Helen and her team spent another week in search of a starship before they managed to acquire one. Thankfully, the Federation’s presence in the northern part of Canada was extremely low. Now all they had to do was wait for the moon to appear in the sky before they could take off.

The ship was a small freighter owned by an independent shipping company. Torvil disabled the tracking system before moving them to a secure, secluded location deep within the icy planes of Canada.

“I can’t wait to tell her all the stories of what we’ve done! She’s going to be so surprised to hear we’ve been together this whole time, Mem!” Mo’Emori chatted animatedly with her infectious excitement as she wrapped her arms around Helen.

Jen, Helen and even Torvil chuckled at his sister’s renewed energy and happiness.

“Be sure not to talk the young Swyn’wyr's ears off, Mo’Emori,” Torvil prodded his sister as he did the final systems checks within the cargo hold they lounged in.

Helen and Jen watched the young Eskarii girl stick her tongue out childishly at her brother even though he had not been looking.

Both women laughed with the giggling alien woman, “It’s okay, love. I’m sure we’ll have to protect our ears from all the stories she has to share instead,” Helen mused light heartedly though she knew Morrigan had some dark stories she may also not share. That tidbit of information always made her heart hurt, knowing that her daughter suffered.

Jen scoffed at that, “pu-leez, the second we see her I’m going to start sharing every single embarrassing story there is. She’ll run screaming from us! Especially if I tell her what me and sexy here did last night!”

Torvil smacked his head on a low hanging storage bin followed by letting out Eskarii curses, “You will not!” he growled at her.

“Ohhh so scary, whatcha gonna do to stop me hmm?” she cooed sassily as she leaned closer to him, daring him to try something.

Torvil spun and bopped her on the head with his data-slate before returning his attention to his work only to complain that the data he had on the screen had been lost.

Jen rubbed the top of her head whining, “Jerk, serves you right!” she feigned pouting before shooting a wink to Mo’Emori who giggled again.

Helen laughed loud enough to drag everyone’s attention to her in awkward confusion.

“What is it, Mem?” Mo’Emori asked curiously with wide eyes.

Helen waved them off as she settled herself wiping a stray tear from her eye, “I don’t know, it’s just been forever since we’ve felt like a true family again. It just… you know what I mean damn it.”

Torvil snorted with a smile as he looked at Jen who grinned even more all the while Mo’Emori buried herself into Helen’s arms sweetly.

Helen dipped her head and began whispering into Mo’Emori’s ear all the while staring down Jen and Torvil.

Jen’s grin turned to nervousness as she eyed Torvil, “Uhh oh… this seems vaguely familiar.”

“How so?” he inquired.

“That’s the same look Helen gave when she whispered to Morrigan that she should…run!” Jen shouted, standing into a sprint to the stairs.

Torvil looked at Jen go, “Why?!” before turning to see both Helen and Mo’Emori giving him evil grins.

His eyes widened as he swore, trying to chase after Jen only to have his feet pulled out from underneath him.

He turned back to see Mo’Emori standing holding her hand out before shifting her energy to slide him closer to her as she sprinted to pounce on him, cackling like a mad girl.

Torvil sputtered and struggled as she dug her fingers into sensitive areas of his sides and neck, trying to tickle him. All the while she giggled uncontrollably.

Mo’Emori did not get much sibling play time during her childhood, which she once explained to Helen given the age differences between her and her siblings. By the time her younger siblings were old enough to play, she had already undergone her training as a Sybrydian.

When she was old enough to play, all of her older siblings were off doing their own thing, so despite having such a large family, Mo’Emori lived as an only child before being thrust into the responsibilities of adulthood. Inciting her childish side so often was Helen’s motherly way of letting her live her childhood that she missed out on.

“She's your sister dude!” Jen called out before slamming the door and locking it.

“Traitor! Brat!” he growled trying to fend off his playful sister without hurting her.

Helen roared with laughter before checking her phone. She was surprised by the time already. “Sweetie, let your brother up, its midnight. We have to get going.”

“Yes!” she cheered, pumping her fists before rolling off her brother into an acrobatic stand and holding out her hand. “Come brawder, as the Terrans say, chop chop!” she chirped jokingly as her mood shifted gears, for the most part.

Torvil accepted her assistance and moved towards the door that led into the central part of the ship and knocked.

“Is Torvil dead?” Jen called through the door with faux worry.

