It was kinda weird, but somehow, despite having reconnected for over half a year by this point, Anne and Sasha had never really met nor seen Marcy's girlfriend.

Oh, they had heard Marcy talk to her, and they'd heard stories about her from Marcy(Holy shit had they heard lots of stories about her), but they hadn't actually had any contact with her.

Then one day, Marcy just came up to her and told her Sigrid was coming on a trip to Long Beach, and if she and Anne would be free for dinner next Saturday.

"Sure, no problem."

In truth, she and Sasha had been planning on having a private night, but she was sure Anne would be willing to readjust their plans, for this, just like she was.

Marcy absolutely beamed at her response.

"Awesome!" She pumped her fists in the air.

"I've been wanting to introduce her to you guys for MONTHS! And finally, she got some free time for her job!"

Sasha's smile was also warm, but it seemed a small thing compared to Marcy's ecstatic grin.

"You wanna sleep here during the stay? I can remodel my storage to sleep in, so you guys can take my bedroom-"

"Oh, no, no, no I don't wanna be a bother. And besides, I… Kinda already booked us a twin suite for the week."

Marcy blushed as she said it, and her expression was one of badly hidden bashfulness.

Jep, good old Mar-Mar. Still as open to read as a cover.

"You want some sweet, sweet, romantic alone time huh?"

She went up like a lightbulb.

"Oh-um-well you see…" She stuttered in a rapid flow before she calmed herself, took a deep breath, and just admitted it with a simple "Yes."

Sasha grinned.

"Hey, it's no problem, I getcha. You want some alone time with your beau."

Sasha leaned on the railing to her balcony, watching the beauty that was the setting sun.

"Nothing wrong with wanting that."

Marcy stepped up besides her and leaned on the railing as well.

For a bit there was silence, the two of them just watching the sun together, Sasha taking a light sip of the beer she had been drinking when Marcy came to her home, Marcy just watching in silence, leaning on the rail.

"I think we'll be moving here."

Sasha turned sharply to look at her.

"That's… That's what it sounded like Sigrid was suggesting anyway… That she wanted to come over here and take a look at the city for herself."

"That's great! That…" She frowned at Marcy's expression.

"You've been talking about maybe moving here for months… So... Why the long face Mar-Mar?"

Marcy, in complete contrast to how she normally was when discussing the topic of maybe moving here, looked… Melancholic. That was the only word for it.

"I… I AM glad that we might be moving here. Me and Sigrid have been talking about moving for years now, somewhere where it doesn't snow, and the sun is bright… Long Beach is a wonderful city. And that's without taking into account that you guys live here."

"So... Why the sudden cold feet?" She asked, in a tone that was a mix between consoling, and genuinely curious.

"Well… It started to dawn on me, you know? That I'll be moving again. Uprooting everything I've built for myself over this last decade, leaving behind the friends I made."

Like she'd done 10 years ago.

"Well… It's not like you'll be cut off from them completely, the way you were from us."

"Yeah, but…"

She waved her hand out over the railing in a way Sasha didn't quite get what she meant.

"Over the years… I've seen this happen a lot, Sash. Just… From the other side. Oh sure, there's some friends who left that I'm still talking to on a regular basis. Lots of my best friends fit that category, but… Those are the exceptions. Most friends I made who left Anchorage? I don't talk to them anymore. Not because I didn't like them, and they didn't like me, but we just… Drifted away."

Like her and Anne. And… A lot of Sasha's friends over the years actually.

"And it's not just my friends Sash. I walked around the city last time I was home, and I just… It was so strange walking around the city, realizing that in a year after that? It wouldn't be my home anymore. That eventually, I wouldn't… That I couldn't return there again, as anything other than a guest."

Sasha nodded. Now THAT feeling she understood.

"Yeah, I get you. I had the same feeling when I visited Los Angeles, first time after College."

Marcy stiffened just hearing the name.

"How… Is it there? Compared to…"

"When we grew up?"

She gave a sad short, sad laugh.

"It's a new city, Marcy. Like… it's not as bad as some people say it is, it can actually be pretty nice… But yeah, the city we knew? Our childhood home? It's dead."

She did not elaborate on the why. They both knew why perfectly well, and in Marcy's case, she felt a lot of personal guilt on the matter.

California, and Los Angeles in particular, hadn't exactly been doing swimmingly before their return to Earth. As she'd learned once she got home, there had been Covid, and a whole lot of other bad stuff going on.

But it had been Andrias' invasion that had KILLED the city.

Thousands and thousands of people dead in one day, countless other people wounded, who also suddenly found themselves homeless, or without food, water, and shelter, as a massive part of the city was now rubble...

Well, it was an absolute catastrophe.

The city had been rebuilt(Something her dad, who owned a construction company had earned quite a bit of cash from), paid for by the government in Washington, which had actually gotten off their ass and done something for a change.

Unfortunately, you could not fix that kind of damage by just throwing money at the thing.

You could not resurrect the dead with green pieces of paper.

You could not regain the lost confidence of a people with words and cash.

No matter what the government said, there was nothing to actually PROVE it would not happen again, that another invasion of aliens would not attack the city once more. Which had proven another death knell to the city as businesses that might have stayed and rebuilt, instead packed up, and left.

And that was the irrational fear response. There were plenty who for various reasons had just left immediately after everything had gone down. Packed what remained, jumped across state lines, and never be seen again.

