CHAPTER 11 - CALL TO WAR

The next morning Layton had done his best to find the most formal outfit he owned.

Melanie had always told him that to act the part, he had to look the part. But he never really felt it. Not entirely. Others may see him as the leader of the train. But he knew the truth. He was only half of the equation.

Knocking on the bedroom door, although he had a plan in place and there was hope, he still felt a solid lump in his throat forming. He quickly blinked back tears as he heard the door mechanism click.

Opening the door, he suddenly felt very over-dressed for the occasion. Instead of one of her uniforms, Melanie wore a plain, light brown slip dress that fell to her ankles. A pair of simple black shoes on her feet.

Catching his look, she managed a small smile for him "There's no need to waste good clothing." She informed him

Before he could even think to say anything, with a quick gesture, she thrust a folded paper into his hands.

"It's my will." She told him in a quiet whisper. "I don't have much, but I'm sure you'll handle things properly."

Pausing for just a second, Layton quickly took the paper and slid it into a front pocket inside his jacket, not wanting to even acknowledge the document or what it stood for.

Slowly he placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to look her in the eyes. He wanted to give her some hope without building it up too much. There was still so much that could go wrong with his plan. But he hated the defeated look in her eyes. He needed her to keep fighting.

"Melanie," he whispered, "do you trust me?"

All Melanie found she could do was nod slightly, her gaze fixed on him.

"Do you really trust me?" he emphasized once more.

Melanie nodded again, but this time answered him with a whispered "Yes." as well.

"Then you listen to me." He told her in a low, firm tone." "Not matter what happens, first: I promised I wouldn't leave your side. And I'll keep that promise. No matter what happens, I'll stand by you right to the end. And second: No matter what comes, we WILL face it together. All right?"

Melanie gave him a small nod.

"Now one last thing." He told her, his tone getting a little firmer to make sure she paid attention. "This is very important. No matter what happens, you are not to do anything. Do you understand?"

Melanie wasn't sure she did or not, but she gave him a small, quick nod just the same.

She felt the soft, gentle kiss placed on her forehead as he pulled back.

"The others are waiting in the next car." He said quietly, stepping back so she could walk through the main room to the door. The same room they had sat in so many nights, usually over a late dinner together, and planned out how this new society was going to work. Or occasionally would sit and just talk, sometimes even laugh. Or share secrets. Slowly building the fragile trust between them.

Over the past weeks that they had shared the cabin, she had told him as much as she could about Wilford. About his visions and ideals. She had said she did this as a warning. To steer him away from the man's madness.

He had told her about his concerns. Mostly about himself in his new role. He was surprised at himself that he had revealed that to her after the very first council meeting she had attended.

Everyone else had already left. It was just the two of them, still sitting in their respective chairs. Perhaps the others had left in a bit of a hurry, noting neither of the two making so much as a move to even get out of their chairs. Just sitting at the table, their eyes locked.

"Why does everything with you have to be a fight?." He finally asked after the last person left. "All I am asking from you here is your help."

"To tell you what?" She replied formally. "I've already told you what you're in for, Mr. Layton. But you pushed forward, and now you have what you wanted. You are in control of Snowpiercer. Why keep coming back to me?" She gave him an almost smug look. "I'm just an engineer."

His hands slammed down on the table as he came out of his chair. "You're not 'just an engineer', Melanie!" He all but shouted at her. "You ran this train for nearly seven years. You pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes ever conceived, and you still remained sane through it all." Slowly the anger dissipated as he slowly sat back down, still fixing his stare on her. She hadn't so much as twitched a muscle at his outburst. "I need you to teach me how to do that." He whispered to her across the table.

And she had.

And so much more.

He often thought back to that night in the council room. In time he had learned she hadn't said anything then to be cruel or unsympathetic. It was more akin to teaching a child to ride a bike. You help for a while, but at some point you take your hands away to see how they do. If they succeed, then so did you. If not, you're still there to keep helping.

As time passed they had gone from the bitterest of adversaries to something one could almost call friends. And through it all he had always tried to show her nothing but the utmost respect. He told her one night, with a slight laugh, he had a new title for her.

She turned her head to him on her own pillow, looking up from the book she was reading. "And what's that?"

"Well," he answered, "you may no longer be the 'leader of the train'. Now I think of you as...'The First Lady of the train'. I feel that title suits you better than 'First Engineer'."

