As Trent pulled into the driveway, something occurred to him.

He put the Jeep in park and pulled out his cellphone, then called Jackie. She picked up two rings in and answered, sounding distracted.

"Jackie speaking."

"Hey, it's Trent. Uh...you heard from Bea about what's been going on?" he asked.

That seemed to snap her out of whatever she was focusing on. "What? No. What's going on? Is Bea hurt?"

"No, no one's hurt...sorry. I just figured she would've called you first."

"I haven't heard from Bea for a few days. What the hell's going on?"

"Mae's parents are going to lose their house unless we come up with a shitload of cash real quick," he replied.

"Oh...damn. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well I guess I'll give you the recruitment speech here and now. We're putting together a whole thing to raise money. I'm doing a book signing, we're setting up a big internet thing, a GoFundMe, selling some stuff. Basically, if you have ideas to generate some emergency cash, we'd appreciate it, but if you're too busy or you don't want to be involved, no hard feelings."

Jackie was quiet for a long time. "Well shit," she muttered finally. "Feel like I'm really being put to the test."

"I just said-"

"I know, Trent. Christ. But you don't see the rub here? I spent most of my life hating Mae Borowski, and then I finally bury the hatchet with her, and now I've got an opportunity to put in some real elbow grease and help her in a really meaningful way."

"Come on, Jackie, it's not like if you turn us down we'll all immediately think 'I knew it! I knew Jackie was lying! She secretly still hates Mae!', you know? I believe you, that you forgave her, and you don't hate her."

"I notice you didn't say that I like her."

He sighed softly. "Well, Jackie...you don't have to like someone you don't like. And you don't have to like someone to respect them or be polite to them."

"...yeah, you got a good point." She sighed. "Sorry, my world...is very black and white. Polarizing. It's hard to remember the shades of gray sometimes. I can make a few calls, spread the word about the GoFundMe, and...mmm. Idea. Big idea. Crazy dangerous idea."

"Hit me with it."

"I want to do a benefit concert, with Bea as the headliner, and featuring your guys' band. I know Mae has a band with her friends."

"Angus and Gregg. Yeah. Night in the Woods. That...would actually be fucking awesome," he replied. "Can you find a place? Equipment? Set it up?"

"Hell yes I can. This is something I can do, and pretty well. When?"

"Monday night?" he asked.

"Well...okay. Yeah. And we can give all the proceeds to Mae's parents. Hell yes. I'm in."

"Okay. Thanks, Jackie. I'll have Bea call you. And seriously: thank you. This is ridiculously kind."

"Yeah okay, shut up, you're making it weird."

He laughed. "Okay. Bye, Jackie."

"Bye." She hung up.

Trent headed inside where he found everyone but Mae in the living room, laughing and talking and eating tacos.

"Looks who's here!" Candy called.

"How'd it go with my dad?" Bea asked.

"Really well," Trent replied.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. We're a lock for Sunday. Can you whip up a flyer to pass around? Sunday, nine to nine, all day book signing?"

"Jesus, babe, twelve hours?" Ann murmured.

"Yep. I've got seven hundred books to sell, it's gonna take a while."

"Lordy, seven hundred," Candy whispered.

"Uh...yeah. I can do that," Bea said. She chuckled. "You're really growing on him, I think."

"Oh yeah, definitely," he agreed.

"Wait...why do you say that?" she asked suspiciously.

"Let's just say...that we had a very frank conversation where he admitted that if we'd had the same conversation last year, he might've taken a swing at me."

"That man…" Candy muttered.

"He's been through a lot," Trent replied, heading into the kitchen and assembling a few tacos.

"You are way too kind," Bea said.

"I'm not wrong, am I?"

"Well of course not, his wife died of cancer," Bea replied, then sighed heavily. "Just...whatever."

"Has anyone fed Mae?" Trent asked, deciding that if she didn't want to talk about it any further then that, then neither would he.

Sometimes talking about a hurt was the answer, but other times, not talking about it was the answer.

The trick was knowing which.

"I did. I am her mother, after all," Candy replied.

"Appreciated," Trent said, coming into the living room. He had just begun to set his food down when he heard a car door slam outside, then approaching footsteps. He sighed and stood back up. "Bea, call Jackie, she wants you to headline a benefit concern with her and Mae's band."

"What?!" Bea cried as Trent walked away.

