Chapter 50:  Back to Business-as-Usual

            Tina walked into her and Rika's room with a happy air about her.  "It's so good to be back and alive!  Hello, room!" she shouted.  She bent over and shook Renamon's paw.  "Hello, Renamon!  Hello, desk!  Hello, squeaky desk lamp!"  She sat in the chair and spun the desk lamp around its base just to hear its annoying squeak.  "…Ah!  It's great to be back!"

            Renamon had been asleep until Tina stepped, but---despite the rude awakening---she was happy to see Tina.  "Great to see you've come back in one piece," she said.  She gave the backside of Tina's cheek a nuzzle in a very dog-like way.

            "Thanks, Renamon.  I see that Rika isn't so glad to see me…she's still asleep?" Tina looked at Rika, who had her face buried in her pillow.

            "Doubt it.  She's…just in one of her moods."

            Tina looked at Youngdramon, and Youngdramon began fingering the roll of duct tape that was always around her wrist.  "Well, if we can't snap her out of it---"

            Rika jumped out of her top bunk and dashed out of the room at full speed.  She barely touched the ground before she made it to the door.  "Gotta go to the bathroom, see ya in a minute!" she quickly said on her way out.  The door slammed shut in their faces.

            "Uh…what was that about?" Youngdramon asked.

            "She'd…been crying.  She didn't want you to see her cry."

            "About what?" Tina asked.

            "About you, I think.  She was worried that she'd never see you again and that thought scared her.  I didn't want to tell you in front of her."

            "Good move.  …Wow, it's weird to think that she thinks of me as a friend!"

            "Scary?" Youngdramon asked.

            "No, not scary.  I'm not scared of her:  if things get out of hand, we'll just duct-tape her down in her bed again."

            "Over my dead body!" Renamon snorted.

            "Actually, over your duct-taped body," Youngdramon corrected, pulling a strip off her roll.

            Tina sighed and walked back towards the door.  "You know, I've got some catching up to do with the orphanage.  There's a little project of mine that I'd like to see the progress of."

            "I'm riding shotgun," Youngdramon said, waddling with her to the orphanage.

            "That's a good idea; I don't think Rika would be happy to see you here when she comes back," Renamon cautioned.

            "She won't!"

            Tina entered the orphanage, and there was an immediate cry of delight.  "Ti-naa-a-a-a!"  Ingrid dashed up to her and wrapped her arms around Tina's waist.

            "Hey, Ingrid!  How've you been doing?"

            "Ti-na!"

            Tina smiled.  She picked Ingrid up and carried her to where Natasha had her bedroll set up.  "Is this the first she's moved from that spot?  Besides to use the bathroom, that is?"

            "No, I've been trying to teach her how to use the Nintendo Quantum while you were gone…but I thought I heard something about you maybe not coming back?"

            "I wouldn't leave you hanging like that!"  Tina gave Ingrid a kiss on the cheek.  "Or Ingrid."

            "Tina!" Ingrid answered, returning the kiss.

            "So…have I been missed?"

            "Ingrid didn't stop asking for you at all during your trip!  Every mealtime, she'd say, 'Tina?' and every time Brock or Kari would take her by the hand and lead her to the bathroom, she'd ask them, 'Tina?'  She wouldn't stop asking for you at every chance!"

            "Wow.  …Good to know I'm worth something, here."

            "And it's good to have you back.  There have been enough people dying, already."

            "Amen!"  Tina took Ingrid by the hand and brought her to one of the game systems that was hooked up to a big-screen television.  It was a Playstation IV, and there were datacubes games for the system stacked up next to it in a huge pile.  Tina asked the boys who were playing on it, "Can we have a turn after you're done?"

            "Sure," one of the two boys answered.  They were pounding the tar out of each other's virtual players with strange, impossible punches and kicks.

            The sight of the fighting on the television and the noise of the players' grunting scared Ingrid a little.  She clutched Tina's elbow and whimpered, "Scared…scared…"

            Tina picked her up.  "Come get us when you're done," she said.

            "Okay."

            Tina carried Ingrid to Natasha.  "The video game was a little violent…it upset her a little."

            "Awww…" Natasha took Ingrid in her arms.  "It's just a video game.  It's not real.  Nothing to be scared of."

            The only word from that sentence that Ingrid understood was the word "scared."  So she agreed, "Scared."

            "No scared," Natasha insisted.

            "Scared!"

            "No scared," Natasha whispered again.

            One of the two boys walked up to Tina.  "We're done.  He beat me.  Guess that means he gets my dessert tonight---"

            "Hold on a sec…you two were betting on this game?"

            "Uh…yeah…"

            "That's against the rules here."

            "So…I get my dessert?"

            "You wish:  neither of you is getting dessert tonight."

            "Well…at least I'm not getting the short end of the stick; I'm no worse off since---"

            "Or tomorrow night…!"

            "…Oh."

            Tina rolled her eyes.  "C'mon, Ingrid!"

            Ingrid shook her head.

            "No scared!" Tina insisted.  "Scary thing gone."

            Ingrid shook her head again and held on tighter to Natasha.

            Tina knelt next to her and asked, "Ingrid like Tina?"

            She didn't know what the word "like" meant, so she kept her mouth shut.

            "Ingrid gonna like it!  No scared."

            "No?"

            "No scared."

            Ingrid weighed her options in her mind, and then decided that she trusted Tina.  She climbed into Tina's arms, and Tina carried her back to the Playstation IV and plugged in a less violent game for her and Ingrid to play:  Super Mario World.  It was a thirty-five-year-old game, and it had had several rewrites over the past decades.  Yet it was still as classic as Pac-man, and still played and revered as one of the best games of the twentieth century.  Its basic design was a template for a lot of games to come:  there were midway goals halfway through the level and animals to ride…things used again and again in future platform games.

            "Ingrid gonna like…"  Tina began humming along with the theme music, and the bright colors and blipping and knocking noises the game made began to fascinate---even entertain Ingrid.  She giggled at the flattened koopas and the flipped-over goombas that Tina knocked out of the way.  She even giggled as Mario fell off the screen when he died.

            When Tina was done, she looked at Ingrid.  "Fun?" she asked.

            "Fun!!" Ingrid declared.

            Tina fed her, took her to the bathroom, and put her to bed.  After saying good night to Natasha, Tina and Youngdramon went back to their room.

            On the way, Youngdramon piped up, "You know, you're gifted:  I wouldn't be able to stand raising a kid who couldn't understand one word I said.  You and Natasha are just about Ingrid's mothers."

            "Yeah, I know…scary thought, that much responsibility.  That's why I don't think about the responsibility; I just think about how it's fun to watch her grow and learn new words…"

            Youngdramon yawned.  "Well, let me tell you:  I can't wait to get to bed.  You try DNA digivolving and battling eight-story robots, and we'll see how bright and bushy-tailed you are."

            "I'm ready to hit the hay, myself.  I could use a shower, first."

            "Ditto."

            Just as they entered the room, they saw Rika and Renamon talking, but their conversation ground to a halt the moment they saw Tina.  Tina decided to pretend like nothing was weird, and asked Rika, "So…what did I miss?"

            "…Well, the time field you found in the women's room moved into the men's room."

            Tina rolled her eyes.  "What's next?!"