As usual, Beloved awaits Sethe's return. Holding out a shawl to her mother, Beloved breaks the romantic spell. Concerned for Beloved's health, Sethe instead wraps her in the shawl. Paul D, angry at being displaced in Sethe's affections, scuffs along behind, "icy cold." Seeing Denver, his other adversary, he thinks, "And whose ally you?"
Sethe settles Paul D's quandary by inviting his return to her bed. Paul D realizes that, with Sethe's help, "he could put up with two crazy girls." Sethe, remembering the demands of a mother's love, questions her ability to cope with a fifth child, and she decides that she must decline the offer of another pregnancy. At the same time, Sethe's mind moves a little closer to accepting that Beloved is the child that she has willed to return from the dead.
In the next scene, as Paul D and Sethe return to the upstairs bed, Denver washes dishes while Beloved sucks her forefinger and whimpers, "Make him go away." With finger and thumb she removes a back tooth and fears that her body will self-destruct. At Denver's urging, Beloved cries, knowing that her security slips away as Paul D and Sethe make love.
