As the door closed behind them the last thing Eve heard was Maurr saying: "This thing is not to get out of here, right! Jay is one of us!" Eve focused on JS. Eve had learned to recognize as a sign of danger the silky tone of his voice. Gone the fake smile plastered on his face, his lips were pinched. Eve's wave of sorrow and love for him collided with the barrier in JS's mind. She felt heartbroken, but soon got angry. How he dared! She had lied for him, and he didn’t trust her. "Ok, let's see who is tougher!", Eve thought closing her mind in turn. "All right with the Gwaks?" she asked lightly. JS nodded. "What are we going to do?" she tried to start a conversation. "Take Etta and Vickie, back to Pie. Etta must heal, she can't wait any longer." "When will we leave?" "In one week. Maurr already knows, we made arrangements before I left. You climb on board and off we go. The others will go home with Dirk and Kukri. Vickie and I, we think it's better to have a small crew or no crew at all. Only you and me." "OK." Eve nodded. "Where are we going, now?" she asked after a while. "To Etta's. Do you prefer to stay with the others?" said JS helping her on the shuttle. "No, I'd rather be with you." said Eve. JS nodded and sat at the controls. Eve swore silently, one of those Earthener curses she had learned from the SMs and JS. Usually she didn't like foul language, but, "When it takes, it takes!" and she was in desperate need to let off some steam. She felt a scorching anger against Lee, S-Victor and the others and also against JS who was such a cad to close his mind! She couldn't bear it. A lightning split the sky. Eve felt that JS instinctively began counting to reckon the proximity of the strike. Large drops of rain began to lash the shuttle. Every time it lightninged, he began to count. Eve felt her heart sink. She remembered that habit of his. It was something he always did in their early days in New Mars. When he lay on his cot, pretending to sleep, and instead he was ready to shoot, mind counting the time between two lightnings, and she, Eve, wondering how a person could live that way. She had worked hard to have him drop his guard at least with her and the Scamps, and it had taken almost Jetsam to die before JS's smile forced his way from his lips to his eyes. But at the end she had been rewarded with a real JS's smile and she had decided JS had to be the One. She had fell in love with JS at first sight, but that smile had given her heart the coup de grace. Eve glanced at JS. The glacial flatness of those gray eyes told her that Ol' JS was back, he was again the loner he had always been. "What's up?" Vickie asked. "Nothing." Eve said. Eve was about to get off the shuttle when JS stopped her. He took her by the shoulders. They locked eyes and his ice melted. Suddenly he hugged her tightly, rubbing gently his lips on her hair and on her lips. He made her sit on his lap and cracked a smile: "I'm an idiot!" His mind open wide. Eve's mind barriers fell too. He mind-took her hand, "Come in." and led her into the deep of his mind. The two hooded guardians stood still, guns down, a sad and sullen expression on their JS's faces. Her JS led her to the door now open and said, "Look, no secrets between us." Eve glanced at his face. It was tense for the deep emotional strain, yet determined. Waves of grief, despair and anger breathed like hot flames from that open door. Eve caught a glimpse of ... "No!" she shouted turning her shoulders to the door. She feared what she might see there, since it was hurting him so deeply. "I trust you. That's love: trust. We'll sort this together. I'll come here when there are neither doors nor guards any longer." "This door will stay open, Eve." JS said and added: "I did not lie to the others, I just left something out." Eve kissed him: "I know. I love you." --- Thanks!