"I doubt you'll find it on the next date," Taylor said with an easy grin. "Have a good night, Sera. Same time next week?"

"Sounds good to me." Sera smiled and got out. "See you later."

Taylor waited until Sera was inside before backing out of the driveway again and heading home.

"So how did your date go?" Sera asked as she went to grab a water from the fridge, looking over at Rose. "And thanks for feeding everyone, by the way."

"No problem," Rose replied. She grinned a bit. "It was nice. We went to a little local Italian place, and then out to the park."

"That sounds like fun," Sera said with a smile. "Taylor picked me up a little after you left, and we went to a burger place. We had onion rings, chatted about books and music and things. Then we went to go see a horror movie and we made fun of it the entire time. Apparently he has a tattoo, but he won't tell me about it."

"And I know how much you like men with tattoos," Rose teased. She considered telling Sera about the little strange things she thought she saw, but decided against it for the moment. She was probably just tired, and had been seeing things.

"Oh hush." Sera rolled her eyes. "I think I'm going to go to bed, hang out with the rats for a bit."

"Alright," Rose said. "I'm probably going to crash in a little while myself."

"I figured. We've got work tomorrow, which sucks. Oh well." Sera sighed.

"Yeah," Rose replied. She got up from her favorite chair and stretched. "I guess I'll head to bed, too."

"Night!" Sera retreated to her room to go play with the rats for a while before bed.

"Night," Rose replied, picking up her dad's cat. Heading into her room, she settled in for the night.

Mid-way through the week, Sera escaped from work to meet Rose for lunch at the zoo. She went over to the research center, grinning. "Oh Rooooooose!"

"Sera, did they just stop telling you to go away or what?" Rose asked. Sera used to complain about getting stopped at the door, but it hadn't been happening recently.

"They figured out I was with you, and they stopped telling me to go away or wait for you to come out." Sera's grin was impish.

"You may as well ask them to give you a permanent visitor's pass," Rose said as she set aside her work for the moment. Lunch sounded good.

"I think they all know me by now," Sera said with a shrug. "Come on, let's go get food."

"Alright," Rose said, getting up. "Where do you want to get lunch today?"

"Hamburger stand today? Meat sounds good right now." Sera sighed. "Eliza-bitch is giving me hell again."

"Then instead of hamburgers now, we should go out to a steakhouse tonight," Rose suggested. "Better satisfaction and all that."

"True. So what shall we eat now? I know there's the little Mexican place here, and their food isn't bad." Sera shrugged.

"Doesn't matter to me where we go," Rose replied. By now, she'd been to every place in the zoo that served food.

"Mexican it is." Sera grinned and linked her arm through Rose's to go get lunch.

Rose grinned and walked with her.

"So, what was Eliza doing today that set you off?" she asked.