Cordelia came home to an empty house. A small naïve part of her had built up the hope that when she returned Misty would greet her with an apologetic smile and Cordelia would even forgive her mother's non-subtle hints that she had been the one to fix everything, because Misty was home and then this nagging feeling of danger could go away. It had grown all day.

Her heart fell, because now the house was emptier than when she left. Deserted except for Spalding who jumped out of the dark crevices the second she stepped inside. His intense gaze flickered with worry.

"Where are they?" She asked him. He looked sad, but did nothing. Only waited for her to ask a question he could give an answer to. It was his way to be patient like this. "Are they still at the swamp?" He nodded. "No babysitter?" He shook his head.

If the worry hadn't occupied every brain cell not devoted to walking, talking and breathing she would have been furious. She would allow Misty to take Cage out there after much persuasion, but her mother had no grasp on nature. She would get them both hurt.

"I have to go check on them", she said to Spalding. It was to inform him as much as it was to brace herself. She feared the forest more than ever with all that had happened out there and the possibility that it had swallowed Misty up as well.

She had only gotten as far as to unbutton her coat and now she buttoned it up again. She put on different shoes, ones that could handle the unsteady terrain. Spalding reached for his own coat and shot her a pleading glance.

Cordelia understood the question. In her childhood or even just five years ago, she would have reproached at the prospect of this man following her anywhere, but times had changed. Ever since he showed up again, she had learned to tolerate him. It had sprung from intense gratitude at his help in saving Misty and had developed into something resembling actual liking. Now, she felt a bit of relief that someone would accompany her. Spalding had excellent hearing, from what she understood. He might not be the worst companion out there. At last, she smiled and nodded.

"Sure, come along. I could use the company."

He smiled back and held the door open for her. He didn't usually express these manners towards her, that was new too. The new connection seemed to go both ways.

They walked in silence towards the forest and down the path. Cordelia listened for any sound that might signal danger. Bad vibes didn't come to her like they did with Misty and it left her feeling vulnerable. She couldn't fathom what had possessed her to run out here with the sole purpose of getting lost so many times during her life. Only now that she had the means to connect with the wild through Misty, did it show her the merciless persona hidden here in the depths.

It was a clouded day, which should have made the small wildlife peak out from their sun covers, but it was quiet here today. Much too quiet. When they reached the shack there was an aura of silence, which made Cordelia's heart pound as if it conspired to jump out of her chest. It was dark in there, yet she felt a pull. There was someone in there, despite the lack of light. She knew it. She began to run, with Spalding close at her heels. At the door she stopped and instead of ripping it up, she opened it gently, afraid too much sudden noise would evolve badly. Her heart was at her throat now, her body pulsed with anxiety.

She couldn't see much through the crack, but she saw enough. By the bed, curled up and shaking, was Misty.

"Misty!" Cordelia pushed the door open and ran to her. She had eyes for nothing but her trembling love on the floor. She looked terrified, stunned. Cordelia threw herself to the ground in front of her and tried to make contact, but Misty didn't look up. A raspy, growling noise came out of her throat, while she swayed lightly in her locked up position. None of this eased Cordelia's thumbing heart. She hesitated, tried to get a look at Misty's face. Her crystal eyes were fixated on the floor, hard and unresponsive. Her face was wet and dirty and her teeth bared in a snarl. The low growls vibrated from her throat.

Only now did Cordelia notice the blood on her hands. Dirt and blood mixed and caked on her arms and all over her clothes like a brutal, muddy painting.

"Darling, can you hear me? It's me", she said. Her own voice started to quiver as the anxiety blossomed into full-grown fear. "Please tell me you're okay!" When Misty still did nothing, Cordelia put a hand under her chin and forced her gaze up. There was resistance at first, but finally Misty obeyed and met her eyes. Their gazes locked and for the first time today, Misty seemed to register something. Then a terrified whimper came out of her mouth and she crawled backwards with panic until she hit the wall.

The fear built with rapid speed. Misty seemed regressed somehow, deprived of humanity, turned to some primal state. Her eyes shone with pure fright, and Cordelia couldn't remember them having ever looked quite like that.

"Misty, what happened? Please talk to me. Is the blood yours?"

