"I'm staying." Jesse declared flatly the moment Paul rounded the corner.

"Excuse me?" Paul asked expressionlessly, before looking at me with eyes as cold and hard as sapphires. "Don't tell me you've made the same mistake."

I opened my mouth, but wasn't fast enough.

"Susannah and I have mutually agreed to part ways." Jesse said sharply, his accent growing a little stronger as his face hardened.

Paul's face smoothed back into his normal impassive confidence.

"However," Jesse continued, and a deep fire seemed to light behind his midnight eyes. "She hasn't chosen you, either."

Paul snapped back into focus at that, turning towards me with a speed that I hadn't been prepared for. "What?"

"He's right," I said quickly, to avoid further interruption. "I think its fair to say that you, somewhere…" It still was utter hell to say it aloud in any form. "Deep down…sort of have a little bit of me. And I know I love Jesse." How easy in comparison. "So, its not fair to myself or to either to be with one. So, while Washington has me trapped here, I basically want you and I to talk as little as possible."

"And I'm staying to make sure she's safe." Jesse reiterated.

"So, that's it." I said uneasily, watching Paul eye Jesse darkly. "We're going back to the way things were."

"Like nothings changed," He said quietly, and his entire frame seemed to shift, rigid, upright, his jaw tight.

"Don't be stupid," I snapped. "Everything's screwed up now. You think I'm not aware of that?"

"Apparently you're not." His sapphire eyes seemed to glow, icy and brilliant in the growing darkness. "Because if you truly were, you wouldn't be denying us what rightfully should happen."

"Oh yeah?" I tried to keep my voice down, swallowing the hard knot forming in my throat. "And what do you think is so important?"

"You gave him his chance," Paul gave a halfhearted nod in Jesse's direction. "I want mine."

"I love Jesse." I glowered. "And things between us are…complicated, also. I'm not going to hurt myself anymore, there's no more competition. Its over Paul. This insane race. Its over. "

"Liar." He whispered. "You can't even say it."

I blinked. "I just did."

"Say," He laughed, a low, hard-edged mockery. "That you're in love with me, Suze."

"Well, its just complicated."

"You're trying to say that you love us both," He smirked. "But you can't get your mouth wrapped around the words to admit it to me."

"I'm saying a variation of that," I said miserably. God damn couldn't he just give up and stop trying to make every second hell for me. "I'm saying things are two complicated for me to pursue…um, a relationship, with either."

"You still haven't said it."

"I don't have to."

"Are you afraid?" He whispered. "Of what it'll do? The power of those three little words out loud?"

"I'm not scared." My voice cracked and I inaudibly cursed, coloring furiously. I knew it. Even if it was impossible to say. I knew that the awful throbbing inside of me was in every way responsible to my loving satan's spawn. I just…couldn't admit it to the demon himself. Or Jesse. Or, well….to…

Anyone, really.

"I think you are," He drawled.

"Leave her alone, Slater." Jesse commanded in a low voice that didn't leave any question.

"Oh, and our dear Zorro here doesn't want to hear it either." Paul continued, and suddenly I was afraid. There was that liquid mercury working inside of him, I could see it penetrating the velvety tone in his voice and the sheer ice of his eyes. It was a deeper anger that when recognized, sent blunt stabs of cold fear down my spine. "Does anyone know it better than you?" Paul continued, his voice dropping into a whisper that nearly halted my heart. Something was wrong ,here, very wrong. "Does it hurt, De Silva? Does it hurt to know that the girl who would do anything to belong to you, can't? That even though she lays out everything for you, her true core belongs to me?"

Stop. Stop… "Stop it Paul," I breathed.

There was dead silence.

But slowly, Paul's whisper broke the air once more, slicing, quiet, deadly.

"Does it hurt?" He whispered. "How much?"

Two bodies hurtled across the room, a flash of colliding force.

The air rushed out of me in a low whoosh, and suddenly I was running, running towards the two dark shapes pounding each other on the floor.

"Stop!"

Jesse had Paul's neck in his grasp, but Paul was over him, his fist battering Jesse's face in dark bursts of violent energy.

"You idiots," I gritted my teeth fiercely as I waved my arms around, desperately trying to get one of their attention.

Jesse looked up, once, before he got smacked in the eye. You can imagine that his attention was back on annihilating Paul within two seconds.

And so, I did what I had to do. So, I had a dramatic flair, so what? These were desperate times.

So,

I held my breath, counted to forty, and promptly fainted.