Repentance

[Lyra Newbury]

The weekend passed. Lyra sent a note to Samantha to tell her she was alright and would return home before Monday's conference call with Italy. She didn't need the girl, or Nicolas, worrying about her and ruining her fun. Lyra stayed in the tiny foreign country that Nicolas had stupidly brought her to in order to...well, Lyra hadn't been able to figure out what Nicolas expected to achieve with their night out. She thought she understood but he had very nearly lashed out at her and her mind had been too affected by the potion in her drink to understand why. She was only dancing, until she wasn't.

Rodrigo. Marco. Enrique. Sophia. And finally Juan. Lyra came home feeling more confused than when she left. She walked quietly through the hallway until she came to her rooms. She stripped and walked to the shower, turning the water on and staring at herself in the mirror until the steam fogged up the glass and her reflection slowly faded into nothingness. She turned and stepped into the shower, letting the water beat down on her.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam was waiting for her in the room when she stepped out of the shower.

A notepad hovered behind her with a quill swiftly at work as Samantha made notes and edits to the various business dealings she had. With Lyra at the magazine, Sam had much more time to pursue other avenues of interests, and she was looking forward to the inevitable success.

"How was Belgrade? Or was it Prague?" Sam shrugged. Nik had explained that he was taking Lyra out to get her mind off of things and she didn't question it.

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra came out wrapped in a towel. She used a second towel to dry her hair as she walked out into the bedroom. Samantha's appearance surprised her but she smiled anyway. Samantha had a notepad and quill scrawling notes for her, she was always working on something. Did she ever just do nothing? Yes, after she was injured in the attack on Hogsmeade while she was recuperating Samantha was forced to do nothing and Lyra thought it might kill her.

She shrugged at the question. "Where ever it was, it was fun. I assume Nicolas made it back?"

[Samantha Montgomery]

Samantha grinned, fun was good. At least she thought fun was good. Fun hadn't made the papers and therefore Lyra's reputation was still in tact. As for her question Sam gave a fleeting expression of concern and frustration, but it was gone a moment later.

"Not yet." she answered then smiled,"I rescheduled Italy. I thought maybe you and I could grab lunch, or if you're too tired from you trip you could rest."

[Lyra Newbury]

Fun should have been good, but the sort of fun that Lyra had made her feel uneasy and she couldn't figure out why. It was nothing new for her, only the people and the setting had changed. This was nothing different from her days before Rystain. Before Julian.

Her shower hadn't been hot enough to wash away the weirdness of it all but she ignored those feelings and carried on.

Lyra sighed, relieved that she didn't have to sit through another meeting trying understand the Italian accents. They weren't as difficult as French accents, but having been surrounded by Samantha and Julian who fluently and effortlessly paraded their French around Lyra, she was beginning to better understand it. Even if she couldn't pronounce the most simplest of words still.

No, Lyra didn't want to spend her newly acquired free time by resting. She was tired of resting. It was practically all she'd done since the accident, minus her recent dalliances. "Lunch sounds good," she said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Let me get dressed."

[Samantha Montgomery]

"Excellent." she grinned and dismissed the notepad.

"I'll let you get dressed and just inform Jensen when you're ready and I'll meet you at the carriage."

Samantha was concerned about Lyra, but at the same time she knew not to push. Lunch was a good way to catch up, and hopefully figure out what was going on with her friend.

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra knew well enough how Samantha worked. She played the politician, saying all the rights and having someone else do the dirty work. That someone was usually Nicolas. Should she have been concerned that he hadn't returned yet? Lyra shrugged the thought off. She thought he needed a good romp probably more than Lyra had, what with that massive stick up his arse.

Lyra dressed and fixed her hair. She wore a deep green dress with black lace at the top, and five inch ankle boots that Nicolas would have rolled his eyes at. She curled her hair and set a black jeweled clip at the back which pulled her hair to one side in a cascade of blonde waterfall-like waves.

The driver helped her into the carriage and she straightened the skirt of her dress out on her lap. "Where are we going?" she asked, wanting to avoid the lovely conversation she had been expecting ever since she came to in the hospital. She was surprised Samantha had been able to wait even a week before interrogating her - in that manner on Samantha could pull off.

[Samantha Montgomery]

They were quite a pair. Samantha's jet black hair and light blue eyes, in contrast with Lyra's blonde hair and green eyes. Each was arresting in their own right, but together they easily stole the attention of any room.

Samantha wore a trademark 'little black dress' and let her hair fall freely. She looked sophisticated, but sexy.