She stared at Cordelia for a long time, before she finally shook her head. "No." Her voice sounded hoarse and broken. The relief her answer offered was quickly gone.

"What happened? Where's Cage and Fiona?"

Tears welled up in Misty's eyes and Cordelia felt like she couldn't breathe. Misty pointed to the corner slightly hidden by her bed. Over there lay Cage on a folded blanket, unmoving and with his eyes closed. Cordelia felt dizzy with terror and she scrambled to her feet to pick up her son. The floor vanished from under her, the universe grew tiny in those seconds and she had to fight not to pass out from the sudden lack of air in her lungs. This could not be happening.

"Just sleepin'", Misty choked out.

"Are you sure?" Cordelia was crying now. She took him into her arms carefully, as if afraid to break him. Felt for his pulse and heartbeat. It was slow, like that of deep sleep, but it was there. When moved, Cage stretched his arms, grunted sleepily and settled in for sleep in the new warmth of his mother's arms. Cordelia cried out with relief and hugged him close. She doubled over him and tried to control the sudden flow of tears. Nothing made sense, but he was breathing and the blood wasn't his either. She drew a few deep breaths and she turned to Misty again.

She found Spalding kneeling in front of Misty, asking her something. They had always been good at communicating and when Misty lifted a finger and pointed towards the door, Spalding instantly picked up on something Cordelia didn't. He bolted out the door and she could hear him run around the shack. His footsteps sounded panicked, rushing. Cordelia pushed it aside and sat back down with Misty. When she did, Misty tried to back away again, but the wall stopped her. It ached in Cordelia's chest, this frantic urge to escape and she didn't understand it. She understood nothing.

"Please talk to me, love. What happened here?"

"Laveau", she whispered. "Voodoo Queen." Then she started sobbing. Every half sentence she choked out opened up for more confusion and more terror. And as much as the crying was a testimony to Misty's sudden regressed humanity resurfacing, it left Cordelia increasingly afraid and it mixed up in the relief and the confusion. Misty reached out and took her hand, closed her own hands around it, as if hanging on for dear life. Cordelia clutched the sleeping Cage to her chest with one hand and tried to pull Misty in with the other. The position was awkward, but Misty crawled into her the best she could. Cordelia could feel her shaking like a scared child.

"I'm sorry", she whispered into Cordelia's coat.

"What are you sorry for? It's okay now, I'm here. You're okay."

"No", Misty shook her head and pushed herself out again. Her wet eyes met Cordelia's and she said: "No. I'm scared she's gonna make me hurt you."

Cordelia felt her whole body turn cold. As confused as she was she now understood why Misty shied away from her, why she wouldn't even touch Cage. She meant it. She wasn't terrified from what had happened, but for what still could.

"Did Laveau take you? How?"

"I don't know. She has abilities. Like me." Misty lifted her hands to her head and ran them harshly through her hair, clawing all the way across her scalp. Her untrimmed nails left red marks. "She's in my head. Delia, I'm so sorry." Her voice broke again and she curled up again, tried to put distance between them, but the wall and the bed wouldn't allow her.

Cordelia wanted to ask more, but just then Spalding came barging back in. There was a stream of silent tears on his face. Cordelia had never seen him cry before. Until this day she hadn't known that he could. Facing this way and with the light illuminating the floor Cordelia's eyes caught the mass of blood. Suddenly the room was spinning into a surreal scene of murder and the blood colored everything. She looked down at her own hands and saw that she had some too. She sat in it. It was on Spalding now too, along with dirt. Cordelia's chest turned to ice.

"What is it?" She asked, but the most surreal kind of knowing had washed over her already. The one piece missing now, the dirt and the blood, none of which was Misty's or Cage's. There was only one left. "It's my mother, isn't it?"

Spalding closed his eyes. Then he nodded.

O0O

Misty watched the tears form in Cordelia's eyes. She stared at Spalding in the doorway and he stared back. For the first time their feelings aligned, because for the first time Spalding expressed a pain just as deep as Cordelia's. His eyes were wet as well and his chest heaved with the cries he didn't have the vocal cords to let out. Misty looked back to Cordelia, horrified at how she might react.

Cordelia started to get up. "I have to see her."

