She whirled around. "Hi, George. I lost track... which wing am I in?"

George laughed and said, "Well, the studio is a couple doors down yet. And I think your friends are looking for you."

"I'll find them in a few." She followed him into the studio. "Are you going to record?"

"I might later, but I wanted to do a little mixing for now. Want to help?"

"Sure!" Susanne beamed, glad to finally find something fairly normal to do.



She wasn't in danger. Roger watched her run after Dionysus. He was tempted to run after her, not allow her to talk to him, but... she'd get upset. She wanted her freedom.

"Susanne!" Meredith called. Roger put out a hand to stop her from chasing her friend.

"Um... what just happened?" Kristsi asked.

The Otaku looked around at each other. They had known something was wrong, they had suspected that Celly was the source of the feeling, but they had never imagined...

Roger sighed. "Let's go out and enjoy this weather," he said. "It's not going to last very long."



Susanne looked out the window. She could see all the others in the garden. Meredith was climbing a tree, and Anaera had laid out in a patch of sun. Kristsi and Mercy were sitting next to the fountain talking. Susanne knew that Orpheus was probably still in Anaera's hair, and she could see Zeke and Roger standing apart from the Otaku and talking.

"I feel like this is all my fault," Susanne said quietly.

"It's not," George said, not looking up from the console.

"I know that, but... I feel responsible for them. I can't quite explain it. And Mercy... she risked herself to try to help us. She could have been killed."

This time, George looked up. "Sometimes, things happen which you have no control over," he said.

Susanne walked over to the window again. Meredith was now hanging upside-down from one of the low branches, and Kristsi and Mercy were standing in front of her, the three of them talking and laughing. Anaera was still laying down. Susanne suspected she was napping. Not that she blamed her. Zeke snuck up behind Meredith and tickled her sides, then caught her when she started to fall off.

Just as she began to wonder where Roger was, she heard a knock on the door.

"C'min," George said absently. The door opened, and Roger stepped in.

"Ah, memories," he said, looking around. "Hey, George, when this is all over, let's record something."

"Looking forward to it."

"Susanne."

She sighed and turned from the window. If she'd wanted to talk to him yet, she'd have gone looking for him.

"So," he said casually, "What did you and Dionysus talk about?"

Susanne turned back to the window.

George caught the unspoken commentary and looked up from the console, setting the earphones down and raising an eyebrow.

Maybe it was because she had been under so much stress, and something snapped. Maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep. For whatever reason, when Susanne caught his look out of the corner of her eye and couldn't help laughing. Looking at Roger, she started laughing harder.

"You find humor in the strangest situations," Roger said.

Susanne nodded, wiping a tear from her eye, and laughing again.

"That's one of the things I love about you."

Susanne stopped laughing.

George slowly stood up and started walking for the door.

"Hold it right there!" Susanne said as she saw him.

George whirled around without breaking stride and sat back down.

Susanne turned back to Roger. "Kicked out by the Council? Remember? Otaku and Guardian?"

"The Council can go to hell," Roger said, echoing Dionysus' words.

"Are you sure that you don't want me to leave?" George said.

"That's all well and good, but where will YOU go?"

"The Council is wrong," Roger said. "Maybe a Guardian is more attentive to his Otaku if he is... less objective. His only duty is to protect her."

"I take that to mean that I can, in fact, leave..." George trailed off, and quietly slipped out of the room. They weren't paying attention to him, anyway.