Chapter 10: The Language Barrier

—February 2, 2018—
—24:59 GST—
The movie was called "Random Dreams" and it was terrible. A hackneyed, clichéd, uninspired and downright boring romantic comedy someone had dug up somewhere staring Julia Roberts and Vince Vaugn. Harper had seen this same movie literally hundreds of times with a different name flashed on the opening credits each time, and he couldn't count how many old girlfriends had dragged him off to some random chick-flick just like this one. Shikari, on the other hand, had been on the edge of her seat since the movie started and he was sure if she had a pen and paper she probably would have been taking notes. She had that same attentive, spaced out look after the movie ended, and later on the walk out of the Ajax Cineplex, and even after stopping by at Famous Rei's for something to eat. Not surprisingly, Shikari ordered the miso ramen again, while Harper went for the Thai stir-fry. By the time the food got to their table, Shikari was still lost in her zombie like state; Harper was starting to miss the talkative, inquisitive little woman he had come to know over the months. "Shik, are you okay?" He said, moving in front of her eyes, trying to get her to look at him.

Shikari blinked quickly and seemed to return to reality, dragging her mind back from wherever it was it had wandered off to. "I'm fine, I just... well there's alot of things on my mind is all."

"Like what?"

"Like... well a whole new set of options recently became available too me, some new possibilities..." Shikari felt like she was on a slant somehow, as if the universe had gone flat and all of her words were skipping right over the top of him like stones in a lake. "Forget it, you wouldn't be interested."

"Of course I would!" Harper said automatically. He'd heard that from too many women to not know the proper response. "Go ahead, tell me!"

"Well..."

"C'mon, I'm all curious now!"

She tried not to look at him and save herself the embarrassment of blushing profusely in his presence, but for some reason she couldn't help it. Before she even knew what was happening, she began to dissolve into a humanoid pile of emotional jelly. "I... I... I..."

"You, you, you." Harper said mockingly.

"I just... well you... I can..."

Harper snickered. "Sounds complicated. Not really sure what to do about that..."

"Captain, you're making this really hard for me!" She complained, trying to catch her breath. Every time she felt herself getting closer to a resolution, her heart started doing acrobatics in her chest. The more she thought about it, the more she was sure she was about to suffer a very severe heart attack, so she closed her eyes and took three extremely deep breaths. "Matthew, I'm happy you offered to spend some time with me on my day off but there's something… I need your advice."

Harper leaned forward, quite sure this would be something entertaining. "What's gotten into you today?"

Shikari took three more deep breaths and started talking, determined not to stop until she had said all she needed to say. "I have these strange feelings and I don't understand them! It's just eating me up inside, it makes me feel like I'm falling all the time… it's like I just can't stop thinking about it! I don't know what's happening to me, sometimes I think I'm getting sick, but sometimes I see you in my dreams and I go insane and...!"

"Whoa, slow down there!" Shikari was flying through her words and Harper was just barely able to catch one word in three. "Take it easy, Shik! Now what's the matter with you?"

"Well uhhh…" This wasn't going anywhere fast, so she elected to try the intellectual approach. "Captain, I have reason to believe that my... uh... my judgment has been compromised by an emotional issue."

"What kind of emotional issue?"

Shikari's face turned beet red, but she determined not to stop until she had seen it through to the end, "As you know, I have been trying to study human pair-bonding interactions, for... you know... practical reasons, to... um... to know how to approach someone, someone I think is special."

Matt stared at her, his ground shaky, "Uh huh..."

"And I've been met with nothing but failure."

"Uh huh..."

"And... well, since I can't seem to figure out the proper... protocol or whatever it's called, I need to... um..." She closed her eyes tightly, took a deep breath, slapped herself on the face and then opened her eyes again, and looked him dead in the eye: "Raska'ta... m-melkes... amane genosta." She seemed to shrink half an inch and turned half around and stared at the ground, "There, I said it."

Mathew blinked twice, and glanced around in case anyone fluent in Zentradi might be listening. He found himself alone with her for twenty feet in every direction. "Uh huh..."

"I know, you're not interested. I um... I just wanted to tell you that."

"Right..." If I didn't know better, he thought suddenly, it sounds like she's breaking up with me... are we on a date right now? "So um... what happens now?" Something about the thought of it rang bitter in his ears. The idea of a relationship with Shikari had never been one he considered likely... on the other hand, he realized, that had not at all been the case before Broli had acquainted him with her rank and reputation. "I mean... well, what do you think we should do?"

