They finished breakfast in silence, Gretchen chewing over the information she'd just been given at the same time as she chewed her toast. Valiant had begged the last of her porridge and the spare toast, with a world class impersonation of a dog that had never once been fed, ever, which she didn't believe for a minute but couldn't quite help herself falling for anyway.

"Don't spoil him, he has already had breakfast" Angelus's amused words accompanied the clatter of dishes as he cleared up.

Valiant huffed and flopped on the floor, licking crumbs off his chops as if to say that it'd only been a small snack and he was indeed about to expire from imminent starvation.

"He's got world class acting skills, you should sign him up for dog food commercials"

Angelus snorted and leaned on the counter, "he would get fat eating all the food and refuse to do as he is told."

Valiant rolled his eyes in Angelus's direction and Gretchen felt some of the tension gripping her fade as she giggled "you've offended him now!"

"World class acting skills." Angelus winked at her and scooped up her now empty plate and cup.

"So, those, memser things, they come out in the daylight too?"

"Not usually, but they do not usually ignore the accords either, so we will not take any chances."

"Can't we just.. uh, I don't know, trick them somehow and make them go away?"

"If it were that easy I would already have done it. They will be more cautious now however, so I think we should take advantage of that."

Gretchen swung her good leg, making the stool wobble, "I-" she was cut off by a rattle outside, and Valiant growling ominously.

Angelus put the plate he was holding down softly, putting his finger to his lip and waving a hand at Valiant that cut him off mid growl. Quietly he paced over the the lift, putting his hands on the steel gate and sliding it open just enough to allow him to slip in.

She heard the lift grumble as it descended, the gate up here firmly locked by Angelus, who had indicated she should hide in the bathroom. She didn't like doing that, it gave her a claustrophobic trapped feeling knowing she had nowhere to run to, not that she could run right now, but even so, it set her more on edge than just waiting on the couch would have.

Valiant had come with her, and leaned against her, a warm reassuring presence that stopped her from wigging out totally. She ran her fingers through his fur and chewed her bottom lip, her ears straining for any sounds, anything to indicate what was going on. She was afraid for Angelus, and even more afraid that those things, or something even worse had found her and Angelus wouldn't be able to stop them.

The irony that she was now anything but bored wasn't lost on her either. Was this what life was going to be like from now on, stretches of dullness with heart-stopping terror between. She hoped there would be more dull patches, she really didn't think her nerves could handle much more of this.

She squeezed her eyes shut and scrunched herself up against Valiant, trying not to hyperventilate, pushing her face into his thick warm fur and growing more and more anxious as the minutes ticked by. How far had Angelus gone, what could be taking him so long, her mind started to spiral into all the worst case scenarios she could think of.

The hum and rattle of the lift finally cut through her mind-spin and she clutched Val, straining to hear what was going on. Someone had used the lift, but was it Angelus, or ..those things?

"Gretchen, it's safe to come out now." Angelus's mellow voice held no hint of duress or worry, but she didn't trust it, what if the Nethers could impersonate him, what if he was dead and they'd come up here to get her and were just trying to trick her into showing herself?

She quietly uncoiled herself, edging behind the door and grabbing the nearest thing to a weapon she could find, a mop.

Valiant titled his head on one side and gave her what she thought was the doggy equivalent of a grin, but she put her finger to her lips and motioned him back. Surprisingly he obeyed her.

"Gretchen?" Angelus had made no noise between the lift and the bathroom door and she felt cold sweat start to ooze down her neck, she gripped the mop tighter, raising it up over her head ready to bring it down on his head should he find her cowering behind the door when he opened it.

The door handle inched downwards and she felt like she was stuck in a horror movie, the dumb sorority blonde who'd been too stupid to run and was about to be the first to die horribly.

The door swung open and Angelus stepped into the room "Valiant? Gretchen?" there was a note of alarm in his voice now. Gretchen ignored it, stepped out on her good foot and swung the mop handle towards him as hard as she could.

She had trouble making sense of what happened next, but somehow, instead of hitting Angelus, he managed to dodge the handle completely, rip it out of her hands and have her bailed up against the wall with the mophead jammed in her gut knocking the wind out of her.

"Gretchen!" He dropped the mop and caught her as she fell forward, gasping for air and shaking, "are you ok? What happened?"

Valiant was sitting next to Angelus his tail sweeping the floor in a slow wag that oozed 'I told you so' smugness.

It took her long moments to get her breath back and calm down enough to explain to him. His face went from alarmed to concerned and then to, was that, pride? Did she finally do something right?