after all is said and done....

Mister Neutrino slept with me two nights, then he was gone. Another one of his disappearin' acts. Maybe he wasn't comfortable on the shelter cot, but if that was the case, he should have said something. I had some extra pillows and sometimes, if there's an extra cot, we stack one on the other and it feels something more like a bed. But he didn't say nothing. He was, in fact, gone when I woke up. Suprised me, really. I was kinda lookin' forward to having some coffee with him, and some of the strawberries I've just got in. But no, I waked up, looked across the room where he was when I went to sleep, and he wasn't there. Cot was all made up. Not a sign of him. I don't know when he left, or where he went.

Some girl, forget her name, blonde girl with not enough clothes on, came by asking if I'd seen him. She said someone told her he might be in the shelter. She didn't look like she'd ever seen the inside of a shelter, thats for sure. I took an instant dislike to her, not sure why. I'll think of a reason later. But she just rubbed me the wrong way, showin' up lookin' for him. Anyway, I told her he weren't there, and she said "That's good!" and left. Not sure what's good about it. I really did want to have coffee and watch him wake up.I ain't seen him wake up since that time in the woods.

I saw him that very night, and he didn't say more'n two words to me. Well, he said a lot more than two but they t'weren't very nice. Me and Imrhien was out for a cruise and got shot down over the Wastes over on Hale's Moon. We found shelter soon enough, and didn't run into any scary things that could eat us and kill us (in that order), but we did get buzzed by Alliance ships. Okay, it was more than buzzed. It was shot at. But, we didn't do half bad. Imr is a natural born leader, coordinating the defensive maneuvers, even her body language was signal which way to go. I did a lot of sneakin around and drawing fire (which is probably what Mr. Neutrino most objected to), but to tell the truth it was exhilarating, and I never felt more alive in a long time.

I spent most of the day, other than gettin' shot at, up in a tree guardin' Miss Jayne. I hope she hears what I tell her, and remembers it when the time comes.