Shikari sighed, "I think under the circumstances, it would be best not to... I mean, it would work out better if we just remained strictly professional. At least until this... this whatever it is... passes or until I can figure out how to deal with it... with you." She sagged slightly and stared at her feet.

"Uh huh..." Now he was legitimately saddened. "Well, okay, if you think that would be best." A long awkward pause filled their ears with the mutual silence, until out of obligation Mathew found himself speaking idly without thinking, "For what it's worth, Admiral, I do find you quite attractive."

Shikari looked up and stared at him blankly.

"It's true. I mean... remember, a long time ago I told you I thought you were pretty? That was my first impression of you, and to be honest, it still is. I think you're very attractive. And... I'm sorry you... feel like we..."

"Wuchia'ta amane," She said again, this time in a low, husky voice that for some reason raised sweat on his forehead, "Pezuna'ta amane. Holtoa."

Even without understanding the words, the meaning was finally clear. Even so, he choose not to react until he knew for sure, "Shikari, what exactly does that mean in English?"

Shikari stood up from the table, walked around to his side, knelt down next to him and whispered in his ear, "It looses something in the translation. But if you'd take me back to your quarters, I'll be happy to show you."

.
—26:40 GST—
The small city block behind SDF-2's main cannon wasn't as bit as it had been when the main cannon and armor plating were installed, but with the purpose it now served, it really didn't need to be. The ship itself, like all superdimensional vessels, functioned as a mobile base with its own self contained economy and population centers. It was like a self-contained war effort; if necessary, the SDF-2 could break away from Gallaron's fleet and fight the war on its own as an independent nation, requiring only what few supplies it's onboard facilities could not build themselves. It was Misa's idea actually, basing the deployment of every ship in the fleet on the Macross as it was during the Space War. Macross had fought against the Zentradi as its own army, homeland and population, now every ship in Gallaron, whether it traveled with a fleet or by itself could keep on fighting until the enemy forced it to stop for repairs.

The center of the city block of SDF-2 contained a small forest park section that housed virtually all of the ship's plant life. The grass and most of the trees were all borrowed from the original colony ship when the city was moved to the surface of Gallaron. It wasn't nearly as big as it had been in the original colony section, thought as small as it was it was still large enough to fit the average public high school and have plenty of room for parking.

Captain Matheson stretched out on one branch of an oak tree in one corner of the forest with her feet up on the trunk. Broli was sitting on another branch next to her, staring off into space with his mind wandering. He didn't realize Corina was calling him until he felt the impact of a small stick against the side of his head. "Ow!… what, Kitten?"

"I said why did you want to come here anyway?"

"You don't like it here?"

"I do but…" Corina sat up in the tree, turned around and leaned her back against the trunk. "Why'd you want to come HERE? We could have gone to the café down the street or to my quarters or…"

"I just wanted to see you in your natural setting." Broli said flatly.

Something about the statement intrigued her. "And just what exactly is my natural setting?" She said with a smirk, half turning in the tree to face him.

"Captain Harper mentioned something to me a few weeks ago." He reached across the short gap between them and grabbed Corina's hands, examining them thoroughly. "He said you can always tell a country-girl by her hands. They're different from city girls, but they're just like meltrandi, rough and calloused from years of..."

"That sounds like something Harper would say too. That damn cowboy..."

"But he's right." Broli kissed her hand and leaned back on the branch again. "Sure, you blend in with sprawling metropolis well enough, but according to your records you were born on a farm in a place called Brazil, forty one miles from the nearest major city."

Corina was impressed. Thanks to the devastation of Earth's surface and the near destruction of the Earth by the Zentradi, that kind of information was not easy to dig up these days. He'd obviously gotten Shikari to do alittle hunting. "It's not like I swing from trees or anything Broli..."

"Of course not. I just want to have you all to myself, for a while. And since we're on the subject, I've come to realize I don't know much about you. Your childhood I mean. There's not much in the records."

Corina laughed. "You waited until after we were married to ask me this?"

"Well… I was never a child so I never really thought about it until Minmei's kids were born. Now I'm all curious to see how my Kitten came to be the way she is."

"I see." Corina didn't know where to start, but with Broli it might not have mattered. Anything would be interesting to him now, and the first thing that came to mind was, "When I was little I always dreamt of being an astronaut. I used to watch the launches on TV and I would shoot little rockets in the fields and a couple of times I would play in the drier and have my brother turn it on so I could pretend like I was flying or something… I guess it was pretty stupid…"

"Actually, that sounds like fun." Broli said, trying to picture a shrunken Corina tumbling around in a drier full of moist socks.

