After reluctantly breaking the kiss, Angel gave them the news that they had officially been hired.

"When do we start?" Faith asked.

He'd taken a few hours after his meeting to do a cursory check on the Strip, and was satisfied that there did appear to be zombies in several of the casinos. It was around eleven o'clock now, and they had plenty of night hours ahead of them.

Riley's hands were still on his face, sliding to the back of his neck.

"Tomorrow's soon enough," Angel decided, returning Riley's gaze. The boy was clearly in no condition to work tonight.

"Maybe we should call it an early night, then?" Faith suggested with a twinkle in her eye. Angel's glance strayed to her briefly and he had time to nod before Riley leaned in and kissed him again.

In the elevator, Faith brushed her hand against Riley's as he leaned against Angel, a gesture that could easily be mistaken as accidental; she was rewarded as he responded with an unmistakable tremor, his fingers grazing her arm in return.

A huge grin on her face, Faith walked ahead of them out of the elevator and opened the room. It didn't take long for her to conclude that one of the best things about the Rio was how every room was a suite. *This* was more like it!

"Let's get room service!" Riley proposed as he entered, looking around the deluxe space in delight. "And watch dirty movies." Beaming at his brilliant plan, he looked at his friends for approval.

"If that's what you want," Angel granted.

"Okay by me!" Faith agreed readily. "I'll be right there." She went into the bathroom to freshen up, giving her self a quick once over. Then, with a wink to herself in the mirror, she went in to join the boys.

Angel intercepted her at the entrance to the master bedroom. "Are you drunk?" he asked her, his voice low and confidential. Not sure why he was asking, she shook her head no. "Neither am I. But he is." She followed his gaze to Riley, sprawled out on the bed, shirt riding up to expose the taut muscles of his stomach, rippling now as he tried to operate the remote control and laughed at his own ineptitude. ~God!,~ Faith thought. ~He is so fucking beautiful.~ Her gaze shifted back to Angel, and she could see he was thinking the same thing. ~And so are you,~ she added. She didn't even try to disguise the want in her eyes. Angel's eyes flickered briefly in recognition but he didn't say anything. He looked again from his handsome drunken lover back to Faith, silently asking for her understanding. After a moment, Faith wordlessly gave it with a nod.

"Why don't I find another place tonight?" she offered in hushed tones.

"You don't have to do that," Angel told her in an equally low voice. "There's the other room."

But Faith shook her head. "You know how he is." Seeing that Angel didn't catch her drift, she added, "Loud. You're worried he's gonna feel bad about something in the morning? You and I both know that's a problem for him."

Angel hesitated. "But he'll just feel badly for being the cause of you leaving."

Faith grinned at him. "I gotcha covered, babe." She went over and sat on the edge of the bed, facing Riley. He looked up at her with a grin, still fiddling with the remote. "Hey, good night, Ri," she said.

He sat up at that. "You're going? Don't go! Don't go, Faith."

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said, getting up.

Riley rolled off the bed, turning to Angel in appeal. "Don't let her go," he requested, leaning against Angel. His face so close to his lover's, Riley suddenly forgot what he wanted and kissed him ardently.

Smiling, Faith moved furtively towards the door, taking advantage of Riley's preoccupation with Angel's mouth. But once a Marine always a Marine, and he turned as she passed them.

"Are you really going?" he asked.

Still smiling, she said, "Sorry, Finn. Duty calls."

His demeanor changed, straightening up seriously as he took a step towards her. "Should I come with you?"

"No, you should stay here. I'll be okay."

"I know you will." He nodded emphatically. "You're a Slayer."

Riley hardly ever called her that, but she got a big kick out of it whenever he did. There was something about the way he said it, without either irony or reverence, just accepting it. Like he totally got it. Well, yeah, she supposed he must - after all, he'd been with B. for a year. She stretched up on tip-toe now to kiss him on the cheek. But he turned his head to meet her mouth, his lips imperceptibly parted, and the instant the tip of his tongue flicked against her lips, she knew something Angel didn't - that Riley had gotten drunk on purpose, wanting this. Faith opened her mouth ever-so-slightly to him, wanting it too, her mind remembering the taste and feel of him even though this was the first time *her* tongue had the opportunity....

