The morning was just past dawn when Corbin climbed the stairs to reach Lydia's bedroom so that he could say his good-bye, but when he entered her room after a soft knock on the door and found her sleeping peacefully in her bed, he couldn't bring himself to wake her. Instead, he watched over her for a few moments with doting eyes and a tremendous gratitude for her faith, which had summoned him from obscurity to the house of his belonging.

    He reached out carefully and brushed her cheek gently with his hand, just lightly enough to feel the softness of her skin without waking her while silently conveying the message of the family gesture. He smiled to himself as he got lost in her presence, but the day's purpose in the back of his mind soon found him. Before his weakening resolve to leave could be tested further by the nearness of his little sister he breathed in deeply and left her quietly.

    At the bottom of the stairs a yawning Shade dressed in a warm ensemble and a robed Gale fresh out of bed waited next to Corbin's duffel bag. He reluctantly descended the stairs, sliding his hand on the wooden banister as he went. He glanced at Shade then approached Gale with a slight frown.

    "You should have woken her," Shade playfully warned.

    Corbin turned to her with a boyish grin. "I just couldn't," he replied before turning back to Gale. "I guess it's time for me to go," he said.

    The sadness of his departure was clear in Gale's eyes and the flatness of her lips, which were incapable of forcing a smile at that moment. "Don't stay away too long," she urged.

    Corbin closed in on her, boldly taking her hands in his as he bowed his head a little then raised it to meet her stare. Squeezing her hands gently, he promised,"Only long enough to ask a few questions and pack my things. You have the number to my apartment and I wrote down the number for here, so we can stay in touch while I'm gone."

    Gale squeezed his hands in return and after a solemn moment they parted. Corbin grabbed his bag from the floor and followed Shade to the front door without looking back. Gale watched them both until the door closed behind them.

    Outside Shade had her coupe waiting for them, idling with a soft rumble so that the car's heater would be ready for them on the cold Sunday morning. She raised the trunk lid for Corbin who tossed his bag in, and as he was about to make his way around to the passenger side Shade stopped him with an enticing offer after she closed the trunk.

   "You wanna drive?"

    Corbin perked up at the offer which he found tantalizing as he looked over the chiseled, muscular lines of the powerful coupe, but his immediate enthusiasm died quickly.

    "I'd love to, but I can't drive stick," he admitted.

    "Well, if ya want, we'll work on that when you get back," Shade replied with a smirk that hinted at the fun of her suggestion.

    "I'm already lookin' forward to it," Corbin assured with a grin as he swept the car with an almost desirous look before he got in. 

    Pleased, Shade got in too, revved the engine a little, then eased the coupe down the long drive to the highway where she punched the accelerator, slinging the car onto the asphalt sideways with a climbing roar from it's exhaust pipes as it's rear tires tried desperately to gain traction. She snatched the gearshift down into second and the coupe straightened, then took off like a rocket down the highway, happily obeying her commands as she went through the rest of the gears. Corbin was equal parts impressed and exhilarated.

    The quick trip to Ridgeville was passed with small talk as neither Shade nor Corbin wanted to confront the gloomy mood caused by his approaching absence. When they arrived at the bus station Shade parked the car on an upper, nearly deserted level of the station's adjacent parking deck. After Corbin got his bag from the trunk, Shade walked him down to the terminal where he had a few minutes to spare before boarding the bus to Torrell.

    "Here," she said, pulling a cell phone and charger from her coat pocket and extending it to Corbin.

    "What's this?" he asked, floating a look from the phone and wire-wrapped charger in her hand to her dark eyes which had become those of a protective big sister.

    "It's my cell, I want you to take it with you. Gale's number and the manor's are the first two on the contacts list, call us when you get to Torrell, and then for any reason at all," she instructed.

    "Okay, thanks," Corbin said as he took the phone and charger then slid them into a zippered pocket on the end of his duffel bag.

    Corbin decided to get on the bus after the exchange, but he wasn't quite sure how to handle parting with Shade, who wasn't as openly affectionate as her two sisters. He began to fumble for the words and proper gesture that would express his feelings for her without making her uncomfortable. She noticed his struggle with a soft smirk, then made the decision for him by taking him into a hardy embrace.

