It was really a beautiful day, everything seemed to be perfect. The sunshine felt gentle and carrying, and even the bird’s chippers seemed to be dripping off joy.

Ellen had got a day off for the first time since she started to work for Jack, requested by himself. And to Ellen’s surprise, even offering her to meet up during the day. A date in other words.

She did know that he still was hiding from the guards that wanted to lock him down. Which meant they couldn’t meet anywhere, but the place he had said they should meet at. It was a more or less rundown bar. Really not the optimal choice for a date.

“You don’t really look to be from here.”

She knew the voice behind here to well. She had been simply been standing and look at the bar, wondering if she had got anything wrong.

“But you still do look beautiful.” Jack walked up beside her as he spoke and praised her for her clothing. Even if she had borrowed the red dress from Alice. Maybe “that princess” had some good points, at least when it was about clothes. Ellen had done a good decision to ask Alice to borrow the dress.

“Would you like to have a beer?”

He suggested that they would take a beer, as the first thing during a date? Was this really how dates would be like? Or did Ellen only a had a childish view of how dates should be like?

“I can take one beer.”

Ellen followed him in at the bar and decided that she could take at least one beer with Jack’s company. Did he have a different view of how a date should be? A more adult-like date?

Ellen took a place around a small table while Jack went to order the drinks.

Without his company by her side, so was she starting to think about his clothing for the day. He had the same shirt as he had used the three last days, easily identified the annoying stains at it. The other clothes weren’t as easy to identify if they were the same as he used the last days, but it was at least clear that he hadn’t put any thoughts in to dress up for her. Was he even thinking of their meeting as a date?

It really didn’t feel like that. Not dressing up and using the same old clothes, not even care about to do a so simple thing as combing his hair.

At the same time so couldn’t Ellen help but feeling split about it. The reason that he didn’t dressed up could be so simple that he still was hunted by the guards. So it could be that he had to fit in to not raise any suspicious?

“Are you thinking about anything my beloved girl?” Ellen snapped out of her thoughts when Jack came back and talked with her.

It wasn’t worth the time to think about it. The date had only just started, so it would only be better. And even if Jack and Ellen had a different view of how a date should be, so was sure that they would come to an understanding.

“Nothing more than how nice it’s to spend some time with you.” It was no lie. She really enjoyed that she had got the chance to spend time with her beloved one, even if she would have loved if it was a little different.

Jack served Ellen her beer and took his place around the table, look everything except excited about having a date with his beloved daughter. Not to mention that he looked really tired and worn out again, in differences from how Ellen had reacted that he had looked better during the time she had talked with him at the workshop.

Had it happened anything since the day before? Had there been any problem that had hindrances him from sleeping, or get any real rest?

“May I ask what you have been up to since the day you left our home?”

Ellen had hesitated to ask about it, but gave in to her curiosity. in the end She really wanted to know what he had been up to and if he had been doing fine.

“I have been doing my best to hide from the guards and all other kinds of threats.” He gave her a glare. He didn’t seem to like that she was curious about it. Not that it bothered her a bit for the moment, she really wished to get a better picture of how everything looked like.

“May I ask what you are accused off, and how it’s going with solving it?”

Jack made it, very, clear that he couldn’t tell her much without risking to involve her in it. And no matter if she wanted to know more to be able to help him, so wouldn’t he tell her since he really didn’t want to get her involved. She needed to remain out of it so she could keep taking care of her little sister and hold up a home that he could return to when everything was solved.

Ellen still tried to get a little information, resulting in that Jack stared at her with knives and daggers.

“I think I have found a way to solve the problem. But I need more time to find out if it will lead anywhere.”

The only information he could give her didn’t tell her anything more than that he maybe was onto something. Ellen knew that she had gone too far when she tried to find out what it all was about, but she could never have guessed that he would give her that angry look. She felt guilty for sticking her nose up where it didn’t belong, just like how “that princess” did.

Jack walked to order a new beer. He had emptied his own during the talk, and he could maybe want to give Ellen a chance to recover from her guilt. Just like the caring person he was.

She might need to pay a little more respect to what he didn’t want to talk about, instead of giving in to what she wanted herself.

It was a really bad start on their date. It hadn’t gone on for long, yet she had already got at his wrong side once. She could only hope that he still wanted to continue the date, even after what she had done.