"When I was seven, my Dad took me and my brother on a plane trip to America to see the space shuttle launch in Cape Canaveral. I remember what it was like when it launched, like when they lit those two huge boosters it was like the whole word was shaking. And then it started going up... oh, it was so cool! It was like this entire rocketship riding a fireball all the way into space. And the boosters fell away and the thing just kept on going until I couldn't even see it anymore with the binoculars. I used to dream about that from as early as I can remember..."

"I can imagine. I hear the old space craft they used to use on Earth were quite a sensation back in their day."

"Some of them still are." Corina said fondly. "But that was nothing compared to what happened the next night

"What happened?"

"We were in a rental car on the way to the airport and my brother was all excited about the shuttle launch and everything, but then I saw… I saw a..."

Broli sat up a bit, suddenly curious. "What'd you see?"

"It was way up in the sky, this big yellow fireball brighter than the sun. My dad stopped the car and he got out the binoculars and…" Corina froze for a moment like a car pushing past a speed bump, held up by the last image she ever saw before waking up in the hospital. "We got hit by the shockwave after Macross passed over us. It actually picked up the car and hurtled us into a swamp somewhere." That flash image stayed frozen in her mind for an instant before she moved on in her mental video tape; her father, lying against the side of a huge rock, the back of his head completely smashed. Raul had tried to pick him up to carry him with them, but Corina got him to abandon the attempt, pointing out a pile of gray matter on the rocks next to where her father's head had been. It was a painful memory, but one of mixed emotion. Her bigger concern had the nature of that strange object that had passed overhead and caused this catastrophe, and the fear that Earth was being invaded by space aliens. "I never saw my dad again." she said softly. "We lost him in the swamps, I guess he must have drowned."

Broli stared at her for a few moments, trying to picture three micronians blowing in the wind like human flags as a Supervision Army gunboat sliced through the sky above them. "How'd you get home?"

"The American immigration agents found us. As soon as we got back home, my mother started explaining everything that happened with the Macross and that the UN was going to be encompassing all the governments because aliens were coming or something." She thought back on the strange image she remembered from then, her mother still with tears in her eyes over the death of her husband yet excited and terrified at the same time at everything the Macross's arrival had come to represent. "You know, I flew that very same space shuttle on the way to ARMD-3 a couple of months before Bodolza attacked. You think maybe that's just a coincidence?"

"I think so." Broli thought of one of his own stories, though he was sure Corina wouldn't be interested in it particularly. "How old were you when you signed on with ARMD-3?"

"Pretty young actually. They accelerated me through the service because they needed a good linguist."

"Linguist?"

"I was fluent in eight languages and basic in four." Corina caught Broli's expression and realized he did not understand what she was trying to say. "It was different back then. The old ships didn't have computer translators like the Macross so they needed people who could shift languages on the fly. Everyone on ARMD-5 spoke Italian, and three of the destroyers in the Enterprise's group had an all Russian crew. All of the opps officers in the fleet were like that, this way we wouldn't have to worry about who we were talking to in what language. Sometimes we'd switch back and forth in mid sentence without even knowing it."

Broli found this the most amusing of all. "How come you never told me that?"

"You never asked, dear!" Corina said laughing. "Besides, when I met you it was hard enough just teaching you English, but everyone here speaks Zentradi. There's over a hundred thousand humans in Gallaron and seventy million Zentran and protocran. Everybody who doesn't speak English…"

"Êtes-vous fâché?" Broli said off hand.

Corina chuckled. Broli wasn't carrying a translator, but she had learned a long time ago he was a very fast learner. "Non. C'est la vie."

"Estão você receoso?" Broli said.

Corina matched the question with a defiant grin. "Ängstlich von was?"

"Of loosing part of who you are, or maybe loosing your culture to all these strange new people around you. Or are you afraid of Lacul?"

"Nao receoso do Lacul." Corina stood up and stepped across the branch to move up next to him. "Receoso para perdê-lo."

Broli put his hands around her and held her to his side. "Don't be silly Kitten, you'll never loose me. No matter what happens, even if I live to be a thousand years old, I will always love you."

She could feel the warmth in his hands, burning all doubt out of her soul. "Promise?"

"Eu prometo, Gatinho." He said, and kissed her on the forehead.

