Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Gizmo! There you are!"

The gangly man looked up from his spot with a raised eyebrow.

"Good evening, Toni. What's the matter?"

"It's Rufus."

"Unsurprising."

"Yes," Toni huffed. There was an odd timbre in her voice that caused Gizmo's other eyebrow to quirk with curiosity.

"I can't believe I'm saying it either, but I'm actually worried."

Gizmo sat up a little straighter and schooled his face into a professional expression.

"What did he do?"

Toni took a deep breath and fished a cigarette from out of her pockets.

"I don't know. He built some kind of catapult or something. It didn't work obviously and smacked him straight into the wall." The cigarette crumpled under Toni's fingers. 

"It was funny at first, but, Gizmo," here her voice dropped, "He's not waking up. It's been… it's been too long."

Understanding Gizmo nodded and stood up. "I'll take a look." 

He walked past the woman and left the room, destination clear. Toni lingered back for a single moment more. She stared down the cigarette like it was a challenge before letting out a deep sigh.

"If he survives this, I'm gonna kill him."

🔨

"Easy…" 

The soft-spoken suggestion was drowned by a groan as Rufus tried to sit up. "Don't- well nevermind. How many fingers am I holding up?" 

Rufus blinked, completely dazed before he turned his attention to the other man. 

"Drölf"

"That bad, huh?"

The fact that no further comment followed was enough to set off Gizmo's alarm bellowed for sure.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"I…" the younger man began to sway uneasily and Gizmo lurched forward to steady him, "Stay with me, Rufus!"

It was at that moment when Gizmo noticed a trickle of blood just hidden beneath Rufus's fringe. 

"This is bad-" "Tell Toni, I-" "Really, really bad" "Did de dishus."

Gizmo watched on with worried eyes as Rufus seemed to succumb to unconsciousness again. His eyes rested on the rise and fall of Rufus’s chest as Gizmo evaluated what little information he’d managed to gather. 

🧰

When Gizmo came back all eyes were on him expectantly. The gathering was small in number, but still somehow half of Kuvaq had managed to turn up, driven by curiosity. 

With a deep sigh Gizmo cleaned off a suspicious bloodstain by wiping his gloves on his trousers before turning his attention to Toni. 

“He’s delirious. I’m gonna need your help to get him in my clinic.” He checked whether the stain was gone and then put his arms akimbo, “and I’d rather have that happen sooner than later. I appreciate your help, everyone.” 

Toni exchanged a glance with Wenzel before the tiny man piped up, “Rufus is always delirious-” but when Gizmo shot him a look Wenzel suddenly became a lot more timid and turned to scram with a nervous “I’ll get the stretcher.” 

🩹

The next time Rufus woke, it was with a groan and a yawn and the need to hurl. 

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Gizmo's voice mocked him. 

When Rufus tried to sit up the doc immediately forced him back down.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Gizmo warned, "Granted, that applies to most things you do."

Not really feeling it just yet with the dizziness winning over, Rufus complied (for now) and lay back down.

"What am I doing here? I got things to do, places to be. You know El-"

"Elysium, yes, we all know," Gizmo cut him off. "But you're not going anywhere anytime soon. You cracked open your cranium, you fool." 

"Lässig!" 

"No, it’s not! I had to implant a metal plate so your big numbskull would have a chance to heal!"

At this Rufus stilled, his face morphing into a contemplating frown. "Will this ruin any plans I might have had with the magnetic core?" 

Gizmo pulled a ragged chair closer and sat, his eyes never leaving the troublemaker. 

"Let me dress in blue and ask you again if I really wanna know." 

"I guess not," Rufus bailed, making a big point of looking anywhere but his doctor.

Now Gizmo would have let it slide right then and there if it weren’t for Rufus's face taking on an expression that the doctor/police-officer/fireman knew all too well - the meaning behind it almost worse than if Rufus were cooking up a new ploy.

"Actually, you know what? You can do some investigating for me!” Rufus suggested suddenly, no prompting necessary, “This should have worked! Which means someone sabotaged me!"

"Pah!" Gizmo exclaimed, "Why would anyone here sabotage you? You know we'd all be… happy for you to succeed. Finally."

At this Rufus finally looked at Gizmo and raised an eyebrow, as if for once he was actually putting together just what that meant. But when he spoke up next, he was whining. 