But Angel was right, and she broke the kiss. She couldn't do it. ~Because,~ she thought with a measure of humor, ~it's wrong.~ Wrong to take advantage of Riley like this... even if he wanted it. If he really did want it when he was sober, there would be another time. ~'If' nothing,~ she thought to herself. ~Make that *when*.~

"Sweet dreams, Ri," she said.

"Night, Faith," he said reluctantly, falling back onto the bed. He wished she would stay. She was feeling affectionate towards him, he could tell - she only called him "Ri" when she liked him....

Angel walked her to the door, handing her a company credit card - the first time he'd ever entrusted one to her - and a business card for a guy named Jake McNoon. "That's our client," he explained. "Give him a call, he'll take care of you. And while you're there, maybe you can dig around discretely a little and see what you find," he suggested.

"What am I looking for?" she asked. "Zombies?"

He shook his head. "Keep an eye out for them, but I doubt you'll find any there. It seems to be a Strip phenomenon. Just be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary... or not on the level."

"You don't think these guys are on the level?"

"I'm pretty sure they are," Angel replied. "But it never hurts to take precautions."

"Okay," she nodded. "I'll hook up with you back here tomorrow - say midnight?" Angel agreed, and with a "see ya," she went down to the lobby to call this guy Jake.

Once she explained who she was, he offered to come to pick her up personally. So Faith waited by the lobby, laughing on the inside. They were into it, those two - she'd seen the way Angel had been looking at her and Riley when he'd come over at the Rio. And she knew that shiver in Riley when she'd touched him while he was kissing Angel wasn't merely a reflex. Not to mention his tongue in her mouth. She nearly shivered herself at that. She wondered if Angel had seen it, didn't think so. And even if he had, it wouldn't have changed a thing. Riley wasn't ready yet to ask for it sober, and more importantly Angel wasn't ready yet to share him. But that was okay, because if there was one thing Faith had learned in recent years, it was how to bide her time. Oh, she knew everyone saw her as Little Miss Impatience... but they didn't really know her, none of them did.

+++

Faith was downtown by midnight. Jake had filled her in during the ride and offered to show her around - but truth be told, the margaritas were affecting her more than she let on. So she went straight to her room and got ready for bed. She got under the covers, ironically committed to the early night she had suggested just to get them in bed.

As it had since she'd left them, her mind lingered there - on Angel and Riley in bed. This time they could be as loud as they wanted to be. They didn't even have to stay under the covers. Lying on her back, Faith ran her hands over her own body, up under her shirt, caressing her own breast, pinching her nipple, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger, pulling it erect gently. Her other hand reached between her legs, to relieve the warm, wet throbbing as she pictured their naked, sculpted bodies entwined, perfect. Faith fingering herself, stroking the length of her slit, rubbing her clit teasingly, gradually increasing her depth and pressure as she imagined Angel riding Riley, the blonde boy groaning and growling wantonly as he thrashed under Angel's thrusting. She felt herself getting close and turned onto her stomach, knowing she wouldn't be able to reach orgasm on her back. There had been that one time with Riley, but that was a rare exception.

Faith's fantasy returned to the boys. As FantasyAngel fucked FantasyRiley hard to a dynamic orgasm, FantasyRiley's cum exploding over both of their sweat-slick bodies, Faith pushed herself to her own climax, her body hunching purposefully as her muscles contracted around the fingers she'd pushed deep inside herself. It was over too soon, almost as soon as it began. She lay unmoving for a moment, her fingers resting still, before she slowly withdrew them. Faith sighed; it was not the release she'd wanted, but it was release enough to sleep. She wished the boys a telepathic good night, and rolled onto her side.

+++

After her early night, Faith was up by mid-day. She went down to find Jake for the promised grand tour. He showed her around his places - he owned a few - introducing her to his "buddies" and presenting to her the pride of downtown Las Vegas, the Freemont Experience. She wasn't too excited by it. Jake said it looked much more impressive at night, when it was lit up, but she didn't put much stock in that. It was a small covered area with lots of colored lightbulbs on the ceiling, that's all. What was the "experience" supposed to be? Stupor? She did get a kick out of the name of her hotel, though - The Golden Spike.

As she poked around downtown, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking for. Angel had said to feel around and make sure their clients were on the level. Hell, they were too fucking boring downtown to be anything *but* on the level! And what was with the language? Everything was "friggin' this" and "friggin' that." Friggin'? Who the hell said friggin'?

