Dawn crept slowly over the horizon, staining the sky with first with gradually lightening shades of blue, then orange and yellow.

The rays touched on a building that looked like nothing so much as an inexplicable collision between a warehouse and a mansion that had been left for dead near an otherwise abandoned shoreline.

A few birds chirped in the silence.

Something exploded in the warehouse portion, rattling all the windows. The birds flapped and tittered and resettled themselves.

Behind her carefully reinforced walls, Susan blinked, yawned and sat up. Then she stretched and climbed out of bed, slipping on her sail-sized robe.

Link and Insectra had downright refused to room anywhere near the Doctor's lab. B.O.B. had also made a fuss about it at the time, but that was mostly because everyone else was doing it. Susan was the one who'd ended up sharing a wall with him. It wasn't so bad. Easier than setting an alarm clock every day.

Walking down the hall, she poked her head into the gently smoking laboratory. "You okay, Doc?"

"Never better," came the dazed response, and an upturned table righted itself, revealing the scientist beneath.

"Oh... Okay, then."

"Ah, Susan, since you're here, could you perhaps...?" He pointed halfway up the wall.

"No problem." She plucked the length of piping from where it had buried itself several feet into the steel in the blast. "See you at breakfast." She let the pipe clatter gently to the floor.

"Sure thing. I've just got a few... er, modifications to make here first."

"Good luck with that," she said with a sleepy smile, and retreated into the hallway.


A/N: *shrugs helplessly* I know, it's criminally pointless and short. To be fair, I warned you. Make of this what you will.