"You heard me," he said, and opened up the front door after someone knocked on it.

"Made it," Jacob said, looking very happy as Trent invited him in.

"Glad to receive you," Trent replied. "You want a taco or three?"

"Thank the good lord yes. Oh! Hi, Candy. Did you make the tacos?" he asked.

"Yes, I did, Jacob," she replied.

"I would be very grateful for a world famous Candy taco," he said, and headed for the living room. "It's been too long since I've had one."

Trent hesitated briefly, glancing from Jacob to Candy. He very suddenly had the extremely strong impression that Jacob Warton had been one of the people that Candy had hooked up with during her swinger days. Maybe he was wrong, but...he didn't think so. Well, it wasn't like it really mattered to him. He sat back down and dug in.

"Trent, you can't just dump that on me," Bea growled.

"I'm afraid I just did...what are you gonna do about it?" he replied.

She glared at him. "I will destroy you," she whispered.

"I look forward to it." He realized Candy and Ann were staring at him and cleared his throat, then continued eating his taco. "Just call Jackie. If you really don't want to do it, that's fine. I just thought you'd like the opportunity."

"I'd love to hear you sing, Bea," Candy said. "Mae tells me you have a voice like an angel."

"Well...I don't know about that," Bea replied. "But, I'll admit, it does appeal. Plus it'll give Jackie a chance to get up in front of people and sing. She's a real hardass. And she deserves respect. Also...okay yeah, it would actually be kind of like the most perfect thing ever to give Mae and Gregg and Angus a chance to perform live at least once to the whole town. Although we don't have anyone to play drums…"

"Jeremy can play drums," Jacob said as he returned with a plateful of tacos.

"Wait...seriously?" Bea asked.

"Yep. He's kind of a savant, actually. He's amazing. And that ain't just fatherly love talking. He's seriously good."

"What the he-why did this never come up?! He must've watched us play like fifty times," she muttered.

"I believe he was worried about imposing. Plus, he really does like to observe more than participate."

"Huh. Fair enough, I guess. You think he'd do it?"

"Probably. I think he would if Mae was the one to ask."

"Okay, cool. Well, Jackie can put this together more than I can...hmm. Candy, Mister Warton, are people your age still super nostalgic about cassette tapes?"

Jacob chuckled. "Oh yeah, I'd say so."

"Mmm-hmm," Candy murmured.

"Sweet. I've got an idea and I know Jackie can help me." She finished up her meal and stood up, then disappeared into the kitchen. A moment later they heard the back door open and shut.

"Wonder if I can sneak down and see Mae," Trent said.

"I wouldn't," Candy replied with a surprising gravity. "She was...rather stern when I came down with the tacos. She didn't want to be bothered. She seems to be doing quite well. She's earned almost a thousand dollars so far. Probably more now."

"Oh, right," Jacob said, reaching into the inner pocket of the work vest he wore. He set down a check first. "This is from my family. Two thousand. I made it out to you, Candy. Well, you and Stan. Thought that'd make the most sense. And this…" he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet. He set down a collection of hundreds on top of the check. "Is from some friends I visited. They all kicked in. It's a gift, not a loan. All of it."

"There's a grand here," Trent murmured as he counted through it.

"Jacob...thank you," Candy said quietly as she accepted the money and the check. "This means a lot."

"I know, and...it's okay not to make a big deal out of it. It's rough. It's a rough situation, and I just want to help. I wish I could help more."

"This is already more than enough," Candy replied.

"Well, I'm glad I could do it." He finished off his taco and stood. "And now I'm afraid I've got to go. I got called in for a half day and I've got places to be."

"Oh, do you have just a minute?" Candy asked, standing up as well.

"I do for you," he replied.

"Oh...thank you," she murmured.

She followed him to the kitchen, both of them with their plates. After cleaning them off, they headed back out the front door. As they left, Bea came back in and sat down.

"Okay, so…" Ann said after a moment of silence, "and I nuts or did they totally fucking smash at some point?"

"Ann, oh my God," Bea whispered.

"What?! I mean, right? I'm not imagining that, am I? You weren't here, but Trent saw it!"

"I think you're right," Trent said.

"Really?" Bea asked.

"Yeah. I mean, Candy confirmed they used to have an open relationship. They're obviously friends and haven known each other for a very long time."

"Gross," Bea muttered.

"I dunno, I think it's sweet," Ann said.

