41st Floor Penthouse (private, Rorri/Montana)

Ana quirked her head. "You said that already, didn't you? About the food, anyway. But..." She tried to keep a look of disgust from curling her lips or crinkling her nose. "Milk.. in tea? I'm... not quite sure how to take that."

Ana took the remote from Rorri and slid onto the sofa next to her. She pulled the blanket up onto their laps, and pushed the tray of delights away just a bit so she wouldn't knock it over if she stood up too quickly. It had more buttons than she recalled ever seeing on a remote... "This looks like a remote I saw in that movie, Hitch. I thought that had just been a prop!" She inspected the remote.

The remote was silver, with buttons lining the left and right sides. Though, it couldn't be really called "handheld" so much as "palmtop." Burdened with an LCD screen which seemed to be touch-activated, over a dozen buttons, and a smaller, slide-in actual remote, Ana touched the button marked "TV Power." The TV sprang to live with a swit-svwoosh and a gentle crackle.

Blushing at Rorri's compliment, she said, "What, librarians aren't allowed to be pretty?" She stuck her tongue out playfully, then fiddled with the remote.

"News, then?" Another button push, and a guide list appeared on the handheld. "Local news, sixty-six..." And the channel changed.

"... but the Gala event, hosted by Meegan Masters of Gothic-Ah Fashions based right here in Nachton, raised over seventy thousand dollars for the Nachton's Childrens' Hospital. Interviews of the exiting guests of the reclusive fashion designer proclaimed a fantasic party with wonderful food, great music, and a new line of fashions from the city's assorted designers entitled, "All Things Bright and Beautiful."

In other news, the rash of serial killings in the city has continued unabated, with another victim, this one a female in her mid-twenties, found today shortly before noon. No witnesses have come forward, though the crime scene was discovered shortly after the horrid tragedy occurred by..."

And the TV was instantly shut off. Ana sat rigidly, staring at the screen, tears streaming down her face. Lower lip quivering, her hands shook so much she dropped both remote and the handheld controller.

Rorri was a little freaked out when she saw the news, she wasn't aware of the US having a Jack the Ripper on the loose, but the reaction she saw from Ana made her a little worred as well.

"Ana...are ye ok?" She asked reaching out and pulling the other woman into a hug.

"Shhh...it's ok, just us two here; no one's gona hurt ye. Tis just the news, some psycho on the loose that the bobbies will eventually catch." Rorri comforted as she rocked Ana a little like one would an ill child.

Rorri's actions, rocking Ana, didn't register on the weeping woman until the accented words permeated her brain.

"Just the news, some psycho." With a heaving sob, Ana responded.

"No, no, you don't understand." Her voice was raspy with emotion as she spoke, "That woman," she pointed at the TV, as if it were she-whom-was being spoken of, "is... was my friend. My best friend. That I came down from New York to visit, to go to the Gala tonight. I found her..."

As Ana's head dropped, her hands came up to cover her cheeks and eyes. Her voice, still thick with emotion, still raspy and rough, squeaked as she continued, "I found her. I called the police, they questioned me and I have to go to the station tomorrow."

"Oh...oh dearie...I know how ye must feel." Rorri whispered as she rocked her friend gently and held onto Ana to give her the phycial comfort she needed to reassure her.

"It ok...I'll go with ye tomorrow; ye don't have to do this alone." Rorri whispered.

Rorri knew alright, just two weeks ago she had buried her own family and best friend/lover. She knew deeply how much Ana might be hurting inside and it tore at her to see her friend like this.

Rorri's comforting, whispered words permeated somewhat through Ana's haze of grief. Her mind's eye kept showing her that bloody hall... and a friend she'd never see.

"I am alone, I was alone when Mom died, when Dad died, when Olivia died..." Her raspy voice began to squeak again, and she uncovered her face. Turning to Rorri, she seperated from the girl a little, giving herself room. Warm chocolate eyes practically boiled, bloodshot and intense as she continued, "You might not want to be friends with me, Rorri Rosethornenglish, because it seems anyone who befriends me or loves me ends up dead."

