Author's Notes: I really scrambled for time to write this part. As such I didn't get time to proof read it. (this is turning into a regular occurrence for me *sigh*) Sorry for any errors.

Ghost Slayers

Chapter Twenty-Six

By Relm

Once the bedding was taken care of the next thing to take care of was food. Just for simplicity sake they ordered pizza. It was an easy thing where they could get something to suit everyone's tastes. And when it came to pizza everyone pretty much liked anything so it worked well. As per usual they had to order from more than one place; however they would arrive at more or less the same time.

Lina was extremely looking forward to the pizza she knew was coming. Her stomach growled so loud you'd think there was a lion in her belly. Yes Lina was really exciting about the pizza.

The others however were leery of letting Lina eat.

"She was strangled and electrocuted... Is it okay to let Miss Lina eat solid food?" Sylphiel wondered worriedly. "You always seen on TV and movies that doctors don't let their patients eat solid foods right away when it comes to problems with their throats."

"That's because they had a breathing tube shoved down their throat. I don't think that's same as our situation." Filia mused.

"We should really take her to a doctor." As soon as that left Sylphiel's lips she was dodging a flying pillow.

The person throwing the pillow? Lina of course.

Since she wasn't 'allowed' to talk she had to use other methods to get her points across. At the moment Lina was flashing a very disapproving glare.

"Yes Lina we know. We don't have medical insurance to cover ghost attacks. Doctors don't count those as real injuries." Filia said sarcastically. The world didn't count their job as real people jobs that require things like insurance. Getting the world to take Ghost Slayers seriously was a losing battle.

"Maybe the internet has some sites that can tell us what we should do?" Amelia suggested.

"Go look." Filia ordered Amelia. "Better we know now if we need to get different foods."

Lina threw another pillow in retaliation. If pizza was coming then that's what she was going to eat. No one was going to stop her.

Zelgadis was oblivious to everything that was going on around him. He was still sitting in the chair by Lina's bed but he failed to register the current conversations. His focus was on his hands. They were solid and had been solid for a few hours. A small part of him wanted to believe this was it, he was normal again. That rational side of him repeatedly told him that this was temporary; it wasn't going to last. But to hope was a dangerous thing. If he allowed himself to hope then he was going to be crushed when everything fell through and he went back to being a 'ghost'.

One thing that told him he wasn't 'cured' was his state of mind. Things still seemed foggy. The memories he lost when he got attacked didn't miraculously return to him. The things he knew and learned throughout of his life were also a blur.

One the table to Zelgadis' right there was a pitcher of water and a couple glasses. Lina had drunk some water earlier but the pitcher was still pretty full.

With timid hands Zelgadis grabbed the pitcher and poured a glass. The water splashed around before it relented and went into its' intended vessel.

The glass was very cold against Zelgadis' fingers. The cols was so sharp and unexpected that Zelgadis recoiled snapping his hand back. He wondered if this intensity was normal. Did it always feel this cold? Or had he just forgotten what it felt like? Knowing he had spent all that time unknowingly 'hunting' Sailune Publishing was unnerving. That whole period of time gone made him feel robbed. Not that he remembered much of his life before, but it was still the principle. Had he been without physical form for so long that normal things were alien to him?

Putting his hands back around the glass he tried to endure the coldness. It was so frightfully cold that he felt like he was putting his fingers around a block of ice. But with the glass firmly in his hand he brought it up to his lips. The water was just as cold going down his throat and it was against his hands. It was so cold that Zelgadis couldn't help but cough. He almost choked on the cold liquid. But probably the strangest thing of all was that the water didn't taste like water. Or it didn't taste what Zelgadis remember water to taste like. The water was sweet; not as sweet as syrup but sweet nether less. It was like someone had dumped a couple spoonfuls of sugar into his glass when he wasn't looking.

Lina watched Zelgadis like a hawk while he experimented with the water. She was just curious as he was with this new temporarily physical form. She wanted to talk to him about he was feeling. It was obvious all over his face that he still felt bad about what the poltergeist had done with his body. Lina wanted to talk to him to make him understand that it was okay and that he wasn't to blame or what happened. But she wasn't supposed to talk so she couldn't say much. "How's it taste?" She whispered low enough so that Filia and Sylphiel wouldn't hear her.

