Misty had gone back to living in the greenhouse to give Cordelia space. She hadn't asked to sleep next to her since she told her the truth two days ago. A part of her had thought to just go back to the swamp, but a kind of nausea, which had little to do with Marie Laveau, turned her stomach whenever she considered it. She had been out there once to check on Nick, but that was all she could endure of the place. It was too tainted with death now. It made Misty feel like she had no home anymore. And the lack of security made her defense against Laveau's controlling presence weaken.

Outside the doors of the greenhouse, she heard the birds of spring singing, knowing nothing of the vast darkness residing on the premise. If she must admit it, the darkness was hard to spot from the outside on a day like this. When she peeked out through the double doors, she saw Cordelia, Cage and Zoe playing in the yard. She could hear their voices too, when she fought through the hum. It was mostly Zoe and Cage playing and Cordelia watching, but she looked at peace just now.

Misty couldn't keep away for long. She didn't try very hard either; hiding never suited her and she had gone against herself in doing so too much lately. She gently pushed the door open and came out into the yard.

Cordelia and Cage saw her at once, but their reactions could not have been more diverse. Cordelia tensed up and the look of heartbreak came over her face again, as it had every time they looked at each other lately. She tried to look away and the peace had left her so thoroughly you'd think it'd never been there. Cage, on the other hand, smiled wide and came flying towards her.

"Mama!" He waved a small strand of grass in the air and she bent down to meet him.

"Hey pup, what you got there?"

"Can you make the grass sing, mama? I can't do it." He put the straw to his mouth with clumsy little hands and blew at it, but only spit came out then the straw was too soaked to make any noise.

"You gotta hold it like this." Misty sat down on the lawn, pulled out a new strand and put it between her thumbs. She showed him and then put it to her mouth. When she blew, a crude little melody floated out. It was something she had done a lot as a kid in the swamp and though she had lost most of her flair for it now, she could still produce some sounds. Cage laughed and clapped his hands.

Out the periphery of her eye, she saw Cordelia get up and head for the house. It tightened in Misty's chest to acknowledge it, but suddenly anger took its place.

She turned to her son. "You try now. I gotta talk to mom, okay? You show Zoe how." He nodded and she had a feeling he understood more than he should. He walked back to Zoe and Misty went after Cordelia.

She reached her just as she entered the living room and the shade of the house engulfed her.

"We gotta talk 'bout this!" She hadn't meant to shout, but the anger enhanced her voice without her consent. She was too caught up in it to notice that she had temporarily broken Laveau's demand of never speaking unless spoken to. She was so nauseous from the silent fight with Cordelia that the notch up went completely unnoticed as well.

"I can't", Cordelia said and kept walking.

Misty growled with frustration, then sped up and cut Cordelia off on her way to the kitchen.

"I need to. This silence ain't doing anyone no good!"

Cordelia's eyes were blank with water, but hard and unyielding. Her whole body was closed off. She had stopped now, but in her mind, she had left the room, Misty knew.

"I don't know what to say."

"Say anythin'! Tell me 'bout your day, tell me what is going on in your head, or tell me you lied before, tell me you hate me!"

"You wouldn't believe that if I did." Her voice was calm and even and the watery quality of vulnerability had gone out of her eyes again.

"I might", Misty admitted. "You're slippin' away from me like this. Please just tell me what you're thinkin'. I don't know anymore and it kills me."

Cordelia sighed, looked away for a moment as if she needed strength just to keep eye contact. Then she folded her arms and looked back.

"All I know is that you were under her control in one way or another. That's all I can figure out. And I know you still are. Yet you refuse to fight your way out of it. That's not the you I know, you didn't use to hide like this. You don't fight her. That's what I can't forgive, because then you will have killed my mother for nothing!" Her eyes flashed with the last words and then she pushed to get past, but her words had spawned a desperate anger in Misty and it made her grab Cordelia's arm before she could escape. She whirled her around and brought them face to face again.

"I am fightin'! Don't you say I'm not. But if I take the fight to her she's gonna drag you and Cage into it again. She's gonna hurt you! So I'm fightin' on my own!"