It didn’t seem like Jack had any bigger problem with that she had been too curious, or so had he noticed her regrets over it. At least he still wanted to talk and spend time with her.

“Since I couldn’t get a clear picture of how little Alice and you have been doing during the time I have been gone. So can I ask how it all had been going?”

It was their date, yet he wanted to talk about something that involved “the princess”. Why did it have to be like that, it was Ellen’s and his date.

Sure both she and “that princess” was his beloved daughters, so of course he wanted to know. But did he really had to know about it right this moment? He could have picked any moment during the time they were in the workshop, but NO. Instead he wanted to know about it during THEIR date.

Ellen would have loved to ignore his request but she had already got at his bad side once, so it would be a bad idea to risk it once more. In the worst case so could he cancel the date and leaving her, letting her love for him hang loose forever. It wasn’t anything Ellen could risk, not for her whole life.

She began to tell him from the beginning of how they had got help by Taija and then had found their ways to work up from there. Consciously extra marking out what she had done. Even if “the princess” was the biggest reason that they actually were able to survive, so couldn’t it be wrong by her to point out her own strong points. Of course with some exaggerations, but it still couldn’t be wrong. Right?

After Ellen had told him so did he told her that he was proud of her. Which was satisfying, but would have been even better if he didn’t express it a very plain voice. And if he wouldn’t have gone to get a new beer afterwards. Of course this time after asking if she also wanted one.

They continued to talk for a few hours more before Jack suggested that the would go for a bite.

During the time they spent talking so had Jack been able to drink 6 glasses of beer, and had got a little tipsy.

Was that really how a date would look like? Was he really supposed to be tipsy during a time that was meant to be wonderful? Or was it so simple that he had got bored with her and drank to be able to stand the time he spent with her? Drinking at a really cheap looking bar. It didn’t felt like a date at all, it almost didn’t even felt like she was spending time with the man she loved. But instead as if she was spending time with a co-worker that had some bad habits.

Did he even wanted it to be a date, did he really even wanted to spend time with her?

The restaurant that he led her to was a good looking one, maybe they had been at the cheap bar since he was a little short on money. So they had only been there so he could treat her at a better restaurant later on.

The inside, was simply disappointing. It reminded Ellen off the hotel where she and Chris had installed gears.

Worn out, a corpse but this time so had someone been better at putting makeup at the corpse. Which of course didn’t change the fact that it still was one, even if it looked better.

“This restaurant serves some really good food, and is one of the places where I know that I am safe.”

The second part could explain why they were at a worn down place like that during a date. Ellen had forgotten the fact that he still was hunted. She could accept the settings more, even though it still wasn’t perfect, if she holds that simple fact in her mind.

Ellen started to get enough of the so-called “date”.

Jack not only didn’t even try to dress up for the date. Not even care about using new and fine clothes but instead still chooses to wear the same clothes as a couple of days ago. Not to mention that he got tipsy while talking about Ellen and Alice’s everyday life. As if she would have bored him halfway to death.

While they ordered food, he didn’t care about giving Ellen any advice off what she would order. He did also almost ate the waitress up with his eyes, without even doing anything to try hiding it from Ellen.

This really couldn’t be how a date would look like. Wasn’t a date supposed to be a time there two persons paid all attention and all the time to each other? Which really couldn’t be said about this so-called “date”

Ellen gives the “date” even more thoughts as she noticed that Jack still was tasting all the waitresses with his eyes, even after the time she had spent thinking. Couldn’t he at least have a little more shame than “that princess”? Couldn’t he at least think of the fact that he was on a date with ELLEN?

She was considering leaving when they got their food. It felt bad to leave the food just like that, especially when there were people that could kill for getting that meal.

“What is it Ellen?” Jack seemed to have noticed that she was in a bad mood, first, when they started to eat.

“Are you seeing this as a date?” She stared daggers at him. There was no idea to even try to hide it when he was acting like that, she didn’t even want to hide her irritation from him. He was acting like an idiot, so he fair and square deserved her anger.

He did see it as a date with his most beloved daughter, but couldn’t give her a good answer to why he acted as he did. Almost trying to paint it up as if he didn’t notice himself the acts he has done wrong, like if that was how he acted while Ellen wasn’t there.

