Thank you for the lovely reviews from the last chapter and overall. Over 100, whoop! Only one or two chapters left to go. May have to wait a bit for the next update as I'm away next weekend, but I'll try to make it worth it!
So, someone asked whether Myka and HG fooled around in the bookshop at all. Hope this suffices ;-)...
Chapter Seventeen
"Your father was rather adamant that we were not to do this in the shop," Helena murmured as her back hit the wall and her fiancée's fingers slid under her shirt. It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and they were visiting Myka's parents for the weekend. The contrast to the year before was stark, but Helena didn't think that being caught with her trousers down in the shop would endear her to her future in-laws. Her sense of adventure and desire for her fiancée eliminated most of her caution though. "I shouldn't like to imagine how your mother would react if she found us like this."
"They have my sister, Kevin and three grandchildren to keep them occupied," Myka insisted, her dilated pupils honing in on a narrow path of skin that led to a valley of shadow. "We have time."
Something about having Helena here, in the HG Wells section of her parents' shop, where she had spent so many hours as a teen immersed in the Victorian's words, made the agent wild with desire. If either of her parents caught her doing this, she knew she would never be able to look them in the eye again, but caution took a vacation when her thoughts were so full of everything she wanted to do to her lover.
Helena wasn't about to stop her fiancée. The wanton expression in those green eyes sent shivers down her spine and made certain body parts throb in anticipation. Reaching up with one hand, she began to unbutton her shirt, smirking inwardly as Myka's gaze followed her every move and the brunette bit her lip to crush a soft moan.
The moment HG's fingers reached the last fastening, Myka fell on her lover like a starving wolf, her mouth devouring creamy flesh as the muffled sound of a head hitting a wall reached her ears. Her hands pushed aside lapels of cotton and covered tender mounds, delighting in the feel of hardened nipples grazing her palms.
Knowing that she couldn't possibly stay quiet while Myka touched her this way, Helena pulled her lover's mouth back to her own and whimpered into the kiss.
Upstairs, Tracy watched her parents divide their affections between three attention-seeking children and smiled to herself. Kevin had been sitting with her, enjoying the chance to relax for a few minutes without leaping up every two seconds. Since their son had discovered the joys of mobility, they could barely take their eyes off him. Warren sat with him on his knee but as everything in the room took Daniel's fancy, he quickly grew tired with grandpa's lap and complained loudly, with a series of squeals and shouts, that he wanted to get down. Daddy grudgingly came to his father-in-law's rescue.
With her husband no longer monopolising her attention, Tracy soon noticed her sister and Helena's absence. She frowned, trying to decide how long they'd been gone and began to worry that it might have something to do with the bomb shell Myka had dropped on her a few weeks ago...
It was just before Halloween. Four jack-o'-lanterns stood on Myka and Helena's porch, plastic bats, spiders, skeletons and ghosts hung all around them, and in every visible window, cobwebs were painted. Tracy and Kevin made the trip in order to spend the weekend with her sister's family so they could celebrate the festivities together for the first time with their children.
As they reached the front door and thought to knock however, they came up short as Helena's raised voice greeted them from within.
"It is a day ear-marked to celebrate an amalgamation of pagan superstitions, early Roman gods and Christianity's attempt to corner the market on a system of belief! Do you not think it is ludicrous to send our children out into the night, dressed as ghouls in order to blackmail our neighbours into giving them sweets?"
"Helena!" Myka cried in exasperation. "Times change. We're not pagan, Roman or Christian, but we do celebrate Halloween because it's a good excuse to get together with family and have fun. You're happy enough to celebrate Christmas for crying out loud. What is your problem!?"
"Begging for treats is undignified," the inventor answered sulkily and wandered off without another word, leaving Myka to growl in her wake.
Having heard the car pull into the driveway and noticing the hovering shadows at the door, Myka took a deep breath and moved to let her sister in. "Hey, Trace," she said with a strained smile. She pulled the woman into a hug and kissed her nephew's head. "Come into the mad house why don't you."
The younger Bering sibling handed her bag to her husband and shot him a coded look. "Babe, will you take our bags up to our room, please?"
Kevin obliged and silently wished his wife luck. Once he was out of earshot, Tracy led Myka into the living room and leant in close. "What was that all about?"