Cordelia yanked her arm free. She said: "Yes you've made that clear." And then she spun on her heel and went to the kitchen. Misty didn't stop her when she went back out. She kept away for the rest of the day. She felt caged up in the greenhouse today, even with her Stevie, so she sat outside in the yard for the rest of the day. Zoe had brought her something to eat, when she didn't come in for dinner. The young girl handed her a plate.

"Cordelia says you should eat something… Do you want to talk?"

Misty took a bite and studied the pallor of Zoe's face. She looked too much like darkness, the way Cordelia used to.

"Why didn't you tell me what Kyle did, Zoe?"

The girl turned whiter. Then she shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, I didn't really want to burden anyone. You guys got so much going on."

"You shoudda still told me."

She didn't respond to that. Instead she asked: "Are you guys going to be okay?"

Misty sighed deep. She didn't want to talk about her loss either. "I don't know."

"You should talk to her. She's really struggling today." Misty didn't answer and Zoe left for the attic.

When she was done eating, she decided to bring the plate back to the house instead of stashing it inside the greenhouse as other nights. She needed to check if Cordelia was truly getting lost. She might have lost her place forever, but it didn't mean she couldn't keep Cordelia from giving in to madness.

When she came in, she felt the air at once. She rushed to the kitchen, but stopped at the doorframe and watched the scene unfold. Cordelia stood by the sink, gripping the edge of the table, fighting. Zoe was right; she was fighting today, tipping towards the edge. The reason Misty had stopped was that Cage had seen it too and he was climbing down his own chair with a focused look in his eyes. It reminded Misty of what she thought she looked like in a trance. The little boy walked to his mom, little hand gripping and tugging at her skirt, while looking up at her. It took some insistence before Cordelia noticed and then her hand slowly released the table edge and felt for his. When they connected, he guided her down to the floor. The look in Cordelia's eyes was not yet the familiar empty, but still floating enough that she didn't see Misty. She sat down and Cage reached for her face, stroked the side of her face with both hands, running little fingers over her temples. He knew that was the spot.

Little by little Cordelia's gaze became focused and though she could barely keep the tears contained, she smiled at him.

"Okay mommy?" Cage asked and she nodded, while stroking his soft silver blonde hair and looking at him like he was a miracle so glorious he might put angels to shame. Misty knew Cage had done her job then.

Everyone was always protecting her, Misty mused. Even her three year old son. Only Cordelia didn't see that. She was always led to believe the whole world meant to cause her pain, but in reality few were as loved.

Misty gave her space, because she knew that for once those words were true. She knew she was Cordelia's world and right now she was causing her pain. But if Cage could be her sole world instead, perhaps she would heal faster.

Misty waited until Cage was asleep then sought Cordelia out. She had settled into the living room with Zoe, each of them reading a book. Misty used to watch Cordelia read for hours, or lie with her head on Cordelia's lap, while she read aloud. Misty had never been much of a reader, but a book channeled through Cordelia's voice was the most mesmerizing way to experience a story.

Zoe saw her first and they exchanged a look. With Misty lacking her ability to speak, Zoe had advanced at reading Misty's non-verbal communication. Zoe nodded and folded her book. She got up then and gave them the room. She gave Misty an encouraging smile in the passing.

Cordelia noticed the sudden shift and looked up. The hurt crept into her gaze again and it made Misty want to back away and not say the things she was about to say, but she knew she had to. For everyone's sake. She moved to the couch and urged Cordelia to let her talk.

Cordelia understood. She closed her own book, put it aside and looked up at Misty. "Ask me."

Misty felt the release of the spell as an almost physical unchaining of her tongue and sat down.

"Do you want me here?"

Cordelia looked shocked for a moment, so much that the bafflement overtook the look of sadness. "Pardon?"