Misty couldn't speak, but she did the next best thing. She grabbed Cordelia by the wrist and pleaded her not to go in any non-verbal way she knew. Then she looked to Spalding with the same prayer. Neither of them really needed a language from her now. Whatever much Spalding had dug up from the brute, improvised grave Misty had tried to make, the sight of her mother dead like that would haunt Cordelia forever.

Her efforts was to no avail. Cordelia insisted. She turned back to Misty and said: "I have to. I need to see it with my own eyes or I won't believe it. Does she look bad?"

Misty nodded. "Yes."

"Oh God." Cordelia put her hand to her mouth to muffle her crying. "I have to see her, Misty."

There would be no convincing her otherwise, Misty knew that. She tried to figure out a way and could only think of one. "Wait here", she said. Then she got up herself. Her knees felt like they were sacks of water stacked on sticks and her body trembled as she rose, her entire being dazed with nausea. She staggered out of the shack – thinking to herself that she might never be able to set foot in there again – and out to the back, where the meadow stretched on a few dozen feet until the line of trees fenced it in. This was where she had buried Fiona, in an indecent hole in the ground. There was a time where she thought Fiona deserved no better than this disgraceful pile of dirt and grass, but now looking at it, the only one deserving of this barren last resting place was Misty herself. She could share this grave with Laveau, if she ever got within biting distance of her again.

The hum of her constant presence still echoed within Misty's skull. It was vaguer now, hours after the last command, but she was there, buzzing like a mad hummingbird. The cicadas of the forest drowned in this noise, the faint breeze of the wind didn't exist. The silence had gone and for a moment it was so overwhelming that Misty had to stop and dig her clawed nails into her head in hopes that the pain would somehow level the noise. It didn't and Misty wanted to scream, but she wouldn't alarm Cordelia more. She couldn't cause her anymore pain or worry now. She could never make good again. She had killed her mother.

At first she had pushed it onto the woman in her head, the controller of her thoughts and actions. Surely she would never be capable of this by herself, no matter how much she had hated Fiona for the way she treated Cordelia. But she remembered. She remembered looking into Fiona's eyes, hearing Fiona telling her to take care of her daughter. No matter what she might do. Because she knew she would never pay another visit to the swamp to remind Misty that Cordelia's missteps were only her own self-destructiveness. And then Misty had closed her fist around her neck and squeezed until the last of the air burned up in her lungs.

Misty remembered all of it. And she never remembered a full overwrite.

This could only mean that she had done it out of free will.

Marie Laveau knew she would never harm Cage, no matter the alternative. And she had caught them both in a trap. Even so, there would be no explaining that she with her free will had chosen to choke the life out of Fiona and not lunged at the Voodoo Queen herself. The thought to do so had barely entered her mind, because her baby boy sat there on the queen's lap, unharmed yet.

Misty dried her own tears away and snarled at her body to make it stop shaking. Fiona lay bared on the other side of the dirt hill, pale, empty face and ravaged chest showing. There was a dark hole in the middle of it, edges full of clotted blood, where Misty had dug in. She remembered fighting ribs to get to the heart. It had only just stopped beating, when she got to it and the thought of that body still warm now made her run to the edge of the meadow to throw up. She was cold before, stunned into action by some survival instinct, but now all the rest of her senses were open and aching and she retched until her throat felt raw.

When her chest ceased heaving, she dried her mouth with her sleeve and went back to the hole. Spalding sat by the grave, stroking Fiona's dirty hair. Misty took a second to look at him and feel his pain with him. She wanted to ask him if he really loved her as much as she thought he did, but neither of them could speak now. Her tongue felt like it had curled back into her mouth, threatening to choke her if she tried to speak. Instead of saying anything, she put a hand on his shoulder.

He turned and slapped it away. Misty took a step back in shock and watched his face twist with hurt and anger. His eyes flashes at her, warning her not to touch him again. He blamed her. Of course he did.

She tried to tell him sorry, if not with her words then her eyes, but he walked to the shadows, done communicating. Misty heaved again with a dry, aching cry. She had been so oppressed with how much Cordelia would hate her for this that she hadn't anticipated how much it hurt to see Spalding turn away from her also. For a few seconds she stared after him, but then movement from the house got her back on track. Cordelia could walk out here at any second and her mother lay exposed like some horrific wax sculpture.