The agent rolled her eyes and flopped onto the couch. "A number of things... I think," she replied. When her sister continued to stare at her, she knew that she was expected to elaborate. She began to count the grievances on her fingers, "She's struggling with the equations for her latest invention, and that always makes her cranky. She's pre-menstrual and she won't admit that mother-nature has any sort of influence on her mood. And yesterday, Freddy rolled off the couch on her watch and she's been freaking out about it ever since." Myka rubbed a thumb over her eyebrow and sighed. "So she's taking her mood out on religion centred celebrations. Particularly those that modern capitalism has chosen to exploit." A short pause followed her controlled tirade, during which time Kevin returned and the agent was reminded of another concern hanging over hers and her fiancée's heads. "She might also be anxious over the conversation we want to have with you guys."
"About?" Tracy asked, immediately curious.
"We have permission to talk to you about some of the classified aspects of our jobs," she saw the heightened interest in their expressions and smiled a little. "And a lot of it will include some not so happy memories for Helena."
"Is that why I haven't been assaulted by a nine-year-old yet?" Mrs Littlewood asked.
"Yes, she'll be back later and Freddy's just gone down so now might be the best time to get it over with." Myka looked to the door and listened, as if her other half would miraculously appear. When she didn't, the brunette excused herself and made her way upstairs.
Knowing instinctively where her lover would be while her thoughts were in turmoil, Myka made her way to the nursery and found the inventor hovering over their son's crib. Without saying a word, she wrapped her arms around the stiff figure and lowered her lips to the soft skin at the nape of a neck. Despite their heated words earlier, there was no lingering anger in her system. She had learned how to filter her reactions to the inventor's eccentricities and, though she felt exasperated by Helena's sometimes-random moods, a part of her actually enjoyed the moments they sparred with words.
The Brit's hand found her partner's and tugged them into her own. "Are we starting now?"
"Mm-hm. I thought it best to just get it over with," Myka responded logically. "They're bound to have questions and they will probably be easier to deal with face-to-face."
"Alright." Despite agreeing the call to action, Helena continued to gaze at their baby boy for a moment longer. "He'll be ok," she muttered, mostly to reassure herself.
"Yes, he will," the American agreed. "I know you feel bad but it was barely a two foot drop, onto a cushion. It could have been worse and you'll be more vigilant next time."
Helena nodded and led them out of the nursery. "I hate losing control over my emotions like this," she bemoaned. "What precisely did evolution intend when it decided that we should experience this monthly influx of hormones?"
Myka resisted teasing her partner further. Her cycle had yet to make a reappearance so there was no chance of synchronicity between their menstrual moods. "Probably to encourage males to instinctively search for ovulating females in an attempt to maximise the chance of reproduction. No point wasting all of that testosterone on a less receptive environment."
"Hmm," HG's eyebrow rose, happily considering the science behind her fiancée's hypothesis. "Shall I put the kettle on before we begin?" she enquired as they started down the stairs.
Once they were all settled in the living room, adequate beverages and snacks available to all and Daniel happy for now with a swinging chair and frequent glances from his parents, Myka placed a hand on her partner's knee. She turned to her sister and brother-in-law and began to spill secrets that she had kept for years now.
"You know that when I moved to South Dakota, I stopped working with the Secret Service," she reminded her younger sibling.
"Eventually," Tracy teased mildly, trying to ease the tension. "After Daddy was ill and you and Pete helped him out. Mom wouldn't say much, only that it was like magic... Is this some secret government conspiracy? Should we be checking for bugs and phone taps?"
Myka allowed the young mother a moment to vent, wanting her sister to get all of her thoughts out now so they could address them. "No, but you should keep that thought in mind once you leave here."
"Myka, what the hell?" Tracy blurted, feeling suddenly trapped and wishing that she wasn't so curious to know more. "Are you guys in trouble?"
The older agent watched her future sister-in-law and her husband dart a quick look at each other and then their son. She could see the indecision and the conflict in their gazes. "You can't get into trouble for knowing what we know, but we will need to fill you in on some background details before we can tell you what we need to, and in order to do that..."
"We need you to understand that you can't discuss any of this outside of this house, with anyone."
Tracy absorbed her sister's serious but calm expression and slowly nodded. "Ok, I trust you." She turned to her husband, who copied the gesture.
