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She didn't want to laugh. This was the worst time to laugh, but the idea of Lawr's d**k snapping off made her lips helplessly turn up with the threat of it. She pushed it down as far as she could, until she was only smiling, and would not laugh at such a hilarious, wonderful thought.

"I'm not going to antagonize her. I mean. Not on purpose.." Maebe's eyes flittered away guiltily; even she knew how stupid her temper made her, at times. "I'm staying away. That's the best I can do, until someone gives us an order and a way to kill her. And I don't care that she hasn't done anything bad yet. You need to accept that. You need to accept that I'm never going to be okay with this, Dawson. She's dangerous. She always will be. And I'm not going to fall for whatever little trap you're obviously knee deep in. I just hope I'm not the one saying I told you so, either."

She paused, and her eyebrows furrowed deeper in thought. Finally, she stood up off of the chair, and moved to sit down on the bed. She settled in front of him, her hands on his knees.

"Why is it so important to you that I give her a chance? Why did you even bother telling me any of this? What could you possibly gain from having me play house with you and that ******** thing? I'm not even being mad right now, Dawson." Her eyes searched his. "I really want to know."

One of his closest people.

It was meant so sweetly, and yet something about the phrase shut down the tiny thread of possibility Maebe was holding for him concerning the topic. She was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he was done speaking now, and her mind hadn't changed. The way he'd called her one of his closest people, when he'd just got done saying how the clone was a people to him as well..

It might have done more damage than good.

She sighed, slowly pulling her hands out from under his. Touching him felt raw, and painful, in that moment. "You were wrong. And you try to tell me all the time that I shouldn't think it, but I do. You have bad taste in friends, Dawson." Her lips smirked upward to one side, helplessly amused. "I'm not saying I'm going to let you get out of it. I'm just saying you could have done a lot better than me."

But his argument held no ground for her. All he did was compare her human experiences to the experiences a clone was trying to have with human emotions. It insulted her, to her core. This was how Dawson thought of her. This was as good as it got. As good as it ever would get. The care and thoughtfulness of a man whose mother taught him to be good to everyone.

That was all it ever was.

"If you talk to her, I wish you'd just do it over the phone. I can't convince you that you're making a mistake - I wish I could. I really do. But you can't convince me that that thing deserves what you're putting out, either. Because I thought-"

She hesitated, unable to verbalize her thoughts anymore. The clone had stolen from her even that, now.

"I'm not going to confront it unless I find out you're hanging out in her house full time trying to "convert it"." She used air quotations. It was very mature. "Because when you do something that stupid, I start thinking stupid, and you know what, Dawson, I'd actually rather we both not be stupid for once. And in return, I won't provoke it. Or even be a b***h to it. And I won't talk about it to other people - until Edith clears us. This isn't about your crusade anymore, Dawson. I'm trying - trying to think about everyone in general, this time. Not just the person I'm in front of at that moment."

Oh, but why did he have to go and say that.

She heard an echo, in her mind. Someone else was trying to tell her that he, too, loved her, as though his gentle words could remind her that love came in forms you didn't always want, but knew you always needed. Maebe's lips pursed tightly, and an expected shine of tears lined the rim of her eyes. She didn't want Dawson to make her feel special, just this once, because she was starting to see why he couldn't love just one person, when all he did was love the world. She would have liked to think for just this one moment, that maybe she could live with that. Maybe she didn't need to be special to him.

And then he had to go and tell her he loved her, with that wretched echo of a creature in her mind that loved her just as much, if not more. ******** them both, she thought to herself, as if she could actually stop the surge of desire flooding her heart. ******** you both, she told Thaw, who made a rumbled sound of pleasure at the insincerity of her words.

She loved them, too.

"Okay. I'll stop thinking I'm awful, and you stop trying to help that clone, and we'll both make wonderful choices and flounce off and be happy forever." Her pursed lips tilted upward at the edges, no matter how badly she tried to pull them down. "Actually, I'm being the more reasonable one here. At least I'm not going to continue to try and convince you that you're a lunkhead about all of this. You're just going to spend the rest of our lives trying to convince me that I'm the lady you think I am." She reached out and knocked his forehead with her knuckles. "Now who's the hardhead?"

Maebe's face slammed into his stomach and was lost in its softness, as he hugged her against himself. Her arms flailed for a moment, and then went limp, falling like a rag doll the way she often did. But he was right, and there was no denying it anymore. The two of them were the hardest of heads, and butting against one another made no dents on either side. Only loud clanging sounds.

Her teeth bared, and she very carefully found a section of his stomach, shirt and all. She pulled it between her teeth, until her mouth felt full with it, and bit.

"NO." Whoops. That had been a little too loud, a little too desperately excited. Dawson sleeping over meant she would have a good night's sleep, and she needed that more than anything in the world. Still, she didn't like admitting it, and the flush of embarrassment colored her pale features even as she ducked her head and punched him in the shoulder.

"I mean. No, I won't bite you. Stay over. You can't sleep on the floor anymore, though. You've been upgraded to bed duty. This is not optional service." She tried to sound as clerical as possible, just to get the point clear. Her head lifted, and she looked at his shirt. It had wrinkles where she'd bitten, and it made her grin.

"Do you want to get jammies first?"

Dawson needed a good pair of pajamas. Real fluffy ones. She told herself she'd buy them when she bought him a shirt.

She held up the empty wrapper of Hershey's with Almonds.

On any given day, there was no telling what Dawson might have heard coming from Maebe's room when she was alone. It wasn't unlike her to burst into tears when she came to a realization, or had finished a rather painful conversation with him. It wasn't terribly unlikely to hear her scream, or break something, or even type angrily on her phone.

But today, all that came from Maebe after talking to him was a long, exhausted sigh, followed by the padding of feet as she got up and quietly walked over to her dresser. She opened it, pulled out her footie pajamas, and started to undress so she could put them on.

Today was a self-indulgent kind of day. Even though a part of her tried it's best to convince her that some kind of sexy nightie would be smarter to sleep with against Dawson, if only in the hopes of igniting a spark that had been confirmed unavailable, she decided today was for comfort, and for much needed sleep.

So she pulled out her alpaca pajamas after stripping down to her underwear, and began to pull them over her feet.