We had little time for discussion but managed to come up with a story close to the truth that we could share without contradicting each other. I wasn't afraid of Rachel—I mean I was a little, but she wasn't psychotic and she could be reasoned with. The problem was, as Katherine had said, I did look suspicious from her point of view, and we had to convince her otherwise before my chemistry started affecting her.

That might seem like a simple solution, just touch her until she went pie-eyed, then take her home, but then she'd crash. When the same happened to Katherine she rebounded into depression and anger. Rachel's suspicions would come back harder reinforced by more evidence and a bad mood.

When Rachel rang the intercom demanding to be let inside, Katherine answered immediately and tried for a minute or two to dissuade her from embarrassing everyone, calling her a few choice names in the process. Neither of us had believed it would work, and rather than let her continue to draw attention to herself on our doorstep, Katherine buzzed her up. She was hammering on my door seconds later.

"Abre la puta puerta!" Rachel shouted from the hall and Katherine and I shared a look of concern. Rachel used Spanish as a warning shot, when she wanted to remind you that she was Latina, and that the threshold and audacity of her temper was at least as fearsome as the stereotype. "You hear me?" she called again. "Open it!"

Taking a deep breath, Katherine stepped forward and unlocked the door while I sat on the couch, hands where Rachel could see them and nothing more threatening than the remote control within reach. It seemed futile and petty, but Katherine had assured me that body language was important.

"You're a serious pain in my ass, do you know that?" Katherine said in greeting, "I told you I'm fine."

"Where's Tom?" Rachel glared past her into the room, catching my eye before she finished speaking. She wore jeans and a black tee with a black purse over her shoulder. I'd never seen her with a purse before. She stormed across the room and stopped short when Katherine grabbed at her arm. She shook her off, almost violently, and that set something growling deep in my chest.

"The fuck you do to Gloria, Tom? Why are you keeping Kath here?" She shouted with her arms as much as her voice, and her dark eyes were full of venom.

"I didn't do anything to anyone, Rach, you know that, or you should." I put my hands up in surrender, showing my palms as instructed.

"Yeah, I thought I did." Her reproach lashed out like a fist, and Katherine glared from behind her.

"I've been with him for two days, do I look sick or drugged to you?"

Rachel glanced around, "What are you wearing? Did he make you put that on?"

Katherine looked at herself then back to her friend, lips curled up in a sneer, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?

"Your tits are jumping around like donkeys under that shirt, you don't dress like that."

"What?" Katherine looked down again, supremely offended. "They are not!" She stomped her foot in outrage and the effort did nothing to argue her case. "Who are you to tell me what I can wear? Do you even own a bra?"

Rachel stiffened and turned to face Katherine lifting her shirt with one hand revealing part of a black brassiere before pulling it back down. "This isn't you," she accused. "You spend the night on my bed stoned off your ass after being with this shithead. I didn't add it up until now, but I was out of it all afternoon the last time I saw him. Right now Gloria is crashing like she was roofied hard and Kennedy is freaked out," she jabbed her finger back toward me, "and I want to know what the fuck is going on!"

"Nothing, Rach," I said as calmly as I could. Rachel was on full offense, and I'd seen some of what she was capable of. Calm didn't help. She whirled on me.

"Bullshit! I told you I trusted you and you pay me back by fucking with me and my girls?"

"Why would I stick up for him if he messed with me?" Katherine shouted back, "The door is wide open. If I wasn't here because I wanted to be I could walk out right now!"

Rachel hesitated and I dared hope that being in the same room with her would get her to calm down, that we could convince her to leave soon.

"It doesn't many any sense, Kath. Why does everything point to Tom if he's innocent?"

Faint sparks swarmed around the room, but it was as though there were two distinct sets. One was dim and hesitant, the other seemed like silver glitter caught in a stream, almost tranquil.

"I want an explanation!" Rachel demanded, marching up and looming over me.

"An explanation of what?" I asked, shrugging. "Do you think I drugged everyone, including you? Spiked your drinks? Administered a shot when nobody was looking?" I tried to sound reasonable, but I knew the truth and it made my arguments feel weaker than they were. Still, she hesitated again.

"I don't know what happened to Glory, Rach," I added truthfully, "I was at the dorm earlier picking up clothes for Kath because she wasn't feeling well. Ask Penny, I walked in on her by mistake. Is Penny sick?"

I wanted to stand up, get the height advantage on her but forced myself to remain passive.

"Rachel," Katherine stepped forward, "Seriously, I'm fine and Tom is the same man he's always been. He's the most decent person I've ever met and I know you feel that way too."

"I—" Rachel started, then pushed her palms against her eyes, "I don't know..."

Several dim sparks began to brighten.

"I'm so—" She stopped suddenly and her eyes went wide, "La mierda!" she shouted, "Fuck fuck fuck, you're doing it to me now aren't you?" motes of light swarmed like angry bees. Rachel's hand dropped and, with the unmistakable rip of Velcro, yanked open a false panel on the side of her purse. In the same fluid motion, she pulled a short, black pistol from its holster and pointed it directly at me with both hands.

"Rachel, no!" Katherine cried out and ran toward her, but stopped short with her hands up, afraid of provoking a response.

Rachel snarled, "What are you doing, Tom, is it in the air? Some kind of aerosol shit? Is that why you're sitting there like you don't fucking care?"

My heart pounded. I wasn't as afraid for myself as I'd have expected, but I was terrified for Katherine. In our worst-case scenario, we hadn't imagined anything remotely like this.

My hands remained up where Rachel could see them. For some reason, I couldn't protest. I wanted to, but Rachel had come close to the truth and I seized up.