Misty threw dirt over her chest. One look at her dead pale face would be enough to convince Cordelia; she didn't need to see the rest. She only managed to cover Fiona to the neck and make some sort of arrangement with the rest of the dirt, before Cordelia stepped around.

"Misty, I can't just sit in there." Her voice shook with tears, but she was still clear. What Misty feared most was the sight of light in Cordelia's eyes slipping away, her lucidity folding back and into the wrap of madness. Surely this could do that to her. Surely Misty would drive her to that point now.

She came around the corner, Cage carefully propped up against her body and still asleep. Her eyes fell on Fiona immediately and a whine of shock and pain wrenched from her throat. Her free hand flew to her mouth again, but the sobs came already. She clutched Cage closer and tried to strangle the cries, but it was too much for her to keep in. Spalding emerged from the shadows and took the child. Misty thought Cordelia would fight him on it, but she looked too weak to even stand and she let him. She looked younger without the child on her hip, like a little lost girl, too sick to stay on her feet. Misty wanted to hurry to her side, to help her, but she didn't dare. She stayed on the other side of the grave, while Cordelia walked closer. It ached in her entire body to see Cordelia trying to wrap her arms around herself to isolate the pain and knowing she couldn't take this pain away. Because she had caused it.

She opened her mouth to say sorry again, but the words strangled themselves in her throat. Cordelia walked closer, shoulders shaking and her sobs filling the otherwise dead quiet meadow. It even drowned the humming. Misty forced herself to meet Cordelia's gaze and when they locked, Cordelia walked straight to her and into her embrace. Misty didn't realize she had invited one, until Cordelia cried against neck. She hugged Cordelia tight, Laveau's hum of presence be damned, and tried the best she could to absorb some of Cordelia's pain. She realized this was the first time since the night she decided to forgive her that they had even touched and this above all made it impossible to let go. She had just forgiven Cordelia. Now she was the one in need of redemption. Only this stretched far beyond the scope of what should be forgiven.

She gave life. That was her calling. She had kept Fiona alive for years and now she had killed her. Her powers could no longer be used. Her abilities had come full circle.

Cordelia drew a trembling breath and stepped back. Her eyes were red, her gaze confused. But she was still there.

"How did she die?" Misty thought her heart stopped for a second. She wasn't ready.

"I-" She began, but Cordelia held up a hand and stopped her.

"No, don't tell me yet. I-I don't think I can handle it today." She rubbed her temple and Misty felt like a cold river on the inside. Cordelia sniffled and dropped the hand again. "But we can't leave her here. I have to get home and make some calls. A funeral, I have to arrange a funeral. I can't let her be buried out here. I don't mean to offend your arrangement, I'm sorry, but I have to…"

"Please don't apologize." Misty begged it with a voice that broke mid-sentence. Her dirty, blood-smeared hands curled into fists in Cordelia's dress, because she couldn't let go, and then gently pushed her away, because she had to. The hum in her head intensified and she was scared Laveau picked up on her change of emotion. She was in there, she could feel things and she could make Misty lash out at any moment. The recent past had proved that.

Cordelia noticed the fight, but let herself be pushed. She lifted a hand to Misty's cheek, stroked it and said: "We should get you cleaned up. Will you come home or shall I get your barrel out?"

"Delia, please…"

But she only shook her head. "I know you're afraid she'll do more through you. But she's done her worst on you and my mother and she didn't want to hurt Cage or she would have already. She can't hurt me more than she already has. Just… come home and help me make sure Cage is okay. Please."

The relief that Cordelia hadn't connected the dots yet didn't outweigh the realization that she didn't know about the powers either. Misty couldn't even keep Cage safe anymore. She was compelled not to use her ability.

The little boy wiggled in Spalding's arms, blissfully unaware of the scene. Misty only hoped Laveau hadn't been lying about the forget-roots. Then at least Cage would escape this night unscarred.

