As soon as Mirabel left the room the family exploded talking over each other. Some were trying to figure out what was wrong with Mirabel, others were trying to figure out what Mirabel's behavior had to do with the warning Alma had gotten from Pedro, and still others, mainly Julieta and Agustin, wanted to know why Mirabel would randomly assure Alma that she wouldn't be in anybody's way that day.

It took a while for Alma to calm her family down, shouting over them before they all finally stopped talking.

"Panicking and talking over each other isn't going to help anyone," she insisted, "We need to figure things out. From the way Mirabel acted this morning, I will say that she is probably deaf."

"She wasn't deaf the other day," Agustin insisted, "This is a new development, so what happened?"

"I don't know."

"You don't think..." Camilo began before trailing off, shaking his head.

"What's up Camilo?" Pepa asked.

"Yesterday, Mirabel went off on her own, she was gone all day, then her picture fell off the family tree, and then Abuelo came to Abuela and told her that the family was in danger and now Mirabel is deaf? It all has to be connected. Something happened to Mirabel while she was on her own yesterday, and whatever attacked her was able to, I don't know, knock her picture off the wall, kind of like a checklist, you know one down, eleven to go."

"Don't be ridiculous," Isabela insisted, "There is no way that Mirabel was attacked, for one thing, she started acting weird before she went off into the woods, and for another Encanto is safe, no one would attack Mirabel."

"We don't know that for sure Isabela," Alma insisted, fingering her shawl for a second, "Pedro was quite certain that the family was in trouble, and this development with Mirabel happening at the same time."

"If something was hurting us," Felix announced, "Mirabel will be a good first target, she's relatively young, small for her age, and, unlike the rest of the kids, she doesn't have a gift to help protect her."

"You mean, whatever happened to Mirabel yesterday, it could happen to any of us?" Pepa asked, a cloud popping up over her head as she stroked her braid.

"I'm next," Luisa announced, suddenly. "I have to be next," she insisted, "My gift, it's gone. I couldn't lift my super heavy weights this morning, they were too heavy. Whoever is attacking us, they know how to get rid of our gifts. They're coming after me next I just know it. What do I do?"

Alma frowned, she had been hoping that she could dismiss Pedro's visit as just a really weird dream, but not only was Mirabel deaf but Luisa's gift was gone, "Is anybody else noticing anything wrong with their gift? Dolores, last night you mentioned that your range wasn't as far as it usually is. How is it doing today?"

"It's still about the same as it was last night, although, I did hear Camilo having a hard time maintaining a shift last night."

All eyes landed on Camilo, wh'o shrugged, "It was weird, but it's better this morning."

Alma frowned, Mirabel was deaf, her picture had fallen off the family tree, and now, not only was Luisa's gift gone, but Dolores's gift wasn't as strong as it usually was, and Camilo's was acting up.

"What do we do," Julieta asked, "We can't use our gifts if they aren't working. Someone might get hurt, and if my gift starts acting up too, then I won't be able to heal them."

"We can't let the villagers know that there is something wrong with the magic, it will make them nervous," Alma insisted.

"People in town are worried about the magic as is," Dolores insisted, "Mami's gift is acting up, and everybody is noticing. They're heading this way anyway."

"What do you mean, my gift is acting up?"

"It's acting up," Dolores insisted, "The weather has changed ten times since you've gotten up this morning and I don't think you even realize it.

"Oh," Pepa said, tugging on her braid, "What do we do?"

"I think that the best thing we can do is tell them the truth," Agustin insisted, "They've known us our whole lives, they'll be understanding that something might be wrong with the magic."

"No, it will just cause a panic."

"They already are panicking," Dolores pointed out, "They talked to Mariano, they know something is wrong with the miracle, by denying everything and insisting that everything is fine, you'll just make them panic more."

"Dolores is right," Julieta insisted, "We don't have to tell them everything, but we can tell them that something is affecting our gifts and we're trying to get to the bottom of it."

…

Senor Castillo knocked on the front door of Casita as the weather changed once more, this time to snow, again.

Alma answered the door, "Si, how can we help you this morning?"

"Everyone's worried about the magic," he confessed, "I was wondering..."

Alma frowned, she really wanted to assure him that everything was fine, that nothing was wrong, but, she also knew that Julieta and Dolores had a point, they knew from that disastrous dinner with the Guzman's the night before that something was wrong with the Miracle and lying about it would just make them panic more.