By evening, with hours to go before returning to the Rio, Faith got the itch to patrol. She hadn't had the chance to go out on her own lately, and while she had nothing against Riley - maybe even enjoying the companionship - it was nice to be on her own once in awhile, with nothing to fall back on but her own skills and instinct. Kept her sharp. Maybe there weren't any zombies around, but a city like this you had to figure on vamps. Even in dishwater downtown.

It didn't take long for her to bait and hook one. Not too tall, dark hair slicked back, a NIN t-shirt under his leather jacket. She spotted him easily, but let him think he saw her first. He was kinda cute, with something a little sweet waxed onto that bad-boy veneer or lying just beneath the surface, she couldn't quite tell which. He was looking at her now. If he'd still been alive she might really have done him, and she smiled at him. Faith let him come to her, buy her a drink, flatter her, coax her outside, convince her to go for a stroll in the moonlight, off the main street, pulling her aside for a kiss. She let him get her right where he thought he wanted her....

"I bet you have a pierced tongue," she said suggestively. He stuck his tongue out to show her she was wrong.

And then Faith let him have it with an uppercut that caught him on the chin, snapping his head back; and almost simultaneously with a knee to the mid-section that doubled him over. As he straightened, she threw a roundhouse, but the vampire had finally recovered his wits and blocked it easily. They went at it, trading blows, limbs flying, bodies spinning. It was a good, clean fight and Faith was impressed by his strength and skill. He was better than most of the vamps she'd faced. But she was clearly the superior fighter: it wasn't long before she knocked him on his ass with a low sweeping kick that caught him in the back of the knees and took his legs out from under him. As he fell she pounced on him, pinning him down and reaching for her stake.

"You're the Slayer, right?" he blurted out.

Faith grinned, tilting her head and lifting one eyebrow in acknowledgment. "None other!"

"So you know Angel."

"Yeah," she said, raising the stake, "and you're not him,"

"Whoa, wait - then you must know Riley!" the vampire said urgently.

Poised and ready, Faith halted. This was a new twist. "So?"

"So, he's a friend of mine," the vampire told her.

Faith looked dubious. "We'll see about that." She drew her cell phone out of her pocket and hit speed dial. When Angel answered, she asked for Riley. "Got a vamp here, says he's a friend of yours," she told him, looking down at the vampire watching her intently.

Riley recognized Jamie immediately from the description Faith gave him. Unconsciously he turned from Angel to speak into the phone. "Yeah. I know him."

"So he *is* your friend?" Faith asked for clarification.

Slowly, Riley said, "Not exactly."

Faith waited, but Riley didn't elaborate. "So?" she finally asked. "Stake him or let him go?"

"The second one," Riley said with little hesitation.

"Your lucky night," Faith said, flipping the phone shut and pocketing it as she hopped off of Jamie. He scrambled up and, with only one backwards glance, scurried off into the night.

+++

"What was that all about?" Angel asked with mild curiosity as Riley handed back his phone. He knew Riley was uneasy from Faith's call, and just hoped he'd trust in Angel enough to tell him why.

Riley shifted and then, still not looking at him, told him, "Jamie's in town." Angel didn't respond. Then Riley glanced at him with the shy smile that did it to Angel every time and said, "You know I can't kill them once I know them!" And Angel smiled indulgently in return.

They had just begun to search, starting in the middle and working their way north on the Strip. Angel had reviewed the south end the previous night and identified which casinos seemed to be using the zombies. He and Riley hadn't seen any yet tonight, and Angel wasn't sure how far up they might be.

After Faith's call, Angel decided that Riley's quietness couldn't just be attributed to his hangover. When they came to the Bellagio, Angel went straight to the registration desk. Puzzled, Riley followed him. To his surprise, Angel used his considerable charm and resources to negotiate a room for them, paying double the going rate.

"Aren't we supposed to be working?" Riley asked neutrally.

"The zombies have waited this long," Angel replied. "They can wait another hour." He stepped closer to Riley as they stood in the lobby, fingers touching Riley's. Anyone could see that they were lovers, and Angel didn't care. He didn't like that look in Riley's eyes, pain from remembered indiscretions causing a deep unhappiness. He closed his own eyes as he leaned in and brushed Riley's lips gently with his. "But first I want to show you something."

