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Showered and shaved, Jason stepped out of the bathroom. He took a new white shirt out the drawer, when, after a soft knock, his mother appeared through the intern door.

"Jason..."

"Shh!" he cut her off and nodded to the bed where Neri was still sleeping. Diane looked at the bed, looked at him and her expression switched between shock and anger. Jason shook his head, buttoned up his shirt and pointed to the balcony. It was a very sunny warming, so he guessed, it wouldn't be too cold.

"Since when are you two having …. sleepovers?" she wanted to know in an intense, but quiet tone, the minute they close the balcony door behind them.

"You don't have to emphasise it like this, Mum," Jason answered. "It's actually just what it looks like: a sleepover. Similar to all the occasions, when we stayed at the island for the night."

Diane still looked at him doubtfully, but also with a hint of relief. "So, you don't...?"

Jason shook his head. "No, Mum. We don't have sex." He shot a glance through the glass to the sleeping beauty inside. "Neri didn't feel safe in her own room all alone, and Shalamorn was still working. So she came to me."

Diane breathed relieved and smiled in Neri's direction. "Okay," she said.

"But even if we did," Jason started, and the mild expression vanished immediately from her face, "we're grown-ups. It would be none of your business."

Diane's lips tightened. "Wrong, Jason." She cupped his face with her hands. "You are my business. And so is she." She withdrew her hands. "I know, I don't have to tell you about STDs or the chance of pregnancy, for you already know all about that. Well," she added with another glance at Neri. "With Neri, I guess both would be rather unlikely, especially the latter."

"When why bother?"

"Because I love you both," Diane said intensely. "And I'm afraid what it's going to happen to you two if it doesn't work out. If your relationship gets deeper, - and it usually does when adding sex, - …" She paused and was lost in thought for a moment. Then she looked at Jason again. "What, if she is affianced? Promised? What will happen, when she has to go back to the Ocean Planet?"

"To the first, Brett pointed this out already."

"So?"

Jason shook his head. "Shalamorn saw us together. Saw us holding hands, hugging, kissing. If someone was already waiting for Neri," he concluded, "Shalamorn would have never let us go that far." This revelation came to him as he spoke of it. Relief washed through him, and at the same time, he felt stupid for not realising this fact sooner.

"And to the second?" Diane looked suddenly pale. She already knew the answer.

"I don't intend to stay here without her. I already made this decision a while ago."

"When?"

Jason grabbed his mother by the shoulders. "I can't tell, Mum. At some point, I just knew." Diane's eyes were wet.

"Maybe, it was," he continued, "when I realised she hadn't taken the flight back along with her sister? When I saw her standing just a few inches away, watching her sister leave?"

Diane inhaled. "This was years ago. All this time, you have been in love with her?" she whispered.

Jason shook his head. "Even longer, I guess. I just never acted on my feelings." He let go of his mother and leant against the wooden balustrade. "As you will remember, there was always a mission. Something always came up."

Diane smiled, remembering. "But that hasn't changed. The situation is even more complicated now," she objected.

Jason shrugged. "Yeah, but for a moment, a very naïve moment, we thought, we were done with all the difficulties, and we went for it. The next day, the world tumbled again."

Diane looked at Neri again and neither of them spoke for while.

"It's madness," Diane then said slowly. "But I guess, relationships are never easy. Your fathers and mine didn't work out quite right. Why not just add some aliens and interplanetary conflicts?"

Jason mirrored her grin. "You and Dad," he said then more seriously again. "I thought,..."

Diane shook her head. "No, that chapter is over. I mean, yes," she admitted. "We hooked up some time," - Jason grimaced, entangling his arms in front of his chest, and Diane continued quickly, - "but no. We're on a stable base of friendship right now and this is how we want to keep it."

Jason nodded and shook the uncomfortable image out of his mind by letting his view wandering over the snowy valley and the sleeping city to their feet. The sun was warm and had prevented them both from freezing out there on the balcony. But sunny or not, Jason wasn't as immune to the cold, as he could be standing barefoot on frozen wood forever. He turned to go inside, but his mother held him by one arm.

"Jason," she said with a sad smile. "I just don't want any of you getting hurt."

"We don't want that, either," Jason answered. "But this is our decision, and whatever happens, there is nothing you can do about it." He pulled his mother into a hug. "I love you, too, Mum."

He let go of her and she smiled at him with glassy eyes. Then something caught her attention. "Look. Neri's awake."