"No…" ...because of course, he would. "All you ever do is insist that it won't work! Someone just couldn't bear the thought that I was right this time! My bet's on Toni by the way, she's prolly still miffed that I wasn't gonna take-" 

"Hold up right there!" Gizmo stopped him in his tracks, "Toni was the one who alerted me to your case! Do you know that without her you'd probably be dead by now?"

Rufus blinked disbelievingly before his posture wilted and he stared at the blank wall instead.

"I don't wanna die."

Good, good. Gizmo crossed his arms and relaxed a bit in his seat. 

"And neither of us want you to." 

The following silence was deafening, so Gizmo chose to fill it, "You had us actually worried today."

…

"But it should have worked!"  

Gizmo saw the frustration building up in Rufus's face and decided he didn't want to deal with it.

"I know," he conceded and stood with resignation to give the man some space. "Like aaaall your other attempts. I know."

⚙️

Now, the good thing about keeping watch over Rufus whenever he hurt himself (again), was that Gizmo could rest assured none of his other jobs would become mandatory anytime soon. 

The bad thing about keeping watch over Rufus whenever he hurt himself (again), was that he would. Not. Listen. To anything, he was being told. 

To that man “Stay” and “Rest” would sound like “Sneak away whenever YOU try to do the-very-same™” or, really, just happened to turn your back. More often than not that would end up in Gizmo either finding Rufus rummaging through his garbage bin or collecting him loitering somewhere outside and annoying someone else. 

As was the case today. 

“Rufus!” a very agitated Gizmo yelled over the courtyard. 

“Uh-Oh.” 

“Get back here!” 

The man in question who had up to that point been in a (mocking) conversation with Wenzel turned around to glimpse at the doctor. 

“Uuuh, behind you! A three-headed wombat!” 

“Rufus, I swear, if you start seeing things-” 

“Am not! I’m just kidding,” the man huffed and stuffed his hands into his pockets like a petulant child. 

“Was too!” he muttered to himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have dumped the radioactive waste down the western heap two weeks ago. 

Seeing as the ‘patient’ was still reluctant to come over, Gizmo doubled down. 

“I need to change your bandages.” 

Rufus did not comment on that, though he did make sure to pull an even bigger frown than before and Wenzel, already annoyed by their conversation, wasn’t going to back him up. 

“You really should listen to the doctor, Rufus.” 

“Yeah, right,” Rufus scoffed and casually poked Wenzel in the brow, “If you really wanna help, think about my offer.” 

“Whatever you say, Rufus.” 

With that said, Rufus headed back to Gizmo who kept a suspicious eye on the man. 

“Need I be worried about this kind of ‘offer’?” he pressed, clearly unamused. (Not like Rufus was going to tell him anyway.)

“Tsk! It’s not like you’re gonna help me,” (Bingo) “But I’m gonna find out who-done-it!” 

With that, Rufus walked past Gizmo and headed straight for the emergency-station.

The doctor and Wenzel exchanged a quick look before Wenzel offered a helpless shrug.

Both knew that by this point there was no getting Rufus off the track he'd chosen to steer. Now it was only a matter of delicate damage control. 

💣

The ruckus could be heard across town long before the first platypus had even crawled from its nest. Gizmo pulled the pillow over his ears a little tighter. He knew he'd have to step in rather sooner than later, but WHY for the love of Elysium did Rufus have to pick his quarrels with Toni at 5 frigging AM?!

Maybe it was time Gizmo reconsidered his life choices.

The sound of a window shattering rattled outside and in a matter of seconds, the resulting noise had multiplied.

His police-radio ran off with the first complaints and reluctantly Gizmo submitted to his fate.

🚨

"But, honey-" 

"Don't you 'honeyboo' me!" 

"Please, I didn't mean it like that!"

"You. DIDN'T. MEan IT-"

"Tooooniiii!!!"

That was the sound of a shelf toppling over and Gizmo just barely dodged a wrench flying through the demolished window.

Yup. That wall was bound to be replaced. Again. In the very near future. 

Shortly after the wrench, a dazed Rufus toppled backward out of the door and just barely caught himself in the railing. Gizmo tilted his head at him, with a knowing frown.

"You really tried to pin this on her."

Rufus responded only with a groan and an angry scowl like Gizmo had just pulled a switch. "She's the only other one who had access to the backyard!"