"Don't," Katherine pleaded, "Please put it down."

"He's here learning how to design new drugs, Kath! He's fucking with your head!" Rachel's eyes were wild. She was wrestling with herself, fearful, maybe in hysterics, because she could feel the impulse to let her guard down when every instinct told her to keep her defenses high.

"Get out of here, I'll make sure he doesn't follow. We'll call 911 when this asshole doesn't have any hostages."

"I'm not leaving Thomas," Katherine growled, no longer pleading.

"Go, you stupid bitch! He can't control you anymore!" Rachel's eyes were locked on me and she was practically weeping.

The determined change in Katherine's tone raised the hair on the back of my neck. "I said I'm not leaving,"

"Will you just..." Rachel started to turn, but stopped in shock when Katherine rushed her. I hadn't noticed until then that Rachel's finger was alongside the barrel, not on the trigger, which was lucky, because she couldn't accidentally pull it when Katherine's body slammed into hers. I leaped to my feet instinctively and grabbed at Rachel's hands as she tumbled into range, thinking of nothing except ending the threat. She tried to bring the gun back up, but by then I had her wrist and she couldn't aim. She was strong, but I had the advantage of size, weight, and leverage. Katherine wrested the pistol out of her hand and held it pointed at the floor.

"Shit." Rachel whispered harshly, jerking against my grip, "You gonna tie me up and fuck my ass? Bury me in a fucking ditch?"

"No, I'm going to let go as soon as I believe I can do it without being murdered," I said, thankful for years of experience forcing a calm I didn't feel. "Katherine isn't a prisoner and neither are you." I looked at Katherine who was glowering fiercely at Rachel, but she didn't move or speak. Rachel met my eyes and stared into them, and it wasn't until then that I noticed the sparks inside my head had grown larger. The tension in her arms slowly diminished and her lips parted slightly. When I realized it was because of me, I jerked my hands away.

"Are you okay?" I asked her and she nodded.

"What's really going on?" She asked, her eyes sad and weary.

"Nothing you have to worry about. Rachel, I can't tell you what you want to hear, I'm sorry." It was too late though. If Gloria crashed from kissing me on the cheek, Rachel was going to feel it too and nothing I said to her now would matter. "I don't know how to convince you I haven't hurt anyone, that I'm not going to. I'm just trying to help."

Her eyes began to shimmer with unshed tears, "Don't hurt my girls, Tom. I'll do whatever you want." Even now she was still afraid. Her concern for people she cared for overrode any desire for comfort or pleasure. She'd throw herself in front of a train for them. I sighed deeply. Katherine seemed to come back to herself and she looked at me, a little fear in her eyes too.

I turned back to Rachel, wishing I could do more, and stared straight into the rich brown windows of her soul, trying to convey what I wanted her to feel through that link alone, "You have to trust me, Rachel."

Her pupils dilated instantly. Vague sparks came into stark focus, then flared bright as beacons and something shifted, contorting in the back of my mind. Another sensation followed, like water through a hose, catching those lights in its current. Rachel's gasp brought me back to my living room in time to see her body go rigid, eyes rolling back momentarily, then she relaxed, blinked several times, and wiped her tears with the back of her hand. I was blinking too, trying to see past the remaining embers flittering in front of me.

"Thomas?" Katherine asked cautiously, "What just happened?"

"I don't know."

Rachel coughed, then sniffed and wiped her nose, "Of course I trust you, asshole." She panted and her voice trembled but not from anger or fear. Her breath came heavy but steady as if she'd just been out for a pleasant jog.

She put her hands on her knees and shuddered, then stood up again and gave Katherine a tired smile, holding out her hand "Can I have that back please?"

Katherine looked at me, and I looked from her to Rachel, far beyond simple confusion.

"What?" Rachel asked, glancing between us, then sighed, "Oh for fuck's sake," and she walked over to Katherine, pried the gun out of her hands, then thumbed a button on the side of the grip, deftly catching the ejected magazine. "Empty." She said, showing it to each of us. "I wasn't going to shoot you, idiot." Then she pulled another magazine out of her purse, a shiny copper bullet peeking from the top. "I use this one when I mean business."

Katherine gasped and my own heart stopped for a second, but she put the full magazine back in her purse, holstered the unloaded gun, and fastened the secret cover back in place.

"When did you..." Katherine began.

"I've always had it." Rachel shrugged. "Dad bought it for me when I turned seventeen." She was addressing me instead of Katherine, her voice casual.

I probed the situation cautiously. "I wouldn't hurt Katherine, and I wouldn't hurt you or Glory or anyone. You know that, right?"

She stared at me, bewildered, as if she hadn't just accused me of the same. "Why would you?" She twitched unnaturally and a satisfied smile drifted across her lips.

"Rachel?" Katherine said her name slowly and approached carefully, shooting furtive glances back at me. I just shrugged, perplexed. "Do you think Thomas and I can get a minute alone?"

Rachel stood up and smiled at me. "Of course. I have to go anyway, need to check on Gloria. She was at it again last time I looked in on her. Girl's going to wear out her coochie."

I was too stunned to feel embarrassed, and so, apparently, was Katherine. Rachel adjusted her shoulder strap on her way to the door. "See you tomorrow Kath?"

"I—uhm?" She didn't answer but shook her head slightly and pantomimed a maybe.

Something Katherine said earlier occurred to me in the moment and I blurted it out, "Hey, do you think you could get Katherine's notes from her classes, swing them by so she doesn't fall behind?"

"Sure thing," Rachel said brightly, "I'll get them from Mitch, you've got developmental psych with him, right?" Katherine just nodded. "Great! Talk later."

Rachel walked out and closed the door behind her.