Author's Note: This one takes place after #25 – The Extreme. That was the first time the Chee had to take the Animorphs' place during a long-term mission, I believe.

#33 – Water

Rachel

The first thing I did when I got home from the North Pole was meet with the Chee who'd been taking my place at home while I was gone. She handed me the clothes which she'd been "wearing" – which meant she'd been projecting them in her hologram. I put them on gratefully, even though I planned to get them off almost immediately. More clothing would always mean better from that point forward, in my eyes.

"Anything I should know before I go inside?" I asked the Chee, jerking my head toward the house. "Is my mom suspicious?"

The Chee stared at me blankly with her hologram's human female face. "Suspicious? Of course not."

"Okay. Well, thanks," I told her. She made her hologram smile, then walked away without a word. "Oookay."

I walked in through the back, hoping my mom wouldn't be in the kitchen. She was, of course – looked like she was chopping veggies for dinner. "Hey mom," I said to her back.

"Uh, hi Rachel. Again." She didn't turn around, but I could hear the eye-roll in her voice. I swear I could. I almost slapped my forehead as I remembered that "I" had just walked past her into the backyard less than two minutes ago. I almost asked her what was for dinner before I realized that Chee-me had probably already asked.

"Do I have time to take a shower before dinner?" I asked instead.

My mom turned around to look at me sideways. "Dinner is still in an hour. Unless you plan on taking longer than that, then you have time."

"I'll try to be through by then," I said, trying to joke and hearing it come out way too serious. I gave up the acting-normal charade and headed up the stairs.

I cut the shower on full hot and stripped. The steam started flowing over the top of the shower curtain after a moment, and I swear I almost started salivating. Marco had spent the last day going on and on about a hot shower, and I'll be damned if he didn't get me craving one, too. The water burned my skin as I stepped in, but I let it. I didn't shy away or turn the heat down; I actually leaned into it. I was too amazed at the prospect of water being water instead of ice to do anything else.

Heat is like a foreign concept, once you've gone without it for a little while. When you're truly freezing with no way to get warm, it's amazing how fast your mind forgets about warmth. You remember what it is, of course, that's not what I mean. But you forget what it feels like on your skin, inside of your body, almost immediately. I guess it's some sort of defense mechanism your body has against letting extreme cold break you mentally.

Whatever. Didn't matter. I was warm, now; my skin drank in the temperature. My muscles relaxed. My mind rested. It was bliss.

Well, it was bliss until the water ran first tepid, then cool. I cut it off and stepped out, drying off with my big, fluffy towel. I hustled to my room and put on my winter pajamas, even though it was probably seventy degrees outside and my mom had all of the windows in the house open. I walked slowly down the stairs, just happy to be alive and warm again. Sara was playing with a stuffed dinosaur on the bottom step, and I rubbed her hair as I walked by, smiling.

"You're weird," Sara accused.

I didn't even lose my smile as I instinctively shot back, "Your face is weird, Scare-ah." I rounded the corner into the kitchen to find my mom glaring at me with her hand on her hip. "What?" I asked, confused.

"You have been nothing but sweet to your sisters and I for the last four days. I thought it was here to stay. Why do you have to go back to the old Rachel?"

"The "old Rachel?" What are you talking about?" I realized that my Chee counterpart must have been playing the part of perfect daughter too well and I rolled my eyes. "So I'm perfectly nice for a few days, big deal. So I say one little thing to Sara – even bigger deal."

My mom rolled her own eyes and went back to stirring her sauce. "And the smart mouth is back, too. I really thought you'd changed. Stupid me."

"Guess so," I laughed, too relaxed to be worried about my mom's dramatic behavior. "I'm going to watch some tube. Call me for dinner? Please?" Maybe I was a little sarcastic with the "please," but sue me. I'd had a rough couple of days.

Besides, the sooner I got everybody used to actual Rachel instead of perfect Chee-Rachel again, the better.

A/N – Apparently the A/N on the last chapter had absolutely no effect. Almost fifty people have read it in the twenty-four hours it's been up, and once again, Sweetbriar was the only one to leave her thoughts. Thank you, Sweetbriar. I'm not complaining, by the way…I'm far too used to it out of the people on this site for that. Just letting you guys know that if I stop putting effort into this one for a while, that's why.