"Sweet? Really?" Bea asked.

"Yeah. I don't know, it's nice. I remember seeing all the parents together at the party. I specifically remember seeing Jacob and Stan talking, and I don't remember seeing anything weird between them. It's just...nice, that, you know, they could fuck around like that, have some fun, and it didn't make things weird, even now, like twenty five years later."

"Yeah, okay, I guess," Bea said. "I just don't wanna know about it. It weirds me out kinda. Which, I know. Given my relationship...but I only fuck one person, and that's enough." She paused. "Oh my fucking God I hope I didn't just insult you both. I don't mean it's bad to fuck more than one person, just...you know…"

"It's fine, Bea," Ann said, giggling. "You get so awkward over things."

"It's my natural state," Bea replied dryly. "Anyway, uh, Jackie and I talked. I guess this concert is on. She says she's got a place picked out already in the woods. She says she wants to put together some CDs to sell of my work. An EP? I've only got the two songs, but I guess that's enough for an EP? I was kinda thinking the same thing, actually, but with cassette tapes? Jackie's got a lot of those. Okay, well, I've got to get back to work."

"Actually, so do I. I need to write my fucking ass off," Trent said, getting up.

"Go on, you two. I'll clean this up," Ann said.

"Thanks, babe," Trent said. He kissed both of them, briefly considered bugging Mae, if only for a moment, then decided against it and headed upstairs.

"All right, come on, let's see it," Mae said, sounding groggy and irritable.

"Manners, sweetheart," Candy murmured.

"I...yeah, okay, sorry," she muttered.

"Let's see," Bea muttered. "We ended up getting two thousand from Melody...got that seven in from Tabby…"

Trent yawned and rubbed one eye. It was pushing midnight and everyone was tired and a little grouchy because they'd been going all day long. After Stan had gotten home, he'd come over and talked with everyone for a while, then the two of them had finally gone home after dinner. Trent and the others had promised to come over and talk with them about the money situation once they had a better grasp of it, but it had taken a bit longer than he'd anticipated to pry everyone away from their jobs, including himself.

"Mae's stream...can't believe you've pulled two grand so far," Bea muttered.

"I was hoping for a lot more," Mae replied.

"You're picking up steam, and we've still got a lot of time," Trent replied.

"The GoFundme is at about a thousand. Okay, altogether we're looking at thirty three grand," Bea said.

"That's with the money we and my parents already have?" Mae asked, sounding a little horrified.

"Yes," Bea replied.

"Mae, it's okay," Trent said. "Just...think about it for a second. We managed to scrape together thirty three thousand dollars in less than one day. We're doing well."

"We have so much more to go…" she moaned.

"We've still got the donations, and the concert, and the book signing," Trent said. "Plus my short stories. I've managed to get two written and up, and I've sold a few dozen copies already."

"Yep, and Jackie's helping me put together my EP, that's going up for sale tomorrow on the website. I think we might actually pull this off," Bea said.

"We'll probably pull off the initial goal," Mae murmured, "but what about the rest? I didn't know the debt was this bad…"

"Mae, we'll handle it. Whatever it is, however it shakes out, we'll handle it," Stan said. "Don't try to pick up the whole Earth, kitten."

Mae just made a complaining noise, clearly not listening. She stood up suddenly. "I have to get back to my stream. I love you all." And with that she left.

"She's gonna snap," Bea muttered.

"Yeah...you guys have to keep an eye on her," Candy said.

"We're trying but she's making it difficult," Trent replied.

"We'll make sure she gets to bed. I'm keeping an eye on her stream," Ann said.

"Thank you," Candy replied.

"For everything," Stan added.

"You're welcome," Trent replied, standing up. "I'm gonna head back. I want to get cracking on the third story, get some of it done before I go to sleep," he said.

"Yeah, and I've got a little bit more to do, too," Ann murmured.

"Same," Bea agreed. "Still workshopping that flyer."

"Don't push yourselves too hard. I know you're still all so young, but even you have your limits, and you need to pace yourselves, we have a week to go," Candy said.

"I fully intend to be sleeping within the next hour," Trent replied.

"Yep," Ann murmured, and Bea nodded.

"And we'll make sure Mae goes to sleep," she added.

"Okay. Thank you again. Goodnight, everyone."

They told her goodnight and hurried back across their backyards to join Mae. Though she was already back downstairs by the time they got back into the house. Trent found himself standing uncomfortably in the living room with Bea and Ann.

