Can you believe it took me half the first chapter to realise it was my story I was reading?!

Anyway, new chapter after . . . Ages . . .

Cleon took the rest of the night off at Kel's insistance. For a long while he stayed awake staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep. He got up and peeked into the adjourning room to check on his daughter. She was sleeping soundly. He lit a candle on his desk and sat down staring into it. He heard footsteps and whispering going on outside his rooms. He listened, and was shocked to discover it was Merric and Kel! He held his breath as they passed, and walked off into the night. What were they doing up this late at night? He blew his candle out and went back to bed to try to sleep. Half an hour later he was still awake. So finally he got up and went for a walk. The night air was cold, but the stars were bright, the sky clear. He saw a light was on in the Commanders building, and that Kel was sitting outside, burning some papers. Curious, Cleon started towards her. Kel looked up after hearing him approach and smiled.

"Old love letters," she said, lifting up a pile of envelopes. "And new 'please forgive me' ones," she said, nodding to the papers already burning. "Amazing how you can go from loving someone so much, to dispising them more than you could ever dream."

Cleon looked at the fire.

"So what happened?" Cleon asked. Kel sighed, and walked back into the office. She beckoned him in, and he followed.

"About a year after my Scanra escapade, Dom and I started . . . Seeing each other . . . Which was fine. We carried on for four years, and everything was going well . . ." she stopped and looked out the window for a second. She owed him the truth, especially after spiking his drink with griffin magic. "Before Dom left that third year, he was talking about marriage . . . And I said I'd think about it . . .

Flashback

"What do you think?" Dom asked her. Kel laid next to him quietly.

"This is going to end your career. Men in the Own can't marry, you know that," Kel said, rolling over onto her side.

"I'll survive," Dom said. Kel could feel his shrug. She frowned. Where had this come from? What was wrong with how things were now? If she got married, she knew children would come first. And she still wasn't ready for that! Besides, she already had children to look after, she didn't need her own . . .

"I'll think about it," Kel said. "And I think you should, too," she told him. "Maybe talk it over with Raoul," she said, shutting her eyes tightly. Dom sighed and laid down on his back.

"Well, you have all summer and autumn to think about it," he said. Kel listened and waited til his breathing was slow and regular. Then she silently got up and walked out side…

End

"I guess I got nervous the more and more I thought of it. It was distracting me. Merric's mother started making demands on him, and we both decided 'Hey, let's take a break from it all,'" she looked down into her hands. "we got drunk with some of the other's on Midwinter . . . And woke up with each other the next day," at this Kel looked up again, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. Cleon didn't know what to say, so said nothing, just nodded.

"Dom showed up that morning, with a squad . . . He saw me sneaking out of Merric's room and got the idea we had . . . You know . . . But we didn't!" she insisted. "We just fell asleep in his rooms. I guess we were pretty drunk cause I was sprawled on the bed and he hadn't quite made it that far," she told Cleon laughing. Cleon laughed too. "He was half on, half hanging off, it was pretty funny . . . However Dom didn't laugh . . . Mind you, in his position I probably wouldn't have been either. Anyway he got this idea in his head that me and Merric were . . . Involved. He was angry, and I got angry and some words were said, and Merric jumped in to defend me, and the next thing I know they're fighting. It took me, Neal and four other guys to separate them. Raoul was furious with Dom, so I had to explain to him, what had happened. It was so humiliating. Here I am always yelling at girls who cause fights and I was the cause of one…" kel shook her head, and looked again out the window.

"Dom took leave that night, and went home. Three weeks later I received a letter from him saying he was going to marry in six weeks time. I wrote a congratulatory letter to him, as you would, and got the most horrible reply back. Neal saw the letter and wrote back to Dom himself, and mentioned parts of it to Merric and Merric got involved. In the end it was just one little ant hill that turned into a volcano," Kel stopped. "Do you want some tea or water?" she asked. Cleon shook his head. Kel got up and made herself a green tea, quietly moving about in the semi darkness. She took her seat again, and took a sip. They sat in silence for a while. Then Cleon asked "what happened next?". Kel shook her head.

"Dom showed up a week before his supposed marriage. He apologized to both me and Merric and Neal. He agreed to hear me out about what had happened that night, so I told him. I though for him it was a type of closure or something. Instead he proposed marriage to me again later that night. I said "no, not right now," and he got angry again. When I asked about his fiance he admitted he had already broken it off with her, because she wasn't the one he wanted to be with. I said no again, and he
accepted" it. So we were on again. He returned to the Own and has been with them since. However a strange tension still hung in the air between Merric and him. It started causing communication problems between me and Merric, which caused problems for Neal and everyone else in the camp, so I finally asked. I had to hear it from one of our newer refugee woman that Dom and him had once again had words. I asked Dom about it, he got defensive and I got annoyed and again we fought. He left with the squad, and we have barely spoken since," Kel leaned back and sighed. "After having gone through all that drama I asked myself, 'why would anyone want to get married?' I never replaced Dom.he's been the only one, despite what he may believe. As much as I loved him I had to think of the camp and everyone in it, before I thought of myself, and being with him had caused to many problems. I broke it off within a few weeks. I sent him a letter. He sent me letter after letter apologizing. It hurt, but I kept saying no . . ." she wiped tears away. "My first priority, I told him, is New Hope and the occupants," she smiled. "He still didn't and doesn't understand. Now he's convinced you and I are involved . . ." she rolled her eyes and looked out the window again, startled to see light on the horizon. Cleon turned and looked as well.

It had taken all night, but they had shared each other's secret . . .