Bracing herself, Myka quickly recalled the practise conversations she'd had with Helena and began. "We hunt items, artefacts that have special properties. These properties can make them seem magical. Dad came into contact with Edgar Alan Poe's notebook. The book transferred Poe's disturbed thoughts and emotions into Dad and, Pete and I managed to stop it before it could do any lasting damage."
Mrs Littlewood stared in disbelief at the couple. "A book?"
"I can't explain how," Myka admitted. "Not really. But artefacts like that, countless more, have been collected over centuries, from all over the world, and taken to the Warehouse. That's where we work." She went on to explain how she and Pete had been selected for the job in the first place and described some of the more bizarre cases they'd worked on. The expressions on her sister and Kevin's faces morphed between disbelief and wonder as they listened, enraptured.
"If you weren't the most sceptical person I know, I'd have a tough time believing any of this." Tracy grinned slightly. "How on Earth did they manage to convince you that any of it was real without you telling them where to shove their job?"
Returning the look of amusement, Myka thought back to that first tour with Pete. "A number of things but, do you remember me telling you that I had a ferret?" Her sister nodded. "Well, he came out of a wishing kettle. There wasn't much going back after that."
"Ok. So assuming that we believe all of this, why do we need to know?" Tracy asked the pivotal question.
"We need you to believe that the impossible is possible," HG told them simply.
What Myka and Helena had divulged with them after that was nothing short of crazy, in the Littlewoods' opinions, but by the end of the story, they really had no reason to disbelieve anything. Tracy spent the rest of the day watching her sister with her niece and remembering all the times she had wondered at the similarities between them. Not so much in looks perhaps, though those developed with each passing day, but in her mannerism, habits and overall demeanour. She also discovered a newfound interest in comparing her son and nephew. It was harder to find between the cousins but she spotted enough shared features with her parents and HG to be convinced.
As she wandered from her parents' living quarters to the shop entrance, she couldn't help but marvel at her sister's life. She recalled the holiday to Boston and Myka's obsessive insistence that she buy her puzzle box from one of the dusty thrift-shops she and their father loved so much. Had she known then that the prize inside the box would constitute part of Myka's destiny, she'd have found it much more interesting but all of these budding nuances of fate had failed to register with any of them. And now? They were so entwined that there was no possibility of declining or pulling back. They were part of a real-life fairy tale, and her once geeky, dour sister was at the centre of it.
What emergency could have driven the couple from the apartment? she wondered to herself as she pulled the door closed quietly behind her and listened for voices. They were faint, as if the Warehouse agents were deliberately trying to remain unheard, but now that she knew of the potential difficulties in the future, she couldn't prevent the urge to help out, and with this thought, she began to make her way closer.
Myka hadn't intended for them to get this carried away. She had only wanted to say that she'd made out a little with HG Wells in the science fiction section of her parents' book shop, but now she was straddling Helena's lap, the inventor's mouth covering a straining nipple, one hand bracing her hip and another sliding skilfully through her wetness, drawing increasingly uncontrolled moans from her throat.
"Helena," Myka gasped, unaware that her voice was drawing someone closer. She rocked, unashamed of the motion, against Helena's busy fingers, quickly finding the perfect angle and the perfect rhythm. As her breathing became erratic and her eyes unfocussed on her surroundings, she felt a hand in her hair and allowed herself to be pulled into a fierce kiss. The moment Helena's tongue brushed against her own, she shuddered and groaned her climax into the inventor's mouth.
Once her heartbeat returned to normal, Myka reluctantly dismounted. Now that she was no longer lost in the moment, she was hyper aware of her position and her state of semi-undress. She rose from the floor where they'd been leaning against the solid end of a book shelf and accepted a helping hand as her legs continued to tingle.
HG was more graceful at pushing herself to her feet and with a self-satisfied grin at the corner of her mouth, she began to button up her shirt. "Has this 'discussion' improved your opinion of your literary idol, darling?" They had at least been careful not to remove any articles of clothing so making themselves appear decent was a quick task. She wrapped her arms loosely around Myka's middle and grinned wider at the pleased but guilty expression on her partner's face. "Or do you require further demonstrations of her genius?"
Myka smacked the inventor's arm and narrowed her eyes at the teasing tone. "She has an impressive set of skills but I think perhaps her ego is over-inflated."
"You think so?" Helena peppered kisses from the brunette's lips to an ear. "It may be that arrogance which makes her such a desirable book shop conquest."