"So...we're gonna have to play guardian for Mae until this is over with," he said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah," Ann agreed immediately. "Honestly, that can be my role most of the time. Practically speaking, I have the least options for bringing in cash as compared to you three. And that's not me getting down on myself, that's just me being practical. Candy and I can manage it when she's around."

"...all right, yeah, that makes sense," Bea murmured. "Well, if there's nothing else, I wanna finish up the flyer."

"Actually, I need to talk with you about something. Out back," Trent said.

"...huh, that's ominous," Bea muttered. "But okay."

"It's nothing bad. I think."

"Go on, you two, I'll keep watch on Mae's stream and keep editing," Ann said.

"All right. Thank you, Ann." Trent walked over to her suddenly and hugged her. "I really appreciate you."

She laughed softly and hugged him back. "I appreciate you too, love. And thank you. Now, go on. Do your thing with Bea."

He nodded, kissed her, and then headed back outside with Bea. She looked at him a little nervously and before he could begin, he was struck by her intense beauty. She stood there in the moonlight, wearing a formfitting black t-shirt with a white skull over the chest and a pair of black jogging shorts and her black choker.

"...what's this look you're giving me?" she murmured.

"Pure lust mixed with pure beautiful woman worship," he replied.

She laughed, then covered her mouth. "You fucker! I'm serious!"

"So am I."

She looked down at herself. "I am wearing a fucking t-shirt and shorts, come on."

Trent pulled out his phone. "Here, hold on." He snapped a picture of her, then turned it around and showed her. "That."

"...hmm. I do look better than I thought...okay, whatever, you didn't drag me out here to drool at me."

He laughed softly and put his phone away, then sat down on the deck chair. She sat beside him. "You're right. So. Your dad."

"What about him?" she asked uncertainly.

"We never really talk about him. I wanted to give you a lot of space about it, and I have. It's been, what, two months now? Since you quit? So...we should talk about him, and your relationship with him, how you feel about him."

She sighed heavily. "What's there to talk about?"

"Um, a lot?" She stared at him. "Look, Bea, if you tell me it's none of my business, I'll accept that. Reluctantly. But if you tell me that you're comfortable with where things are...I don't think I'd believe you. I know you guys cleared the air a bit when you moved into my place, but clearly things are still kinda...fucked up."

"I mean, yeah? I had to work at the Pickaxe for two fucking years. I had to derail my entire fucking life. I'm still mad about it."

"I know. And I understand. And if you need more time, that's fine. I just...don't want you to have regrets about this."

"...okay so, you have a point, but where is this coming from?"

"I mean we talked today."

"About this? Is this why he said he'd take a swing at you?"

"Kinda. Look, I'll tell you something I told him: right now, you guys live five minutes apart. Sometime in the future, a year, maybe two, I don't know, that five minutes will become five hours, and I'm almost positive that at some point, you'll look back on here and now, and wish you had spent more time with him while you had the chance."

Bea looked at him for a few seconds, then looked down at the patio between her feet, then abruptly shot to her feet. "Why do you do this?" she asked.

"Do what?" he asked.

She began pacing. "Be so fucking reasonable and advocate for people I'm fucking angry at for good reason? It makes me feel like a fucking asshole."

"Bea, I didn't mean-"

"I know! You're doing this because it's reasonable and it's the right thing to do and maybe I just want to be fucking angry sometimes!" she snapped, and abruptly walked inside.

Oh shit. Fuck. He hadn't anticipated this at all.

"Bea!"

"Just give me a fucking minute!" she snapped, storming up the stairs.

"...holy shit what did you say to her?" Ann murmured from the living room as the bathroom door slammed shut.

Trent felt real fear boiling around inside his stomach as he stood there at the foot of the stairs. He heard the shower start up. After a moment, he realized Ann had moved to come and stand next to him. He also realized she'd asked him a question and he hadn't answered.

"I just, uh...told her she might regret it if she didn't talk to her dad more while we still live in Possum Springs," he murmured.

"Oh," Ann said. She walked over and shut and locked the back door, then rejoined him. "Shit. Sensitive topic."

"Apparently. I didn't think she'd react that poorly," he muttered. "Fuck. Ah man, I'm getting real fucking scared."

"It'll be okay," Ann said. "Just give her a minute to cool off."

