Happy Friday! On we go to the next part...

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Becky sighed contently. Another day to add to Becky's list of "best days of her life".

It appeared that now that both Anya's and Damian's confessions were out of the way, they really weren't holding back their feelings. Eden College didn't have rules against holding hands in the corridors, but Becky wouldn't be surprised if a whole host of other things would be added to the list in the near future.

No staring into each other's eyes with passionate and ardent longing.

No smiling at other students so much that it looks like they are the centre of your entire world.

No gentle touches and casual caresses of other students' faces and hair. Especially not the face.

Becky smiled to herself and took another bit of her cinnamon roll, chewing slowly to savour the taste.

"They're worse than us," Bill murmured to her, but his voice had a lilt to it that told Becky that he was grinning, too.

"Tell me about it," said Becky, but she was obviously thrilled for her best friend. All of her hard work for the past decade had paid off. And if anybody deserved to have a moment of happiness, it was Damian and Anya.

Bill and Becky sat together in one of their favourite spots in one of Eden Academy's many common areas. While shared with other students, Becky loved to go there because it was relatively quiet compared to other areas of the school. Although when she invited Damian and Anya to join them at lunch she didn't think it would be like this - so she and Bill moved to another area to give them some space.

Damian had his arm around Anya, and she had her head resting against his chest, and if Becky didn't know any better, she would say that her best friend had completely fallen asleep. Meanwhile, Damian leaned his forehead on hers, but he kept his eyes only half-closed. They looked so relaxed together, completely at one, and Becky was too busy being happy for them to be jealous of them.

She would have been jealous, at some point, but she had Bill now.

Damian and Anya didn't even try to keep their new relationship a secret, which Becky was grateful for. With how excited she was for them, she wasn't sure she would be able to hide it.

But Becky never needed to share the new gossip with anyone, because it spread all on its own from Damian and Anya's own doing.

The morning after Becky caught them in the gym storage room, she emerged from her chauffeur's car, looking glamorous as ever, even in the Eden school uniform, and recoiled instantly as she saw a demon tearing up the cobblestones.

Not a demon. Anya.

Becky reached out her hand and, with practised fluidity, grabbed Anya's collar just as she whizzed past, pulling her off of her feet and stopping her in her tracks.

"In a hurry to see your boyfriend?" Becky grinned from ear to ear.

"He's not my boyfriend yet! I need to ask him right now!" Anya tore her hands away from Becky and ran off.

"What-" Becky stood, flustered, before she kicked into action. "Wait for me!"

Anya entered the classroom and made a beeline for Damian, Becky close behind.

"Damian!" she called out, surprising him. "You didn't answer my question yesterday!"

Anya's intrusion was, as usual, quite close to the start of class, and students trickled in, chatting and going to their seats, but because of Anya's sheer volume and energetic presence, she couldn't help but draw their stares towards her.

Anya Forger never failed to be exciting, even for her classmates.

"Uh," Damian's brow creased as he tried to remember. "Which one?" he asked as he brought out his materials for class.

Anya wasted no time.

"Will you be my boyfriend?"

It was like she had cast a spell, and the entire classroom froze, not that she noticed. Pencils hovered in midair, mouths opened wide, heads turned so fast that necks nearly snapped.

What would Damian do?

He had placed his things immaculately on his desk but when he turned to her, the papers ruffled in the breeze created by the flow of his cloak.

"Oh, that question," Damian turned to her with genuine surprise, and a little bit of panic. "I thought we were - are you saying I'm not already?"

Becky could have laughed at the reactions of the class. They looked so shocked, and she had a fair idea of what they must have been thinking: Was he serious? Was he joking? Was he… flirting?

Whispers flitted across the classroom. He's her boyfriend? Since when?

"Well, yes, but, you didn't actually say it out loud," Anya pouted. "So I wasn't sure if we were, y'know, official."

"Oh," said Damian. "Don't you want to be?"

"Obviously I do!" she laughed. "That kiss wasn't enough for you?"

"That settles it then," he said firmly. "We're official."

Becky didn't hear if a single other thing was said afterwards, because the class erupted with an almighty roar - a noise so loud that she had no idea if her eardrums would ever recover.

The days after Anya and Damian finally got together were extremely interesting for Becky. Students had never gossiped on such an unprecedented scale, and the glares that Anya received from female students was staggering (and so were the disappointed looks on the faces of most of the male student body), but she was too busy being happy and in love with her new boyfriend to even notice, or care.

It seemed that once the dam of Anya's love broke, everything that she had been holding back for the last ten-or-so years came pouring out. All the gentle touches on his shoulders, his arms, his face, his hands, Anya was all over him. Thankfully they didn't kiss outright in public (or Becky herself would put a stop to it, she didn't want her friends to be expelled for goodness' sake!), but Damian and Anya certainly gave other couples a lesson on what true intimacy outside kissing looked like.

