Grey tossed and turned in bed unable to attain any kind of meaningful sleep. She finally settled on her side and stared longingly at Willow gently illuminated by the glow coming through the windows. She just y there and admired the wonder and beauty of her partner. Her soft green skin, tiny buttoned nose, rge pointed ears and gentle lips were all seared into her mind.

  Her love for Willow melted into fear at the thought of losing her. A thought that lingered in the realm of possibility now that they were taking on the Cartel. Anything could happen to any one of them. Injury, death or disappearance were all in the realm of possibility and Grey had to confront each of them. She tried to tell herself that everything was going to be okay, that she could keep them all safe. But a part of her was pgued with doubt.

  What if she couldn`t, what if she wasn`t strong enough, what if she couldn`t keep them all safe. She had grown in power able to bend life and death to her will, yet she still felt so weak.

  Willow stirred and Grey found them locked eye to eye. She looked into the big pearlescent eyes of the woman she loved and stared back at her reflection. She could see the worry in her face and it frightened her.

  “It will be okay my Love.”, Willow whispered, reaching out and touching Grey`s face softly.

  “But what if it isn`t?”, Grey asked, putting her hand to Willow`s.

  “What if`s, are a trap of the mind that you can`t get lost in. What if, we fail? What if, you get sick? What if, the crops die? What if, the whole Undercity gets buried in an earthquake? So many what if`s, none of them a reality. Some of them a possibility sure, but not a reality.”, Willow comforted her, shifting her weight in bed and pulling Grey closer to her.

  Grey and Willow closed their eyes and embraced each other’s comfort. They enjoyed the softness of their skin, the stimution of their touch and the feeling of their breathe.

  “Do you remember the day we first met?”, Grey asked wistfully.

  “Funny enough I do. You wouldn`t think it but Goblins have pretty good memories. I remember my dad taking me to your dads shop. He was showing me where we get our fertiliser from. I saw your dad, bones and all. He didn`t scare me though. In my own na?ve way it made sense to me that a bone meal salesman would be made up of bones. Don`t ask me how it made sense it just did. Then I saw you, stood beside him wrapped in bundle and bundles of cloth holding his hand.”, Willow remembered fondly.

  “I remember staring at you for far too long. You were the first child I could remember seeing. Life before was all a blur, I didn`t remember anything or anyone. My dad and that shop were my whole world, then you and your father wondered into it and my world got a little bit bigger.”, Grey replied, staring deeper into Willow`s eyes.

  “Can you remember who spoke to who first?”, Willow wondered out loud.

  “Not a clue. I just remember us becoming friends. Your dad would bring you around and we would py while they haggled over the price of bone meal. Your dad was constantly trying to get the price down. My dad would humour him and try to drag out the conversation as long as he could so we could have more time to py.”, Grey reminisced with a light chuckle.

  “I miss those days, the simplicity of it all you know.”, Willow remarked.

  “I do too. But I much prefer these days. Never would I have thought I would make it this far in life. For the longest time I thought I would die young. Then I met you. My reason for living.”, Grey decred, lifting her chin and kissing Willow passionately on the lips.

  [---]

  Domina`s promise to help dey the Cartel was proving to be far more helpful than Grey could have imagined. Not only did it give her more time to prepare and rest between prosthetic attachments, but it also gave her time to do more personal things. Like taking care of Mika who was sick in bed with rat bite fever. It wasn`t anything serious, but it wasn`t pleasant either. Shivers, shakes, sweats and a sever ck of appetite, it could put one out of commission for a week or more if not treated properly.

  Lucky for Mika she had Willow and Grey to fret over her. The former had taken it upon herself to make enough soup for a week and wrap the girl up in every bnket she could find. The tter just so happened to have the time avaible to sit with her while Willow worked. Being the councils new go to girl left Willow with very little free time. Grey would be forever grateful to Domina and her people for being able to give her this time.

  She sat in bed beside a sleeping Mika with Samuel tucked into her hair. She looked over to Whiskers on the floor and blew him some soft kisses causing his tail to wag. The spontaneous affection had him rise up and nuzzle his nose into Greys hands insisting on further praise. She scratched him behind the ears and whispered what a good boy he was. Unfortunately this shook the bed waking Mika up from her sweet slumber.

