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What It Means To Be Alive (Page 2 of 7)
By Hephaestus

Summary: The nature of love and what it means to be human.
Author's Profile: @ fanfiction.net
Part of a Series: This is the sequel to They Did Not Fade Away.
Disclaimer: Joss owns all. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Comments: Please read and review!

. . .

Chapter 6

Fred was asleep when he got home, so he snuck in to check on Allie. She was asleep. She was perfect, he thought. In that moment, he knew everything he had done had been worth it. He wouldn’t have changed anything, even if he could.

Fred’s arms encircled his waist. He smiled and held her hands for a moment before turning to face her. She was bleary eyed. Her chest was swollen with milk, and her slight frame was only a few pounds heavier than it had been before Allie’s birth. Fred swore the extra pounds were all in her breasts.

They walked out of Allie’s room and into their bedroom. Wes undressed and Fred lay back down, knowing Allie would be up in a few hours. She didn’t begrudge Wes a night out; he hadn’t gone out in a long time. She had been mad initially, especially when he didn’t call, but she figured one night without responsibilities would do him good. He smelled like a bar, and it was late, she just wanted to fall asleep in his arms. He made her wait a little longer though, as he went to take a shower.

When he did finally lie down and hold her against him, she sensed something was wrong. She could read him like a book, even when she wasn’t looking at him. She was too tired to deal with it right then, though. She fell asleep, vowing to question him in the morning.

. . .

Will was washing the blood from his hands. It had been a very long time since he had to do that. The sun had already come up over the horizon. It had taken him all night to track down the witches Wes had used. It hadn’t taken long for them to tell him what he wanted to know. From there, it had been a long drive north and a long morning torturing the man that wanted to blackmail his friend.

The man hadn’t taken long to talk. He was powerful, that was for sure. But few people turned away a man that had been in a car accident. That was story Will gave him. Will looked the part, too. He shirt was torn, his head was bleeding, he was holding his side as if it was bruised.

After he had been invited it, one look at the place told him he had the right man. He had wasted no time in knocking him unconscious. He tied his hands, harder to cast a spell that way, and then Will did a little casting of his own. It was a simple power binding spell, but it was easy to do on someone that was unconscious, they couldn’t it fight it while it was cast. Once it was in full force, Will woke him up. Not pleasantly.

He hated to think of how he used the techniques he then employed. He shut that out. The man didn’t want to talk at first. It only took Will ten minutes to get him to change his mind. Not for a moment did Will think this man was the mastermind of the plan. This man was a flunky. He wrote the note, delivered it. He did not think up the plan. Nor was he willing to say who had.

That changed an hour later. Will showered in the man’s bathroom and threw his clothes in the garbage. He sat in his car, in clean clothes, a wig and dark glasses and watched the garbage get thrown in a huge truck and hauled away. He would never have thrown the clothes out had it not been garbage day. They would have come with him. This was better, though.

The self inflicted head wound was healing. He had a cover story for that, but it was Saturday. By Monday, it would be healed. He was going to disappear for the weekend, fix the mess Wesley had started. He couldn’t believe the man had been this stupid.

He understood his motives. He sympathized. But it should have been handled much better, and he shouldn’t have done it alone. Will would have helped him from the beginning; even of he didn’t fully believe in what Wes was doing.

The way it was, now, though, Will’s hand was forced. He had to go to the source and eliminate them. They had been enemies of Wolfram and Hart since Angel had taken over. They thought they could eliminate Wesley, hut Angel and the company in the process. They hadn’t counted on Will.

Few people knew William Benson and Spike were one and the same. It made his job easier. He was thought of as an executive, Angel’s second in command. That meant he was respected and dismissed all at the same time. They didn’t know he was two hundred years old or that he had killed two slayers and hundreds others. No one knew his capabilities. That meant he could operate under the radar. When he attacked, no one would see it coming.

Even fewer people knew he had super powers. There were some in the demon community that knew he was formerly known as Spike. Only his friends and a hand full of doctors knew he was a hybrid. Angel’s talents were well known, but William Benson was thought of on the same level as Wesley Wyndram-Pryce or Charles Gunn; a human with powerful resources to back him up. That made him smile inside.

These fucks will never see me coming, he thought.

. . .