O0O

Cordelia wasn't sure if the absence of the black hole was a good thing or something to cause her even more concern. The voices nagged with I-told-you-so's, but the dark filter of insanity didn't cover her eyes and ears and cloud her brain like the last time she was faced with death. She couldn't let it. She had Cage to take care of and she couldn't leave her little miracle alone while she descended some hole. Still, she worried this meant something bigger, more frightening and yet undiscovered facet of her illness waited for her, ready to engulf her the second she slipped.

She had convinced Misty to come home. They found Cage's stroller on the other side of the shack and propped the groggy Cage down there. The sign that he was slowly waking from whatever false sleep he had been put in helped keep Cordelia on track. The whispers kept insisting he would never wake, but his eyes started to flutter on the way home and she held on to that. Spalding had taken him, so Cordelia could support Misty, who seemed to have lost the will to move. She would have let Spalding take Misty, so she herself could hold Cage, but Spalding reacted with repulsion towards Misty. Cordelia didn't understand why, but didn't have the energy resource to question it.

At home she helped Misty into the bathtub and cleaned her up. Misty kept looking around frantically, kept her hands under her legs, pinned down as if she was afraid she couldn't control them. She was a shadow of herself, half herself. The levity had left her and she acted almost… possessed. Kept running a hand through her hair, clawing at her scalp, eyes wide with a feeling that bordered on panic. Cordelia pried her hand down gently and Misty withdrew it immediately. Her wide eyes darted to Cordelia's and then away, as if a lingering gaze was considered dangerous to her.

Cage woke up fully the morning of the next day. Cordelia had him in bed alone, because Misty had retreated to the greenhouse in the back yard. Cordelia had tried to convince her that sleeping next to each other wouldn't hurt, but Misty shook her head and apologized. Her voice shook when she said it and the look in her eyes made Cordelia think she was apologizing for more than just needing space. Cordelia pondered over this and then she thought about Cage and how to get them back to normal. She occupied her mind with questions like these, because they were abstract and impossible to answer. And so they kept her mind busy enough that she wouldn't linger on the fact that her mother lay dead in the swamp.

It was the early morning and she woke to the sleepy grunts of her son. She hadn't slept much, but somewhere along the small hours of the morning she had succumbed to a light sleep. But despite her exhaustion, she welcomed the feeling of his hands patting her cheek.

"Mommy?"

Her first impulse was to cry. To pull him in and sob until she had no more tears. But she refrained, kept it suppressed. She had to stay composed for him.

Instead of crying, she smiled at him and moved in to kiss his forehead.

"Good morning, love. Sleep good?"

He nodded against the sheet. They both lay on their side, facing each other. Cordelia looked at him for a long time, trying to see if there was any sign he remembered last night. But she found no pain, no fear in his beautiful eyes. Only grogginess and that she could handle.

"Where's mama?" For a moment her chest tightened anyway. He hadn't seen her since she promised to come home soon and yet there was wondering in his eyes, which gave away a hint of worry. As if he knew something was wrong.

"She's outside. Mama doesn't feel so good today."

"I wanna see her." He sat up in the bed, and started to crawl out of it. Cordelia got up as well, helped him off the bed. She wanted to change him into something other than the body stocking he slept in, but he had no time for it. He waddled towards the door and the stairs. He had become good with the stairs, knew he wasn't supposed to stand up before his balance was better, but crawl on his knees instead. He was on his way down, when Cordelia caught up.

"Baby, hold on." She picked him up and put an extra layer on him before carrying him down and out the door. The house was quiet like a ghost town. Spalding hadn't shown as much as a shadow of a foot since they came home. In his mourning, he was even harder to find than usual.

Cordelia carried Cage outside and to the greenhouse. The boy wiggled impatiently in her grasp and demanded to be put down when they reached the doors. Cordelia hesitated, knocked first.

"Misty? Are you in there? Cage and I are here to see you."

They heard nothing.

"Mama!" Cage called and Cordelia shushed him.

"Give her a moment, baby."

A sound came from behind the door, something that might have been a word, but it was too low to make out the shape of it. Cordelia opened the door with caution and stepped inside. She let Cage down, but held onto his hand firmly, not willing to let him go yet.