.
—26:50 GST—
"Can I check have ma'am?" The man said in heavily accented English. Minmei was grateful for him at least making an effort to talk to her in the standard micronian tongue, and after such a valiant effort by him and his family to speak to her in English she didn't have the heart to tell him about the translator in her pocket, or the fact that she knew enough to talk to him in Zentradi anyway. She simply handed him the check and a pen, but before she could even step away from the table he handed it back to her with the money and a 2,000 yulin-tip. "Tank we you Minmei." He said.

"Nous-Brek." She said, smiling shyly.

All four of the people at the table stared at her for a moment, then at the realization of the situation all four of them started laughing. Minmei moved off to the cashier to finish the check, then noticed the beeping of her watch as an indication that she needed to get home soon. She had about half an hour before Taosan woke up at his usual time and started screaming to be fed, and just for once she hoped to take care of him before he woke up his brother with his fussing. Thinking about the subject reminded her of Pris; she banished the thought immediately and finished her work.

When she was done with the register, she moved into the employees lounge for the rest of her clothes and her jacket, but on the way out she caught Fei Chan staring at her in a white coat stained with splatters of sweet and sour sauce. "Leaving so soon?"

"I have to get back. There's some business I need to take care of..." She glanced off at the four customers from the table she had just finished waiting, one man and three women leaving the room. "Fei Chan, that man is married to all three of those girls." She said in amazement.

Fei Chan watched them leave and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I noticed. Seems to be a fairly standard practice here, mainly because there's so many more women on this planet than men."

"Really?" Looking around the room, Minmei noticed for the first time a considerable gender gap in the attendance. For every male in the room there were at least six women. "Now that you mention it... but still, what would a man want with three wives? You'd think just one would be enough."

"That's for damn sure." Fei Chan said with a grin. "Truth is, this is a matriarchal society. The women run everything here, in fact most protocran men don't even have voting rights unless they're married."

"I thought that was just a myth?"

"I thought so too, but it's a tradition that stretches back thousands of years... in fact, some of the earlier democracies on Earth had that same practice. The six highest positions in the Elder's Council are all men, abd the other thirty four council members are all women. I'm told this is the first time the council has ever been dominated by men, actually."

"Definitely an enlightened society." Minmei said smirking. "What does that have to do with polygamy?"

Fei Chan shrugged, passing down what little information he had managed to squeeze out from past customers, "Most families are like we're used to, one husband and one wife. The wife—the first one, anyway—is the like the queen of the household. Sometimes if she comes from a poor family, she'll get her husband to marry not only her, but also her sisters or cousins or whatever and they can pool all their resources under one household... or, if the husband falls for another woman or takes pitty on some poor homeless girl or some war orphan, his first wife passes judgement on whether or not to allow a second marriage. By law, the first wife has judicial power over all of them, exclusive property rights, and she's the only one allowed to have children. In some provinces the second wife is allowed to have boyfriends on the side, if the first wife allows it, and in some cases they can even divorce and remarry if they find another husband... I'm pretty sure those cases are pretty rare though."

"That's so weird... you know, you'd think there'd be alot of jealousy or something."

"Sometimes there is, but in some households the husband isn't even allowed to have sex with the other wives—that's why they're allowed to have boyfriends. The other wives all have to chip in with helping to raise the children, keeping house, tending to domestic issues, or else just earning a living... that sort of thing. It's one of the reasons the Gallaron birthrate is so high."

"Yeah... that's a really interesting arrangement..." This opened up a whole new era of possibilities to her, and she could almost taste the irony in the situation. Her late husband had been an abusive, cheep skate control freak with an ego-centric mindset and a very short temper. But if he had lived to see the founding of the Stellar Republic, there would only have been a million different things Minmei could do to keep him in line, maybe even going so far as to trick Richard into taking a second wife to serve as a tag-team partner should he forget his place. But that was all over with; Richard was gone —from the neck-up anyway— and nothing would bring him back to her. She knew it was time to move on, to move up, to retake her place in the universe, and the ball was already rolling towards that end.

Minmei pulled her coat on and started for the door, but at the last minute she glanced at Fei Chan and suddenly saw a solution to one of her biggest and newest problems. "Fei Chan, could you do me a huge favor?"

"Of course. What is it?"

"Don't say yes until I tell you what it is. This is really big."

"Minmei, if it's important to you I'll do it, you know that. C'mon, what do you need?"

She looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Could you... could you look after the twins for alittle while? You see I'm going on a trip and I won't be able to stay at home..."

"How long are we talking exactly?"

She fought through the embarrassment of having to ask someone this. "It's a long trip."

