Jessica Day grimaced to herself as she looked through the window of the retirement home that Dess had gone to. Somehow she'd managed to track her old friend back to this decrepit place in the middle of Bixby. She sighed, looking over to the bed where the girl- no, woman- laid. Jess wished that she would be awake to see the still-young face of someone she'd left behind years ago. Of course she was asleep at this hour. What kind of sixty-five year old was awake at midnight?

Jess couldn't believe that it'd been a whole fifty years since she'd been trapped in the secret hour. Jonathan had died when he was thirty in a car crash. Melissa had tested her limits of mind-casting and had driven herself crazy in the process. As far as Jess could figure, Rex was nowhere to be found. All that was left of her past was this wrinkly old woman in front of her.

She made her decision, and before she could change her mind, pushed the unlocked window open and climbed in. Jess walked over to the bed and gently shook Dess's arm.

She mumbled sleepily, "Go away, Anne, bingo's not for 5314 seconds," and turned over, her back facing Jess.

"Dess, please. Wake up."

"What?" she said, rolling onto her back and scrubbing her eyes. "What time is it?"

"It's midnight, Dess. Real midnight."

Dess looked up at Jess. "Jessica? What- Why're you here?" Jessica winced. It looked like she wasn't getting a warm welcome from her old friend. "I wanted to see how you were, Dess." Jess turned away, walking back to the window. "But obviously, you don't want to see me here. I'll leave."

"Wait, Jessica, I didn't-"

"Whatever," she said, climbing back into the moonlight.

She had no one left to turn to.

Sure, some of the newer Midnighters were nice, but she knew that they all thought she was weird and talked about her when she couldn't hear. And she was weird. She'd barely aged while her friends grew up. She'd hoped blindly that she'd find a Dess that would work out complicated math problems and accept Jess, not one that mumbled about bingo.

Jess couldn't bear the thought of watching another generation of Midnighters die. She wouldn't.

The next night, Jess appeared in the dessert, where most the darklings hid themselves. Bracing herself, she closed her eyes and laid down on the sand. She had brought no weapons with her, not even a tridecalogism with her.

Her last thoughts as her vision went black were 'at least I'll be with Jonathan.'

A/N: Depressing, right? Just in case you're wondering, fifty years for Jess would be about 2 and 1/10 years. Sucks to be her. Anyway, reviews are nice and make me feel happy. So please review cause I like happiness! Unless you're randomly flaming, then go away.