Bella winced as a ray of golden light shone through the window. God, last night was a blur. And something told her she wouldn't want to try and remember it.

"Wakey wakey", Robert cheered.

"Why 'wakey wakey', can't it be... Sleepy, sleepy?" Bella answered, and pulled the pillow over her head. Playfully he snatched it off her and threw it across the room. He smiled, but in his eyes Bella could see he was worried, and hadn't slept. "What is it?" he asked, seeing her concern.

"You haven't slept', she commented. 'Why?"

"Just..." he replied, starting to wander around the room, picking up random objects and putting them back again. "Worried. About you".

"Robert, what's wrong with me? What's worrying you?" She hopped out of the bed and held him by the shoulders so he looked at her. "C'mon".

"Nothing. You had a bit of exhaustion, and a bit of alcohol".

"Then why aren't you sleeping? Robert", she said, still holding him in place. "I'm not an alcoholic".

"Never said you were", he answered. "I don't want anything to happen to you though. I... love you". Bella blushed slightly, and he looked away for a moment.

"Hey, hey. Look at me", Bella whispered, moving her hand to his cheek, so he regained eye contact with her. "I'm fine".

"Promise?"

"Promise", she replied. "Now c'mon, let's go".

:/:

Everyone, except Olalla was in the lab, listening to Ravi explain something about the monsters in the Jezequel book. She sat alone with only the crackling of the fire keeping her company. Well, that was until the heavy footsteps of Bella and Jekyll accompanied her.

"Five minutes", she muttered to herself. "Just five damn minutes of peace I ask for".

"How's it?" asked Bella.

"Fine. Everyone's downstairs if you want to join them".

"You go ahead Bella", Robert said. "I'll be there in a minute". With a nod, she headed off down the stairs and into the lab.

"So what do you want then?" Olalla enquired, resting her head on the chair.

"Nothing, nothing".

"Wrong. Try again".

"What you thinking about?"

"...Nothing".

"Wrong. Try again", Robert chuckled, but ended abruptly when he saw that Olalla wasn't laughing with him. "But- Doesn't matter. Ignore me". He then started to walk away.

"What if Keres's 'Life for the ring' deal involves someone we know?"

"I would have thought so".

"No, no, not killing someone. Queen Vampires have the ability to raise the dead. What if she's offering us Max, Adelie, Ginny, Jack Burton, or, just thinking outside the box here, Lottie's Hyde side?"

"Well, this is the last day, dears", a voice said from opposite Olalla. In the other armchair was Keres. Her twisted black heels had been deposited on the tiles, and she had slung her legs over the arm. "So better start deciding quick".

"Ah, Keres. Intruding now, are we? How the Hell did you even get in?" She smiled for a minute.

"In-tru-da window?"

"Don't be clever with us", Olalla said, annoyed.

"Because you're so clever, aren't you? Intelligence comes from leadership, not killing your boyfriend so you can be part of a club".

"I did i-"

"I know why you did it; to get Dance's trust", she lulled, pulling back her ebony hair. "But I lost twenty quid and four of my best vampires to some shapeshifting hound in that bet".

"Bet? What bet?"

"Dance would never trust you. He never trusted anyone apart from his Vetala. And they were a part of him. So, just to make a dreary Monday morning a bit more fun, we all took bets to see if you would actually do it".

"That's, that's... Not right".

"Well, of course it's not right. But I mean look at me", she lilted, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm the Countess of 'Not Right'.

"You have an awful lot of titles, don't you?" Robert thought to himself, then realised that half of the labels he associated with her were actually made up.

"I set this deal up five days ago at exactly four o'clock. At one past four, this deal will cease to exist. No going back", she explained, for about the fourteenth time. "So, what do you say?"

"What is the 'life'?"

"Anyone of your choosing, whether it be alive or dead, will come back to your side as soon as the ring is in my hand". This was tempting. To see Hils's face if she saw Max back in his leather desk chair at his lawyer's office, or Bella's if she had her girls back together, would be worth every demon object on Earth. But... they wouldn't want him to bring them back that way. It would be a deal with the devil, literally.

"No, thank you", Robert said finally. "I don't want your deal".

"Fair enough. But", she replied, teleportation energy shrouding her in a purple veil. "Don't regret it later".

4:00pm, Tenebrae HQ

"So", Dance started, released from his chains. "Jekyll didn't go along with your little game, did he?" Keres snarled at him, fangs pointed like needles.

"I'll take that as a no".

"He doesn't know what I'm capable of", Keres said in a low growl. "He thinks I am a joke".

"Then why not tell him otherwise?"

"You are a novice, aren't you?" Keres laughed. "Jekyll cannot be hurt physically, but his mind is weak. I could destroy every person in that household if I wished. They are all mere, and they are all mortals".

"Did you really lose twenty pounds to Brant Jezequel? That mutt wouldn't know a good bet if it came up and smacked him in the muzzle".

"I gave him a deal", she smiled. "And he accepted".

"Always the deals with you, isn't it?"

"Oh, but my pacts are personalised, dear. I simply offered him a way out of his family responsibility for the quick death of Maxwell Utterson".

"Jekyll's friend?"

"Of course", Keres shrugged and straightened out the satin on one of the alters. "I haven't been straight with you, Dance, and I'm sorry. But I will explain, just after the next move in my plan".

4:01. The Jekyll/Hyde Household

"And..." Robert started, staring at the clock. "It's over".

"Thank God for that, then", Bella replied. "See, not all that bad". She grabbed a mug of tea off the table and took a swig of it. "Just isn't the same as sherry". She coughed once, then again, then again, causing much alarm in the doctors of the household.

"She's choking, boy", Garson said to Robert and he immediately put a hand to her back to try and dislodge whatever was in her throat.

"No, not choking. Asphyxiation", Robert answered, panicked.

"Robert, English please. What's asphyxiation?" Lottie asked, trying to keep calm.

"Lack of oxygen", Robert replied. "She needs an oxygen tank, mask, something".

"Go on then", Garson said. "You get the tank, I'll look after her".

"I don't have one".

"What sort of doctor doesn't have an oxygen tank?"

"The unpractised kind?"

"What?!"

"My first day at the practise, the roof fell in". Bella continued to choke in the background of this conversation, and accidentally hit out at Jekyll while trying to fight for breath. Full of panic and a touch of mania, Hyde managed to emerge.

"Is this a bad time?" he quipped, seeing his girlfriend spluttering in front of him.

"Oh, well, this is shaping up to be amazing", Garson muttered, noticing he was now the only qualified doctor in the room. "Get her oxygen. Now Hyde".
Hyde looked rather confused, then pondered it for a moment, before crashing his lips into Bella's.

"Now's really not the time, brother", Olalla commented quietly. However Bella breathed slightly, landing onto the stairs.

"And who said I was useless at domestic stuff", Hyde murmured, pulling Bella to her feet, before she fainted again.

He hurried her upstairs, realising the parallels between himself and his other self. Placing her gently in a bed, he sighed with relief as he heard her quiet breathing among the silence. However something else distracted him from this. Written on the window in the condensation brought about by the cold weather, were the words: 'Now it's over'.