Hello again, and welcome back to 'How to Screw Up Your Relationship' Part 7. Many thanks for reading, please feel free to review.

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Jade woke, groggy and unfocused, unsure of her surroundings. But the dull ache in her legs and the weight of the body beside her told her it was time. She slid from the bed, and reached back automatically for the pillow, only to find it pinned down by an entirely unexpected Tori Vega.

She blinked in the dimness and tried to clear her head. Tori. She was at Tori's place.

The relief flowed through her, washing away the fuzziness and revealing the ache for what it was. The physical memory of actual pleasure. She let go of the pillow and started to climb back into bed. No, she needed the bathroom first.

The light seemed startling, and she only became accustomed to it as she was washing her hands, seeing a room both familiar and changed, her influence eradicated and now resurgent in the form of a single, black toothbrush. She stared into the mirror, and traced a pale finger across the faint lines around her eyes. Maybe it was already too late. Maybe none of this mattered. She splashed water on her face.

You fucking idiot. You've just made everything worse.

She closed her eyes. She should leave right now. Just pack her bags and go. Throw herself under a bus or something. Then she wouldn't have to worry about any of this anymore.

She sighed, and went back into the bedroom. Tori had, as she often did, expanded to fill the space available, sprawling right across the bed. Jade had often wondered if, given enough room, Tori would eventually keep spreading out like a drop of oil in a pond, until she was just a perfect circle, one molecule thick. She gently shifted an arm and a leg and tucked herself into the edge of the bed, retrieving what covers she could, and took comfort in the fact that, at least here and now, she was welcome.

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Tori's alarm clock finally battered its way into her consciousness and reminded her politely that it was time to get the fuck up, if you don't mind. She shifted slightly to find a Jade-shaped space next to her. She's gone. She tentatively slid her hand across the empty space, relieved to find that it was still warm. Jade could only just have left, which meant she hadn't bailed for the sofa during the night. She might be packing her bags right now, though. There was a clatter from the kitchen and she relaxed. Breakfast. What was it with that girl? She stroked her stomach in case an extra twenty or thirty pounds was lurking there waiting to pop a button as soon as she put her pants on, but found nothing untoward. She rolled over. If Jade had only just started cooking, she'd have another ten minutes at least.

Or you could, you know, get up and help, said a little voice.

She doesn't need help. I'd only be in the way.

And that's your best response to last night, is it?

Last night.

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She barrelled into the kitchen, almost colliding with the ironing board. "Hi," she said, belated patting her hair down and trying to make herself presentable.

Jade was already eating. "Hi." She waved a fork at the place she'd set for Tori.

"What? Oh, thanks." Tori scraped her chair noisily back and forth, trying to give herself time to think. "So..." she said, and realised she had absolutely no idea what to say next. "Did you... sleep all right?"

Jade looked up, with a shy smile. "Yes, I did," she said. "Thanks."

"Oh. Good." Tori found herself blushing. "Good."

"Did you?"

"Me? Yes. Yes I did."

They ate in silence for a moment.

"Ketchup?"

"Here."

A little more silence.

"This is nice," Tori offered, brightly. "What is it?"

Jade looked from Tori to the plate and back again, and sighed. "It's scrambled eggs, Tori." She put her fork down. "Just like it was yesterday. Look," she said. "I get that this is mortally embarrassing for both of us, okay? I don't know what to say, and neither do you. And you're good at this stuff. So how about this. Let's just finish our breakfast in peace, and tonight we'll get a couple of bottles of wine, get smashed, and talk about it. Deal?"

Tori sagged in relief. "Deal."

"Good."

Tori ate for a moment, content with a truce, until a memory snagged her attention.

"Can I just ask you something?"

Jade groaned. "How come as soon as we've agreed something, you want to change it?"

"It's just... Why did you go back to the sofa?"

"I..." Jade looked embarrassed. "I just thought you might be more comfortable, that's all."

"More comfortable? Why would you think I wasn't comfortable? I like to sleep next to you."

"Okay, well that's great then. No problem."

"Did you think I didn't?"

"No."

"Then why go?"

"Can we just forget it?"

"Please, Jade. I worried all day and half the night that I'd upset you. That you thought that I'd... assaulted you or something."

"Well I think we just proved you didn't."

"But you still got up."

"What?"

"Last night. You got up."

"To take a wazz!"

"And you needed a pillow?"

Jade flinched, guiltily.

