurial smirked in a very Lisa-like manner. "Oh, yes, now what was it again…?"

"You're a pain in the ass."

"Takes one to know one."

Alec snorted with laughter while Brian smiled a little.

"OK. Enough fun." Saurial looked around at them again. "I've been working on a way to get Lung off your backs permanently for a while now. Earlier today, I met with him and we came to an arrangement we can both live with. You're all in the clear from his point of view."

All four of the former Undersiders gaped at her, even Lisa apparently completely blindsided by this statement.

"You're welcome, by the way," Saurial added with a grin.

"You… How..." Lisa seemed stunned. "What?" she finally finished, a little weakly.

"We met, we talked, I made him an offer he didn't want to refuse, he accepted after some discussion, and we parted ways as… definitely not friends, but people who understand enough of each other to be able to make it work." Saurial watched their reactions. "As long as you don't do anything to him, he'll leave you alone."

There was silence for a while as they all absorbed the information. Eventually, Lisa asked, in a slightly disbelieving manner, "You expect he'll keep his word?"

Saurial nodded. "I do, actually. Lung is someone to whom his word is important, I think, assuming you can get it in the first place. He knows full well that my family would take it very badly if he went back on it, and also knows we will stick to our side of the deal. Unless you deliberately provoke him, which I suggest you don't do, he will keep up his end of it. The ABB will do what he tells them to do so they'll leave you all alone as well. You're in the clear."

"What does that mean for us?" Brian asked after thinking about it some more.

"Mostly that you can leave if you want to. You don't have to, Danny is fine with you guys staying here like you have been if you want and so are we," the reptile replied immediately. "The only one who still has anything to worry about is Rachel, because of the trouble from her triggering. But Danny has Carol Dallon on the case, Director Piggot is being remarkably cooperative about it, and I think that in the not too distant future that will get sorted out as well. The local PRT will almost certainly leave her alone, as will the BBPD, since both of them know she's under our protection. The cops like us, and the PRT are pretty happy with us at the moment as well."

She shrugged a little. "I wouldn't advise wandering around the city even so, Rachel, since your face is fairly well known and there's always the possibility of some idiot overreacting, but even there if you were discreet you could probably go shopping or something. Best to take one of us with you, though."

Rachel looked up at her from where she'd been scratching Angelica under the chin, apparently listening and thinking. After a few seconds she grunted. "Happy here, don't need to leave. Don't need anything else."

"Fair enough. No one is going to try to make you leave, you have a home here as long as you want it," Saurial replied, smiling gently. Rachel smiled back, very slightly and very quickly, then went back to watching her dog. Looking at the rest of them, the lizard-girl went on, "For the rest of you, that's about it. Brian has, or had, some minor charges against him, but I checked with the PRT and they honestly don't care, and a contact in the BBPD said that as long as you keep your nose clean from now on they have much more important things to worry about. All things considered you're very, very low priority and given a year or so with no trouble I suspect any remaining charges will be quietly dropped."

"And neither Alec or I have anything to worry about at all," Lisa mused out loud. She was smiling to herself in a genuinely happy way.

"Nope. Nothing on file against either of you. The Undersiders didn't stick around long enough to really get on the radar, although I suspect if you hadn't run into Raptaur you'd have ended up in a place where you'd have had trouble walking away from it. But we'll never know, now." Saurial grinned at her. "Considering all the things Über and Leet have done, which haven't stopped them turning their lives around, perhaps I'm wrong, though. Whatever, it's not important any more. Welcome to being productive members of society. Sort of."

"So, we can just walk out that gate any time we want, now?" Alec said slowly in a way that made it obvious he was trying to make sure there were no hidden traps.

She nodded. "Sure. And right back in again if you want. No one will keep you here, but no one will kick you out either."

"Cool," he replied, visibly thinking about the entire thing.

"What about Coil?" Brian asked, thinking about the last possible issue.

Saurial regarded him for a moment. "I'll need your promise that you won't spread what I'm going to tell you around..."

Brian looked back, then at his friends. Lisa immediately nodded, in a way that made him think she already knew whatever the scaly cape was going to say. He signaled his acceptance of the terms as well. Rachel wasn't far behind them in agreeing, not looking up from where she was stroking Angelica beside her chair. Alec sighed faintly. "Oh, all right. I'll keep quiet. All these secrets…"

Lisa poked him in the ribs and he grinned.

