"You're no fun anymore."

"Pardon? How dare you say such a thing! Of course I'm fun! I am the embodiment of fun! I am the ambassador for all things fun! You take that back!"

"No."

Selene narrowed her eyes, glaring at her friend over the rim of her coffee cup as she took a huffy sip.

"Don't look at me like that," Genevieve ordered. "You know I'm right, you're been a miserable cow for weeks, ever since your little Moon escapade."

Selene slammed her cup down and crossed her arms. "Well, pardon me for being a bit down after losing half my friends and spending a night in a police cell while they decided if they could press charges or not, and then having to explain to my mother why she had to come and pick me up from said police."

Genevieve snorted. "Yeah, because that's what's been bothering you. If that was all it was you wouldn't still have a face like a wet weekend."

"This is England, every weekend is wet, it's our default setting."

"Don't get clever," Genevieve warned her as she reached over to steal Selene's untouched brownie. "You knew those guys were trouble, I warned you about them enough times but no, you just had to see the best in them and make excuses."

"I wanted to help! Is that a crime?"

"Apparently so, since you were arrested," Genevieve pointed out as she nibbled delicately at the corner of the far-too-expensive-to-waste brownie. "I told you time and time again that the only way to get what you want is through the proper channels and the right people."

"You sound like him," Selene muttered under her breath, but unfortunately Genevieve caught it.

"I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Selene asked innocently, although inwardly she was cringing, knowing she'd been caught.

"I knew you were still mooning over that guy," Genevieve triumphantly declared, taking a larger bite in victory.

"Mooning, cute," Selene sneered, trying to distract her friend.

Genevieve was having none of it, "Don't try to change the subject."

"We had a subject?" Selene picked up her cup again, sipping slowly, deliberately avoiding looking at her friend.

"Yes, the subject of when are you going to get over this mystery guy of yours? It's been weeks."

"There is no mystery guy, he's not mine and I am over him."

Genevieve arched her eyebrow. "You do realise that those statements cancel each other out, don't you?"

"No, they don't they…" Selene trailed off, realising her friend was right. "Crap."

"Mmhmm," Genevieve hummed, leaning back in her chair with a knowing smile. "Busted."

Selene slumped forward, her head in her hands. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring the mood down."

"It's fine," Genevieve assured her. "I'm your friend, I'm here to listen if you want to talk about it."

Selene groaned, her voice muffled by her hands. "But there's nothing to talk about, that's the problem. I met the most amazing guy who had it all, the looks, the personality, the trustworthiness, everything. He made me laugh and made me feel safe and I'll never see him again. This isn't the kind of thing that can be solved by talking it out and coming up with a game plan or asking a friend of a friend to tell him to call me because I have a major crush on the unobtainable hottie. It is what it is. As you said, I just have to get over it."

"It shouldn't be that hard, it's not like anything happened between you. There's no history there, no bad break-up or anything, just unrequited yearning on your part. Just get back out there, move on, meet someone else," Genevieve declared as if she'd solved some ancient riddle. "What about that blind date I arranged for you last week? Didn't I tell you that Leo would be perfect for you? He was, wasn't he?" She looked at her friend expectantly, waiting for her to start with the gushing praise of her choice of dating material. But it didn't come. She knew that expression on her friend's face and that, combined with her unnatural silence made her suspicious as hell. "Selene? Tell me you didn't stand him up?"

Selene gaped at her, insulted that she could accuse her of such a thing. "No, of course not, I wouldn't do that."

"So what happened? Didn't you like him?"

Selene toyed with the handle of her cup guiltily. Genevieve wasn't going to let this go, she'd find out eventually, so she might as well admit it. "I'm sure he's lovely, which I might have known if I hadn't called and cancelled."

"You cancelled?" Genevieve groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose as if she were getting a migraine. "How can you ever expect to forget about that guy and meet someone new if you don't even do the meeting part?"

"I'm sorry! I just didn't feel like going out and being sociable. It's nothing to do with Mr Mystery, I'm just feeling a bit down."

Genevieve didn't believe her in the slightest. "Yeah, sure it's not."

"It's not!" Selene insisted. "I just…" she paused, trying to put how she was feeling into words. "You know I joined the group to make a difference, to fight the good fight and yes, I know you warned me that this would happen if I got too close to them, I know all that, but that doesn't make it better, you know?"

Genevieve nodded, waving her hand to indicate that she should keep talking, let it all out. She'd do the told-you-so's again later.

"And when we got on that rocket, even though the whole thing felt wrong, it also felt kinda right. Hell, I don't know what I mean." Selene poked at the crumbs on her plate, dapping at them with her fingertip. "It felt like I was meant to be there, that there was a reason for it, even though I didn't know what it was. I thought it was to help, to make sure the others didn't get into a mess, but it all went wrong and I was the one in a mess and then it was all over and I was home and now I just feel so lost. Like something was supposed to happen and it didn't."

"Are you crazy?" Genevieve snapped, unable to listen to it all again. She wanted to wring the necks of the people who had taken advantage of her friend's sweet, trusting nature. But she wanted to smack some sense into Selene even more. "What do you mean nothing happened? You did help! You protected those idiots even when they didn't deserve it and you stepped in when they were messing up and made sure that none of them died. We all knew they were bad eggs, you just had to find out the hard way."

Selene shrugged, it didn't feel that way to her, not after the way they had all turned on her, blaming her for their troubles. They hadn't been grateful, they had been annoyed. And she'd come home feeling like more of an outsider than ever. Not for the first time she couldn't help worrying that they might have been right, that she had been in the wrong somehow.

"No, listen to me, look at me," Genevieve insisted, not continuing until Selene met her eyes. "They were in the wrong, just because they couldn't see that doesn't make it untrue. And frankly, you're better off without them. You know it, I know it and the others in the group know it too, that's why we kicked them out." She reached over to take her friend's hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "I know you wanted to help, to stand up for what you believe in, and there's nothing wrong with that, that's what the rest of us want too. We just know the right way to do it, and you can help with that. None of us blame you."

Selene sighed, finally allowing herself to accept her friend's words. "I know! I know you're right and I know your way is the better way. I guess I just got swept up in it all, they were all so excited and righteous and they convinced me that it was the only way to get what we wanted."

"And now look at them, blacklisted from every environmental group in the country and facing criminal prosecution. The people at the moonbase didn't file charges against you or Rain, they knew the truth, so it's about time you stopped blaming yourself and listened to someone else for a change. Isn't it?"

Selene nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Tell me what to do, oh wise one. I'm your willing student."

Genevieve grinned, not believing her for a second, but she was willing to try her luck. "That's more like it. So, we're going to finish our coffees because," she paused to look at her watch, "the lecture starts in half an hour and we have to get going if we want to get good seats. We're going to listen to the lecture, and when it's over we are going to politely explain our concerns to the lecturer and do everything we can to get him on our side. People say he's nice, so hopefully he won't laugh in our faces. Then, after we're done celebrating our victory, you're going to call Leo back and arrange another date."

Selene groaned. "I was with you right up to the last part."

"Sel," Genevieve sighed, hating to sound mean but knowing sometimes you had to be cruel to be kind. "You know it's never going to happen with Mr Mystery, millions have tried to figure out who these guys are and no one one has even come close. Leo is a great guy, I've known him since school. He's nice, he's funny, he likes all the same things as you and he's got a good job. What's not to like?"

"I know," Selene admitted, letting out a long breath. "I'll call Leo tomorrow, okay?"

"Damn straight you will, because I've talked you up big time and you're not going to make me out to be a liar."