A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far!

About fifteen minutes later, Alniss shut the door behind the last customer to leave and turned the sign so the 'Closed' faced outward. Carla, who had been watching her, collected her coffee cup and got to her feet.

"D'you want a hand clearing up?"

Alniss turned towards her, a little surprised. "You really don't need to, you know."

"Can I, though?"

At Alniss' nod, Carla balanced the milk jug in the cup and picked the coffee jug up in the same hand, before moving to other tables and beginning to stack plates together. A few moments later, she moved towards the kitchen with all the dishes balanced in her hand, deftly opening the swinging door with one hip.

"I definitely don't need to look at that resume now," Alniss said with a smile, heading to the counter to pick up a cloth and some spray. Tafnik, who was sorting out the coffee machine, glanced over.

"Is she going to be working here?"

Alniss shook her head. "No."

"Is she one of us?"

"No… well, sort of. She was my schrellie's host. Voluntary."

Tafnik made a noise of instant understanding. "Ah, I understand now. I assume you offered her work and she refused?"

Alniss nodded. "She realised I probably couldn't afford the salary. She's not wrong, but I'd do it somehow. She'll be coming home with us tonight, if that's alright with you? I thought between us all we could at least give her somewhere to stay."

Tafnik nodded enthusiastically. "Of course we can."

Alniss heard the slight creak as the door swung open again, and turned to Carla with a smile. "Thanks."

"I rinsed them and put them in the dishwasher," Carla said. "It looked pretty clean in there otherwise: anything else I can do?"

Tafnik shook his head. "I think we're about done."

"Carla, this is Tafnik eight-eight-three of the Hett Simplatt pool. Tafnik, Carla Roberts, my sister Silrin's host. Sadly…" Alniss paused for a second, trying to keep her composure. "… Silrin was one of those lost from the Pool ship."

"They can't stop talking about that murdering bastard today," Carla spat harshly, taking Alniss by surprise.

"Jake Berenson?" Tafnik guessed.

Carla's face seemed trapped between two primal expressions: intense anger and deep, biting sadness. While her teeth were gritted, her eyes narrowed and the top of her nose wrinkled in anger, Alniss could see that her eyes were damp.

"Oh, honey," she whispered, reaching to wrap her arms around Carla's shoulders. She felt the host tense momentarily under her hands, but then suddenly she was hugging her back, holding on with an intenseness that surprised Alniss. Her sobs suddenly began to come thick and fast, her head buried into Alniss' shoulder. It was like she hadn't had a shoulder to cry on in years… which Alniss realised was probably true, at least about this. How many humans would understand this grief? Would she dare even reveal that part of her history to any of them?

Alniss reached up a hand to stroke the bushy, dark hair on the girl's head, trying to hold back her own tears. She missed her sister, but knew without a shadow of a doubt that Silrin would have wanted only the best for this human, and that included holding it together to give her the space to express her grief.

A few minutes later, Carla pulled back and wiped her eyes. She looked down at the ground. "Sorry."

Alniss shook her head. "There's no need to say that." She hesitated before speaking again, unsure if her thoughts would be welcomed. "It seems like that's been building up for a while. Have you… have you had anyone to talk to?"

Carla snorted. "Oh yeah, that'd go down well. 'I hate your hero because he murdered my friend… yes she was a Yeerk… well, yes I suppose I am a traitor to my species but given how useless my species is that's not very surprising, is it… what do you mean get out of your sight?"

Alniss glanced at Tafnik, uncertain how to respond to Carla's bitter tone. Alniss knew that independent counsellors existed, that there were anonymous helplines and probably a fair few ordinary humans who would be willing to try to listen. Humans were widely differentiated and responded in a myriad of different ways to a given situation. That was often true even within the same human, she'd heard. And of course, there were plenty of other ex-voluntaries around. She doubted it was the right moment to point any of this out to Carla, though, who still wore an expression that was half furious, half teary.

"Maybe it's time we headed home," Tafnik said softly.

"How far is it?"

"Ten minutes' walk from here, then a half-hour bus ride," Alniss answered, feeling she was on firmer territory.

"Brilliant."

Carla still sounded bitter and sarcastic, making Alniss look at her in puzzlement. "What's wrong with that?"

Carla curled her lip. "There'll be humans. You haven't experienced victory day celebrations yet, have you?"

"No," Alniss admitted. She'd morphed permanently thirteen months ago, but on last year's anniversary it had been recommended that they stay inside, and as it had been a Sunday Alniss had had no reason to go against that advice.

"You do realise you are a human?" Tafnik pointed out amusedly.

Carla gave him a glare, but there was a slight smile tugging at the edge of her lips. Phew. Alniss hadn't been quite sure how that comment would be received.

"Only because I can't help it."

Tafnik laughed. "What would you rather be, if you could pick? Please don't say Andalite, I don't think I can let you in the house if that's the case."

Carla shrugged. "Dunno. Yeerk, maybe."

