* * * * * * * *

The Sailor Scouts arrived, in Mina's new SUV, at the mansion in the woods on Saturday morning. Despite the fact that Serena was giving directions, it had taken them less time to get there than they had expected. It was only about quarter to ten, and they were supposed to pick up Molly at ten. They piled out of the car and looked in a front window of the house, to see if anyone was up and about. What they saw was Molly and Nephrite swordfighting around the living room. They stared, speechless, in the window, until the couple stopped to catch their breath.

Serena rang the doorbell. A few seconds later the door opened, and she and the other girls were faced with the sight of Nephrite all sweaty without a shirt on. All the neurons in Serena's speech center froze. Down, girl, she thought to herself. He's married. To your best friend. And you're in love with Darien. Still, though... Lucky Molly.

Amy found her voice first. "Wouldn't a divorce lawyer be less painful? Not to mention less illegal?"

"What? Oh." Nephrite looked down at the large, curved sword in his right hand, and smiled. "You caught us having fun. Come on in. We'll be done in a few minutes."

"Sorry we're so early," Serena said as the girls walked into the house.

"Yeah," Lita said. "We were expecting Serena's directions to get us lost, but it didn't happen."

"Ha ha, very funny," Serena retorted.

"Have a seat." Nephrite gestured to some couches that had been pushed aside to one wall. The girls sat down to watch. "Hi, you guys!" Molly greeted them.

"All right, Molly. The tale is passed from the Soldier to the Storyteller.' "

They faced each other, about eight feet apart, and moved backwards. Nephrite's motions with his sword suggested a fiercely-fought battle, while Molly's were more graceful, suggesting waiting and preparing. They stopped, facing each other, about forty feet apart in the huge room. "Ready?" he called.

"Yes!" she answered.

With a sharp "Hunh!" of exertion, Nephrite sent his sword spinning through the air towards Molly. Serena and the other girls, all holding their breath, watched as Molly, in one motion, caught Nephrite's sword by the hilt, raised it vertically above her head, extended her other arm to hold her own sword at a precise and graceful angle away from her body, and lifted one bent leg in front of her. "Aahh," the watching girls sighed, in relief and admiration, as Nephrite began counting, "One, two three, four, five, six...." The only sign that Molly was putting forth a huge amount of physical effort, as she stood there on one foot while holding out the two heavy swords, was her gritted teeth. The rest of her body seemed perfectly relaxed. "Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen!"

"Hah!" Molly jumped into a new position, feet and arms spread wide apart.

"Good. Now the battle from the beginning, by yourself."

Nephrite came and perched on the arm of the sofa where the Sailor Scouts had parked themselves. "Watch her. She's really good."

"What is this?" Serena asked.

"Kharandha'i. Loosely translated, it means Sword Dancing."

"I've never heard of it," Lita said.

Nephrite smiled at the girls. "Yes, you have. You just don't remember it. It's from the ancient Realm of Earth. Prince Darien was quite good at it, Serena. I was his teacher."

Lita said, "I can't believe Molly's learned to do this in just three weeks."

"Actually, she was learning it at the monastery. The old priest there, Mikami, knew it. But I was her first teacher, long ago."

They all stared at him. "What?" Serena asked.

"She was there, too, on the Moon Kingdom. Her name was Maira, then. She wasn't a princess or Sailor Senshi. She was your mother's handmaid, Serena, but you and your mother loved her very much. She was almost like a sister to you. She wanted to learn Kharandha'i so she could protect you and your mother if necessary, and I caused quite a scandal by agreeing to teach her. She was the best student I ever had."

Serena met his eyes. "Did you love her then?"

"Yes. I would have married her, despite the wide difference in our social stations, except... You know what happened."

Serena sighed, her eyes all starry. "Just like me and Darien. You've loved each other for a thousand years, and you've finally found each other again. How dreamy. Did you remember, when you were evil, that you loved her?"

"Not consciously, not until right before I died. But I'm convinced that, on some level, deep down, I loved her the whole time."

Molly finished her routine with a wild whirling of swords, and called out, " The Storyteller returns honor to the Soldier.' Ready?"

Nephrite took his previous position, about forty feet away from her. "Ready!"

"Hnn!" Molly sent the larger sword spinning back towards Nephrite. He reached up his right arm to catch it, but the sword knocked against his hand and went clattering across the floor. "Ow!" he yelled, and crouched down, clutching the injured wrist close against him.

"Nephrite!" Molly cried, horrified. She ran over to him. "Nephrite, where's your hand?"

