March 11, Spring, year 21

"How is she?" Muffy asked, brows coming together in worry.

"It's hard to say," Doctor Hardy had to admit. "Physically she's fine, but I worry about her mental health. This seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back and trying to get her to focus on anything is very difficult."

Claire, the topic of the discussion was sitting silently on a stool, staring at nothing as the awful image of Lauren, dead, kept playing over and over in her mind.

"In time I think she'll recover, but I don't think she should be left alone at such a critical time."

"I'm fine," Claire said abruptly, getting to her feet. "I don't need a babysitter, I need to go back to work."

"C-Claire?" Muffy's voice was soft, and a little hesitant. "It's… are you sure?"

"I'm fine." And the forcefulness of the farmer's tone made even Hardy's eye widen in surprise. "Just leave me be."

She left the Clinic, closing the door behind her with a frightening sort of finality, and went back to her farm.

Muffy and Griffin exchanged worried looks.

"We're going to keep an eye on her," the bartender nodded. "She needs us more than she'll admit right now."

"What about that silver-haired boy.. uh… Skye?" Hardy queried. "He's a good one, for all he's not from around here."

Muffy winced a little.

"They had something of a falling out," she replied. "Probably why Lauren's death is hitting her so completely, she was helping Claire to deal with it."

"Mmm… that makes sense," Hardy nodded slightly. "Be wary, she will likely be very erratic and unwilling to talk or listen for a while."

"Yeah…" Muffy nodded. "Thanks Hardy."

The husband and wife left the clinic, looking up at Claire's farm.

"Everyone will be alright without the bar for a few days, won't they?" Muffy asked, turning to Griffin. "I mean…"

"It's net every day that someone gets murdered here in the Valley," Griffin finished. "You go look after Claire, I'll handle the bar. And maybe try taking over the wedding plans for Gus and Nami. In her current state, it would probably be a bad idea for Claire to try dealing with it."

"Thanks Griff," and Muffy leaned up to kiss him on his stubbly cheek, making the old man blush faintly. "I'll do that."

They split up then, Griffin to handle the crowd already at the door of the Blue Bar, Muffy to make certain that Claire wasn't doing anything… drastic.

Claire had retrieved the dropped brush, absurdly relieved that none of her animals had stepped on it while she had been away, and just threw herself into her work. The world vanished around her as she cared for the farm and her animals, she didn't even notice when Muffy perched on the fence, or followed her into the Valley.

Muffy didn't speak, just watched as Claire went about her duties with a single-minded focus that wouldn't allow anything else to intrude, and wanted to cry.

This wasn't Claire. Nothing about the way she was acting, the way she was moving… it was like Claire was a marionette, or a robot doing only the duties programmed into it.

Nami came up to Muffy quietly, tapping the blonde bartender on the shoulder.

"Gustafa and I were thinking… maybe we should postpone the wedding. Just a few days. We can't… we can't hold it today anyways, not with the Valley in such and uproar, and not with Claire like that…"

To Muffy's genuine surprise, the redhead's eyes were filling with tears.

"I hope the Harvest God is watching," Nami said bitterly. "Didn't he want her to work no matter what?"

The green-eyed woman felt her own heart constricting.

"Fate is being so cruel to Claire," she whispered. "First with Skye, and now this. What's next, a mob mentality?"

"Don't joke," Nami replied sourly. "With the way this place is stirring up that's just the next step."

"Who do you think did it?"

"…My vote goes to Damien. The sleezeball. There's something not right about him…"

Blue eyes met green, and both women nodded.

"Without proof it's going to be hard to convince anyone…" Muffy murmured.

"Not to those of us who know the whole story," Nami shook her head. "Between the seven of us, we ought to be able to piece it all together."

"Are you going to spread the word?"

"Not obviously… Gus is already talking to Marlin and Celia, and I'm going to get Lumina next… I just needed to say that we're going to pick another day for the wedding, since you're probably the new planner."

"Griffin's dealing with customers," Muffy sighed softly. "And I'm going to make sure that she doesn't do anything drastic. I'll get you the wedding suits tonight, it's probably best if Claire doesn't have to look at those and remember."

Nami nodded, patted Muffy on the shoulder, and left, heading for the mansion. Muffy, after ensuring that Claire wasn't going anywhere—the farmer had settled into weeding—hurried up to the farm.

She couldn't do anything about the rest of Lauren's things, but she could at least get the wedding suits out of sight… And then maybe it was time for a long talk with a certain former thief.

However, said former thief was still refusing visitors, much to Muffy's ire. No amount of thumping the door or trying to get him to talk through it produced results.

Fuming, the blonde left, and went back to her watch over Claire.