She had actually given him a small smile in return as she turned back to her book. "I like 'First Engineer' better."

He returned her smile. "I figured you would."

Though things were not always so amiable between them, they had each acknowledged that any relationship took time.

For Layton, in the beginning of the relationship, he had focused solely on the things she had done. It made it so much easier to hate her. To want to see her utterly destroyed.

But things changed as he took leadership. As the decisions became his now. Slowly he began to see the job more and more clearly from her side of things. The reasons behind the decisions. She wasn't perfect, and all her choices didn't make sense to him still. But he was beginning to understand decisions were not always so black and white. There was a lot of grey area. And now suddenly he was the one sitting in the 'hot seat', as he called it. He had to make the daily decisions. Settle the disputes. He had to judge the claims. Although he wasn't doing it all on his own as she had, when there was a final decision to make, they all looked to him to make it. Especially the difficult ones. Who would live where. Who got food that day and who got rations. Who was warm and who had to bare the cold. What illnesses got treated. Whose voice made the better argument.

And he began to realize how much he needed this strong, capable woman's help.

He never doubted in the past he had had to make tough decisions, but now they seemed to constantly come at him.

How had she done it for nearly seven long years?

But as he had hoped, as soon as they started sharing the cabin, things between them began to mellow bit by bit with each passing day. Mostly, he felt, out of sheer necessity. You can't live with someone you're constantly at war with.

At first it was more of just a common truce. An "I won't start anything if you don't' sort of mentality. But that wasn't to say they never fought. But their fights easily fell into two categories.

Most of their fights were more of disagreements over policy issues. And those never lasted long. For her part, Melanie seemed to make a genuine effort at those times to never go to bed angry at him. She made due effort to listen to his side of things and keep the discussion civil. Though at times he could tell with great restraint. But usually they would be able to talk it out before they turned out the lights at night.

But in the cases of their more volatile, personal fights, her anger seemed to have a 24 hour stopwatch attached to it. Something he had consigned himself just to get used to. During these fights he knew there came a point when he had to back off and let her calm down first for a day before trying to approach her again about it.

He related it all back to what Audrey had told him. Melanie simply wasn't good with her emotions. And 'anger', he quickly learned, was at the top of that list.

But even that he quickly shook off as he thought back to all of what Audrey had said.

'Not anger. Fear. And when she's afraid, she runs.'

And so when she got angry, he tried to look at it from that point of view. Especially if the anger was directed at him specifically. She wasn't angry so much as afraid.

But he never tried to corner her. Audrey had said 'Don't let her run. Go after her. Show her she has nothing to fear from you'. But when it came to their more volatile fights, Layton totally disagreed with the train's pseudo-therapist on that method. During those fights, if she left, he felt it was better to just let her go. To let her just be by herself for a while. And during those times he would simply patiently wait for her to come back to him. Because she always did.

She never abandoned him.

And now the very people she had fought to protect, had gleefully found her guilty of betraying them. And on what he would call, at best, shaky grounds. Like him, they had only looked at the surface facts about her. But that was where they had stopped in their reasoning and judgment. They never considered the reasons for the decisions she made. She had, in fact, been allowed to say little at her trial. Not that she made much of an effort.

Watching her then, he felt she had given up. Like there was no more purpose for her, so why bother.

Last night he had tried to get her to fight. To make her see that the train still needed her. That he needed her.

But she hardly even answered his pleas.

He knew it wasn't wholly that she didn't understand his pleas for her to fight. Just as before, it was simply that she no longer cared.

He directed her out the door to where the others were waiting with a false sense of calm. She might accept her fate, but he didn't. And even if she wouldn't fight, then he would fight for her.

The last thing he said to her as they reached the door to where the others were waiting was to lean down and whisper to her one more time, "No matter what happens, I'm going to be there with you. Right by your side. Right to the end."

Layton hadn't allowed anyone into the car where their cabin was. His reasoning was if...no, WHEN they got through this, he never wanted her to come to that car and ever have to remember walking out the door to see the people standing there who had only wanted to see her executed.

When they passed through the connector to the car where the others stood, one of the guards made a move to place handcuffs on her. But Layton immediately intervened.

"Show her some respect!" He stated, pushing the man away from her.

"But sir..."

"She isn't going to overpower all of us and effect an escape." He quickly cut the man off.

