"Damn it, Carter!" Zia shouted, glaring at her boyfriend of three years. He glared back, his eyes hard. In the back of her mind, she winced. It caused her almost physical pain to see him look at her like that. Even more pain than she was already in...

"What did I do?" Carter demanded angrily. "You're the one who randomly started crying and yelling at me! Tell me what the Hell I did wrong."

She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around her torso, hugging herself.

"I..." she scrambled to find the words to explain her actions. She felt like such an awful person. But she hadn't been able to control herself. Her emotions had taken over her: the dread, the sense of wrong-doing... The fear.

"What?" He demanded sharply. Zia winced for real this time, not just in her mind.

"I... I'm sorry, Carter," she whispered. His face softened, his eyes losing their steel.

"Zia-" he began, (tenderness clearly replacing anger) but quickly was cut off as Zia walked towards him and pressed her lips to his, gently.

She pulled back after a second. "I'm so sorry, Carter," she repeated. Before he could stop her, she turned and rushed out of the tent, one hand over her mouth and the other over her stomach.

...This was the last time Zia Ama Rashid was seen by anybody in Brooklyn House for a long time...