"Z," Aech was close on my heels as I walked as swiftly as I could for the garage door. "It wasn't what it looked like."

"Fuck off," I shot back over my shoulder. "Fuck you, man."

How could he even just sit there and claim that nothing was going on?

"Z… Come on, man, just stop for a minute and let me explain."

"My name is Wade," I snapped. "Z is what my friends call me," I slammed the door in his face, and headed for my car, grateful for a moment that Arty had taught me how to drive, and furious all over again that Arty had been the one to teach me.

As I headed down the road, gravel spraying, realizing that I had absolutely nothing with me, not even my Visor, and there was this odd knowledge that there was nothing to stop me. I could just keep driving.

To hell with them, to hell with all of them. Except Shoto, I guess. He probably didn't know. I'm even mad at Og, somehow, for allowing this to happen by bringing them together, in the first place.

I'm done, so fucking done with this place.

Aech wants her so badly, he can fucking well have her. I can't believe she would do this to me.

I just can't believe it.

All this time, I thought we were working our way towards something real, and it turns out that Aech has beaten me to the punch.

Well, that makes a grand total of once, I thought, bitterly.

And oh, my head hurts, because what does it all mean?

Have I been barking up the wrong tree for years? And she likes him enough that she can get past… what he is? Either way, my heart feels like it's stopped beating. It actually hurts to think about them. Together.

Seattle is the closest large city; I arbitrarily decide that I'll stay there tonight.

I'll tell Og that I'm not coming back, not until those two are gone. And if he doesn't want to ask them to leave, then that'll tell me a lot about where his loyalties lie, and I don't want to associate myself with him, anyway.

I'll just stay in Seattle. The company has an office building there; I should be fine. I'll figure something out.

Well, predictably, the guys at the office were a little bit surprised to see me roll in, last week. But the awkwardness is kind of fading out, at this point.

I haven't so much as looked at a Visor in over a week now. It's strange, going away from it, cold turkey like this. But it's kind of empowering, too. Doing things the old-fashioned way.

No more crutch.

And yeah, I had originally planned to call Ogden, ask him to kick those assholes out of the house. I meant to.

I still want to.

But what if he says no?

I just don't know if I can deal with that too, on top of everything else that's happened this week.

No more betrayals.

So I have neatly sidestepped the whole problem by refusing to acknowledge any of them. That's me, always with the brilliant strategy, right?

Fuck them. Arty, and Aech, they deserve each other, as far as I'm concerned.

I had them both barred from this place, on the off-chance that either of them has the nerve to show up looking for me. When I'm not at work, though, the hours seem to go by so slowly without them. I'm not sleeping well, and everything seems dull and sad, and scary, now that I'm alone.

Og wasn't barred from the door, however, and sure enough, eventually he had someone drive him here and drop him at the curb. The automated security notified me, probably right about the same time that his feet were touching the pavement.

Morrow had never set foot in this place before; there can be no doubt that he's only here today to sort things out with me, and suddenly, I just want to hit the open road again. Get the fuck away. But I can't avoid him forever.

"Send him in," I tell Karla when she buzzes my office, and informs me breathlessly that Ogden Morrow has arrived.

He walks in, jeans and a t-shirt, all casual-like . Just another day, ho-hum. If he's surprised to see me sitting behind this desk, he doesn't say anything about it. He takes a seat, and waits for me to start talking.

Gonna be a long wait, pal, I'm thinking.

He's harboring them.

He thinks it's okay. What they did to me.

And suddenly I'm unaccountably pissed off with him, too, and I stare him down.

The silence is deafening, as his eyebrows knit together, and finally he clears his throat.

"Shoto asked me to come-" he began.

"Shoto asked you," I cut him off, starting to feel the rage building in me. Out of all the lousy fucking things to lead with. It had to be Shoto. Manipulative motherfucker.

"He just wants to know that you're okay. They all do," he added.

"Oh," I managed. "Well, tell my brother that I'm fine. Just peachy."

Og raised one eyebrow at the sarcasm.

"There's really no need to-"

"Of course not!" I glared at him, angry all over again at his complicity. "You know, I have a few questions, Og. Think you could do me a solid, just this once, and give me a straight answer?"

"Wade," he replied, looking sad, and grave. "I've never once lied to you."

That might even be true, I think. "Then answer me this. Did you know?"

"Did I know what?" he had the fucking nerve to ask, then.

"Did you know," I paused, to take a deep breath, "that my girl and my best friend were fucking, carrying on together, in your house?"

"I was not aware. No." he replied, after a long pause.

Is he telling the truth?

Og's never lied to me before. I'm not even sure he knows how.

I exhaled, and oddly enough, a lot of my anger leaves with my pent-up breath.

"You didn't know," I confirmed.

He shook his head, slowly, and then he took a deep breath and continued.

"I… suspected, maybe." He shook his head, then. "No, I didn't really have any real reason to think," he corrected himself, as though he were thinking aloud, rambling. "But they spent a lot of time together," he conceded, "and lately it had seemed as though…" he trailed off, obviously not wanting to recount whatever evidence he'd inadvertently witnessed.

"So you didn't know. But now you do." He nodded, at that. "And you're okay with it?"

He shrugged, and sighed.

"They're my kids," he didn't bother trying to justify things with an actual defense. "All of you are. And I love all four of you. You're the family that Kira and I never got to have."

I blinked, at that, a little taken aback by the blunt way in which he said it.

"These things… sometimes, it just… happens that way." He was silent for a long time, as though there was some point that he couldn't quite bring himself to make. There was a pained look on his friendly face, and suddenly, somehow, beyond all logic and reason, I knew what he must be thinking, at this moment.

Oh, shit.

"Jim?" I guessed. "Jim and Kira?"

He nodded, looking at his hands.

"Jim certainly felt the way that you do," Og admitted. "He felt like I took Kira from him."

"But Kira was never his," I argued. "And Arty… she and I… were. I was in love with her," I admitted. "She was in love with me. I know she was."

"I don't know," he said, softly. "I'm just telling you, that's how Jim felt. He felt like we had betrayed him, Kira and I. He couldn't forgive me. He couldn't forgive either of us."

I sat there, stunned, for a few minutes, trying to see the parallels between the two situations. At first blush, it had seemed like a ridiculous comparison, but…

Seriously? I'm the Jim in this situation?

Well, it was a lot to think about.

But Og's right. We are a family. Of a sort. And families forgive one another. Or at least they try, I guess.

I guess I can try.

I don't know how I'll ever look at the two of them.

But I'll try.

Jim said that I shouldn't make the same mistakes that he did. I'm sure I'll make all different ones. But he couldn't forgive, and eventually it tore him apart.

That much I know.

Don't wait until it's too late, Wade.

I promised.

And so, after I'd had a couple of months to cool my jets, I packed my shit and I went home.