"You heard me. This ain't workin'. It ain't good for us or for Cage. Did you truly mean it when I asked you-"

"My love for you hasn't changed and I don't think it ever will", Cordelia said, before Misty could finish her sentence. She refrained from touch, but her words where warm like the way she used to stroke Misty's cheeks. "I didn't lie. But if I'm being honest, I don't know to process this. I don't mean to make you so unhappy either, I just don't know how to talk to you about this and it frightens me. I'm frightened for us." Cordelia was rarely this brutally honest and it made Misty feel all the more like she was staring off the edge of a cliff. Out there was only unknown.

She couldn't stand the isolation. She reached out and took Cordelia's hand. The other flinched, but she didn't withdraw.

"My happiness is you being happy", Misty said. She squeezed the hand a bit and then said: "If having me close is only hurtin' you, I want you to let me go."

When she looked up again, Cordelia's eyes were full of tears. "Is that what you want?"

Misty answered without a moment's hesitation: "I wanna be with you. But not like this. I wanna protect you and keep you safe and love you and I wanna know that you want me to. That's all I've wanted since the day I met you." The grown wild child smiled to herself, despite the grave atmosphere. "You were just that lost kid and you looked at me with those big, scared eyes and I just knew. Never doubted it since."

"How can you love me this much, Misty? After everything? I betrayed your trust. I'm a worthless, wretched shade of a person, just like my mother was." Her voice was trembling, breaking at the edges.

Misty shook her head and held Cordelia's gaze now that she finally allowed it. "You're not. Not to me. Not to Cage. Not to anyone that matters."

She shook her head slowly. "I don't understand."

Misty cocked her head to the side, caught Cordelia's gaze again. "Darlin', don't you know by now?"

Cordelia dropped their hands with exasperation. "But saying you don't know how to not love me makes it sound like enslavement now."

"It ain't. Not if I do it willin'ly. I don't wanna know how to stop. No matter what you decide to do with this."

Cordelia looked at her, shocked again in a way that made Misty think she only now realized what Misty was really saying.

She started shaking her head. "No…"

"It's up to you."

Misty wasn't sure what she had expected Cordelia to do. Perhaps leave the room to think, as had been her strategy for the past week. Instead she pulled Misty close and locked her arms around her neck. Misty returned the hug, rested her chin on Cordelia's shoulder and tried to memorize the smell of her hair. She could feel a damp, shaky breath on her neck and she tried to freeze that in time too.

"I don't quite know what to think of this, how to be around you", she heard Cordelia say with that fragile, quivering voice of hers. "But don't know how to be apart from you either".

"I don't know if those two can be at the same time. Which one do you think it is?" She felt Cordelia's hands fist on her dress and it made her fear the worst. She held on as though she was collecting warmth for the next decade.

"I don't know", Cordelia said. "For now I just want to hold you. Is that okay?"

Despite herself, Misty smiled. "Always, Delia."

O0O

Zoe went to Kyle to give Misty and Cordelia peace to talk. And if the courtesy hadn't driven her away, the urge to escape the atmosphere would have. Zoe used to think the air was lighter than helium around those two, but lately it felt so heavy with heartbreak that she couldn't breathe around them. Misty had told her what had happened, had not even tried to hide the fact that she had killed Fiona – not now that Cordelia knew anyway – but Zoe couldn't imagine a world where Misty would have done such a gruesome thing by her own will. It was impossible.

Of course she said nothing, because Cordelia had kindly let her live in their house, kept from asking her all the agonizing questions of her dead family and on top of that allowed Kyle to stay in the attic, which was nothing short of miraculous.

She sat with Kyle now, felt him run his clumsy fingers through her hair. He liked her hair and she liked that he paid so much attention to it, because it was something he would have done before as well. It made him feel more like Kyle. Most of the time she had a hard time breathing right around him too.

What struck her most these days was the madness of it all. How abruptly all of their lives had gone from something out of a fairy tale to this wretched kind survival and how unfair all of it was. She felt a cold kind of anger thinking about it. Her head was clear and focused, which was why the anger felt cold instead of blazing hot. She was no longer on the constant verge of screaming, as she had been earlier, when it all collapsed. Rather, it felt like she was standing in the ruins of her life, calmly watching the smoke rise from the seething ashes and knowing that she had had enough. The notion took hold of her, fumed within her until she found herself taking Kyle by the hand and walking to the other end of town.