"How long?" Fei Chan could tell she didn't want to go into detail about where she was going, which was a clue to him at her intended destination was.

"A few months maybe. I'm leaving this weekend. I'll be back for the holidays and all, but..."

Fei Chan thought back to his basic training days and pulled out some numbers. "I see. Through... late July, right? About six months."

"Yeah." Minmei felt fifteen years old again. It was like trying to tell her father about a new boyfriend from school. "I-I'm not doing this for Kai Chan."

"Sure you're not." Fei Chan said, winking. "You're doing this for Hikaru, right?"

Oddly enough, that idea seemed to make more sense to her than it probably should have. "No... I'm doing this for myself. And for the kids. Don't ask me to explain."

"Fine, I'll take care of them. Just as long as you promise not to do what my sister did and disappear for ten years. I couldn't handle another round of custody hearings."

"I'll be back, don't worry. I'll even stop by every other day to check up on..."

"Don't get carried away Minmei, you'll be too busy for that. Just call in on a vid-line twice a week. That's all either of us have time for."

Minmei nodded and started for the door. "Twice a week then. Could you stop by tomorrow morning and get the keys?"

Fei Chan shook his head. "How about I stop by tomorrow and get the kids?"

"Uhhh..." She slapped herself on the forehead, "Sure, that'd be good."

.
—February 3, 2018—
—00:55 GST—
That was a hell of a dream, It was the first thought into Mathew's head as he slowly came back into his head from a peculiarly restful sleep. As usual the sunbeam from the holographic sky outside filtered in through his window and warmed his face back to consciousness. Slowly he opened one eye and raised one hand to block the sunlight through the window, and rolled his head to one side to check the clock. "Damn. Too early for duty, too late for breakfast." With a groan he turned his head back and reached for the pillow on the bed next to him to cover his face from the sunlight... but his first attempt to move his other arm met an obstacle, and looking down for the first time he saw why. Shikari was curled up in the bed next to him, both arms wrapped around his waist, her head resting on his chest as a pillow. He brushed her gently with his knee to confirm what he already suspected, then glanced slowly around the room to find his and her uniform strewn about his quarters in haphazard fashion. Oh lord, I was afraid of that.

Over the years, Captain Matt Harper had perfected the art of bed-hopping, waking up on occasion next to an unknown woman and using a combination of stealth and contortionism to escape without waking his one-time companion. By then all it would take is a steady regimen of failing to return her phone calls and careful manipulation of schedules and he was home free— but this time he stayed put, and not out of the impossibility of avoiding her either. Looking down at Shikari again, curled up in the bed next to him, every last impulse in his body that normally would have inspired him to flee became mysteriously silent just at the sight of her. He lay there in silence for almost ten minutes, then gently stroked the side of her face with his fingers, "Shikari," He said gently, then louder, "Shikari. Good morning."

She stirred at first, then slowly tilted herself and looked up at him with a set of radiant green eyes. She said nothing, and made no movements, just lay there next to him, staring into his eyes.

"Are you okay?" He said after a minute passed.

A confusion of emotions manifested on her face; her arms, already around him, squeezed tighter. "I'm okay, Mathew."

"You look... scared." He sat up slightly, "What are you scared of?"

"Last night... we... You see, now I have to wonder about..." Through every inch of her body he could feel her trembling against him, "What was that anyway? What did you do to me?"

He threw his arms around her and held her tighter, trying and succeeding to subdue the trembling in her body. And once he thought about it, he laughed to himself, "I gave you that demonstration you've been asking about."

The fearful look in her eyes dissolved slowly into a playful one, "Yeah, I guess you did."

"What did you think? Was it everything you thought it would be?"

Shikari thought for a moment, unsure how to answer. "I don't know what I was expecting, but that was definitely not it."

"I see..."

"Actually, it was better... it was alot better than I thought it would be."

Matt stroked her shoulder affectionately, "I'm glad you approve."

She smiled now, her trembling subsided, "I've never felt so close to anyone before... it's no wonder Miclones think about this so much in their fantasies and literature. It's a wonderful thing."

Matt chuckled, "I couldn't agree more."

"I think I'm in love with you, Matt..."

"I, uh... I think so too." An alarm went off in his head. She was getting too attached to him. There was nothing casual about her affection for him, but something entirely serious. Despite any protest he could mount, she had chosen him for whatever would come next. I think I'm gonna get burned for this...

She tiredly dropped her head back on her chest and melted into him, but stiffened up after a moment as a new thought occurred to her, "By the way, I want you to promise me something."