With a chuckle, Saurial nodded as well. "Good enough. It's not for public consumption since the PRT is still working the case and probably will be for months, but Coil isn't an issue any more. On Sunday, the PRT, with our help, took Coil and all his mercs down. They're all in custody, all his assets were seized, his base searched, and he's out of action for good. I can't say any more about it now, though."

Brian stared at her. Lisa was smiling again in a knowing manner, Alec was looking suspiciously at the blonde, and Rachel merely appeared pleased. "Shit. That's impressive. Hey, was that horrible stink something to do with that?"

"Can't tell you," she replied.

"I see." He regarded the lizard-girl, then looked at his friends. "So we can go back to our old base and see if anything's left?"

"You can. We've been keeping an eye on it discreetly, since we didn't want to tip off Coil's people until he was shut down, and I made sure it was secure. Everything should be there. Zephron said he's happy to get one of the trucks and help you clear it out."

"I can get my save-games!" Alec said with a wide grin, that slowly fell. "But I've already redone half of them… Meh, whatever, I'll have some spare consoles and the sofa was sweet. I want that."

"We have room," Saurial laughed.

"I want to check my apartment too," Lisa put in. "I know it's probably untouched, it was in a good area and we haven't been gone that long, but there are some things I want even so."

"Will you move back there?" Brian asked curiously, turning to her. She looked indecisive, which was an unusual expression for her.

"I'm… not sure. I'll have to think about it. I like it here, and it's close to work..." She grinned when he chuckled. "But I had more privacy there." She tugged one ear gently as she thought, then shook her head. "Don't know right now."

"Well, whatever you decide, there's always room here for all of you." Saurial leaned back a little and indicated the room and by extension the rest of the DWU facility. "You're part of all of this and the DWU looks after its own. As does the Family. Just, as a favor to me, please don't poke Lung again? I'm not sure I could persuade him to back off again and I don't want to have to kill him unless there's no choice."

All of them exchanged glances, and even Rachel smiled at her comment. "I think I can speak for everyone when I say 'There's no way I'm going anywhere near that lunatic again if I can avoid it,'" Brian said vehemently.

"He's not that bad when you catch him in a reasonable mood," Saurial snickered.

"I wasn't aware he had reasonable moods," Lisa retorted dryly. "What the hell did you offer him to make him agree to this?"

Saurial looked smugly pleased. "A million dollars cash, a little more than eighty pounds of gold bars, and half an hour of unrestricted personal combat with Raptaur at a time and place to be determined." She watched all of them stare at her in total shock. "The funny thing is that in hindsight I think he might have gone for just the personal combat on its own. Live and learn, right?"

There was yet another long pause. Brian finally closed his mouth, shook his head, and stood up. "I'm not even going to ask for more details, knowing them would only freak me out. Thanks, more than I can say. For everything."

"You're entirely welcome, Brian. And the rest of you guys." She smiled at him. "You can contact Aisha and your dad now if you want."

"That was what I was thinking about," he admitted.

"Go find Zephron and tell him I'm asking him to drive you over to your Dad's apartment if he doesn't mind," she suggested. "He won't, I talked to him about it earlier. Get that out of the way first. Family is important. Tomorrow you can get all your stuff from your old place."

Brian nodded, his mind slightly numb. All this had come out of the blue and his circumstances had abruptly changed in ways that were still sinking in. He regarded his friends, who were all looking thoughtful too. He could tell Lisa had genuinely been surprised by the revelations and was still mulling them over. Alec, for him, looked quite pleased and relieved, but he was always hard to read, since his emotional response was sort of low key at the best of times. Rachel, oddly, was looking a little worried. After a moment he realized one possible reason and walked over to her, crouching to look in her eyes. "Whatever happens, Rachel, we're not going to abandon you. I promise."

She peered back, searching his face, then nodded once before casting her gaze down to Angelica who was looking at her with her head cocked to the side. "Good," she said in a low voice. It was only one word but it expressed a lot.

Straightening up, he turned back to Saurial, who was watching them both with a sympathetic and rather knowing expression. "Thanks again."

"No problem, it was my pleasure. Go see your family. Say hi to them for me and get Aisha to show you the statue I made her."

A little puzzled, he stared for a moment, then nodded, turning to the door. "I'll see you guys later," he called as he headed for the exit. A few minutes later he was looking around the cafeteria for Zephron, the huge man grinning at him when their eyes met.

"Need a ride?"

"I do, as it happens," he replied, feeling surprisingly contented with life. Things definitely seemed to be working out well right now.