Not helping the matter was that whether on purpose or by chance, most of L.A's tech companies and businesses had been hit HARD by the invasion. And after it was done, they were amongst the first to move their headquarters to other states.

Worst of all economically speaking, was the death of Hollywood.

Andrias' last big act of intentional destruction of the city, where he blew up the old sign that had stood there for years and years, had been rather prophetic.

The property destruction of Hollywood had been rather light, all things considered… But the same could not be said for it's people, as the dead had also included A LOT of America's professional actors, it's stuntmen, and an enormous percentage of everyone in Hollywood at the time who knew how to do special effects.

It had effectively destroyed America's live-action entertainment industry in a single day, and by extension, it had driven a lot of companies into bankruptcy.

And when a new center of filmmaking rose in the east to replace it in response to this disaster… Well, Los Angeles had once been one of the big cultural centers of the U.S.A. And that had largely been due to Hollywood, and all that came with it.

Now it was a city. A big and strategically well-located city… But just a city nonetheless.

"I remember walking through it the first time after college and… God, it was just this off thing. Like I saw so many places that I knew but… Well, they were different. Completely different. Nothing was the same. Like, the mall we used to pretty much live in… Like it was still there, but it had completely reinvented itself, and pretty much all the stores we used to hang in were gone by that point, and half the big brands weren't there anymore."

It had been an incredibly melancholic feeling. Of walking through a city that you had such vivid memories of, and realizing almost all of it was all so different now.

"And our old school? Well, I went past it as the kids were leaving and… Well it used to be this had been private school, that once was glorious and important. Now, after all the investments by Washington, it's practically Prussian, all shiny renovated buildings, and paved marble floors, and you could tell just by looking at how the kids walked, talked, and dressed it's gotten a complete overhaul in the discipline. All paid for by the government."

"You mean… It's become a real Private School? Not just one in name?"

She smiled a rueful grin at that, but it was true enough. If Saint James Middle School had been an actual place with standards, rather than an overly expensive place with some old earned respect behind it, she, Marcy, and Anne would have been thrown out the first time they pulled a huge stunt, the second time at best.

It was the kind of place parents who didn't have the cash for a real private school, but still wanted a school with a reputation to send their kids to. Like Anne and Marcy. Or hadn't cared, and had let her choose herself.

Unlike her besties, Sasha could have gotten to go to one of those real private schools. She'd chosen to go to the one Marcy and Anne went to.

"I didn't say it was necessarily all bad... I said it was different. I'm sure countless kids who grow up in Los Angeles from now on are gonna think "This is my home, this is where I grew up"... But I'm not one of them. Not anymore anyway."

She took another chug of beer.

"I think… I think what I felt back then, is gonna be similar to what you're gonna feel 5 years from now. Like… You recognize a lot of stuff, and the names are the same… But it's not what you had such a connection to. It's not your home anymore."

Marcy looked troubled by those words. Damnit… She'd… She'd been leading up to something… Right?

"It's not all bad though."

Sasha finished off her beer, then let out a satisfied sigh, and then threw her beer in the trash can, before continuing.

"When I decided I wasn't gonna move back to Los Angeles… I thought maybe I was gonna move to the bay…. Maybe San Francisco… Instead…"

"You moved to where Anne was?"

"Yeah… It took me way, WAY too damn long to seek her out but… I chose this city because I knew someone here. Someone I loved. Because I wanted to see her again."

She gave a huge, warm and honest grin to the other woman.

"In hindsight… The best decision of my adult life. I could have chosen to go anywhere… Anywhere at all. Instead, I came here… And by doing so? It allowed me to fix my relationship with Anne… And I managed to win her heart… The thing I wanted more than anything for most of my life!"

Marcy smiled at that. Had Sasha been more sober, she would probably have detected a hint of sadness in that smile… But as she was, it seemed to her what she said had managed to do the trick.

"I don't think it'll work out like that for me, Sash. I rather doubt it actually,… But yeah, I get what you mean. Thanks."

She looked out over the sunset, still easily visible and unobscured, a benefit of living as high as Sasha did.

It was a spectacular view, one well worth the price she'd paid for this apartment.

Then Marcy turned her head to the right. Northwards.

"You know… I've grown so used to Long Beach, by now… It's so easy to forget that it's right there."

Sasha followed her gaze. And yeah, she knew what she meant.

Los Angeles, the place of their childhood, was right there. No more than a bit of intentional driving across the county, and you'd find the city of Angels.

She clapped Marcy softly on the back.

"It'll be fine Mar-Mar. You can live in Long Beach your whole life, and never visit it again."

"Yeah… Anyway, we should… Wow, you know, this got really heavy, real quick."

"Tell me about it…"

Memories of yesterday came to her mind when she and Anne had REALLY managed to get the mood going… Then one short story about a monster chicken had killed said mood dead.

"And here I only came to ask if you were free for dinner on- AAAH!"

Sasha flinched as Marcy had turned to walk inside, then accidentally stepped in her trash can filled with empty beer cans, stumbled forward, and fallen right on her face.

"I'm okay!" Marcy cheerfully exclaimed from the floor, though a bit of green told Sasha she'd cut herself on something in the fall.

God… To think she'd EVER been able to ignore Marcy accidentally hurting herself.

How things changed.