Two weeks later Tilly arrived back at Phys Acc. She had been forced to spend a week in the hospital and she had been allowed to stay with Ward and the team (minus May who was still teaching at Phys Acc for Toby) provided that she didn't exert herself and took it easy.

It was Sunday night and she strolled through the Atrium wondering where everyone was. A glance at her watch showed her it was dinner time. She slowly trudged the familiar path to the dining hall and went in. The second she walked through the door the noise levels dropped. Tilly could feel the eyes burning into her skin. She thought Carl had let something slip, but then she heard a second year whisper

"That's the one who collapsed during her class. I heard she'd worked herself up so much over them she made herself ill."

Tilly immediately felt relief. Everyone was staring at her because she collapsed, not because they had found out her surname. She spotted Carl and made a beeline for him.

"Hey! You're back."

"Yeah. I'm not to work out at all for the next four weeks, but I'm back."

"What about exams?"

"I guess I'll find out tomorrow."

"Want some dinner?"

"No thanks."

Carl looked at her, non pleasant thoughts running through his head.

"I was forced to eat something before I left the family." Tilly told him, noticing the look on his face.

Carl breathed a sigh of relief.

"How's your sister-in-law?"

"Huge!"

"Really?"

"Yeah. He keeps teasing her and calling her a beached whale. God knows what he's gonna call her when she gets bigger!"

"She's going to get bigger?"

"She's only 23 weeks. She has at least another 10 to 11 weeks to go!"

"You make her that cheesecake?"

"Yeah. You should have seen her face. It was like watching a small child on Christmas morning!"

"Where are they staying?"

"They've rented some sort of lodge in the middle of nowhere that will actually hold all of us."

The principal stood up and the room was very quickly quiet.

"I would like to see Matilda Grace and Carl Gravely in my office please." He said.

Tilly and Carl looked at each other. They knew that they were about to find out what was going to happen with their exams.

They stood up and walked the all too familiar path to Principal Dockerty's office where they knocked once and sat outside waiting.

"Come in." He said to them, getting to his office after they had.

Carl and Tilly went into his office and sat down.

"I am going to excuse both of you from your midyear exams. You both have good progress reports and as the exams don't count towards your scores. They only serve as an indicator on how well you are doing to see where you need to improve." The principal told them.

"Tilly I get, I mean she's not allowed to do any practical's for the next four weeks, but why me?" Carl asked.

"You have been without your partner for two weeks, you have been worried about her health, and needless to say your mind has been elsewhere. I do expect both of you to attend your exams and complete work assigned to you by your teachers. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir." Tilly and Carl said together.

"You may go."

Carl and Tilly raced from his office before he changed his mind.

"No exams?" Carl asked as they headed back to their rooms.

"I know. Means I can torment my brother."

Carl gave her a very quizzical look.

"He's assessing the practicals. I think Director Fury is trying to keep him occupied while the 'bus is grounded."

"Bus? Grounded?"

"Coulson and his team of misfits work out of an airbus plane, flying around the world to where ever they're needed. With Skye being, well you know, Coulson has grounded the entire team so he can help out."

"Wow. They live on a plane?"

"Uh-huh!"

"That is awesome!" Carl said as they reached their doors.

Tilly paused before opening her door.

"What?" Carl asked her.

"I wonder what treat Oleg's gonna have in store for us. He's going to be furious that we aren't being examined."

"Why did you have to say that? I'm not going to sleep now."

"You aren't? It's not you he hates!"

Tilly went down to breakfast the following morning amid more whispers. She would have to do something to get them talking about something different.

"Hey!" Carl said as he took the seat next to her.

"Hey. You go for a run this morning?"

"Yeah. Nowhere as near as far as when I'm with you, but I still made it!"

"You might be able to keep up with me when I can run again." Tilly jested.

"You going to eat that?" Carl asked looking at the toast on the side of Tilly's plate.

"No. You eat it. I'm still trying to get used to eating full meals again, not to mention human food!"

Carl grabbed the toast off the plate.

"I'm still moving kinda slow, let's go to Spanish." Tilly said getting up from their table. Carl followed eating the toast.

They arrived at Spanish and greeted Marisa.

"Hey Marisa!" Tilly called.

"Matilda, nice to see you back looking healthy."

"It's good to be back Marisa."

"So you two are excused from the exam. What should I give you to work on?" Marisa pondered.

"Actually, I'd like to give the exam a go." Tilly told her while Carl spluttered behind her.

"Are you sure?"

"I speak fluent Spanish." Tilly reminded her.

"If you both sit the exam, I will mark them and let you know, but I won't file it with Principal Dockerty." Marisa told them.

"Why did you do that?" Carl asked Tilly as they sat down.

"It'd be more interesting than working. It means we can see where we're at. You heard Dockerty, the results don't mean anything."

"So you willingly take an exam?"

"Only for the teachers who like me." Tilly told him with a smile.

"Ohhhh! I get you. You get on with Marisa so you'll allow her to know where you are in her class, but Oleg, being an ass gets to suffer in silence."

"Exactly."

"Whatever. I still think you're insane. Who would voluntarily take an exam?"

"Me clearly!" Tilly jibed as the rest of the class filed ready for their test.

"This test will last a maximum of two hours, you will answer all questions as fully as you can. There will be silence. If I catch you looking at another person's paper or trying to communicate with another person it's an automatic failure. When you have completed the paper you may leave the room and relax before your practical exam this afternoon." Marisa explained to the class handing out the test papers.