"It's really not much fun, you know." Alniss lifted her bag from beneath the counter and slung it over her shoulder, before turning to switch the coffee machine off at the wall and sweeping her eyes across the café to check for any jobs that had been missed. "I'd go for Hork-Bajir. Well, at least until we turned up, and the Andalites released that quantum virus."

"I've always wondered what it would be like to be Skrit Na," Tafnik said with a grin. "Purely to find out what goes on in their heads. The things they do are just bizarre."

"Aren't they the flying-saucer aliens?" Carla asked as they approached the door.

Alniss nodded. "I believe so. They're certainly the most likely to have had contact with humans, they like to kidnap other races for no real reason that I can make out." She waited for the other two to step out before reaching to lock the pale green door behind her.

Carla was right, the street was crowded with humans in an exuberant mood. Alniss suspected there was some event on somewhere, as many of the humans seemed to be heading in the same direction. There were a lot of children with their faces painted as tigers, bears, wolves, gorillas and Andalites, and many of the adults were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Animorphs' names. Alniss also saw quite a few T-shirts with the script 'Free or Dead' written across the front, which she suspected belonged to former involuntaries. The strangest thing, though, were headbands with what appeared to be two blue stalk eyes sticking out of the top.

"The Andalites were going to fry the planet from space," Tafnik whispered. "Why in the Kandrona's name…"

"Say 'why on Earth', you idiot!" Carla hissed back. "Do you want to get beaten up?"

Tafnik raised his eyebrows, but didn't speak again. Alniss felt tenser than she'd ever been moving around on Earth, as they wove through the crowds. Part of this was the victory celebrations, but it was also the knowledge that they had Carla with them. While Alniss' morph was indistinguishable from any other human, Carla could easily be recognised by a former host with a grudge. In this kind of atmosphere… Alniss shuddered to think of it.

It seemed to take an hour to reach the bus stop, despite it only being a few minutes' walk away. The shelter was, thankfully, almost empty, though the three of them could see a never-ending stream of humans walking past. It seemed that most people were heading into town rather than out of it today, though, and for that Alniss was grateful.

When the bus finally arrived, it was also quieter than usual, though it bore the signs of having been busy earlier on its route, as scattered food wrappers and a few paper flags, including the new Earth flag, littered the floor. The flag featured the planet itself against a backdrop of stars, surrounded by a circle of people of all colours holding hands. Alniss hoped there'd been some sort of elementary school competition to design it, because frankly it seemed like something a child would produce. Of course, the humans had to have a flag even though no other species did. Alniss vaguely wondered what a Yeerk flag might look like. Most likely a picture of Kandrona, she reflected. That would hardly be any more original than the humans', though at least a little more honest. Yeerks truly did hold their sun in reverence and relied on it to live, while Alniss had never seen such an even mix of human ethnicities outside a Sharing meeting.

The thought of the Sharing made Alniss glance across at Carla, who was sitting huddled against the window next to her, the hood of her sweater pulled up and her eyes staring at the floor as though the Hershey's wrapper lying there was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen.

"You OK, honey?"

Carla nodded without looking up. She seemed to keep a low profile almost instinctively, and Alniss felt a twist of tenderness and guilt in her gut. Maybe she should have looked for her when she'd been given her nothlit form, checked she was OK. That would have been the first thing Silrin did, if she'd been able. Alniss swallowed hard: it wouldn't do to seem unhappy today, it would get them the wrong kind of attention.

The three of them were silent for the rest of the journey, until Tafnik warned Carla that they were nearly at the stop.

"It's only five minutes from here," Alniss said as she stepped off the bus. Next to the bus stop there was a small patch of grass that seemed to generate its own litter: no matter how often Alniss picked it up, more always appeared the next day. She grabbed a few chip wrappers to put in the bin, located only fifty yards down the street, but there was also a broken beer bottle, which she was forced to leave for fear of cutting herself on the glass. Why humans did things like this, when they were granted such beauty, was something she would never understand.

"You oughta be careful, doing that," Carla said tentatively. "There could be anything down there. Dog shit, dirty needles."

"That's kind of you," said Alniss, slightly touched. "But I'm sure I'll be fine. We're this way."

Alniss and Tafnik led Carla through a narrow alleyway, covered in graffiti and scattered with yet more litter, and turned right down the next street towards a shabby block of flats. The lift inside was permanently broken, but Alniss would have taken the stairs anyway: exercise was important.

"This is nearly as nice as my apartment," Carla muttered sarcastically, then seemed to realise she'd spoken aloud. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Alniss smiled in a manner she hoped was reassuring. "Don't worry, we know it's not the most pleasant of environments, but it's better than nothing. It's only until you find new work."

"They should have given you guys somewhere better to live."

"While there are still humans living in places like this, and worse?" Tafnik shook her head. "Hardly seems fair somehow. We're very lucky to have been given bodies, it's far more than I would ever dare to have hoped for."

Alniss nodded in agreement as she reached the door. "Welcome, anyway," she said to Carla before reaching to unlock it.