He led Riley back outside, pulling him into an enclave in the railing that wove around the grand fountain in front of the hotel.

"What is this?" Riley asked curiously as they stood side-by-side, fingers interlaced discretely. Other people lined the railing expectantly.

"You'll see," Angel whispered, nuzzling his ear.

And then it began, an aquatic fireworks display set to music. As the streams of water shot as high as fifty feet in the air to accompany the soaring music, Angel watched Riley in profile: to his dismay, he saw the sadness creeping into Riley's face, clouding his eyes. He put his fingers under Riley's chin to turn his face to him and looked at him with unspoken, questioning concern.

"It's sad," Riley said, a melancholy smile crossing his lips. "It's all about saying goodbye."

"Don't listen to the lyrics," Angel murmured to him, moving close behind him, wrapping his arms around Riley protectively. "Just listen to the music entwining with the water, mutual upswelling, intermingling impossibly yet surely." Angel softly kissed the back of Riley's neck and Riley inclined his head forward, almost closing his eyes at the touch but wanting to watch the show. Angel's low voice was as soothing as his touch as he continued, "They're surging together through space and time, the liquid and the song dancing around each other, sailing upwards with strength and beauty." Angel was rocking them gently now, almost imperceptibly, just enough for Riley to feel calmed. "They can't be together, a physical element and an intangible one," Angel's lips grazed his ear, "but for this brief moment in eternity, they are as one."

Riley felt the show as Angel described it, his touch and his words arousing Riley even as he began to relax, feeling comforted, comfortable, melting out of himself and into Angel. Entranced, he turned back and searched Angel's face. Riley's hands reached inside Angel's coat, sliding around Angel's waist as Riley moved in close, his leg curling around Angel's. Then to Angel's surprise, Riley unzipped him and took him out, holding his semi-hard cock gently. Angel jerked slightly, but Riley used his free hand to cloak himself in Angel's duster, obscuring his actions from the public. Angel moved to hold the coat around them as Riley held him in one hand, slowly petting him with the other, gazing intensely into Angel's eyes. And Angel returned the gaze with equal intensity. The pleasure that began to ripple through Angel's body from Riley's caresses was nothing compared to the rapture from the way Riley was looking at him. Angel knew he was not just absorbing that look but returning it: perfectly content, perfectly adoring, perfectly-

He couldn't. He couldn't stand it, couldn't hold back, couldn't control it. As the aria reached it's crescendo, ethereal and powerful voices and instruments soaring higher, more intensely, the demon came out.

And even as his human mask slid away and he began to pull back, Riley's face pressed lightly against his check.

"Don't," the boy said quietly. "Don't go. You're still Angel. Come back." There was a pause before he whispered, "Come back to me."

He fought himself. He pulled out of Riley's arms, turned away. Still hard, he tucked himself back into his pants and zipped up, taking another moment before turning back to Riley.

"Riley..." he started.

"You didn't, though," Riley said calmly. The crowd around them was starting to disperse, oblivious to the two of them.

"I almost-" Angel started again.

"But you didn't." When Angel opened his mouth a third time, Riley spoke before he could: "You didn't, Angel. You're still here. You're still Angel."

Angel didn't know what to do about Riley and his steadfast refusal to believe in Angelus. The boy made him despair at times. He didn't want to end up proving Angelus's existence in a way he would live to regret or couldn't take back. He should just walk away now. Walk away from him.

Yet Angel had feelings for Riley. Deep feelings. Strong feelings.

Feelings he couldn't have.

~Walk away, Angel.~

He reached into his pocket, drew out his wallet, and handed Riley the key card.

"Stay here tonight," he said.

Riley looked from the piece of plastic in his hand to Angel's face, back to the plastic card. ~That's cold, Angel,~ Riley thought, still looking down. ~But I guess you have to be. I guess you're just scared.~ When he looked up again, as he expected, no one was there.

*****

Suddenly, Riley felt overwhelmingly lonely, and he didn't know what to do about it. Being with Angel meant being lonely sometimes. Usually it was okay with him, but tonight... he just didn't want to be alone tonight.... (And if he were really honest with himself, he might admit that Angel had rattled him just now.)