    "See ya soon," she remarked as she pulled away from him. He nodded with a little smirk of his own, slightly embarrassed by underestimating her own feelings and his clumsy attempt at trying to respect them.

    Shade watched him board the bus and find a seat in the back, next to a window. They shared a quick wave good-bye, then Shade began the walk back through the station to the stairs leading back to the parking deck.

    When Shade exited the stairs onto the level where she'd parked her coupe, away from the few other vehicles huddled together near the stairway's entrance to keep it safely in the open, a familiar voice hidden behind a minivan stopped her in her tracks when it called out her name. She watched as three sleazy looking fellows  revealed themselves then walked over to her, each in his own macho, self-assured swagger. The middle one stepped out to approach Shade on his own with an immoral grin crawling up his sharply-lined face.

    "Viktor," she acknowledged with a purposeful amount of disgust in her voice and suddenly perturbed figure.

    Viktor responded with a halfhearted chuckle. "Aww baby, I thought you'd be glad to see me," he taunted.

    "What do you want Vik?" Shade asked bluntly, eyeing Viktor hard without so much as giving a glance to his two lackeys.

    Viktor's sketchy grin drooped as his face took on a cross, dangerous look under his greasy hair and his body tightened with the change. The two shadows behind him stiffened too, but Shade remained silently unimpressed with their aggressive change.

    "A couple of my boys got real messed up in an alley around here Friday night. One's in a coma and the other's in the morgue. You uh, wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would ya?" Viktor inquired. 

    "That's a real sad story Vik, but your boys probably got what they deserved," Shade answered dryly, taking his investigation lightly.

    Viktor's lips curled slightly in a subtle display of his burning temper that Shade's blatant disrespect of his person fed. He changed the subject in order to strike at her with a personal threat.

    "So who's your knew boyfriend, the one who got on the bus? Maybe he's someone I need to meet," he implied with a sinister tone.

    Shade scoffed at Viktor's intimidating attempt with a shoulder-jerking, amused grunt as she folded her arms across her chest and smirked at Viktor with a trumping secret hidden behind her alluring features. "There's a side of him I'd love for you to meet," she responded, toying with the idea in her mind.

    Viktor reached out with an annoyed arm and grabbed Shade harshly by her elbow. His nostrils flared and his jaw flexed under his cheeks as he gritted his teeth angrily. "Don't push me Shade, you know I'm the jealous type," he reminded.

    Shade glanced down at the squeezing hand around her arm, then up at Viktor with intent in her dark eyes. "We're through Vik, have been for a long time, and if you don't let go I'm gonna show you a side of me you ain't never seen before," she warned.

    Viktor broke out into a humored laugh at her threat, looking back at his boys to make sure they got the joke too. They joined him with amused chuckles. He turned back to Shade, looking her up and down with a perverted glint in his eyes. "Honey, I remember all your sides pretty good," he flaunted, with a cocked brow.

    Shade's eyes went angry. She snatched her arm from Viktor's clutching grasp, then disappeared into a blur that swept around the three men, emptying an arsenal of sudden, precise kicks and punches on them before they had time to react. Within seconds they fell one by one to the hard concrete floor of the parking deck, battered and out cold. Shade zoomed to a stop over them, then she alertly scanned the vacant level of the parking deck to make sure no one witnessed what took place. Satisfied with the emptiness around her, as well as her handiwork, she continued on to her coupe.

    Corbin's bus had barely made it out of Ridgeville when he felt a now welcome presence creep into his mind as he stared at the passing scenery that had been hidden by the darkness of night during his arrival to the area. He closed his eyes to focus on the message coming to his thoughts. 'Next time, wake me up' was what he received in a playfully scolding tone.

    He opened his eyes with a private smile all to himself as Lydia's presence faded away. The trip ahead was a long one, and the late night before had saddled him with a tiredness that would surely keep him from seeing it through awake; but while he resisted the pull of sleepiness Lydia's call reminded him that though Chris Lynch had made the trip from Torrell, it was Corbin Allender who was going back.