"Well, I just thought it might be fun. Something to pass the time." Gabrielle told him, swatting his hand away from the radio and pushing in a tape, letting the loud Soundgarden song fill up the silent void. More than halfway home, Christian spoke up again.

"I know why you went." He yelled over 'Burden in my Hand'. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at the dark road ahead before turning down the music.

"Why then?" Gabrielle still kept her eyes fixed on the road and her jaw firmly set, because she knew that Christian knew exactly what was going on her mind. They'd been around each other too long not to know such things with a simple glance.

"Kael. Because you mentioned him earlier today, and that was the first time in a long time I'd heard his name. And you seemed distracted at the café. Before you so cautiously blocked your thoughts, I saw…" The quiet that followed was punctuated with a heavy sigh and soft sounds of the music turned town.

"Look, please don't say anything to Edge about this. He already thinks there's something wrong with me after all that’s happened." Christian nodded at the request. "He's gonna start treating me like a child soon."

"I don't think he'd start doing that…"

"Then you don't know him very well, do you? I think that sometimes he still sees me as that innocent little girl he rescued from the clutches of mortality. He thinks that everything will be alright if he just plays nice and forgets I have my own opinions…" Gabrielle trailed off, pulling into their long driveway.

"Opinions that are wrong." Christian told her darkly when she stopped the car.

"What? Wrong? You think my own personal opinions are wrong?"

"One is." She turned to glare at him for a second before storming out of the car, slamming the door as he scrambled out the other side. "I didn't mean - "

"You did. I thought we weren't going to talk about this today?"

"Well, we had a nice time out, and I really think you need to talk, not yell, about this whole thing."

"You're fairly partisan about it though." She sat down on the steps outside of the door, and Christian took a seat beside her. "You were the one who…wait, we already had this conversation. Why are we having it again?"

"Because this time, it’s a little bit more significant."

"I'm listening." She told him flatly, her eyes fixed on the horizon, seemingly ignoring him, but he knew she was listening.

"For my sake, that’s Jeff, alright?" Slowly, Gabrielle turned her head to match his gaze with a questioning one. "Ever wonder why I was so happy that he's back?"

"No, not really," She started slowly, "I just thought you were, you know, excited for me because that meant I didn't kill him and - "

"Everything's not about you, Gabrielle. I do have thoughts that I guess can be considered selfish, in your eyes at least."

"I never said everything had to be about me. God, Christian, you think of me like that?" He sighed quietly, casting his eyes downward as he answered.

"What if I said there was someone I wanted, but that I couldn't have?"

"But you can have me, that’s the - " Christian stood up quickly, walking a few steps away.

"That’s exactly what I'm talking about. You assume I want you, when I want…someone else." He paused, shaking his head, while Gabrielle sat there letting confusion seep into her brain. He was right about her she realised, but another question loomed. Had he just set up a hypothetical situation, or a real one?

"Who do you want?" Quietly she asked with an almost morbid curiosity, determined to find out.

"You can't tell a single person, alright? No one at all." She nodded vigorously, now more than eager to find out exactly whom he wanted. With a long pause and a sigh, Christian sat down beside her again. After more seconds of silence, Gabrielle drew her own conclusions.

"So…Jeff?" She asked him gently, garnering a smile and a nod from him. "Thank god it wasn't Edge."

"But it's your duty to not breathe a word about this to anyone."

"I know. I won't. It's just kind of surprising. All those times you were banging me, you would have rather been banging Jeff?" He shook his head with a small uncomfortable laugh that seemed as forced as Gabrielle's words did.

"Nope. But I just had to tell someone, you know?" She nodded, biting her lip.

"I'm gonna shut up about that not being who I think it is then. Because…Ummm…I think I'm just going to shut up altogether and go in the house now because I'm kind of feeling uncomfortable with this whole turn of events, alright?"

"Yeah, understandable. I, uh…" She shook her head, rising and walking to the front door.

"Nope. I'm going inside and fucking Edge right now. Have a good night Christian." He waved her off, listening to the door swinging shut and starting to stare out at absolutely nothing.

Jeff sat at the kitchen table with a pad of paper, pretending to write something, because that was what he used to do, and no one would question him. He'd been sitting there all day, since Gabrielle and Christian left, testing out his mental powers, much stronger than the last time he'd used them, but still he was unable to pass the wall in Gabrielle's mind. He knew if he didn't get in there soon, the very carefully laid out plan would be useless. For the moment, the sounds from the bedroom above broke his concentration and he drew little swirls around the page, looking up when the front door opened and Christian walked in, slowly making his way to the kitchen. He poured himself a mug of the ever-present warm coffee from the coffee maker, sitting across the table from Jeff, who was now tapping his pen against the table in annoyance.

"How do you stand that all the time?" Christian looked up from his coffee in question.

"Stand what?" Jeff pointed upstairs, and Christian nodded.

"Tune it out. Its simple once you get used to it."

"But they never stop, do they?" Christian smirked, shaking his head. "Don't you ever get laid?"

"Occasionally." He answered with a shrug, "When Edge isn't around. Enough to keep me sane at least."

"And the rest of the time?" Christian rolled his eyes at the question, raising his right hand in response.

"I thank god I was born with - Wait, why exactly are we having this discussion?"

"Because I have writers block." Jeff drawled, wondering exactly what his own motivation really was.

"Coffee cures that."

"It cures everything in this house doesn’t it?" He asked Christian jokingly.

"Unfortunately, not everything," Christian scoffed, "Which is why I'm retreating upstairs for a little while. I've got some, uh, matters to attend to." He rose, dumping his mug in the sink, and starting out of the room before Jeff hesitantly stopped him, letting a phrase out in one quick breath, causing an evil grin to grow on Christians face.

"I think…I think I can cure that."