Ernie's was bigger than he'd expected, though he had to admit he'd figured on some dinky one-horse town tavern. Lots had changed in small-town life since he'd actually resided in one. There was a ball game on the wide screen TV on a far wall, and a gathering of men and women were arrayed on stools, backs to the bar, watching. In between were a dozen or so unoccupied tables, and a few banquettes along the walls. At the far end of the room, under the wide-screen, was a small raised stage. This must be a local social center, he thought.

"Hey, first things first," Sherry called to the patrons. "What's the score?" It was mid-April, and the season had just started. One of the men, a balding guy who looked to be mid-30's, announced, "Sox 6, Jays 2, bottom of the 8th. Kicking Canadian butt again, thank you very much!"

Nick stifled a smile as Sherry shot back, "Go Sox," then she turned to Nick a little embarrassed, "that's Red Sox. No Yankees fans allowed here. Everybody, this is Nick Knight. He and his wife Maura just moved into the Miller place up on Cow Hill." She nailed Doug with a sharp look. "From Toronto."

The offender shrugged. "Everybody's gotta be from someplace. Sorry your butt's getting kicked."

"I'm not much of a ball fan," Nick admitted. "Maura's from Boston originally, though, so you might find her a likely convert." Funny, it occurred to him he didn't know if she had the slightest interest in sports. Like so many other everyday details it just never had come up in the intermittent drama of their lives.

"Not a ball fan?" asked a blonde sitting next to Doug. "Christ, Sherry, where did you meet this guy?" But she wore a friendly smile. "Don't mind us, Nick, we'll grow on you."

"Like fungus," cracked the bartender, whose tall, dark looks reminded Nick eerily of Miklos. "What'll it be? First drink for newbies is on the house."

"I'm good thanks," Nick answered, shifting a little. Now the bartender questioned Sherry.

"A teetotaler who's not a ball fan… shit, Sherry, you bring me any more customers like him I can hang up the 'Closed' sign for good!"

"Shut up Mike and gimme a Number 9, will ya? And pass the phone over, Nick needs to call home." A silent chorus of potential smartass comments were displayed on the faces at the bar. Funny, the notion of people treating him like one of them made Nick feel he'd get acclimated sooner than he expected. "Don't even think it, guys!" Sherry warned.

Nick took the offered cordless phone and suddenly remembered. "I can't remember my number." Mike took the phone back, dialed 411 and announced Nick's name and address to the recording, then wrote the number down on a bar napkin and handed both the napkin and the phone back to Nick. "There you go. Phone home, ET." But he said it with a smile. "Go on in the kitchen if you want some privacy," he indicated a door at the outer end of the bar. "Light switch is inside the door on the left."

Nick took the phone into the unlit kitchen, not needing the light, and dialed the still-unfamiliar number on the napkin. It was picked up on the third ring.

"Knight and Logue, this is Logue, who are you?"

"Hi there. I'm getting to know a couple of the locals, from the video store and a place called Ernie's. I won't be long."

"Hey. Okay, I'm just hanging out reading."

"I thought you were gonna troll the internet for furniture."

"I did. I even found a couple places in town, real handmade stuff." She could sense the relief on the other end of the phone before he even spoke, so she added, "I'm really trying, Bats. I know I've been kind of your own personal black cloud the past few days. It's just, I dunno."

"Just a little adjustment anxiety. I know I've said I've done this a thousand times, but I don't take it lightly. I know it's a wrench for you, for a dozen reasons you don't have to explain because I understand them all. There's no rush, Sweet, we have all the time in the world. And as Sherry said, now I'll be able to introduce you around myself."

"Sherry?"

"Sherry Nadeau, from the video store."

"Boy, you're lucky I'm not the jealous type. Just a week in town and already the ladies are chatting you up."

He laughed quietly. "I'm lucky for more reasons than that. And I think you'll like her, she doesn't seem all that different from you. And you'll like the movie she helped me pick out, I promise. There's a few other people here too, watching a ball game. In fact the Boston Red Sox seem to be beating the Toronto Blue Jays. This seems to be a baseball crowd."

"Been awhile since I was in with that kind of crowd… okay then enjoy getting acquainted. I'll see you when you get here."

"You sure you're all right?" It was harder to read through her deflective skills when they weren't face to face.

"I'm fine, honest. I'll leave the porch light on. I kind of like having a porch light to leave on, even if you don't need it to find your way in. Ride carefully, the life you save will definitely be somebody else's."

"Very funny. I love you Maura."

"Love you too, Bats. 'Bye."

When Nick returned the phone to the bar, Mike had pulled a pint from one of the taps and Sherry took it from him. "Tab me, right?"

"Sure. And when you pay up I can take that vacation in Aruba."

She rolled her eyes and led Nick to a table across the room. "So, take a load off, Fannie." They both sat down, Nick smiling over his shoulder at those assembled at the bar who were studiously watching the screen beyond their table.

"They're harmless. And don't worry, they can't read lips unless you're saying 'my round'." She took a long sip from her beer. "Sure I can't buy you one?"

"No thanks, really. I have some rather specialized allergies. Like almost everything. We take care of my food at home, it's the only way to deal with it."

"Wow, bummer. But your wife, Maura, she share those? That how you met, at Allergies Anonymous?" Now that she was no longer in store management mode, Nick noticed his "guide" was more relaxed and inquisitive.

"No," he laughed, "we met the conventional way, introduced by a mutual friend." He paused. "We lost touch with her some time ago." He was trying not to volunteer too much, but it had been a long time since he'd been engaged in quiet conversation with a willing listener other than Maura. Or Janette, or Tracy, or Nat, or… everyone he'd lost or left behind.

Sherry saw the shadow cross his face. "Look, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I'm not all into digging out people's dark secrets. I meant it when I said you look like you got a load to carry."

He shrugged. "No dark secrets," none he was about to divulge, anyway, "Maura and I both suffered some personal losses recently. They piled up fast, and didn't leave much to hold us in place. So we looked for a new place." He looked around them, and gestured to indicate more than the bar. "This seemed like a good place to start over, so here we are." He noticed Sherry's expression had lost its animation, becoming serious.

"You're not talking about financial losses, are you?" she asked quietly and added, "not that it's my business."

"It will be sooner or later, I guess, since we're going to get to know our neighbors. It's what I want anyway, and what Maura will want soon enough. I told you I was a detective in Toronto."

"Right. Oh god, you said homicide, didn't you? Did it finally just get to be too much?"

"It was getting there for a while, I guess. But my partner got killed in the line of duty a few weeks ago…"

"A few weeks ago?!" Without thinking Sherry reached out and put a hand on Nick's arm, then withdrew it self-consciously. "I'm so sorry. Were you together for long?" She knew from her uncle the kind of connection partners had.

"About a year." He thought for a minute, then figured why not? Like he said, they weren't exactly dark secrets. "She'd replaced my previous partner. We'd been together for 8 years when I lost him in the line." Suddenly Sherry appeared near tears. "I'm sorry, Sherry, I shouldn't unload all this. After a while it becomes part of the landscape."

"But not really." She sniffed, blew her nose on the bar napkin. "My uncle's a cop, remember? Burlington ain't much compared to Toronto, but its crime is plenty urban. That just sucks, that's all there is to say about it. I'd consider a change of scene too, after that. But you said you both had some losses…" Nick nodded and smiled grimly.

"Maura worked in a club, a popular one. That's where we met in fact, the original owner was an old friend of mine. She and one of the bartenders became very close, almost like brother and sister. I'm sorry to say he was murdered just a few weeks before Tracy was shot." Sherry didn't bother to ask who Tracy was, she'd figured it out by the look on Nick's face. "So you see, we both decided it was time to move on. Janette, Maura's original boss and also a close friend, had already left town by then and the new ownership was a challenge."

"Don't I know how that is. The video store just changed hands a few months ago and the new boss was a real pain in the ass until he got broken in by the rest of us. Lina, that blonde at the bar who threatened to grow on you, she works days. There's another guy, Christopher, he does most weekends."

Christopher? Nick jumped at the name. "Sorry. Another friend of Maura's, his name was Christopher, managed a video store in Toronto until... well until he didn't." Their lives were beginning to sound so much like a clichéd soap opera tragedy he decided not to share the knowledge of Christopher's demise. "He moved away," he added, grateful Sherry didn't question him further.

"Small, Twilight Zone world, huh?" She'd finished her beer by now, but wasn't much in the mood for another, especially when her new acquaintance wasn't drinking. And after what he'd just told her she felt more than a little bit guilty for keeping him away from home when all the bruises must still be so fresh. "Okay, what say I walk you back to your mean machine and you get on home? You can come on by the store some day this week to pay me off. I'll get your phone number from information, just like Sherlock Mike."

Nick squirmed a bit. "Well there's another allergy I should mention… sunlight."

"You burn bad? Local market has SPF 70."

He shook his head emphatically. "I char. There isn't an SPF high enough to prevent it." And how.

"Wow. Allergic to food and drink, allergic to sunlight… yikes, I'm consorting with a vampire," she laughed wickedly.

Nick managed not to flinch, instead countering mildly, "You wouldn't be the first to accuse me of that."

They called their goodnights to the still-assembled baseball fans, who variously accused Sherry of running around with a married man, skipping out on the tab, or else simply told Nick they were glad to meet him and would see him again soon they hoped.

"Nice people," he told Sherry as he retrieved his helmet from the handlebars and mounted his bike again. "Can I give you a lift somewhere?" Maura's helmet sat on its custom locked hook on the rear rack.

"Nah, I just live a few blocks from here and it's a nice night for a walk. And it's a very safe neighborhood, the whole town in fact."

"I can promise you we will both find that a refreshing change. Good night Sherry, thank you for being so kind to a stranger with a sad tale to tell." He surprised her by leaning over to kiss her cheek.

She shifted awkwardly. "Hey, nice to meet you. And welcome to Peacham, where all sad tales turn for the better. Bring your wife next time, if she can handle the posse," she jerked her thumb in the direction of Ernie's.

"Trust me, no worries there!" He jumped on the starter and roared off as Sherry ambled toward the house she shared with her brother Eric. She couldn't remember the last time she met such a nice guy and didn't even mind he was unavailable.

Nick undressed quietly and looked down at the sleeping Maura, who had turned in early. She hadn't been sleeping terribly well since their arrival, though their conversation tonight had him hoping that would soon improve. True to his prediction the enormous platform bed had proven much too big for their country home, so they'd simply dragged the mattress into the master bedroom after consigning the frame to the barn. The barn and the main part of the house had been built in 1837, a time when living spaces were far more intimate. Nick had been surprised to find the change from the loft much to his liking… he'd become accustomed to the stylishly expansive spaces and spare lines but didn't notice how cold they could seem until they began arranging things here.

He knelt on the mattress and crawled under the covers behind Maura, taking a certain pleasure in the casual coziness of it all. Some things being unchanging, Maura stirred as he spooned her back against him.

"Mmm, hi," she greeted fuzzily, twisting her head back to kiss him. "Nice people?"

"Very. It's gonna be okay."

"You said that before," she reminded him in a drowsy voice.

"Yeah," he gave her a squeeze and kissed her ear before whispering, "But now I believe it."