“Need I remind you, that you’re in terrific luck that she could?” 

Rufus huffed indignantly and pushed himself back onto his feet, right as a furious Toni stomped out of the house. 

“Gizmo!” she belted, “I’m going to need you to turn a blind eye, just this once, because I’m gonna snap his sorry excuse of a neck!” 

“You know I can’t-” Gizmo attempted to plead with her but Toni wouldn’t let him finish. 

"Yes, you do!"

It took Gizmo's hand clasping around her upper arm for the furious woman to stop. Feeling betrayed, Toni gaped at the officer before shooting another aggressive glare in Rufus's direction.

"Why do I put up with you?!" she growled and Rufus felt like he'd suddenly shrunk. Upsetting Toni was good fun most of the time ( Was sich liebt das neckt sich, und so…) but her voice was getting that dangerous undertone that well… took all the fun out of it. It left him with a hollow feeling in his gut that he didn't quite know what to do with.

"You know why," he tried with an appeasing smile, but all that earned him was a door slammed into his face.

💔

Gizmo swirled his sorry excuse for a drink around as he glanced at the man sitting next to him. Rufus was, in general, a menace, but the doctor/officer/fireman had to admit there were rarely any times worse than when the local man-child was just moping.

"Chin up, Rufus," Lonzo supplied hopefully, "You can stay here until the storm blows over."

“Just please," Gizmo begged, "Don’t set anything on fire." 

Rufus gave him a look like he'd grown another head… and grinned. “You know, I wasn’t going to, but when you ask me like that…” 

Chapter Text

“Gizmo, you gotta do something!” 

What Gizmo did was groan. 

His head was resting in both his hands and he split his fingers apart so he could leer at the small crowd that had gathered in his office. 

“Rufus blew up my stove!” “My sink hasn’t stopped spewing sludge since yesterday!” “He poisoned my platypus!” “I’ve barely housed him for two hours, now I no longer have a house! ” 

The man let out an exhausted sigh, “Have you guys talked to Lotek yet?” 

“They have,” the mayor himself sounded from his open door, “I say we put him back with Toni.” 

The crowd immediately fell silent at that. The moment lasted just long enough for confused glances to be exchanged before a soft murmuring filled the emergency-station again. 

“That’s an adventurous suggestion coming from you,” Gizmo commented from his slouched position, “How do you propose we do that?” 

“Well,” Lotek drawled, his fingers drumming against the small watch on his chest as he was obviously only coming up with something on the spot. “Tell him we’ll arrange something. A barbeque. Attendance is mandatory. And if all else fails we’ll still have something decent to eat.” 

Gizmo frowned at the mere idea of that, but the reaction of the crowd in his office was of one imminent voice. At the very least Lotek’s idea was evidently good for a (very necessary) boost in morale. 

The doctor/officer/fireman gave a thoughtful (if still concerned) hum at the idea. 

“Alright,” he proclaimed, “I’ll talk to- Hold on.” 

With a jolt Gizmo sat up a little straighter, leveling a look with the mayor before his face drew into a frown.

“If all of you are here right now… where is Rufus? ” 

As if on cue, the sirens in the emergency station began to blare.

🧯

“Oh, hi Gizmo!” Rufus greeted him cheerily, covered in soot and busy tinkering on another, smoking, contraption. 

“Before you say anything - I haven’t actually set anything on fire yet! I’m expecting some praise for that!” 

Gizmo’s groan went unnoticed. 

"Rufus, this needs to stop. You're gonna put down that wrench and then you'll come with me and freshen up-"

"Ew, no! Why?!"

"Because you reek!"

"Yeah?! So what! This entire town stinks!"

Just like that Rufus's good mood had evaporated and left behind what might as well have been a grouchy kid. 

"The… town is setting up a barbecue," Gizmo explained slowly, "Everyone is going to be there."

"Good for them."

…

Gizmo dropped his amiable facade and seized Rufus by his shoulder, beginning to steer him away from the suspicious wreckage.

“You’re going to join us and by Tetanus, you’re going to look presentable!” 

Rufus raised a suspicious eyebrow at him. Asking questions right now clearly wasn’t going to give him an answer so he conceded with a “Fine” so begrudgingly the ‘but you’re going to regret it.’ did not need to be said aloud.