She didn't even have to knock; she could see she was expected. She didn't know if Marie Laveau could feel her creature coming closer, but Kyle certainly could feel her. He had gone willingly, but now as they neared the house he pulled at her hand to get away. It wasn't forceful – he had learned to control his strength with her – but enough to understand his deep reluctance. And whatever it was that still bound Kyle and Laveau together, she had felt him coming and she stood at the door.

And Zoe wasted no time. The quivering girl that had come running to Laveau for help some lifetimes ago was long gone. This new girl in Zoe's body dragged Kyle up in front of his animator and stared the Voodoo Queen right in the eye.

"Look at him!" She demanded.

Laveau gave her a raised eyebrow, but Zoe thought she spotted unease behind the cool exterior. "I see him, what about him, girl?"

"Look at him! Does this look like a living person to you?" Kyle looked down at Zoe, tried to calm her with a gentle but clumsy touch of his hand, but she ignored him. Laveau's gaze had gone cold.

"He's breathin', ain't he? That's more than he was when you begged me to save him."

"That's just it", Zoe said. "Breathing doesn't make someone living, I've seen that too many times now. I pleaded you to bring him back to me, but you only brought half and now everyone is suffering. You ruined everything. Just for the sake of revenge for a war I'm not a part of." The cold fury in Zoe heated just enough to bring a force to her words, but not enough to stir the other woman's cold façade. She took a step towards Zoe, and even though Zoe felt the momentary fear creep through and mix with her anger, she held her ground. A bit of fright didn't change the fact that she had very little left to lose and that gave her courage.

She thought Laveau saw that. The woman didn't come any closer, but looked at Kyle instead. He had started to tremble and when they locked gazes he gave a small whimper and tugged at Zoe's hand.

Marie Laveau looked back to her. "He's better than he could be, trust me. Don't blame me for your misperception of life, child. You wanted him back, but you neglected to say in what state."

For once the fury bobbled and boiled, turned white-hot and Zoe grit her teeth.

"I will bury you for this."

Laveau gave her a long look. "I'm not scared of you, girl. Go home", then she turned and walked back into the house. Zoe thought she heard a screeching cry in there just before the door shut in her face.

O0O

Hank walked out of the hospital two days after he had stumbled into the emergency room, faint and bleeding. He wasn't that undead it seemed. He cursed at the fact that the dullness of having been dead only affected his emotions, his way of thinking and to some extend his threshold for pain. That new threshold had proven a bitter disappointment when it came to a test. They had pulled two teeth out of the gaping wound in his stomach and he had spent a good hour explaining that away. He had served them a half-cooked story about his challenged nephew who had thrown a fit and was indeed brought to a different hospital to get checked out. Then he bailed before they could ask him more questions.

As soon as he was free, he headed for the Goode mansion. He needed to make sure Laveau hadn't taken offense enough to send her kid in there. He couldn't bear the thought of coming home to that massacre and he sped up the rented car.

The shadow still hung over the house even though it was midday. He rained frantic knocks onto the door, his heart sinking with every unanswered second, until it finally opened. Hank breathed a sigh of relief when Cordelia stood before him, unharmed. She looked sick with grief and while that was a slight improvement from the last time he saw her, the restless sorrow in her cut him deep. But physically, she was fine and that was the important thing for now.

"Is everyone okay?" He asked, quickly realizing, as the shadow drew across his ex-wife's face, that it was a stupid question. Luckily Cordelia seemed to understand that he was taking about a potential acute worsening and not the already existing grievances.

"Yes, why, what happened?" Then she gave his stomach a look and stepped forth to pull up his t-shirt. She had apparently spotted the thick bandages there. "What happened to you?!"

"It's fine, it's… never mind about it", he said and gently pulled her hand away. He liked that she had forgotten herself for a moment and behaved just as she had when she was still his wife, but more than a few seconds of it and it would start to hurt. She seemed to understand, because she withdrew and settled for a worried look instead.

