Hercules, having been in a light sleep, woke up as light flowed through the cracks in Nerissa's window. Glancing over, his heart fluttered seeing Nerissa also stirring in her bed. He knew the storm was about it hit. Getting up out of the bed, he went over and started putting on his shirt. Fully dressed he glanced over to see Nerissa pull her blanket over her head.

"Oh gods, no…" her muffled words reached him, "Please let it all be a dream."

Hercules sat down on one of the cushions in the center of her room.

"I'm going to go ahead and say it wasn't…"

She didn't seem to have realized he was even in the room as she sat bolt upright, tossing her blanket away from her.

"HERCULES!" she growled.

She was definitely back to normal. The young woman got up out of the bed and walked over to him. Realizing halfway to the center of the room that she was still in her mother's signature outfit, she yelped and grabbed the blanket to cover herself. Hercules just shook his head.

"I've pretty much got that image burned into my brain, so it's a bit late to cover yourself now. Probably like how you remember seeing me in the shower room…"

Nerissa plummeted down onto one of the cushions like a cart wheel that had just given up on working. She stared at her friend, her face incredibly red.

"Hercules, why did you do this?" she inquired, her voice strained," I told you to not try and 'help,' or to get involved. You did the exact opposite. What if I'd kissed you? Do you understand at all how much that would have destroyed me?"

Hercules rubbed his forehead, just taking in her anger.

"Forgetting that, instead of possibly spending the entire day locked up in a room, I now have to wonder what the side of my neck looks like, what Lilith thinks was going on with me, and figure out if the cadets think we're together. Why did you think this was a good idea?"

Hercules glanced over at her. He felt guilty as tears started to fall slowly down her cheeks.

"I-I thought I could help. It kind of…did. I thought it might be worse if you got out without us knowing and put some other guy under a spell. I figured I could handle it and I did."

"Handle it? You mean handle me? You call this handling me?!" she demanded, pointing to her neck.

Hercules inhaled sharply at the large purple bruise on her neck. He gaped at her. The girl moved away toward the mirror on her wall and whimpered at the sight. It was jarring for him to remember how excited she had been about the bruise hours before.

"I can't even begin to imagine what you think of me now," she mumbled at her reflection.

Hercules frowned at her.

"Nothing has changed," he objected, standing up.

Nerissa whipped around and stared at him.

"Nothing has changed? Aside from what the cadets might think, what the two of us have seen of each other, and, oh, the weird sexual moment we had last night resulting in this mark that looks like it could stay for a year. I can tell you this, my body isn't going to repair that because my mother would consider that a mark of pride."

"Look, Nerissa, I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't listen to you, you're right, but I don't think everything is as bad as you're thinking. I still respect who you are. That person you were yesterday as a version of your mother, not you."

"A version that you fooled around with, which is kind of like cheating on me with my mother."

Hercules hesitated at that comment, trying to dissect his thoughts on that concept. He shuddered.

"I-I don't quite see it that way, but I get where you're coming from. Again, I'm sorry. But you and I both know it was the best way to keep you in check. And it worked!"

The girl sighed at him.

"Hercules, I trusted you with a secret because I thought you could handle knowing. I thought you'd be a good friend, a responsible and respectful friend, but you disrespected my wishes completely. Do you even understand how much that hurts me?"

"OF COURSE, I DO!" Hercules yelled at her," But I did it for you. The least you could do is be grateful that I care so much about you."

"Oh, PLEASE. You did it for selfish reasons. To prove you could solve a problem that I've dealt with for years. Well, guess what, Hercules? All you proved is that you only care about yourself and your "image" of the so-called hero. Shall I grovel at your feet? Should I bow down to your greatness, oh heroic one? Or maybe I should reward you with a kiss and fall into your arms in love you with like all of those other women."

