She-Ra: Lost in a Lost World
Chapter 14, Part 2

Teela reluctantly turned and left the suite. Immediately, she ran into Adam and Cringer.

"Good morning, Teela," Adam said with a nod.

Cringer rubbed against her legs and butted her hand with his head.

Teela laughed and said, "Good morning to you too, Cringer."

She scratched him behind the ears and watched his eyes close in bliss. She looked up and said, "Good morning, Adam."

Adam smiled and said, "You look good, Teela."

"What?" Teela was surprised. She hadn't really slept all night, and she was just wearing her uniform as usual, then she remembered – she hadn't taken her hair down from the previous night. "Oh, my hair. I never took it down."

"It still looks good." Adam said warmly.

"Oh, thank you," Teela said, fighting not to blush at the compliment.

"What are you doing over here so early? I'm not late for a sparring session am I?" Adam asked with a teasing grin.

Teela couldn't help it this time, her face flushed. Good grief! He was flirting with her! "Uhm, n-no. I- I couldn't sleep last night and so I ended up sitting with Chelsea."

Adam nodded and asked, "How's she doing?"

"Oh! That's what I came to tell you! She's awake!"

"When?" Adam asked next, his relief evident on his face.

"Just a few minutes ago. Her memories are a bit scattered, but she's awake."

"Good to know. Thanks, Teela, I appreciate it."

"I knew you'd want to know right away," Teela shrugged it off, still not certain how to handle this new Adam she was seeing.

"Where are you off to now?"

"To find your mother – she'll want to know too and to find her some clothes…"

"Yes, there is that…" Adam conceded. "It wasn't as if she exactly planned her visit here this time either. Well, shall we?"

Again, he held out an arm for her to take, just like he had last night and she found herself taking it before she had a chance to think about it. They headed off to the informal dining room that was near his parents' suite.

Adam kept from asking her why she couldn't sleep last night and Teela couldn't have been more grateful. She was so not ready to admit to him that he was the reason behind her insomnia.

Chelsea stood at first in the shower, with her hands braced against the rear wall of the stall, letting the water beat down on muscles in her back that were sore from the two days she had spent sleeping.

Her memories were in a jumbled heap – like a yarn bag that all the skeins had gotten tangled and twisted together and almost impossible to sort out. She had a memory of finding Adam's sister Adora in the snow. She knew now that Adora was his twin. That much she remembered while waiting for the shower to heat up.

"The dream!" se exclaimed, her head snapping up as the memory worked itself free of the tangled knot. "That's how this all started!"

She washed her hair as the dream worked itself free in her memory, that terrifying nightmare where she had dreamed the night through Adora's eyes. Another memory came loose and this one was of her doing an acupuncture treatment on someone. She couldn't see the face, but knew it was Adora she was working on. Trying to stabilize the right knee and working to keep her fever down. Another memory surfaced and it was her barely dodging a blow aimed at her face by a delirious Adora. She should have a good bruise on her right arm, but there wasn't even a hint of the bruise being there.

A bruise like that would take at least a week to heal, and she knew she wasn't missing that much time. The lack of bruising indicated a Healing and she knew it was a foolish waste of energy to do a Healing for something the body could take care of by itself in a few days. That in itself; along with the hospital gown, told her it was a major Healing and that something had to have gone completely sideways for her to have needed any such thing.

Another memory jarred loose – a moment of pure panic. Waking up to see Marlena standing over her and a breathing tube down her throat. What the - ? The force of the memory was frightening. This remembering things out of sequence and only in bits and pieces was going to drive her stark, raving mad here – with frustration if nothing else.

She looked up and said, "Are you trying to drive me mad here? If so, you're doing a good job!"

Chelsea huffed a sigh and went back to rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. She sighed again and decided that she just might have to spend the day in meditation in order to sort out the jumbled memories in her head. She really didn't want to do that. – She was tired of being still and wanted to do something. It looked to be a gorgeous day out there and she needed to feel the warm sun on her face.

