Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Keira stared out the window at the children that ran up and down the
crowded city street. Since she lived in the Industrial Section parents could leave their kids outside unattended without fear of gang violence or brutal attacks from Krimzon Guards. Keira watched as a little girl came out of the door in front of one apartment, accompanied by an older boy that she guessed to be the girl's brother. The boy ran off quickly to join a group of friends, leaving the girl standing in the street sucking her thumb. A large stray dog came up to her, and she screamed in terror. A few older boys came nearer to her, but far from helping her they laughed as she screamed for her brother. He was too far to hear her.

That's like me, Keira realized. This hell of a city has got me in its jaws like an ugly old dog, and no matter how loud I scream no one can hear and come to my rescue. Especially not Jak.

This did little to draw her from the depression that had hung over her like a heavy rain cloud ever since she found out about Jak's death three days ago.

It was a nice day that day, but that did not matter to the people that were in the long funeral procession that paraded through South Town to the public burial grounds. These many people were mourning the death of Kassim Ridilee, an eighteen-year-old actor who was known for his brilliant dyed-yellow hair, who had perished in a freak accident in the port three days ago.

Keira was rapidly giving in to the despair that had wrapped itself around her heart in the last few days. She felt it in her very bones. She knew that something must happen today, or... she would fall.

It had been five days now, long enough for her to think about her pain all she had too. She had missed still more work, and she feared her job was in peril. But she didn't care anymore. How ironic for her to die here, in the hustle and bustle of the city, when so had Jak been crushed by an oncoming zoomer.

She needed a savior, someone to sweep her off her feet and out of the anguish that she had been sucked into. She tried to think positively; really, she did. But it seemed all she could do to get out of bed in the morning. Only one could be her savior: Jak. But he too had fallen, and she had not been there with him.

There was a loud banging on the door. Keira knew it was Errol. Only he banged so loudly and kicked at the door when she did not answer. Other than him, no one ever came to the door. "Damn it, Keira!" he screamed through the door. "I know you're in there! What's wrong? I want to help you!"

Help me? Keira thought vaguely. No one can. For some reason the thought seemed wildly funny to her. She let a giggle escape her lips. It sounded a bit like a sob to Errol as he stood out in the hallway, but he could not hear if she said anything else because just then a woman stuck her head out of the door down the hall and told him to keep it down because her baby was sleeping.

Errol sighed and eased open the door. It wasn't locked, he noticed, and she always kept it locked. He stepped in and was surprised at what he saw.

She didn't even look at him, just kept staring out the window at the street. As she watched, a bunch of Krimzon Guards ran down the street, scattering the crowds of kids at play. Errol strode over to her and made her look at him.

Her azure eyes were full of anguish and terror. He had never seen her like this, and wondered briefly whether or not she was drunk.

Her face was pale and tear streaked, her eyes red-rimmed. Her clothes hung loosely on her emancipated frame. Unsteadily, she stood up. "Are you sick?" Errol asked. He wanted to get out of there if she was.

She shook her head, but inside she was thinking, Can't you see? Heartsick. With a slight groan she laid her head on his chest, listening to the beating of his heart and wondering if he really cared or not.

He placed his arms around her. She knew he cared. "I'll be ok. Just go away awhile. I'll be at work tomorrow." Secretly she had absolutely no intention of showing up for work the next day, but it might make him leave.

It didn't. He lingered at the door as she tried to just make him go away. "You need something to take your mind off whatever's bothering you. Let's go out to dinner."

Without waiting for her too accept or decline, he pressed on with the details of where they would go and at what time, ending with, "I'll pick you up at 7:30," before he rushed out the door.

Keira sagged against the wall. So much for being left here alone to die. Now she would have to get ready to go somewhere tonight, and put on an act for Errol to make him think that everything was all right and she had just been having a bad day.

"Did you think the restaurant was ok?" Errol asked her later that night.

