A/N: Again, thank you so much to the people who reviewed. You really do make my day so much infinitely better when I see that little notification in my inbox.

As for this chapter, please pretend it was attached to the end of the last one. Instead of skipping a week to avoid extra craziness, I split it into two parts. The fact of the matter, though, is that I’ve been pretty depressed lately, and it’s been hard as hell to get myself motivated and inspired to write this. Hopefully next week will get better.

Also! I want to start a new piece of this whole project. I’ve got a short prologue, but I’m not sure how I want to handle the rest of it—it’s basically the creation myth for this little universe that I’ve pulled out of my head. I created a poll to cover just a few basic questions about format and such in my livejournal (link in profile). I’d really, really appreciate it if you could take two seconds and tell me what you want to see (There’s three multiple-choice questions, no pressure).

(wavy magic hands) this is part of last week’s chapter (/wavy magic hands)

“Are you sorry you came out with us?” he asked.

Aleda snorted. “Not a chance. Those were some of the best damned nights of my life,” she told him. “Though now I’m lucky I can go out after sunset at all. Did you know that’s what he wanted to do originally? Mom had to talk him down.”

Ryan raised his eyebrows and handed her the passenger helmet before gunning his engine.

“I don’t get it, you know?” she continued over the roar of the engine. “I mean, he’s always been a little overprotective, but lately he’s just lost it!”

“He did find out his only daughter has been out at night and lying about where she was,” Ryan shouted back to her. “I know Da had more than a few rows with Talia over just that sort of thing. Granted, she was out at parties instead of hunting.”

“You mean all parents are this mental?”

“’Fraid so.”

Aleda shook her head and stopped trying to talk until they were someplace quieter. The nearest fast food restaurant was two miles down the road, and that’s where they went. Ryan pulled into the lot and found an empty space.

“For a minute there I thought you were going to pull into the drive-thru,” Aleda said. She glanced up at him with a slight smirk.

“Don’t be silly,” he chided her. “The milkshakes would get everywhere.” Aleda laughed, and he grinned before opening the door for her.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a line at the counter. Ryan ordered himself a triple cheeseburger with bacon, enormous fries, and a milkshake. Aleda stared at him out of the corner of her eye. He turned to her. “What do you want?” he asked.

“About a third of that?” she tried, flabberghasted.

“And a number four for her,” he told the boy working at the register.

“Here,” Aleda said, fishing through her purse, “I think that was five th-…” Ryan’s hand on her wrist made her pause.

“What did I say about being silly?” he asked. Aleda stared at him. “Don’t,” he answered for her, helpfully. “I’ve got it.”

“Yeah, but you…”

“But I’ve got a job…unlike you, lass.” He handed her the paper cup that had come with her meal. “You’d best be getting yourself something to drink.”

Aleda stared at the cup. Then she stared at Ryan. Then at the soda fountain. Finally she remembered what she was supposed to be doing with it and went to the fountain for her drink. Meanwhile, one of the workers gave Ryan a tray with their food on it. He gestured with his head and she followed him to an empty table.

Not many people in there at that time of day. He pulled out his cheeseburger and fries with enthusiasm and dug right in. Aleda could only bring herself to watch in amazement.

“Are you hungry or something?” she had to ask. Ryan swallowed his mouthful and chuckled a bit.

“You could say that,” he laughed. “I did loose a lot of blood recently.”

“Which can’t be pleasant,” Aleda conceded a little guiltily. “But hungry?”

“Blood’s got to be replaced. I doubt there’s anything at all left in my digestive system.”

“Which would explain the…” she waved her hand at the pile of food in front of him.

“Nothing like fast food for replacing calories.”

“And the insane amounts of cholesterol?”

He answered by way of a cheeky grin. “I don’t have cholesterol, lass. You should know that.”

She rolled her eyes. “Figures. You don’t have anything, do you?”

“Measles, mumps, common cold, influenza, cancer, heart attacks, athlete’s foot. You name it, I’m good. We don’t even get allergies.”

“Yeah, I figured. I’m just still trying to figure out how it all works,” Aleda admitted, feeling a little embarrassed.

“You want to know how it works?” Ryan asked. “You find out, you let me know. The best I can figure is that we’ve got something inside keeping us clean. Like… scrubbing bubbles.” He downed half of his milkshake.

