Christy much preferred being cooped up with Sean over having to deal with Carver. While Carver was just plain nasty, Sean seemed to simply be in far over his head. He looked positively bashful as he halfheartedly guarded her. "Guarding", for him, consisted simply of sitting in front of the door. Since there were no windows and he was nearly a foot taller than she was, that was all that was required to keep her in the room. As scary as it all was, she took malicious pleasure in the fact that the silence seemed more awkward for him than for her. In the end, he looked so contrite that she took pity on him.

"So, what do you do when you're not destroying the establishment?" she asked. He looked up like it was an accusation, then relaxed as he saw that it was not.

"I play Star Fox," he blurted.

"Oh, you're a nerd? I should have guessed," Christy said, but she was smiling.

"I am not! Nerds play Final Fantasy. Star Fox is much more casual," Sean said. This was obviously serious business to him.

"You're a casual nerd," Christy said.

"That's not nice," Sean said.

"You're the one who kidnaps people," Christy said. Sean's face fell.

"Sorry. I didn't want to," he said.

"Carver made you do it?" Christy asked in an understanding tone.

"Yeah," Sean said.

"Yeah, he's pretty forceful. Why'd he pick you?" she asked. "You're not really... violent."

"Our families go way back. He's always talking about national pride and how families should stick together ever since the Troubles started," Sean said.

"What's the trouble?" Christy asked.

"You guys don't even know about it? Carver was actually right about something," Sean said. Somewhere along the line, he moved closer and sat next to her, but it didn't scare her. "The Troubles started way back in the sixties when a bunch of people started protesting about government stuff. Everyone kept getting madder and things started getting violent. By the time I was born, it was everywhere. It was just part of life," Sean said.

"Wait, so there's like a war going on in Ireland?" Christy asked.

"Just Northern Ireland. England says it belongs to them, but we don't. But really, I don't care. I just want to go outside and not hear guns," Sean said.

"There are people just shooting in the streets?" Christy asked in horror. Sean nodded.

"Bombs and stuff too. Just before I left, one of them hit my friend's house. We used to play Mortal Kombat together," Sean said.

"That's awful! I'm glad you're here where it's safe," Christy said, and then remembered the situation. "Sort of."

"Sort of safe or sort of glad?" Sean asked.

"Sort of safe. Maybe it's Munchausen or whatever, but I like you a lot better than Carver," Christy said. Sean looked away guiltily.

"Hey, it's okay. My dad will be here soon. You should probably just hide in the corner of something when he does, though. He's gonna be really mad," Christy said.

"It's not that," Sean said.

"What's wrong?" Christy pressed.

"Carver's planning something really bad. Don't tell him, but I hope your dad gets here quick enough to stop him," Sean said.

"Crap, what is it?" Christy asked. "Oh, you're not supposed to tell me." Sean shrugged.

"I don't think you'll snitch. Back home, some of us thought the only way to drive the English out was to do something so horrible they wouldn't want to stay. So they started planting bombs in everyday places and hitting normal people. That's what happened with my friend," Sean said.

"Carver's going to blow up a bunch of innocent people?" Christy asked. Sean was near tears by this point.

"He didn't want to say exactly," he said. "But I don't know what else it would be."

"We can't let him do that! We have to tell the police," Christy said.

"No! To Carver, there's the IRA and there's traitors. He won't stop with me. You have to cut out all the bad blood," Sean said.

"He can't do anything if he's in jail," Christy said.

"He's too smart for that. He's been doing this for years," Sean said.

"You'd rather let all those people die? Just like your friend?" Christy asked, and she stared him down. She softened when she saw just how scared he looked.

"Hey. It'll be okay. My dad's coming soon. He might already be fighting Carver now. Carver must be scared of him, or he wouldn't have made you kidnap me," Christy said.

"What'll they do with me? They execute rebels back home," Sean said.

"We don't do that here. They don't even have to know. We'll say you heard me call for help and helped me get away while Carver was gone. They'll get in contact with my dad and I'll tell him what happened. He'll cover for you," Christy said.

"Are you sure?" Sean asked. The mere thought of crossing Carver was enough to make him shake.

"We have to warn whoever Carver's after. It'll be okay. I promise," Christy said. Without even thinking about it, she leaned forward and hugged Sean as they knelt on the floor. After a minute, he hugged her back.

"Okay," he said at last. And everything would have been fine had not Carver interrupted.