"I don't know...what I just fucked everything up? Shit."

"Hey," she said, taking his hand and then gently turning him to face her. "Trent, look at me. Listen to me. Bea's not going to leave you over a fight. Okay? Here, come here." She led him over to the couch and sat down with him. "Trent, love, as someone who has a lot of experience with in-couple fighting, let me assure you that this will be okay. Bea, Mae...all of us have sore spots, and when the pressure gets turned up, those spots get a lot more sensitive. We're all stressed and tired and cranky. And it's important to remember that everyone has the capacity to be overwhelmed by their emotions. She probably is handling it even worse because she feels bad that she just yelled at you. So...it'll be okay, is my point."

"...yeah," he said after a moment.

"We're gonna get through this," Ann said.

"Yeah...fuck, I really should be writing right now. But now my head is all fucked up…"

"Sit here with me for a bit."

"All right."

Trent tried to keep his thoughts calm as he sat against Ann and just kind of stared off into space. It felt impossible, though. They'd all been frustrated with each other before, but Bea had never really been like this towards him. Or, at least, it felt that way. It was an awful, all too familiar feeling and he realized that he was freaking out more than he should. He felt bad for making Bea mad enough to storm away but what Ann said made sense. Was he actually worried she was going to straight up leave him? After all they'd gone through together?

That didn't make sense...and yet his brain was screaming that old terror all the same.

Old…

Shit. All at once two pieces connected, and hard, and he abruptly remembered the terror he felt at the idea of his family abandoning him or kicking him out for causing too many problems. He'd hated his home growing up, but it was still the place where he lived and he lived in terror of losing it. But to give voice to that at all felt like emotional manipulation. What, was he really going to tell all three of them 'if you yell at me it will activate my trauma'?

As he was considering all this, he suddenly heard the shower shut off. A long moment went by.

"God, this sucks," he muttered.

"I know, I'm sorry," Ann said. "She still loves you."

The bathroom door opened up. He waited, tensing. What seemed like a really long moment went by. Then, finally, Bea spoke.

"Trent, uh...can we talk up here?"

"Yeah," he replied, standing up. He glanced back at Ann, who just made gentle shooing gestures to him, so he headed upstairs. He just saw Bea's tail as she walked into their bedroom and hurried up. He found her in the bedroom, pulling a robe on, not meeting his eyes.

"I'm really sorry, babe-" he began, but she raised a hand.

"Please, don't. I'm sorry. You don't have anything to be sorry about." She walked over suddenly and wrapped him in a hug. "I feel like a fucking monster."

"Don't feel like that," he murmured, hugging her tightly. "I should've waited to have this talk."

"Probably," she admitted. "I'm so sorry. It just-it caught me off guard. Not even that you were talking about it, but how strongly my emotions hit. I...still have a lot to unpack, a lot more than I realized. And you're right. Of course you're right. I don't want to just abandon my father, and I'm still mad at him, but that shouldn't stop me from seeing him more often, and...fuck, it's just a lot."

"I know," he said quietly and kissed the side of her head. "I'm sorry, it just seemed important to me."

"It is important. I just feel so much like shit now. I've never really yelled at you before. I feel so bad. You were trying to do a nice thing, and I was just such a fucking bitch in response-"

"Bea, come on, stop that," he said. "We're all emotional, it's been a really rough day, for all of us. Let's just...forgive and forget?"

Bea scoffed after a moment, then sniffed. "Goddamnit, you're so fucking reasonable. I scream at you after you try to do something nice for me and you act like we both fucked up...fuck."

"I love you, Bea. And I know you love me. We had a little spat, I just want to acknowledge it, apologize, and move on," Trent replied.

"I do too, I just still feel bad." A moment of silence went by. "Hey...maybe I could make it up to you."

"Uh, how? I mean I feel like you don't need to."

"Come on, I feel bad, I want to make you feel good...fuck me in the ass," she said suddenly, pulling back and grabbing his arms.

"Seriously?"

"Totally seriously."

"I don't know about setting a precedent of giving sexual favors like that…"

"I'm not hearing a no. Come on, I want to do it, you want to do it. It'll make both of us feel better."

"...all right. It would make me feel better."

Bea smirked at him and then went over and shut the door. "Take your clothes off."

An hour later, Trent found himself failing to write.