"Right here." He showed her that the hand was still attached to his arm, and tried to smile. Amy, who was a certified first-aid instructor, hurried over to take a look.

"Oh, Nephrite," Molly cried while Amy gently prodded at the rapidly swelling wrist. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

He hissed in some breath as Amy tried to turn the wrist. "It's ok, Molly. The throw was perfect. I'm still out of practice."

"The wrist is badly sprained and bruised, Amy said, "but it should be all right in a few weeks. Ice it down, then later wrap it with an elastic bandage. You should probably get it x-rayed, just to make sure it isn't broken."

"Maybe I shouldn't go shopping after all," Molly said, in tears.

"Nonsense," Nephrite answered. "I'll be fine. Nothing's missing, and I'm not even bleeding. You go get cleaned up and dressed and let Dr. Amy here take care of me. Go on, now, babe." He was more shaken than he wanted to let on. If the swords had been in fighting mode, rather than dancing, he could very well have lost the hand.

Molly wiped her eyes. "Are you sure? I feel just awful about this."

He tried to smile again. "Yes, I'm sure. Go."

With several looks back over her shoulder, Molly went upstairs. As soon as she was out of sight, Nephrite let loose with a long string of swear words in three different languages, that left the Sailor Scouts pale and wide-eyed. "Sorry," he said to them. "I didn't want to do that in front of Molly. She feels bad enough."

"You should definitely get an x-ray if it hurts that much," Amy said.

* * * * * * * *

When Molly came back down, Nephrite was seated at the breakfast counter in the kitchen, his right wrist packed in ice. He was surrounded by the Sailor Scouts, who were pouring juice and coffee and dispensing medical advice. Molly leaned against the door frame, smiling at the sight. Then she said, "Nephrite, if I can borrow your little fan club here for a while, I'm ready to go shopping."

She went to him to kiss him goodbye. With his left hand, he grabbed the front of her dress and pulled her to him, giving her a long, hungry kiss that made her knees turn to jelly. "Long as I've got you, Molly, I don't need a fan club," he growled into her ear. Ignoring the giggles that surrounded them, he kissed her again, more gently, and said, "Got the credit card? Good. Have fun, Moll."

* * * * * * * *

They put in a satisfying six hours of successful mall-trawling. By the end of the first hour, no one was empty-handed, and they ended up having to make a total of three trips out to Mina's car to leave their bags and packages there. Molly remembered Nephrite's request the other evening and ventured into Whispers, the source of pink lingerie boxes. The other girls followed, giggling and prodding along an embarrassed Amy. Ignoring their more risque suggestions, Molly picked out a long, spaghetti-strap nightgown and matching robe in peach satin trimmed with cream lace.

As they were leaving, a section that Molly hadn't noticed before caught her eye. The sign on the wall read, "Whispers II." Molly stopped and looked at the lovely maternity and nursing gowns.

"How appropriate!" Amy laughed.

"Yeah," Lita agreed. "You wear those other things, sooner or later you'll need these."

But Serena noticed the look on Molly's face, and didn't laugh. "Molly, you aren't --"

Molly snapped out of her thoughts, and smiled at Serena. "It would be too soon to know for sure, if I was. But..." She paused, and smiled more shyly. "We do want to have a baby as soon as we can. It's just something we really, really want, almost like it's supposed to happen."

Serena looked at the nightgowns, then back at Molly. "I know I'll have a baby some day, and she'll be named after me. But that's later. Having one right now? No thanks!"

* * * * * * * *

Finally, even Serena and Molly had had enough shopping. The girls all piled into the SUV, squeezing in among the bags and boxes. The Hikawa Shrine was the first stop on the loop to take everyone home. When they pulled up, there was an ambulance parked right in front of the steps, lights flashing as it prepared to leave. A couple of policemen were talking to Chad.

"Grandpa!" Raye wailed. She pushed her way out of the car, not noticing who she was crawling over. She ran to Chad, who put his arms around her. "What happened? Is it Grandpa?"

"He had a heart attack, baby."

"Nooo!" Raye tried to climb into the back of the ambulance, but Chad pulled her back. "You've got to let the paramedics take care of him, Raye. It won't help him if you get in the way."

"Grandpa!" she sobbed, over and over. Chad finished speaking with the police, then led Raye to the waiting SUV as the ambulance roared away, siren screaming. "Mina, they're taking Grandpa to Central Hospital," Chad said. "Can you drive us over there?"

