A/N- Not so sure about this chapter, but I think things are hotting up! I won't be able to update for a little while because I'm going away and I'm not sure if I'll have internet, so don't forget to review and Happy New Year! :D

"It felt just like going to sleep."

In rare moments of enlightenment, words and noises do not replay like they show in movies and TV programs. There's not even any dramatic music. You do, however, sit there with your mouth hanging open thinking, ohhh, duh!

Rani and Clyde turned their attention back to the News, (the story of young boy who had disappeared outside Cambridge to be united with his parents nine years later) as Keira watched me struggle to compose myself and firmly shut my jaw. She looked at me speculatively, as if steeling herself.

Casting a look at Clyde and Rani, she scooted closer to me on the sofa. Her t-shirt today was a gentle dove-grey with long sleeves. She rolled the right sleeve up to above her elbow and held it up for me to see. On the underside of her elbow, by some veins that seemed to stick out, a word was burned into her skin. DORMISALV.

How could we have missed it? It looked like it had healed a while ago, leaving only the letters in dark red. The skin around it looked stretched, like it had swollen and then gone back down.

I stood up, pulling Keira up with me. We needed to work this out.

"We're just going to, um, get something from the attic." I explained to Clyde and Rani, before heading off upstairs with her behind me.

"Explain it all." I ordered once we were seated on the couch in the attic. I didn't get it. If she knew, why hadn't she said anything?

"I saw that I had this thing," she gestured to her arm, "when I first woke up. It didn't hurt, so I forgot about it until I went to the private healthcare place. They took the injection that would put me to sleep from a box with the exact phrase 'DormiSalv' on it." she rubbed the arm they had operated on. "I was scared, I though they meant to put me to sleep for a long time again, just like the first time, but maybe forever."

I put an arm round her.

"Why didn't you mention it?" I asked. "We need to know everything about this company. I need to tell Sarah Jane and we need to work out who's behind this all." I jumped to my feet. "Mr. Smith, I need you!"

Mr. Smith emerged loudly and with the usual hissing of air and suchlike.

"Mr. Smith, what can you tell me about a product called 'DormiSalv'? Where are their factories? Has anything funny happened near them?" for all we knew there could be many children like Keira that were made to be tested on. The thought almost made me smile. Our house would look like a Children's Care Centre. Would we take them in? We couldn't take them all in.

"The company that made DormiSalv was only founded one and a half years ago. They wanted to produce a product that would send people into a sleep, like an anaesthetic, but much safe. The name originates from two words, the French for sleep, 'Dormir' and the Italian for safe, 'salvo'. Literally, the name means 'sleep safe'. The company has factories in four countries around the world, but the biggest one is here, in England. I haven't detected any alien readings or abnormalities from any of them."

"Thank you." I settled back to the couch to think. Keira came with me, curling up beside me, sucking a joint on one of her fingers.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She said suddenly. She inspected her small fingernails, and then flicked her eyes back up to me. "I didn't want to put you under any more stress. I had a back that needed to be bandaged and a sleeping disorder that needed to be cared for and I didn't want you to be burdened with so much that was wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you." I told her. "It was all temporary. Now you're all fixed up you can grow up as a teenager and live normally with me and Sarah Jane. When the holidays are over and school starts, you'll be going there too, with Clyde, Rani and me."

She nodded and inched her way under my arm, trying to hide the wince that scraping her back against the couch gave her, but not really succeeding.

"Luke, am I a runt?"

I shifted myself to look at her. She didn't half come out with the weirdest things.

"I was watching 'Charlotte's Web' yesterday and there's this pig, see, who's a runt because he's so tiny compared to his brothers and sisters and I was just wondering if I'm the same. Sarah Jane says that she putting me in your year at school, but if everyone is your size, how am I going to fit in with them? They'll all be a head taller."

I hadn't considered that Keira knew she was small.

"You didn't get the right nutrients when you were growing." I explained. "You became malnourished, which is why you're all skinny." I couldn't think about this without feeling a surge of anger. Stupid, irresponsible aliens, or whoever's. Couldn't they care for one girl? "Now you're eating more, you should get a little bigger, but I'm not sure about the high issue. And you're not a runt."

She nodded, but I could be sure if she was listening or not. She was playing with strands of my hair. It's too long and I really need to get it cut, though I think I've got a rather cool fringe-thing coming along. Keira's long fingers weaved it into plaits and curls and twists. I felt nice, just sitting there with her and not worrying about aliens or whatever. The skylight was dark; night was already here. I hadn't noticed it settling down.

I was in such a moment of peace, that of course it would be that moment that Clyde, Rani and Sarah Jane would come crashing through the door with their noise, going, "Oh Luke, you've been gone for ages!", "I thought you were only going upstairs to get something", "what were you doing up here?"

"Why's Mr. Smith on?" asked Sarah Jane suspiciously. "What have you been up to up here?"

I then explain my theory to her; that 'DormiSalv' was the same substance that was in Keira's arm and that aliens were probably behind all of it, just like the Bane. It could even be the Bane this time. But then again, it could also be another alien life form that we've never encountered before that has bought a software package for one human child.

"Of course! Honestly, am I going to have to check out every new product companies make from now on? This is ridiculous! I did think, though; in the beginning remember that she could have been made to test out sleeping drugs. I just didn't put two and two together and know that something was afoot."

She shifted her weight form one hip to the other, thinking.

"Mr. Smith, could I have the address for the English factory? I think we ought to go check it out, don't you?"