And he was just in the process of deciding whether or not to give up when something occurred to him with all the force of a sledgehammer. He jerked upright in his computer chair and quickly opened up Mae's livestream. She should have come bounding up out of the basement when he and Bea were having their fight, at least at some point, because she basically got a mental air horn whenever he so much as stubbed his toe, and he had been pretty damned upset.

He saw that she was asleep in her chair, though a quick glance at the chat, (there were still about a hundred people watching), indicated that she'd only been asleep for a few minutes.

Shit. He promptly decided to pack it in for the night, shut down his laptop, and headed downstairs. Bea was in bed, herself having given up on doing anymore work after he'd pounded her ass and she had needed another shower, (they had actually fucked again in the shower because he was still horny), and as he headed downstairs, he saw Ann had nodded off on the couch. She came awake as he came downstairs.

"What's up?" she murmured. "You okay? I heard you and Bea fucking."

"We're okay," he replied. "I need to go get Mae, she's passed out."

"Oh." Ann sat up all the way and looked at her laptop. "Fuck. I was supposed to be watching."

"It's fine, I think it just happened."

"Maybe I should be the one to deal with her…"

"I can handle it," Trent replied.

Ann laughed softly. "That must've been some sex."

"Uh...yeah, it was pretty great."

"Just don't get addicted to fighting with us for the excellent makeup sex."

"I...will try." Ann laughed.

Trent opened up the door and headed downstairs. As he walked over, Mae blinked awake, looked around for a second, confused, and then sat up abruptly.

"Shit, I fell asleep," she growled.

"It's all right, it's only been like five minutes," Trent replied.

"How do you know?"

"I was checking your stream...we should go to bed."

"I have to keep going. I'm only up to twenty two hundred," Mae muttered.

"Mae, you've been at this for like fourteen hours, and we shouldn't argue about this while you're streaming out live."

She opened her mouth, then looked at the camera, then sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. Lemme just wrap this up."

He saw that she was most of the way through Demontower IV, which meant she'd gotten through the other three so far.

"Hey everyone, uh...sorry for falling asleep. I'm really tired, so I'm gonna call it quits for today. But I'll be back tomorrow. Probably at like eight in the morning-" Trent made a sound. She glanced at him, then pursed her lips. "Okay, that's unrealistic," she admitted. "I guess noon probably makes more sense. We'll wrap up Demontower IV and then we'll crash headlong into Slenderman finally. Goodnight everyone!"

She took a few minutes to wrap everything up after that, then shut it down, then headed upstairs with Trent.

"Guess I should crash out," she murmured as she stood uncertainly at the base of the stairs.

"You should take a shower, babe," Trent replied.

"Mmm…"

"Come on, Mae."

"Okay. Fine...night, Ann."

"Goodnight, Mae," Ann replied.

Trent followed her upstairs and then into the bathroom. He turned on the shower for her as she began taking her clothes off slowly.

"You gonna join?" she asked.

"I'm gonna hang around," he replied.

"...any particular reason?"

"We should talk."

She paused, down to her panties now. "Why? Did something happen?"

"No, it's just...we're worried about you."

"Oh." She took off her panties and got into the shower. "Don't worry about me. I can be a machine until we're done with this."

"That doesn't strike me as sustainable, Mae."

"I can do it."

He sighed. "Mae. You're pushing too hard."

"I'm not, I can handle it."

"Mae."

"Trent, just...let me do this. Please? I have to. This is my fault."

"Mae-"

"I know. I know what you're going to say. I remember our roof talk. It's just...I can't stop thinking that. I don't know, it won't leave me alone. Even if it's not my fault it's still my fault because I'm the one who did it. I'm the one who put Andy in the hospital and then I'm the one who caused my parents to piss away so much money. And I know what you're going to say, but I just-I can't stop thinking about it. I want to. I really do. But I can't. It won't leave me alone. And if I can't do this, if they lose the house...I think I'll go crazy."

A long moment of silence passed.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, "I know this has to be really bad for you. I hate it. I just feel like...I can't escape it."

He sighed softly. "Mae...okay, let's try this. I want you to listen to me. Like actually listen to me and not just tune me out because you think I'm going to say things that don't matter."

"I'm not! I'll listen."

"Okay...sorry, it's just...you do that sometimes."

"...I know. I'm sorry."

