I opened my eyes against the weak light coming from the bedroom window and immediately squinted, letting out a pained groan. My head was heavy, and my neck and legs were stiff. I tried to roll over and bumped into Mad Hatter, the doll looking out of sorts with his over-sized head slumped between spread legs.

I drew him to me. The peacock feather on his hat tickled my throat. The bed felt empty and cold, like its size had grown overnight. I touched the vacant spot beside me. The fitted sheet was crumpled from someone else being there, and dark with sweat where I was. I ran a wrist across my forehead, wiping at the clamminess.

"Micah?" I took in his after-storm scent still clinging to the sheets.

I focused on the pale sunlight again. Was it Wednesday?

Jeepers, how long had I been out of it? I didn't remember much of last night, except that it happened. My recollection was all out of sorts, like I hadn't been inside my own body. I struggled to prop myself up on an elbow, and my head fell back against the pillow with a grimace. Weakness and dizziness. Great. My hair was braided into two long, elegant ropes.

I must...get ready for school. I kicked down the covers and grabbed for the edge of the mattress, pulling myself and my braids to the end. I ached all over. The effort it took just to get upright was shocking.

I sat there for a moment while the room spun, waiting for it to settle. Get ready for school, some inner voice insisted again. I have to get dressed. I frowned, staring down at myself. When had I stripped to just my bra and underwear?

The voices coming from the kitchen were hushed when my foot finally found the bottom of the staircase. I eased off the last step to stand on the floor, and then drifted away from the support of the banister, shivering in my school skirt and blouse and hugging my Hatter doll.

"So it was a pretty rough night then?" Indy asked.

Micah responded. Just the sound of his voice injected strength into me as I swayed in the direction of the kitchen.

"I don't know how you could have expected her to make it through that on her own. So, you admit the stuff you gave her was a detox," he said over the opening of a drawer. Silverware tinkled as it was shifted about and I heard him asking, "A detox for what exactly?"

Approaching the kitchen archway, I watched as Indy chose her words carefully, taking a fork from the drawer and closing it as she replied, "Oh, you know, this and that. Mostly for impurities that could be keeping her body from functioning at its full capacity. It seems to have worked. She was going into transition when you found her."

"You say that as if you were expecting the reaction out of her." He glared at the tall, lank woman as she moved about the kitchen.

"I wasn't expecting her to go running off into the woods, if that's what you're getting at."

"You should have told me about the detox. Hell, you should have told her. We were lucky I got back when I did. And then after I got her to the house..." He grimaced and shook his head. "That was her transitioning?"

"She's through the worst of it then?"

"I think so." His sigh was weary. The smell of scrambled eggs and bacon pulled at me as I stood in the kitchen archway and watched him lean against the counter. "I'll have to keep a good eye on her today. In trying to expel the impurities from her body, you've caused her to lose a lot of water. She's going to be weak and possibly prone to aftershocks of what seized her time and time again. Her pulse sounded stronger this morning. More accepting of its new, faster pace. But still..."

My hand went to my chest. My heart is beating faster?

He pushed away from the counter when he spotted me. "Little one, what are you doing out of bed and dressed?"

His voice was gentle with concern as he strode over to me, looking good but also exhausted in a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a dark colored pullover, the shirt fitting snug across his shoulders. His arm went around my back and I leaned into him, grateful for the support as he walked with me across the kitchen.

When we made it to the table, he pulled out a chair. The sound of the chair legs scraping across linoleum was loud, and I frowned at the stacks of portfolios and paperwork cluttering the table. Indy was supposed to be keeping all of the fashion house's work at the property next door. Wasn't that what she was renting the place for? What was work doing overflowing into our living space?

"It's Wednesday." I hugged my doll as I sat, looking up at Micah over its felt top hat. "There's a trig test today."

"You're not going to school," he said as he watched me fidget with a braid. "You're not strong enough. But if you can wait a day, you will be."

"Pi is still 3.14, isn't it? That didn't change overnight. So I can do math," I insisted. Although I wouldn't be against ducking behind a hallway pillar during gym. "I don't want to miss this test and fall behind—I can't get my hair undone."

"You braided her hair," Indy said around a mouthful of eggs.

He eased my fingers open and took the braid. "I had to," he said when the end came loose, and he unwound the length. "She kept getting tangled in it."

