She awoke from an incoherent dream with a scream on her lips, though not from the ensnaring delusions from which she had awoken. Rather, it was the actual scream from the bed across the way, as Mel thrashed her way out of yet another nightmare.

Katie glared at her companion unabashedly, helplessly, feeling the weight of guilt. She had not a single nightmare, no dreams of carnage or spells of remorse, and had invented them to keep from admitting. Rather, she fell into deliriums of want, of need, and awoke feeling hollow and horribly aware of her own physical self. This had been going on for at least half a fortnight, perhaps longer. The days seemed hazy and unimportant compared to this hell of a night, and the darknesses had begun to run together in cloudy spells of monochrome. Even the nightmares had to be better than this.

Feeling nearly crushed by the weight of her own angsts and thoughts, she threw off the restraining covers and wrapped a sullenly dark cloak about her shoulders, unconsciously muttered excuses as she went. As it was, she barely realized that she had left the room until she stood down the hall, glaring balefully at the window.

It was dead black, even the distant stars being too bright for this particular night. She leaned against it, letting her knees buckle as she pressed her forehead against the painfully cold glass. It looked much like she imagined the bottom of the sea must, dark and cold and lonely. But there was no surface above her to break through, only impersonally white ceilings decked with malevolently orange lights. Making up a mind that had already resigned itself, she threw herself away from the wall. A snatch of a long-forgotten haunting Celtic tune danced through her chaos, and for a moment she almost saw fans of color whirling through the air in tempo.

A hand, seemingly from nowhere, grabbed her shoulder. With a choked scream, jolted out of her own madness, she snarled at this intruder.

"You don't want to do this." How ironic it was, to see Obi-wan as the sane one in this equation.

"How do you propose to know what I do or do not wish to do?" What could he possibly mean by skulking about at the dead of night and nearly scaring the hell out of her?

He caught her eyes, unwillingly and reluctant on her part. But what she saw in there was pity, kindness, and it cut deeper than any anger could ever have. "Don't." Was all he said, noting her reactions closely.

"Why?" It came out more petulant and desperate than she had wanted, wavering disgustingly.

"Because this is the 'point of no return'. You go any farther, and there is no going back." She blinked at him, not understanding exactly what he was trying to say. "What I mean is, you give him this, and he will never let you go. Ever." For a single moment he thought that he might have gotten through to her, as melodramatic as it was.

But she looked him in the eye one last time, shook her head mutely, and just walked on by.

He waited until she was out of earshot before cursing. He'd thought, he'd honestly thought, that he'd be able to get through to her like this. That he'd be able to save her… and so save himself. For this was not just about her, or about the rightness or wrongness of it all. It was about him trying to clear his own name, in his own mind. For he could not but blame himself, for not stopping this in that very beginning. Deep in a melancholy only he could have known he wandered down that stretch of hallway. Where he was going he did not know, but he could find a way to manage. Somehow.

- - -

In front of that chamber door, Katie paused for a long moment. In the anticlimactic silence, she found herself wonder what the hell she was doing there. How much did she really want what she came for? Would she regret this, in the morning? But she could have examined herself, and her motives, until hell froze over. Shaking these concerns as best she could, she knocked softly upon that chamber door.

Obligingly appearing, he looked as far from any romantic's concept of a knight in shining armor as it was possible to. But then again, she'd never wanted that knight. Instead she found herself swooning over the way he looked in black, and that faintly rakish smile in those eyes.

Those eyes, which held more than a little confusion over her visit, and the way she was looking at him. "Are you all right?" Anakin asked, concerned, pulling her in closer so he could better see her face.

She reached up to kiss him, letting the heat loosen her tongue. "Yes. I…I just…" She looked away at the ceiling, at the floor, helplessly unable to phrase the turmoil within. "I can't stand to hear her dream tonight!" Wrapping her arms tighter about his neck, Katie pressed herself to him, wishing he would just take her now.

Answering her heat with some of his own, he kissed her again, hand not buried in her hair at the small of her back. "I love you," was the hoarse whisper, as they tumbled inside. He had heard only 'I can't stand to dream tonight', but his intended cure was what she had wanted. Not a thought was spared as to the overt nature of this tryst, or of the reasonable (perhaps in the right, perhaps not) objections.

She did not answer, mouth busy with his, as she attempted to untie his sash. Obviously, she had not woken him up, which would have been more convenient.

Never before had she known anything to feel this good or ever felt so much sheer pleasure from any action. So when she did fall asleep, sprawled comfortably in his arms, it was without regret.

He had none either, only an immense satisfaction at having had her at last, and how lovely she looked sleeping there in his bed, in his embrace.