It was beautiful, really, and Becky really wanted to be happy for her friend, but…

"What is it?" came Bill's concerned voice.

… she couldn't ignore that dark pit in her stomach.

She had really hoped that her discomfort wouldn't show on her face. Becky purposefully stuffed another bite of her pastry in her mouth, hoping to buy herself time to avoid Bill's question, but she always underestimated how patient he was.

He could wait until she had finished.

"It's nothing," she said eventually.

Bill replied instantly: "Don't give me that shit."

Becky gasped. "Watch your language! You are in the presence of a lady."

But to her disappointment, Bill didn't fall for her teasing jibe. "You've been down since they got together. It's not like you. Is there something you're worried about?"

Damn, he caught her.

Becky gulped, played with the edges of her skirt. "Don't be angry with me."

He raised a singular, blocky eyebrow, visible just above his glasses.

"I… eavesdropped when Anya confessed."

"Hm?" said Bill, with genuine confusion. "I would ask if you were feeling guilty for listening, but I know you better than that."

Becky smiled sheepishly at that. "I was only trying to find her because she didn't come back to the changing rooms after everyone else was finished, so I went looking for her."

Bill softened his voice. "What happened?"

She told him what she had heard.

I would rather be abducted again than spend another day holding back how I feel about you!

Two words in particular kept running through her head:

Abducted.

Again.

Becky squeezed Bills' hand, unable to look at him, but needing his support all the same. "I think she was telling the truth. On the school trip, when I got back to the room afterwards," Becky gave him a meaningful look. "She was already asleep."

"And?"

"And she was having a nightmare." Becky looked down at their entwined hands. "A bad one."

She didn't really want to remember it.

"Anya?" Becky whispered into the night, but no one responded.

A muffled cry.

"Anya?" Becky tried again, and pulled the door closed behind her, before stepping out, light footed, onto the carpeted floor.

The figure before her tossed and turned in bed, and Becky got closer.

There was very little light in the room, but pale beams of light sliced through the blinds and shaded Anya's sleeping face. She looked far from peaceful. Her eyebrows scrunched together, and it was clear from the light that Anya had a light sheen of sweat covering her face and neck.

"Stop, please…"

Becky immediately ran to the adjacent bathroom, and ran a washcloth under the tap, before she came back and placed it on Anya's pale forehead.

"Shh," she said soothingly. Or at least, she tried. She hoped that her voice was actually calm and gentle, and didn't reveal the panic and fear that she felt inside. "You're okay."

Anya whimpered again, but she did start to settle.

Becky lifted her hand back gently from Anya's forehead, and kept watch as she slowly watched Anya's breath return to normal. After a time, once she was sure that Anya was feeling better, she moved back under the protection of her own covers.

A dark feeling settled in her stomach. It took a while for her to get to sleep, and before she finally drifted off, Becky promised herself that she would be bright and cheerful in the morning, if just to help Anya feel better, somehow.

Becky did worry about Anya. She worried about what Anya wasn't telling her. That awful, sinking feeling started when she had visited Anya in the hospital after the days she was missing - abducted - and Becky knew that she should have trusted her gut then, should have dived in further to find out more, so that she could track down whoever did that to her, and make them pay.

Anya had never mentioned anything to Becky about having nightmares, and the pit in Becky's stomach grew when she wondered if Anya never told Becky for a reason. They were best friends, Becky could do almost anything with the money she had - including protecting Anya - so why didn't Anya say anything? Why did she insist on dealing with it all on her own?

And when Damian insisted that they all go after her, she really hoped that she could do something, but then he had to go and act the hero and bring Anya back without telling any of them, without asking for help, without even telling them what happened! The story that Anya had used to cover up the time she went missing was so unbelievably false, Becky found it insulting.

Did Anya not trust her?

Her best friend?

But then Damian was acting weird, too. He looked more worried than usual, his face was drawn tighter than ever, and Becky couldn't ignore the way that he acted in the hospital room. Wary, and jumpy, and his guard completely up. Which meant that whatever had happened, Damian knew about it, too. He might even have been there when it happened.

So why wouldn't he tell them? He knew that Becky would only have Anya's best interests at heart.

Unless, for some reason, he couldn't. Unless they weren't allowed to say anything somehow...

"What if…" Becky ventured. "When she went missing… what if it was really serious?"

"Becky," Bill drew her to him in concern for her, and Becky tried to find comfort in the warmth of him. "There's not much we can do unless she wants to tell us."

"But how can I sleep without knowing? How can I believe she'll be okay?"

Bill kissed her forehead, gently, and Becky closed her eyes, savouring his gentle touch.

"We'll wait for her," Bill lowered his voice to a whisper. "Until she's ready to say anything herself."

She knew he was right, but it didn't help. She leaned closer into him, and tried to put aside the gnawing feeling in her stomach.