Robert was sitting on the bed, with his back against the headrest, a book in his hand, trying to concentrate on the words. Munin left a minute ago, carefully shadowing Benjamin to make sure he won't do anything stupid. 

It was the same book that Jenna borrowed back in the day when they had to hide in the Broken Shield for the first time. Robert knew every letter of it by heart, it was his favourite novel ever, kind of a safety blanket-type thing he could go back to in need. Whenever something bad happened in his life, he picked up this book, he read about the evil prince, the golden-hearted giant, the brave pirate, the revenge-seeking swordsman and the world's most beautiful woman. Even though it was supposed to be a children's book, and he was indeed a child at the first time when his mother showed it to him, now, over thirty he still found something new and interesting every time he read it. It was one of those stories that aged together with the reader, the older and more experienced Robert got, the more he understood.

Of course, this time the book couldn't soothe him. He was angry, so angry that he had to watch his magic because it wanted to explode, it wanted to break things all the time. 

He always wanted to be a hero, Jenna, Luther, Mr George, even Munin was right about that. And even though his favourite book taught him that heroes aren't always winning, he somehow always did. The great Professor Robert Montgomery had always won. He showed up with his silver-topped cane and long trench coat that had the colour of the sky right before a thunderstorm and he saved the day. He stopped the storm, caught the thief, killed the monster and saved lives. That was what he did. He was good at it. Or so he thought. 

It took long years for reality to catch up, but it finally did. The book was right when it said the heroes aren't winning every time. The happy end isn't guaranteed. The day Robert couldn't win the battle had come. Then it came again, and again, and again. And here he was now, crippled and a mere shadow of the man he once was, a murderer with dead friends, dead parents, a broken brother and a woman he couldn't protect and he cannot heal. He failed everyone.

The doorknob turned, without anyone knocking. Robert looked up. He knew who it was, of course, who else would do such an impolite thing? 

'Can we talk?' asked Jenna, closing the door behind herself. She was pale and still moved slower and more carefully than usually. She seemed very fragile, mostly because she lost some weight and her clothes were baggy now. Robert saw him just as beautiful as ever.

'Please, come in,' he said, putting aside the book. A shadow of a smile ran through Jenna's face for half a second. She sat at the desk, not on the bed.

'Listen, I know you are having a hard time,' she said. 'Believe me, been there. When my mother died… I broke. It was so… sudden, you know? One day she was all right, the next she was sick and before I could even really understand what was going on, she was gone. It's still… I'm still not okay. I don't think I ever will be.'

Robert nodded. Jenna rarely talked about her mother or how she died. The man forgot that he wasn't the first ever who lost a parent and felt shame about it now. Another great moment for the famous Professor Montgomery, he thought sourly. 

'So I know how hard this can be. I know that you are angry and confused and you feel powerless. I did. But… I'm sorry, Robert. I feel you, I really do, but you clearly don't want my help anymore. And I don't want to be another problem you have to deal with, okay? So if you want to break up, just man up and say it. You got your own room, you don't talk to me, you can barely even look at me, and I get it, you saw what I look like now, it's disgusting. I don't blame you, I promise. I wasn't exactly a catch even when I was hot. So let's just end it, okay? Grow a pair and say what you have to say,' she closed her eyes as if she was waiting for the final blow to end a battle, beaten and not willing to fight anymore.

Robert was gotten off-guard by that. The mere idea that Jenna thought he wanted to break up with her was so absurd it was almost ridiculous. He actually had to fight the weird urge of a laugh, however hysterical it might have been. 

'Jenna, I… Bloody hell, this is hard.'

'In happier times I was the one saying that,' Jenna said and Robert couldn't help it, he laughed. The girl opened her eyes and smiled weakly.

'I don't want to break up with you, Jenna. I love you. But…'

'Yeah, but. Here we go.'

'Can you just shut up for a moment and let me say what I want to say?' Jenna lifted both of her hands in a gesture of giving up, even though her face flinched because of the pain that caused her. 'Much appreciated. I have my own room, because you need to rest and heal. I understand that you are cautious about the changes in your appearance, but frankly, I couldn't care less. You will always be beautiful to me, no matter what. I did avoid you, not because I don't want to be with you, but because I have to tell you something and I knew that once I did, you will be the one who ends it. I was… I was procrastinating, I just wanted a little more time. Probably didn't do it in the right way.'

