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Deciding it was now safe to make an appearance, Ash walked in Pam&039;s face turned instantly red as shedown on Tory&039;s tray table and moved it closer to her "I wasn&039;t sure what you&039;d like, so I got so"

Tory smiled "There&039;s notme about the poor children who have to eat dirt just to keep frory"

Ash adjusted the tray for her, then opened her soda

"Uer "I don&039;t think you&039;re supposed to eat that right after surgery Don&039;t they put patients on clear liquid diets or so?" She looked uneasily out the door "Where&039;s Kim when I need her?"

Tory waved her words away "I feel fine"

Ash pulled the fries out for her and set the for her that would cause her er up toward hiestured at hi proof that air has calories Otherwise he&039;d shrivel up to nothing"

"Oh like you have room to talk If there was any justice in this world, you&039;d be bigger than my house You eat like a man and you&039;re skinny as a rail" Pam smirked at Ash "My mother used to call her Jack Sprat ere kids Thank God her aunt owned a deli, though I swear Tory ate up all the profits whenever she worked there"

Ash laughed

"Only &039;cause Del makes the best koulourakias, kourabiethes and melomacarinas ever"

Pale word of what she just said?"

"Of course he does, he&039;s Greek Even if he doesn&039;t eat, he knows the cookies I&039;ll bet his e of his , other than world destruction "Not really My mom wasn&039;t the Betty Crocker kind" Not unless it involved napalasp at the door made the eating that!"

Tory and Pa a sound of distress, Kier from Tory&039;s hands

Tory pulled it away "Not on your life, Kiht after surgery It&039;ll make you sick"

"Better the cow than your hand which I&039;ain I&039;ry You of all people know better than to come between lare "How could you bring this to her?"

"She said she was hungry"

Kiain! You clear her diet through her doctor or a nurse You don&039;t just bring food to someone in a hospital Are you out of your mind?"

Ash was too stunned to even react as Kih it

"You two are awful, just awful" Kilared at her like a feral lion "You take that bag, Kiret it"

"Tory, be reasonable"

"My stomach wants food"

Ki attacked by vicious gastric pain later, remember I tried to stop you" She turned back to Ash who made sure his ass was covered Literally "If you teren&039;t being chased by homicidal loons, I&039;d order you out of here"

Ash backed up another step "You&039;re not going to hit ht to If you were a couple of feet shorter, I&039;d take you over ust before she left theaze "Want me to kiss your boo-boo and make it better?"

"Paht, too Relax both of you, I&039;ets you two in trouble with your doctor"

Tory sighed as Pam left "I aive the up, but obviously it didn&039;t take"

Ash laughed at her words Truthfully, he found the ease they had in his cohtened by him Only kids seemed indifferent and treated him like anyone else on the street "It&039;s okay I like theer before she wrapped it up "I better stop before I hurtthis for urt also in the bag"

"What a sweetie you are You really did get so You sure you don&039;t want a bite?"

"I&039;ht then How about I swap you the food for the journal?"

Ash hesitated Since his name was all over itI could tell her it&039;s another name True She didn&039;t knohat the letters were If he could convince her it was soing his backpack off, he unzipped the top and pulled the journal out "Here"

She opened it where they&039;d left off "Nohere e?"

"Ryssa was talking about her brother in Atlantis"

She drew her brow together in confusion "Ryssa? How do you know her name was Ryssa?"

Ash tensed as he realized that his sister hadn&039;t written her naave her a na her &039;hey you, ancient chick&039; "

She wrinkled her nose up at him "FYI, I hate the word chick"

"Then I shall delete it fro she put her hand on his ar Was this the spot?"

It took him a full second to catch his breath at the casual way she touched hi and sweet

"Yeah," he said, forcing hie

She pointed to a line a fen fro "I er went to the next sentence "He was sent away?"

"You&039;re an incredibly fast learner"

"That&039;s what my father used to say His nickname forlike the Greek goddess "Athena?"

"You know, she sprang fully formed out of the head of Zeus My dad used to say that I did the sa headache" She s and bae is hard to learn Beautiful, but difficult Could you read in it for a moment so I can hear the way it lilts?"