"Yes, it was fine. Thank you very much." Keira was distant now. The entire night in the restaurant, she had put on a big act for him, but now she didn't want to hide it from him. She wanted him to know how she felt, and she was certain that he wanted to know.

They were walking in the agricultural district. Errol had complained that he didn't like that part of town. He had said it was too dirty. Keira, however, insisted. She had loved the trees and plants that had surrounded her house back in Sandover Village, and she missed them dearly. This part of town was the closest she could that in Haven City, where so much of the city was cold, false, dull metal.

Keira let out a sigh as she thought of her old world, one where she knew where she was and felt comfortable. Errol took this as a sign that she wanted to talk. "What's the matter?" he asked.

She wanted him to know how she felt, although before today she hadwanted to hide it. All of a sudden Keira felt the brick wall that she had been building higher and higher for the past year crumble to dust. There were some parts of her story she couldn't say, but most she had to say. "I just feel so alone."

Errol smiled to himself. This was what he had been waiting for. He had been ready to give up on Keira; she was taking too long to spill out her secrets to him. But now... this would be his victory. She would fall prey to him just as the others had. "You're never alone. I'm always with you." He felt a strange power as he said those words. He knew that he had just crossed a line, and there was no going back now.

"I don't know what I'd do without you. You see, I can't remember what happened to me before I began living near the stadium. You saved my life, and I owe it all to you." She hugged him, and this time he didn't flinch as he usually did, even though she was smearing tears on the front of his jacket. She didn't feel comfortable telling him about Jak. That was her thought and hers alone, and she planned to hold it to her the rest of her life.

"It'll be okay, Keira. I don't know what happened to you before, but now we can start a whole new life. Forget that old one. We can be together," Errol murmured, stroking her shiny green hair.

Keira believed him. Now all she wanted to do was be able to talk to him like she used to talk to Jak, where she could say anything and he could say anything and neither thought badly of the other. She wanted to talk to him the way she hadn't talked to anyone for so long it seemed like forever.

Though her heart told her that she wanted to talk and not make out, her head turned upwards to meet Errol in a fiery kiss. That sealed Errol's victory. He looked into her eyes and mistook the mixture of new hope and lingering despair to be passion.

That night, behind a stand of trees in the "dirty" section of the city, Keira put to death a lifetime of conviction, and shattered all of her past with Jak, every painful piece. And Errol had what he wanted.

"That's it," Keira whispered. She watched Jak's face for any emotion and saw none. "You know what happened after that. I got my own team and stopped working for Errol, and when I saw you and Daxter for the first time it pained me more than words could say. I had been unfaithful, and you... you were still there. Then I got so guilty, I couldn't help but be nasty to you in hopes that you would go away.

When I heard what happened to you in prison, I just about died knowing that you were being tortured while I was putting out for... him."

His face was wooden. "Oh," he said faintly. This was quite a shock, the whole thing... first his medical condition, then Keira's sudden breakdown... "Why do you think... Why didn't you realize that I would forgive you?"

Her eyes widened. "You were so angry." It was the simplest answer she could come up with. "I didn't think you would. But now you do?"

"Yes," he said. "Up until today, I didn't think that I cared for you anymore, but now your story made me realize that I do, and when you love someone like I once loved you, like I still love you, then... you forgive them when they make mistakes."

Nothing else he could have said would have mad her feel better than that. But still her heart was heavy. "I don't deserve it though. It was all my fault."

"Damn it, Keira!" he exclaimed. "It was not your fault! It was Errol. He was a sneaking, lying bastard, he seduced you and many other girls."

"I know." She couldn't speak any more. Even as she sat she wondered why she had ever begun to tell him this. She was a practical woman, always had tried to be strong. She tried to keep herself out of situations like this where she felt vulnerable, where she would be forced to reveal her feelings.

"I love you, Keira. You may not believe me but I swear, I do." There was nothing more to say. The rest was up to her.

Keira merely stared out the window at the raindrops that splattered on the glass.