With any luck, he might be able to get his sister dealt with properly now, which would be a relief to him, her, their father, and probably the cops and the school too. The thought making him smile faintly, he followed the older man out of the room.

Lisa waited until Alec, who still seemed thoughtful, and Rachel, who was definitely looking happier than normal, both left the BBFO building and the door closed behind them, before she slowly turned to stare accusingly at Taylor. The Varga popped into existence beside her as Raptaur, grinned at both of them, and wandered off to annoy people on PHO for a while.

"How the hell did you convince Lung to drop it, even with close to two million dollars worth of cash and gold? And where did you get a million in cash in the first place?"

"Oh, right, I owe you guys about six hundred grand," Taylor snickered as she got up and headed for the fridge, pulling a couple of cans of coke out and tossing one to her, for once popping the tab on the other and drinking it normally. "And Linda another four hundred."

Lisa looked up at the top of Amy's workshop, then back at her friend, rather accusingly. "You stole our money?" she grumbled, looking peeved. "We worked really hard for that."

"The money you stole in the first place. Yep. But I only borrowed it, I needed a lot of small bills in a hurry. And you have nothing to complain about, you ripped off Calvert for a hundred times as much at least."

Lisa smirked, suddenly happy again and holding up three fingers. "Three hundred times as much. At least. I still haven't gone through all the property holdings and worked out the full values, there have been too many other things to do. Plus the DWU technically owns two construction companies now, not to mention a few other things that could come in handy."

Taylor laughed, finishing her coke then eating the can, before reverting to her base form and dropping into a chair, the end of her tail waving back and forth slowly. "So you don't need six hundred grand in used bills anyway."

"It's the principle of the thing," her friend said as she took another seat.

"Here, if it'll make you happy," Taylor chuckled as she handed Lisa a large block of pure gold.

"Oooh, shiny," the blonde cooed, cuddling the big lump of yellow metal. "You should do this. Make lots of gold."

"I don't want to crash the economy, like I've said in the past." Taylor shrugged. "You know as well as I do that the value of things like that," she indicated the gold brick, which was indeed about the size of an actual brick, "Are mostly a shared delusion. If people suddenly get the idea that there's an unlimited supply of the stuff that I'll just hand out when they ask, the value of gold would go through the floor overnight, regardless of whether I actually made much of it or not. I'm not going to risk it. Same with most precious metals, gems, that sort of thing. They're for special purposes, not handing out like candy on a whim."

"And we counted as a special purpose?" Lisa asked with a smile.

"Of course you did, 'cousin'," Taylor giggled. "Anything for family."

"Thanks." Lisa put the gold block on the table and rested her hand on it. "Don't worry about the cash, I'm only joking anyway."

"I know. I'd have asked you but I wanted it to be a surprise. I will put it back when we get some more liquid funds in, it's always useful to have a cash reserve and you guys did steal it fair and square. Same with the stash we lifted from Skidmark, that's earmarked for Linda, but she won't miss it for now."

"It was definitely a surprise," Lisa said with a shake of her head. "I had no idea at all what you were doing."

"That was the whole point," Taylor replied. "It was easy enough. Varga came up with the idea, which is why he taught me Japanese. He showed me how to be… sort of formal, I guess, as well. How to speak in a manner he'd respect." They both looked over at the demon who was grinning to himself, trolling PHO again, which he seemed to enjoy more than he probably should have. "It worked. Lung looked very surprised at first, but he did listen, and I'm sure he'll keep his end of the bargain. The guy is… more complicated than I'd expected."

"Lung is in his own way an honorable man," the Varga said, still typing rapidly. "He has little patience for laws and rules that get in his way, but he will keep his word when he gives it. As I explained, he's in many ways a classic warlord type. Personal power and personal honor are paramount to him, above any normal politics. And we intrigue him. He's not sure what we are, what we want, or why we work the way we do. He also knows that he wouldn't do the same thing under the same circumstances, nor would most of the others he's come across over the years. Which explains some of his comments."

Glancing over his shoulder for a moment, the demon shrugged. "I suspect he feels that your willingness to take him head on showed a degree of respect for his own power that he appreciates, and reciprocates. The request for personal combat would tend to reinforce that idea. Regardless of the outcome, he will be satisfied if he feels that both of you did your best and didn't insult each other by holding back. I've come across that type many times."

"I remember from some of Princess Luna's experiences," Taylor nodded. Lisa looked at them both and wondered, not for the first time, what it was like to be able to remember the experiences of people who had passed on possibly millennia ago, and universes away. She didn't ask, though, since it was unlikely that either of them could explain it enough to really explain it.