🍖

Gizmo gave Rufus a critical once-over. 

Now, until Kuvaq got access to another source of freshwater, cleaning up anything on Deponia was a thankless task. BUT with a lot of brushing and spit and Gizmo’s good old vacuum cleaner, they’d managed to get rid of most of the grime and char-stains by the time the sun had begun to set. 

He wasn’t sure if that was going to be enough for their intended purpose - Rufus would still need to throw on a fresh coat - but it had bought some time for the others to get everything set up. 

A more romantically inclined person would surely have had better suggestions, but as it was, like coaching a wrestling match Gizmo could only make sure that Rufus would be fit for the coming encounter (and see it through that either participant would stay that way for the remaining evening). 

The unavoidable consequences of everything AFTER forcing these two to walk into each other were still up in the air and very much a matter for concern that Gizmo was sure Lotek had not thought through. 

Honestly, Gizmo was sure he’d sooner see the sky fall than these two squabblers acting like adults. 

Speaking of which… 

"How's your head doing?" the current-fireman (prevention!) asked as he handed Rufus a comb.

"It's fine," was the scoffed reply.

Gizmo didn't buy it if only due to the cautious way Rufus tamed the bird's-nest he called his hair. The self-proclaimed inventor was, after all, rarely - if ever - cautious about anything.

It were the sudden flinches whenever the comb brushed over the wound that made him worry though - however well Rufus tried to hide it.

🧼

Meanwhile, at the village center, the community was buzzing to clean up and prepare a space for the upcoming barbecue. Everything had been thrown together quite suddenly, but at least being kept busy helped most of them to avoid being angry. 

Lotto had just carried two barrels over on his own when Wenzel approached him with the roadkill meat for the evening. 

“I spotted Toni setting up the gas-tanks at the arch,” he whispered to the bearded man. 

Lotto nodded at the little shrimp and punched his fists together with a resounding smack. 

“Any sign of Rufus yet?” 

“Not yet.” 

“Thanks, buddy! I’ll do my worst!” 

“Good luck, Lotto!” 

With that Wenzel watched the man trot off and casually left to fetch the next armful of food. 

“You’ll need it.” 

“Hello, Toni.” 

The young woman was kneeling by the old car wreckage. She didn’t spare him a glance as she focused on adjusting a valve.

“Hello, Lotto.” 

“Not to be blunt, but I think the entire town heard your quarrel with Rufus the other night.” 

Toni stopped turning the valve and shifted to glower at Lotto. 

“...So?” 

“That sure was some fight! Does that mean you’re… you know, available now?” 

“For someone like you? I think I’d rather be sick.” 

Ouch. Well, personal feelings aside, he could work with that. After all, Lotto came here on a mission. 

“But surely you wouldn’t give Rufus another chance. That’d be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?” 

“Absolutely.” 

Any other day Lotto would have been thrilled to hear that! 

But right now, when he was next in line to offer Rufus a roof over the head for as long as Toni refused to house him? Very, very not so much!

“I mean, it’s not like the guy doesn’t have his moments,” Lotto began to murmur, stroking his #manly!beard thoughtfully as he kept a cautious eye on Toni to gauge her reaction. She seemed to be mulling over his words at first, when suddenly the expression on her face morphed into a frown.

“Like the time he blew up my fridge.” 

Abort! Abort! 

“Yeah, no, but… How about when… uh…” 

Toni worked her jaw visibly and Lotto stopped fumbling to clear his throat instead. 

“It boggles my mind,” he said, “how Rufus ended up with someone like you in the first place.” 

Toni didn’t reply instantly, but his choice of words seemed to placate her at least a bit. 

“You know, I keep wondering that myself.” 

“He’s barely even a man!” the guy boasted, running with the change of topic and puffing out his chest for good measure. 

“Lotto, we’ve been over this.” 

Score! He couldn’t help but grin inwardly before leveling with Toni again. 

“Yes. And you always wind up defending him. Why?” 

Toni let go of the valve she’d been pointedly holding for the entirety of the conversation and let herself fall back onto her hunches to sit a bit more comfortably. She didn’t reply immediately and instead began to fish for a cigarette in her pocket. 

Before either of them could come to a conclusion though, a familiar voice rang over the hill.

“Hey, Lotto! And… oh. Hi, Tony.” 

