Rage told her that he must be about 50 by now but he’s in really good shape for his age.

“I’m so glad that you agreed to come here. You were really my first choice for this role. I’ve been a big fan of yours for ages!”, he starts flirting and she is keen on reacting.

“Oh really? That’s so sweet. To be quite honest with you I hadn’t really heard of you before I received your offer but now that I met you I’m sure I’ll become one of your biggest fans.”, she answers in a playful voice.

“Well, you can ask me whatever you like. But maybe we should discuss this with a glass of wine. And what do you say we move outside? The beach is lovely at this time of the day. We can watch the sun go down.” His voice now gets more seductive by the second.

“Great idea. I’d love to see the beach.”, she answers and links arms with him.

“Brilliant. I’ve got some nice drops in my private wine cellar. Why don’t you join me and choose one you like?”, he asks while already manoeuvring her out of the room.

Ark is at their heels already. He just follows them without a word leaving a little distance between him and the flirting couple.

“Does he follow you everywhere??”

Thomas Magnum seems both confused and annoyed by the presence of Judy’s bodyguard.

Judy now turns her head, too, and looks at Ark directly.

“Excuse me one second, Thomas…” she smiles at him and walks over to the guy in the black suit.

“I know you want to protect me. That’s your job after all, but I’m also an adult. I’m sure nothing’s going to happen to me. So why don’t you stay here for a while? Take a look around the house. Relax a little.”, she whispers her suggestions in his ear but Ark clearly doesn’t approve.

“Mrs Winchester! I couldn’t…”

“Please!! I need some privacy once in a while!”, she pleads and looks at him with puppy eyes. She knows this trick always works with him. He can’t resist.

“Okay…”, he mutters and walks of with hanging shoulders. As soon as another man shows up he’s nothing more than thin air to her.

Thomas leads her down some steep stairs into a dark cellar where he keeps his wine. She’s walking in front of him with a candle in her hand and she can feel his broad hand resting on her shoulder keeping her on the right track. She remembers that Crawd used to do that in their early days...

She startles when she hears a noise from upstairs.

“Are you scared?”

“What if?”, she replies in a stubborn voice.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you, darling.”, he laughs.

She knows that he’s just mocking her but his presence makes her feel safer already.

He has a pretty nice collection of different wines though it seems like he’s not a real connoisseur. Maybe he just keeps it to impress women…

She chooses a nice red wine and they return upstairs and directly head for the beach which is only a few yards away from his backdoor. They sit down in the warm sand and Thomas pours both of them a glass of wine.

“To a beautiful evening with a beautiful lady.”, he toasts.

“Cheers!”, she laughs and watches the waves slowly fading into the wet sand in front of them.

“And you really haven’t seen any of my shows?”, he asks after a few moments of silence.

“No, at least I can’t remember… I’ve heard that you did one of those detective shows with lots of fighting and car chases and everything. I’m not really into that. But I bet my husband knows all about it…”, she says and again her tone changes slightly.

He looks at her in shock.

“You’re married?”

“Yes…”

“I had no idea.”

“Well…I am but why do you…?”

“Why hasn’t anybody told me that she’s married?”, he mutters more to himself than to her.

“First of all I don’t understand why this is so shocking to you and second I don’t think that it’s any of your business!”

Only a few moments ago she felt as relaxed as she hasn’t felt in a long time and now she feels her stomach turning in anger.

“So now you don’t want me to do this movie with you just because I’m not single anymore?”, she shouts at him and his hesitation to answer is enough to make her completely furious.

“No… I mean… I wouldn’t have said it like that… It’s just…this character in the film is supposed to be a little…well…less experienced… ”, he tries to explain but stumbles over his own words.

“And now I’m too old as well? Are you kidding me? What kind of old, dick-controlled bastard are you??” She’s screaming now and looks at him with eyes dark with fury.

His moustache that she found so attractive when she first saw him now makes him look like a greasy pervert and she wants to tear it of him just as all the hair that is covering his chest like disgusting, rotten moss.

Just as she is about to throw more insults at him a man comes running towards them from the house. He is still panting when he arrives and the expression on his face is worried.