Hercules gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Oh, yes, this was all a huge convoluted scheme to make you fall for me. Not just something I did because I thought I was being a good friend. Look at me, I'm such a hero that I allowed my friend to act like a floozy around me for an entire day. Well guess what, your royal highness, get off your high horse. Not everyone is interested in you, okay? You're the one that is selfish and so self-absorbed to think that you can handle everything on your own. Forget any kind of help! Nerissa can handle it all on her own! Now I see why Jason was your only friend growing up. You're so ungrateful and think that everyone has their own motives, of course no one had a chance to get close to you."

"In my experience, they do! You don't know what I've been through!"

"Well, sorry for trying to be a good person. Next time, I'll remember not to help you with anything. How about I let you just fall off a waterfall on your own? I'm sure you can solve that issue on your own, too. Or how about save you from a psycho kidnapper, huh? You're just not happy unless I put my life on the line for yours. Sorry this wasn't life threatening to me, so it meant nothing to you. Now I see how little I mean to you. If you're so worried about what the other cadets are going to think, why don't you just leave the Academy? You proved yourself to your father, so you might as well run on home now! That's what you were waiting for this whole time, right? Forget any friends you say that you made. You think Iolaus and Lilith will pine for you? Jason is stuck with you, so enjoy having only one friend again. See if your absence makes any difference to the cadets here! It will certainly mean nothing to me."

Nerissa stood frozen on her side of the room. Hercules closed his eyes, realizing that he'd gone way too far way too late. He sucked in his bottom lip before sighing heavily.

"Nerissa, I didn't mean that at all."

Hercules watched the tears on her face pick up speed. He tried to apologize, but Nerissa ignored him as she moved out of the room after grabbing a set of her normal clothes. He followed her out quickly.

"I'm sorry, Nerissa, please wait!"

She didn't look back as she ran down the hallway to the women's shower room. Hercules pressed the heel of his palms into his eyes.

"Oh, why'd you have to get angry?" he berated himself, "Why couldn't you just say nothing and apologize?"

Not sure where to go, Hercules hesitantly made his way to the shower room after her. On the way, he ran into Jason and Iolaus.

"Hey, Herc, what's up? Jason said you slept outside last night. Why did you do that?"

"Long story. Look, I just had a fight with Nerissa, do you guys-"

"You two? A fight? Like a training fight?"

"Nooo, the kind where I said things I didn't mean and hurt her feelings."

"Yeowh. You two never fight like that."

"Yeah, well. I'm going to go wait for her outside the shower rooms, so I can talk to her."

Jason and Iolaus glanced at each other as Hercules walked off. They both nodded before quietly following their friend.

Hercules stood outside the female shower room for at least an hour, hoping Nerissa would come out. Maybe she knew that he would wait out there for her. After another fifteen minutes, he cautiously peeked into the shower room after going into the dressing room. He hadn't seen her clothes anywhere.

"Nerissa?" he called out.

There was no response. Looking at the ground, he didn't even see any wet footprints leading to the dressing area. It then hit Hercules that she probably didn't even go to the shower room.

"Shit," he cursed, running back to Nerissa's room.

Opening the door, he went inside to find that all of Nerissa's personal items were gone. He felt a burning pain in his chest as he heard Jason and Iolaus come in behind him, realizing from their spying that the girl was gone.

"Dude, did you piss her off so bad that she ran away?" Jason accused.

Hercules groaned and turned to his friends.

"I…am an idiot. Jason, where would she go?" he asked.

Jason blew out air from his mouth as he thought.

"Knowing her, she probably just picked a direction and went. She doesn't know anywhere but the road between here and Corinth."

Hercules stared at his friend, distressed.

"Well, we need to track her down," he demanded, his vocal tone higher than normal from concern.

The three boys went outside to see if they could find any trace of her and the direction she may have chosen. They found that she had climbed in and out the window of her room to get her stuff, but that gave them little in the way of concrete directions. The boys decided to split up, with Jason going to Corinth on the rare chance that she went home. Iolaus headed toward Parthus while Hercules headed the way he knew best, toward his home.