"Of course. Hop in."

Chad wedged his tall form in among the girls and their loot. Raye wouldn't let go of him, so he just held her on his lap. "Don't get in a wreck, Mina, ok?" he said.

On the way over to the hospital, Chad explained what had happened. Grandpa had been out on the front steps of the shrine, talking to some visitors, when a man had come up to him and begun loudly berating him. The man had accused Grandpa of all sorts of outrageous deeds, from spending money donated to the shrine on drugs and wild living to kidnapping young girls who were never seen again. Grandpa, of course, lost his temper and ordered the man to leave the grounds. Then the man turned around and began shouting his wild accusations to everyone on the street. Chad tried to intervene, but Grandpa grabbed the man and forced him to turn around and face him. At this point, the man pushed Grandpa right in the center of the chest. Grandpa gasped and doubled over, and the man ran away. From the crushing pain the old man was suffering and his difficulty breathing, Chad guessed that he was in serious trouble and called for an ambulance.

At the hospital, Chad took the still-sobbing Raye inside. The girls all looked at each other. "She needs us," Serena said. They all followed Raye into the hospital.

Raye and Chad were in a private waiting room. After explaining that they were close friends of the patient and his granddaughter, the other girls were shown in . A doctor was talking to Raye and Chad. "--massive, massive heart attack. To be honest, Miss Hino, his survival is far from certain right now. I'm very sorry, and we're doing the best we can for him. I'll be back as soon as there's anything else to report." He nodded to the others in the room, and left.

Raye was near collapse. Only Chad's arms around her kept her from falling to the floor. "Oh, Grandpa," she sobbed, "please don't die!" Then she seemed to suddenly realize that the other girls had come in. She whirled around to face Serena, fury on her tear-reddened face, an accusing finger pointed at the pig-tailed girl. "It's all your fault, Serena! This is all your fault!"

"What?" Serena looked stunned.

"You're so selfish. Sailor Scouts this, Sailor Scouts that. Everything has to revolve around you! If I didn't have to spend so much time running around after you and doing whatever you want, I could have helped my Grandpa more and this wouldn't have happened!"

"Raye, baby, it wasn't like that," Chad tried to explain, but Raye was beyond reason. "Serena thinks that just because she used to be a princess, the rest of us have to crawl to her all the time. She doesn't care that maybe some of us have people we love who need us. I hate you, Serena! I hate you! I want you to get out of here, and I never want to see you again! I wish you were dead!"

Serena burst into tears, and Amy, Lita, and Mina seemed to have no idea what to do. Molly went to the corner farthest away from the commotion and took her new cell phone out of her purse. She started to dial the home number at the mansion, then canceled that and instead dialed Nephrite's cell phone, which he always carried with him.

"Stanton here," he answered in a business-like tone.

"Nephrite?"

"Molly! What's wrong? What's that noise?"

"It's Raye and Serena. Nephrite, we're at Central Hospital --"

"Are you all right, Molly? What happened?"

She had to cover her other ear to block out Serena and Raye, and turned towards the wall to speak more loudly into the phone. "Raye's Grandpa had a really bad heart attack. We were just getting to the shrine to drop her off and the ambulance was still there. Anyway, Raye's gone berserk. She's saying all these horrible things to Serena, saying that she hates her and this is all her, I mean Serena's, fault. Chad told us what happened, and the whole thing seems really strange. I've got a bad feeling about it, and I think we need you."

"I'll be right there. I've got a bad feeling, too."

Molly rejoined the group. Raye was still yelling at Serena, Chad was still trying to calm her down, and Serena was still wailing. "Serena, it's all right," Molly said. "I've called Nephrite and he's on his way. He'll straighten everything out, don't worry."

"I hope he gets here soon," Mina said.

"He will. We live kind of far, but the way he drives it won't take him too long."

"What was that about the way I drive?" Nephrite asked, walking into the room. Molly jumped, then turned and put her arms around him. "I am so glad you're here. But how did you get here so fast?"

Nephrite's right wrist and hand were heavily wrapped with an elastic bandage, as Amy had suggested. "In an emergency, I teleport. It's faster than driving, even for me. I pass this place on the way to the office, so I was able to aim for the main entrance. Now, what's going on?"

Molly gestured to Chad, who deposited Raye on another couch and came over to relate the whole story to Nephrite, including Raye's rantings at Serena. "Hmmm," Nephrite said. A calculating look came into his azure blue eyes. "I'll see if I can get Raye and Serena settled down, then I'll go over to the shrine and take a look around."