Chapter 7

Xander was hoping he would get back to LA in time to make the executive board meeting. He was surprised Angel had asked him to be a part of that. Surprised, but glad. Xander felt he had already contributed some intelligent ideas to the group.

Xander liked this work. He found evil employees and he ratted them out. He was the ultimate tattle tale. Really, though, he found it invigorating. He liked traveling under fake names, and it gave him a rush when he found himself in the middle of an emotionally charged scene between evil employees. Ruining the day of a child sacrificing cult just gave Xander a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

He didn’t know what Angel decided to do with these people, and he didn’t really care. They were demons in human skin, as far as Xander was concerned. The people he looked for were the people invoking hell gods to take over people’s bodies. In the back of his mind, that was what Xander thought about. He thought about preventing another Illyria.

He wondered at the morally grey areas of his job sometimes, but he lost little sleep over that. Angel was very careful about who was hired. There was a long process a person had to go through, but some people beat the system. Just like FBI profilers could test as schizophrenic on an exam if they tried to, some people could test as normal and good willed during the Wolfram and Hart process. There were no schizophrenic profilers, and Xander doubted that everyone hired was full of good will.

Some people were just bad. Some people wanted to ruin everything Angel and the others had built, had worked so hard for. The best way to destroy something, and Xander knew that Angel understood this concept very well, was from the inside out. He was going to make sure that didn’t happen. He saw the good that was being done, and he thought if he could help that process along, he wouldn’t be too disappointed as he looked back on his life years later.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to prevent every disaster, but he figured he was still doing his part to save lives. He had fought with his fists and heart for so long; he found it refreshing to fight with his head for a change. It wasn’t easy to the sergeant at arms of multi dimensional corporation, but he was starting to get the hang of it.

Xander had yet to travel inter-dimensionally. He hadn’t been doing this job long, and he wanted to get the hang of it on Earth before he started hopping portals into hell dimensions. It was odd, but it seemed like most of the problems with employees happened on Earth anyway. He rationalized that fact with the knowledge that everyone who worked in the hell dimensions was evil already. Angel kept a tight leash on those branches.

He smiled a little at that thought. There were rumors those branches were going to be shut down. That should be a heck of a sight, Xander thought. He doubted any of those employees would go quietly. Angel had mentioned that they still needed contacts in other dimensions if only for trading goods and information.

Beyond the trade agreements Xander was sure Gunn was writing up, they had little need for other dimensional branches. Wolfram and Hart, before Angel gave it a makeover, had been directed from a hell dimension. Xander got the inkling that Angel wanted those branches closed for other reasons, as well, though.

Angel had mentioned something about the misuse of resurrections. Xander had found a few examples in archives about demons and hell spawn the company had brought back to life and unleashed on the world. He could understand why Angel would want to eliminate that possibly.

What Xander didn’t understand was Will’s reaction to the idea of closing those branches. He hadn’t reacted badly, and he hadn’t been in favor of the idea either. He had sat at the meeting table and stared at Angel as though he wanted to see through the man. Everyone else had been speaking, but Xander had been watching Will, who was studying Angel like a new creature from outer space. He had meant to talk to Will about that but had been sent to Dubai before he had the chance.

It wasn’t that worrisome, really, but he had a gut feeling that something was going on not everyone was privy to. Buffy didn’t know anything about it, he was sure of that. If Angel had ulterior motives for wanting to shrink those portals, she was unaware of it. She had answered too honestly, and had readily offered her support of the idea. She would have tread lighter had she been aware of any possible ulterior motives Angel had.

The plane was quiet and the ride was smooth. He was the only one on the jet, and he was relieved to have the quiet. The last few days had been difficult. He looked forward to getting back to LA, his new home, and relaxing for a day or so until he had to back to work. Hoping he wouldn’t be too jet lagged to make the meeting happening the nest day, he allowed himself to drift to sleep for a little while.

. . .

Chapter 8

Her desk was cluttered. She was due to get on the phone, via a translator, and threaten the socks of a Gaefer demon. Her back was sore and she was mad as hell at the brief on her desk. Buffy had been in the office for about five minutes.

She tackled the crises one at a time. She wrote a very short and not very nice response to the underling, who had sent her the brief, and stated very clearly why the cult of vampire wanabees in LA couldn’t just be killed. They could weird and gothic all the wanted, she said, until they started killing people for blood. Then she would get mad.

