Chapter 9:

"What did you say Lex?" Amber said a little too loudly into the stunned silence, setting the baby in arms into a fit of whimpers.

May focused her eyes on the floor and tried to hide the tears that were now freely falling from her eyes while Lex looked up at Amber with a look of pure defiance on his face.

"I said that Mega is alive." He said again slowly, as if he were speaking to a child.

"Why couldn't you have told us that before?" Amber yelled again as little Bray's cries began to fill the room. Amber handed her child over to Ellie and stood up to face Lex.

"All this time you've been here, you've known that this was coming and you didn't tell anyone! You just let us think that he was dead, that the tribes were at peace, and didn't say anything! And now Mega's got the upper hand! He's planted a bomb right outside the mall, any of us could have been killed, and you've known all along!"

Jay stood and placed a hand on Amber's arm, "Amber calm down, this isn't Lex's fault."

"Of course it's his fault! This all could've been avoided if Lex has just told us to begin with why he was here, instead of playing dumb and waiting for something to happen before he told us."

"Hey, I could've stayed in Liberty you know, it's not like I had to come back here to tell you anything." Lex said in his defense.

"Amber," Jay tried again to calm her, this time stepping between her and Lex. "This is not the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. If Mega's back then our enemy is out there, not in here. Everyone's fine, your baby's fine."

"How can you defend him Jay?" Amber turned her frustration to the standing in front of her. "We could've all been killed."

"It's not his fault, Amber. It's Mega's."

"That's enough!" roared Slade from his seat beside Ebony. "Mega is my brother, and if he is alive, then he's my responsibility. We don't know yet if he planted the bomb or not, but he's innocent until proven guilty. Josh had changed; he gave his life for us, why would he want to hurt us now?"

As they all looked at Slade and tried to think of some kind of explanation to offer him for his brother's untimely return, Sammy, Jack and Darryl entered the café.

"What's going on?" queried Jack, at the sight of the soot covered girls and the looks of shock and confusion around the room.

As the Mallrats began to explain the events of the last hour to the others, May slipped quietly away to her room.

Throughout the heated discussion between Amber and Lex, Salene had sat quietly watching May. There was something about her reaction that touched a place within Salene. Why wasn't May shocked, worried, fearful or confused like the others? Instead she seemed sad, resigned and tearful. This seemed to go unnoticed by the others, but to Salene, who seemed to be watching May more and more lately, there was definitely something wrong. May either found something on the floor extremely interesting, or she was trying to hide her reaction and her emotions from the other Mallrats. As she watched May leave the room something pulled at Salene, telling her to go upstairs, to check on May, to comfort her…

But no, she couldn't do that. She couldn't get to close to May, not after what had passed between them a few short months ago. But things had changed since then, hadn't they? May had changed since then. There was something between them now that hadn't been there before. A caring, a friendship, that Salene felt more strongly with May than with any of the other Mallrats. Instinctively Salene knew that if she didn't watch out for May, if she didn't take care of her, then no one else would.

A short time later when Trudy and Amber took a break from the heavy discussion of Mega to put their children to bed, Salene excused herself from the group and made her way up the stairs.

Salene stood for a moment outside of May's door trying to decide whether to disturb her or not. As the quiet sobs coming from within reached her ears, she found herself opening the door without conscious thought. She was across the room and kneeling beside the bed before she knew it.

May was curled in the middle of the bed, her arms wrapped around her middle, with tears streaming down her face. She stared up at Salene with wide eyes filled with anguish.

Salene reached out a hand to brush a tendril of hair back from May's face, and for the first time in months May didn't pull away from her.

"May, what's wrong?" Salene asked quietly and calmly.

"I don't know what to do Salene," May spoke softly, "I've lied to you, to Lex, to everyone." Her voice faded into sobs once more.

"It's alright May, you haven't done anything wrong. Everything will be fine, we'll get through this together, I'll help you." Salene offered comfortingly.

May looked up at her pleadingly, "Help me, Salene," she said through the tears, "Hold me…Please."

Salene looked at her stricken friend and wanted to help her in any way she could. Without worrying about past hurts or unwanted feelings she climbed onto the bed and gathered May into her arms. As they lay there in the darkness, May's head upon her chest, Salene's arm around her waist, the sobs began subside. Soon they were both lost in peaceful sleep.