AN~ Yup. One-day update. This is what reading days do to me. When I SHOULD be working on my History Paper and my Psych final and my Bio powerpoint and my Creative Writing Portfolio, I write a new chapter. You're welcome.

The Winner of Last QotD: All three of them. Lara D, GrimmGirlLove, and lovelylamb1999 are all winners.

New QotD: Tell me something I didn't already know that I would find interesting. Like Snapple facts. The coolest new one wins.

Sabrina leaned back with a sigh against the outside wall of the chicken house. She'd just finished her last trip from the Golden Egg, and it was past midnight. With the day she'd had, she was about ready to pass out. And she couldn't even do it in her own bed, because Nurse Sprat and Bella had commandeered almost all the beds in Puck's old room and the house itself to use for the injured. She, while dead beat, was uninjured, and unqualified for a bed, so she and Daphne were sharing Uncle Jake and Briar's bed in the Chicken House. Red got her own bed, and Peaseblossom was sleeping on the couch in the living room, because she'd helped move the last group of patients, and Sabrina had refused to take her home.

"Come on, get up." Red said from the doorway.

Sabrina looked at her with a groan and said, "I don't wanna move."

Red stuck out her hands, and Sabrina slipped them inside the smaller girl's reluctantly and used them to heave herself up. She staggered inside and dropped into the bed next to Daphne, falling asleep instantly.

Unfortunately, her sleep was plagued with nightmares. Dreams full of rotting corpses falling with her from a great height woke her up at least four times, and in each one she sat up with a jerk when she saw that she was falling because she, too, was decaying, her wings featherless and dotted with holes. And when she wasn't woken by her own dreams, Daphne's screams shook her out of her sleep. Around five in the morning, though, she wrapped her arms around her sister, and they slept curled up together in a way they hadn't for years, despite sharing a bedroom for so long. The nightmares came less after that.

In the morning, it was back to work, this time helping Nurse Sprat. Daphne had gone to the fort to help make preparations there, and Sabrina found herself feeling strangely alone despite the people around her- that is, until Puck woke up.

When she saw the boy in the hallway, she blushed bright red and scampered in the opposite direction. She spent most of the rest of the day doing the same thing, because he, for some reason, didn't go off to the fort, where he could be useful, but stayed behind at the house, and seemed to end up where she was an extraordinary amount of the time.

She spent a long, awkward day dodging Puck, feeding people, and doing housework (a good portion of which involved finding stuff for other people to take back, because they'd discovered that they could get to the fort through the mirrors), and slept the same way she had the night before.

Mustardseed got a good group of them together in the evening to update each other: The Golden Egg was in charge of search and rescue at the moment, sending people out into the town to find stragglers or any signs of the adults, just in case they hadn't been brought to Mab's castle, or anything useful left in the open; the fort was in charge of preparing for battle, either attack or defense; and the Grimm house was in charge of nursing, because even though Nurse Sprat had a fairly well-equipped hospital tent, she much preferred to work inside, and it was safer.

"I want you running shuttles, Sabrina." Mustardseed finished. "The chicken house listens to you, and you're capable of protecting yourself and it. And even though the fort and your house are connected now, the Golden Egg is cut off. Which reminds me-"

"You want me to put up barriers, right?" Sabrina asked. She'd honestly expected him to ask earlier. "I can do ones like I did for the house. It keeps out magic and anyone with thoughts against the people inside."

"What about things like bombs?" Nurse Sprat asked. "How do we keep those out?"

Sabrina shook her head. "I can't make it impenetrable to solid stuff. Then we'd run out of air. The house here has its own protections against stuff like that. Everyone else is going to have to work out their own stuff."

Mustardseed nodded. "I can probably spare some people for that."

"Or we can." Daphne suggested. "Say we send ten people who'd be at the fort to the Golden Egg with some tools and stuff and see what we can do?"

Mustardseed nodded again. "That seems like a better idea. I don't suppose you can spare Ghepetto?"

Daphne shook her head. "He's pretty much running things up there now. Maybe in a couple days, once we all know what we're doing. But not now."

Mustardseed nodded with a sigh. "Well, I believe that's it. Anything else?"

Nobody said anything, and they all headed their separate ways. Sabrina and Daphne slept like they had the night before, though this time they were smart enough to start out snuggled together. But when Sabrina woke up at two in the morning to use the bathroom, she found her shoulder had a damp spot on it, exactly where Daphne had been resting her head.

The next morning, Sabrina began her shuttle runs right after breakfast, starting by taking some things that were too big and awkward to carry through the mirrors to the fort. Puck had somehow snuck along with her, and she couldn't seem to get rid of him, so she spent most of her day ignoring his presence while she put up the barriers and took people and things back and forth between the three buildings.

around two o' clock, though, she had a break where she didn't have to take anything anywhere, and Puck appeared right next to her.