“Thomas, there’s something going seriously wrong in your kitchen right now. Maybe you should take a look while it is still standing…”

He jumps to his feet immediately.

“I’m sorry, Mrs Winchester, but I’m afraid I’ll have to take a look at that. But I’ll be back…”

He doesn’t offer any more explanation and runs up the path to his house with the other guy.

She knows that he won’t come running back to her. Maybe this incident wasn’t planned but for him it came in very handy… But it’s probably for the best. She might have done things to him that she would have regretted afterwards. Now she has to release her anger and her frustration in a different way and tears run down her face. She doesn’t scream. She doesn’t sob. She’s completely silent.

So he thinks she's too old… Maybe she has overreacted… No, he’s a bloody dickhead!!

The evening breeze cools her face and after she has gathered herself a little she gets up and walks back to the house.

She makes a little detour so that she doesn’t have to walk by the kitchen but she can still hear loud shouting and strange noises coming from that direction. This must be some kind of madhouse…

When she enters the living room it’s empty.

“Ark!”, she shouts but doesn’t get any answer.

“ARK!!!!!” Now she’s yelling and her voice cracks.

There’s a racket coming from the stairs and a moment later the man in black comes storming into the room.

“What’s going on?”, he shouts, gun in hand and looks around in alarm.

“Where the hell have you been?”

She walks over to him and hits him on the arm as hard as she can.

“Mrs Winchester…??”

He stares at her in utter confusion.

“Why did you leave me alone with him?”, she shouts and starts drumming her fists on his chest.

He senses that she needs to let off some steam and allows her to go on for a while before he grabs hold of her hands.

“I left because you told me to. Remember?”, he reminds her while he is still holding her hands.

“But you should have known better. I’m crap when it comes to men and that’s a fact!”

Her eyes are filling with tears again when she looks up at his face and she’s trembling.

“What has this bastard done to you? I’ll kill him!!”, he growls, ready to storm of and take revenge for her. But she doesn’t let go of his hand.

“Forget about it. He’s not worth it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I just want to go home.”, she says in a small voice.

“But what about Rage? She wanted to meet us here.”

“I’ll give her a call, okay?”

“Of course. I’ll get our bags from upstairs.”, he replies though he seems a little disappointed.

“And you really want to leave already?”, Higgins asks when they are standing in front of the house with their bags waiting for their limousine to come.

“Yes, I’m sorry but thanks for your hospitality.”, Judy says with a weak smile.

The butler gives a little bow and returns to the house.

Judy spots a little wooden bench next to the house and sits down with a deep sigh. Ark takes a seat next to her and they sit in silence for a while.

“It’s beautiful.”

He points at the sky when he sees the question in her eyes.

“The sunset.”

“True…”, she says and her next sigh is even deeper than the one before.

“It must be hard to be away from your husband and your son so often.”

She thinks for a moment before she answers and keeps on looking at the sky that the setting sun has painted in different shades of orange and red.

“I got used to being away from Crawd. We’re both very busy with our jobs…”, she replies but then she hesitates.

“Well, that’s not the only reason. I mean, even if we are together in the same room it feels like we’re miles away from each other. We just drifted apart in the last couple of months.”

Again there is some kind of uncomfortable silence. Finally, Ark manages to react.

“You two should talk about it. Who knows…maybe it will all work out…”, he says though deep inside he hopes for the opposite to happen.

Judy turns towards him and puts her hand on his.

“That’s nice of you to say but we’ve been through all that already. We talked about it, we tried to spend more time together, we even went to a therapist for a while but it only became clearer that this won’t help. If it weren’t for Michael I probably would have divorced him months ago.”

“Or maybe we wouldn’t have gotten married in the first place…”, she adds but it’s not more than a whisper.

“Do you know that feeling when you wake up in your bed and you’re all alone and suddenly you get scared of staying alone forever?”

He can’t stand to see her sad like that. It makes his heart ache as though parts are being ripped out of it.

“That’s not going to happen. You’re the most beautiful woman in the world! Not all men are too blind to see that.”

She looks at him in surprise and