He went to Serena and put an arm around her shoulders, and quietly spoke to her. Then he touched the tip of his right forefinger lightly to the center of her forehead, just above the bridge of her nose, and spoke again. Serena's sobs settled into hiccups, then disappeared altogether. She sat down on a couch, with Mina and Lita on either side of her, speaking soothingly to her.

Raye was more difficult. He didn't even get a chance to speak to her before she began flailing her arms at him and struck him on his injured wrist. He let a single, pained swear word escape before he caught himself. Again, he placed the tip of his right forefinger on her forehead and spoke firmly, a few words in a language Molly didn't recognize. Raye jerked back as though she had been struck. Her dark eyes grew cloudy for a moment, then cleared. "I -- I -- What happened?"

"Do you remember where you are, and why?" Nephrite asked.

"Yes. We're at the hospital, because Grandpa had a heart attack. I was... really mad at Serena. It is her fault, isn't it?"

"It has nothing to do with Serena," Chad said. "It was that total loser that attacked Gramps. It was his fault."

"I -- I guess you're right." Raye sounded confused.

"Raye," Nephrite said. The dark-haired girl looked up at him. "Remember, we have to be careful of anything that would separate us from Serena. I know you haven't always gotten along with her, but have you ever, even once, said you hated her and you wished she were dead?"

"Oh, my gosh." Raye covered her mouth. "I said that?"

"You did. Now, get a hold of yourself and wait here. I doubt this was a normal heart attack. I'll be back soon." And he was gone in a swirling streak of red and white light.

"Serena," Raye said, "I'm so sorry."

"Is this what the Negaverse is going to keep doing?" Serena asked in a small voice. "Trying to make all my friends hate me and leave me?"

Molly knelt in front of her friend, resting her arms on Serena's knees. "We won't leave you, Serena. No matter how bad things seem, have faith in us."

"If you say so, Molly," Serena sniffled.

Molly was suddenly aware of how all five Sailor Scouts, and Chad as well, were looking at her, as though she were their guarantee that everything would be all right. She realized how much they had come to rely on Nephrite, how the whole atmosphere in that waiting room had changed when she announced that he was on his way. Nephrite could always make everything all right. They didn't have to do it all by themselves. It seemed that as Nephrite's wife, she was imbued with the same power that he had. Like den parents to a bunch of brownie scouts, she thought, except these girls were warriors, not children. She hoped she wouldn't fail them. "I promise. We'll all stick together."

* * * * * * * *

Nephrite arrived at the steps of the Hikawa Shrine, where the altercation between Grandpa and the stranger had taken place. He concentrated, and detected lingering traces of Negaverse energy. This only confirmed his guess that the attack on Raye's grandfather was a plot to drive Raye away from Serena. He would be very much surprised if any physical cause for the heart attack was found.

The shrine seemed deserted except for the two giant ravens who lived there. Then Nephrite heard a slight scuffing noise behind the wall around the inner area of the shrine. He walked over quietly, and saw the back of a man with short blond hair, wearing a black turtleneck and jeans, leaning against the wall. "Jadeite," he said.

The blond man looked up, startled. "Nephrite. What are you doing here?"

"I came here to find out what happened to the old man." The two men were circling each other warily. Without even thinking about what he was doing, Nephrite drew back his right fist and made contact with Jadeite's jaw, sending the smaller man flying backwards down the front steps. Excruciating pain shot up Nephrite's arm, and there was a definite popping sensation in the already-injured wrist. He fell to his knees, the wrist cradled against his stomach, and swore in every way he could think of.

Jadeite struggled up from where he had landed, sprawled halfway down the stairs. "Damn it, what'd you do that for?" He laid a hand against his reddened, swelling jaw.

"For that crazy, harmless old man and his bad-tempered witch of a granddaughter who happens to be one of my wife's best friends so she can't be all bad...." He trailed off into another long string of swearing, cursing his own stupidity as well as the pain.

"The old man's lucky," Jadeite said. "Jasper wanted him dead, but I decided it would be better to leave him alive."

Here was a chance to learn something. Nephrite fought to pull himself together and rise above the pain in his wrist. "Who's Jasper? The new King?"

"I won't tell you," Jadeite answered coldly. "I'm not a traitor."

"Is it treason to go back to the side you were on originally?"

Jadeite turned his back on Nephrite.

"You did this yourself, didn't you, Jadeite? Why didn't you use a youma? We always used to send out youma to do our dirty work."