"Did you get into a fight?"

"Well… sort of. Can I…" He pointed at the hall before Cordelia could protest and she let him in. He suspected she was too tired to be furious with him. "It was Laveau's son", he said once he had had a chance to sit down. His body still felt a little too alive for his taste.

Cordelia had frozen in the doorway. She stared at him wide-eyed and with a flash of fright in them.

"He's alive?" She almost whispered it. "How… oh." She seemed to realize something, Hank didn't know what. He was too preoccupied trying to explain.

"No and yes. He was… undead. She must have brought him back, but not like Misty did with me, it's messier and dark and…"

"You don't have to explain, Hank", Cordelia said with a grave voice and started to move again. "I know exactly how."

"What do you mean you-" Hank stopped, because Misty had just entered the room and the sight of her overpowered his surprise.

The first thing that always came to Hank's mind when he thought of Misty – apart from the bitter notion wife stealer – was the radiance of power about her. It was completely gone these days. He couldn't help thinking that between the two of them, suddenly he felt like he was the live one and she was the only borderline living thing with a filter between her and the rest of the world. There was no sign of the strength it must have taken to kill Fiona. There was still ferocity in her eyes though, a fire when she looked at him. Exhausted as she was, her hate for him could not be quenched.

The look of her made Hank feel a tightening in his stomach. As much as he also despised her, he was the reason she was this shade of herself. He was also the reason for the grey tone in Cordelia's skin and the dark circles under her eyes. For once he could match Misty's hate for him. He passed her by miles.

Cordelia and Misty exchanged a look and the reaction on Cordelia's face took him aback. Four years ago he would have triumphed to see the insecurity and caution in her stare, where there was once only love and surrender, but now it troubled him. He understood that whatever the wretch between them, it would never be to his advantage. He had lost, even if for a moment it seemed like he had dragged Misty down with him.

"What's he doing here?" She snarled.

"He came to warn us about Laveau's son. He's alive." Cordelia's voice was toneless. Hank saw that Misty just nodded slowly and Cordelia's eyes widened with surprise again. Another thing Misty had obviously neglected to tell her. What the hell is happening with them, Hank thought, but kept it to himself.

Cordelia didn't voice her surprise, but looked at her watch instead.

"I have to go pick up Cage. Hank, go upstairs and get some rest. We'll talk more when I've picked up our son and have had a chance to speak with Misty." There was no room for argument in her voice and neither Hank nor Misty tried. Hank only nodded and found that he liked the firmness of Cordelia's voice. She was much stronger now than the last time he saw her. That was good.

Cordelia picked up the car keys on the coffee table and went to the hall. Misty turned and went back outside. Hank sat still for a moment, waited for the front door to close and then ran after Misty.

He reached her just before she went into the greenhouse. He couldn't help thinking of that day where he had heard her cry in there.

"Misty!"

She stopped, stared at the door for a long second before turning. She looked so tired. "What?"

"I…" As it always was with her, he lost his words as soon as she pierced him with that stare. But he had come to confess and he would do it. He explained to her how Laveau had found him and he had agreed to tell her the way to Misty's shack in the swamp. He watched as her eyes widened and then darkened. "I'm so sorry, Misty. I never thought it through."

A sound, a mix between laughter and a hiss, came out of her mouth. "You're sorry?"

Hank found that the quiet, exhausted hate in her eyes was a thousand times more frightening than Fiona's mocking stare or Laveau's sinister smile. He watched as her hands curled into fists so hard her knuckles turned white. He realized she was trembling.

She took a step forward and it took everything he had not to back away.

"If Cordelia didn't love you, I would kill you", she said through clenched teeth. "I shoulda never brought you back. You're a poison to everythin'. Go away before I really hurt you."

She didn't move at all, but he could feel her fingers around his neck again. Absentmindedly, he felt for the holes in his dentures, before he pulled himself together and said: "I could just tell her it's all my fault. I could tell her what I did, maybe that would-"

"Don't you dare", Misty hissed. "Don't you dare destroy her just to ease your own guilt. Tellin' her won't make my part smaller, it'll only hurt her more to know you betrayed her too."

