As Don boarded the plane the next afternoon, he looked at Pete carefully. He expected to feel anger towards the man, and he had spent the previous night imagining pulling him aside and giving him some sort of vaguely disguised reprimand. But upon seeing him, Don could only feel sorrow for him. His child living God-knows-where, being divorced from his wife, and having to see the mother of his orphan every damned day at work. Don had managed to clear out the scraps of his life from the workplace, and Pete had to face it no matter where he was.

Peggy had been avoiding him all morning. Neither had addressed each other directly, and for once Don hadn't felt good about making her uncomfortable. He felt like a child, looking at the candy that was perched on the counter top that he couldn't reach. Like Dick Whitman, looking longingly at the 30 year old scotch high on the bar shelving that he was too poor to afford. It didn't seem fair that now he had all the respect and wealth he had dreamed about, and yet happiness was still on that shelf.

He was unusually quiet on the plane ride home. Every once in a while, Peggy's laughter broke his thoughts, and they always came back to 'What does she want?' Everyone wanted something. He wanted her, but how could he repackage himself to make her want him? And, with a sharp stab that he felt in his gut, he knew that he couldn't rebrand himself with her. She knew him, the true blackened corners of Don Draper, with all of his niceties and shadows. She understood him better than any woman ever had. And she didn't want him.

"Mr. Chaough here to see you." Peggy sighed and pushed her Hugo Boss taglines across her desk. She took the bottle of Canadian Club out of her drawer and sloppily poured some into a tumbler.

"Shit." She muttered, wiping her hand on her dress and took around for something to clean her glass off with.

"Ms. Olson?" She grabbed a few tissues and quickly dried her tumbler and threw the tissues in the garbage. She sat back in her chair and held her drink in her hand.

"Send him in." She called out. A moment later, Ted burst through the door with a large smile on his face.

"Congratulations! The entire office is talking about our first drug company!" Peggy couldn't help but smile back at his earnestness.

"Thanks Ted." After a moment she gestured towards the other chair and said "Have a seat." He sat down and continued beaming at her.

"30 and you already have your own drug company. I am amazed and jealous at the same time."

"Yeah, well, we'll see how to turns out." She said, smiling to her whiskey.

"Don't sell yourself short, Peggy. I am sure there were a bunch of different agencies, with men a hundred years older than you with decades more experience, pitching as well, but you blew them out of the water. By the time you're my age, all of the ad agencies on the East Coast will be owned by Olson Incorporated." Peggy laughed, and for the first time in a while, felt her mirth reach her eyes.

"Too bad you won't be alive to see it by then." She replied, taking a drink. Ted sucked his in lips and squinted his eyes, putting on the warble of an elderly man.

"By golly young lady, I won't be able to die until I see it happen!" Peggy laughed again, and sat her drink on her desk.

"Casting is going to be a pain though. Just a bunch of one-liners spoken by a ton of different voices. I mean, the plus side is that either the actor does the line right, or they don't. The downside is days of casting, just for those perfect little lines."

"Peggy, this is a drug company. They have more money to throw at voice actors than we've created taglines." Peggy sighed.

"I know. It's just that creative is overworked as it is, and the casting is going to take a long time." Ted looked at her inquisitively for a second.

"Why not ask for someone that can do a lot of different voices? I mean, there are a lot of talented people in this city. I am sure that someone can be a woman and a child, and maybe you'll need someone different to cast mens' voices, but at least you'll be able to cut down of the amount of people involved." Peggy stared at him for a moment.

"Ted, that is brilliant." He smiled again.

"I have been doing this for a while. In fact, I am sure that I can dig up some names of people who have done similar work for CGC before." She nodded.

"That would be great. It has to be done soon though. They've pulled Stan off of all the other accounts so that he can get the animation done by next Wednesday. Ciba is flying in from Ohio to view it." Ted shook his head.

"9 days is no problem. Consider it done. I am going to go and make some calls right now." He got up from his chair and headed to the door. Peggy smiled and nodded.

"Wait, Ted." He turned around and looked at her. "Do you want to come to the casting auditions? Don hates them, and you really know what you are doing."

"I'd love to. Send out the request, pick a date and time, and I will be there." He gave a smile before he left, and Peggy returned it.

Don called in sick to work that Monday morning. He wasn't ready to face Peggy, and he suddenly felt sick at the idea of another 12 hours in the office. However, staying in his apartment all day wasn't going to make him feel any better either. So instead, he was here.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Sally asked as she wandered into the secretary's office. Don shot a smile at the dour hag who continued to glare at him, and then faced Sally.

"Did you forget about your dental appointment in New York today?" He asked. Sally shook her head slightly, eyeing him in the same critical way that he would have. "The appointment that is going to take the rest of the day?" He added helpfully. Comprehension dawned, and Sally nodded.

"Of course, I've just been so busy that I'd completely forgotten." The secretary stared over her horn rimmed glasses.

"Mr. Draper, we can recommend a dentist that is much closer to the school." Don faced her again and shook his head, holding out his arms helplessly.

"She's terrified of dentists. Our old family dentist in New York is the only one that has gained her trust." The secretary shot him another dirty glare, and he added "I'll have her back by tonight." He turned back to Sally. "Your ride awaits."