"Jasper won't let us have enough --" Jadeite caught himself.

"He won't let you have enough energy to make a decent youma? So that's why the ones at the audition were so useless." Nephrite paused, waiting for Jadeite to say something, but there was only silence. "I've got your strategy figured out, you know. I'm just wondering who's next. Whose innocent friend or relative are you going to hurt next?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Nephrite." Jadeite started walking away.

"Jadeite." All the mockery was gone from Nephrite's voice. "I can tell you hate what you're doing. That's why you're still hanging around here, because you feel guilty. Join me, Jadeite. You can return to being the man you used to be." Jadeite hesitated just a second, then continued walking. "You used to be a Healer, Jadeite. You used to do good." The black-clad man walked out the front entrance of the shrine without looking back. Nephrite stood and strode down the steps. "Do you remember your name, when you had honor?" he yelled at the retreating form. There was no answer.

Nephrite leaned against the gatepost, clenching his good fist in frustration. He had never gotten along very well with Zoyan and Mallory, but he had enjoyed a relatively cordial relationship with Jederin. He had had some respect for the dour, scholarly Healer. He hated to see this waste of a skilled Healer and decent person.

He was in too much pain to concentrate on a teleport back to the hospital, and like the rich fool he was, he didn't have enough cash on him to pay for a taxi, so he had to take the bus, a new experience for him. It took him half a dozen changes and three missed stops to untangle the bus route that led back to Central Hospital. Everyone was still waiting in the private waiting room for news about Raye's Grandpa, and Darien had joined them. Raye and Serena had fallen asleep sitting next to their respective boyfriends. Nephrite plopped down onto a couch, left arm holding his painful wrist close against his body. Everyone looked at him and correctly guessed that he was not in the mood to talk. They all left him alone except for Molly, who curled up next to him and rested her head on his lap. He stroked her hair, and after a while, her quiet presence began to relax him. "It was the Negaverse," he finally said. Raye sat up and rubbed her eyes; Serena continued snoring softly, her head resting against Darien's shoulder. "Jadeite, to be specific. Their leader seems to be someone named Jasper, who may or may not be our old friend Mazz Destrukshun. Jasper wanted Mr. Hino dead; Jadeite felt that wasn't the best course of action."

"Jadeite," Raye said bitterly. "He actually worked at the shrine for a short time, did you know that? That snake. Of course he'd know that my weakness is my worry over Grandpa's health."

"It makes sense," Amy said. "If Raye's Grandpa died, that would be the end of it, and we would be all she had left. Sooner or later, she'd probably come back to the Sailor Scouts. But if he survived, Raye would be so worried about him, she'd be tending him twenty-four hours a day. That would serve the Dark Kingdom's purpose better."

Nephrite nodded. "Exactly."

"So did you actually talk to Jadeite?" Raye asked. "I hope you let him know he isn't going to get away with this."

"Actually," Nephrite said, "I, ah, punched him."

"Nephrite!" Molly sat up. "Tell me you didn't hit him with your right hand."

"Of course I did. I'm right-handed; when I take a swing at someone, that's what I use." He paused. "I wasn't thinking."

"I should say not!" Amy exclaimed. She came and sat on his other side and unwrapped the elastic bandage. Immediately the wrist began to swell and bloom with a sickening rainbow of colors. "Nephrite, I insist you get this x-rayed while you're here."

Just then, the doctor who had spoken to them a few hours earlier came in. "Miss Hino," he said in greeting, and nodded his head to the others in the room. "I have good news. Your grandfather is going to be fine." There were smiles and murmurs of relief, and Raye started crying again. "He's still very sick, and he has a long recovery ahead of him, but damage to the heart was minimal. To tell you the truth, with the diagnostics we've done so far, we can't find any reason why he should have had a heart attack of this magnitude, other than the emotional stress over this confrontation you told me about, and it's rare for such stress to cause an attack so severe. He's in remarkably excellent health, especially for a man his age. He leads a very active life, doesn't he?"

Raye nodded. "I've tried to get him to slow down, but he won't."

"Miss Hino, if you want my advice, I would suggest you not try to get him to slow down. Elderly people who remain as active as possible as long as possible retain their physical and mental health much longer and even end up living longer."

"Oh," Raye said.

"Told you so," Chad muttered to her out of the side of his mouth.

"Now, he appears to be in excellent health, and we expect him to eventually make a full recovery, but we don't want to take anything for granted, so here's what we've done and what we'll be doing in the future, just to make sure."