They found Misty at the far end of the little greenhouse, propped up in a corner, with her arms folded around her knees. When they neared, she looked up and revealed the dark circles under her eyes. They hadn't been as obvious they night before, but now they stood out and reminded Cordelia of what her own reflection had often looked like. Misty's hair was even more impossible than usual, ruffled from the hand constantly running through it. She looked so small in that corner, so frightened. Then she saw Cage and a flicker of opposing emotions ran across her face. First longing, then fading into fright again. She looked up at Cordelia with pleading eyes.

"Delia, please don't."

"It's okay."

Misty looked trapped, as if she wasn't sure whether to flee or welcome them. As if both urges were equally strong.

You did this to her. You made her leave. Laveau wouldn't have gotten her if it wasn't for you.

Cordelia rubbed her temples, tried to think through them. Right or not, they couldn't win now. She couldn't break.

Her momentary lapse in concentration was all Cage needed to fight his way free. He yanked his hand out of hers and ran to Misty.

There were two seconds from the moment he let go, where Cordelia and Misty looked at each other with matching fear. The thoughts poked that maybe Misty was right, maybe she would hurt him, even if she'd rather die than do so on purpose. Cordelia wanted to scream at Cage to come back, but by then the moment had passed and Cage reached Misty in the corner.

He put his little hand on her arm and asked: "You okay, mama? You don't look so good."

Misty's eyes watered up as she looked at him and her features softened. Then she sniffled and nodded.

"I'm okay, pup. I've been better, but I'm okay now."

"I missed you, mama." He didn't remember. He didn't know that he saw her yesterday and was put to sleep. Cordelia and Misty realized this at the same time and a heavy cloud left the atmosphere. Misty opened up her locked position and Cage stepped in, put his little arms around her neck. She hugged her arms tight around him, smelled his hair and then clutched him even tighter. Cordelia watched the reunion and felt a pang of guilt for thinking this could have gone any other way.

"Mama… too… tight."

Misty chuckled and loosened up. "Sorry, pup." Cordelia hadn't heard her laugh in ages. It made her heart swell in the weirdest way. She abandoned her lonely stance and went to sit beside Misty and Cage. Misty twitched when she did, but even she couldn't fight it. She looked at Cordelia, asking with eyes only if she was okay. She didn't want to say it out loud, so to not disturb the fragile sense of normalcy they had managed to create for their boy.

No, Cordelia's gaze answered. She wasn't, but she would find a way to get there.

"We'll figure it out."

Misty nodded. And Cordelia leaned in and kissed her. She placed a hand at the frame of Misty's face, stroked her sticky cheek with a thumb, coaxing her to stay in the kiss for just a few seconds longer. Then she let go.

They rested their foreheads against each other's and Misty sighed. "You gotta go back inside. She can feel this and I… I'll come in when I can, okay?"

"Just give me a second to feel like I've gotten you back", Cordelia whispered back. She had her eyes closed, desperate to stay in this limbo as long as possible. All, everyone, she really needed was here and if time would just freeze… Misty moved, caught her lips again in a loaded kiss.

"You have, if you want me." Then she moved back and Cordelia reluctantly opened her eyes. Misty lifted Cage up and placed him in Cordelia's lap instead. "Please go back inside. I'll see you later, I promise."

"Come eat with us, mama!" Cage sounded frustrated, but Cordelia shushed him. Told him not to insist on this and brought him back into the house. She carried the limbo in her chest, tried to nurture it to stay alive when she reentered the cold quiet of the house. She carried it all day, pushed funeral arrangements aside and tended to her fourth graders' assignments instead. Spent the day playing with Cage. Misty came back in for dinner, and left after saying goodnight to Cage with the promise that she would visit again tomorrow. Cordelia ached to pull her in for another kiss, feel her rough nature hands fist in her hair and fuel the feeling of limbo in her chest. But Misty looked too frightened when she neared and she refrained. She only stood on the porch and watched Misty hurry back to the greenhouse and shut the door after her.

After she had put Cage to bed, she looked through Misty's things for something to calm her and found one of her Fleetwood Mac CDs. She gathered Misty's old Walkman and went to the greenhouse with it. Misty flinched when she came close, but she tried to ignore it. Same with the ache in her heart. Misty stared to shake her head slowly when Cordelia came close.

"Sit still", Cordelia told her and crouched down. She put the earpieces in Misty's ears before she could object and pressed play. Music had never kept out her own voices, but maybe it could help this one. Misty didn't talk, but the warm gratitude in her gaze was enough. Cordelia kissed her forehead and went back to the house again.