“You mean you don’t know?”

“It never really bothered me.” He shrugged. “All I know is, it works. Are you going to eat the rest of those fries?”

Aleda rolled her eyes and pushed her little half-eaten carton of french fries over to his side of the cramped table. He polished them off almost as an afterthought before downing the rest of his milkshake.

“You know,” he said, “I don’t know why they call these ‘milkshakes’. There’s hardly any milk in them. And don’t even get me started on the cheeseburgers. At least West’s have actual meat in them, even if it’s not beef. I doubt you could say the same for whatever this is!”

Aleda listened to his rant in amusement. “So why did you want a cheeseburger?” she inquired with a lopsided grin.

He made a noise. “Wishful thinking.”

“You know, you’re slipping,” Aleda commented after a brief silence.

“Why’s that?”

“That’s the first snide comment I’ve heard from you all day,” she pointed out. “I would have expected at least five more by now.”

Ryan considered that.

“I guess it’s been a good day.”

All too soon they had finished their cheeseburgers, with Ryan enthusiastically helping Aleda finish everything she couldn’t eat. When he was done Ryan finally declared himself full, much to Aleda’s relief. They dumped their trash, put the tray in its stack, and lingered in the doorway where it was warm.

“Well, I should probably get back home,” Aleda said. Ryan nodded reluctantly.

“Your da will be wanting to know you’re still in one piece,” he agreed. He smirked. “I don’t think he’s very happy with me.”

“Yeah… Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be, lass,” he said gently. “It’s my doing, after all. Besides, he needs a good talking-to whenever he gets in one of his rule-abiding moods. It breaks my heart, to see the grandson of Seth Carlisle act all rule-bound and prissy.”

“What do you mean? Is Great-Grandpa Seth crazy or something?”

Ryan gaped at her. “You mean you’ve never heard the stories?” he asked incredulously. Aleda shook her head. “Oh, jaysis, he would get up to so many stunts, old Mike Connor had to have a ‘talk’ with him.” He snorted. “Not that it did any good.”

Encouraged by Aleda’s rapt expression, he continued. “Da told me about this one time, for instance, that he and Seth were visiting a little town in Scotland. As they’re coming up to it, Seth sees the town’s well and walks over. Stands next to it for the longest time, too, just looking down into it. So Da walks over to see what he was doing, and he sees Seth holding his arm down into it, blood running down like you wouldn’t believe. ‘Seth, get your damn arm out of the well!’ he says. The crazy git was going to heal up the whole bloody town in one fell swoop! Seth says ‘Why? There’s nobody around to see me’ and Da says ‘Maybe not, but nobody’s going to be drinking pink well-water, either!’ and had to pick him up and drag him away from the thing!”

Aleda grinned broadly at the thought of her great-grandfather with his arm down a well. “Sounds like he’s had some fun.”

“Oh, aye. He doesn’t care one bit about all those lovely conventions that people like Mike Connor cling so tight to. You show him a sick man, you can be sure he’ll be slipping them a few drops before five minutes have passed,” Ryan told her

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Of course it is… but some people are smart enough to know that sometimes that doesn’t matter. Some people know there’s more important things in this world.”

“And you agree with him.” It was a statement, not a question.

“You’re great-grandda is a wise man,” Ryan said. “I’ll tell you now he’s one of the few I regret leaving behind.”

Aleda chewed on her lower lip, frowning at him. “Why did you?” she asked. “Leave, I mean.”

Ryan shook his head and turned to the outer door. “It’s a long story,” he said. He pushed the door open and walked out, holding it open until she followed. Aleda studied him thoughtfully but did not press the issue. He handed over her helmet without a word, and they drove back to her house. It had barely been more than an hour.

They pulled into her driveway and Aleda’s heart sank into her stomach. There was an extra car in the driveway.

Nate’s car.

He must have heard the roar of the motorcycle’s engine. No sooner had Aleda swung her leg over and onto the ground, than the front door opened and Nate walked out onto the porch.

“Leda!” he called. “There you are!” He jogged over to her and put a hand on her shoulder with a glare at Ryan. “What’s going on, Leda? Things were going so good, and then you just flipped out! I thought we were good together, Leda.” The pain and confusion in his voice was obvious, and Aleda looked at the ground.