"Anything. What?"

"Don't tell Kaalcha about this."

He looked at her again in curiosity, "Why not? Or for that matter, why would I tell him in the first place?"

"Because Captain Matheson warned me that American men make it a matter of pride trying to get as much... as much... umm..." She fumbled through her memory until she found the word, "As much 'pussy' as possible. I'm not completely sure what that means, but she seemed to be implying that you..."

Matt cut her off before she could go further. "I won't tell a soul, if you don't either."

Shikari smiled again. "My lips are sealed."

He lay there for a few more minutes in relaxation, then glanced over at the clock again, noticing the passing of time moving much faster than it should have. "What do you say, Shik?" He said coyly, "Would you like another demonstration?"

She smiled wider and seemed to bristle in excitement. "Pezuna'ta, Captain!"

Harper read between the lines, even despite the warning in the back of his brain, I am SO gonna get burned for this...

.
—19:40 GST—
"Misa, I'm home." Hikaru walked into the room and closed the door. The lights were off and the shudders were closed, but somewhere he could hear Miko giggling under her breath. He knew he was in trouble, Misa had gotten it into her mind to repay him for all the childish pranks he had played on her to keep her mind distracted for all the months she was confined to her wheelchair, this time using Miko as a patsy. He started to wish Misa had gotten pregnant again after Miko was born, maybe he would have a son to help him even out the scales. "Misa, where are you?" He said, turning the lights on in the apartment. He had been worried before, Misa had been getting sick in the mornings and had started having some odd mood swings at odd times during the day, but now that he was home he was relived there didn't seem to be anything seriously wrong in the house. Yet.

He looked around some more, hearing the same giggling from little Miko but not being able to trace it to its source. "Miko? Misa?" From somewhere behind him he heard footsteps, and spun around to see Miko running across the floor in Misa's uniform, filling it about one eighth of the way. The skirt dragged about 5 and a half feet on the floor behind her, so Hikaru brought his foot down on the back of the uniform and stopped her in her tracks.

Miko actually fell over when the skirt snagged on his shoe, but once she got up she ran over and hugged his leg. "Daddy... I mean... Hikaru! I took the magic potion and it made me shrunked!"

It was all he could do to keep from busting out laughing. "Oh no! You took the magic potion Misa!"

"Yeah! It shrunked me little like Miko!"

Hikaru could hardly contain himself. "This is terrible! Somebody help me, my wife has been micronized!"

Miko squeezed his leg more. "I shrunked! Help me!" She said, her voice squeaking like she was trying to cry.

Hikaru couldn't contain himself anymore; he knelt down to the floor and picked up Miko in the grossly oversized uniform, almost in tears from laughing so hard. "If you're Misa, where's Miko?"

"Miko took the potion too and it made her a big people!"

"Well where is she?" Hikaru said.

"Right here." Misa said from the hallway.

"Oh there's my little..." He almost dropped Miko when he saw her there, standing to full height without a cane and without leaning on anything to balance herself. "Oh my god!"

"Yeah, that's what I said." Misa scanned the floor for things to trip over and started walking. She walked across the room to the table, back across to the TV, back across again to the doorway into the kitchen, finally making a full circle all the way to where Hikaru was standing in the middle of the room. "Miko woke me up from a nap and she was helping me move around, and then all of a sudden I just... well, started walking."

"Y-You've been doing this all day!"

"Yeah." Miko answered for her. "Mommy's all better now!"

Hikaru looked her up and down for a moment, then he laughed slightly, looked her over again and laughed again. "Misa, you're..."

"I'm whole again, Hikaru."

He couldn't set Miko down fast enough to keep from squishing her when he lunged at his wife and threw his arms around her. Miko groaned from the big crunch, but managed to slip free before too much injury occurred. "I... I can't...!"

"Hikaru, let's all go out, you me and Miko, let's all go to Johnny's and get a pizza or something! I feel like celebrating!"

Hikaru pulled the uniform off Miko and quickly threw her coat and shoes at her feet. "By your command, Oba-san! I'm no longer embarrassed to be seen with you!"

Misa giggled. "I just wish I could say the same, Mr. Lingerie."

"Touché." Hikaru made sure Miko was ready to go, grabbed his wallet and keys and dashed out the door with Misa on her heels. We watched her every step of the way, making sure she didn't loose her balance and fall suddenly. In truth, this could have been bigger news than Misa thought it was. There was only one medical explanation that he knew of that could cause such a dramatic change in her condition...