OH MY GOD THIS TOOK TOO LONG! But it's not my fault...entirely. First i lost the opening i'd written for this chapter, and had to do that all over again. then i had my school musical and 50 other things to write so i forgot about this for a while...then once i finally had time today to finish it, the disk it was saved on went bad and i had to start ALL OVER AGAIN! but it's finally done! and the next chapter's gonna be gold, i promise! it's the creamy middle at long last! enjoy!

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Pegasus took Thursday off to spend as much time as was left with Megan. Croquet, always on hand, was treated to a smile on his employer's face that day that hadn't been seen for eight long years. So he was surprised, when he came in that night to bring Pegasus his tea, to see him looking dejected.

"Is something wrong, sir?" he asked, setting the tea tray down on his bedside table.

"Tomorrow's Friday," Pegasus answered simply.

It took a moment before Croquet understood. "Ah, of course. Megan will leave Saturday morning. It will be nice to have some quiet in the castle, won't it?" he asked with an odd smile.

"How shrewd, Croquet," Pegasus sat on his bed and took a teacup from the tray. "If you wanted to know how I feel about her, you could have just asked."

"It isn't my place, sir," Croquet responded, taking the other cup.

"You've known me longer than I have, everything is your place."

"Very well sir. You don't want to see her leave, do you?"

"No." Pegasus put the cup back down and stretched out on his bed. "I want her to stay here forever."

"Forever's quite a long time, sir."

"Of course!"

Croquet smiled fondly. "I haven't seen you this happy since—" he cut off abruptly, pausing for a split second and clearing his throat.

"It's alright, you can say it," Pegasus said, but he turned his head away. "Since Cecilia died." Both men were quiet for a moment, then Pegasus broke the silence. "I…had a dream about her the other night." He looked over at Croquet, who nodded for him to continue. "She was an angel, more beautiful than ever, with huge white, feathered wings. She was flying away, I was chasing after her…and she turned around with that smile…she asked for one last kiss, before I started giving them to another girl. So of course I kissed her…and then she floated away again. 'Don't lose her,' she said. 'Make her as happy as I was.' And then she was gone."

"I think you know what it means, sir," Croquet said hesitantly after a pause.

"No, I'm completely stupid. I can't figure it out at all," Pegasus said to the ceiling, waving one hand in the air as he spoke. "Of course I know what it means."

"Then what's troubling you so much?" asked Croquet.

Pegasus was quiet, but not as if he were angry. He was merely trying to find the words. "Is it…right, do you think? I mean, Cecilia was so delicate and gentle and quiet, Megan is just so…"

"Loud?" Croquet supplied with a wry smile.

Pegasus held up a finger to contradict him, but sighed and put it down, unable to find a better word. "Yes, exactly. But that's not it."

"Not what?"

"The problem." Pegasus sighed and stood up, wandering over to his window. "When I married Cecilia, I promised her never to fall in love with anyone else." He didn't continue, though the thought seemed unfinished.

"…You're in love with her, then? Megan?"

"She's loud, she's innocent, she trips over nothing, she skips through my castle singing nonsense and never leaves my side if she can help it," Pegasus replied, turning back and picking up his cup of tea. "How could I not love her?" He asked, adding liberal amounts of sugar to his tea before sipping it, and adding another spoonful.

"I'm afraid I can't see the problem, sir."

"Croquet, I thought you were intelligent!" Pegasus said with mocking surprise. "I promised…I promised her she'd be the only one."

Croquet, used to following his employer's jumpy train of thought was able to recognize that he was talking about Cecilia now. "But falling in love isn't something you can control, sir. It's one of those things that just…happens."

"Oh, what do you know?" There was a hint of a snap in Pegasus' voice. "Have you ever been married?"

"No, but I did have a good 25 years of life before I started to work for your family, sir," Croquet answered with a smirk. "I knew my share of girls. Trust me, sir, Megan isn't the type you want to let get away."

Pegasus took a rather long drink, considering this for a minute. "Well, it's irrelevant now. She's already told me…she doesn't love me."

Croquet sighed. "Why must you always pick impossible women?"

"I'm just meant to suffer, I suppose," Pegasus replied dramatically. "I've known the pains of sorrow ever since I was ten and they cancelled Funny Bunny."

"And those boys stopped picking on you for watching?" Croquet asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh yes, I'd forgotten about them. Thank you for reminding me, I'd known suffering since before that then. Oh, and there was that time when I was seven and I dropped my ice cream at the zoo, and when I was nine my goldfish died and—"

"Sir, this is not the time," Croquet said wearily. "You need to be thinking about other things right now."

"Croquet, I'm surprised at you! Why should I listen to my butler about what to think?" Pegasus asked, but he was smiling.

"Because you're about to lose a wonderful girl if you're not careful. I've always looked out for your well-being, sir. I want you to be happy again."

Pegasus didn't answer for a moment, but drained the last of his tea and put the sugar-encrusted cup back on the tray. "She's already said she doesn't love me. I don't want to bother her with my affections."

"You already told her, and that was her response?"

"Well, no," Pegasus shifted a little. "I mean, it was last week, and that was before she fell ill…"

"So you didn't tell her?" Croquet's eyes didn't leave Pegasus' face, even though the latter looked all around the room to avoid meeting the former's stare.

"Well…..no."

"Sir, please." Croquet put his empty cup down next to Pegasus', got up and took the tray. "At least think about it. Time is running out." With that, Croquet left.

Pegasus tried, but he couldn't deny the truth in what Croquet had said. He paced his room more than a few times before finally deciding, and going to bed.