"I want to help fix things."

Misty scoffed. "You can't fix nothin'. No more than I can." Before Hank could say any more, Misty opened the door to the greenhouse, went in and slammed the door behind her.

Hank retreated then and waited patiently in the guest room until Cordelia found him later. He couldn't sleep, not with this guilt and the thought of the broken atmosphere in the house and the fact that Cordelia knew what Laveau's son was without having met him.

He found out the latter quick enough. That same night, when Cage had been put to bed and Hank was allowed back in the living room, all of them were ready for him. Cordelia sat on the couch, Misty stood in the far end corner and the girl, Zoe, was by the door to the terrace. When Cordelia nodded at her, she turned and disappeared.

"Are you being mysterious on purpose?" He asked Cordelia.

She shook her head. "No, but it's easier to see for yourself. Zoe's boyfriend Kyle appears to have gone through the same… treatment as Marie Laveau's son. I need you to see him and verify this."

Hank nodded, suddenly nervous. He didn't want to show it, but all he could think of was that tiny monster hacking its teeth into his stomach, screeching all the while. He tried to calm himself with the fact that Cordelia didn't seem that distressed about this Kyle person. For once Misty looked like the uneasy one and Hank wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Heavy steps on the porch stole his attention and Zoe came back, dragging a young man by the hand. He looked nothing like Laveau's boy, yet there was a familiarity about him, which made the hairs stand on Hank's arms. They were alike the same way the Voodoo Queen and Misty were – they had the same aura of something unearthly. But instead of strength and power, it was death and despair. A bone-deep restlessness, a look of emptiness in their eyes. Hank was surprised he remembered that many details about the kid, but now that he was faced with an older version of the same kind, it all came back to him.

"They're the same", he said at once.

"They're not!" The girl objected. The anger had been nowhere in her features, but suddenly it flared up and Kyle – if you could even call him a person's name – made a low grunting sound and squeezed her hand. "Kyle doesn't attack people anymore. He's calm with me." Hank couldn't deny that such seemed to be the case. Kyle sat down on the floor where Zoe stood, never letting go of her hand.

Cordelia interrupted before Hank could speak his mind: "Zoe, let him speak please. Hank, what happened with Damian?" Hearing the name of the boy – the boy that little thing used to be – only made it that much harder to explain. His filter was wearing thin in this house. He explained to them everything that had happened since he went into the house up until the moment he rid himself of the crazed child and fled to his car. These memories were blurred and rough around the edges. "He acted different, the boy", he ended up saying. "I don't know why. I get the same feeling from them, but the kid couldn't hold still, he was too restless. Maybe it's the age difference. I don't know. But what I do know is that the kid is Laveau's soft spot. If you want to go against her that's where her weak spot is."

"Her son?" Cordelia's voice was hard as stone and Hank knew he had screwed up. He could feel his chances of catching a glimpse of his own son's shadow getting slimmer by the second.

"I didn't mean… Look, Cordelia, I only want to help-" He cut himself off, when Misty shifted her weight in the corner. She caught his eyes and the warning was clear as day. Hank nodded, more to himself than any of them.

"Anyway, that's all I know. I should get out of your way." There was a short silence and Hank took it as he cue to leave. He stole one last glance as Misty, who ignored him, and then another look at Kyle. He didn't like to turn his back on him. He could feel teeth in his stomach.

He turned the whole thing over and over in his head on the way home, but in no corner of his brain was there a solution. He had no more part in this, unless he could make himself valuable. Gather some kind of information. And try not to sound like a psychopathic war strategist when he talked to his ex-wife. That would be step one.

He had barely closed the door to his hotel room before a sharp, wild pain exploded in his back. He yelled out and dropped his keys. It felt like thick, blazing needle jammed in beside his spine. He fell to his knees, fumbled for the source, but when he felt for the opening of the stab wound in his back, there was nothing there.