The guard backed down, pocketing the offensive items out of sight.

The trip to the room where the execution was to be held was made in utter silence. But through it all, Layton kept his hand firmly planted on Melanie's shoulder. She thought it was for comfort, but for him it was more of a way to keep her moving.

He gave her credit, though. She never hesitated or faltered even once. But watching her, he could see just how deeply she was burying everything. There wasn't one ounce of emotion in her now. She was utterly resigned to her fate and felt there was no way out of it. Too many people; people she had fought for, sacrificed for, cried for, now wanted her dead.

'But you never counted on me, did you?' he silently ask her as she continued to simply stare straight ahead, acknowledging nothing around her. 'The one person on this whole train willing to fight for you is probably the last person you ever suspected would.'

When they came up to the car in which the execution room was housed, Layton smiled, seeing his plan was, so far, perfectly in place.

Even as they approached the car, they had started to run into small groups of people in the hallways. Ruth appeared utterly perplexed by this, but tried to pay it no mind. Basically, no one should be in this area except those directly involved in the proceedings.

Ruth tried to keep focused on her goal. She ordered the people to make way, which they complied with. But as she and her group past, there was no missing the stares they were receiving from those standing by. Not a single one of them favorable to what was going on.

As she moved on, the crowd of people steadily got thicker, though they were still able to walk through them. But Ruth started to look exceedingly nervous. As she went, Layton noted she was checking out those crowding around her. She was looking at the faces of those gathered.

"Good.' He silently told himself. 'Let her know what it feels like to be on the other end of a trial where not one person in the room is your friend.'

All of this fell directly into place with the plans he had laid out to Till and Roche the previous night.

While what he wanted more than anything else to stay in the cabin and be whatever sort of support Melanie needed through those hours, he knew he couldn't.

He had too much to do.

And apparently, from the paper tucked safely in his jacket pocket, Melanie had occupied herself anyway.

After she had closed the door to the bedroom, Layton had turned to Till and Roche.

"All right." He firmly told them. "Ruth Wardell wants a war. Then we'll give her a war. First, we need supporters. Ruth has her army. We need to assemble ours. And fast." He turned first to Till. "Go to the Tail and get with Lights and Pike." He instructed her. "Tell them what's going on. Ask them to poll through the Tail and find anyone who holds any position under them. Have them asked those people where they stand regarding Ms. Cavill. If they hold even the smallest affiliation to her, make sure they are at the car tomorrow morning prior to the execution. Once you've got that covered, see if you can find any supporters among the Breechmen and tell them the same thing. Then head to the Night Car. We'll meet up there and I'll fill you in on the rest of the plan."

Turning to Roche, Layton gave him the same instructions as Till left on her task. Except he added for him to get with Ms. Audrey and have her help him poll Second and Third for supporters.

Once those plans were in place, Layton headed off to the engine room to see what support he could find among those working up there. He felt fairly certain, working with Melanie every day for weeks now, he would be able to gather solid support among the others that tended to the maintenance of the engine. And even if he didn't, he was sure Bennett would make sure any dissenters quickly fell in line.

He knew the man would be frantic about what was happening. But with Melanie gone, he couldn't leave the engine room.

When he got to the engine, everything was just as he predicted. Javi was at the helm with Bennett tending to the engine itself. But the minute he heard Layton's voice he ran into the engine room, practically jumping him, asking in a rush what was happening. Where was she? Was she safe?

Layton answered all of his questions as quickly as he could, then laid out his plan to both engineers. They both listened, then quickly agreed with the plan, stating not a single engineer wouldn't support her.

Layton managed to get Bennett to agree to stay at the helm the next morning. But if things didn't go as they planned, and the situation turned ugly, he needed to know he had support in the engine.

These were the groups of gathered onlookers who first greeted Ruth and her supporters as they approached the execution car. And Layton knew as they past by them, and saw Ruth gleaning quick glances around her, that she recognized most of those faces.

Tailies.

They comprised nearly half of those gathered in the car, and Layton silently thanked God Melanie had seen fit to turn up the heat in the Tail prior to all of this happening. That one simple act of kindness on her part, which although she never asked any recognition for from those who had benefited, he had made sure they knew just the same, had gained her many of the supporters who now stood as a solid force against Ruth Wardell and her group.

