A/N: This was a fun interlude. I didn't feel like rewriting a full chapter tonight, so have an interlude instead.


Wanda awoke in the middle of the night, not knowing where she was. This was a familiar sensation as a faerie godparent, but not one she'd experienced much while in Timmy's care. Normally, she and Cosmo slept in the fishbowl or within the castle. Now, they'd slumped in exhaustion on the couch downstairs. Cosmo was still asleep, but Wanda was too troubled to fall asleep now.

She hugged herself, wishing she could've transferred into her bathrobe, but all of her alternative clothes were within the castle, now out of reach. She crept up the steps and didn't know what she expected to find when she reached Timmy's room. The door was locked and she held up her wand to poof within, only to remember she couldn't anymore. Not for a week, anyway. Who knew what kind of havoc Lorenzo could wreak in a week?

Wanda knocked on the door anyway. If Timmy was there and not Lorenzo, perhaps she could have a serious conversation with him. Timmy needed to rise above his misery, as difficult as it might be considering how new and fresh it was. He needed to do it because Lorenzo wasn't finished with his rampage and she was convinced she and Cosmo were next. Removing their powers was one thing. Coming after them was something else entirely.

She knocked again, not having received an answer the first time. Timmy might be fast asleep or Lorenzo might be reading and ignoring her.

"Cosmo?" Timmy's voice called and Wanda's heart skipped a beat.

"Close, hon," she called through the door. "Can you let me in?"

"Why don't you just poof in?" Timmy said, sounding confused. "Why is my door locked, anyway?"

He must've been listening to a voice in his head, because his next words were "oh, I see." Wanda's heart sank. She should've known this wouldn't work, but she'd been so hopeful. Nonetheless, she lingered for a minute longer, hoping against hope that Timmy would change his mind and admit her.

The door lock clicked and Timmy stood on the other side. He looked so small and young, younger than he'd been when they'd first appeared before him. Moreover, he looked lost and his eyes were red-rimmed. Wanda's heart went out to him and she fell to her knees to embrace him. Lorenzo's wish had forced them into human form for the conceivable future, which came with its own fun problems.

"Where's Cosmo?" Timmy asked, but he walked into her embrace anyway.

"He's fast asleep downstairs," Wanda answered, kissing Timmy's cheek. "Are you all right, sport? What's going on with you and Lorenzo? Don't tell me you're going to let him win."

"Win what?" Timmy asked and he sounded listless now. "He's already won."

The words sent a chill through her, no more so than his next few.

"Stupid, weak, pathetic frach," Lorenzo sneered. He wasn't using faerie glamour to project his alternate self, but his voice had changed and deepened. "Your love for Timmy will be your demise."

"I don't think so," she said, refusing to release him although she knew Lorenzo was in charge now. She knew Timmy was there. She'd just spoken to him. Lorenzo wasn't playing fair, but then, anti-faeries didn't, as a general rule. And part of her didn't care, so long as she could hold her godson.

"What do I have to do to get through to you, frach?" Lorenzo scoffed. "Oh, wait, I know."

He backhanded her, which shocked her so much she didn't react for a second. The idea of someone wearing Timmy's skin attacking her was so foreign, her mind simply refused to accept it for a few seconds. However, she was Big Daddy's favorite daughter for a reason.

"I knew you wouldn't have the balls to hit me back," he sneered and her eyes narrowed.

While Lorenzo stood there, gloating and priding himself on assaulting her, she snarled, grabbing the offending wrist and grinding the bones together. It should be enough to bring Timmy back, assuming Lorenzo wasn't blocking him from feeling the pain. She wouldn't break Timmy's wrist, but Lorenzo didn't know that.

"How dare you," she snapped.

"How dare you touch me without my permission, bitch," Lorenzo rejoined. "Let go of me this instant."

She ground the bones harder and was rewarded with Lorenzo yelping. Violence was a language she understood. Being a mafioso's daughter had its advantages. Granted, the disadvantages outweighed the advantages, which was why she didn't like to remind people of her parentage, but it looked like Lorenzo needed a little schooling.

"Bring Timmy back. Now," she growled and stared into his glowing blue eyes.

"Oh, you're bluffing," Lorenzo said through gritted teeth. "You wouldn't dare really hurt Timmy now, would you?

"Wanda...what are you doing? You're hurting me!" Timmy said, but Wanda knew a trick when she saw one. Her eyes narrowed.

"I didn't raise hundreds of godchildren over the years to fall victim to cheap stunts like that," she warned and Lorenzo blinked, taken aback. He hadn't expected her to outwit him and for a second, real fear lined his face. Aha. So he didn't like her not because she'd wronged him, but because he knew she was smarter than him. Her intellect made her a threat.

"Get out of my face," Lorenzo snapped. "I don't have time for your bullshit."

Wanda released his wrist, not because she thought he'd gotten the hint-he clearly hadn't-but because she didn't intend to hurt Timmy. This was excruciating, seeing someone she loved essentially held prisoner by a violent anti-faerie with fewer morals than most anti-faeries.

"I'll be watching you," Lorenzo spat.

Wanda smiled coldly. "I wouldn't expect anything else."

They stared at each other for a minute and then Lorenzo growled, stepping back into Timmy's room, slamming the door, and locking it again. Wanda chuckled humorlessly to herself. Well, well, well. She was one of his weaknesses. She wasn't sure what that changed, but it certainly changed something.

With difficulty, she made her way downstairs and held onto the railing the entire way down. Cosmo had awoken when Lorenzo slammed the door and he was looking frantically around for her. Wanda settled into his lap and he sighed, relieved.

"Where did you go?" Cosmo asked.

"To try to talk some sense into our godson," she said and shook her head. "It didn't work, but I know more than I did before. I know why he doesn't like me."

"Timmy doesn't like you?" Cosmo said and Wanda sighed. They weren't' on the same wavelength at the moment, but that might've been because he'd just woken up.

"Lorenzo," she clarified. "Lorenzo dislikes me because I'm a threat to him. I'm smarter than him and he knows it."

"You're smarter than me and I don't think you're a threat," Cosmo said and Wanda kissed him on the lips.

((Not like that, hon,)) she said. ((He knows I can destroy him, even if I haven't figured out how yet. And that scares him.))

((You wouldn't destroy me, would you?))

((Of course not, pudding,)) she said and kissed him harder. He kissed her back and wrapped his arms around her. She draped her arms over his shoulders.

((I love you,)) she said and then added in an undertone. ((But that thing wearing our godson's skin is going down.))