Nobody was really listening anymore, since this was at least the hundredth time tonight that Mari had complained. Dream sighed for perhaps the fiftieth time, and wondered if she should try to calm Mari down. Alan had stopped trying after maybe twenty; he was in back washing dishes so he wouldn't have to listen to his wife, flopped on one of the couches in the front.

"Hey, Mari, look," said UPChuck, staring at the dance floor. "I told you there were drunks on the floor!"

"I have told you a thousand times," she said, turning around, "there are no... oh, cripes." On the dance floor, a rather drunk mortician was flailing about. "I spend all that time at the morgue, get to know Joanna, invite her to the Club, and this is what happens?"

"Told you so, told you so!" UPChuck cried gleefully. Mari leaned over and punched him in the arm. "Hey, that's still sore from two episodes ago!"

"Two? Was it really that recently?" she mused absently, more interested in the new dance moves being conceived to avoid Joanna.

"Yeah, well, if someone would post more often..."

"Look!" she cried, wheeling around. "If people would show a little more interest in what goes on around here, then maybe I'd care a little more! I mean, I had to cancel the dance contest, I'm cutting back on hours at the Club, Alan's avoiding me because I'm getting snippy because of the lost money, Daniela's still pissed, and I'm lucky she's not beheading me... oh, no... it couldn't be..." Eyes slowly turned toward Daniela, who had surrendered the DJ's booth to Neil and was in her place beneath the disco ball.

"No, I don't think it is," Dream said.

"Yeah, but you've been wrong before. You always give people the benefit of the doubt," Mari said. She stood and strode over to Dava and Emma in what was still known as the Queen's Booth. Daniela didn't spend so much time there now, after all that fuss about saving it from the renovations last spring. "Hey, Dava!"

The blue-haired wizard looked up from his drink and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Quick question. Do you think Dani is capable of those beheadings? She was in the alley when the first one happenated."

"Marianna, watch your grammar. No, she couldn't have done it. The weight of the axe combined with her platform shoes would have knocked her off balance before she could connect with the victim's neck." Dava glanced at the dance floor. "Joanna and I discussed that before she drank that gallon of vodka."

"Well, there goes the vodka supply. You guys want something to drink?"

"No," Dava said. "I've had enough tonight, I think. Em?"

The Spice Girl-ish ex-detective bit her lip. "If you've got any more Zinfandel..."

"Always," Mari grinned. "Run out of my personal favorite? I think not! Ice?"

"Yeah, why not? Join us?"

"Can't, but I'll send someone over with that drink. There's Coli, she can do it."

"Thanks ya muchly," Emma grinned.

"No prob. Hey, Coli!" Mari shouted across the Club as she made her way around Joanna and to the bar. "Zinfandel on ice for Emma, and I'll have one, too!"

Coli, usually as bouncy as her curly red hair, nodded quietly and moved to the kitchen. Mari thought it was odd, but then, she'd been quieter ever since coming back from New York. Daniela had actually been quieter, too, except about the dance contest. That boyfriend of hers had been hanging around, looking scared. Maybe Dani was worried about his acceptance of the Club, of Layla:)... Mari knew it was weirdish around here, but most people were able to acclimatize pretty quickly. Alan had, anyway, and Emma, Pez, Mac... quite a few people, now that she thought of it.

"Earth to Marianna..." Alan was back in the main room, and waving his hand in front of Mari's face to catch her attention.

"What."

"Just making sure you're still with us. Where's Doreen tonight?"

"Downstairs, doing bookkeeping. I can't do it anymore, the numbers make me upset."

Alan frowned. "They shouldn't, Mare," he said. "We're never going to have a problem--"

"You won't!" she cried. "But this is mine! I need it to be a success... just in case..."

The immediate area fell silent. Mari was curled into a ball on the couch, her head buried in her knees and her hair spread to cover most of her body. Alan sat, stunned. Finally, he leaned forward and whispered to her.

"Forever means eternity."

"And then some," she sobbed in agreement. "But I said it once before..."

"But your heart wasn't in it then, Mare... this time it was... right?"

She didn't respond, but Mari straightened somewhat and fell into his arms. They sat quietly for a while, listening to the sounds of the Club around them.

And when you were born, they looked at you and said, what a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl...