Time to bring in April a bit more!

Kalei is so relieved to see Sally, when paying a visit to the hospital on Saturday morning, that she nearly bursts into tears the moment she sees her. She doesn't, because she still has some control over her tear ducts, but it's a close thing because of how insane everything has become.

In the midst of all the alien insanity and talk of death and killing, there is Sally. Comforting. Familiar. And wonderfully, wonderfully human.

"Are you okay?" Sally asks as Kalei clings to her. The other patients in Cheng's ward seem vaguely concerned - Kalei supposes that strong emotion in a hospital tends to have particularly bad connotations. "On Thursday, you sounded-"

"I know," Kalei says, eyes shut and chest near bursting with affection for her friend. "I must have scared you, I'm sorry. Things have been so crazy."

Sally glances around the ward, then takes her hand. "Let's go outside."

"I can watch Bolin, don't worry," Cheng says, voice tired but cheerful. He's got stitches in several places, his leg still in traction, a serious cast on it. He'd suffered a bad break, requiring surgery, but he's going to be okay, although his mobility will be limited for a while, now. Bolin is sitting on the chair by Cheng's bed, a picture book in his lap.

The women slip out into the corridor. Once there, Kalei gives Sally the most accurate but abridged version of recent events that she can. She says that Quill has left town unexpectedly because of a dire emergency. She explains about how Charlie is Quill's ward and says that she'll be back but that there's no way to be certain of how long she'll be away. She says how Charlie has said things to her about Quill that are giving her doubts, but also that Charlie's parents told him a lot of biased things about Quill before he ended up in her care.

Despite everything, Kalei is still certain that Quill has mostly told her the truth about what happened on Rhodia. It's a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

"Last Friday, you weren't even speaking to her," Sally says, with disbelief.

"Oh my god, that was only last Friday, wasn't it?" Kalei covers her mouth. "It feels like weeks ago. Last weekend was like… like we just existed in some bubble away from the rest of the universe, away from time or school or teenagers or... common sense."

Sally looks at her with sympathy. "And now it's burst. Reality's awful like that."

"But now I'm afraid of what happens when she comes back," Kalei says quietly. "Of what she might do. Or that she might not… want me."

"Then she'd be an idiot." Sally grips Kalei's hand hard. "But you might just need to take a step back. You're kinda scaring me with how… intense you seem to be about her, when this has happened so fast."

"I can't help it," Kalei whispers. "It is intense, and it is fast. But that doesn't mean that what I'm feeling isn't real. And when you think about it, time can be a deceptive measurement. We've spent hours upon hours together, whole days. Some people who have been dating for a month, or even two, probably haven't spent as much time together as we have."

"That doesn't mean it isn't questionable or unhealthy," Sally says, sighing. "You've jumped into spending whole weekends together pretty much right off the bat. You've been… caught up in this, and I just think you need to step back and try and see it from where I'm standing. Because I'm not gonna lie, it's freaking me out a bit."

Kalei finds herself fiddling with Sally's fingers. "But that's exactly it. I have gotten caught up in her. Completely. And it's as scary to me as it is to you, but it's happened and there's nothing I can do about it now. And she needs me, Sally. Or… she did. Now I don't - now I can't be sure of anything."

Sally hugs her to her side. "What am I going to do with you? I always said that big heart of yours was going to get you into trouble."

"It really has this time," Kalei says. "Every time I see her, it's like I can feel it doing a little excited dance or something equally ridiculous. Now it's like I can feel it physically hurting because she's not here. And I just want it to stop, because like you say, this is too fast and too crazy, and what if she gets back and it all goes wrong and I end up regretting everything?"

Sally hesitates. "Kalei, god knows you make a lot of dumb mistakes. But as much as I really hate to admit it, I don't think I've ever seen you be wrong about a person. If you got this far with her, and you think she's worth it, then screw whatever some stupid little teenager is saying. Your gut is worth twice what he thinks he knows."

Kalei feels herself tearing up. "I love you."

"I love you too, you hopeless gay disaster."

"Why do you have a cat?"

Charlie's eyes have zeroed in on Xenophilius - who is in her arms - eyeing him with understandable bewilderment. Kalei just shrugs and smiles.

"I'll try anything at this point," she says, marching past him and through the hallway, until she comes into Quill's bedroom. She kisses the top of the cat's head before putting him on the bed against Quill. "I brought Xenophilius to say hello. He misses you."

"It's your cat, then," Charlie says from the doorway.

"Yes. He and Quill are quite good friends at this point. I thought it was worth a try."

"You have strange logic." Charlie is shaking his head, but his voice is more amused than anything else, and when she glances at him, his eyes are surprisingly light. "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. Or rather, I'm sorry if I upset you. I stand by what I said."

"Apology accepted," Kalei says, biting her lip. "I know you mean well."

"I do. I promise you, I do. And trust me, if Matteusz were here, you'd have more of a problem with him than with me."

"What do you mean?"

"He… he thought that we should restrain her," Charlie says uneasily. "Tie her up so that when she comes to, she can't hurt me or anyone else."

Kalei stares at him with horror, but realises she can't even really call it a stupid thing to suggest. Quill does want to hurt Charlie. She's said so.

"You and the Shadowkin are the only ones that have anything to fear from her," she says.

"But I do have reason to fear her, don't I?" Charlie asks. "I can see it in your eyes. She's said something. Something that means you know Matteusz is right to be afraid for me."

"She needs you to use the Cabinet on the Shadowkin. You're not in any immediate danger," she tells him, but it sounds hollow. Like an excuse.

"That's why I haven't restrained her," Charlie says, swallowing. "I know that logically I still should, but I just - I can't. I don't know why. Maybe it just goes against my morals, tying someone up like that."

Kalei stares at him for a moment, wondering if he can actually be serious. But of course, he is.

"Or maybe, it's because she was a prisoner before she got the arn put in, and for her to wake up in bonds would probably trigger something awful in her," Kalei says, voice hard.

He blinks at her. "I… yes. Maybe that's it. I'd not really thought about it, but I suppose incarceration would have been awful, even for her."

"Even for her." Kalei shakes her head at him. "What is it going to take to make you realise that she's a person with actual feelings, the same as anybody else?"

"You didn't see what she did-"

"And you haven't seen the side of her that I have," she says firmly. "I have plenty of reason to see very little good in you, Charlie, after the hell you've put her through. But I'm actually an open-minded person and Matteusz Andrzejewski is a good, sweet boy who I know sees something in you worth caring about. And if you even remotely trust my judgement, as I trust his, then you would do well to reconsider your opinions."

"You can't compare me to her," he says with horror.

"I can do anything I like," she replies, lifting an eyebrow. Luckily for him, her own words have distracted her. "Where is Matteusz, anyway? Why haven't I seen him?"

Charlie winces. "He's… not here."

"I thought he lived here?"

"He does. Did. Things were said on Thursday...I don't - I don't know where we stand, now," Charlie admits quietly, his eyes full of sorrow. "I doubt he's with his parents, so I have no idea where he is, the only reason I know he's safe is because I saw him in class, but he won't talk to me and I keep worrying that something will happen to him because he's not here, and that maybe on Monday he just won't be at his desk, and-"

He's choking on his words, panic taking him into its clutches. Kalei doesn't move towards him, but she does feel a pang of sympathy.

"Charlie, you need to breathe," she says, and he tries. "You're close to a panic attack; you need to take deep breaths. It's going to be okay, and Matteusz will be okay, too. He's a smart, capable young man."

Charlie nods, gulps in air, and calms a little. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Not for that, anyway."

Kalei gets up and searches Quill's room until she finds a hairbrush. Settling herself on the other side of the bed, she reaches out to touch Quill's (now) long hair and slowly starting running the brush through it.

She can feel Charlie's gaze burning into her, but pays him no mind, and he eventually leaves.

"You'd better be grateful for my putting up with him," Kalei says to Quill, sighing. "It's exhausting and beyond confusing. But I'd also really rather that you don't kill him. I can understand why you want to, but he's just a boy, Quill. A boy who needs to be taught several possibly harsh lessons, but has a huge capacity for good. I understand how you can't see that; it's hard for me too, but it's true."

Quill shifts slightly, and Kalei thinks she might actually be leaning into the strokes of the brush. Hopeful, and heart leaping in her chest, Kalei reaches out to stroke Quill's hair where it rests against the side of her head. Sure enough, Quill ever so slightly leans into the touch.

"So you're still in there," Kalei whispers. "Thank god."

She can feel herself getting teary again, and she sets the brush aside so she can lie down on the bed next to Quill and snuggle against her. Ideally she'd want to put her arms around her stomach, but the pregnancy makes that too utterly bizarre, so she settles for just resting her hand on Quill's arm and resting her head against Quill's bare shoulder.

She breathes in the scent of Quill's skin, and she really does start crying again, just a little, because it's so wonderful and familiar and she didn't know how much she needed that until now. Just like how she had needed Sally.

How did everything get so crazy in three days?

Kalei can't stand the idea of waiting around her apartment on Sunday until visiting Quill in the afternoon. So she decides to go early, and then stop in at the hospital again later in the day and offer to take Bolin somewhere to give Sally and Cheng some peace.

When she gets to Quill and Charlie's house, she knocks but receives no answer. She tries again, calling Charlie's name, but still nothing.

The door is unlocked, so she throws social convention aside, because there's nothing conventional about any of this anyway, and walks into the house.

She tries calling Charlie's name, once inside, but he doesn't seem to be home.

It's not like it matters much - he's not the one she's here to see. She goes to Quill's room, where sure enough, there's no change. With a small sigh, Kalei lies down on the bed next to her, stroking her hair.

"I wonder if you're dreaming," she says. "I don't suppose it's possible that you can hear me?"

She leans over and presses a kiss to the corner of Quill's eye, then her temple. She can't quite bring herself to pull away, and so lets herself lie there, her body shadowing Quill's and her face buried in the crook of her neck, eyes shut.

One of her hand gently strokes over the bare skin of Quill's arm (the blanket has slipped down to rest just above her large stomach).

It's surprisingly comfortable, and comforting. Kalei breathes in slowly, letting Quill's familiar scent calm her.

She doesn't realise she's fallen asleep until she wakes up to a loud 'what the fuck' and jerks her head towards the door to see a bewildered April, standing there with a small tub of ice cream in one hand.

"April?" Kalei asks, drowsily, righting her very crooked glasses as she sits up.

"Miss Jacobs, what's going on?" April's eyes are wide, confused, and not half horrified. "Why are you-"

"She's with Quill. She's the one that Quill has been sleeping with," Charlie says, appearing in the doorway. "Apparently, they're dating."

"What?" April blinks. "But - Miss Jacobs wouldn't - not with Quill-"

"Actually, yes, I would, and yes, I am," Kalei says, resisting the urge to be sharp about it, because this is April. April who is sweet and good and kind, April who she pulled into her arms and let cry into her shoulder at Clara Oswald's funeral. April, who almost definitely has good reason to be sceptical about this whole thing. Besides, this isn't the most ideal way for April to find out that her alien physics teacher is fucking her maths teacher.

"But… why?"

"Why does anything like this ever happen?" Kalei asks, shrugging. "It just… did."

"But, no, wait-" April turns to frown at Charlie. "You said that she's hibernating. And pregnant, that there was some kind of time acceleration. But she couldn't be if she's dating Miss Jacobs, unless-"

She whips back to Kalei, eyes wide.

"Oh my god, Miss, I never even realised," she says, awed. "You're such an inspiration, honestly. I get why you wouldn't want it to be common knowledge-"

It takes a moment for Kalei to work out what she's talking about.

"April, no," Kalei says with an odd laugh because what is it with these wonderful children and their inclusive assumptions? She's the opposite of complaining, but it is making for some bizarre conversations. "I'm not trans. It's not mine."

April's deflated, her excitement fading into disappointment, then confusion, and finally awkwardness.

"Then, whose is it?"

"We don't know," Charlie says. Which isn't true, but he has no way of knowing that Kalei does now, in fact, know exactly who fathered the baby. Well, she knows his name and that he was a shapeshifter, anyway.

Wait, but wouldn't that mean - oh my god, the baby will be half shapeshifter.

Kalei's not quite sure what her face does to convey the nature of her revelation, but April definitely reads it wrong.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, that's so insensitive," April says with horror, hands covering her mouth. "I just meant - I mean-" Her shoulders slump. "I'm sorry, Miss Jacobs. I just… have no idea what to say. This whole thing is so weird."

"You're telling me," Kalei says with a morose smile. "You don't need to apologise. There's hardly a social script for… whatever the hell this is."

"I think I need some tea," April says, as she spoons some of her ice cream into her mouth absently. "I think you need some too, Miss Jacobs."

"Change it to coffee, and you'd be right."

April smiles. "Coffee then."

"April-" Charlie protests. "I don't think that-"

"Charlie, what's going on right now is nuts," April says gently, leaving the tiny ice cream spoon on her mouth for a moment so her hand is free to reach out and give his shoulder a squeeze. "I think sitting down with tea and coffee is what we all need. Come on, both of you."

Kalei gets off the bed and slips her feet back into her heels. As April cheerfully heads down the corridor to the kitchen, Kalei reaches the doorway and meets Charlie's eyes. He looks as uncertain as she feels, and they both abruptly look away and move to follow April.

"How do you like your coffee, Miss?" April asks.

"It varies, but today I think I'll take it black, one sugar," Kalei replies. She hovers in the doorway until April's movements in the kitchen and Charlie's hovering near the countertop leads her to stiffly sit down at the dining table and fold her hands in her lap.

"What about you, Charlie? Tea or coffee?"

"Tea, but I'll make it, don't worry," he says quickly, and he hurries to fetch three mugs and two tea bags, while April busies herself with the coffee maker.

Once he's done that, he's stuck until the kettle is done boiling, and he leans against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. Kalei, meanwhile, taps her fingers on her other hand. Her handbag and phone are still in Quill's bedroom, and it feels like being without a safety blanket. Phones are so perfect for painful situations like this. Instead, she's stuck sitting here.

April turns towards them and stops after a few seconds. Her eyes flick between Charlie and Kalei several times, taking in their furtive glances at each other and the awkwardness and tension in the room.

"Oh. I've… done something wrong here, haven't I?"

"I don't know if that's quite the right way to put it," Kalei says quietly.

"She's visited every day since Thursday night," Charlie explains, frowning. "And in all that time, we've never done… this."

"I've never even been in the kitchen before," Kalei adds.

"Why not?" April asks.

Kalei has no answer, and gives a small shrug in way of reply. Charlie, meanwhile, snorts in a manner that is still somehow regal - in a derisive, indignant sort of way.

"Probably because I don't tend to offer hospitality to people who continually insult me in my own home," he says.

"Just as I don't tend to feel comfortable receiving it from anyone who makes me out to be an easily manipulated idiot who can't tell when someone is only pretending to care about me," Kalei replies, without missing a beat. "The difference is that when I call you a former slave master, it's not actually up for debate, no matter what you might think."

"You see what I've been putting up with for the last few days?" Charlie asks April. "She might be a brilliant mathematician, for a human anyway, but she has no idea what she's talking about otherwise. April, can you tell her?"

April blinks at him. "Tell her what?"

"About Quill. Why she can't be trusted, why she can't possibly have actual feelings for Miss Jacobs. Maybe she'll listen to you, since Quill hasn't turned her against you."

"I mean… I'm not going to do that," April says, slowly and sheepishly.

Charlie looks perplexed. "Why not?"

"Because how would I know?" April asks, giving him a helpless shrug. "Quill might not be the most trustworthy, but at the same time, Charlie, there's something… honest about her."

"I can't believe I'm hearing this, from you of all people!" Charlie says, horrified. "April, she nearly had you killed! She told me to kill Corakinus, in full knowledge that you would die too!"

"I'm sorry, what?" Kalei asks sharply.

"Oh, didn't mention that to you, did she?" Charlie asks her hotly. "What happened to, 'I'm her girlfriend, I know everything?' Well, I'm not surprised she left that part out. She knows you actually have a heart." He winces, for some reason, and looks to April. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

"Explain," Kalei says, voice trembling. "Explain, right now, what you meant when you said that Quill nearly had you killed, April. And I do mean April."

"I-"

"She knows, April," Charlie reassures her, sighing. "Maybe not all of it, but enough that it's safe for us to tell her anything."

"You said a word that I didn't quite catch - Cora-"

"Corakinus," Charlie says, gritting his teeth. "King of the Shadowkin."

"Oh," Kalei says. Charlie looks relieved that he doesn't have to simplify any more of it.

"Charlie and Quill's gun is special. It works by displacing things in time and sending them out into space, scattering," April explains slowly. "Shadowkin attacked me at the school, the night before prom, when I was decorating. Quill sort of saved me at first, but then she tried to get me to use her gun. She said she couldn't use it herself-"

"Which is true, she couldn't even use razors, she had to use wax, she told me," Kalei interjected.

"Right, but the Shadowkin mostly attack by living in your shadow, and if they're doing that, then they can only be killed if you are."

"So the gun can be set to shoot both ways, to kill target and shooter."

"And Quill asked you to shoot this Shadowkin King with it, knowing that it would kill you," Kalei says, feeling sick.

April nods. "Well, I did shoot him, actually. But Charlie sort of… tackled me in the same moment, and so I only got a glancing blow. Corakinus and I were both hit, but…"

"The gun destroyed Corakinus' heart and displaced April's," Charlie explains. "Ever since that moment, it has been phasing in and out of space-time, beating once for her, and once for him."

"Oh my god," Kalei whispers. "But wouldn't that have some kind of effect? On April's health?"

"I get short of breath and stuff like that," April says with another nod. "I can feel it, and its absence, constantly. At every moment, actually. But I've adjusted, and I'm getting better at tuning it out."

Kalei can only stare at her with amazement. She knew April was strong, but this is something else altogether.

"But what about this King? What happened?"

"Quill wanted me to shoot him while he was weak, while we could. But that would kill April, now. So I wouldn't do it."

"And she didn't understand why not," Kalei realises, sighing and rubbing her temple.

"Of course she didn't, because she's heartless and all she cares about is revenge," Charlie replies, frowning at her.

Kalei shakes her head. "That's where you're wrong, Charlie. Revenge is her number one priority because she cares so much. Admittedly, not about you or about April. But she cares about her people; everything she ever did was for them, and now avenging their deaths is the only thing she can still do for them. She probably expected you to feel the same way she did, she'd-" Kalei closes her eyes and wills herself to admit the next part. "She doesn't understand the priority of a single life over something like that."

"And yet, you still side with her," Charlie says, with disgust.

"I'm not siding with anyone!" Kalei retorts. "Although, on the matter of April living, I'm on April's side."

"I mean, I actually was ready to… sacrifice myself in order to get the Shadowkin to leave," April admits, "but I was glad that it didn't come to that."

Kalei winces. "That's… that's very admirable, April. But I'm glad it didn't come to that, either. And when it comes down to it, that's your life and your choice." She glances at Charlie. "I was simply offering insight into Quill's reasoning. I wasn't excusing the fact that she was ready to have April be killed. I was saying I understand why she was. They're not remotely the same thing."

"Exactly," April agrees, and when Charlie looks at her incredulously, she shrugs. "It was the strongest asset we had against them, making use of it was the obvious thing to do. I'm not saying I'm thrilled that Quill would have been so ready to let me die, but she's a soldier, it sort of makes sense."

The kettle starts whistling, breaking them away from the conversation. April and Charlie move to make the coffee and tea, and soon they're all sitting at the table with their drinks. April wrinkles her nose when she tries her last spoonful of ice cream after a sip of tea.

"Okay, that was a mistake."

Kalei smiles fondly. "I think there isn't tea flavoured ice cream for a reason, yeah."

April laughs and takes another gulp of tea. For a few moments, she is quiet, and then she looks at Kalei hesitantly. "Miss Jacobs, if you don't mind me asking… how are you doing? All this crazy stuff is happening with Quill, and if you two really are - were - I mean-" April frowns. "I'm getting this all wrong again."

Kalei curls her hands around her mug, letting the warmth sink into her fingers. It feels like Quill's skin, overly warm with hibernation, and it both comforts her and makes her wish she could be back in that bedroom and not in the middle of this conversation.

"I honestly don't know how I am with all of this," she says slowly, "only that I'm confused and scared. And that I'm not comfortable discussing anything in regards to my relationship with Quill in front of someone who keeps implying that she doesn't care about me."

"Well, I'm not comfortable having someone who would knowingly have sex with a mass murderer sitting in my kitchen and passing judgements on me, yet here we are!" Charlie retorts, making April choke on her tea and Kalei flinch.

"At least my judgements are about the morality of slavery!" Kalei says. "I don't see you going around telling the significant others of any human soldiers that they're disgusting individuals not worthy of expressing an opinion!"

"I never called you disgusting. I would never do anything like that," Charlie replies, affronted. "You're the one that called me a dangerous racist with empathy issues-"

Kalei sighs, half rolling her eyes. "No, you just told me that I'm a naive, yet admirable, person who simply deserves someone who cares about me back-"

"Just as you said that I was extremely ignorant about certain issues but otherwise probably a good person in my own way!"

There is a brief silence as they stare at each other, both frowning, while April just seems confused by the bizarre turn the conversation has taken. It takes several moments for them to catch it themselves, for them to realise that despite their tones still being heated and hostile, the words - the truths - have shifted somewhere else.

Charlie and Kalei hold each other's gaze across the table, both breathing a little harder than normal after raising their voices, both tense and confused until -

They laugh. A chuckle escapes Charlie's throat and makes his eyes flood with warmth, and in that same moment, Kalei lets out a little giggle herself, shaking her head. They laugh harder, grinning at each other across the table.

"What's happening?" April asks, staring between them with bemusement.

"I have no idea," Charlie says, still laughing.

Kalei covers her grin with her hand. "I think we might have just realised that we're not enemies. And that we have some similar priorities."

The laughter fades and leaves a quiet in its wake, but this time it's a comfortable silence. They drink, almost in unison, and smile softly at each other from across the table.

"Do you want to hurt Quill?" Kalei asks quietly. There is no accusation in her voice, just caution, and curiosity.

"No," Charlie replies. "Would you condone her hurting me? Or anyone else?"

"No. Unless, perhaps, that anyone else were pertaining to the Shadowkin."

Charlie nods, and they share another smile. Kalei lets out a long breath, feeling lighter somehow, like she hadn't even known a weight had been on her shoulders until it was gone. Charlie seems similarly relieved.

"What just happened?" April asks, frowning. "Are you two friends now?"

"Not while he refuses to acknowledge and take responsibility for what he did to Quill," Kalei says calmly.

"And not while she refuses to consider that I might be the one in the right and continues to side with Quill despite her numerous crimes," Charlie agrees.

"Then what?"

"I think we've come to… an understanding," Kalei muses.

Charlie's lips twitch. "I think Quill would call it a truce. Of sorts."

Kalei laughs. "Yes, she would. Alright, a truce then."

"Well, that's a start," April says, her usual optimism creeping back into her voice, her eyes tentatively looking hopeful. "I'm glad I could help facilitate this, then."

Kalei nods and thanks her. Part of her wants to ask what they've been up to today, but she suspects the answer is as simple as going out for ice cream - which is actually what she could do with Bolin, later. And to be quite honest, this whole conversation has exhausted her entirely, and she has a lot to process now.

Mainly that April is sharing a heart with an alien warlord and that Quill had been willing to kill both.

"I should probably be going," Kalei murmurs. "I have other places I need to be. There's a four year old I need to take out for ice cream."

The two teenagers share a confused frown, as she gets up and thanks them for the coffee. She returns to Quill's bedroom to fetch her handbag and kisses Quill's forehead in farewell, before leaving the house.

It turns out that tasking oneself with entertaining a small child is a pretty effective distraction from one's problems.

Writing the Charlie and April and Kalei scene was really fun new territory. Let me know what you thought!