“No breakfast! No time!”, Carmen shouted back, her voice muffled by the toothbrush.

Shane pursed her lips and jumped off the bed. Her eyes were full of lust again.

“Well missy, I am late, too”, she stated huskily, “…Make a space for me in that shower”.

When she opened the door, Carmen let go a small, delighted snigger.

”Let me wake up in your arms
Hear you say it’s not alright
Let me be so dead and gone
So far away from life
Close my eyes
Hold me tight
And bury me deep inside your heart…”

Helena Peabody smiled radiantly when Shane appeared at the front door of DEW. Shane looked great: relaxed, happy and finally untroubled… More or less. Helena ducked her head to a side and thought that Shane McCutcheon would never look completely untroubled or cloudless. But at least, that day she wasn’t brooding as she usually did. And Helena didn’t remember the last time she had seen Shane like that.

She exhaled in relief, thinking that maybe her little speech with Carmen Morales had turned into something more than a simple conversation. When Shane sat at the counter, Helena arched her eyebrow.

“So?”, she asked, in her thick British accent.

Shane frowned, acting surprised.

“So what?”.

Helena’s smile reappeared abruptly and Shane chuckled.

“Don’t look at me like that”, she shrugged.

“Let’s see. You’ve been not around for a couple of days and now you’re sporting that grin and that exhausted look. Let me guess. You and Carmen are back together”, Helena proposed.

“Sort of”, Shane nodded evasively.

“Sort of?”.

“Yep”.

“What do you mean?”.

Shane sighed.

“I mean that she’s still at my place, that we sleep in the same bed and that…”.

“What?”, Helena giggled.

“…We’re giving our relationship a try…”.

Helena nodded, knowingly.

“I see… Is it working?”.

“So far, yeah, it does”.

Shane stared at Helena and her smile slowly disappeared, and Helena knew what Shane was thinking. She started cleaning the counter and sighed.

“Shane, before you start let me tell you that I am sorry for telling Carmen about Roxanne. It wasn’t my business but I thought to give you two a push…”.

Shane clenched her jaw, still staring at her expressionlessly.

“…I was afraid you were throwing away your chance to be happy with someone you really love…”, Helena shrugged, “…And I did what I thought was best…”.