The curly-haired agent swallowed hard and let her eyes flutter closed. "Helena... I don't think we can risk starting again. Someone's bound to come and look for us soon."
Pulling back, the Brit took pity on her lover's tentative control and put some space between them, leaving just their hands linked. "To be continued..." she agreed with a wink.
They took a cursory look around, checking that there were no lingering pieces of evidence that might betray their forbidden activities, and then made their way back upstairs, Helena easily carrying an air of innocence while her lover worked harder to school her features into anything that didn't immediately scream 'I've been naughty and I loved it'.
All appeared normal when they returned to their cosy seat near the fireplace and by the looks on her parents' faces, Myka surmised that they had barely noticed their absence. She gave herself permission to relax, only belatedly realising that her sister was nowhere to be seen. A quick enquiry to Kevin regarding her whereabouts revealed that Tracy had stepped out a few minutes ago. She didn't really begin to worry though until Helena's figure stiffened next to her.
"Bugger," the inventor cursed under breath and gestured towards the door when her fiancée turned questioningly her way.
At the expression of impending doom on those usually cocky features, Myka felt her stomach drop. With gargantuan effort, she turned to follow HG's gaze and found a look in her sister's eyes that she wouldn't soon forget.
"Myka, I'm trying to find that thing you were going to lend me. Will you help me look, please?" Tracy asked casually, making her voice neither too loud or too quiet. Nothing that would arouse suspicion. She maintained her expression of disapproval, thoroughly enjoying the effect it was having on her sister. She had so rarely had opportunity in her life to lord over the older woman that she just wanted to enjoy it.
Myka slunk across the room, eyes pleading with her sibling when she was brave enough to look up. She felt the heat of her mortification on her face and braced herself for the worst as she led Tracy into her old bedroom and closed the door. "Trace..." she began, but her words were cut off as a pair of arms crushed her shoulders. "Urg!... What?"
"I'm so proud of you," Tracy announced tearily. She pulled back and held the startled agent at arms' length. "I'm disturbed and I think you owe me a couple of hours of therapy after what I heard, but I'm impressed too. I can't believe you did that in the shop!"
Blushing for a combination of reasons now, Myka began to panic at the increasing volume of her sister's effusion. "Shh!"
"Oh relax," Tracy dismissed nonchalantly. She made her way to the bed and perched on it cross-legged, no intention of leaving any time soon. "Mom and Dad are too busy enjoying the fruits of our loins, they're not thinking about how we made them," she teased.
Myka rolled her eyes and grudgingly perched on the bottom of the bed. "How much blackmail can I expect from this?"
An evil grin appeared gradually. "Remember that time you saw me smoking with Amber in the park and you had me doing all of your chores for a week? Or the time I broke Mom's glasses and hid them under the sofa cushion so she'd assume that someone had accidentally sat on them, and you found out it was me? Or all of the other times I did something wrong and you acted all superior?" Her grin only got wider as Myka seemed to shrink before her. "You were such a goody-two-shoes."
"Are we not too old for payback?" Myka attempted hopefully.
Tracy scoffed. "Nice try, sis. How long did it take HG to persuade you to do it in a public place?"
"It's hardly public," the agent protested. "The shop was closed."
"So you'd be happy to fool around in any shop, so long as it was shut because they stop being public places?" Tracy chuckled at the murderous glare being directed at her. "You haven't answered my question and as my first act of revenge, I demand a real answer."
Myka's face reddened and she mumbled something inarticulate.
"Sorry," the younger woman grinned, sensing something juicy. "What was that?"
Huffing, the agent flopped back on the bed and covered her eyes with her hands. "The very first time we were... intimate, it was on the couch in the library of the bed and breakfast." Tentatively, she peeked through a gap between her fingers to find her sister's expression stuck somewhere between surprised and impressed.
"We've come a long way, haven't we, Myka?" Tracy commented after a brief silence.
A warm smile slowly replaced the grimace on Myka's face. "Yeah, we have." She slowly sat up and brushed her wayward hair from her face. "Have you finished torturing me?"
Tracy swung her legs over the side of the bed and jumped up. "For now," she continued to tease and held out a hand to help her sister up.
