The soft clank of the keys falling to the floor was the only thing that alerted Christian to her presence in the kitchen. He opened his eyes and looked to the doorway. Gabrielle was hurriedly picking the keys back up and retreating backwards, mumbling something before turning away and rushing out the door. Jeff just brought his head up for a second, grinning almost innocently.

"Think she noticed?"

"…And then I walked in on them. " She paused long enough to down another shot, then continued. "So? What do I do now? I just caught the evil that plagues my house giving what looked like one hell of a blowjob to my most reliable confidant and sometimes lay."

"How do you get yourself into such problems?" Gabrielle shook her head at the question, leaning back against the hard wood of the booth. Kael smirked, leaning forward, halfway across the table. "And you mean to tell me you had no idea about Christian?"

"Of course I knew!"

"No, you didn’t." He pointed out with amusement.

"How could I not know? I practically spend every waking moment with him and - "

"If you knew, you wouldn't be here right now." She glared at him for a second, then sighed. "I know you. If you had've known, chances are you would have joined in."

"Kael! That’s not the issue here. All this time I've been around Christian, and he's never thought to tell me until tonight. Don't you think that’s a bit…I don't know...odd?" He shook his head.

"I'm surprised you didn’t find out about his, shall we say, reputation by word of mouth. Its not really kept quiet how he spent his younger days."

"Reputation?" She asked with shock, moving in closer. "What kind of reputation?"

"To put it simply, if it moved and was a vampire, he'd fuck it. If it was human, he's fuck it and take its blood. Why do you think good ol' Gangrel kept such a tight leash on him?"

"But…You've gotta be joking me. This is Christian we're talking about…" He nodded at her in agreement.

"Oh yes, this is Christian we're talking about. I'm sorry, am I ruining the perfect little image you had of him? Let me guess, pining away for you, locked in his room all night, shunning the world until he found the one of his dreams?"

"Well, it sounds stupid when you put it like that. I just feel deceived. He's got this huge past, and I don't know any of it. I just thought…it didn't matter."

"It only matters now that you've found out he's a slut." Kael told her in a sorry tone, abandoning his seat to sit beside her. "And you're probably just jealous anyway."

"And how come you haven't said anything about Jeff coming back from the dead? Or…from the undead. Or did you know that already too?" He shrugged, casually draping his arm around her shoulder.

"It just doesn't surprise me, that’s all. This is New Orleans, and people come back from the dead with alarming frequency. Its almost natural."

"I don't know. I mean - " She started, only to be cut off.

"Besides, I already knew. I saw him in here when Christian practically attacked him" Kael paused, adding an afterthought. "And don't worry about tracking down big brother." Gabrielle narrowed her eyes in thought, then shook her head with disbelief.

"You didn't, Kael. Please tell me you didn't." Kael leaned his head close, whispering directly in her ear.

"Of course I did. I called Matt." Almost growling with anger, she pushed him out of the way, leaving the booth and stepping heavily over to the bar. "Hope you don't mind, love. Just making your job a little bit easier." He called, grabbing his leather duster and walking over to Gabrielle, pecking her on the cheek as he left. When his back was turned, he beamed proudly. She'd ruined Matt's life long, long ago, and Kael knew it.