For the first time, Jennifer found herself in the woods and not wanting to be there. She had no choice, though. She had been told to go and knew it was right. She had to.

She had waited downstairs in Nick's house while he typed up a resignation letter on his computer downstairs. He came back down a few minutes later, much softer than when he'd stormed upstairs, barking at her to stay where she was.

"I've got to do this, Jen," he explained, holding an envelope in his hand. "I should have done this ten years ago. It'll be better for Homicide if I'm out of the way."

She knew he had a point. He was probably right. But for some reason, she felt quite broken up about it. "What'll you do?"

He gave a gentle smile. "I'll figure something out." Nick leaned in and kissed her softly.

Jen let him kiss her, but pulled back, not trusting herself to get too caught up in him. This whole thing had drowned her, and she was starting to lose sight of which way was up. She gave her wings a little flutter, shaking herself.

"You should go back."

She frowned. "What?"

"Tomorrow morning, Dane Majors is gonna be released from prison. The queen should know."

Jennifer had been so caught up in Nick's turmoil that she'd momentarily lost sight of exactly why he was in such a mess. And she was involved because of Dane Majors. Because Nick had a connection to a man who had been hellbent on finding the fairies and killed Bernice's son to find them. Beautiful Nick with his tattoo of the palace tree on his ribs who had been led to Jennifer by the death watcher. The full extent of Nick's connection to the fairy realm was as of yet revealed to them, but surely Dane Majors had to be a part of it. And Nick was right, she needed to tell Bernice.

And so she had kissed him once more, careful to avoid the cut on his lip from where Dalton had hit him, and told him she'd see him soon. She'd gone invisible and flown back to the woods. She'd done it many times, but it felt different this time.

Usually when Jen left Nick in the past, it had been after a date or something. It was when she'd been happy. She wasn't happy now. Far from it. She stood in the dark woods under the moonlit sky and lingered in the clearing outside the portal. Part of her was eager to go home, to see her friends and to sleep in her own bed. She had missed her house. Nick's was very nice, but she liked being with him; the house itself wasn't really anything she personally enjoyed. But going home meant leaving Nick, and knowing how upset he was made her reluctant to go. She was probably thinking a bit too highly of herself that he'd rely on her so much, that she was important enough to him after this short time to be of help to him.

Jen chuckled lightly to herself at that. She knew she meant a lot to Nick. He would not have asked her to stay and to go with her to the morgue and to help him investigate if he did not want her to. He could have sent her back to the fairy realm long before this. But he hadn't. He'd fallen asleep holding her in his arms. He'd made love to her like…well, like he loved her. Jen hoped he did. She no longer wanted to deny to herself that she loved him.

That thought made her feel better. It gave her hope. Whatever was going on now, she'd find a way through. They all would. And at some point, they'd come out the other side. And then she and Nick could figure out how to go forward together. After all, he wasn't going to be a Homicide detective anymore. Whatever he did decide to do, Jen felt sure she could be a part of it.

And with that, she walked through the portal to go back home.

Jen took a deep breath when she entered the fairy realm. The air was cleaner. Fresher. And it sparkled with magic. She'd not realized how much she took that air for granted until she'd been without it for such a prolonged period. She'd never been out of the fairy realm for more than one night before now.

The darkness was dotted with shimmering glow worms. Jen gazed at them affectionately as she walked toward her house. A mouse scurried past her and climbed in circles up the towering stalk of a wildflower. That one was particularly large, its leaves as big as Jennifer's arm and its beautiful flower, casting a deep blue shadow in the evening light, towered over her head.

That was something she'd never get used to about the woods in the human world. Everything was so much smaller. Humans were so much larger in their world than fairies were in the realm. But humans also used nature for their purposes. Fairies lived with nature and existed to protect and nourish and care for it. Maybe that's why nature loomed so large here.

A buzzing sound passed so close to Jen's face that she flinched away from it.

Sorry, Jennifer.

She realized what had happened and smiled. "No need to be sorry," she said quietly. She paused and held her hand open in front of her. A tiny bird with rapidly beating wings hovered in midair for a moment before landing on her palm. His long beak pointed up at her as he cocked his head. His iridescent green feathers glowed in the moonlight.

You've been gone.

It wasn't a question, nor had the little thing spoken aloud. Only Jerry could do that, as far as Jen knew. The other animals, when they chose to communicate with the fairies, did so like this, projecting their words into the minds of those they were talking to. This particular little bird lived in the vines of Jen's house. He used his beak and long tongue to dip inside the honeysuckle to eat the nectar.

I kept your house safe, he told her.

She smiled and brought the bird up to her face to softly kiss his tiny head. "Thank you. I didn't realize I'd be gone so long. But I'm glad to be back now. Shall we go home and to sleep for tonight?"

The bird nodded and spread his wings. They flapped so quickly, it sounded like a deep humming in the air. And then he was gone. Jennifer watched him go, knowing she'd see him at home.

She considered beating her own wings to follow after her small friend but decided against it. Jen was enjoying walking through her woods on this beautiful evening. Tomorrow morning, she would go to the palace and see Bernice and Terry. She would delve back into the waking nightmare of Dane Majors and what horrific implications that could have on the fairy realm and on Nick. But all of that could wait for tomorrow. Just for now, she wanted to be happy. To think of Nick, so brave and strong and good. To feel the moonlight wash over her wings and energize her magic. To breathe in the crisp floral air and feel renewed.

It only took a few more minutes for Jennifer to reach her house. No fairy or animal had interrupted her journey except her little bird friend who chirped a greeting to her from his nest. Jen lit some of her floating orbs to light the house, bathing it in that soft peachy pink light. She shed her dress and shoes and underthings while she filled the large tub in the far end of the house.

Jen lowered herself into the shimmering hot water, letting it soothe every bit of tension in her body. Her wings drooped lazily around her shoulders, enveloping her. She absent-mindedly trailed her fingers along one, shivering at the sensation. Nick had touched her there a couple of times now. He was very good at it. He was very good at most things. Jen leaned her head back on the edge of the tub and closed her eyes, smiling serenely.

Far away, Nick Buchanan was starting to drift to sleep. His dreams were filled with Jennifer, with flying through the fairy realm with her. He could feel the freedom of it, the rush and the exultant joy. And off in the distance, he could almost hear her voice on the wind whisper, "I love you."