As they wandered back into the living room, two pairs of eyes turned to find them but Myka was relieved to note that their parents remained oblivious to their absence. The agent returned to the space next to her fiancée and placed a reassuring kiss on her cheek before snuggling into her side.
The worst of her embarrassment had worn off and with Helena's arm around her shoulder, she was finally able to bask in the afterglow of their prurient adventure. Watching their children play with her parents and feeling a sense of rebellious satisfaction, Myka thought about the conversation she needed to have with her mom and dad. Bringing their family closer together gave her a heightened sense of security that seeped deep into her bones. She just hoped that her parents could handle the reality of her life.
Across the room, Christina's never ending enthusiasm for entertaining kept her brother and cousin's rapt attention. She sat at the end of the couch, half on her knees, a tiger puppet on one hand and an elephant on the other.
Fredrick sat securely in his grandmother's lap, his dark eyes wide enough to show off the tiny flecks of green in his irises. Every now and then, he would add something to his sister's stories with an explosive 'ah' or a series of garbled sounds, and his arms would spontaneously punch the air with excitement. Each time he did this, Daniel giggled and drew his attention away from the puppets. There seemed to be no sign of any child giving up on their repeated interactions.
"Elly Elephant jumped into the muddy water with a great... big... SPLASH!" Christina narrated adlib. "She didn't see Timmy Tiger until it was too late. 'Oops!' she said and hid behind her ears." The nine-year-old manipulated her fingers inside the puppet's ears to demonstrate the actions in her story.
Jeannie smiled brightly and Warren chuckled along as his eldest grandson giggled again. Despite having virtually no understanding of what the girl was saying, the boys enjoyed the animated props and the timbre of her voice. She could have been reading the obituaries and they would be smiling, so long as she continued to throw around the expression in her tone.
The newest additions to the family were very considerate and started to rub their eyes in tandem. As Tracy and Kevin were planning to drive home that evening, they put their son in his car chair and bid their farewells. Freddy clung to his Mummy's hair, protesting as he was placed into his own travel seat and tried to resist the weight of his eyelids. Next to HG, Christina curled up on the couch and laid her head on the inventor's shoulder.
Taking advantage of the lull in the room and receiving a nod of encouragement from her fiancée, Myka followed her mother into the kitchen/dining room and stood next to her at the sink. "Do you need a hand with anything, Mom?"
"No thank you, sweetheart. I have everything covered." She turned towards her daughter after washing their mugs and reached out to find her hands. "Your children are darling, Myka. I'm so glad your father and sister were able to talk some sense into me."
Myka didn't comment on the difficulties she'd faced due to her mother's behaviour but smiled instead. "I'm glad too, Mom. Childcare is expensive," she teased.
The silver-haired woman laughed and swatted her daughter's arm playfully. "Well, if you and Helena lived closer, I would have more opportunity to oblige you there."
"We're looking to move house," the agent admitted tentatively. At the growing interest in her mother's eyes, she added, "We haven't made any firm decisions, but Denver has some nice family homes in the suburbs."
Jeannie squeezed Myka's hands, barely holding back her fierce approval of the idea of her baby returning to Colorado. "It would be wonderful to have you so close to home. As long as you're happy though, Myka. I would love to see more of my grandchildren of course. Christina is so like you at that age, though with more of Tracy's confidence perhaps... It boggles the mind."
Myka watched as her mother rolled her eyes and stepped away. The agent shuffled from foot to foot for a moment while her thoughts fought for dominance. "About that..." she began hesitantly.
Mrs Bering frowned at the tone in the agent's voice. Her immediate response was concern and she pulled out a chair from the dining table. "Is Christina ok?"
"What?" Myka stopped second-guessing herself for a moment and took a chair next to her mother. Apparently, she had a talent for announcing news in the worst possible way. "Oh, Mom, she's fine. We're all fine. I'm sorry, I just have something that I need to talk about with you and Dad. It involves Helena, Christina and Freddy but it's difficult to explain."
Jeannie took a steadying breath. "You want to talk about this tonight?"
"If you're up to it," the brunette answered. "I can come back tomorrow though, if you prefer."
"Is Helena joining us?" the older woman wondered, thinking about who would watch the children.
Myka shook her head. "I wanted to do this myself. She'll be happy to talk to you and answer any questions you have, but I thought you'd be more comfortable just talking to me, to begin with."
"What about Christina and Freddy?" the concerned grandmother added.