When everyone was taken care of, there was nothing left to keep her mind busy and she sank onto the couch, dreading the overtake of grief and voices.

Then someone knocked on the front door.

Cordelia blessed the intrusion internally, got up and went for the door. She didn't have thoughts to guest who it was, but felt she shouldn't have been surprised to find Cometh standing outside.

He was a man with perfect composure. She knew he was often angry with her, but it never showed. Now he must be worried that his fiancé hadn't made contact in a whole day after accepting his proposal. For just a few hours it had slipped Cordelia's mind that Fiona was now engaged. There was someone else who would feel the terrible loss of her death. And Cordelia would have to be the messenger.

Cometh tipped his hat and said. "Good evening, Cordelia. Might your mother be here?"

Cordelia sighed deeply, fidgeted with her clothes as she tried to figure out how to start this conversation. "Come on in, Cometh."

"Everything alright?" He asked and she just shook her head. Let him pass her and led him into the living room. He was a tall man, she noticed. She wondered why she hadn't noticed that before. She supposed she had never taken that much time to study him.

"I assume Fiona has told you about our engagement. I hope we have your support." He took a seat in the couch, naturally knowing that the armchair was Fiona's spot and it left Cordelia to sit opposed him on the couch. She couldn't touch the chair either. Cometh eyed her, frowning at her lack of response. "I know you don't particularly care for me-"

"No please, that's not- I'm happy for you. Was- I… God…" She stopped, trying to form the words again. Cometh shot her a piercing look and she could see the dread starting to emerge in his gaze.

"Was?" He repeated. "What's the matter?"

"She's dead. She died yesterday, Cometh. I'm sorry to be the one to tell you. I meant to find you, but everything's been chaos these past days, and… I'm so sorry." She almost couldn't stand to look at him. She could see that perfect composure starting to crumble for the first time and in that moment she felt more sorry for him than she felt her own loss. His eyes watered up and his hands clutched his hat so tight his knuckles turned white. His jaw quivered and then a tear poked out of his eye.

"Was it her liver? She told me she had more time."

"I don't know", Cordelia answered truthfully. She still hadn't gotten the full story out of Misty. For one part because she didn't think she could bear to hear it and the other because she didn't think Misty would endure telling it. But she doubted it was her liver. Yet the thought that Fiona was getting sick again pricked in the back of her mind, more insistent now. "She didn't even tell me she was that sick again. I didn't know she had problems with her liver." Although she should have guessed.

Cometh nodded ruefully. He wiped the falling tear away and said. "She had. She didn't want to tell me either, but eventually she did. I have been asking the proposal for months and I figured this mystery disease was the reason she refused me. But two days ago, she finally admitted the truth." There was a hint of a smile in Cometh's sad eyes and it started something up in Cordelia. A wave was pulling in, washing over the limbo. It gained as he went on talking. "She told me the doctors had diagnosed her with end-stage liver failure. She refused to let any of us be burdened and she wasn't high on the transplant list, due to her history with alcohol. The prognosis was two months she said. Maybe she wanted to spare us by going this way. Or save her own pride. I told her not to, so it would be just like her to do it. She promised me." A flash of anger ran over his eyes.

And then it hit. The wave of realization finally knocked her over and the state of shock she had been in since she found them all in the shack flipped over, turned to the agonizing acceptance that Fiona was gone. It came out so sudden and so violently that she had no time to put together a decent excuse for Cometh to leave. The crying didn't wait. Part of it was the relief that Fiona would be dead soon anyway, part was the anger that she hadn't even told Cordelia about her impending death and part was just the pure white-hot pain of the loss.

Cometh had enough tact to leave her alone to grief and he promised to stay in touch, help with all the arrangements. When he closed the door behind him, it was Spalding who emerged from the shadows to sit with her so at least she wouldn't be completely alone with the sound of her cries. For what must have been the first time ever he sat down on the couch. He didn't touch her, only sat there like a quiet companion. A watchful protector, guarding her grief. She curled up on the couch; a mirror position of the one Misty held in the greenhouse and cried until she fell asleep from the exhaustion.