Zelgadis blinked for a moment as he realized that question was directed at him. "It's weird," he set the glass down, "It's really cold, like too cold. Feel it, does that seem as cold as ice?"

Lina reached over and touched the glass. To her it seemed cold, but as cold as she would expect it to be. She looked at with an apologetic frown and shook her head.

Zelgadis' face fell. "I was afraid of that. It tastes funny too. It's sweet. Water isn't supposed to be sweet. You can try it if you want but I'm sure you'll say it's fine too."

Lina wasn't going to try the water but now she was curious. She had drunk the water earlier and it was fine. But maybe it was the glass, maybe there was something in it that made the water seem sweeter. Unable to resist the urge Lina grabbed the glass and took a sip.

Zelgadis watched her with hopeful eyes.

Lina wanted to convey he was right that there was something odd about the water. She really wanted to. It was especially hard to look at Zelgadis knowing how he was looking right back at her with so much hope in his eyes. She smiled at him but ended up shaking her head.

Zelgadis let out a deep sigh.

"Water can taste sweeter when you're dehydrated." Sylphiel interjected while handing Lina back her pillows.

"That's right it does..." Zelgadis scratched his head. "I should have known that. Did I know that...? Gah!" Zelgadis buried his face back into his hands in frustration.

Lina patted Zelgadis on the shoulder trying to make him feel better.

"I give up!" Amelia announced coming back into the room. "I can find tons of sites about electrocution and strangling but nothing that tells us exactly what we should do. And those 'ask a doctor' sites don't give you answers till at least the next day."

"So what should we do?" Sylphiel wondered.

"It's not like we can keep the pizza away from Lina." Filia rationalized. "If we tried we'd surely loose an arm."

Lina would have thrown one of her pillows again but it was true after all. There was nothing going to get in the way of her and her supper.

"I guess we're just going watch her carefully. Miss Lina is going to have to eat slowly." Sylphiel mused.

This time Lina threw her pillow.

"Yes you will eat slowly." Sylphiel threw the pillow back at Lina. "It's not like you have to fight for your food. No one is going to take it from you. So there's no reason why you have to eat super fast."

Lina frowned. She was hungry! How was she supposed to eat slowly when she was so hungry? It was torture.

"Maybe we should tie her down." Filia suggested with a chuckle. She got a pillow to her head for that comment.

"Miss Filia have you found Mister Xellos yet?" Amelia asking changing the subject.

"No." Filia scrunched her nose up in disgust. "I've done several sweeps of the building and I can't find him. I'm thinking the fruitcake is in one of the buildings next door. I'm done worrying about where he is. He can go be someone else's problem for now."

"Miss Filia you can't really mean that? Poor Mister Xellos was attacked! He's probably confused and doesn't know where he is! And what if he is in one of the other buildings and scares someone? You really don't care?" Amelia cried out in horror.

"Amelia the businesses in the other buildings are closed for the day! So there is no one there to contact about an annoying purple haired ghost stalking the halls. Nor would there be anyone there get scared in the first place!" Filia yelled back.

"What about if they have night cleaning staff?"

"They're still not going to answer the phone! So I'm not going to worry about it. And if you're so worried then you can over there and break in and look for the idiot."

Amelia frowned. She had nothing to say in reply so she just sat down and shut up. She might have eventually come up with some sort of retort had Slimer not come back into the room and disrupted her thoughts.

Slimer had taken off while back and no one was sure what the little green man was up to. But when he came back it was a bit perplexing when he returned with his mop and rolling yellow bucket.

Filia, Sylphiel and Amelia just looked at Slimer curiosity. There was no soapy water in the bucket so it didn't appear that Slimer was planning on cleaning anything.

Lina and Zelgadis knew the meaning of the bucket and the mop so both of them laughed out loud.

"What's with the bucket?" Filia just had to ask.

"Well you guys all got sleeping stuff so Slimer had to too." Zelgadis explained still laughing.

BUZZ BUZZ! The loud speaker system blared sounded the first round of pizza ready at the door.

While Filia and Sylphiel went to get the pizza Amelia went to get some plates and napkins. It was hard to tell who was more excited about the pizza, Lina or Slimer. Both of them were drooling quite a bit.

"Okay we've got pizza from Gino's. So that's cheese, vegetarian and sausage." Filia announced as she and Sylphiel came back with the stacks of pizzas. The reason they only got those three kinds of pizzas from Gino was because those were their best three. They were getting other pizza varieties form the other places.