After that, there was eh Gaefer demon. He chaffed her, the chauvinistic jerk. She almost hung up in his ear a few times, but she threatened to come see him in person and talk about their differences, he started being a little nicer. A thinly veiled threat from a slayer still held pull with demons.

Once that mess was sorted, she started cleaning her desk. Most of the papers had to be filed, others were notes she could get rid of. Some she had forgotten she needed to sign. It was almost lunch by the time her desk was finally clear. Looking up to see who was casting a shadow over her work, she smiled to see her Angel.

He kissed her check and crouched at her side, rubbing her belly for a few moments. She let herself relax a little.

“Rough morning?”

She nodded. She liked her job. It was challenging and kind of fun sometimes. She was shown a lot of respect most of the time, and it was a nice change to deal with demons with words instead of her fists. She wouldn’t be much help in a fight these days anyway.

Her stomach protruded far over the edge of her pants, and she couldn’t sit as close to the desk as she wanted to. She was in her twenty-seventh week, and the doctors had given her a tentative due date of September 16th. She was not excited about having her third trimester during the LA heat. She already noticed that her energy was being zapped, not uncommon during the third trimester. For a couple months, she had felt like superwoman. Now she felt like superwoman who had been hit by a truck.

Angel put his ear against her stomach and smiled. The baby was moving around, getting to ready to kick. He always kicked in the afternoon. Angel called the baby a ‘he’ but he really had no idea what the sex was. He didn’t care. He just wanted a happy healthy baby that no one as going to take away from him.

At times, the strain got to him. His businesses were thriving, Wolfram and Hart was going through a growth spurt, and he was happier than he had ever been. Even with all his good fortune, as Buffy grew with the baby inside her, he became more and more nervous. Flashes of a past that existed for only him would come unbidden to his mind, and he found himself more than a few times drenched in freezing sweat and sitting with shaking hands.

He wouldn’t tell her. He wouldn’t be able to explain to her why he had such fears. He dealt with it the best way he could. He was just proud he was staying out tot the bottle. He hadn’t been drunk since those few days before Christmas. He was happy for that, but he had been forced to find other ways to deal with his emotions. Not all of them were healthy.

Standing, he took Buffy’s hands in his and helped her to her feet. She took a deep breath and smiled tiredly at him. She needed to go home.

“Anything pressing for this afternoon?”

“Not really, I think all major crises have been averted. I’m hungry.”

Laughing, he put his arm around her. “Let’s go home. I’ll make you lunch and you get some rest.”

“I’m not a baby. I can last a full day at work.” She was walking with him downstairs anyway. She was only protesting half heartedly. She wanted to snuggle next to the full body pillow on their bed and sleep for four days. She had read that this was the time of her pregnancy she would be most exhausted, but she hadn’t thought it would be this bad.

The drive home was quiet. Angel told her about what Xander was doing in Dubai, the people he had found making sacrifices to a hell god in order to bring him into this world. She knew he was purposefully leaving out the fact that the sacrifices had been of children. He was upset by this, and she knew he didn’t want to talk about that part of it. Xander had called her yesterday from the hotel he was staying at and told her all about it; she didn’t feel it necessary to tell Angel that.

She was happy he was speaking. He had been so excited when he found out she was pregnant. After his initial elation, though, he had become withdrawn again, and she had feared a repeat of their first few days together. He seemed to get himself together quickly, however, and her fears were postponed for the time being. Now, he doted on her. He cooked for her, he massaged her back and ankles, he even went maternity shopping with her a few times.

Most of her shopping had been Fred before the other woman gave birth. Buffy had panicked a little when she found the only way she could wear her pants was pulled low below her stomach. She had panicked further when none of the clothing she had suitable for the office would fit anymore. Even camisoles and unbuttoned blouses started to look a little ridiculous.

Fred had been in her eighth month when Buffy had asked to go shopping with her. Fred had been small up until her last month, and then he stomach grew exponentially. There had been some concern over her lack of weight gain, but the baby was healthy on the ultrasounds and Fred said she kicked all the time. Fred had barely looked pregnant for the first thirty weeks. Buffy looked like she swallowed a beach ball.