Even Torvil chuckled at that, “No, fy cym’ar, we need to leave. It is time.”

Jen unlocked the door and let everyone through with an amused, excited smile on her face. Mo’Emori pointed at her eyes then back at Jen with a childish angry face but Jen just stuck her tongue at the woman.

“Better luck next time sweetie!”

They all took their seats in the large cockpit, thankfully seating a crew of six, and took off towards where the moon that was high in the sky.

The atmosphere that burned around the ship was blinding as it shook and jolted from the pressure and effort of pushing through Earth’s several layers of atmosphere. Mo’Emori clasped both Jen and Helen’s hands as she stared just past Torvil who piloted the ship.

Soon they were greeted with the vast open expanse of space, though a looming shadow approached from their left.

Each one of them swore in their own way as they saw the massive cruiser’s prow heading straight towards them.

“Oh fuck me!” Jen exclaimed as she also saw a pair of Federation Destroyers snap into reality as they dropped out of FTL right above them.

A chimed alarm went off in the cockpit, “Pah’sk, they’re hailing us,” Torvil growled.

Helen shoved her rising panic down as she leaned forward, “Broadcast the signal! If the Inquisition is true to their word they’ll be here.”

Torvil didn’t argue as he started the signal and moved the ship away from the Destroyers at a leisurely pace. The signal being a repeat of Flight of the Valkyries played on a loop. It was just obscene enough that Helen figured it would grab anyone's attention, if they were watching the open communication frequencies.

Blasts rocked the ship as one of the Destroyers began open firing on the small ship, requiring Torvil to pitch and roll to evade the cannons.

“Oh wow...” Mo’Emori breathed in amazement as she watched a section of space bend and split, revealing a large, black gothic designed Destroyer in front of them, one that turned its broadside battery onto the enemy Destroyers while two bright blue orbs of energy soared from the massive twin cannons upon the dorsal bridge of the ship and smashed into the Federation Cruiser.

They all watched as the energy of the orbs spread across the surface of the massive ship, lights flickering out as the overall trajectory of the Cruiser shifted.

“Fucker wasn’t lying about experimental! Go, we need to go now!” Jen exclaimed, snapping Torvil out of his stupor and throttling the engines.

They soared, weaving in and out of gunfire, as they watched both Federation Destroyers turn to fire broadsides as the Inquisition ship dropped its shields to allow them passage. Cannon blasts and pulse fire hammered into the side of the black ship as one of the two dock doors opened just underneath a twin barreled broadside cannon. As soon as they were within the safety zone, the ship's shields flared back to life while Torvil eased them towards the dock.

Gently guiding and setting them down into the docking bay, there was a whomp sound that echoed like a very distorted bass cord.

They all sighed with relief, “Well, at least that one went better than the last,” Torvil commented only earning a slap to the back of the head by his sister.

“Too soon sweetheart, gotta wait till we get to Little Clarke before you can joke about that,” Jen inserted before unbuckling her harness and stretching.

“Which is hopefully soon,” Mo’Emori stated firmly before she got out of her own chair.

“Yeah, let’s go meet with the captain or whoever runs this ship,” Helen chimed in as she walked back to the storage area.

Jen was first down the cargo ramp only to come face to face with a wall of guns, “Whoa, this is the second most amount of guns I’ve had pointed at me,” she said to no one in particular before raising her hands and counting the number of guns, “Nope, fourth actually… man do I miss Cancun, ha!” she mused darkly to herself.

Seeing Jen’s disposition, the rest of them came out with their hands up as a tall, densely built man wearing a strange array of armor approached them. It was a cross between full-body marine plate armor and old-world splint mail with hints of blue and red mixed in with a lot of black.

His head was clean shaven as well as his face with a black strip tattoo on the center of his lip and he carried a menacing looking helmet under the crook of his arm.

“I am Inquisitor Danafor, please identify yourselves,” he said fluidly. He spoke in neither a friendly or unfriendly manner.

“I am Helen Marie Clarke, this is Jennifer Simmons, Mo’Emori and Torvil. We requested your aid through Lord Inquisitor Gregor Solomon,” Helen spoke professionally.

After ten seconds of scrutiny, Danafor smiled, “Well it took you lot long enough,” he said with amusement before waving his hand, “Stand down! Return to your posts!”

Every single person within the docking bay did as they were told without question.

“Hmmm, obedient, efficient, the Inquisition seem to be living up to their name quite well,” Mo’Emori observed eloquently as she stepped off the ramp with newfound purpose.