And mixed among them he saw the fruits of Roche and Audrey's efforts. Many of the passengers from Second and Third were also standing with the others, harboring the same disapproving stares of their Tailie counterparts.

And to add to the un-nerving display, Layton, coming down to the car several hours earlier to check on the progress of his plan, and had firmly instructed all those gathered that unless he gave a signal, no one was to say a single word. The gathering was to remain utterly silent. And unless ordered directly, no one was to interfere, no matter what happened.

'No matter what happened' was the second part of his plan. He had barely let Till and Roche in on that part of it, telling them simply, like the others, they weren't to do anything unless things got ugly. In which case, they were likely to be at the start of another revolution.

But he firmly believed it would never come to that. If everything went as planned, Ruth herself was going to make sure of that.

Once Ruth and her supporters reached the actual execution car, things only seemed to get worse for her plans.

While they had made it through the gauntlet of hard, cold, silent stares in the outer area, once they filed into the actual area just outside the execution room, they were met by another group.

This was the one Layton liked the best. And Till and Roche had not disappointed him in their efforts.

Standing in the outer room from where the execution chair was sitting, was every member of the train's newly formed council who were not already in Ruth's group. Alongside them stood the ones who had been appointed by the council 'governors' to serve under them. In short, the group gathered in the outer room represented the rest of the entire governing body of the train.

All in all, Layton figured all the gathered council members that were not in favor of Ruth's plan easily outnumbered her supporters.

They may not have been Melanie's most avid supporters, but they liked this solution to the problem even less.

'Good odds for a fight.' He silently told himself.

The icing on his cake was the fact Ruth herself was likely going to help in this part of his plan without even knowing it.

Walking through the gathered council members, Ruth seemed to take little notice apparently that right up to this point, not a single person had done one thing to try and stop her or her supporters, likely fueling her sense of holding the upper hand. Even the council members in the outer area stepped aside and allowed them to pass unrestricted into the execution room itself.

Layton gave a small, hidden smile. Slowly he watched the woman being lured into a false sense of security about the outcome. All of it following exactly as Layton hoped it would happen.

With two guards leading, Ruth's group filed into the room along with Layton and Melanie. But as he passed by one of the council members, Layton gave the woman a slight nod. Once the last of Ruth's group entered the room, the gathering outside suddenly moved into action according to Layton's plan. As the guards bringing up the rear of Ruth's group tried to enter the room as well, those standing outside effectively positioned themselves to block the doorway as the door was closed, appearing to simply want to get a better view of the proceedings.

A few guards made a brief comment, but they were quickly brought to heel as a senior council member stared them down, stating quickly and quietly they were members of the council and it was their appointed duty to witness the proceedings.

Cut off from their leaders, and severely outnumbered, the guards quickly backed down.

When they had entered the room where the execution chair was, Layton smiled again as he noted Ruth taking sudden notice all of her guards were no longer part of the group. But the fact that she did have at least two guards, and the un-nerving, silent crowd was also outside the room with the door now closed seemed to bolster her confidence as she turned back to another of the First Class council members.

When the chair had first come into Melanie's view, Layton noted she hesitated for a split second. But to him even that was too long. If his plan was to work, she couldn't show any fear. She couldn't let Ruth smell the smallest hint of blood in the water or she would latch onto it to try and control Melanie by it, and thereby equally try to gain control of how this played out.

He couldn't blame her though. She knew all too well what was coming, and he had to admit that knowledge had to be an absolute bone chilling fear. She had sat in that chair once already. Had the mask strapped over her face. Sat there and watched as the others left the room. Waited to feel the cold. To take that first inhale of the frigid air blasting through the tube, using the moisture in your body, in your lungs, against you.

That the feeling of that ice cold frigid air was the last thing you felt.

As they entered the room and the morbid procession stopped, he quickly pulled her back to him, his hands tightly gripping her shoulders as Ruth stepped forward to accept a paper handed to her from one of the First Class passengers already gathered in the room.

Taking the paper handed to her, Ruth unfolded it and began to read the charges and the sentence that had been imposed by the previous 'court'. A quick formality.

As the two guards went to take hold of her, Layton tightened his hold on Melanie's shoulders and forced her to take several steps back.

Everyone else had played their parts to perfection.

Now it was time for him to play his.

"Just a moment." He stated to those assembled in the room.

Ruth Wardell looked up. "Mr. Layton?"