"Any idea where and when you're going to give him a kicking?" she asked after a moment. "Mostly so I can stay well out of the way, but partly so I can get some bets laid."

Taylor giggled. "I'm not sure you'll find anyone who will take those bets. No, I don't know when yet, it won't be in the immediate future since there are so many other things to do first. Where… Not sure, but we need to talk to Dragon soon anyway about lots of things so we could ask her for advice. I bet there's somewhere up north in Canada we could trash without anyone getting too worked up about it."

"Probably. I'll think about it myself and do a little research." Lisa leaned her chair back and propped her feet on the table. "You still surprise me all the time. I have to say I did not see any of this coming."

"You're welcome, Lisa," Taylor smiled, doing the same thing. "It was my pleasure. I hope it goes well with Brian and his family. His father seems a decent enough guy and his sister is sort of amusing."

"Aisha is a little pain in the ass most of the time, but she's also a smart kid," the blonde replied. "I have to admit I like her. Even though she seems to go out of her way to be difficult."

"Says..." Taylor grinned at her.

"Oh, shut up, you're worse than Aisha and me put together," Lisa snickered. She looked at the time on the computer screen next to the one the Varga was annoying people on. "Amy's taking her time."

"She'll turn up sooner or later," Taylor shrugged, changing back to Saurial. "Let's go and see how the boys are getting on."

"OK." Both of them got up, the demon joining them moments later, and all three went off to see what the newest DWU members were doing. The gold brick, left on the table, silently evaporated into thin air a short while later.

Aisha got off the sofa, where she'd been watching a movie on the TV, and stomped over to the door mumbling to herself in annoyance. "Forgot your keys, didn't you!" she said loudly. Her father had gone out a little earlier to get some stuff from the convenience shop on the next block and it wouldn't be the first time he'd managed that. Unlocking the door she yanked it open, adding, "Considering how many times you've done it I'd have thought that..."

She stopped talking abruptly when she realized that the guy on the other side of the door grinning at her wasn't her dad. But it was someone she was very familiar with.

"Brian!" she yelped, after a couple of seconds of shock, smiling widely until she managed to get herself under control. Forcing the smile off her face, she glared severely at him. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Working, little pain in the ass," he replied, reaching out and ruffling her hair, which he knew full well she hated. Pushing his hand away she smoothed it down again, then stepped back.

"I guess you'd better come in, then," she told him.

"If you're busy, I can come back..." He looked at her with a glint of humor.

"Get in here, you asshole," she snapped, reaching out and grabbing him by the belt, then yanking hard. He made a funny sound of surprise and followed her urging. Slamming the door behind him, she walked around to look him in the eye from the more than a foot difference in their heights. "Fucker," she snarled, planting a fist in his gut like their dad had taught both of them. Taken unawares, he grunted in pain, although she was aware she'd done minimal damage. The big guy was very solidly built.

"What was that for?" he asked, sounding slightly winded.

She glared fiercely at him, then suddenly wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, resting her head on his chest. "I thought you'd really gotten into trouble, you big idiot," she sighed, sniffling for a moment. "Then when that crazy lizard turned up… That was really fucking strange."

"Language, Aisha," he remarked, but there was no heat in it. He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her gently back so he could see her face. "I'm sorry. Really. I didn't want to worry you."

"Worry me?" She let go of him and affected an unconcerned air, wandering back to the sofa and throwing herself onto it, bouncing a couple of times. "You didn't worry me. I was just… just..."

He sat beside her and pushed her a little. "Just what?"

"Pissed," she finally said, pushing back. "You said you'd visit and you didn't. I don't like being lied to."

"I didn't lie to you," he protested, still smiling. "I was… unavoidably detained."

Giving him a narrow-eyed glare, she waited.

"For a while. Nothing I could do about it. Honest."

"Yeah, right," she growled. "Couldn't even call me? You had to send an insane reptile to freak me out instead? What's that all about? How did you meet Saurial of all people? And why's she doing favors for you?"

They both looked up, just as he was about to say something, at the sound of a key in the lock. Their father walked in and stopped dead when he saw Brian sitting on the couch. After a few seconds, he wordlessly pushed the door shut behind him, put the bag of groceries he was carrying down on the small table just inside the entrance, and removed his coat which he hung up in the closet on the other side of the hall. Retrieving the bag, he headed past them to the kitchen.