It was a surprising switch in personality at the drop of the proverbial hat to Helen as she glanced a sidelong look at Jen, who seemed equally surprised.

Torvil just snorted and walked around them, having been accustom to his sister’s various personas.

Mo’Emori held out her hand for the Inquisitor to shake as she smiled. The man held her hand, leaning down to kiss the top of her hand.

Torvil huffed in protective annoyance as he took her place next to her catching the man’s attention.

“Oh? Partner I presume?” he eyed Torvil curiously.

Mo’Emori hummed, “Far more dangerous, my brawder,” she said gesturing noncommittally.

The man nodded and took half a step back out of respect as Torvil fixed him with a deadly glare, ignoring the approach of Helen and Jen.

Without concern, the Inquisitor touched the comm in his ear, “Well shit, I don’t care how it’s done but I want you to skip us out of here, minimum of five skips!” he said in aggravation before returning his attention to the new group on his ship.

“Come with me please,” he nodded to them before turning on his heel.

Mo’Emori was quick to follow, taking charge of the situation. “How long till we get to the Void Star?” she inquired, restraining her anxiety-laced excitement.

“Attention, warp jump in five, four, three, two, one.” blared over the ship wide communication system in a soft make voice followed by another deep, reverberating whomp.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“That, is difficult to say, miss,” Danafor stated.

“Whoa, what do you mean difficult to say? We just got our asses shot at in a god damned freighter for you to pick us up and take us to wherever the hell we need to go!” Jen exclaimed aggressively, Helen grabbing onto her arm to keep her from doing anything too rash.

Danafor shook his head and pointed towards an intercom, the blared a repeat of the message again a moment later, following another sound of transition.

“That, is our issue. It appears our FTL engine took damage while you boarded. Though our warp drive is functioning, it cannot sustain any distance longer than eight light-years at a time and can only be used a handful of times in a short amount of time. So, we need to put as much space between us and the Federation while we find somewhere safe to attempt repairs…” he stated factually, leaving no room for argument.

The group cursed, “Is there anything we can do to help?” Helen asked as she bit back her worry about being followed by the Federation.

He laughed crisply as they entered an elevator and started rising towards the bridge.

“Not unless any of you know how to operate and repair a quantum matrix drive used in type-four FTL engines?” he fished. All four of them shook their heads.

“If you need one destroyed then sure, we can do that,” Jen quipped as she patted Torvil on the arm.

That earned her an amused snort out of both men, “Well, it was worth asking, anyways, soon we should be far enough away. The nice thing about warp drives is they leave no ionized trails, so our navigator will cover our tracks. Bad case scenario is we call for assistance and worst case, we spend the next… six and a half months coasting on warp skips,” Danafor mused though he spoke as if the issue was more a possibility than an inevitability.

“Six and a half months?!” Mo’Emori exclaimed as her anxiety washed over her. She let out a small whine as Helen pulled her over into a hug.

“It’s okay sweetheart, I doubt that will be the case. We’ll be with Mori before you know it,” she said in a motherly comforting way.

Danafor quirked an eyebrow but chose not to comment. Instead, as the door open to reveal the bridge, he said “Come, I’ll show you around and give you the tour. After I’ll get you an update on repairs and see if there’s anything for you to do to keep your minds occupied.”

Jen shrugged as she put her head on Torvil’s shoulder, wrapping her fingers through his as they stepped onto the bridge. Mo’Emori let out a soft whine that bespoke her feelings of worry. Helen felt for her adoptive daughter, she too wanted to break down over the set back but for both her and Mori, she would brave face the new problem before them, though she hated that they were truly unable to help solve the issue.

ΩΩΩ

Morrigan hated being put on forced medical rest. She knew she only needed a day to recover just like the last time she over did it. However, Dezinaria and Solomon both insisted she take the full week.

It was not all bad though, she spent the most of the week brushing up on rules and regulations while speaking on holo-vid with her sponsor Inquisitor, Inquisitor Clare Tindal.

She was kind to Morrigan and seemed invested in her progress despite being across the galaxy. From what she learned, she had also been the Inquisitor who performed the execution of the rogue Inquisitor from Solomon’s story. So Morrigan heard many tales from the experienced woman.