"Come on, Jade," Tori said. "Tell me. Why would you want to go back to the sofa? Is it me? Do I wriggle or something?"

"No, of course not. It's just..."

"What?"

Jade sighed and stared at her plate. "It's just habit, I guess. I forgot where I was."

"But I've never..." It took a few moments for it to sink in. It's not you she's talking about. "Marcus?" she said.

"Yes."

"He used to make you sleep on the sofa?"

"No," Jade said. "It wasn't like that. It was just... I used to want to be away from him. You know." She squirmed, uncomfortably. "Afterwards."

"After...?"

Jade nodded.

"But why?"

"Please, Tori, let's not do this right now."

"Why?" she insisted.

"I thought we had a deal." There was a strain in Jade's voice that Tori should have heeded, but didn't.

"Why?"

"I don't-"

"Tell me!"

"I didn't want him to see me cry, Tori," Jade snapped, bitterly. "Do you get it? I didn't want him to see what he'd done to me, what he'd reduced me to. Okay?" She slammed her fork onto the table. "Happy now?"

Tori sat stunned, staring into Jade's eyes, dark and defiant with unshed tears. "Oh, Jade," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, well," Jade said, brusquely, grabbing for Tori's plate to clear it away. "Now you know. So go get ready for work. You're going to be late."

"But-"

"Please. Just go."

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Tori stood at work, notepad on the counter, One Waitress In Search Of Some Customers. She stared around the empty diner. Sometimes she wondered if she was trapped inside one of those awful existential plays that Jade used to take her to, where everyone's doomed to do everything forever and it's all bleak and meaningless, and there's no singing or interval and you really need to pee. Hell is other people. Although right now, some other people might be nice - at the moment Hell was just her.

The giggling from the kitchen reminded her that that wasn't quite true. In her case, Hell was a very specific set of other people.

She cursed herself for not having listened this morning, for not having shut up when she had the chance. Jade had promised they'd talk, but she'd pushed it, and now that promise lay shattered. She'd snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, turned her own birthday cake to dust, and now when she closed her eyes all she could see was a vision that made her sick to the stomach – a lost and tearful Jade, hand pressed over her mouth to stifle the sobs, endlessly slinking from someone else's bed to weep unseen in the darkness.

Slowly, carefully, she probed the corners of her soul to see if there was any trace of the treacherous sense of comeuppance that had taken her by surprise when Jade had first arrived, any sense of satisfaction that Jade's decision had led her to this, any pleasure in her fall, and discovered nothing. Whatever tiny spark of revenge she'd fostered was extinguished.

I can fix this. I can make it right.

All she had to do was...

The door jangled, and she looked up with a start to see Jade in the doorway, as though summoned by the thought itself. She made no move to come in, and they stood for a moment, unspeaking, across the expanse of the diner floor.

"I'm sorry." It was Jade who spoke first, her voice cracked and hoarse. "About this morning."

"Jade..."

"I know you're only trying to help. I had no right to be angry."

"You don't need to apologize for anything."

Jade looked at her for a moment. "I need to apologize for a lot of things, Tori," she said, quietly.

"Look, why don't you come in and-"

Jade shook her head. "No," she said. "I'll see you back at the apartment." She gave a sad little smile, and was gone before Tori could say goodbye, leaving her alone and uneasy in the diner. The apartment, she thought. She didn't call it home.

But at least she said she'd be there.

She resolved to set things straight this evening. This morning had gone badly, but Jade had opened up a little. She'd buy some wine on the way home and maybe see if she could…

You're not cracking a safe, Tori. This isn't a game. This is someone's life.

But I need to know.

And what does she need to know about you?

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Jade sat in the apartment, fretting over borrowed time. She looked at her bag, and at the sofa, and at the bedroom door. It would be so easy, she thought. She'd be upset, but she'd get over it.

You've got to jump one way or the other. Whatever happens you're going to lose. Does she have to lose with you?

There was a knock at the door. She resolved to ignore it, it wouldn't be anything to do with her, and the last thing she wanted was interference. But the knocking grew louder, and more insistent, until she began to take it personally. She rose with a growl and opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she said, in a voice tipped with poison that had sent many an unwanted canvasser and girl scout scuttling for cover in the past. It didn't work this time. The figure on the other side of the doorway simply stared at her, coldly.

"Who the hell are you?"

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To those of you still struggling bravely through 'Power Play', I apologize for yet again leaving a mystery visitor standing on the doorstep. It's a bad habit, I know.