Indy's fork clinked against her plate as she stabbed a piece of bacon, and I closed my eyes, the gentle tug of his fingers in my hair pulling a distant memory from me. The recollection was buried deep, under a mound of numbness. I reached out to it, gathering it back to me when he exhaled, and I took in his warmth. "You braided my hair..." I mumbled, and Indy made a rude noise.

"Gods, I don't think she's mentally with it enough for math."

"In the hospital," I finished. I opened my eyes to the sight of their twin shock.

"You remember that?" He forced his hands to resume their motion, unweaving the rest of my hair. He combed a few short passes through the length of it once everything was free.

"Yes."

"But you were in a coma." He pulled back to look at me, his fingers lingering close to my hidden scar.

My attention returned to the fashion clutter on the table again, recognizing from some of the top pages that it was paperwork for the upcoming spring collection. "The tugs were sharper, and you weaved a little clumsier, but it was you. I remember your scent." I touched the back of his hand. "Your fingers were smaller."

"It was eleven years ago." Micah looked at Indy, and she shrugged, wiping her mouth. "I was what, maybe twelve physically?"

"You were two months away from your fifteenth year alive when I pulled you from the training grounds," Indy said matter-of- factly as she strode to the sink to run water over her plate.

"Wait a minute." I brought Hatter up to my face, burying my confusion in his soft hair. "How old are you?"

Physically he appeared to be in his late teens, early twenties maybe. Although Alex and Micah seemed to be about the same age, Alex had admitted to being one hundred and thirty-one years old.

"I'm twenty-five to twenty-one," Micah supplied for me, and my eyebrows rose in question.

Twenty-five years alive and twenty-one physically was the explanation when he went into further detail.

I nodded and started to say, "So devvis age a little slower than humans until—" My voice trailed off at the sharp sound that Indy made.

"What? She knows a lot already."

"Because you've been telling her when it's not your place!" Indy snapped at him.

He stood, his height warning her off. "You are not going to send me away for providing her with what she needs. That includes information!"

"Devvis age slower until," I cut back in, "you stop aging.

Because water and sunlight and such don't age."

Micah looked at me, then back to his elder cousin. "I didn't tell her that."

"No, Alex told me."

"Alex?" Indy's short hair bobbed at her ears when her head snapped around in surprise. "Alexander BruLagoon?" She bent to wipe her hands on a dishtowel, her disapproving demeanor switching to pleased. "You've been spending time with him?"

I shrugged and turned my focus to a quiet Micah. Apparently he wasn't allowed to tell me jack-squat, but if Alex wanted to clue me in that Superman was a devvi, that was just fine.

"I want to go to school, Micah." It came out as a firm whisper, and I watched expectantly as he began to cave.

"You want to go to school?" he echoed softly. "Boy that's a lot different from not wanting to go two weeks ago. So, things have been going well?"

"It's been okay. It's only three classes."

"I told you you'd be okay after the first day," Indy said. We both glared in her direction.

"Okay, trig test. But I'm not leaving your side." He brushed my cheek before he turned toward the counter, heading for the toaster. "I'll go over before the office staff arrives and change my class schedule to match yours. But you're not leaving this house until you eat something."

"I don't want toast," I grumped, putting my heels on the edge of the chair.

Indy cleared her throat and gave me a pointed looked, and I lowered them. Underwear had been showing. Oops. Can't be doing that type of thing with a guy in the room.

"You don't want toast with peach jam?" He turned around with an unopened jar of peach preserves in his hands and grinned when my eyes went wide. He twisted the lid to pop the seal and my enthusiasm spiked.

"Gods, you're going to spoil her," Indy muttered from behind a file folder she picked up from a stack. She sat at the table across from me, flipping through its contents.

"Somebody around here should," he shot back. He took two slices of bread from the bag and slipped them into the toaster. "Get the toast for her when it pops."

He sent a hard look his cousin's way as he set a plate, knife, and the jar of jam before me. Taking the lid off, I dipped my finger in and put it in my mouth. Mmm, it was good. Very peachy.

"I'm going over to the academy, and then I'll be back to pick you up." His hand came down atop my head to gently muss my hair.

Not amused, I mock-slapped the tousling motion away, warning him not to do it again if he wanted to keep that hand. He grinned at my unconvincing show of annoyance before heading for the backdoor, the look in his eyes telling me that my spunk made him feel better about my chances of getting through today.

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VOTE if you have a sudden craving for peach jam!  Haha :D

Whelp, everyone, that's it for the weekend.  Thanks for reading!  The second half of chapter 25 (Twenty-five | B) posts on Friday.

Good luck for the week to come. Everyone be safe.