The walk to the RDI had been uneventful. It was still dark out, the moon had gone to bed and the sun hadn't quite woken up. The sky was inky black with a million stars looking down and watching our little red headed friend.

The ground was still wet with dew. Her Keds were already soaked, with the cold moisture puckering the skin of her toes. "That's it, soak up all the coolness you can now, it's going to be blazing hot later," she thinks with a grin.

Just before Rosie reaches the porch of the RDI she spies a single daisy growing near the sidewalk. She reaches down and plucks it from the ground, then rises up, gently pressing it's petals to her nose for a quick sniff.

Enter Natalia... again.

Rosie drops the daisy and crushes it under her feet as the Hunter seemed to appear from no where. The honey sweet words of Natalia were starting to work thier magic on her again. Gentle admonishes for telling of their little one sided tryst brought Rosie to her senses.

"I cannot and will not lie to Dakota."

She had taken another step back, straightening her shoulders and stiffening her spine, her chin jutted out in an utter act of defiance.

That did not go over well with Natalia, not at all. Just in the blink of an eye, the hunter was grabbing Rosie's face hard, squeezing visciously. Natalia's voice hissing something about her ability to pretty much do with Rosie as she liked.

And then it was over. Just that quickly, Natalia uttered more syrupy sweet words into Rosie's ear, then vanished into the fading night.