"Okay, so here's the deal. We're in agreement that we need to succeed on this. And I understand your drive to just...keep going as hard as you can while functioning on the absolute bare minimum of sleep and sustenance. But it's a false instinct. Do you know what's going to happen if you don't take regular breaks? Get proper sleep and food? You're going to burn out, hard, and soon, which will make you feel even more guilty and piss you off even more, which will make it even harder to work, which will make you even more pissed off, and it's a vicious cycle.

"So you need to actually get sleep and food and go to the bathroom and shower and keep yourself from becoming a zombie, only that's kind of hard to do from the inside, so what you need to do is to trust us. If one of us is coming to you, telling you it's time to eat or go to bed or checking in with you, it's not because we're being overprotective or we aren't taking your goal seriously, because we're all on the same page about the goal, we want it just as much as you do. Well, at least close to as much as you do. We all give a huge shit about this, okay?"

She was silent for a moment, then she began making a sound. For a moment, he thought she might have started crying. But as he prepared to stand up, he realized that she was laughing. He waited, but the laughing got stronger. He pulled back the shower curtain and looked in. He found her leaning against the wall, laughing quietly but obviously very intensely.

"You said 'give a huge shit'," she said, then sat down suddenly, then laid down (she was actually short enough that she could lay down flat in the tub), and began rolling back and forth, covering her face. "Oh my fucking God you said 'give a huge shit' and I'm just imagining-" She kept laughing.

Trent found himself chuckling, too. He sat back down on the toilet and waited for her laughter to subside. It did, eventually. Slowly, she picked herself back up.

"Okay. Okay...I hear you. And...I'm sorry. I know I've been a real bitch today."

"Honestly, you haven't been. You're grumpy, but you haven't been that grumpy," he replied.

"Well, that's good to hear at least...I'll listen. I might argue some, but that's just who I am. And I apologize in advance. I'm just so fucking stressed and miserable and guilty."

"I understand, Mae."

"How are Bea and Ann?"

"They're okay. Bea's kind of stressed, but she's okay, she's sleeping now."

"What about you?"

"I'm...tired."

"...you're holding something back," she said suddenly.

"I'm just tired and stressed. It's been a long day-"

"No," Mae said, yanking back the curtain and staring hard at him, "something happened and you won't tell me about it. What is it?" He remained silent. "Trent fucking Sinclair you tell me right now."

He chuckled. "Wow, Mae."

"I mean it."

He sighed. "Fine. Bea and I had a small fight."

"What?! Over what!?" she demanded.

"It was about her dad. I tried talking with her about her relationship with her dad, she kind of freaked out because the emotions overwhelmed her, she got really mad for a little bit, but everything's fine now."

Mae stared at him for a moment longer, then slowly pushed the curtain back into place. "That sucks," she said finally.

"Yeah, but hey, we had awesome makeup sex."

"Ah dude! We should have makeup sex!" He sighed. "No really! Or angry sex? Can we have angry sex?"

"I mean if you really want to...what do you mean by angry sex? Like where we're actually mad at each other?"

"Yeah! Maybe? I'm not sure. Be rough with me! Yell at me! Spank me!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes! I wanna try it! Oh man I bet I could piss you off real bad."

Trent groaned. "Is this seriously a road we want to go down? Or, more to the point, is this a road we want to go down right now? It hardly seems like the time for it."

"I mean when else are we gonna be pissed and need sex for stress relief more than right now?"

"That's...kind of a good point," he admitted. "I don't know, I'm worried one of us will say something really mean. I mean I do this with Bea all the time but it's not, like, real? Like it's just play. I'm not actually angry at her when I'm calling her a slut and forcing her to choke on my dick. I'm just pretending. You want actual anger?"

"...kinda?" she admitted.

"It just seems dangerous."

"I trust you."

"...we'll talk about it later, how about that?"

"Okay, but if I see an opportunity I'm gonna jump you. Fair warning. I mean, if you really don't wanna just tell me and I'll stop but like I think it could be really hot." She yawned. "Wow, I am really tired." She turned off the water and began drying off.

"Let's get some sleep," Trent said. "And then we can keep going tomorrow."

"Yep," Mae murmured.

Trent could tell this was going to be something they'd need to seriously tackle, which made getting her therapy back on track all the more important. But it would have to wait.

Once she was dry, Trent went with Mae to the bedroom, then headed back downstairs when he realized Ann wasn't there. "Coming to bed?"

"Yeah, I guess I should," she replied.

She turned off her laptop and joined him in heading to bed.