"We're having spaghetti," the elder man said as he went into the other room. "Aisha, set the table. Brian, take your coat off, and wash the dishes."

Brother and sister looked at each other, then went to do the relevant tasks.

The conversation they had over the meal was a little odd. When Brian left some time later, she extracted a promise from him not to stay away so long, to introduce her to some more of the Family, and to be careful.

Lying in bed in the dark she stared at the ceiling for a while, then closed her eyes, a small smile on her lips.

He might be an idiot, but he was her idiot, and she was relieved he was both safe and apparently enjoying himself.

Zephron lowered the book he was reading and looked over as the young man opened the door and got into the passenger seat. Finishing his coffee he crushed the cup in his hand and dropped it into the paper bag his doughnuts had come in, balling the entire thing up then flipping it over his shoulder into the rear seat. Turning the interior light off, he started the truck. "Go well?" he asked as he put the vehicle in drive.

Brian, who was looking both thoughtful and fairly content, nodded. "Yes, thanks. Not bad at all."

"Your old man happy to see you?"

"Difficult to tell with him, sometimes," Brian replied, watching the road they were driving along, heading back towards the DWU. "I think so, though. He didn't shout which is probably a good thing."

"The money probably helped." Brian glanced at him, making him smile a little as he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye. "No, she didn't tell me, but you're a good kid, you'd have had her pass some cash on when she went to tell your family you were OK."

The boy nodded, going back to looking out the windscreen. "What about your sister? Aisha, right?"

"Yeah. She… was annoyed." Brian rubbed his stomach ruefully, making Zephron grin. "And has a hell of a punch for such a small girl."

"But I guess was also pleased."

"I… yeah, I think she was. She seemed happy, which is good."

"It is. Always best to keep your sister in a good mood." They exchanged a glance, then both chuckled.

"Thanks for helping like this."

"No problem, Brian. Like I said, you're a good kid. And one of us, not to mention a friend of Saurial's. I don't mind."

Both of them fell silent as he kept driving, but when he looked over a little later, Brian was definitely looking happier than he had been for a while. Pleased, since he liked the young man, Zephron went back to paying attention to his task, while wondering how Danny was doing with his family reunion.

"I need a drink."

Rudy looked at Benny, who was feeling very much like he shouldn't have gotten out of bed that morning, before nodding. "Liquor store about half a mile way."

"That'll do."

"Get a crate of the good beer this time," his friend said as he indicated, then turned towards the source of alcohol.

When they arrived, he parked outside the store. Benny got out. "Be right back," he said as he did so. Walking into the shop, he looked around, then headed to the beer section, grabbing a twelve-pack of a brand he liked. Heading towards the till, he put it on the counter and reached for his wallet as the clerk looked at him.

"Hey, small world, isn't it?" A horribly familiar voice spoke from right behind him. Benny, his heart feeling like it had just stopped out of sheer terror, turned his head very slowly and looked over his shoulder at the smiling face of Boss Hebert, who was holding a bottle of expensive wine. The dreadful man held it up.

"I thought I'd take a nice red to Tony's tonight," he explained, although Benny wished he wouldn't. He didn't want to know. "I thought I remembered this place, even though I haven't been here for years." Glancing around, he added, "Seems pretty much the same." Putting the bottle on the counter, he pulled out his own wallet. "Here, let me treat you to that, Benny."

"That's not..." Benny managed.

"No, it's no problem," Boss Hebert smiled. "After that fright you got it's the least I can do. We wouldn't want you to go home unhappy, would we?"

He handed the clerk, who was watching without much interest, the relevant amount of cash. "Keep the change," he added.

"Thanks, man," the guy said, putting it in the till and slamming the drawer shut, then going back to his magazine, ignoring them completely.

"Well, I'd better be on my way," Boss Hebert said with a look at his watch. "I don't want to be late. See you around, Benny." He smiled again, his eyes clear and focused on Benny's face, then turned and left.

Benny waited long enough to hear an engine start, then recede into the distance, before he picked up the crate of beer in shaking hands and went out as well. Getting into the car, he stared at the wall of the shop in front of them.

"What's up?" Rudy asked, looking curiously at his motionless friend.

"Boss Hebert doesn't follow you," Benny said hoarsely, leaning back and closing his eyes. "Because he's always already there. Waiting..."

There was a long silence. Eventually Clara leaned forward between the seats and poked the crate he was holding in his lap. "How many of these did you drink in there, Benny?" she asked suspiciously.

Benny merely sighed, trying to work out just how and when his life had turned into a horror story.