"Normally," Layton stated in an almost light-hearted tone, stepping in front of Melanie, "I would be a gentleman and say 'Ladies first'." He added, turning a smile to the now confused look on Melanie's face. "But in this case, I think I'll break protocol."

And with that statement he promptly seated himself in the execution chair.

Everyone in the room except Melanie pulled back as though he had just produced a gun and was pointing it at all of them.

"Mr. Layton!?" Ruth exclaimed, a look of severe disapproval crossing her face. "This really is not the time for...levity!"

Layton leaned back in the chair. "I couldn't agree more." He replied, folding his hands in front of him. "It is, after all, my execution."

Several in the group began to mummer, most expressing their belief he had gone mad.

But Layton suddenly got to his feet, causing the group to close ranks even more and pull back again, unsure of what he might do.

For Layton's part, his number one goal was to get Melanie out of harm's way. Pulling her towards him, he carefully maneuvered her behind him, setting himself as a blockade between her and the others as he kept facing them down.

What he at first found infuriating, was she refused to stay there. Trying to bloke her from the others, she insistently instead moved herself to stand not behind him, but beside him. But it suddenly dawned on him what she was doing, which was exactly what he had told her...more or less.

They would face this together. And she was apparently determined to face it standing at his side. To fight beside him if necessary.

Layton smiled slightly as he went on with his speech. "I sat through that...what I'll loosely call a trail and listened to one charge after another being read against Ms. Cavill." He stated. "And I'm not here to dispute one charge against her. But as I listened, I thought...'I'm just as guilty as she is. I've done all of those things. I've probably done worse.' After all, I come from the Tail." He proudly announced. "I'm a Tailie! And you all know what WE'RE like." He added, looking around the room menacingly. But he quickly re-adopted his light-hearted tone as he pulled back from them. "So if she belongs in that chair," he added, pointing to it, "then so do I." And he unceremoniously plopped himself back in the chair, folding his hands in front of himself once again.

The room fell into utter silence. Layton thought of the cliche 'You could hear a pin drop' to describe that eerie silence.

But he didn't give those in the room enough time to use that silence to think.

"But here's my question to each of you." He stated, leaning forward on the seat. "After you've carried out your noble duties here...," He quickly pulled back up that menacing look as he slowly cast it around the room at each and every person gathered there. "...which one of you is next? Whose dirty. Little. Secrets...will be exposed next? A slip of a tongue?" He added quickly for emphasis. "Something discovered later that implements you? Or maybe one day someone just decides they don't like you anymore, and a wrong word in the right ear will solve their problem for them?

And along those lines, let me guess..." He paused as though actually giving it some thought, "...Ms. Cavill didn't do everything she's accused of all by herself." Layton carefully looked at those gathered around the room. "My bet is...she had help. People on this train all too willing to carry out any order from any one as long as it wasn't you and/or you benefited from it."

Layton paused to look around the room again. Not a single person standing before him even looked like they were breathing anymore.

Pulling himself to his feet, he marched right up to Ruth, dressed in her best Teals for the occasion. Not a full five inches from her, Layton stared down at her.

"Tell me, Ms. Wardell," he stated in a slow, low tone, "all those years serving the first class passengers, taking orders, doing as you were told? You never slipped?"

Ruth looked like she was ready to bolt from the room. "I...I never once betrayed the train." A barely held voice countered his accusation.

"And if I ask around a little," Layton asked, a slow smile creeping across his lips as he tilted his head a little, "how far would I have to go in the Tail section before I'd find someone willing to tell me a story about bargains you would make? Ones that ultimately benefited you because the Tailies didn't really have a chip to place on the table themselves because you held them all. How many of those stories could I bring back with me, Ms. Wardell?" He pointed behind him. "Enough to place you in that chair?"

Ruth looked ready to collapse as she cautiously looked around the room, noting every eye was now on her.

"These are lies!" She stated fiercely. "I am loyal to the train. I did as I was told...for the good of the train!"

Layton pulled back, holding up a finger. "Ah. A popular phrase; 'For the good of the train'. How many times did Melanie Cavill do any less, Ms. Wardell? For the good of the train? But she had to take it a step further, didn't she?. She wasn't just being loyal to the train. She was sheltering the last ruminants of humanity. Trying to preserve as many as she could within a limited space, with limited resources, all within an unknown time frame."

Layton quickly shifted his attention to another member of the group.

