Disclaimer: Descendants does not belong to me.

Jane has felt many things over the years when she transitions back from sleeping to awake. She has been relieved as often as she has been suffering from lingering upset (or sheer terror). She has struggled with coming to herself and understanding that she isn't hurt (and trying to figure out what it is that she has done on the occasions that she actually is). She has been frustrated and angry and so grateful that she can cuddle up with her mother or let Chad calm her down with the ritual of their secret keeping. There have been so many emotions (some of which she does not even understand). This is the first time she has ever been disappointed to wake when she did.

Her mother takes one look at her when she comes sliding into the kitchen (socked feet and slick floors are unforgiving when one is moving too quickly) and thinks that the last round of deliveries must have gone through successfully. She can see it on her face and speaks so quickly to tell her that it hasn't and they have to keep trying that the words trip all over themselves. When she finally makes herself understood (both that the packages did not make it to the children and that something different has happened to her), her mother looks what she can only call pensive (and she has lots of words from lots of books stuck in her head from which she can choose).

They sit quietly at their kitchen table for a long time - her mother keeping her in place with a gentle hand resting against her wrist when she nearly vibrates out of the chair with her desire to go back and try again. She should dislike the restraint of the gesture when she is so full of what she should be doing and what might be, but it calms her down instead. She is still full of wonder at the change, but she uses the time to try to figure out what she did differently (what she will have to do to be able to do even more).

Her mother actually jumps when the alarm on her watch beeps (they used to be late an awful lot until Aunt Ella insisted on the gift), and they hustle off across the garden even though Jane really just wants to go back to bed (even though she doesn't think she has ever felt quite this awake in her whole life and doesn't know whether she would be able to go back to sleep if she tried).

Her mother doesn't say anything else about it as they go - just gives her a look that tells her that they should keep this to themselves for now.

In the week that follows, she goes overboard.

It should not be surprising - she has spent so much time feeling so useless when it comes to the children on the Isle that her first instinct is to overcompensate. However, the odds of a child that had actively feared sleeping for years switching to trying to find excuses to go and take naps at every opportunity without anyone noticing were slim to none. Her mother has a "chat" with her - one of her too calm quiet voice ones that make you feel bad for making her sound like that in the first place. Chad demands to know what it is that she thinks that she is doing.

She's never fought (not a true fight) with Chad before. She doesn't like it. Chad doesn't like it much either she can tell. It's the most uncomfortable birthday celebration she has ever had. Her birthdays are never the crowded gatherings Aunt Ella plans for Chad. Her birthdays are always small family affairs that mean the strain between her and Chad is on full display in front of the adults in the room and neither one of them can get away from it. No one is happy when the evening comes to an end (even though she thinks that everyone is happy that it has finally ended).

She wakes in the middle of the night to find her best friend slouched over and lightly snoring as he sits on the floor and leans against her bed. He wakes up when she slides out from under the covers to sit next to him, and the two of them talk until the sun comes up (and he doesn't even get in trouble with Aunt Ella and Uncle Henry for sneaking out in the middle of the night when he gets caught trying to sneak back across the garden in full daylight).

He doesn't understand (she isn't always sure that she understands and she is the one that is caught in it all), but the two of them do come to an understanding. It's a heavy talk for a seven and a nine year old, but she has been living with the harshness of the Isle for always and he has been dealing with the fallout for her for nearly as long - so maybe in this they really aren't as young as they are supposed to be.

She tells him that she has to try to make things better; he reminds her that she keeps getting hurt. He tells her that it's his job to not like things that hurt her - that he has to take care of her. She tells him that taking care of the children on the Isle would make her hurt less. They are quiet for a little bit after that (but it isn't the same kind of awkward quiet that kept happening during her birthday dinner).

He tells her that he is not going to trust anything about the Isle, and she tells him that that is okay. There are a lot of things about the Isle (a lot of people) that shouldn't be trusted; she probably knows that nearly as well as the people actually on the Isle - she's seen a lot of things.

They are sitting with their heads rested against each other and Chad's arm around her shoulders as if he is afraid that she is going to run away from him when she finally finishes explaining to him as best she can about how different it is now that she has control of her movements when she sleeps. When they establish that this fact means no more sleepwalking (and falling in the pool or slicing herself with broken glass or any of the less serious bumps and bruises he has helped her through), then he grudgingly admits that maybe her practicing to make sure that part stays that way wouldn't be such a bad thing.

For the first time, she really understands (she thinks) what this is like for Chad. He feels about not being able to help her the same way that she feels about not being able to help the children on the Isle. It makes it really easy for her to ignore the grumpiness and the sometimes mean things on the subject that he says.

Chad is on her side - always her side even when that means that he wants things that she doesn't want because he believes it's better for her. She understands that.

She and her mother have a very grown up chat that morning about time and priorities and lots and lots of things including how no one is "just" anything. She may be tied to the children on the Isle, but she isn't just that. She is still a little girl who needs to learn lessons and her mother's daughter. She is also a niece and a best friend and the head gardener's best helper when it comes to picking arrangements for the table in Aunt Ella's study. They talk a lot about balance, and she understands what her mother is telling her even if she doesn't feel like she has a very good grasp of it in practical terms.

She restricts her sleeping to her normal bedtime, and she puts all her focus on the Isle children then in the same way that she puts all of her focus on the other people in her life during her waking hours.