The two women had started becoming attached to each other. Fred told Buffy very embarrassing things about carrying a child that made Buffy a little green in the face. The two liked spending time together, though. Fred was funnier than she let on, and Buffy could sense that the woman just needed a friend to confide in. Fred wasn’t as tough as nails as she wanted everyone to believe, Buffy concluded.

The food Angel made was always delicious, and it was always good for her. He did nothing without thinking of the baby, she thought. He kissed her and talked to her for a while before she fell asleep. He left soon after.

The stack of papers on his desk was twice the size it had been when he left. He would never begrudge Buffy his time, though. He would rather give up everything at Wolfram and Hart than spend less time with her. She needed help now; her due date was fast approaching. She was tired and hungry and cranky a lot. He didn’t mind much. He was just glad she was the one that had to carry their baby and not him. As long as the cosmos saw fit to make her the one to gain thirty pounds of baby weigh, he would take off as much time as he needed.

He dove into the pile of briefs with not so much enthusiasm as determination. He ignored the calls coming from Gunn’s office and he basically ignored Gunn when he came in to talk about something. He signed whatever it was that Gunn wanted signed after a precursory glance and went back to work. It wasn’t until Will came in, without knocking, looking like he had the world on his shoulders did Angel stop what he was doing.

“We need to talk.”

. . .

Chapter 9

Will took a seat, but his posture was that of forced calm. His eyes had a dark look Angel hadn’t seen in a long time.

“I need your help. There’s a situation. I tried to resolve it all weekend, but I can’t do it alone. The man should be helping me…isn’t much help. Can you take the rest of the day off?”

Angel looked at the clock, it was nearly six. He should have left already to go help Buffy. He sighed; she would call if she needed him. She wasn’t helpless, he reminded himself. The paperwork on his desk was lessened, but there was still about four hours of work to do.

He considered his options for a minute and then stood and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. He wouldn’t turn Will down for anything. He would just have to come in early tomorrow and have a driver take Buffy in when she was ready.

Angel followed Will in silence to parking garage and got into a car he had never seen before. That’s when he knew Will was up to something. They drove nearly an hour before Angel felt the need for a full explanation.

“Wes got into some trouble. We need to kill some people so he gets out of it.”

“Well, that’s not vague, or anything. You know I have a pregnant woman at home. A hormonal pregnant woman. I don’t doubt she can still kick my ass, and I hate to test that theory. I can’t stumble in tomorrow morning.”

“Call her, then, and tell her you won’t be home tonight.”

Will had purposely phrased his question about Angel talking the rest of the day off the way he did. He had wanted to get too far from the city for Angel to tell him to turn around. He watched as Angel regarded him angrily then pulled out his phone. He told Buffy it was business, that he could explain everything tomorrow, pointedly making eye contact with Will as he said that part. She was not happy, but she told him she loved him and to be careful.

When Angel hung up, he knew from Buffy’s tone that she believed none of his ‘it’s business’ line. She was a lot smarter than that. She also knew he was already into what mess he was dealing with and would have to finish it out.

“Start talking.” He stared holes into Will’s head until the other man finally answered.

“Wes hired a trio of witches a while back to do some dirty work for him. They did the job, but sold his name to guy name Kittridge. Kittridge took the information to a group of people that hate you. They tried to blackmail Wes. I killed Kittridge a few other middle management types. Now I have to go the source of this shit storm. I thought I could do it alone, but their security is very good. I need your help.”

He took that all in. what was Wes up to now? Images of a baby Connor flashed through his mind and his heart seized. He suddenly wanted to beat the living hell of the former watcher. Wes always bit off more than he chew and then never asked for help fixing the problem.

“What the hell did he do this time?” Angel’s fists were clenched and his jaw was set in a not pleasant way.

“This time? That means there was a last time.” Will was quiet. He wanted to know if Angel would admit it. He wanted to see if Angel would come clean. He didn’t.

“It’s Nothing. There was no last time. Tell me what’s going on.”

Will nodded. He wondered if he should continue to play his cards close to his chest or finally lay out his hand. He decided this was not the time. “I’m not sure exactly. I know it was bad and I know Wes freaked. He went to Ventura County and put a bullet in a demon. Not that I mind, he didn’t do it smart. He panicked and it messed everything up. Now, I’ve had to backtrack. That demon he killed could have told me what I needed to know, but instead, I go through a bunch of other people to get where I needed to go. There’s a whole chain of shit I had climb up. We’re at the top now.”

