“Hey stranger,” Bobbie said as I sat down at my table. “Where have you been keeping yourself?”“Evening Bobbie. I have been traveling a bit. ...Customer wanted my physical presence rather than using technology so I had to go to New York for a couple of weeks.”“That sounds like fun. You get out much?”“A bit. Found a couple of nice places to hang my hat, and the food was good.”“Great. Welcome home. You waiting on someone?”“Yes. Her name is Robin.”“Runner? About five-eight?”“That would be here.”“You. She hadn’t turned into a doxy now that the bargain was sealed. He didn’t want temporary monopoly on a doxy; he wanted total possession of a pure girl. She’d go with other men when he was done with her, and why not? But he would share her with not even a memory while she was his.Bessie had agreed to this with her eyes open. It meant pain once, but she had known pain. It meant eating for the next year, eating for the rest of her life if he kept those promises. Had he thrown her down on the couch. "She nodded sadly, but I took her hand."I have something for you," I told her. "Ilsa had me write a letter to you, and she made me promise to give it to you afterward."I handed her the envelope and she started to open it. I stood to leave, not only to give her privacy but because I knew I'd start crying as soon as she started to read it.Katya took my hand and asked me to stay.I managed to avoid crying outright, but a tear sneaked down my cheek as Katya read her daughter's words. Mostly, I just. We had been in a firefight with the ogres, and I thought that she had been killed since she was not around when we were able to reorganize our defenses and drive off the ogres. I assumed that she had been captured, but I had no hard evidence for that. She told me that she had been able to hide from the attacking ogres, but she had gotten lost when she tried to make it back to our base. That was the reason that she was just now showing up, and the first thing she wanted was some Earth-type.