“What happened?” he asked again, forlornly.

She hugged her arms around herself and shrugged. “I got freaked out,” she admitted. “All of a sudden you were talking about getting married and I… I guess I freaked. I mean, it’s only been five months! I can’t think about that yet!”

“We don’t have to talk about that. Would that be better? If I didn’t even mention it?” Nate offered. “I’ve never been this serious about a girl, Leda. I thought we were just doing what people do when they’re serious.”

“They do! They just… usually wait a little longer first,” Aleda said.

“But then you run off with this guy.” Nate gestured at Ryan, who was still sitting on his motorcycle, although he had removed his helmet. “And suddently I don’t know where we are anymore!

“He’s just a friend,” Aleda said. “Of my parents,” she added.

“So why is he here now?” Nate demanded.

“I told you he’s training me! We had lunch afterwards, that’s all.”

“I don’t trust him,” he grumbled.

“I do,” Aleda said. “He’s not that bad, if the two of you would just stop fighting.”

“That’s what I’m worried about! You spend all this time telling me what a jerk he is, and all of a sudden you’re grabbing lunch together after a four-hour training session downstairs all by yourselves? I’ll be damned if ‘friends’ is all he’s interested in!”

Something unidentifiable rushed through her stomach at Nate’s words. She risked a glance at Ryan, who she realized guiltily had to listen to everything that was said. His eyes were fixed on the concrete of the driveway. She looked back at Nate. Her lips parted.

She could think of nothing to say.

Nate’s face twisted into a boyish pout. He had not missed Aleda’s hesitation.

“Are you still in this, Leda?” he demanded.

“Of course I am!” she protested. “I’m still your girlfriend! …Aren’t I?”

“Yeah, you are,” he said. “But what about this guy?”

She couldn’t glance over. She couldn’t look at him. It could ruin everything.

What had she been thinking?

She swallowed and kept her eyes on Nate. “What about him?”

“I don’t want you spending time with him!”

“Nate!”

“Well, I don’t!”

“Nate, he’s my trainer! I see him every week!”

“What happened to that girl?” Nate asked. “His sister, or whatever. Where the hell is she?”

“Talia didn’t come today. She had plans.”

“Well, I don’t like the idea of the two of you getting all cozy in the basement together,” he said. He turned his attention to the hard-faced Ryan still straddling his motorcycle. “I don’t trust you. Stay away from my girlfriend, you hear me?”

Ryan sneered at him.

Nate had already turned back to Aleda. “Since I’m here, do you want to go grab lunch or something with me?”

“I already had lunch,” Aleda reminded him.

“Okay, not lunch. Let’s just go somewhere. We could probably catch a matinee of something. What do you think?”

“Y-yeah. Sure,” she stammered. “I just… I have to go ask my parents.”

Nate nodded and took her by the hand. Led her away from the driveway and up into the house.

---------------------

That boy had come back. Ryan had thought he was well rid of him. Good riddance. But there he was, standing in the driveway, mumbling non-apologies and claiming Aleda as his own. He had stood there talking as if Ryan had not even been there. He expected no less from the spoiled child. He could only sit there, his feet glued to the ground on either side of his motorcycle, as that spoiled boy spouted his nonsense.

And yet…

In a way, he was right. Aleda was his. Ryan was the interloper. He had no right to do what he had started to do.

He’d been an idiot.

And what had happened next should not have surprised him in the least. The little girl went straight back to the little boy and acted like nothing had ever happened. Once again he had let himself care about somebody, and it had backfired completely. Not only that, he had let himself care about somebody who he had no right to feel anything for. Even if it was by that damned boy, her heart was already taken and he had no right to it.

He sat there on his motorcycle, growing colder and colder inside and the two talked. He was a bloody inexcusable idiot. He had known what would happen, and he did it anyway, and this was what happened. It served him bloody well right.

So that boy didn’t want him around his pretty girl? Fine. He’d just have to make himself scarce. He couldn’t allow himself to care about her. So he would try his best to hate her.

He knew even as he thought it, though, that it wouldn’t work. The moment he looked into her eyes he’d be lost once again. He watched the two of them walk hand-in-hand back to the house. He couldn’t stay there. He didn’t belong there. So he did what he always did.

He left.