"So you came and busted me out of school just to play hookie with me?" Sally demanded as they drove. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Don took a drag of his cigarette and propped his elbow out of the window.

"The great thing about being an adult is that you get to do what you want. Within reason." Sally's brow furled as she looked at him for a moment.

"Can I have a cigarette?"

"One now, one for the ride home." He replied, and handed her his pack and lighter. She rolled her window down and lit one, taking a drag before coughing lightly. Don smiled.

"Where are we going?"

"Well, what do you want to do?" She pondered.

"You're already wearing shorts. Let's go to the zoo." Don nodded.

"To the zoo it is."

Peggy left work on time, but the skies were already darkening when she arrived home. She flicked on the lights and went to the fridge, trying to decide what she wanted to eat. Finding only ketchup and a lone uncooked hotdog, she frowned. She was hungry, but didn't feel like going out. At the sound of a friendly meow, she turned to face her orange tabby, who was purring expectantly from the floor at her feet.

"Are you hungry?" She asked. He meowed. "Of course you are. Well, I am too." She reached in her cupboards for a can of wet cat food. "It looks like its chicken dinner tonight. Wanna split a can?" Charlie meowed again, wagging his tail expectantly. "Of course you don't. You just want to share all the mice you kill. Between that and the canned food, you are going to be fat. You'd better watch it. That calico from the 4th floor won't like you if you're tubby." Charlie just stared at her, with his friendly kitty grin. She dumped his food into a dish, and he trailed her out to her couch where she set it down on the seat next to her. He elegantly jumped onto the furniture and ate while Peggy stroked him.

"You're the only man I need." She said softly. Immediately she felt pathetic, and closed her eyes and fell back into her sofa. Don Draper flashed through her mind, and for a moment she was back in that hotel room, flesh pressed against his, the smell of coitus, cigarettes and beer surrounding them.

"I want this. I want you."

This time, Peggy cuddled in closer and laid her head on his chest, their hearts beating in sync.

"I want this too. This is where I am meant to be. Right here, in this hotel room, with you." Don turned onto his side, taking her hand and intertwining their fingers.

"We're going to stay in this hotel room for the rest of our lives. Stan, Pete and Harry will fly out tomorrow, and we are going to stay in here, naked and making love, until they condemn this hotel. We'll live on champagne, caviar, and love. And you can always have the mints on the pillow."

"Don..." He closed the gap and kissed her, and she felt his weight as he climbed on top of her, carefully entering her again."I love you." She said, gazing deep into his eyes.

"I love you. I love you I love you IloveyouIloveyouI-"

Charlie's presence on her lap brought her out of her daydream, and she sighed as as continued stroking his glossy coat. Suddenly she felt incredibly lonely, in a way she hadn't known that she was lonely before. She had left part of herself in that hotel room, and there was still a part of her roaming around in places she would never know, and she wondered how many more pieces she could lose before Peggy Olson was just a faint memory in the history of McCann-Erickson.

"Mandy says her spirit animal is the tiger." Sally said absentmindedly, licking her chocolate chip mint ice cream.

"Why does she think that? Why the hell does she think she has a spirit animal?" He asked, before taking a bite into his vanilla scoop. In front of them a lion paced behind a glass enclosure. Sally shrugged.

"I don't know. She met some Indian boy who she is madly in love with. Now she's burning some weird weed in the room all the time, saying something about spirits or ancestors cleansing it or something."

"Don't inhale when she does that, you could get in trouble." He advised. Sally smirked and shook her head.

"It isn't grass. It's some sort of other green thing. Besides, she already got in trouble. It doesn't mean she stopped doing it. The entire room smells like old people now." Don smirked.

"How is your mother?" Sally rolled her eyes.

"You know Betty. She's like she usually is."

"Don't be hard on her." Don reprimanded. "She just wants you to be happy."

"She has a funny way of showing it."

"She doesn't coddle you. One day you'll appreciate it." Sally licked around her cone, preventing small drips of ice cream from ruining her school uniform.

"What was your mother like?" She asked. Don chewed slowly on his last bit of cone.

"I never knew her. She died when she gave birth to me. It was dangerous to give birth back then." Sally fixed a gentle gaze on him.

"And your father never remarried?"

"The woman who raised me was harsh. She didn't like me very much. She always wanted to have her own child, but she got me instead." He turned his gaze away from the lion and faced his daughter with a pair of expressionless sunglasses. "That's how I know your mother loves you." Sally turned away and stared at the lioness sunbathing in the back of the enclosure.

"I'm going to join the Model UN." She declared. Don smiled.

"Do you know what nation you'll be presenting?" She shook her head.

"I think I'd like to present Sweden. Or one of those Nordic countries. My friends said that I look like I should."

"Try for a nation with a veto." He suggested.

"That'll look good when applying for colleges. Unless I wind up being Russia. Or China. Or France." She turned up her nose. Don checked his watch.

"It's time to grab you some dinner, and then we'll drive back to school."

Author's Notes: Sorry for the lack of Don/Peggy interaction, but it is going to pick up in the next chapter, in an explosive way! Thank you for your views and reviews, they mean the world to me!