Many months had passed, Jennifer found herself adjusting well to the life that was thrown at her. She had slimmed down and her hair had grown out. If not happy she was content with her place here. Anders had trained her well in use of magic, but she found herself more of an elementalist than a healer. Fire and ice came as easily to her as breathing, and she was able to experiment with her magic wielding it into her weapons and her friends when in the heat of battle.

Summer had brought a warm and lazy breeze to Kirkwall, being from Texas the heat seemed comforting and she felt at home. She sat within the garden, pruning the flowers to accommodate for the lack of rain. As she clipped a dying rose bud from the bush lining the northern wall her mind flashed back to that bizarre dream and Fenris' words whispered into her mind once again. Keep fighting… for us.

Their relationship had resumed its easy friendship, and she could not be angry for it no more than she could be angry with anything else. She held firm to her belief that his reasons were his own, and of great importance, if only for him. Still, she frowned, wishing to only know why. In their last battle, she was pushed aside as an arrow whipped past her, only to find Fenris laying above her. He said nothing as he collided once again into the fray, but still there was hope. She held onto that hope as fiercely as Isabela held onto her drink.

She sighed, dropping the bud into the bucket before turning and leaving the mansion. She favored the opinions of her friends, Sebastian above all, finding his certainty in the Maker a delightful thing, though it wasn't for her. She hopped down the steps leading to Lowtown, hoping to find Varric. Though Sebastian was a great confidant, she knew how he had felt about her, and she refused to salt the old wound of her choosing another, the same courtesy she applied for Anders.

And knowing everything it seemed, Varric was the best for guidance in her current predicament. So she meandered through Lowtown, making her way slowly to the Hanged Man. She found Isabela, already inebriated with drink and lazily draping herself on a chair in Varric's room. She looked to the well tended case that held Bianca, So Varric was close by. "Come with me, and I'll take you to places you've never been." Jennifer watched with shocked amusement as Isabela waved her drink enticingly at Bianca. "I think she deserves to feel a woman's touch on her trigger. Don't you?" She asked Jennifer.

Varric came in through the doorway to his bedroom. "Bianca responds to my touch, she'd never give it up to you."

"That's what they always say, and I always prove them wrong." She leaned her head back looking at Varric with a wide grin.

"Stop it!" He moved quickly to Bianca's side as if to protect her. "You're confusing her… and me."

Jennifer burst into a great peel of laughter as she sat herself down opposite of Isabela and clicked her tongue. "You are so shameful, no wonder Hawke deems you a bad influence."

"I resent that!" She said in mock affront, before prying her languid self from the chair and sauntering to the door. "Just think about it Bianca, you know where to find me."

Varric shivered and held Bianca close before moving to the table to sit. "Well, Smiles, what brings you to my humble home?"

Jennifer scoffed at the comment, but placed her hands delicately upon the table and opened her mouth to speak but closed it shortly after, turning inward, pensive. Varric looked at her before asking for two drinks from Nora, he turned to Bianca lifting her in his arms before idly stroking the loading mechanism. "You know, sometimes you scare me with how you could give Broody a run for his money at scowling." He chuckled to himself, bringing Jennifer out of her thoughts.

He laid her head upon the table with a solid thunk before responding. "I just don't know what to do. I want to ask him, but… how do you bring that up in conversation? 'Hey Fenris, no I don't want any wine, so why did you leave and why are you such a coward?" She peered up at him, though she did not remove her head from the table.

Varric chuckled again. "Smiles, the way I see it there's one of two things you can do. You can wait." At that she glared at him through one eye. "Or…" He threw his hands up in defense, "Or you can just ask him. Man up and just ask. Situations like these don't call for tact. They call for guts. Question is: Are you willing to hear what he has to say?"

At that, Jennifer lifted her head and peered at him. "Did you ever think that him being a coward was because he didn't want to lose you? Sure he knew you would be upset about him leaving, but maybe he thought you would be more upset about why he left? Broody's got issues like everyone else, but maybe he doesn't realize it. Perhaps showing him would help."

Jennifer pursed her lips and tapped the table. "A secret for a secret?"

At Varric's nod she grimaced. "Some things are better left in the past."