“This is what you spent your weekend doing? Killing people to find out who’s blackmailing Wes? And you don’t know what the blackmail is. Right.” He didn’t believe Will didn’t know what was over Wes’s head for a second, but he couldn’t do much to get the man to talk. Will would talk when he was ready to.

A thought occurred to Angel. Willow had told him that Giles had found ‘questionable activity’ at Wolfram and Hart. It was one of the reasons Giles had mistrusted Angel and his company. Was this what Giles had referred to? Angel had racked his mind and conducted a thorough investigation to figure what Giles had been talking about, but nothing horrendous had popped out at him. There had been the normal unsavory events that came hand in hand with being a defense firm, but other than that Angel found nothing of great interest. Even Xander had yet to uncover anything that would have tipped Giles off to the erroneous fact they were evil.

“This was what Giles found that made him suspicious of me. This is what he didn’t like.”

“Giles was suspicious of you from the word ‘go.’ But, yes, I think this tipped the scales a little for him.”

“That pisses me off.”

“Let’s not wade into that pool, shall we? Giles is thoroughly behind and Buffy and has expressed great satisfaction at being as close to a grandfather as he’ll ever get. He’s on our side now. Let’s not poke that bear in the ass again.”

Angel tried not to focus on the fact that Wesley could have played a part in Giles’ forced separation of him and Buffy. Images of Wes in a hospital bed, his throat slit, wires coming from everywhere came to his mind. He remembered the feeling of suffocating him before Gunn had ripped him away from the injured man. The memory of almost killing him was giving Angel pause. He shouldn’t be feeling satisfaction with that memory.

At the moment, though, he was starting to pile things together in his mind, and none of it was adding up in Wesley’s favor. He thought of Fred, of her miscarriages, of how devastated they both had been, though Wesley had never expressed it. He turned very mum and British when they tried to talk to him about it.

He remembered a Wesley few others did. He remembered the geeky bookworm that could barely lift a sword properly who had tried to be a ‘rogue demon hunter.’ He watched in his minds’ eye Wes’s transformation into a real part of the team, a badass, actually. He had turned into a great fighter, a hard nosed man who would do anything he had to do. The problem was, Wes sometimes he thought people needed saving when they really didn’t. It made his life hard.

Angel remembered how odd Wesley had acted during the time right before he tried to take Connor away. Slowly, he started to draw parallels in his behavior not yet a year ago. His mind was reluctant to make such connections, but they were staring him in the face. He had become quieter, more withdrawn. His visage had been constantly serious, as if her were carrying the weight of the universe around. And he had been secretive.

Wes never meant to act secretive, he just did when he was hiding something. Even his posture changed. Angel didn’t need to be a mind reader to see that the man was hiding something when he was. He almost punched the dashboard. Restraining himself, he cursed mentally. He had been so caught up in his own problems he had failed to notice that Wes had been up to something. He admitted to himself that he imposed blinders over his eyes for months. And now it might be too late to fix things.

It took approximately another second for his mind to determine exactly what Wesley had done. The timeline was right, and Wesley would have been motivated by little else. Angels’ eyes widened. This wasn’t good, he thought, this wasn’t good at all.

Will glanced in Angel’s direction. He had figured it out. Let no one say that man wasn’t quick. It had taken Will a little longer to piece it all together; he had been following Wesley’s movements for a few months now. The letter was the last tip off he needed.

They drove the rest of the way in silence, each knowing that it was going to be a long night.

. . .

Chapter 10

Dawn liked her new apartment. She had only been in it for two hours, but she felt attached to it already. It was rent controlled and her roommate was starting to get used to her, she thought. Angel had warned her about the roommate situation, but she hadn’t been bothered by it. It wasn’t everybody who got to live with a ghost.

She was vaguely aware this apartment had belonged to Cordelia years ago, but Dawn’s memories of her were faint, and the ones she did have were not favorable. Angel had explained to her that the apartment had been empty for a long time; a few people had tried to live there but had been quickly scared off by Dennis.

So far, she and Dennis had been getting along. It had taken Dawn five minutes to introduce herself to an empty room and start talking. She thought he was listening, and even if he wasn’t, she didn’t care. He wasn’t going to scare her off, and they were going to friends whether he liked it or not.