The doctor began to describe a host of procedures, many of them involving needles, catheters, inserting dyes and balloons into the arteries, possible surgery.... Molly happened to glance at Nephrite and saw that he was looking decidedly pale. This was probably his first exposure to modern medicine, she realized. She could see how it would sound like torture to someone who wasn't used to it.

"Anyway," the doctor concluded, "we'll be scheduling some of these in the near future, and depending on the results, we'll decide if the others are necessary. He's asleep now, Miss Hino, but if you and your young man would like to see him for just a minute, that would be all right."

Raye and Chad stood, hand in hand, to follow the doctor. "Thanks, you guys, for being with me," Raye said. "It was fun shopping; I hope this didn't ruin the day for all of you."

"Oh, Raye!" The Sailor Scouts all gathered for a group hug. Molly watched, feeling a rush of affection for her little den of warrior scouts.

On the way out, the doctor caught a look at Nephrite's wrist. "Go on," he said to Raye and Chad. "Third floor, turn left out of the elevators. Now, sir," he said to Nephrite, "have you had that arm looked at?"

"Um, no" Nephrite held the wrist closely, protectively. The doctor sat down beside him, and, reluctantly, Nephrite let him take the injured wrist and examine it.

"What'd you do? Sprain it and then get in a boxing match?"

Nephrite said, "Well, essentially, yes."

The doctor muttered something about weekend warriors, then said, "While you're here, let's get that x-rayed, and maybe an MRI too."

As they followed the doctor down to the imaging department, Nephrite whispered to Molly, "Do either of those involve needles?"

"No." She smiled at him.

"This all sounds completely barbaric."

In fact, Nephrite showed a fascination with the machinery and the images that was almost childlike. He peppered the technicians with questions, and hovered at the radiologist's shoulder, pointing and asking questions about everything that was shown on the pictures. The radiologist showed him that all the cartilage in his wrist was basically shot. "You are looking at some surgery here, Mr. Stanton. Possibly two or three separate operations, at least."

An orthopedic surgeon was called in. He looked at Nephrite's wrist and the x-ray and MRI pictures, whistled long and low through his teeth, and agreed with the radiologist's assessment. He handed Molly his card, which she tucked into her purse. "Call on Monday and make an appointment to meet with me at my office, and we'll do a complete examination and schedule the first surgery for a few weeks from now."

"Is surgery really necessary?" Nephrite asked.

"Only if you want to be able to use that hand again. Here." The doctor pulled a prescription pad out of the pocket of his white coat, and scribbled on it. "This is for some painkillers and anti-inflammatories. You can get it filled at the hospital pharmacy, down the hall and around the corner. Nice meeting you, Mr. Stanton, Mrs. Stanton."

* * * * * * * *

"How are we going to get home?" Molly asked while they were waiting for Nephrite's prescriptions to be filled. "It's too dark now to take the bus." Their house was three miles away from the nearest bus stop.

"I've had enough of the bus system for two or three lifetimes. Do you have enough money for a cab?" Nephrite's right hand, wrist, and lower arm were encased in a complicated-looking brace. He was not in good spirits.

But Mina was waiting for them in the lobby. "I already took everyone else home," she said brightly, "but your stuff is still in my car. Come on, you guys. We can stop for some hamburgers on our way."

Nephrite and Molly followed her out to her car, exhausted and grateful for her kindness.

* * * * * * * *

That night, Nephrite lay motionless and silent on his back in bed. Molly, curled up beside him with her head on his chest, could have sworn he was sulking. "What's wrong, lover?" she asked.

"What a rotten day," he said after a moment.

"It wasn't completely bad," she said. "Raye's Grandpa is going to be ok, and you found out some more about the Dark Kingdom, and we had fun shopping. I am awfully sorry about your wrist, though. I'm sorry you have to have surgery."

He traced the fingers of his left hand along her side and hip. "It isn't your fault, babe. I can't believe I was so stupid."

She was silent for a bit, then said, "You haven't even noticed what I bought. Do you like it?" She tugged at one of the straps of the peach satin nightgown.

"Yeah. It's pretty," he said without even looking. Then suddenly he turned towards her, grabbed a handful of peach satin at her hip, and pulled her to him. "I need you, Molly."

* * * * * * * *

Later, as they lay curled up together in the starlight, he said, "Okay, now I'll admit, the day wasn't all bad."

Molly hit him with a pillow.

* * * * * * * *