'You think?' Jenna asked sarcastically. 'I don't know what terrible new horror you wanna drop on me here, but if you really think I'm gonna dump you, you are a bigger moron than I thought. Out with it.'

Robert took a deep breath. 

'On New Year's Eve, after I brought you here, I went home to pick up some stuff, clothes, weapons, the kind. I was tired and most likely in a shock, I didn't even see her before she attacked me.'

'Who?' asked Jenna, frowning. 

'Magda. Sorry. The Priest made sure to set her free, I guess it must have been plan B to get me, if I somehow manage to survive the party. Which I did. We fought, and I… She died. I didn't mean to, I think, everything happened really fast, I was tired and scared and in pain…'

Jenna reached out and took his hand. He looked up surprised.

'It was self-defence, right?' she asked. 

'Yes, but I keep thinking whether I could have avoided it…'

'You couldn't have,' the woman said. 'She was mentally ill, Robert. She kidnapped your brother, she made her friends attack me in my flat, you know very well that she wouldn't have stopped until she was alive. I don't think you had a choice there. Not with the police unable to step in and arrest her, anyway.'

'Maybe… That does not change the fact that I am a murderer. I killed her. I will have to face the consequences.'

Jenna frowned again.

'Hold on. This suspiciously sounds like you want to turn yourself in. But even you can't be that big of an idiot.'

'Jenna, I killed someone. It's not like burning down the food court in Camden Market. When this is all over and we will have a police force again, I will have to do the right thing.'

The girl got up and sat down on the bed, next to Robert. She took his hand again, and looked him in the eye.

'Listen to me very carefully now,' she said. 'I have a magical plant in my body which will change me somehow and nobody, not even the only fucking fea we have knows how. My best friend will never run after his kids, because he will never be able to run, you know why? Because I dragged him into this bullshit and he got hurt badly, then the only thing that could have healed him was used to heal me. I'm in pain in every fucking second and I will be for a long time, if not forever. I've seen people die who I knew since I was a kid and I don't know what to do with that. I see Vittorio's face every time I close my eyes and if not his, then Rose's. If you think I will deal with all of that alone, because "you have to do the right thing",' she showed the quotation marks with her fingers. 'No. Forget it.'

'Jenna, I…' he wanted to explain it, but the girl cut him off.

'Shut up!' she exclaimed. 'Shut up, okay? I don't give a shit about your moral compass, you will not leave me alone in this. I was doing good being alone and drinking myself numb every day until you came along, but you had to fuck that up for me, now don't even dare to think about quitting, okay?' 

'You came here five minutes ago to get me to break up with you,' pointed out Robert.

'Because I wanted to give you an easy way out, not because I wanted to break up, asshole. I thought it's about my shoulder… I was trying to do the...' she stopped talking suddenly.

'The right thing?' asked Robert gently. Jenna nodded reluctantly. 'See? I'm trying to do the same.'

'Don't you think that being with the woman who loves and needs you is the right thing to do?' Jenna asked.  

Robert gave that some thought. He knew how hard it must have been for someone like Jenna even to say those words out loud. He convinced himself that Jenna wouldn't want to be with him anymore because of what he did, but this was apparently not the case. Knowing that the decision was surprisingly easy. In fact, there wasn't even a decision to make.

'You are right,' he said. 'I… I think I completely misjudged the situation.'

'You don't say...' Jenna rolled her eyes. 'Now hug me and kill the lights, I'm not doing that separate room bullshit anymore.'

'Fair enough,' he nodded. 

Jenna fell asleep in his arms minutes later and even though he was sure that he was looking at another long, sleepless night, he did the same almost immediately. For the first time since New Year's Eve, he slept through the night, without any nightmares or even just dreams. 

He woke up for the pale, sleepy sunlight sneaking into the room through the gap between the window shades. Jenna was still sleeping with her head on his shoulder, one of her legs wrapped around his. 