Lina motioned for one of the pizza to be handed to her. She didn't care which one she got anything was good to her.

"Miss Lina I really think I shouldn't hand you the whole pizza." Sylphiel commented with a frown.

Lina got a pillow ready to throw.

"No don't!" Sylphiel protested. "I'll end up dropping the boxes! Mister Zelgadis could you get one of the boxes from the top for Miss Lina?"

Zelgadis was hesitant to grab the box. He wasn't sure how long his physical form was going to last so he worried he would drop the box. And also given his reaction to the cold he was afraid that he was going to end up with an extreme burning sensation. But as his fingers touched the box the warmth from it felt wonderful. It was so nice that Zelgadis not only didn't want to give Lina the box he wanted to press his face against it. He didn't realize just how cold he felt.

A glare from Lina reminded Zelgadis what the pizza was for.

Reluctantly he handed over the box missing the feeling on his hands.

Lina looked at him questioningly as if to say 'what's up with you?'

"It's warm. It feels nice. I guess I didn't realize how cold I was until now." Zelgadis explained sitting back down in the chair by the bed.

Lina let out a sigh. This was one of those times where she wanted to go into a ghostly lecture about spirit properties but couldn't. Luckily for Lina, Sylphiel realized what Lina wanted to say.

"You were possessed by a poltergeist Mister Zelgadis," Sylphiel started to explain; "Ghosts are cold beings that draw in the heat of the area around them. So by having a ghost residing in your body it probably sapped out all the heat you had leaving you with a chill. You should probably wrap yourself in a blanket." Sylphiel suggested. She would have gotten Zelgadis a blanket had she not been juggling pizza boxes. It didn't help matters that Slimer was trying to take them all from her so he could eat them box and whole.

While Zelgadis grabbed one of the spare blankets Lina started in on her first pizza.

"Lina go slowly!" Filia commanded as she placed the boxes down.

Lina frowned and did what she was told. The pizza was so hot that it steamed as Lina pulled it out of the box. The cheese was gooey and just oozed off each slice. Even though it was just a simple cheese pizza it was a thing of beauty to a very hungry person.

Everyone except Slimer watched Lina like a hawk as she put the gooey pizza into her mouth.

Lina probably should have been concerned with so many people watching her while she was eating but she was too hungry to care. The hot pizza was a delight to Lina's senses and she couldn't have enjoyed it more. She couldn't help but moan it was so good!

"Okay Lina must really be hungry, because Gino's pizza isn't that good." Filia commented in disgust. They ordered from there mainly because it was close by and cheap. Yes it did have lost of gooey cheese but the crust was too doughy and they never put enough sauce on the pizza. "Lina how's your throat? Does it hurt?"

Lina shook her head. It did hurt a little bit but not enough to cause her enough discomfort to stop eating.

As Zelgadis eyed the pizza he felt his stomach rumbling. He wasn't sure if it was a delayed reaction to the water he drank of if he was actually feeling hungry.

Lina also notice this rumbling. She looked at Zelgadis questioningly. 'Is he hungry?' Lina did something she rarely did; she offered some of her food. Usually once food was placed in front of her for her to eat that was it; you weren't getting it back.

Zelgadis reached for the hot pizza and savoured the warmth it exuded. He had to pause once he got the slice in his hands. It was so warm and wonderful against his cold fingers.

This time everyone was watching Zelgadis, including Slimer. It's not every day you see a ghost turn 'living' and eat. Unlike Lina however Zelgadis did mind people staring at him while he ate. "Must you all watch me like that?"

"Just try it all ready!" Lina croaked out.

"Okay, here we go." Zelgadis brought the pizza to his mouth and it was like an explosion of flavour on his tongue. He couldn't remember ever having something tasting that good. "Oh my god!"

"Seriously it can't be that good." Filia grumbled and took a slice of another cheese pizza. It tasted just like she expected, okay but not the best thing in the world. "You two are nuts, nothing about this is worth moaning or raving about."

BUZZ BUZZ!

"Next batch of pizza is here!" Amelia said cheerily as she got up to go to the door.

Filia and Sylphiel did rock, paper scissors to see who would go to help Amelia. Filia lost.

Getting back up to go through the hall Filia was unaware that a certain purple haired trickster was following close behind.