"So..." He said. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean, what's wrong?" Sabrina asked. "Nothing's wrong."

"Grimm, you haven't talked to me in like three days." Puck said. "And we need to talk about it."

"It?" Sabrina asked, stalling. "Oh, you mean... yeah. The night on the porch. Right."

"Right." Puck said, glaring at her. "That."

Sabrina blushed, and gave him the lie she'd been preparing: "Listen, Puck, I'm sorry. It wasn't... I wasn't trying to say I wanted that or anything. It was just... I was scared I was going to die, and I guess I didn't want to die without feeling what it was like to kiss someone when I started it, or something. And you were there, and maybe I wondered a little if I... but... Yeah. It doesn't have to change anything. We're still just friends."

"So... you didn't mean anything by it." Puck said slowly.

Sabrina shook her head. "I was just confused. That's all."

"And we're back to normal?" Puck asked.

Sabrina nodded.

Puck let out a deep breath. "Well." He said. "That was a lot of agonizing for nothing. Why couldn't you just keep your lips to yourself, Grimm?"

"Well, sor-ree, banana-fingers." Sabrina stuck her tongue out, relishing in the brief chance to be relaxed and squelching the whisper of 'what if I'd told him the truth?' "You kiss like a dead fish, anyway."

"Well, you kiss like a retarded seal!" Puck shot back.

"How many retarded seals have you kissed?" Sabrina asked. "Besides, I have an excuse. I'm fourteen and a tomboy who's never had a boyfriend. You're four thousand. You're supposed to have experience in this kind of thing."

"I was eleven the whole time!" Puck protested. "What eleven year old boy likes girls?"

"Oh, come on." Sabrina teased. "You can't tell me you've never even had a crush! I had my first crush at ten."

"I've only ever liked one girl." Puck told her, suddenly serious. "And I can tell you, none of the girls in the past four thousand years were anywhere near as amazing as her."

"Oh." Sabrina said sadly, because she could see in his face that he was telling the truth. "Well, I hope she likes you back." She said, attempting to cheer herself up for his sake.

Puck shook his head. "She most definitely doesn't."

Sabrina sucked in a hissing breath sympathetically. "Ouch." She said. "If it makes you feel any better, though, I know how you feel. The guy I like doesn't like me back, either."

Before Puck could say anything else, Red poke her head in the room. The small girl had retained her sudden boldness, and she was a lot more talkative now. "They need you inside, Puck. And Sabrina, can you take me to the Golden Egg? We think it's a good idea to have someone with one of our swords there, so that we have one everywhere."

The two stood up, nodding, and they were off again, in different directions this time. That was perfectly fine with Sabrina. She had some stuff she needed to think about anyway.

"So what were you talking about?" Red asked once the house was up and moving. She was sitting on the armchair with the TV remote in her hand.

Sabrina made a face and walked over to the window, looking outside. "Just something that happened the night before the battle."

"You made out, didn't you?" Red asked.

Sabrina's eyes widened, and she lost her balance falling into the window frame. "Well, I wouldn't say made out, exactly, but we... yeah, there was a moment there." She said.

"So?" Red asked, switching the TV on.

"So nothing." Sabrina said. "We're not like that. Just friends."

"Mm-hm." Red said skeptically, smiling a little.

And then Sabrina snapped. "Red." She said. "You're being a bitch."

Now Red's eyes widened, and the girl dropped the remote midway through flipping channels.

"Ever since the battle, you've been different." Sabrina continued. "Some of it's good. I like that you're talking. But one of the things I always liked about you was that you're practically the only person who doesn't just assume Puck and I are going to get together, and act like we're being idiots for not dating already. And now you're starting it, too! And it's not just that! When you started talking, you started snapping at people and talking down at them! I don't know why you're doing it, but it needs to stop. It's not like you, Red. And it's not what you should want to be like, either."

And suddenly, Red was crying. "I'm sorry!" She wailed. "I just... After Tim... and with Mamma Briar and Daddy Jake... And I thought that if I... But I didn't mean... I'm sorry!"

"Hey, hey." Sabrina said, panicking, thinking to herself 'what do I do what do I do?' "Don't... Oh, Red, I'm sorry. It's OK." She hurried over and wrapped her arms around the other girl tentatively.

Red leaned in, wrapping her arms back around Sabrina, sobbing. "I just-" She hiccuped, "I just got so-"

"I know." Sabrina soothed. "I know."

"It was different when Baba Yaga died." Red whispered. "I didn't feel like this. Maybe it's 'cause I didn't lose my parents at the same time. And I'm scared I'm going to... go back. To how I used to be."

"You're as sane as I am." Sabrina told her frankly. "And granted, that's not saying much, but they let me run free, so you're good." She smiled crookedly.

Red giggled through her tears, but said, "But what if I do go back to how I was before?"