Riley went back into the Bellagio unhappily. Spotting a bank of pay phones tucked into a corner of the lobby, he headed over: Maybe he could call Faith. Maybe he could go downtown and stay with her. He paused, his hand on the receiver. Maybe - was that what Angel wanted? He shook his head. ~Don't start playing headgames with yourself, Finn.~ Better to work on the case. That's what they were here for after all, wasn't it? Keep his mind clear and focused. Everything would look better in the morning, as his mother used to say. Or in the late afternoon, as the case might be.

So Riley stepped into the casino and looked around casually. He and Faith hadn't played the slot machines, and that's where the zombies were supposed to be. ~They all look like zombies!~ he thought as he looked around at the people fixed on their machines, pressing the 'spin' buttons mechanically. Then he noticed that while a lot of them would get up after hitting a jackpot and move on or cash out, others stayed right where they were and just kept spinning no matter what. He didn't know if they were zombies, but he thought he'd go in for a closer look.

On his way over, he was intercepted by two men in suits with hotel emblems on their lapels.

"Mr. Finn?" one of them asked.

"Yes?"

"Sir, would you come with us, please?"

"What's this about?" Riley asked, a sinking feeling that someone had seen and reported his fountain activities with Angel.

"We need to talk with you a moment, sir," said the one who did all the talking. "This would be better taken care of in private."

With some reluctance and anxiety, Riley nodded and went with them, hoping he wasn't in too much trouble.

+++

Angel wandered aimlessly for an hour or two before heading back to the Rio. He half-expected Riley to be there waiting for him. He knew what Riley would say. When Riley had met Angelus before, he'd denied it: "That was just you, angry." He could hear Riley now: "No, that was you being an asshole" for walking away in front of the Bellagio. Angel almost smiled, picturing the calm, stubborn look Riley would have on his face when he said it. ~And what if Riley's right?~ Angel wondered deep inside himself.

He had more than half-expected Riley to be there, he realized as a wave of disappointment swept over him at the sight of their empty room. He wanted to talk to Riley, to apologize for leaving him outside the Bellagio like that, to be near him, to be forgiven. He picked up the phone, but this needed to be done in person.

So he returned to the Bellagio and went straight up to the room. But Riley wasn't there. Angel wondered where he would have gone. Maybe out in the casino, working? That would be like him. He didn't see Riley in the main casino, and thought that to be safe he should leave a message for Riley to call him. He went to the main desk, but the desk clerk recognized him before he could speak.

"You have a message, sir."

~That must be him,~ Angel thought with relief. He was a little puzzled at the manila envelope he was handed instead of the piece of paper he'd been expecting. He took out a videotape and turned it over; it was unlabeled.

"Is there somewhere I can watch this?" he asked the clerk.

"Yes sir, there's a VCR in your room. Just open the cabinet under the television."

Angel thanked him and, getting a second key card, went up to the room. Riley was the only one who knew he had a room here, so it had to be from him - but what could it possibly be? He crossed to the entertainment unit quickly and popped the tape in. After a few seconds of static, a picture came up. No sound, just a picture.

Riley. Blindfolded, gagged, bound to a chair. Barefoot, stripped down to his jeans. Alive. Conscious. Body rigid. Afraid and trying not to show it.

Angel's attention was drawn to the other occupants of the non-descript room in the video as one of them moved. There were three men - two men and a vampire, and it was the vampire moving. He stopped behind Riley, then reached around with his index finger extended and slowly drew the nail across Riley's throat, just hard enough to elicit a thin line of blood. As Riley flinched, Angel put his hand to the monitor, unable to look, unable to look away. And then the image went to static.

After a moment, Angel numbly rewound and watched it again, and then again, searching the background, the men, for clues. Just as he caught a reflection in the vampire's mirrored shades when his head tilted at one point, the phone rang. Angel pounced on it. As he put the receiver to his ear, a sharp calm voice said, "Don't speak, just listen. I think you understand us, but let me be perfectly clear: Leave town, and you'll get your boy back - we'll send you his body in L.A. Keep fucking with us, and he's ours. You have until 5:00 this morning." Then the phone went dead.