"Helena will take them back to the hotel and I'll take a cab when we're finished." The young woman watched her mother consider the request for a few seconds and held her breath.
"I'll not get any sleep with this hanging over my head," Jeannie finally said. "No one's ill or dying?" she checked. At Myka's small smile and shake of her head, the woman rose. "I'll go get your father."
Agent Bering started with the same warnings she'd given her sister and Kevin the month before. She explained that they couldn't speak about her secrets outside of the apartment but didn't elaborate yet on the glyph that protected their home. Once she had their solemn promises, she began.
The Bering elders didn't need her to go into detail to remind them of the incident that still occasionally gave them nightmares. Neither of them could think Poe's name without a chill running down their spines.
"So the explanation you gave us was a lie?" Warren asked with disapproval.
"It's a possible explanation," Myka defended. "But not the whole truth."
She went on to explain how other artefacts had affected her life and divulged a little of her work at the Warehouse. They had reached her explanation of the Bronze Sector and most of the potential villains held within before they took a short break to allow Jeannie to replenish their beverages.
"You said that this was about you and Helena," Jeannie reminded her daughter. "I assume you met her while you were working. She is an agent too, isn't she?"
"Yes," the agent answered slowly. They were finally coming to the heart of the conversation and she was about to find out just how open minded her parents could be. "She began as an agent at Warehouse 12."
Twin frowns stared back at Myka and her parents exchanged a look. "I think you're getting mixed up sweetie," Jeannie commented gently. "You just told us that your Warehouse has been in South Dakota since the early twentieth century."
A weak smile appeared on the agent's face. "I'm not mixed up, Mom. Helena is one hundred and forty-nine years old. She was born in 1866."
Warren and Jeannie sat much as Tracy and Kevin had when they'd heard this information; with their mouths slightly open and looking expectant, as if waiting for the punch line.
"You don't mean that literally," Warren assumed, though he was wracking his brain to come up with another explanation.
"I do, Dad. You remember what I said about the bronzer freezing a person in time so that they don't age?" she continued patiently. "Well physically, she's thiry-six but she was in stasis for over a hundred years."
"Didn't you say that the Bronze Sector was for criminals?" the older woman queried, her voice rising with renewed concern. All of those old worries about the Brit's influence on her daughter abruptly returned.
Myka nodded. "Mostly. And Pete and I were given the job of tracking her down when she was released by another fugitive of ours, but we discovered later that she volunteered for the process. We just had no record of it." She deliberately left out the parts where Artie had insisted that she was dangerous and that she wasn't to be trusted. She could see her mother thinking it through and probably calculating how her family all fitted together.
"Myka, you have not been in South Dakota this last nine years. Are you telling us that Helena allowed Christina to be frozen for over a hundred years?" Mrs Bering asked, appalled by the idea.
"No, Mom." Myka stared down into her mug for a moment, willing the sting of tears away as she tasted the words that she needed to say. She forced herself to look up and met her parents' gazes with a sad smile. "Christina was born in 1891. She died in 1899. Helena volunteered for the bronze because she was grieving. It was only while I was on a retrieval last year that I found Christina trapped in an artefact and we managed to rescue her."
While Jeannie's frown intensified, Warren threw himself back in his chair with a huff. "I don't know what you're playing at, young lady, but your mother and I are not amused."
Having expected a reaction like this, Myka was taken aback only for a moment. She looked squarely into her father's eyes and nodded solemnly. "I know you must think this is either a huge joke or that I'm out of my mind. It sounds like something out of an off-the-wall sci-fi, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is not a game and I'm not delusional."
She sighed at the continued scepticism facing her and decided that she needed to spread this conversation out over a couple of days. "I'm going to give you guys some time to think things over and come back early in the morning to continue. If you decide you still want to know." She rose from her chair, tucked it in and stood for a moment with both hands clutching its back. "Just... When you think that all of this is crazy; Dad, you were possessed by a book, and Mom, you saw someone turning invisible not too long ago. There're wonders in this world that you never see, but it doesn't mean that they're not there."
With a final pacifying smile, Myka left her parents to stew in her words.
So ready for the summer holidays now. I need at least a week in a field to recover. Remember: muses get cranky and sometimes slip into unexpected bouts of hibernation when malnourished.
Up next: trying to tie up some loose ends...