Throwing the corner of the blanket aside, Ana stood. Eyes widening, her foot slid off the controller lying on the floor as she ran into the bathroom, and poured her emotions, dinner, and grief into the receptacle there.

Rorri was waiting for her Ana outside the bathroom giving her friend some space and respecting her pain and sorrow. She had a washcloth in one hand and some mouth wash in the other.

"Better dearie?" Rorri asked softly through the door hopefully loud enough to be heard; the bunny slippers seeming totally out of place in the moment.

She really seemed to care about Ana and the look in her young eyes showed it, htough Ana couldn't exactly see them just then.

Well not unless she had x-ray vision.

Leaning over the sink, Ana let her face drip dry. She kept trying to avoid looking at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were pale, but her nose was bright red, probably from blowing it to clean it. She knew her eyes were bloodshot, from the one moment she'd left her glasses on, that she'd gotten a good look. She took them off, though, thinking herself haunted and sickly-looking. That funky taste was still in her mouth. Oddly, there weren't any washcloths or mouthwash in the bathroom, and she'd left her toothbrush in her bag.

She put her glasses back on.

Briefly glad she had pulled her hair into a ponytail, she straightened and moved to the door. Leaving the light on, knowing she'd be back in a moment, she took a step outside, and nearly collided with Rorri. Looking up, she saw concern on her new friend's face. Shushing anything the englishwoman might have said with a slightly-shaking finger on her own lips, she saw the washcloth and mouthwash in the other's hands.

Taking them both, still hoping nothing was asked yet, she closed the bathroom door behind her as she reentered.

Dropping the cloth in the sink, letting it run under cool water, she went to the bedroom and found her toothbrush.

Returning, she moved the cloth so the sink wouldn't overflow, and brushed her teeth quickly. Filling the mouthwash bottle's cap, she swished for a few seconds as she wrung out the washcloth. Spitting, she sat back down on the toilet for a moment, elbows on her knees, face in cool washcloth in her hands.

After a few minutes, her nose felt cooler and warmth returned to her cheeks. Hanging the cloth on a little hook next to the sink (which was where it should have been in the first place; she'd need to remember to comment about the bathroom's poor maintenance) she reopened the door and shut out the light.

"Thank you for the wash cloth and mouthwash. We need to remember to comment before leaving that the bathroom wasn't correctly supplied."

Rorri smiled and hugged Ana. "Are you feeling better now dearie?" Rorri asked in a soft concerned tone.

She hoped Ana didn't throw up like this often or else she'd have to make sure to stock the bathroom with plenty of mouthwash and spare toothbrushes.

Ana shook her head. Briefly glad that she'd tied back her hair, she just gazed at the wall somewhere around Rorri's middle, not seeing much of anything. "Can we skip the news and just go to bed? My desire to do anything else pretty much went down the toilet with dinner."

_Thought you would never ask_ Rorri thought with a naughty giggled.

"Ya...ye look a little ill, a good night of sleep with a warm body to hold ye will make ye feel much better!" Rorri smiled and stepped up giving Ana a hug and peck on the cheek. She then walked off to get the bed properly turned down for her friend and to make sure the sheets were clean and fresh. Tonight Ana would sleep like an angel or else Rorri would eat the hotel's staff alive!

Ana wondered at Rorri's giggle but dismissed it, thinking her friend was glad she felt better. Somewhat better.

She watched Rorri putter around the bed for a few moments then decided to put her glasses on the nightstand, and returned to the bathroom for a moment. Swiping her face with a washcloth, then gargling some more mouthwash quickly, she quickly relieved herself then washed yet again.

"Good thing we don't get charged by the gallon for water we use." Exiting the bathroom, she stood in the doorway, staring blurrily at the direction of the bed. "If you don't mind please set the alarm for six thirty. And which side of the bed do you want?"

Rorrie nodded with a smile. "Oh...I don't usually have to make a choice, but I suppose the right side." Rorri giggled.

She felt a little excited, her first bedmate since kimmy had died, the first warm body to lay next to her own in what felt like such a long time.

She rolled down the sheets for Ana and put some extra pillows on the bed not knowing how Ana liked to sleep.

"Can you see enough to get into bed without those glasses?" Rorri asked softly as she climbed into the other side of the bed.