Lotto looked up to find that Rufus and Gizmo had dragged themselves up the stairs from the pit.

Within the second Toni froze. She jolted around to look at the approaching men and with an angry frown upon her face and a growl, she stood and left unceremoniously. 

Rufus watched her leave with a downtrodden expression, before crossing his arms and facing Lotto.

“Oh well. Who needs all of that ranting anyway, am I right?” 

🚭

In the settling dusk, the area was glowing with the warmth of gleaming barrels. With the short notice, only a handful of improvised tables and benches had been set up and Tony chose one of the more secluded ones to flop down on angrily. 

Wenzel, who was passing by with an armful of drinks from Lonzo’s bar, spared her a glance and climbed up on the bench to join her. 

“Rufus?” he asked. 

“How did you guess!?” Toni spat venomously. 

Wenzel glanced at the direction she’d come from and shrugged.

“It’s a hunch.” 

A moment of silence followed and Toni continued to stew in her anger for a bit longer. 

“What did he do now?” Wenzel asked casually, while he unloaded his cargo on the wooden pallet that served as a tabletop. 

“He claimed that I sabotaged his stupid catapult.” 

“Wow,” Wenzel commented and offered the brooding woman one of the bottles he’d been carrying. 

“You know, if I were you, I’d just ditch him already.” 

Toni merely frowned in reply. 

“Why haven’t you?” 

That seemed to catch her off-guard and Toni found herself gasping before she turned to look at her neighbor. 

“What?” 

“I mean,” Wenzel supplied, “Rufus is terrible. We all know that. So why do you still put up with him?” 

“I don’t- Why are you all on my case anyway?” Toni suddenly snapped. It was just one thing after the other today, wasn’t it? Jumping to her feet she slammed her hand against the improvised table, nearly making the pallet topple off in the progress. 

“I kicked him out!” 

“Ya, I know.” Wenzel replied matter-of-factly, “It’s kind of hard to ignore your lovers’ spat when it wakes up the entire town.” 

Toni, violently blushing, sat back down and crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

“That’s not what this was!” 

“Then what was it?” Wenzel asked pointedly. It had been timid, he hadn’t raised his voice, but something about the way he’d phrased the question made the statement stick in Toni’s mind. 

“Usually, you’re delighted to see Rufus get hurt!” the little guy added, and albeit Toni knew it to be a fact it felt like yet another accusation, “Why not now?” 

Toni closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She fumbled with her cigarette. 

When she opened her eyes the lights felt misty and she spoke in a quiet tone so only Wenzel would be able to pick up on it.

“I was really scared this time,” she confessed lowly, “You’ve seen how he looked when Gizmo picked him up - and… to think he would blame it on me? Accuse me of something so malicious?” 

Pausing, Toni considered her cigarette. She lit it on a nearby barrel-grill and took the first drag of the evening. After a deep breath, she let the smoke flow from her lips with a new purpose.  

“It crossed a line.” 

Wenzel hummed in reply. 

Chapter Text

“Are you guys mental? What is this? Lotek said to set up a barbecue, not an entire fair!” 

To say that Gizmo was panicking would be putting things mildly. He snatched Rufus’s sleeve and yanked the man over.

“Do you know who I have in tow here?! With all these open fires I’ll have to keep my eyes on him ALL NIGHT!” 

“Hey! But... yeah, that’s probably true.” 

Lotto for all it mattered, didn’t see what Gizmo was getting so worked up about.

“What? Would you have preferred an open bonfire? How do you think barbecues work?”  

As Gizmo and Lotto began to break into an argument Rufus turned away from them with a bored sigh.

“Looks like this is going to take a while,” he muttered to himself, “I should make a break for it before Gimzo insists I apologize to Toni! Pah, and they say I’m out of my mind!” 

He never made it too far on his sneaky getaway though, for when he was about to pass the threshold to the village center, a strange whistling began to bug him. 

"Wait," he said to no one in particular as he stopped moving and stared into space to try and locate the odd sound. Rufus took another step to the side and frowned. Where was this coming from? And more importantly- "Where have I heard this before?"

⛽

The noise was imminent and the ground shook slightly from what very much was a blast coming from the vista at the village entrance.

Toni leapt to her feet as most of the others were already making their way to where smoke was beginning to rise behind the walls.

