Angelina will actually be at her apartment a bit in the next few days, so she picks a time when Tina is not around and comes over for a talk with Esteban.
"Look," she says. "Before you talk to Gavin, I gotta tell you something. Don't push him. Don't tease him, don't play around, don't tell him why you thought it was such a great idea or that you were only kidding. Apologize for whatever and back off. He wants to chew you out, don't do anything. Just take it."
"Yeah, okay, whatever."
Angelina becomes very still and looks dead into his eyes.
"This isn't a warning, and it isn't just some advice," she continues. Her voice is dark and steady. "This is me telling you how it's gonna be. You wanna mess with him, you gotta go through me first. You wanna pick on somebody, you come back and pick on me. You wanna screw around with anyone's personal life, screw around with mine all you want, but leave him alone. You understand?"
"Yeah whatever," says Esteban. "So basically he can act all self-righteous and disrespect me and HIT ME, but I can't ever take him down a notch. Why should he be any different?"
"Because he *is* different," Angelina says, eyes flashing. "He's not a mage workin' off charges or whatever, and he sure isn't some loudmouth gunner from New York. He's the Knight Protector, and if he gets pushed too far he's going to be more screwed than you would believe." She pauses and crosses her arms. "Besides, what do you gotta take him down a notch for, anyway?"
"Look... if he lays off me, I'll lay off him. But I'm not going to let you say `You don't mess with Gavin but he can mess with you.' Where does he get off, anyway?"
"What makes you think this is all about you? Come on, do you honestly expect Gavin to lay into you when you go talk to him?"
"Look, I was just teasing him, and he freaked out." Esteban and Angelina then drift into a conversation about whether it was teasing or something else, and why some people take teasing better than others, etc. Angelina points out that she grew up with teasing and Esteban doesn't seem to care about teasing but Gavin's got enough problems without Esteban going after him. Esteban says that if no one ever tries to tease Gavin, he'll never learn to deal with it. Angelina asks why Esteban is so intent on bothering Gavin.
Esteban eventually admits, "The way he is sometimes gets on my nerves."
"Has it ever occurred to you that the way *you* are sometimes gets on *his* nerves? And that he has never done thing one about it, until now?"
"Well, not exactly."
"Then lay off him."
"Look, I'm not going to promise to fall over just because you asked me to. But I'm not planning on escalating things when I talk to him."
"That's all I'm looking for, Esteban. And don't push him about Gwen." Angelina then asks sternly if Esteban gave Gavin the ring he had once offered her, and Esteban says that ring is in the vault at the ranch. He wonders aloud whether it has any uses, and Angelina insists that she never wants to read a report that mentions the ring as some kind of prop.
Esteban asks, "Do you want it?"
"I think it would not be a good idea for me to have it."
"Yeah, good point. It was really making a lot of noise." Esteban describes some of its effects, and how he was hiding it from Tina.
"Yeah," says Angelina, "I think it would be good for her not to run into that ring."
Shortly, Esteban asks Angelina why she's in his face about Gavin: "Is this something in particular about Gavin, or would you be like this about anybody?"
"I don't get what you're asking."
"You know, when I asked Gavin the same thing he didn't want to answer either."
"When was this?"
"He was giving me this whole lecture about how I should apologize to you, and I asked him if it was because it was you in particular, and he didn't answer."
"Oh, you know how he is with his thing about protecting women. It's something we have gone over on multiple occasions, believe you me. And I doubt he was about to start a conversation with you about protecting women from whatever."
"Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense." Esteban does not sound very convinced.
The conversation slides a little, until Angelina checks back again on where she started. "Do we understand each other?"
"I don't think so," Esteban replies.
"What? I understand you said you would not escalate things with Gavin, and you appear to understand that I am not going to hear that you two got into a fight."
"Well, that, yeah. That's different from *understanding* each other."
"Well, I don't know if you get me, but I think I got a pretty good bead on you."
"Understanding *about* me is something different from understanding *me*."
"Okay, whatever." With that, their talk turns to other topics, like why Angelina is around the apartment again.
"I'm packing up some stuff," she says.
"You moving out?"
"No, I'm getting rid of some clothes and stuff. I, ah, ran outta room in my closets. I'm keeping the apartment."
"Are you moving back in?"
"I don't know yet. I *could* get a transfer, but I'm not gettin' one right now."
"I'm glad."
"Yeah, that appeared to be the general opinion."
Somehow, they segue to Esteban asking, "Hey, do you want some pancakes?"
"When did you learn to make pancakes?"
"Check this out!" And Esteban goes to show Angelina his new toy.