Angel tried to sort through his thoughts. He didn't want to think about the two choices he'd been given, because he couldn't live - he couldn't go on, he corrected himself mentally, with either one. He had to find a way to make a third choice, the one where Riley came back to him alive. Desperately, Angel searched the video box. He found a small piece of paper wedged inside and wondered how he'd missed it before. Angel pulled it out carefully and read the simple words: 'you and your boy just fucked with the wrong people.' That didn't help him... or did it? Again he ran over the tape, the conversation, the note. "Your boy." They'd called Riley that twice. But they hadn't said anything about Faith. They didn't know about his girl.

+++

Faith was licking the melted rivulets running down the cone of a soft-serve ice cream when her phone rang.

"Faith, I need you back here. Now." Angel's voice sounded strained, almost ragged.

"Okay," she said. "What's up? Break in the case?"

"Just hurry. Meet me at the airport, the slot machines by gate 33."

Faith tossed the remains of her cone as she hastened to the nearest taxi stand. It hadn't escaped her that Angel said "me" not "us." She just hoped she wasn't reading too much into that.

+++

It took her forty minutes to get to McCarron Airport. She glanced around Gate 33 impassively and then took a seat at a slot machine. She'd just fed a dollar bill into the machine when she felt Angel's presence. She resisted the urge to look up and pressed "spin." She felt him brush by behind her, saw him walk around and then sit at the machine exactly on the other side of hers. Something was obviously wrong, but she had no choice except waiting for him to speak.

"They have Riley," he finally said, in a tone so low even she could barely hear him. Faith's heart sank from her chest into the pit of her stomach and balled up tight. She didn't speak, just hit 'repeat bet.' "They want me out of town. They're not giving me the choice of getting him back..." his voice sank into silence. Faith felt ill.

"We're gonna get him back," she whispered.

At first there was no response, and she wasn't sure if he'd heard her. "I think I know where he is," Angel said quietly at last. "Or where he was." He'd gone over the tape and was almost certain he'd seen the word "Elysium" in large block letters reflected in the vampire's shades. He'd made some inquiries and had identified it as the name of a new casino being constructed on the other side of the highway from the Strip, down from the Rio where the newest part of Vegas was to be built up. "I know I have no right to ask this -"

"You don't have to ask," she whispered firmly and pressed 'repeat bet' again.

Angel paused, then kept going. "I don't think they know about you. I think they just got tipped off, and someone pointed me out when I was with Riley. So-"

"Of course," she whispered immediately.

"Do you understand how dangerous this is, Faith?" he whispered back.

"Yes." She hit 'repeat bet' one more time, and that was the last of her credit.

"Are you sure-"

"Yes," she whispered. She stood up, resolved. To Angel's alarm, she came around the side of the slot machines. Then something caught her eye just as she got to him, and she bent down to pick it up. "Hey, you dropped something, mister," she said casually, holding out her hand. Then she pressed a light, reassuring squeeze into his hand, and strolled off without a backward glance.

+++

On full alert, Faith moved catlike and silent through the shadows outside the unfinished structure. It hadn't taken long for her to determine that if Riley wasn't here, someone who knew about it was.

"Thank you for being so prompt," a crisp voice said, much closer than anyone should have been able to get without her sensing them. Faith froze then whirled, ready with a drop kick, only to find herself entangled in a net and roughly thrown to the ground. Net and all, she rolled out of their reach, already sawing through the strands of rope with the pocket knife she had strapped to her arm. ~Gotta move quicker than that, boys,~ she thought with a fierce determination and a small measure of pride.

But even as she sensed the vampire closing in on her, she felt the excruciating electrical currents jolting her into numbness. She kept fighting and got in a couple of good blows, but the pain soon overloaded her system and she had to give in to unconsciousness.

"Wildcat, this one," one of the thugs said, kicking her prone body.

"Slayer," the crisp voice said neutrally. The vampire nodded.

"What?" the thug asked.

"It's not important," the crisp-voiced man said. "Put her in with the boy. And do hurry, before she comes around again and gives you more trouble." He turned on his heels and left his henchmen and the vampire to their task.

One of them bent to cut away the remains of the net. Quickly, they tied her hand-and-foot with rope and lugged her over to their waiting car. As they walked over, the vampire's head snapped around and they turned to catch the movement that had caught his attention - someone leaving.

"Let's get after him."

But even as the thug spoke, the vampire was already relaxing. He shook his head. "No need. He's one of ours." Then they tossed Faith's limp, bound body into the empty trunk and slammed it shut.

*****