Beside her, Wenzel uncovered his ears.

"Yup, Rufus is definitely here now. How long ago did you say you stumbled into him? That’s gotta be a new record."

⏱️

When Toni arrived, the scene she found was gruesome. Amidst a group of bustling people, Lotto was cowering on the floor, insisting that he was fine to anyone who would offer help. Not far from him, Hannek was already steadying Gizmo (of all people) who sat slumped against the fence.

And there, just a few feet away and with an imprint in the masonry to accompany the image, lay Rufus. Sprawled out and lifeless, much like Toni had found him a couple of days ago.

When her mind still saw the image of his old bruises and the worrying trickle of blood she knew that she couldn't stay - but as she turned to leave and clear her mind, the woman found herself faced with the jagged remains of a burst gas-tank.

The very same from her father's shop, that she'd abandoned mere minutes ago - task unfinished. 

A groan sounded from behind her (Toni swore she was going to get whiplash at the end of the day) but when she found Rufus stirring? It washed away the icy feeling that had been clawing at her back with a sense of cautious relief. She found herself kneeling beside the man before remembering having moved in the first place.

Usually, Toni found amusement in seeing Rufus fail, if only just so she could stick it to him. 

Usually, it was the result of his own crackbrained ideas and doomed-to-fail contraptions.

And thus, usually, she would claim that he deserved it.

But now?

Now, there was no way he could have seen that coming.

With a regretful sigh, Toni cradled Rufus’s head in her lap and combed through his hair to check for any severe wounds (aside from the ones that were still busy healing). She mentally berated the idiot for not wearing the gauze, like he'd been instructed to, but making Rufus listen to anything had always been a feat in itself.

When she brushed past the old laceration Rufus flinched with a hiss and Toni stilled, watching with bated breath as he struggled to open his eyes. 

He was obviously dizzy, his eyes darting to and fro before eventually settling on Toni. Expectantly, she tilted her head at him.

“Rockets,” was the first thing he said and Toni balked. 

“Rockets?!” she exclaimed, feeling her voice rise already. 

“Rockets!” Rufus confirmed, “I’m gonna tie them to a set of skis and- OUCH!” 

Toni had knocked him over the head before he could finish that thought. What else had she been expecting, really? 

Rufus, with a pout to match, rubbed the sore spot. 

"What was that for?" he whined.

His answer came in the form of a tight, crushing hug. 

"Ugh, okay," Rufus ground out, "You're going for the ribs this time. That's new."

Toni let out a breath she hadn't been aware of holding and pulled back to actually look at him like she was seeing this dork for the first time.

"You're a disaster," she deadpanned.

Once he could breathe again Rufus's dazed expression grew into his typical grin.

"Do you want a pair of skis, too?" 

"Oh, hell no."

🎿

Now the skis hadn’t happened. 

But after first suggesting it, Rufus had been determined to take Toni along on the ride. And what could she say? A hot-air balloon sounded a lot more accommodating. It was like Rufus had decided to start being… considerate, so Toni - for the time being - decided to humor him. 

After all that chaos that particular day had rung out (surprisingly) peacefully enough to ease Toni's mood. Sure, Gizmo had still felt a bit dizzy over the course of the evening, but he hadn’t actually gotten hurt. Lotto, of course, would make a big show of being completely fine, but it had been Rufus who had taken Toni by surprise.  

It had been so sudden too.

When Lonzo had tried to put in a good word for him during the course of dinner, Toni had still become suspicious of just how much the man had had to drink already... 

But now, looking back on it all...

If pressed, Toni would insist that she was not involved at all with the explosion of that evening and leave everyone to their adventurous assumptions about Rufus’s twitchy fingers. 

(She couldn't have Rufus make yet another claim of sabotage and be RIGHT about it!)

If she was honest with herself though?

Then it was the lingering thought of actually losing him that... scared her. 

Sure. Life without Rufus would be peaceful. It would be far more quiet. Easier too! 

But most of all, Toni figured, it would be boring. 

And if the day would come when he wouldn’t wind up on her porch again after one of his stupid stunts, Toni would feel better knowing that it was because he'd made it.

So she gave him another chance.

The benefit of the doubt.

Just. This. Once. 

Little did she know it wouldn’t take much more than getting tossed out of a burning hot-air balloon for her to change her mind.