  “What`s going on?”, she grumbled, sitting up annoyed.

  Samuel scurried out of her hair and onto her shoulder yawning adorably.

  “I`m sorry, I didn`t mean to wake you.”, Grey waved her hand at Whiskers, getting him to settle down. “How are you feeling?”

  “How do you think?”, she snapped back, annoyed at being brought back to the nd of the sick.

  “Again, I`m really sorry about that. Think you could get back to sleep if I left you alone for a bit?”, Grey enquired, feeling guilty.

  “No, I`m awake now. No more sleeps for me.”, Mika whined, scratching Samuel under his chin.

  “Well, since your awake, you should eat something.”, Grey suggested, leaning over to the bedside table to grab something.

  “Please no, I can`t takes any more soups. It messing with my stomach.”, Mika grumbled, rolling on her side defiantly.

  “I can imagine, that`s why I got you something special.”, Grey informed, to Mika`s curiosity.

  Mika took a wiff and rolled over to face Grey, startling Samuel, “Nuggies?”

  “You know it. They aren`t fresh but they still have some warmth to them.”, Grey passed her a bag.

  Mika dug into the bag hardly chewing before swallowing. Once the bag was empty Samuel jumped on in to clean up the crumbs.

  “That hit the spot.”, Mika exhaled with satisfaction.

  “I`m happy to see your appetite is coming back. Means you`re getting better.”, Grey said softly, gently stroking Mika`s hair.

  “I better be. Am so over being sick. It sucks. I`m tired of this bed, of this room. I wanna be out there, working.”, Mika mented, worming back into her bnkets for warmth.

  Samuel buried himself back into her hair doing the same.

  “I know Hun, but don`t worry. Work will still be there when you get back. It`s important you rest up.”, Grey made sure she was sufficiently tucked in.

  “I just hope I`m better by the time the Cartel shows up.”, Mika mentioned to Grey`s trepidation.

  “What do you mean by that?”, she enquired nervously.

  “I wanna be there to help you kick their butts. Give them a proper one two punch.”, Mika said, weakly punching under the bnkets.

  “Mika sweetheart, I don`t want you getting involved.”, Grey protested firmly.

  “What do you mean? I need to be out there, defending the farm and fighting the Enforcers.”, Mika argued, looking at Grey confused.

  “I don`t want you anywhere near the fighting. I want you here, where it`s safe. Where I know nothing bad will happen to you.”, Grey expined, as gently as she could.

  “No! I want to be out there! Fighting for you, kicking butt. I Can do it, you`ll see, you`ll be so proud. I promise!”, Mika spat back desperately.

  “Mika. Sweetheart. I`m already proud of you. I don`t need you to prove yourself to me or anything like that.”, Grey affirmed, putting a comforting arm around Mika.

  “But what if you get hurt and I`m not there to help you?”, Mika asked worried, looking up at Grey for answers.

  “I will be fine. Max is going to look out for me, him and all of his friends. Nothing bad is going to happen to me.”, Grey assured her. “I need you to trust me, okay?”

  “Okay. But if you do get hurt I will be very mad at you.”, Mika rested her head against Grey`s side. “I don`t… I can`t lose you.”

  Grey didn`t know how to respond. She just held Mika close and hoped that would reassure her.

  “Hey, how about I tell you a nice story? Like the st time you were sick. I`ll make it a nice boring one so you fall asleep immediately.”, Grey joked, putting a smile on Mika`s face.

  “Can you tell me the story about the Man Rat again?”, Mika asked softly.

  “Anything for you sweetheart.”, Grey whispered, kissing her daughter on the head.

  [---]

  Since their first chance meeting their retionship had been a physically charged one. What had started out as mutual physical attraction grew into a strong friendship but never evolved further. Both of them were comfortable with that. They enjoyed what they had together and felt it worked well. Occasionally someone would ask why there wasn`t more to their retionship. They could always agree that anything more just wouldn`t work.

  “Everything is going to change in the coming days.”, Grey remarked out of nowhere.

  “What do you mean, in the coming days?”, he replied. “Things have been changing ever since you came along.”