Very carefully, trying not to wake the girl up Robert climbed out of the bed and aimed for the bathroom. He needed a hot shower; even though Jenna's presence helped him sleep, he apparently reached the age when he would wake up sore just because he didn't sleep in the right position.  

He was thinking about last night. He knew he made the right decision but he couldn't escape the feeling that he chose the easier way. But he knew he won't leave Jenna, especially not after what she said, so he will have to just live with the guilt somehow. All things considered, this was still one of his smallest problems for the moment being.

The bathroom was way too big and luxurious compared to the room it belonged to. The shower was more like a small room than a cabin, with a bench built in. Robert assumed that Luther made these rooms especially for the injured guests. Seemed like the fae had the power of shaping his pub however he wished it to be. 

Robert opened the water, waited for a few seconds for it to get hot and stepped under the shower. The hot water washed away his soreness almost immediately. 

He didn't hear the bathroom door opening and only saw Jenna when she was already standing in front of the shower's glass door. Her face was serious, determined as she took off her clothes and dropped them on the floor. She was a little skinnier, it would have been clear that she had gone through something even without the scars, but she was still unbelievably attractive in his eyes. Her shoulder seemed strange, but it was still her. Her brown nipples looked hard and Robert suddenly wanted to put them into his mouth. He felt that he was getting hard as well. Jenna opened the shower door.

'Prove it,' she said as she stepped in and closed the door behind herself. Robert didn't have to ask what he was supposed to prove. He grabbed her waist and gently pushed her to the wall. Jenna tiptoed and wrapped her arms around his neck as they kissed. She moaned with pleasure when Robert's hard penis pushed up against her stomach. 

Robert did not spend much time on her lips, he slowly went down, kissing her neck, then her shoulders, even though he did not have any idea whether or not Jenna could feel anything with the new one. He continued, kissing her left breast, wrapping his lips around her nipple. Jenna grabbed his wet hair and groaned. He bit her nipple, ever so gently, and the girl's back arched.  

Robert went lower, slowly getting down on his knees. He kissed Jenna's stomach, then her thighs. He didn't have to ask or even gesture to let her know what he was wanting to do, Jenna lifted one of her legs and put it over his shoulder. He reached up and pulled her closer by her waist, holding her waist. It was a necessity because at the moment his lips and tongue touched her down there, Jenna's body started to tremble and the one knee that was supposed to hold her almost gave up.

For a few long minutes there was no other noise but the water showering them and the girl's groans bouncing between the tiled walls. She had her bracelets on and the shower was filled with colourful, bright lights every now and then, as her body let out another impulse because of the pleasure. 

After a while Robert leaned back and Jenna understood that one, too. Still trembling she put her leg back on the ground. The man stood up and kissed her again. At the same time he ran his hands down on her back, feeling the long scars on it, almost remembering something, something about those scars, but then he grabbed her bottom, lifted her, she wrapped her legs around him and he slid into her. As the muscles inside Jenna tensed around him, every thought and memory went away. He made a step, then one more, towards the bench. He was sure it was too low for this but when he put Jenna down, it proved to be the perfect height somehow. He caught a glimpse of Jenna's bracelets and some Runes were smouldering. 

Jenna leaned back, her hands behind her on the bench for support, her legs still around Robert's waist, her big, beautiful brown eyes looking for his eyes. The man started to move inside her slowly, carefully so he won't push her injured shoulder into the wall. 

'No,' she shook her head. 'I said, prove it. Don't be gentle.'

So he proved it. Their groans and moans mixed together for the next minutes, Robert grabbed Jenna's shoulders, the normal one with the half-moon tattoo and the new, greyish one, too, so he could move faster and deeper. Jenna's back arched once again and she said something in Italian, her eyes closed now, her whole body trembling with the rapture of orgasm. Pure magic was floating in the air around them, changing the colour of the walltiles every time he sunk in her. Soon Robert finished, too, having trouble catching his breath. 

Jenna leaned forward and hugged him. He hugged her back. For a long time they just stayed there under the hot water, hugging each other as if the other would have been the only fix point in the whole crazy Universe.