It almost seemed that he had been honest with that he hadn’t noticed what he had done wrong. After Ellen did tell him, his behaviour changed rapidly. He was no longer looking at the waitresses and give her all his attention. Even going so far that he feed her with some small pieces of his food.

Ellen’s attitude toward the date also changed for the better. She could never have guessed that her beloved one was really clumsy when it came to things like love. It made her fall more in love with him, she really wanted that the time for the two of them to live together would come soon.

Lapin had got really good at the work, so Alice could more or less just stand and only look. The girl had also become more secure at how to use the “Angel”, almost only asking for Alice to check the machine when they had a more worried patient. Of course by then only an act to get the patient calmer, which was a trick that she also had learned very quick.

As it was now, so could Alice enjoy her work more than when she had been alone. It was less stress and she got more time to think through things. Like what the reason could be that the patients needed the treatment. Not that she possibly could solve the problem for them, but it was still interesting to think about. But since she didn’t want to ask the patients about their private life, in respect for them, so was she only trying to read it by looking at the “demons” that had got pulled out of the patient.

It was one thing that really helped her take her mind off other things. Like who Ellen was meeting.

Her beloved sister had borrowed a red dress from here this morning since she should meet up with a friend. Or that was at least what she said, but the truth had to be that Ellen would go on a date. Otherwise so wouldn’t she have put that much effort to look pretty, not that she didn’t look extremely pretty from the start. And she knew Ellen to well, she never dressed up like that to meet a friend. So it had to be something very special this time.

Alice opened the “Angel” when Lapin leads out the patient to the waiting room. This was her chance to give her thoughts about Ellen a rest, or at least it could have been.

There was a strangely low amount of “demons” in the box, but one really caught her attention. A “demon” that looked like a normal girl. No deformed body part and no sign of wings or anything. A totally normal girl like Alice. It was the first time she saw a “demon” like that.

Did that man had a woman or girl that he was sickly worried about? A girl that he liked or a that worried him?

Worried about love?

Alice couldn’t help to think more about what kind of person that Ellen meet. Hoping it was a good person that really would do his best to put her sister before anything else. And never ever would even think about hurt or cheating at her. He really had to be a good person. Ellen did only deserve the best, and that really had to be the best.

If it would turn out that he was bad for her, Alice wouldn’t mind to hunt him down. To the end of the world if necessary, and then bury him deep down below.

“What are you thinking about Miss Alice?” Lapin had come back. Had Alice been spacing out that much?

“I am only thinking about Ellen.”

“And more?”

A while after Lapin had moved in with them so had she started to somehow see through some of Alice’s behaviour. Of course so was there a chance that she had done it earlier too, but then it was first now she shows it clearly and asked Alice more about it. She had even almost started to take a strange kind of joy in seeing through Alice.

"I am thinking about what kind of person my sister is meeting.”

She could spill some of her thoughts, leaving the little more hateful for herself. Lapin could see through her a little bit, but luckily she wasn’t able to read Alice’s mind. And the girl didn’t need to know the hateful ones, or rather she was better off not knowing about them.

“I think that sister has found a good person. She’s a really smart one after all.”

Lapin’s way of expressing her thoughts took a strange turn from time to time when it only was the two of them. Even calling Ellen for simply “sister”, which maybe could be because Alice sometimes simply called Ellen for “my sister” most times when she talked about her. Or maybe the girl only had got so comforting in Alice company so she started to talk like she did with her friends.

“I really hope so. I don’t want her to be hurt.” Alice spoke while she emptied the “Angel”.

“She is a smart person so I don’t think there should be a problem. But when do you think that she will let us meetin’ him?”

Just by the way that Alice knew her sister, so would it take at least take until they were a stable couple before Alice was allowed to meet him. Then it maybe would happen, otherwise so would she try to stretch it out as far she possibly could. She was after all a very careful and delicate girl.

After they had finished eveything after the treatment, so did they go to the kitchen area of the clinic for some tea. Just like they always had started to do between the treatment, so they really could take it easy and small talk.

Alice noticed that Taija stood outside Lilly’s office. When she saw them she gave Lapin an angry glare before retreating in at the office.

“She maybe has a good reason to dislike me.”

It wasn’t the first time Taija acted like that toward Lapin, and only Lapin. Of course so had the girl had noticed it, but she didn’t seem to care about it. Which was a big difference with how she saw Lilly. Lapin did still hold quite some grudge against her for trying to turn Alice against her.