Ash nodded before he obliged the request

Tory listened to the inflections in his voice, ence Before she could stop herself, she placed her hand to his jaw to feel the way his muscles worked while he spoke

Ash paused at the tenderness of her touch andit," she whispered "I love to hear your accent"

Little did she know he&039;d do anything she wanted so long as she touched hiain "I wish Soteria I wish I could et in our way and no regrets I would sell my soul for it"

Tory frowned at the words that seemed to come from his heart "What did you say?"

"That you are an inquisitive imp"

She snorted "No you didn&039;t"

"Maybe, but you don&039;t know for sure, now do you?"

She growled at hilish, his accent was thick and lilting "You knohen you use that accent of yours, you could get aith lasses off, then folded the at your eyes"

"You&039;re a very strange wo about him that made her feel warm and safe She brushed the pad of her thumb over his lips "Why do you hide fro"

"Yes you do The clothes you wearthey&039;re your arerous and rebelliousit&039;s like there&039;s a part of you that thinks, if you give people a cause not to like you, then, when they don&039;t it&039;s okay because you were the one who decided they weren&039;t allowed to like you anyway"

He started to pull away, but she stopped hiood one, if you&039;d lether friendship to hiood intentions Unfortunately when the test comes, we inevitably fail it"

"Have you ever failed it?"

"Yes, I have" His sister had trusted hiet in the way of that Nick had been the closest thing to a real friend and he&039;d cursed him to die

As a friend, he sucked and he wouldn&039;t wish his friendship on anyone

"Well I haven&039;t failed," Tory said firmly "Not once But the only way for you to know that is to trust ive et we had this discussion" She looked back at the book "What&039;s this word?"

Ash hesitated as he saw his na He started to lie to her, but it caught in his throat He wanted to trust her He didn&039;t understand it But he couldn&039;t help himself With a deep breath, he did what he hadn&039;t done in centuries He trusted "It&039;s Acheron"

Tory looked at hi sure he kept all emotion out of his voice "She had two brothers Acheron and Styxx"

"Named for the rivers of woe and hate? How morbid of their parents"

"More apropos perhaps"

"That would be worse, I think" She turned the page "It&039;s so weird reading this She see down the street Herher father and she misses her brother She has the sa listened to" She let out a wistful sigh "Can you iine the world she lived in? I wonder what kind of clothes she wore What kind of bed she slept in"

"I i Determined and protective of those she loved And she probably annoyed both of her brothers from time to time"

His words touched her "Is that what you see when you look at uts"

She laughed "Seriously?"

His teasing look sobered "Yes, Soteria That is what I see when I look at you"

She laced her fingers with his

Ash stared at their hands entwined It was the ht he&039;d ever witnessed

Pao of him and stiffen uncomfortably as everyone else did She didn&039;t She kept her hand in his

"Did you save our skin for the burger?" she asked Pam

"You&039;re off the hook for the moment What can I say? Super Palasses back on as Pam moved to the other side of the bed She saw their hands and slad you two ht to be worth a buo"

Pam arched both brows "Who are you and what have you done totends to put a few things into perspective"

She had no idea

"Have you ever had a near-death experience, Ash?" Paet caught sneaking out of the house by your dad, too?"

If the wo irounded for aAsh There was a note in his voice that told her there was a loton But if he wouldn&039;t tell her anything in private there was no chance he&039;d say anything in front of Pa her hand, he stepped back to check the ID "I have to take this Excuse me"

Tory watched as he walked into the hallway

Pam let out a low, appreciative whistle "Jiminy Cricket, that man has the finest ass I&039;ve ever seen No wonder he wears long coats We should swathe him head to foot just to save human sanity"

Tory playfully slapped at her friend&039;s arestured toward the door "You have your glasses on Do you not see how fine an ass that is? And he&039;s Goth too" She ot to get you hooked up with so away your brain"

"I know It&039;s so sad, isn&039;t it?"

Tory laughed as she returned to staring after Acheron and wondered as going on with his call

"Are you sure about this, Urian?"

"Absolutely-it pays to have friends on the dark side Stryker is sending out scouts even as I speak to find the journal He wants to take down Arte there&039;s sooing ape shit and sending out her dehed evilly "Welco without you"