"Then we'll fix you again." Sabrina said. "And we won't leave you, I promise."

"Are you sure?" Red asked. "My old family did. And they... They were really my family."

"Red." Sabrina said, pulling her chin up so they were looking eye to eye. "I know what it's like to be abandoned. And I promise you that I will never let you feel that way again. Even if we can never get the grown-ups back, I will always be there for you, no matter what."

"Okay." Red nodded, rubbing her nose with the back of her wrist.

The house creaked loudly, shaking them. Sabrina looked up. "Either it agrees or we're here."

"I think we're here." Red said. "'Cause it's not moving."

"Right." Sabrina said, standing, suddenly businesslike. "Time to go. You're going to be staying here a while, I guess?"

Red nodded. "I'm gonna clean some of my stuff out of my room, OK?"

"Lemme help." Sabrina offered.

Most of what they moved ended up being clothes, though Red grabbed her toothbrush and a big bag of art supplies, too. It only took two trips to get everything she wanted into the room Mustardseed had put her in.

Sabrina found that Mustardseed was starting to get on her nerves. He'd just stepped up to the plate and taken over. And while she didn't think she'd want to be the leader, she was a bit tired of him telling her what to do, and she was starting to chafe at the bit a little. She wanted to be able to do stuff that was useful, not just act like a bus service. The house would listen to other people, too, not just her! So she decided to do something about it.

It took her two days, though, to actually get fed up enough to ignore his instructions. The breaking point was when she found out that Daphne had been permanently assigned to work with the soldiers while Sabrina still ran trips. That was just unfair.

"Puck?" She asked, early that morning.

Puck blinked at her groggily. "Wha?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Depends what it is." Puck said cautiously.

"Can you take the chicken house back and forth for me today?" She asked. "I have something I want to get done."

"Oh no." Puck said, and suddenly he was awake, sitting straight up in bed and slipping his shoes on over his footie pajamas. "I know that look. You're not going anywhere without me, Grimm. It's too dangerous."

"Oh, come on." Sabrina said. "You don't even know what I'm planning."

"No, but I know it won't be safe." Puck said. "Find someone else to watch the house for you. Or better yet, stay in it."

"Not you, too." Sabrina complained. "I'll be fine. And I'm tired of sitting around staying safe. Daphne's getting ready to fight. Why am I the only one stuck on useless duty?"

"I told Mustardseed this was a bad idea." Puck muttered. "I'm not saying you can't go." He told her. "Just that you can't go alone."

"Fine." Sabrina sighed. "But you have to find someone else to take care of the house instead." She headed back the way she'd come, then stuck her head back through the doorway. "Wait- told Mustardseed what was a bad idea?"

"Keeping you somewhere away from the action. He thought you'd be fine with the house- 'she'll know she's being useful'" He mimicked, "But I told him you'd want to be fighting."

Sabrina shook her head. "He's a great king, Mustardseed, but not a great general." She said.

Puck nodded. "I know." He responded. "You'd be a good leader." He suggested. "Go down there and help him out. He'll listen to your suggestions, and you know how to work things better than he does."

Sabrina shook her head again- more emphatically this time. "Heck no. I want to be in on the action. If I'm down there at the Golden Egg, all I'll be doing is telling other people what to do. I just want him to stop trying to tell me what to do."

Puck sighed. "You're impossible."

Sabrina shrugged and smiled. "I know. Now hurry up and get some breakfast so we can head out."

Puck shook his head and got up to follow her, then realized what he was wearing and stopped, pulling off his shoes.

Sabrina was tempted to head off without him. Really tempted. But she knew he was right. So she made breakfast for everyone in the house, including some newly healed people she hadn't seen before, and sat down to feed Basil, a little worried as she did so. They were running out of food. There had been a magic tablecloth in the Hall of Wonders, that fed people however much they wanted of whatever they wanted, but it had gone to the fort. The house was almost out of stuff. That was among what she wanted to get done today- a trip to a grocery store. She'd have to leave town to do that, though. Which meant she'd need the carpet. But the grocery store in Ferryport Landing had been ransacked ages ago, and the garden that had been set up in Puck's old room just wasn't sufficient for all the people they had.

"What you thinkin' 'bout, 'Brina?" Basil asked.

"Grown-up stuff." Sabrina answered. "It's boring."

"Oh." Basil said, thinking. "How come?"

"'Cause Mom and Dad aren't here to think about it for us." Sabrina explained. "And someone needs to do it 'til they get back."

Basil made a face. "Bleah." He said.

Sabrina snickered and said, "That's about right, buddy. What are you going to do today?"

"Play wif Mildwed." Basil said. Mildred was one of the children who lived in Puck's old room, and she and Basil had become fast friends. "What 'bout you?"

"I'm going food shopping." Sabrina said.