"You're holding our families hostage," Claire said. "We already knew that."
"And I wanted you to hear it from my lips, so there would be no mistakes," Amelie replied. "And now you have. I will expect you back tomorrow. Good night." Oliver shut the phone off and put it away. He said nothing to them, just moved out of the way. For a few seconds the four of them just stood there, and then Shane said, "So that's it."
"Yes," Oliver said. "Tomorrow, we return. I suggest you make the most of the time you have tonight." He turned to leave, and then looked back over his shoulder--just one, fast glance. "And I am sorry." Shane, without another word, took Claire's hand and led her to his room.
In the morning, with the sunlight falling over the two of them as dawn rose on their last day of freedom, Shane rolled over to look at her, propped himself up on an elbow, and said, "You know I love you, right?"
"I know."
"Because I suck at saying it," he said. "It's a work in progress, all this relationship stuff." She hadn't really slept all night. She'd been too busy thinking, worrying, wondering. Imagining all kinds of futures. Imagining this moment. And she felt as if she were falling from a very tall building as she asked, "Shane? Are you--are you going to come back? To Morganville?" Apart from Frank, his now-vampire dad, there was nobody Amelie could hold over his head ... nobody but Claire and Eve and Michael, and, anyway, Amelie had never really needed Shane. Claire needed him, though. With every heartbeat she needed him more. He looked at her, holding the stare for so long it felt as if the fall would go on and on, falling forever.... And then he said, very quietly, "How can I not go back? How can I let you go, Claire? We all stay, or we all go back. I'm not letting you go on your own." He touched a fingertip to her nose, startling a laugh out of her. "Somebody's got to be your bodyguard." She kissed him, and their skins warmed together in the sunlight; silently, Shane raised her right hand to his lips, and kissed her fingers and kissed the claddagh ring glittering there, that promise of the future that had so much meaning for him, in the past. And then, one more time, while they were still completely free, he told her how much he loved her. Afterward, going back to Morganville didn't seem so dark.