Aside from wracking her brain with trivial knowledge, Morrigan also got to see Yekku proudly unveil Xol’s new weapon. The S’randin was so proud of himself, as were the people working in the Research and Development level. They adored the spastic alien and the unique, non-communicative perspective he brought, including how to insert a high-density fusion reactor into the weapon.

When developing the massive two-handed mace, Yekku apparently wired the fusion reactor into it which had been used in the discontinued power weapons of the CoU due to the amount of weight the weapons weighed. However, taking the Xol’s considerable strength into account, Yekku was more than adamant about putting it in giving the weapon both a range energy blast as well as a high-density kinetic discharge against anything it touched.

To say Xol loved the weapon was an understatement as upon testing it out in one of the training arenas, he became significantly more malleable to teaching the Marmuro’k language. He also carried it everywhere he went, including holding onto it as he slept on Morrigan’s floor.

Morrigan was impressed though, seeing as Xol can sunder four inches of metal with ease between his strength and the weapon’s properties. She even considered asking for a power weapon for herself only to have Apollyon scolded her for thinking it would be useful.

Despite the annoyance of waiting to be cleared to go back to class, the week was not horrible and she even made headway in balancing the energy output when calling upon her new shield ability.

It was a tiring process but she and Apollyon worked hard at getting the sensitive flow of energy just right. Apollyon believed that if she could learn to call the correct amount of energy subconsciously, she would never have to worry about anything short of a supernova which could cause her to bleed herself dry. Granted, it was an exaggeration, but she felt confident in passing what ever last test Dezinaria could throw at her. The week off had given her plenty of time to practice.

“Hey precious,” Nora whispered in her ear as she sat next to her at the bar of Pandora’s Box. It had become a regular spot for Morrigan even if she didn’t drink each time she went, She enjoyed Dora’s company and advice. It also made a great meeting spot for those who knew her even if she was always surrounded by people she did not know.

Morrigan leaned over and gave Nora a soft kiss before leaning her head on Nora’s shoulder.

“How has your week been?” Morrigan asked. She missed Nora dearly seeing as the young ice mage had been ridiculously busy setting up her training regiment and trialing it out with seasoned veterans under the watchful eye of administrators.

“Great actually, I’m having loads of fun tormenting everyone! I mean jokes on them because pirate ships are super dangerous so without me, most of them would be dead!” she said brightly. It made Morrigan happy to see Nora so excited. The fact that she had been taking her job so seriously was both surprising and enlightening, mainly to the fact that she could be so serious when needed.

“In fact, apparently the old man is coming to watch me conduct my class tomorrow!” she snickered as she flourished her arms like an old-world musical orchestrator.

Morrigan hummed with amusement as she pulled Nora’s arm to her chest, being so close let all of her worries and frustration melt away.

Nora snorted and kissed the top of her head, “You know, it’s a little weird having the roles reversed. Usually I’m the one whose all over you,” she mused in adoration.

Morrigan looked up to see her icy silver eyes watching her with a cocksure smirk.

Role reversal, eh? Didn’t think you had it in you hahahaha!

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, I honestly just don’t care at the moment. I miss her…” Morrigan remarked while Apollyon grunted affirmatively.

“Well don’t you two just look darling!” Dora called out as he approached them with touch of flair. “Serious, you two are so sweet I could just eat you both up!”

Nora snorted with laughter and Morrigan giggled. To her surprise, she did not feel embarrassed by Dora’s goading as she nuzzled Nora’s arm.

“No. Seriously, how big of a closet do you have? We’ve been here over a damn month and I’ve yet to see you wear the same overly flamboyant outfit twice!” Nora exclaimed.

Dora blew a raspberry before grinning, “Sweetie, I've been out of the closet longer than you've been alive. Besides, everyone has their secrets to keep,” he mused before giving Morrigan a far from subtle wink.

Morrigan blushed at that as Nora looked down to her before looking back at Dora, who just stood there with a bright smile.

“Whoa, whoa what secrets, I didn't know there were secrets! Are you holding out on me? Why haven't I heard this secret!” Nora prodded spastically as she pulled on Morrigan’s hair with her lips like an animal.

Morrigan laughed as she sat back up and pulling her hair out of Nora’s mouth, “To be fair, we have entire lives we haven't shared with each other,” she commented.

“Yeah but not secrets! How could you do this to me? Oh, my little heart! I think I may feint!” She exclaimed with overly dramatic flourish as she faked being wounded.

Morrigan snorted with an eye roll, “Dora is just messing with you.”