"We don't really know much," Alma confessed, "We know that the trouble started the night of Antonio's gift ceremony when Mirabel saw the cracks, but that is all that we know. We are trying our best to get to the bottom of this."

"Is it just affecting Pepa, Dolores, and Luisa, or is it affecting others as well?"

Alma frowned, how did she explain this, that they knew for certain that Camilo's gift was affected as well, and they were afraid that it might spread to the others? Did she mention that whatever was going on has affected Mirabel as well?

"We don't really know," she insisted, "But we are following up on a lead. However, due to what's going on with the gifts, we probably won't be able to help out in the community for the next couple of days until we figure things out."

…

As Alma was talking to Senor Castilo, Pepa headed up to the nursery, determined to apologize to Mirabel this time around. It should be easier now that she knew what the problem was, sort of. Maybe once she knew that she was sorry for yelling at her, she wouldn't be so skittish around her.

She stopped in front of the nursery and knocked, there was no response, of course, there was no response, they had already established the fact that she was deaf that morning. She couldn't hear her knocking, or hear her apologizing. She needed to come up with some way to communicate with her.

…

Mirabel was focusing on her sewing when she felt a tap on her ankle. Frowning she looked down at Casita, who sent a wave of tiles toward the door. Mirabel followed it to discover that someone had pushed a folded piece of paper underneath the door, her name scrawled across it in her tia's familiar handwriting.

Mirabel picked up the letter, confusion on her face, as she opened it up, "Mariposa," it read, "I'm so, so sorry that I yelled at you the other day. I should have known better. I was upset and took my temper out on you. You would never, ever try to ruin Antonio's special night. I didn't mean to scare you so badly. Please, Please forgive me. With lots of Love, your Tia Pepa.

"P.S.: I'm not sure if you know this or not but the family knows about both the cracks and the fact that you are deaf now. Abuela is quite worried about it. She's hoping that you might know something. We are assuming that your deafness and the cracks are related. Along with a dream your Abuela had last night. If you know anything about the cracks please find a way to let her know."

Mirabel glanced at the paper in surprise, her head spinning at the revelation, or maybe that was just the lingering lightheadedness that she was still fighting. Tia Pepa had taken the time to write her a letter to apologize. She had taken the time to make sure that she had known that she was sorry for yelling at her. Yelling at her, not for striking her. From what the letter said, it didn't sound like she knew what had happened. They were looking into the cracks. They thought the cracks had something to do with her hearing, which was true in an indirect way.

Tia Pepa was already beating herself up just for yelling at her. Mirabel didn't want to know what would happen if she ever found out that she was the one who had caused her to loose her hearing.

…

"I told the villagers that we are investigating what's happening to the miracle, and we probably won't be able to help at the same capacity as we usually do until it is resolved," Alma informed her daughters and sons-in-law as they all sat around the dining room table.

"I wrote Mirabel a letter," Pepa announced, tugging on her braid a little, "I apologized for yelling at her and informed her that we believed her about the cracks and know about the fact that she's deaf."

"Good," Alma announced, "Now that you've cleared the air with her, she might be able to give us an insight into what's going on. She's obviously the first victim of whatever it is that is threatening our family."

"You really believe that Mirabel was attacked?" Julieta asked, concern in her voice as she glanced at her husband, who was equally concerned, as Mirabel's parents it was their responsibility to keep her safe.

"She had to be," Alma insisted, "She was fine the day of Antonio's gift ceremony, fine up until the point where she saw those cracks and then, then the next time we saw her, she was so hurt she couldn't even stand up on her own. She can't hear a thing we say, and let's not forget the fact that your Padre warned me that the family was in danger."

"So, what I'm hearing is that it's a good thing that we didn't kick my fifteen-year-old daughter out like you wanted to last night," Agustin said smuggly as he shot his mother-in-law a dirty look.

"Last night I was… hasty… when it came to figuring out what was going on," Alma admitted, "And I am so sorry that I jumped to that decision. I will do everything in my power to make things up to everyone involved."

"Maybe," Pepa spoke up, tugging on her braid as she did so, "Maybe it will be better if Mirabel did leave, if all of us leave. We don't know who or what attacked Mirabel. What if Casita isn't safe anymore?"

...

A/N: Check out my newest story, Shifting, which is based on my story Pepa's Second Daughter, in Healing Takes Awhile.