Ana tilted her head as she walked forward slowly. "Is that my right while looking at the head of the bed from the foot, or the other way?"

Smirking, she continued her slow steps. "What's to see when I can just as easily feel?" With a soft thud as her forward knee contacted the edge of the bed, she sidled carefully around to the other side. When Rorri asked, "Can you see enough to get into bed without those glasses?" Ana just shrugged and pointed to where she hoped the "left" side of the bed was.

"I've never slept in such a big bed before. In fact, I've never slept in a bed with anyone else before. It's always been me, myself, and I. And my pegasus, at least til she fell apart. Oh and my little stuffed triceratops." Ana continued rambling, yawning at one point, as she moved around the bed. Stopping by the side before climbing in, she continued, "I'd found him all alone in Toys R'Us a long time ago. Named him Horny. Always get strange little looks from older people when I mention my stuffed animals..."

Shrugging expansively, then stretching again, Ana yawned mightily, ending with a squeak and a loud clapping of her teeth. She pulled one knee up onto bed, slid her besocked foot below the covers. Leaning forward, then with a little hop, her other knee was on the bed and, pivoting on her hands, slid the other leg beneath the covers. She pulled two pillows to herself as she slid down under; one she placed under her head, the other she hugged in her arms as she rolled over and lay facing the edge of the bed. She fussed a moment straightening her shirt, bouncing the bed slightly. After she calmed, she let out a deep sigh.

"Good night, Rorri."

Rorri slid in and pulled the sheets up until she was comfy.

"Gnite Ana...sweet dreams dearie..." Rorri yawned and snuggled up behind her and was soon enough asleep like a little red headed angel.

In the back of her thoughts she idly wondered if Ana would be someone to take Kimmy's place...

Ana dreamt a mostly dreamless sleep except for...

**

She was walking down a plushly carpeted hall. Spots started to appear on the white carpet, first as black dots, almost ellipses, then larger, as if the floor were covered in dalmatian or cow. Color started to appear, first at the fringes of her sight as her hair bounced, then the walls, then the spots... first becoming purple, then blue, then red.
The spots began to merge, she noticed, looking down, and for a moment turned into an arrow, pointing forward. A door was in front of her, dark, forboding. She was afraid to open it.
Her hand raised to the knob, though it was the knob that reached out, claw-like, to take hold of her hand... and pulled her through the door.
On the other side, she saw a simple bed with a pure white sheet covering it... and a naked form in the center. She got a closer look at the form, and recognized herself...
And when she saw herself, suddenly found she was lying on the bed. She felt a breaking feeling at her chest, and knew her heart had broken, and in the mirror above her on the ceiling she saw her blood pouring off the no-longer white sheet like waterfalls.

**

Her eyes snapped open. Cloth was stuck to her face; apparently she'd broken out in a cold sweat while dreaming and the pillowcase glued to her skin. She tugged it off. The clock in front of her glowed bright red, but with her glasses on the other table - "Real smart, Ana" - and a weight on her waist? Unwrapping her hands from the pillow in front of her she carefully reached down and found an arm about her midsection. Remembering Rorri was sharing the bed with her, she thought nothing of it, then looked back at the clock. Still unable to recognize the time, she allowed herself to fall back to sleep.

They woke immediately as the alarm rang six thirty. Ana allowed Rorri first dibs on the shower and went about putting on her glasses and ordering a small, easy breakfast.

When breakfast arrived, Rorri had gotten out of the shower. Ana pointed her to the tray of fresh fruit, cereal, milk containers, and toast, and disappeared into the bathroom. Her t-shirt still stuck to her skin, presumably from the dream last night. Doing her best to not remember the dream, she washed and dried quickly, brushed her teeth, and ... "Dammit, I forgot undies." Wrapping a towel about herself, she danced out on tippytoes to her bag and grabbed a fresh set. Unaware of showing anything at all as she dressed, everything seemed to go in the right places. She sat down and quickly nibbled through a half a pear and lightly buttered toast. Little was said as they locked up the room and headed to the lobby to catch a taxi to the police station.

(( Rorri and Ana out ))