“Or am I? I mean, I do live for the drama,” Dora fired back with a perfect poker face.

“You are an evil, evil woman!” Nora groaned pointing at Dora.

Dora laughed heartily at the lame insult, “How do you think I've survived this long? Besides I'm sure if you behave and ask nicely I'm sure she'll tell you what you want,” Dora said so smoothly, Morrigan turned bright red. She knew what he was talking about, having been constantly pondering their conversation about love.

Nora threw her hands up in defeat, “Come on that's no fair! Since when have I ever behaved myself?!” she squeaked.

1812… oh wait, that was Napoleon, soooo never? Apollyon quipped.

Morrigan giggled at both Apollyon and Nora, “I mean, they’re letting you teach? So you have be behaving at some point right?”

The blonde blew an amused, dramatic raspberry, “Oh please, they made the mistake of giving me free reign with my genius, I do no such thing as civilized as behave. Speaking of which, you should come check it out tomorrow, it’s the final test run before I get ahold of all the squishy fragile initiates,” she joked with a sadistic grin.

Morrigan bit her lip as she mulled it over, she truly did not want to wait till the next day to see or spend more time with the beautiful woman.

“I think I have a better idea…” she said sheepishly.

Nora and Dora both quirked eyebrows at her, “Why don’t we go hang out at my place… I just went shopping, we can watch a movie…” she trailed off as her nerves got the better of her. Apollyon’s snickering in the back of her head did not help fortify her boldness.

“I’m liking where this is going,” Nora quipped as she grinned before turning to Dora. “A bottle to go my good sir!” she said in a terrible old British accent.

Dora glared at the woman with his hands on his hips, “I’m not a convenient store you know.”

“Duh, you’re awesomely flamboyant gay man running a bar who is nice enough to give me what I want, come on, you know I’m good for it. I gots that spectacular teacher’s salary!” Nora rambled with the biggest grin she had in her without losing herself to laughter.

Dora turned his gaze to Morrigan and stared a suggestive “really?” look.

Morrigan chewed her lip under his gaze until it finally got to her, “What?! Don’t give me that look! I know what you’re thinking and it’s not nice!”

Hey! That’s my line!

That got Dora to break character with a laugh, “Oh sweetie, if you knew what I was thinking you would be blushing from head to toe,” she sang before glaring at Nora.

“Fine but I’m charging you an extra five percent for being such a shit head,” Dora stated.

Nora giggled and dragged her hand through the air as if she had claws, “Meeeeow!”

“Ten percent, for being a smart ass,” Dora smiled, his tone less serious though Morrigan knew for a fact he was tacking on ten percent.

Her silver eyes danced with mischief before she relented with a shrug and big smile, apparently having learned her lesson for the night.

After Nora snatched the bottle from his hands, she joyously skipped out of the bar.

Dora chuckled to himself before leaning over the counter, “You sure you know what you’re doing with that one?”

Morrigan shook her head with a meek smile, “I’m so far out of my depth I’m just trying to stay afloat Dora.”

Before Dora could incite any further conversation, she followed after Nora lighting a cigar to help reign in her growing nervousness.

The walk back to her apartment was relatively quiet even with Nora’s self indulgent dancing as she drank from the bottle. She wasn’t selfish about it though, often passing the bottle to Morrigan to drink.

Even Apollyon kept itself quiet, which was unusual though Morrigan found it respectful. They entered the apartment quietly as Morrigan stalked to her bedroom door, cracking it open to find her small clan of Marmuro’k fast asleep, even Xol, who was leaning against his new mace.

She tip toed across the living room, “Looks like everyone’s asleep, so we just need to be quiet,” she whispered.

Nora wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close, “Oh, I think I can handle quiet.”

Morrigan blushed and giggled with a shake of her head, “No you can’t, but on a side note, are you hungry? I’m starving.”

Nora groaned, “Oh my god that sounds amazing.”

Morrigan sniggered as she pulled Nora into a kiss, “Good, cuz I’m cooking,” she started against her lips.

Morrigan pulled away and stalked into the kitchen pulling out pre-cut ingredients. “Kind, sexy, dangerous and can cook? I won the quadrilateral lottery of a perfect girl,” Nora mused to herself as she tipsily counted on her fingers.

Morrigan bit her lip as she blushed, watching Nora dumbfoundedly as her brain caught up to what she was doing, returning to opening packages and setting up her spread as a pan heated up behind her.

