"Jean's not thinking too highly of herself right now."Toby shrugged. "So she needs me." Maybe." Beth waved it off -- Toby would do as he thought best.... "Should I wait dinner?" No." Rick is spending the night." He can use my bed," Toby offered."But he won't," Beth replied, dimpling."Okay." Toby smiled back. Then he went serious. "I'm going to get even with Lon over this."Beth pursed her lips. "This isn't a black and white thing, Son. It's a shades of grey thing. Lon ... could have done a lot. When the countdown to arrival hit zero, it was an anticlimax of galactic proportions. They had vanished. Their technology remained, dead Reapers remained scattered throughout the galaxy, and the damage they had already inflicted through their incursions did not suddenly heal, but when scouts reported back from the galactic shore, they told the same story. They were gone.Commander Jane Shepard and her crew were just as surprised as anyone. Shepard herself was more than a little embarrassed, but. Smelling coffee, he assumed that the women were already up.As he walked into the kitchen, Connie was setting the table. "I guess none of us could sleep late today, huh?" he said.Connie put the plates down and stepped into his arms. "I woke up early and so did Denise. Did we wake you?"Jeremy grinned at the pretty redhead, "Nah. I tossed and turned, as they say, for the last couple of hours, then just gave up, off day or not." We're all worried," Denise said as she broke eggs into a bowl to. Smack.... smack.... smack.... smack.... smack.... Each of the five times, the meter read 14."Now that is proper paddling," the announcer said, "Number 287 really knows how to use that paddle." Evelyn watched closely as the black slave turned as was led into the darkness. She looked so familiar to her. Almost like someone she knew from her college days, but she couldn't place the face..., and why would she know a slave?The cycle continued with slave after slave, each taking their place on the.