"And you!?" He stated just as fiercely, getting right up in the man's face. "No secrets to hide? Nothing you'd practically throw yourself off this train if it came to light?" He turned back to the group as a whole. "Suppose I stepped up to launch an investigation on the personal activities of each one of you over the past seven years. And then presented those findings to the other passengers. In! Detail! How many of you would find yourselves placed in that chair? That mask over your face?"

The room remained utterly silent.

"We've all done things we are not particularly proud of." Layton continued. "But if your going to satisfy the bloodlust...if you're going to quench every call for justice..., you're going to have to execute half of the people on this train. And as far as I'm concerned, you can start with me." He added firmly. "Because that isn't the society I fought to build here."

And once again Layton threw himself back into the chair, waiting for their decision.

He had given it his best shot. He knew his threats weren't empty. He had spent too many years in the Tail to think otherwise. Stories drifted around those cars like smoke. It was how they amused themselves, talking about the things the upper classes got up to. How they would betray each other for as little a thing as entertainment.

But just to be ready for however this went, he carefully slipped his hand into one of the jacket pockets, where he had hidden a small, sharp knife earlier that morning.

Slowly those in the group began to turn to each other, each with a look as guilty or worried as the next. Finally it was Ruth who stepped forward.

"She was given a trail, Mr. Layton." She stated in a albeit shaky voice. "She was found guilty. We must follow the law or there is anarchy."

Layton slowly pulled himself out of the chair again, never taking his piercing stare off the woman standing before him. Slowly he walked up to her and, with an all too knowing smile, carefully leaned down next to her ear and quickly whispered something to her.

For some far too obvious reasons, Ruth Wardell was a favorite for gossip among the Tailies. He was willing to bet he knew most of this one's dirty little secrets.

When he pulled back, Ruth was utterly white. Lowering her head she quickly stepped back into the group, saying nothing more.

"Anyone else want to guess what I already know?" Layton questioned them, but quickly held up a finger. "But be warned, the next time, I won't whisper it."

The group faced him down for all of five seconds before someone in the rear opened the door in the back and beat a hasty retreat out of the room. Layton made a quick note of the man and who among the rest moved the fastest to follow him.

Those were the ones with the most to hide.

Within less than a minute, the only people left in the room were he and Melanie, who stood staring at him like she was ready to implode.

Slowly walking over to her, Layton placed his hands on her shoulders, staring back at her with concern.

"I told you." he said softly. "Right to the end."

What bothered him the most about her was that she wasn't actually looking at him. When he moved, her eyes remained fixed on the wall before her.

"Melanie?"

She took a shallow, shuttering breath. "What now?" she ask in barely a whisper.

"Now we leave this place." Layton gently took her arm and carefully got her to turn around.

"That's good, Melanie." He coaxed her. "Now take a step for me. Walk out of this room and I swear to you you'll never see it again."

His promise seemed to motivate her as she actually took several steps in succession, managing to make it to the door.

But at the door she stopped. He tried to prod her through it, but she held firm. Slowly she turned to him, her eyes as devoid of any emotion as he had ever seen them.

"Why?" She ask.

"Why what? Why make them face the truth about themselves? That their no better or worse than you? Than me?"

"They could just as easily have called your bluff." She whispered back to him.

"Then it would all be over now, wouldn't it?

Don't dwell on it, Melanie. We won this one. Now lets get out of here."

But still she held firm. "What did you tell Ruth?" She ask.

Layton tilted his head slightly as he seemed to consider the question half seriously.

"Something I bet my life on literally she wouldn't want anyone to know. I could have picked from half a dozen little secrets of our Ms. Wardell. But there's no real secret to how many arms she took, and a few may even know about some deals she made. But there was one thing I was willing to bet very few people on this train knew about her, and she would give her own arm that no one found out. And it appears I was right."

"What?"

Layton gave her a small smile as he leaned back down to look her in the eyes. "They call them secrets for a reason, Ms. Cavill."

Melanie stared back at him, and he gratefully saw a little spark of that fire light back behind them.

"What?" She repeated.

Layton smiled back at her, trying to break though the tension that had wrapped itself around her. "If you make it back to our quarters, I'll tell you. Deal?"

Melanie stared back at him for a moment, then turned back to the door and stepped through it.