“Seriously, squares are made of all the perfect right angles and you… you have all the right angles, precious,” Nora said slyly as she reached over the island and snagged a slice of pepper.

Morrigan playfully swatted at her hand with a laugh, “What? Oh geez that makes a weird sort of sense… who knew you were so poetic.”

Nora snorted as she chewed the red pepper, “Well you can't blame me, it's like you're stalking my heart with all these good qualities. I mean, look at you and look at me? Shit’s crazy.”

Morrigan frowned at that as she lay the strips of steak in the pan and dashed seasoning over it all before adding the vegetables, “I don’t know what that's supposed to mean…”

Silently, Nora slipped around the island and wrapped her hands around Morrigan’s waist, causing her to jump, before leaning against her with her chin resting on her shoulder.

“I’m just saying, no one has ever treated me as nice as you have, most people can't stand me.. and yet her you are with no rhyme or reason looking at me as if I'm the only thing in your world…” Nora stated, her tone shifting to a sullen tone.

Morrigan rested her temple against Nora’s as she prodded the cooking food with the spatula, “That's not necessarily true…” she said in a whisper before chewing on her cheek.

She recalled the conversation her and Dora days ago, contemplating a confession while her nerves came alive throughout her body.

“You were the only one that looked out for me in the mines… and not because you wanted something from me but because you cared, especially with, well… what happened. You saw me through the worst moment in my life and never once looked at me any differently,” Morrigan said in a whimsical, nearly nostalgic tone.

“Besides…” stopping to bite her lip nervously, “You’re ridiculously attractive too, and your personality is fun, truth of the matter is I…” Morrigan’s breath hitched as Nora kissed the tender spot right behind her ear.

Her body melted into Nora’s arms with a soft moan as her core flared white hot by Nora’s sensual touch. Only the popping of oil sprinkling her skin jolted her back to reality with a disbelieving chuckle, “Okay, okay, I’m going to ended up burning dinner if you keep this up!” she shouted in a whisper.

Nora hummed as Morrigan refocused on the meal, sliding directly behind her as her hands explored Morrigan’s curves, “You focus on the food precious…” she said with a hint of mischief before leaning forward to whisper, “and I’ll focus on you,” before sliding her hands over Morrigan’s core and gently nibbling on her earlobe.

Morrigan’s lungs stopped working as Nora tormented her focus, her hand reaching for the counter to keep balance as Nora trailed down the side of her neck.

Nora’s hands explored firmly underneath her shirt, her calloused hands setting her nerves on fire as she bit down hard on her lip as she felt her fingernails slide beneath the waistline of her pants, igniting her spine in a fury of impulse. Her mind screamed at her to forget the food and let the house burn if it meant she would let Nora take her, but the pain from not having yet to eat reminded Morrigan just how starved she felt.

With a deep inhale she butt checked Nora with a laugh, “Okay! Seriously, I’m going to end up burning this place down, take this until it’s ready and behave,”

“Damn, so close too, oh!” Nora exclaimed as Morrigan fingered a strip of medium rare steak off the pan and passed it over her shoulder, effectively distracting the frisky woman. Not that she felt like she had any room to talk.

Nora made sure to take the piece with her mouth, raking the tip of her tongue against Morrigan’s fingers before pulling away to properly eat the piece she was given, all the while Morrigan chuckled.

“Oh hell, this is amazing! I say it's done now,” Nora stated adamantly as she chewed through the steak.

Morrigan snorted and eyed the blonde over her shoulder, “Two more minutes, go find a movie for us to watch while I finish up.”

Nora hummed seductively before sauntering across the living room and turning the holo-screen on.

Nora loved the food, seasoned steak with slivers of peppers with onion as they ate on the sofa. Morrigan listened to her talk about how great it was with deep appreciation while some old movie played on the screen. Morrigan had no idea what it was since her entire focus had been Nora’s laughter.

Once the food settled, exhaustion washed over Morrigan and she wrapped herself into Nora’s arms as they lay on the couch, fighting a losing battle with unconsciousness.

The only thing that brought her back from the edge was that her head rested on Nora’s chest, whose soft chuckles she let out as she watched the movie kept her from completely passing out.

The moment Nora raked her fingers through her hair, Morrigan let out a deep sigh as Nora placed her lips above Morrigan's brow. “I love you…” Morrigan mumbled as the darkness of unconsciousness finally won.