"True as that may be. Perhaps some people are in capable of leaving it in the past but still moving forward." Jennifer thought of what he said, even as she thanked him and said her goodbyes, she thought diligently on it when Fenris' words rang out in her head. I tried to keep my past behind me…. But it won't stay there. She sped to his house, something unknown carrying her through the winding streets of Hightown.

When she arrived at the well worn door, the pounded upon it's creaking wood with the side of her fist. She leaned forward catching her breath, all the battles in the world never preparing her for the swiftness the claimed on her way towards his musty manor. She heaved in gulping breaths of air, a stitch in her side pinging with a sting she knew too well, and at last when Fenris opened the door to his manor she held up a finger, pressing her fist to her side as she straightened. "Hi." She exclaimed breathlessly before entering his manor.

"Please, come in?" He asked dryly as Jennifer winced before turning to face him. He looked her up and down before stepping closer. Jennifer's breath caught in her throat when he stepped close enough for her to feel the warmth of his skin, despite the cool stale air of the building. "Are you alright? Has something happened?"

Jennifer shook her head before blowing out a plume of air through tight lips. "Just giving myself a heart attack with all that running." She involuntarily sucked in air through her nose before turning to him with a bright smile. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

"Why are you here?" He asked cautiously, shifting from one foot to the other.

Jennifer looked at him and her smile faultered. She moved to reach out a hand before drawing back, uncertain. "I—" She growled frustratedly, her fingers catching in her hair as she combed through it in irritation. She turned away, finding solace in separating herself from those emerald eyes so much darker than her own. "I… I can't claim to know, much – if anything at all- about you." She turned back, keeping her eyes at her booted toes. "And I know, that why you left are for reasons all your own." She winced again when she saw the internal withdraw, it played blatantly in his stance, the shift of his feet.

"But I want to. Even if-" She paused, the words catching in her throat. She swallowed hard before continuing. "Even if, it's only as friends. I want you to know me, like no one else does." Fenris moved to interrupt, a deep grumble in his chest, but Jennifer lifted her hand. "I want you to know, so that you see how you are not alone. You were never alone, at least not since coming to Kirwall. Whether you believe me or not, it needs to be said." She moved again to touch, to comfort, but found it unwanted and drew her hand back once more. "In my own world, there is no magic. No mana. No fade. But there are things just as ugly and just a gruesome within my world, some things I've come to experience myself." Why is it so hard to talk right now?

"Jennifer, y-"

Jennifer furiously shook her head, fighting against the clog in her throat that just didn't seem to ease. "I didn't use to be the person I am now. When I saw my sister die before my very eyes I became – troubled. My parents separated because of it and that only added to the hurt in myself." She closed her eyes tightly. "I was taken, to a facility that dealt with 'troubled' people, but it only added to it. I- they…" She brought her hands to her eyes as if to rub away the memories, but they came back wet and glistened in the low light of the manor.

"They poisoned me. Hurt me… I don't tell you this for pity, or sympathy. I tell you so you know, if there is anything you need to talk about, I will not judge. I won't blame. I won't hate. I just wish to be near you, and even that is a bl-" Fenris crushed her lips with his, eagerly opening her with a swipe of his tongue. She stood still till his hands pressed against the small of her back and she closed her eyes tightly, reveling in the feel of him against her once again. Her heart pounded painful in her chest as he pulled away.

"Stop. I can't- I don't-" He hung his head in defeat and Jennifer peered at him searchingly. "I can't tell you. I've tried, I've tried so many times. I just need… time."

Jennifer smirked, her eyes still tearing. "Not a no?"

And despite himself, Fenris smiled. "Not a no."

Jennifer smiled brightly, suddenly all to conscious of how close he was, how his hair whispered across her brow. How his calloused fingers caught in her hair. How his wine flavored breath ghosted over her lips and she cleared her throat as a deep blush ran along her neck. "Right… well now that I've made an ass out of myself. I should probably go." She chuckled nervously.

Fenris nodded, slowly pulling his fingers from her cheeks before letting them fall lifelessly at his sides. She walked past him, only to give him a saucy wink over her shoulder before stepping from the manor. She walked along the wall towards the Amell Estate, her fingers occasionally ghosting over her hips when she heard a light scuff of a boot and the tell-tale song of blade against leather. She stopped, drawing her maces from the holsters at her hip, a man in green and brown leather stepped from the shadows, a wicked gleam in his eye as he spun the blade of his dagger in his fingers.

"Shit…"