Late February, 2009
A hotel room in Diagonal, Iowa

Kim and Aliya unobtrusively make their way away from the station, agreeing upon a cheap hotel room as a place to sort things out.

It's a cheap hotel room. Nothing special, nothing plush. The double bed is hard, the coverlet slightly worn. The obligatory picture hangs on the wall, it's garish flowers contrasting with the dark carpet. The bland wallpaper peels a bit in the corners and the carpet boasts a few cigarette burns, but it is clean. The bathroom is tiny, but spotless and does offer hot water... at least for a little while.

Aliya procures the room with cash. It isn't much, but it is all that is required at the moment and it looks like heaven to her. Her rear is sore from sitting for so long and the bed, even hard, looks inviting. She has not slept since the trip began, with the rare exception when her thoughts left her alone long enough for a brief nap. She makes sure the door is locked and the curtains pulled tightly together before she finally relaxes, standing there in the middle of room looking like she might fall over at any moment.

Kim would have paid for the room but did not argue. She slips off her duster, fully loaded for bear, and steps up to Aliya. This kind of thing is no new situation to her, she's had a couple of ops were she has had to stake out in a cheap cash-only motel. Gently her hands rest upon the woman's shoulders and she murmurs "Come on, dear one, lay down on the bed. You look exhausted..."

Aliya would have allowed herself to be guided to the bed, but the bump of the gun against her leg as she steps stops her. She withdraws the weapon and holds it with utter distaste, the only thing keeping her from throwing it from her presence the fact that it might go off as it lands. She places it on a nightstand and then with a sigh that racks her whole frame, slides onto the bed.

Kim murmurs softly "Relax, my love..." She unbuckles her equipment belt and lays it on top of her black bag, standing in only her body-suit as she places her hands again on Aliya's shoulders and kneels down onto the bed. "Sweetie..." she asks sheepishly, truly not wanting to anger or offend "Do you feel up to telling me what is going on?"

Aliya does not look up, in fact her fingers seem endlessly fascinating to her. "I'm sorry... I didn't want to do that to you..." Her voice trails off, she doesn't even know where to begin.

Kim gently lays her fingertip against Aliya's lips "You had your reasons. Your duty. I just think I have a right to know what that duty is, honey. There is nothing I could deny you, not even...letting you go. I came because I felt you needed me, but all you have to do to send me away is till me you don't want me by your side."

Aliya nods soberly and sighs. Her fingers wander to a pocket and she pulls a much crumpled piece of paper out, clutching it tightly. She brings it to her chest, knuckles white. "You do deserve an explanation..." She looks, finally, up into Kim's eyes and loses her breath, her nerve. There is pain in hers, she feels she has betrayed the woman. She gets up, unable to remain still and wanders to the window. Looking at the curtains as though she could see through them, she mumbles. "I have no choice. I cannot be yours, I belong to another." The letter, suddenly, seems like hot iron to her and she turns and throws the detested thing from her. It flutters silently, almost innocently through the air as she turns away.

Kim asks softly, almost a hissed question, "What!?!?" Dexterous finger pluck the letter out of the air. Her mind races, realizations coming which she refrains from voicing, but thinks 'So Guy has returned'.

The letter is short and handwritten. The writing is poor, hurried and surely Guy's. It reads:

My Aliya,

I'm sorry to have to do this to you again, but please come to me. I had to leave for reasons I'll explain once you are again with me. I've enclosed a bus ticket and wait for you. I love you, my beloved. Please come.

Guy

Aliya does not move, nor does she utter a word. She simply stands there, straight and tall, arms crossed over her chest and staring at the curtains.

Kim grits her teeth and half-crumples the letter herself. "Son of a Bitch....he let us all think he had died and now he pulls THIS?" But her anger is held in check, the girl before her is the most important thing in her life and she must feel the very electricity that gives Kim life bleed from her as she carefully folds the letter and lays it upon the bed. "You never betrayed him Aliya, it was my fault. I pushed you when you needed emotional support. I am sorry. I will come with you to Reno and ensure you meet up with your husband, and then you will never have to see me again. Perhaps one day you will forgive me, I can only hope that you will my..." She grinds her teeth, not letting herself speak the truth of what the gypsy girl means to her, not calling her what she yearns to call her even as her own body yearns for breath.

Aliya visibly shakes by the time Kim is done speaking and she turns on her with eyes filled with tormented anger. "I betrayed him???" Her voice breaks as she nearly screeches the words. "Your fault??" She takes two steps closer to the other woman, absolute fury in her eyes, but the act of willing her feet to move triggers something and she stops. Taking several deep breathes, her nails biting into her palms as she tries to drive the violence from her, she finally speaks in a much calmer but haunted voice. "It was not your fault, Mora. There is nothing to forgive. I loved you...." a long pause, "I love you still. There cannot be anything wrong with that." She drops her gaze and whispers, "That I would never see you again is a nightmare that has followed me since I left."