The movers were arriving, and she directed them where to put the few things she had brought from England and the copious pieces of new furniture she had just bought. Angel had sent her a very generous sign on bonus and she had used it to pay for the first six months of her rent and to outfit the apartment.

The owner of the building had stared at her as if she had purple skin when she had paid for six months in advance. He had actually been reluctant to accept it, she thought. After a little cajoling, though, he did; although he had warned her it would be nonrefundable. She had laughed and assured him she wasn’t going anywhere.

Even as she directed the movers and started to unpack things, she was thinking of Will. He was hot, too hot for her to ignore. With such an amazing prospect of a man right in front of her, she wouldn’t accept anything less than him naked in her bed. Smiling, she thought about the possible ways to do that. There was always the Varsity Blues whipped cream thing. That could work.

No, she thought, better to be subtle. Make him think I just want his friendship, and then dive into his pants. Make him feel safe enough to let his guard down and then fall madly in love with her.

She had no intention of ever telling her sister what she was up to, nor did she want Buffy to know Will was one of the major reasons she had moved to LA. Buffy and the baby were her first and most important motivators, but Will made a close second. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t been snatched up by another woman yet.

When the movers weren’t in the apartment, she talked to Dennis. None of her things had been thrown across the apartment or smashed against any walls, so she figured they were off to a good start. She told Dennis about England, about her sister, about her upcoming aunt-hood.

Breathing a sigh of relief once the movers were done, she looked around at the stacks of boxes and plastic wrap covered furniture. For a moment, she felt overwhelmed. Just then, a box of plates opened and the plates started flying towards the kitchen. They landed in a cupboard in an orderly way. When that box was empty, no others were opened. Dawn took this as a form of saying hello.

“Decided to talk to me, huh? Good. We’re going to friends, you know. I’m not too bad to live with.”

She smiled when another box started to empty itself. By the end of the day, the two of them had unpacked the apartment and rearranged the furniture several times. Dawn would often stop to ask Dennis what he thought of the arrangement and then watch as he moved things around. They finally came to a compromise around the time the sun was setting.

She ordered pizza and called Will’s cell phone. It was off, which was odd. It had rarely ever been off when she called him. Shrugging her shoulders, she curled up on her new couch and dialed her sister. Buffy answered on the fourth ring.

“What are you doing?”

“Sitting here being pregnant. What are you doing?”

Twirling her hair as she spoke, she continued, “Where’s Angel? Isn’t he home? He should be rubbing your feet or something.”

“He’s off with Will on ‘business.’ Which I’m sure means they’re up to no good. I’ll find out in the morning, when he gets home.”

She was surprised. “He left you alone? It must be important. Will’s cell is off, too. I wonder what they’re up to.”

Dawn heard the pause on the other end of the line. “You called Will? You just got in this morning, you don’t even call me, but you called Will? Huh…should I be concerned?”

Kicking herself, she heard with perfect clarity the thinly veiled threat Buffy was conveying. Dawn didn’t need her sister beating the crap out of Will, that would be a bad start to a relationship. “I just wanted to go out, see the city. I’m all hyped up and I thought he would know where to go. You can’t really go to the club with me right now.”

Hoping that would be enough to put her sister at ease, she was disappointed when Buffy dropped the subject. That meant Will was going to get an ear full tomorrow. “When do you start work? Angel told me Wesley’s very excited to have you. Apparently, there are some very smart people with very little personality in that office. Real book worms. You’re a book worm that can interact with people…sometimes. It will be a nice change in that department.”

“Thanks…I think. I’m excited too. Wes has great books I want to look at, and I can’t wait to start translating. I mean, I’m not best with Sanskrit, but I can definitely lend a hand, you know? I hope Wes gives me some good stuff to work on.” Rising, she stretched as she listened to Buffy explain the last few months at the office.

Dawn listened with rapt attention to Xander’s activities, and responded with stories about Willow and Giles. She had seen Willow once in the spring, and the witch had explained with exuberance that the Council was going to open another school for slayers in America. Faith was in the running to act as headmaster.

When Dawn heard the doorbell she cut the conversation short and assured her sister that she would stop by the next day. Opening the door, her stomach jumped for joy at the smell of pizza.

She was glad she didn’t have to eat in silence. Talking to Dennis saved her from that.

. . .

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