“Since we talked about sister’s love before, so am I curious about if you have someone you love Miss Alice?”

The girl was truly curious. Even her ears perked right up and her tail was swaying playfully from side to side. It was some of the times that it was impossible to miss that she was a cat. And to Lapin’s disadvantage so was it betraying her if she even would try to deny that she was curious. Which already had been proven when she had asked Ellen an innocent question about her work once. Instead of hearing anything about the secret work she did, Ellen told her about another work. Which had satisfied Lapin's curiosity, but she had still denied that she had been curious from the beginning when asked about if she was curious about gears.

Alice gave the question some thoughts. It was hard to tell if she was loving someone. Didn’t the whole concept love involve emotions, special emotions toward someone else? Would it even be possible to be in love with someone if she couldn’t feel emotions to start with? Was the emotions that a person loved someone the same kind of emotions as other emotions, or could it be something that even Alice would be able to feel?

“I don’t have anyone I love”. Until she knew the answers herself it was best to paint it up that she didn’t have anyone.

“Not even him… mister… mister bull?”

Chris? Sure Alice held special thoughts to him, but it wasn’t anything that possible ever could be love. She could only see him as a pathetic excuse to a human for challenging Ellen, which was both smaller and weaker than him. And that wasn’t even all. He had also followed up at that dragon’s provoking, and then he had lost. Not that she had thought any different of him if he had won, it didn’t change the fact that he had challenged her sister. SISTER.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“How is it about you Lapin? Do you have someone that you love?”

Lapin’s curious smile disappeared in an instant.

“I do have someone that I like.” The girl’s face turned red as an apple and she started to move uncomfortably in the chair. Almost giving off the feeling that she was forced to answer. Which she more or less was since Alice had answered her questions about it.

Alice found her behaviour very cute and innocent.

“I see. Is it someone I know?”

It wasn’t. That made Alice even more curious about how it could be that Alice hadn’t met that person, how they had met and likewise.

“I won’t risk your trust and the job if I tell you, right?” Lapin had gone from embarrassed to seriously worry almost in an instant. Looking at Alice with teary eyes, as if she was on the edge to start crying.

“Are you involved with anything bad he’s doing, and is it something that will risk involving the clinic or me and Ellen?”

It wasn’t. Alice let out a relieved sigh. If it didn’t risk involving any of the persons in question, it shouldn’t be any problem. Right? Sure it could still hurt Lapin, but it was nothing Alice could do about that. Even though she really hoped that nothing bad would happen to Lapin.

“The one I love is the person that sold me the shines when I was addicted to it.”

“But I won’t get together with that person before all the sellin’ has come to an end. So it’s simply to watch and love until that person starts followin’ the law.”

Lapin quickly followed up at herself. She was clearly really afraid of what Alice would think about her, yet she showed that she couldn’t abandon her love for her dealer.

“Then I hope that he will stop selling crystal soon so you and he can get together.”

Alice would like to have a talk with that dealer. He made a cute little girl like Lapin wait for him, so he could sell some more and destroy more people’s life.

Not to mention that she really hoped that Ellen had made a better decision that Lapin. Otherwise she wouldn’t know what to do. More than to make sure that he would pay for those bad thing he did.

Ellen let out a tired sigh as she sat in front of the table in her workshop.

The day had been wonderful and she loved every second of the time she had spent with Jack. Even if it had a rough start so had she honestly enjoyed it, by whole her heart. She thought that she had been the happiest girl in the world when she had got a kiss on the forehead, but it had turned out to be nothing compared with how happy she had been when Jack had offered to feed her with some of the food from his plate.

Sure she had picked some good food herself, but it had turned out to not be as wonderful as the food Jack feed her with.

She felt how her face getting warmer only thinking about it. Sure, she had been angry at Jack at first. But now she loved him more than ever before. Loving him for treating her like a lovely woman after she pointed out what he has done wrong earlier. Which didn’t matter any more. HE loved HER. He treated her like his lovely princess. Ellen could never have guessed that it was that wonderful to be treated like that, and could even understand why Alice had acted like she done from time to time. It was a wonderful feeling that she easily could get addicted to.