She took her time, hoping that when she got out of the shower, Teela would be back not only with clothes for her to wear, but food as well. She was hungry and her stomach was reminding her that not only had it been two days since she'd eaten, she'd had a major Healing done on her and thus, energy needed to be replenished. That jogged another memory loose and this one had her making scrambled eggs and looking out at the snow covered mountains after the storm had finally cleared. That one was definitely out of sequence; she got the feeling that it was the day that she was supposed to take Adora back to meet Adam and Marlena.

She paused for a second. Okay, that memory was definitely out of sequence. This was really getting old fast and she really was tired of this 'hunt and peck' game the fates were playing with her.

When she felt that she was going to turn into a prune if she stayed in the shower, she finally emerged and wrapped herself in one of the large towels.

Teela and Adam entered the small dining room to find the king and queen seated next to each other, poring over some documents.

"Hard at work already?" Adam teased his mother after nodding to his father.

"Helping your father play catch up still," Marlena answered with a smile as Adam brushed a kiss on her cheek.

"Good morning, Teela," Marlena said warmly, clearly approving of her being at Adam's side.

"Good morning, Queen Marlena," Teela answered, fighting to keep from showing her unease at the matchmaking the Queen was doing. "I knew you'd want to know – Chelsea is awake."

"She is? Wonderful," Marlena said. "How is she?"

"A bit confused and full of questions," Teela reported.

"Not surprising," Marlena remarked, her expression thoughtful. "Clothes…"

Randor looked from his report to look questioningly at his wife, "Hrm?"

"Clothes, dear. We did leave rather abruptly," she answered him. "Well, I'll take care of that."

"I'm sure you will," Randor said with dry humor.

Marlena took one last sip of her tea, set aside the paperwork she was looking at and stood up. "Ill see to that now. Adam, why don't you –"

"Bring some food and start answering her questions?" Adam finished, seeing where his mother was leading.

"Exactly," Marlena said with an approving smile.

Clearly, those two had come to some sort of understanding while they were away. Teela was almost jealous, but realized that she still had that with her father. She still could turn to him with almost any problem and he'd listen to her without judgment.

Just then, one of the servants materialized to take her plate and mug and turned to Prince Adam to ask what he wanted for breakfast.

Adam asked for two trays, then turned to Teela and asked, "Have you eaten yet?"

She shook her head no.

"Great, then you get to be my moral support," Adam said with a teasing grin, before he turned back to the servant. "Make that three trays – fruit, toast, bacon, eggs and deliver them to Miss Cameron's suite."

"Certainly, Your Highness," the servant answered with a bow. "Something to drink with that?"

"Tea and juice," Adam replied after a quick glance to Teela and receiving a confirming nod from her.

"Anything else, Your Highness?" the servant asked.

"No, I think that will cover it, thank you," Adam stated.

"Very well then, Prince Adam. I'll see to it immediately," the servant said with a bow and left to take care of the food.

"If you'll excuse me, Father, I'd better get back to face Chelsea's interrogation."

Randor chuckled, "Better you than me, son. Will I see you at court this afternoon?"

"Is there anything important you want me there for, Father? I thought that I might see if I could convince Adora and Seahawk to come out for a picnic.

Randor looked at the schedule his secretary had put with the reports. "Nothing urgent, but if you wouldn't mind doing some research for me…"

"I'll see what I can do," Adam promised his father.

"Great. I'll get you the list of what I need," Randor nodded.

"Why don't I come by your office as soon as I get done answering Chelsea's question?" Adam suggested.

"That would be perfect. I'm sure I have more there that I could use your help on," Randor said.

Adam smiled and said, "I'll catch up with you in a bit, Father. I'd better go answer Chelsea's questions."

Randor chuckled and turned his attention back to the reports in front of him.

Adam turned back to Teela and asked, "Ready to go?"

She nodded still too unsettled by this new side of Adam she was seeing to say anything. It was definitely going to take some getting used to!