"Thanks for that."

"You're welcome!"

And after dinner:

"Time to go to the train station now."

"Great," he practically bounces off the chair and after Alex.

And Alex drives them to the station -

- and Isabella steps off a train.

And Sadde practically runs towards her. "Hello, ma'am."

And she kisses him, hard. "Lovely. You feeling better?"

"Now? Like heaven. Or like my dom's someone who'd do a better job at the whole 'heaven' thing."

"I love you so much." She clips his leash on. "Alex, where're we parked?"

They go to where they are parked and she tugs Sadde into the backseat with her.

Eeeeeeeee. "I love you very much, too." He leans against her and grins. "...and now the world is safe again."

Squeeze. "...feels safe, maybe."

He nods against her shoulder. "Mmhm," he says, nuzzling.

She doesn't let go of him the whole ride home, and tugs him inside when they get there, and then resumes snuggling on the couch.

Snuggles!

"So now we have an actual plan that might actually work to make everything alright."

"That's good. I hope it all works out."

"Me, too. Your mom said the lawyer would get to her on whether I could go back to school while the process isn't finished."

"Wouldn't that be nice," she sighs. Squeeze.

"Yooou don't sound as hopeful."

"I'm hopeful, but I don't know what the actual odds are."

"Yeah, fair enough. I guess I'm still—happy that they're nonzero."

"Me too. You deserve for it to work, you deserve to never have to go back."

He shrugs a bit into the snuggle. "I don't really think of it in terms of deserving, but yeah."

"I don't think of most things in terms of desert either but for this it seems to fit."

"Why?"