  “I think you give me too much credit.”, she responded, the weight of her procimed achievements weighing heavily on her.

  “You do yourself an injustice by being so modest.”, he insisted proudly. “If it weren’t for you we all would have starved to death by now. Not only did you do that, but thanks to you, food is more affordable than it has ever been.”

  “Max, please- .”

  “No ‘Max please’. The Undercity is improving, thanks to you. Yes, you aren`t doing it alone, but you are the driving force. We couldn`t have done any of it without you.”, Max argued firmly.

  “Stop! Please!”, Grey yelled, dropping to her knees. “Just stop. It`s too much. I`m not… You won`t… They can`t…” She took a deep breath collecting herself. “I need to know that you will all be okay without me. That if I die it won`t all end.”

  “Grey…”, Max bent down beside her and lifted her face up to his. “You`re not going to die. I would never let that happen. Listen to me when I tell you it`s going to be okay, that we are going to win this.”

  “How can you be so sure? So confident?”, she asked, pleading for an answer that would take all the pressure away.

  “Because I have to be. Because for me there is no going back. Our lives are starting to mean something. People are smiling and ughing and actually enjoying themselves. You did that Grey. Remember, we aren’t just fighting for you and the things you can do. We are fighting for our right to be more than just cogs in the Cartel`s machine.”, he decred with an unbreakable resolve.

  Grey wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up slowly with Max`s help.

  “I spent so much time thinking about what would happen if we lost that I didn`t think about what would happen if we won. All we would gain. Thank you Max, for reminding me.”, she moved into him, his strong arms giving her the comfort she needed.

  “You showed us the way Grey and we will fight tooth and nail to protect you for it.”, said Max, gently caressing her hair. “Now then, do you wanna cut all the serious talk and find an alley to have some fun in?”

  “Ow heck yes!”, Grey excimed, dragging him into the shadows with a cheeky grin on her face.

  She welcomed the escape.

  [---]

  Grey sat with her father in the kitchen like they had done so many times in the past. She with a bowl of bonemeal porridge and them with their mortar and pestel.

  “I hear you have been a busy girl.”, Thanatos finally spoke.

  Her childhood home hadn`t changed just one bit. Cracked bowls, splintered wooden table and piles of bone and dust everywhere. Just as she remembered it, it felt like going back in time.

  “You could say that.”, she muttered, in between spoonful’s of porridge. It had never tasted of much, which she was grateful for, but now it had a warmth to it. The taste took her back to when things were simple.

  “How are you feeling about it all.”, they enquired, continuing to grind.

  “Honestly? I`m terrified, but yet strangely confident. It`s hard to describe. I think… I know what I am doing is right. But I feel I`m the wrong person for the job. Everyone looks to me and thinks I have it all pnned out in my head, but I`m just making it up as I go along. I feel like a fraud.”, Grey rambled, letting it all out.

  “You know, when I first adopted you I wondered about who you would grow up to become. So many times I thought I had a good idea and then you went in the other direction. I tried to force you into a direction I thought would be best for you, but all I did was hurt you. So I decided to be supportive of whatever path you took. All that mattered was your happiness. Look at you now, on your own path, doing things I never even imagined were possible.”, Thanatos decred with pride.

  “I don`t know if I can do this dad. I don`t know if I can be the leader they need me to be.”, Grey replied, fighting back tears of doubt.

  “My sweet child.”, Thanatos stopped what they were doing and moved around to Grey holding her comfortingly. “You already are the leader they need you to be. Even if you were to stop right now, what you began will continue. You think you gave them the tools they needed but they had them all along. You gave them the one thing they were missing, hope.”

  Grey let a tear slip out and wiped it away.

  “Dad, I need to ask something of you. Something you aren`t going to want to do.”, Grey began hesitantly.

  “You want me to stay out of it.”, They interrupted to Grey`s surprise. “You don`t need to expin yourself sweetheart. I knew this day would come, the day you no longer needed me. You have grown so much these past months. I couldn`t be more proud of you. As much as the thought of you coming to harm fills me with dread I shall respect your wishes. But let me say this, you don`t need my help. You`ve got this.