Kim speaks softly, looking at Aliya for a moment in much the same manner she did in the dark when she held the gun. This time the look in her eyes is plain, the abandon, the death-wish that will soon grow and poison her like a festering wound. She half wishes the girl would strike her, almost as though it might release some of her torment "No, you did *not* betray him. You would never do such a thing..." She shivers, her defenses down despite her best efforts, her knees shaking like they want to buckle beneath her. "Duty...obligation... I can not ask you to turn your back on that for me. Not for what *you* feel is right for you to do. I am your servant, my heart, willingly and without reserve. I want only your happiness...I can but support any decision you make no matter whether I give you counsel to the contrary. I will never truly love another, Aliya... " she shivers, wanting to hold her but instead simply folding her arms about her own waist "It was my fault you ended up in this city tonight. It was because I re-wrote statistical inevitability that I managed to catch up to you... but I won't hold you back from...*anything* you feel is right, my heart."

With Kim looking at her like that, Aliya suddenly can no longer stand. She sinks to her knees, wanting only to go to her love, wrap her arms around her and hold her until it all passes away. It is a whisper that comes from her lips, hushed words spoken through a veil of raven curls that cloaks her face as she holds it in her hands. "I did not betray him. He was dead. Nothing I did... we did... was wrong." Is she trying to convince Kim or herself? Both, probably. "I don't care where I am, I don't care what you did... not even to that man in the hallway... how can I turn my back on my heart to follow my promise? How can my promise mean much without a heart? How can my heart mean much without kept promises?" Her shoulders shake and the weight of her burdens forces her closer to the floor. A poor lost exhausted worshiper bowing to an unsure God.

Kim settles before the gypsy, arms slipping around her with gentle, supportive warmth. When Aliya breaks, she can not help but to try to pick up the pieces. "Sweetie, stop it. You have done nothing wrong. *Nothing.* *He was* dead....perhaps you will disagree with me, perhaps it is just my own selfishness speaking, but he abandoned you. Abandoned me. It couldn't have been for the Tradition or else they would have let me, his student, know something more than what they did. It was probably some personal gain...you saw how he acted towards the people at the Compton building...I respected that man still...until now. I want you, Aliya, I want to be there for you...so my words may come from pure selfishness but it is for you to decide their validity. HE abandoned you for some purpose not even dealing with his Tradition and more likely dealing with a petty personal gain of some sort. HE abandoned me even though he had promised to sponsor me into the Tradition, just as he vowed to live the rest of his life with you, for better or for worse."

Aliya shakes her head, still in her hands. She doesn't want to listen, she no longer has the strength to think about it. Seeing Kim... making her once again face her decision, the man in the hallway, the long tormented hours on the bus... it is too much for now. This woman needs sleep. She finally lifts her liquid violet eyes to her love's amber ones. "We did nothing wrong." She repeats... and then, "Please, stay with me for now. Don't ask me to choose yet... I can't. Just let me rest..."

Kim shakes her head "Love...I'm not the one asking you to choose. That is all up to you ultimately, I am just here to try to make your life a little easier..." she sighs "That man in the hallway...he was going to attack you. I'd been following you practically since you got off the bus, hon..." Despite her own fatigue she carefully braces herself and lifts the girl up in her arms long enough to set her gently on the bed. "Just rest hon...let me help you out of your clothes...get you at least semi-comfortable." She practically fusses over her like a mother hen, shoving her own pain deep down and concentrating on Aliya's well-being.

Questions rise to the surface of Aliya's eyes again, but she is too exhausted to ask them. Later. She reaches to run her fingers over Kim's cheek, a gentle touch, a loving caress, an unspoken thank you for watching over her. Allowing her clothes to be removed, she helps to the extent that she is able. Weariness weighs down every limb. "Rest, yes." Her eyes are already drifting closed, "Stay with me... leaving will not make my choice easier, Mora. Promise." Perhaps it is wrong to ask for a promise that another will not commit the same sin you have already indulged in... but she asks anyway.

Kim divests herself of her boots and bodysuit and settles into the bed to keep Aliya warm on what is sure to be an otherwise cold night. "I promise my sweet. I told you, the only way to get rid of me is to tell me you do not want me at your side." She is not looking for thanks, nor has she once judged the gypsy girl for her actions, she simply loves her and is there for her. Her words of the man's intent were more of a warning as she also trusts in Aliya's ability to fend for herself. For the first time in the hours of tormented bus riding the gypsy girl finds herself in Kim's arms, her slender body curled fetally against Aliya's side, one olive arm wrapped against her as she gently nuzzles the girl's temple, simply wanting to be close.

Aliya snuggles against Kim, the familiar feel of her so close is comforting as she drifts on the edge of sleep. The lines on her face left by worry and torment soften as sleep overtakes her and she slips into its pillowed comfort. "I love you..." Barely words at all, they ride her breath as it deepens to a even peaceful slumber.

Kim says simply as sleep begins to lay claim to Aliya, "I love you too". She lays awake for quite some time, just watching her love sleep, a peace falling over her that allows her to rest even in the time she spends laying awake as though fearing the girl will vanish, slip through her fingertips, like a mere phantom.