"Your tower, I presume."

I started swearing a blue streak. She let me go on for a while.

"You've been back and forth enough times," she said. "You're ready."

"I don't have a clue how to get there," I told her. "And you both know it."

"When this day is over," she said. "Remember. We both love you and we'll forgive the things you say today."

Petra reappeared, took two steps up to me, and slapped the back of my head. I turned to slash at her with the wooden sword, but she disappeared again.

"You bitch!" I screamed.

"She can't hear you," Andrea said. "But the people in the hall probably can."

Petra appeared, slapped my head, and disappeared again.

"Envision the tower," Andrea said. "Think about what it looks like, what it smells like, what it feels like to be there."

Petra appeared. I slashed at her, but she ducked and kicked my leg. I absorbed it and rolled away, slashing with the sword again, but she disappeared.

"Shit!" I said.

"You want to kick her ass," Andrea said. "You're going to have to catch her."

"We both know, even if I learn how to teleport, or whatever it is you expect me to do, she'll be faster than I am."

"She wants you to catch her."

Petra appeared, blocked my strike, then slapped my wounded arm before disappearing.

I hissed.

"Imagine the tower," she said again.

I turned to her and began stalking her.

"If you chase me out, you'll be stuck figuring it out alone. I can disappear as easily as she can, but where I go, you can't follow. You catch her, then you come back here, and I'll be waiting."

Petra appeared, kicked my leg, and disappeared.

I hissed, this time in frustration.

"She's going to keep doing that until you follow her," she said. "She is at least as stubborn as you are and she loves you deeply."

"Sure looks like it," I said.

"What the hell do you think the last two months have been about?" Andrea asked.

I stared at her. Petra appeared and hit me again, and I ignored her. She disappeared.

"I don't know," I finally told Andrea. "I don't know anything anymore."

"Think of the tower," Andrea said. "The feel of the floor. The quality of the light."

Petra appeared, but I was already swinging before she could hit me. She barely blocked it, and I began slicing at her with the sword as fast as I could. She backed away, blocking, until she disappeared. I followed her.

To the tower.

I stared around me. She was several feet away watching me.

"You did it," she said. "Felicia, you did it!"

I turned to her and began stalking her with the sword.

"Oh shit," she said. "Dojo!"

And she disappeared. I followed her, back to the dojo.

She bounced back to the tower, then to the dojo, always a few steps ahead of me. But I realized something. She continually appeared in the tower in the same place, facing the same way. I however, did not.

The next time she left the dojo, I left at the same time, and I was already swinging the sword before I appeared in the tower immediately behind her. I scored a slicing blow with the wooden sword from her arm, across her back, and down her buttocks.

She fell and screamed.

"Oh shit! Petra!" I dropped the sword and rushed to her. Even with the dull wood, I'd slashed her arm open something fierce.

She looked up at me. "Get Andrea. I can't heal it. Get Andrea. I love you. Go."

Tears started pouring from my eyes. I'd hurt her! But I thought of the dojo and was immediately there.

"Oh god, Andrea, I hurt her. She's in my tower."

"Go back," she said. "Meet me at the bottom. I can't get in; you have to let me in. Can you do that?"

I nodded.

She disappeared. I went back to the tower.

Petra was trying to clutch her arm, which was bleeding badly. I ran for the wall and opened the door, then ran downstairs and opened the other one. Andrea was waiting for me. She ran up the stairs and straight to Petra.

"Just the arm?" she asked?

Petra nodded.

Andrea clamped her hands on the torn muscle. Petra screamed. Andrea's hands started to glow.

"I'm so sorry," I said, "So sorry, so sorry."

"She'll be fine," Andrea said.

Petra stopped struggling and became calmer and calmer.

"Is she dying?" I asked.

"No," Petra said. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

Andrea pulled her hands away and looked at Petra's arm. There was blood on her arm and on Andrea's hands. "All better," she said.

I walked over to Petra. "I'm so sorry," I told her.

She pulled me into her arms and hugged me. Then she kissed me. I kissed her back, somewhat tentatively.

"Your turn," Andrea said. "Let me see.

"I have to take my shirt off," I told her. She stared me down, and I unbuttoned the shirt and let her help me take it off. Then she peeled off the bandage, wrapped her hands around the wound, and her hands began to glow. The arm stopped hurting almost immediately.

"Shouldn't you have worried about infection?" I asked.

She smiled. "I did. No infection." She paused. "Still want to kick my ass?"

"No," I said meekly.

"Still resigning?"

"As if you still want me."

"You had every right to be angry," she said. "Are you still angry?"

"No."

The three of us looked at each other. "We're a mess," I said.

"There are showers at the dojo," Petra said. "May I suggest we go use them?"

DisciplineWe showered and got dressed. "I sort of made a pretty public scene."

"It wasn't that bad," Petra said.

"You didn't hear the things I said, rather loudly, every time you disappeared."

"You weren't very eloquent," Andrea said. "You need to work on that."

"You're making jokes while I'm asking whether you have to fire me?" I asked her. "I'm sure half the office stood outside the door listening and heard everything I yelled. At the very worst they're all upstairs in their dojo clothes, wondering what this was all about."

"No one stood outside," Andrea said. "I told Karen to get them all off the floor. The office will gossip but accept the explanation that there was a personal disagreement that has been handled. Karen will need to know more than that."

"Do you want me to fire you?" Petra asked.

I looked at the floor. "Not anymore." I looked up. "I've never enjoyed a job like I enjoy this one."

"Might I suggest," said Andrea, "that the three of us go somewhere quiet for lunch? Then the two of you should take the afternoon off."

"Excellent suggestion," said Petra. The two of them looked at me.

I walked over and stood in front of Petra. "I want to know something."

"Yes?"

"You said you couldn't kiss me until I learned to travel back and forth on my own."

She nodded.

I lifted my chin and closed my eyes. Then I waited.

But only for a moment before I felt her hands touching me gently. One hand on my cheek, the other at the back of my neck. She lifted my face further towards hers, and when our lips touched, my knees grew week. I put my arms around her neck, and when her tongue sought entrance, I parted for her.

It was a long, thorough kiss, full of promises and forgiveness. When she finally pulled away, I hung from her for a moment, my head resting on her shoulder.

"Mine," she said.

"Yours," I agreed.

Andrea cleared her throat.

"No one is making you watch," I said.

She laughed. "We should let people come back in and change. And frankly, I'm starving."

We left the dojo together and climbed two flights of stairs to our offices. I studiously avoided looking at anyone. Petra said something to Karen. Petra and Andrea both collected their purses and locked their office doors, and we headed downstairs. Andrea led us on a short walk to a restaurant nearby. She talked to the hostess and we got a table that was well isolated from any prying ears.

I set next to Petra and the moment we were seated, grabbed her hand and held it under the table.

I was too dazed to even look at the menu. Petra ordered for me. The waitress brought us our soft drinks and then we sat there staring at each other for a moment.

Finally I looked up at Petra. "Are we dating now?"

She smiled. "I certainly hope so."

"Openly?"

She thought about it. "I would prefer we maintain a certain level of professionalism at the office."

"Does that mean we're hiding? I am not interested in sneaking around."

"No, but at the office, we're professional," she said.

"Is there a company policy?"