Not even the fact that Alice once again tried to stick her nose where it didn’t belong could get Ellen irritated. And that the cat was honestly curious about how the date went without asking more about how it was with after Ellen declared that she wouldn’t tell. It was so cute, the opposite of how it was when “the princess” tried to find out about how the date had gone.

Ellen has even been glad while taking on a few requests from Alice, which wondered if there was a possibility that she could build another “Angel”. And since Ellen didn’t really have the time for that while working for Jack, she wanted to have a blueprint of the machine instead. The very next day if it was possible. Which easily could be done.

Ellen looked happily at the blueprint of the machine. The machine itself was so simple that it was impressive that no other person had built it already…

Her happiness died out in seconds. Did Alice want someone else to build her machine?

It couldn’t be, right? Ellen had said that she would build it as soon she was finished with the ongoing work, so Alice would need to wait. Instead so had she asked for the blueprint of the machine. Why did she want the blueprint of the machine? She wouldn’t have any use of it herself, she couldn’t use it somehow without help. Did she have help from someone else? Alice wouldn’t do that to her own sister, right?

Ellen’s thoughts got interrupted by a big yawn. Looking at the clock she noticed that it already had passed the time she usually went to bed. So it was no wonder that she was starting to get tired.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she had on top of all already promised Alice that the blueprint should be done this very day. So even if Ellen wouldn’t like to give it away, she had to do it since it had been promised. Had it been a mistake from her side to promise her something like that?

Ellen had left the blueprint at the table and walked to her room.

It was hard to part from the paper, but she had promised. And if it’s promised, it has to be kept.

The room was just as lonely as always, especially now since she had spent the whole day with Jack. Wonder if he was just as happy about the date, just like Ellen. He had started to act better after Ellen had got angry at him, why? He had acted differently before Ellen told him, was it how he normally acted. And in that case, why did he act like that?

Ellen shook some sense into her head after changing to her sleeping clothes. There was nothing wrong with Jack more than that he had been a little clumsy.

Some people maybe was more clumsy when it can to love? It had to be like that, right?

Lilly was acting strange when Alice and Lapin arrived at the clinic. Greeting them like she had before she had turned against Lapin. Even ignoring the fact that Taija had retreated by herself to Lilly’s office, as always.

“Good morning Lilly.”

Alice didn’t care that Taija had escaped and would act normally until “that woman” show what she had on her mind. Alice was after all a mature female and not a childish woman like both Lilly and Taija.

Lapin Tried to follow Alice’s good example, yet she couldn’t cover up her disliking for Lilly when she greeted her.

“Have you got a blueprint of the “Angel”, will we get a new one here?”

Alice had put the blueprint at the table while she started to boil up some water for tea.

“Yes, we will get a new “Angel”. May I ask why you are so friendly all off sudden Lilly?”

It seemed to be a bad idea to keep acting like nothing was going on, mostly because Lapin held herself close to Alice. Looking very irritated and uncomfortable, as if she wanted to tell Lilly a thing or two but couldn’t.

“To put it simply Doctor Morfine, I have been thinking that it might be better to get back to the time when we all could get along.”

“And you say that after even trying to turn miss Alice against me?” Lapin didn’t waste any second before answering Lilly, still trying to hold back her anger.

“I thought doctor Morfine deserved to know the things that you did try to hide.”

Sure Alice thought something like that too since she easier could help Lapin by knowing what was going on. But she couldn’t say that Lilly had tried to do it in a good way, it was quite the opposite. At least it sounded like “that woman” was more serious than usual, otherwise she wouldn’t have talked to Alice as “doctor Morfine”.

“So you have been thinking and decided to accept Lapin?”

Lilly agreed. She had decided to accept the girl since the secret had come out and she was seriously trying to do something about it.

“Then I will accept you too. But don’t think that you will gettin’ my respect until you truly deserve it.”

Lapin was acting like a stubborn child, but it was understanding. No one should get any respect they didn’t deserve, especially not after acting as Lilly did.

“Then I would like to know why Taija still is keeping her distance from us”

If they all should get along as before, didn’t that mean that even Taija would be a part of it?

“She has her reasons, but she will become a part of our group to when the time comes.” Lilly talked in an irritating nonchalant voice.

May Taija’s reasons be much better than “that woman’s” reasons. Which it most probably was, Taija was after all a much gentler and kinder person than what Lilly was. That was one thing that Alice had learned after all the time she had spent with Taija.