Sunday was the hardest full moon to celebrate in centuries. Lorraine and the kids were still captive. It bothered me that they were moving so slowly. I had to remind myself over and over humans did things differently than elves. Amidst the prescribed prayers and hymns, I prayed for help with the case, for the safety of Lorraine and the children, and for patience to allow the humans to work within the law. I usually go Underhill to worship in December, but there was no snow yet, so I went to the roof. The cold air hit me as I stripped to my thong. I had been drinking already, but that sobered me some. I did my best to ignore it and continue the prayers I'd been saying all day. My drinking wasn't as much to celebrate, as it was to numb. I don't know how long I was on the roof when someone draped something over my shoulders. "No," I protested and tried to shrug it off. "It's time to go in," Kara said she stopped me. "You've been up here for hours. You're going to freeze to death." She helped me to my numb feet. I realized it was my shirt she'd given me so I put it on. I staggered, too drunk to manage on frozen feet. She caught me. "Sean, this way." She led me to the stairs. Getting down was tricky. I probably would've fallen if she hadn't been there to help me. "Are you keeping me company tonight?" I asked. "Company?" She stopped to look at me and I leaned to kiss her. She pulled away, and I almost fell. "No." "You don't want to sleep with me?" "You're drunk." "I'm not that bad. My feet froze." "I'm not sleeping with you." We ran into Rich and Sahar at the door to my apartment. They were just coming home. "Were you on the roof dressed like that?" Sahar asked. "I was worshiping." Rich moved to help me. "Let's get you in and warmed up." "Kara’s warm." "Kara is not going into your apartment tonight. You are going to sleep it off." He helped me in and dumped me on the bed where I promptly passed out. *** I woke the next morning with a bad taste in my mouth and feet and hands that felt like they'd had frostbite. I didn't get hungover. The bad taste was because the bottle was a poor quality of wine. Even I'd made better wine when I worked for my dad. Once I was dressed, I went to talk to Kara. "You're looking surprisingly alert this morning." She said as she opened the door. "Elves don't get hangovers. I don't think we could worship like we do if we did. I'd like to apologize for my behavior last night. I'm truly sorry." "You’re not the first guy to be a jerk when he's had too much to drink." "It doesn't make it okay, especially when you were trying to help me. I'm sorry." "Sean, you flirt with me all the time. It's who you are. And it's not like you’ve never offered to sleep with me. At least this time, it wasn't a threesome." "It was the solstice, the first since my release." "Your release? Do you mean from the army? Were you able to worship when you were a soldier?" "I wasn't a soldier then. I was a prisoner. They experimented on me." "That's terrible. I'm sorry. When you came in with that soldier, I assumed you'd been a soldier too." "Not then. And I'd missed two holy days. I was making up for it, I guess. However, I have no excuse for last night. I'm sorry and thank you for coming in getting me." "I'd rather not go up there in the morning and find a body." "I doubt that would happen, but it's appreciated." "Do you have time to come in for coffee?" "You trust me after last night?" Kara shrugged. "You’re sober now." I checked the time. "Sorry. I can't." I enjoyed spending time with her, but I had responsibilities. We needed to find Lorraine. I went to the station. Kat was there. "Something up?" I asked. "I have an idea. I wanted to talk with you and Roy first before I suggested it to the feds." "What is it?" I led the way to Roy's desk. He raised an eyebrow. "Kat has an idea." "Let's use a conference room." Roy showed Kat to a conference room and sat across from her. "I had an idea last night. I was drunk, so I didn't call. I figured I'd wait until I was sober and decide if it still made sense." "I was passed out, so I wouldn't have answered," I told her. Roy chuckled. "I want to see how you all really party." "The solstice is coming up soon. You can join us," Kat offered. "No," I insisted. "You do not want to do that." "I meant all of you elves, not just you two. I've seen Sean drunk." "If you're still around when we find them, you can join us then." Kat decided. "You don't want to party with the Seelie anyhow. They’re boring." I rolled my eyes. "Enough. What was the idea?" "You can't go in to get Lorraine and the kids without proof of there. What if we can get them out? If they testify that he abducted them, will that work?” "How are you going to do that?" Roy asked. Kat explained her idea. We went over it in detail before deciding to talk to Thompson and the feds. After many questions, they agreed. We spent many more hours planning. Then Kat and I went home to sleep.