"You have two hours. Go." Marissa said.

Tilly flew through the paper within the hour and got up to hand it to Marisa. Marisa scribbled a note for her to hang around and she would mark it.

Tilly retook her seat and pulled her book out of her bag. She sat reading and before long Carl got up and handed his paper in too. Obviously Marisa had given him the same message because he retook his seat too and he and Tilly started playing a quick game of 'squares'.

To neither of their surprise, Tilly won. They set out a bigger board.

"You have half an hour left." Marisa announced.

There was clearly a panic from some students and they all started scribbling frantically.

Tilly and Carl returned to their game.

They played and Tilly had just placed the last line and started counting up the scores when Marisa announced that they should all put their pens down.

The class all left around Tilly and Carl and when they were alone in the classroom with Marisa they helped her collect their classmates papers.

"I bet your both dying to find out how you did." Marisa said to them.

"Not dying to find out, more of a curiosity." Tilly said.

"I'm dying to find out how badly I failed." Carl said.

"You both passed. Tilly, unsurprisingly, you got 100%. Carl, you did well. You got 89%."

"I got what?" Carl asked.

"You got 89%. You did well considering."

"What was the pass mark?" Tilly asked.

"75%"

Tilly took the stack of papers off Carl and handed them to Marisa. Carl skipped out of the classroom.

"I take it you're happy?" Tilly asked.

"I'm over the moon. I passed Spanish."

"I told you it would be fun!" Tilly told him taking their places at their table.

"That wasn't fun. That was horrifying. I'm just glad Marisa told us there and then."

That afternoon they were due out to the assault course. The exam was to get as far as possible on it before falling off. May and Ward were already there waiting for them.

"Whatup Gramz!" Tilly said to May, causing Ward to laugh uncontrollably and Carl to stare at Tilly curiously.

"What the hell did you just call me?" May demanded, looking from Tilly to Ward and back again.

"I think she called you Gramz." Carl said, trying to both help and prod the bear, knowing no reaction would be directed to him.

"Yeah. As in Grandma." Ward told her, still snorting with laughter.

The look on May's face was comical, although Ward could see her clenching her fists and releasing them over and over again.

"I don't know who I want to strangle more, you or her!" May said to Ward, trying to push him over, but Ward, expecting some sort or retaliation held firm and steady.

"What did I do? Tilly called you it!" Ward protested.

"No, but you put her up to it!"

"Would I?"

"YES!" May and Tilly said together.

Carl was laughing. He had heard that Ward had no sense of humour and what little people managed to extract from him was dangerous. Clearly this was not the case as he was now using Tilly to prop himself up from laughing so hard. Suddenly he let Tilly go and straightened up, laughter dying. He saw May also straighten her face and looked up the hill. The rest of his class were coming down it for their exam.

Ward went to sit on the benches so he could get a better view. May told Tilly and Carl to go and join him.

"You are going to have a go on the assault course. You will get as far as you can. You fall off the exam ends. I will call your name and you will start. When you come off, come and see me and then you can go." May told them jotting something down on her clipboard.

Tilly sat on one side of Ward and Carl sat on the other.

"So did you tell Sue and Rob yet?" Tilly asked.

"No. Not yet. I'm still trying to work out what to say to them."

"This is how I think it's gonna go: Hey Sue, coz you know Sue always answers the phone, err, is Rob there? He is. Can you err, put me on loudspeaker?" Tilly said in an American accent to mimic Ward, before dropping it and putting on a low gruff voice to mimic Rob.

"Hey Grant. What's up? How's married life?"

Tilly swapped back to the low American voice.

"It's err, great, err, I'm calling, err to tell you something." Tilly said before changing her voice again.

"What's wrong dear?" Tilly said in an impression of Sue.

"Err, I kind of forgot to call you, err, I mean, err, I know I needed to, I just thought I'd already done it." Tilly said going back to her Ward voice.

The top of his ears were starting to burn red. Carl was sat laughing.

"Will you just spit it out?" Tilly said using her Sue voice.

"Well, erm. Skye, well, she's kinda 23 weeks pregnant." Tilly said reverting back to her Ward voice.

"That's great news!" Tilly said in Rob's voice.

"She's what?" She shrieked using Sue's voice.

"Yeah. Err, like I said, I meant to call you, err, then I thought I had." She said in Ward's voice.

Carl was now laughing so uncontrollably he was in danger of falling off the bench.

"So are you coming home for Christmas?" Tilly asked in Sue's voice.

"No, we err, I mean Skye can't fly any longer." Tilly said in Ward's voice.

"She's only 23 weeks, she can come back for a fortnight." She said in Sue's voice.

"Well, it's a little err, complicated. We're having triplets. So she can't fly."

"Triplets? You're going to have your hands full aren't you?" Tilly said in Rob's voice, adding a haughty laugh.

The blush was spreading from the top of Ward's ears into his face.

"Yeah! VERY funny." Ward said to her, extracting himself from between them and walking over to May.

"Swap?" He asked.

"Why?"

She looked at Tilly and Carl and saw them laughing so hard that they could barely breathe.

"They've been ribbing you haven't they?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I know you, and her."

"That was awesome! I never knew anyone could get under his skin like that!" Carl laughed, wiping a tear from his eye.

"I am the one true master!" Tilly told him, trying to stop laughing as her stomach was starting to hurt.