"Ambrosia?" Samantha suggested.

She didn't mean to lecture Lyra, not really, but she worried. She didn't worry about Nik, there was never any need.

[Lyra Newbury]

"Sounds lovely," she answered.

"Did you not receive my message about me coming home in time for the meeting? Or were you just wanting to get out of it anyway?" Samantha wasn't known for skipping out on work. Though she was still in school, Samantha never missed a business meeting even when they were scheduled at the same time in three different countries.

[Samantha Montgomery]

"It wasn't that important" she shrugged.

"We haven't really had much time to talk lately."

As opening lines went, it was fairly generic, but she didn't have much experience in this sort of thing.

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra rolled her eyes at the statement. There had been plenty of time to talk. Lyra was confined to bed rest for a week and spent a good portion of the following week stuck at Montgomery Manor wandering around the castle trying to find some sense of who she was. If Samantha had wanted to talk to her there had been plenty of opportunities, but no. Lyra saw Samantha's lapdog Nicolas much more frequently.

"My apologies, I suppose me nearly dying has gotten in the way of your social appointments." It came out sounding crueler than she had meant it to, but if Samantha was going to spend two weeks pretending everything was fine then Lyra felt justified in her anger.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Samantha's featured hardened by a microexpression. Samantha was far from pretending everything was fine, but she did not express her emotions easily. That didn't mean she didn't have them. Nor did she have the words to confront Lyra with her selfish actions. Nik seemed to have a better handle on the situation so Samantha stayed out of the way. Lyra talked to Nik, but Sam always seemed on the outside. She didn't like that her closest friend was closer to her quasi-fiance than to her, but it wasn't about Sam's wants, it was about what Lyra needed.

But it seemed that Nik had given up as well so Sam was hoping Lyra might open up to her instead.

Pointedly she simply stared without responding, slightly incredulous.

[Lyra Newbury]

"Don't give me that look," Lyra said, shaking her head at her friend. "What is it you expected us to catch up about? The cool new trend in IVs and blood replenishing potions?"

[Samantha Montgomery]

"Clearly that was not what I had in mind." she replied sternly, her look growing more remote and cool as Lyra spoke and made wild statements.

Lyra had no standing, Samantha had gone above and beyond in the name of friendship asking very little in return.

[Lyra Newbury]

She let out a small huff at Samantha's calm demeanor. Lyra wasn't sure why it bothered her so much that Samantha and the rest of them all had their robot personas. She'd been talking with Dr Nadeer about it a lot lately. He seemed to think she was associating their disconnect with what he called "Julian's betrayal". Lyra stopped talking to him when he brought up that man.

"Fine," she said as she looked out the window of the carriage, crossing her arms across her chest like a stubborn child.

[Samantha Montgomery]

"Perhaps you'd rather have lunch alone." Samantha offered with feigned indifference. She wasn't the person to talk to Lyra about what had happened, or ask how Lyra was feeling, Samantha wasn't equipped to help Lyra, which is why they had hired Dr. Nadeer, and most of all Sam was afraid of making things worse.

[Lyra Newbury]

Lyra was quiet for a few seconds. She didn't want to have lunch alone, she wanted to spend time with her friend who she was feeling exceptionally distant from lately. But at the same time she did want to be by herself. Lyra couldn't make up her mind lately and whenever she did it was with disastrous consequences.

"No," she answered quietly as her arms slowly loosened until her hands were resting in her lap. Lyra knew she should apologize for starting an argument. It was the right thing to do. She didn't want there to be any strain between them. So why wouldn't the words form?

[Samantha Montgomery]

Sam hesitated only for a moment, but then the carriage landed and went still in front of the restaurant. She gave a small nod before the door opened and they were escorted out of the elegant vehicle.

Sam was quiet, she didn't know what to say, "Shall we?" she asked finally.

[Lyra Newbury]

The tension in the air was high and Lyra hated it but she couldn't bring herself to say anything that would correct the matter. She was so angry at everyone, herself included, and she couldn't explain why. She didn't want to be angry. She wanted everything to go back to how it was. Lyra would rather by hiding from creditors and bill collectors again if it meant that she could have a normal relationship with Samantha once more.

She followed Samantha into the restaurant where they were seated immediately. Lyra was getting used to such service and she didn't think twice about it. She picked up the menu and stared at it.

[Samantha Montgomery]

Samantha too would have preferred for their relationship to return to what it had been, unfortunately there was no going back, they could only go forward.

She stared at the menu, though she already knew what she wanted to order, it allowed her some time to think of what to say or if she should say anything at all.