Even their own supporters at that point had left the execution car. He had asked Till and Roche to make sure they did so. More or less, they now served as a physical force clearing the way for Layton to get Melanie out of the car.

Once they had left it behind, Layton followed behind her all the way through each car back to their quarters. He silently congratulated her that through it all, through every look, every whispered comment, through every barely heard gasp, she kept her head up and kept walking. She never veered off that straight line she was walking. She never looked left or right or acknowledged any sound round her.

She simply set her path as she set her life.

To survive, she had to just keep moving.

Once they reached their quarters, she made a beeline for the bedroom, and once inside, quickly sat down on her side of the bed.

It was still her private sanctuary.

Sitting in silence, her face was as set as before as she stared at the floor and Layton was worried she might be back-slipping now that she was safe.

Carefully he followed after her and sat down next to her, but giving her space.

"You ok?" He ask cautiously.

"Keep your bargain." She replied.

Layton chuckled slightly. Leave it to Melanie Cavill to only focus on a promise made.

"All right." He answered with another chuckle. "But you first have to promise never to repeat it. Not even to repeat it to me. Promise?"

Melanie nodded.

"Say it." He insisted.

It was the unspoken, deepest form of trust between them. Layton had brought it up one night when they were playing 'Secrets'. Her question was worded in a way that he had to tell her a secret about himself that no one else knew. He had adhered to the rules of the game, but had sealed the deal with making her physically have to say she would never tell anyone else.

'A promise spoken is never broken.' He told her.

Melanie had laughed slightly at the statement, telling him it sounded like something two small children would agree to.

But she did it just the same.

Melanie sighed at the request, but acquiesced again . "I promise."

Layton nodded in response. "OK. But you be sure to keep your promise."

"I said I would." Came the stoic reply.

"You used to send Ruth as your 'emissary' to the Tail section. To bring back whoever you sent her to retrieve."

Melanie simply nodded.

"Well, on one trip she met a bloke back there who...sparked her fancy, shall we say."

Melanie's only response to the news was the smallest trace of a smile coming to her lips.

"So you see," Layton went on, leaning back on the bed, "what our dear prim and proper Ms. Wardell doesn't want anyone to know...is that she has a little piece of Tailie on the side."

Melanie rewarded him with the smallest, barely audible chuckle in return.

Layton pulled himself back up and rested his arm over his upper legs as he leaned towards her. "All I had to do," he added, "was whisper her little piece of the action's name in her ear to make my point."

Again he was rewarded with a small chuckle.

"How do you know all this?" She ask.

Layton shrugged. "I used to live there?"

This time Melanie turned to him. "And the Tailies have nothing better to do than gossip about the First Class?"

Layton shrugged again. "Beats watching the rat fights."

Melanie fell somber again as she turned back to the floor. "I guess."

Layton nudged her. "Why don't you try to get some rest. Been quite a day for you. And I'm sure you didn't get much sleep last night."

Melanie just managed a slight nod for him as he got up.

But as he walked towards the door, a soft voice stopped him.

"Layton."

When he turned around to see what she wanted, he found her just as he had left her, still staring fixedly at the floor. Just from her posture he could see the tension rising in her again. The fear of what she had just been through, what could have happened, taking hold even as she tried to fight it off. To block it out.

Walking back over to her, he carefully crouched in front of her.

"What is it, Melanie?"

Her voice shook as she spoke, even though he knew she was trying to hold it steady.

"Would you stay?"

Layton looked over at her, watching her fight with every ounce of strength she had left to hold her composure.

He wouldn't even try to blame her for the request. In her mind, she should be dead right now. Not sitting on their bed. She had spent the last 12 hours contemplating it. Seeing no way out.

He hadn't told her his plan when he saw her that morning because he didn't want to offer her false hope. Maybe he should have. Sometimes he just made the wrong decisions.

That was part of why he needed her so badly. To help him make better ones.

"Are you sure you want me here?" He asked. "I thought maybe you would rather..."

Melanie only nodded in response as a stray tear broke loose and rolled down her cheek before it finally fell to the floor.

Reaching over he gently lifted her face until she was looking at him. "Of course I won't leave you, Melanie." He whispered to her with a small smile. "I told you...I'd stay by your side. Right to the end."

Through her tears she managed a smile for him. "Promise?" She whispered back.

Layton smiled at her, then pulled her to him, folding her into the warmth and protection of his embrace.

"Promise." He answered.