AN~ IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOLLOWS:
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I have been debating, and I have decided that it is time for a name change, for a few reasons: 1) Several things in this are no longer 'never gonna happen' 2) My Epic Fic deserves a better title, 3) I have already had one suggested, and like it, and 4) The title suggested fits the story.
I would also like to redo the summary, but I don't have any good ideas for that yet. This is a warning, and I will not be changing the title quite yet, because people will no longer be able to find it. Soon, though, this will be called 'The Long and Winding Road'.
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The Winner of Last QotD: allisocoolike, because a friggin' roller coaster. I don't know where it would fit in a graveyard, but...
New QotD: What should the Summary for this story be? It needs to be within 180 characters, and should TRY to sum up the story effectively.
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Agd: Thanks, and yeah (though Grandparents and parents aren't really similar), it hurts. Chapter: But all my chapters are approximately the same length... Sabrina IS a conundrum, isn't she?
mepe: I'm sorry. You may possibly have noticed my author's note, though, which said that my dad just died? Yeah. I have other things on my mind than fanfiction at the moment. And it was under two weeks between updates, so I think you could wait. Also I have no idea what your other half of review meant.
Day Night: Thanks. Yeah. Updates may bet spotty from here out. But I will still try to update once a week. And glad you liked it.
annoyind loud girl: That I did.
PenguinLoverGurl: Umm... No. No comas. XD. I bow. QotD: That's either going to be really tiny writing or a really huge headstone.
(): That's awful.
"What were you thinking, Grimm?" Puck shouted as soon as Sabrina's eyelids fluttered open again.
Sabrina groaned and pulled an arm over her eyes. She had no idea where she was or how long she'd been out, but she wanted to go back to sleep. And when she moved, it ached terribly.
"Don't pull that." Puck was still speaking. Why wouldn't he be quiet? His voice hurt her ears. He said, "I know you can hear me, and I don't care how much you hurt. You are going to open your eyes, sit up, and listen to this, because you deserve it."
Sabrina shook her head, groaning again when it felt like the whole world shook with it, and sunk down into her- wherever she was. Bed? No, it wasn't cushy enough.
"Up." Puck said, and his hands were on her wrists, dragging her upward. She followed reluctantly, the world spinning around her as she rose.
"Now open your eyes." He instructed.
Sabrina shook her head, trying hard not to groan this time.
"Open them!" Puck shouted, and it rang in Sabrina's ears, making it feel like she was inside Big Ben at noon.
Her eyes snapped open, and she looked at him pitifully, pulling her hands away from his, trying to put them over her ears. "Ow." She whispered.
"It serves you right." Puck said. "Overreaching yourself like that. This is what happens when you use all your magic, Grimm. All of it. What you're feeling is because you fed so much power into that stupid Barrier thing you were doing that you ran out of power, but you were too stubborn to quit, so you started feeding your own life energy into the thing!" Puck was practically shouting, and there was a look in his eyes that Sabrina had never seen before: hard and firey.
"Couldn't you tell what you were doing?" He continued. "Did you stop to notice that you were killing yourself for more space? Thirty more seconds, and you'd have been gone, Grimm! Nothing could have brought you back from that! Did you think about what it would do if you were gone? You're most of what's holding these kids together right now. And even if you weren't, did you think what it would do to your family? To Red? To your brother? Your friends? Daphne? Did you think what it would do to-" His voice cracked, and he stopped. "I can't believe you were that idiotic." He muttered, turning away from her.
Sabrina had shrunk with each thing Puck said, and to her disgust, she could feel tears starting to build up in her eyes. What was going on? She didn't cry! Especially not over something as trivial as being yelled at. She squeezed her eyes shut again, willing the tears away. She would not cry. She wouldn't.
When she was sure she was in control of herself, Sabrina asked, "How do you know? What I'm feeling?"
Puck shook his head ruefully and said, "I chew you out with that and all you say is 'how do you know what it's like to use too much energy'? Really?"
He was silent for a long time, and Sabrina thought he wasn't going to answer, but he eventually said, "I did it myself. I was maybe a hundred, and I'd made a bet. I was determined not to lose. Almost killed myself winning. I learned my limits after that." He chuckled. "You're in for a heck of a time, Grimm. I wouldn't go through that again for... almost anything."
"I am sorry." Sabrina said. "Really I am. I just... I thought I could do it."
"Yeah, I know." Puck said, giving her a look. "But you promised you'd stop if you knew you were done. I know you knew when to quit."
Sabrina laid back down on the bed with a sigh, wincing as everything spun when she moved. "Yeah. I was stupid." She said.
"You can say that again." Puck said. "I just- I can't believe you'd be that reckless. I mean, this was premeditated recklessness! You planned to be stupid!"
"I said I was sorry!" Sabrina protested. "And can you tone it down? You're hurting my head."
"Well, if you hadn't been such an idiot, you wouldn't have this headache." Puck said, emphasizing more words than he really needed to.
"Yeah, well." Sabrina muttered, unable to think up a comeback around the pounding inside her skull. "Where are we anyway?"
"You're sitting on the carpet." Puck said. "I took the groceries home and made up an excuse for you. Got back a few minutes ago. It's more than you deserve."
"Thanks anyway." Sabrina said. So they didn't know how dumb she'd been. That was a perk.
"You get to explain to them why you're like this, though." Puck said cruelly. "I'm not helping you out any more than I already have."
And that was not.
"Come on, please?" She asked. "I'll pay you back."
"No." Puck said. "We're going home now that you're awake, and you are going to tell everyone why you look like you got run over by a truck, and I am going to sit back and watch and laugh."
"That's the first thing you've said tonight that's sounded like you." Sabrina observed, rolling over on the carpet, slowly, slowly, trying not to make the world spin. It didn't quite work.
"You scared me, Grimm." Puck said, and his voice cracked again. "I thought you were going to kill yourself."
"I'm sorry." Sabrina said, very quiet.
"You've mentioned." Puck responded. "It's just- Gah, Grimm, you can be so smart sometimes, but then you go and do something idiotic like this. And you wonder why people don't trust you to take care of yourself."
"Oh, thanks." Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"You're reckless." Puck said. "And because half the time you're right, or it turns out fine, you think it makes it OK. But it's not. And one of these days, if you don't learn to think first, you're going to get yourself killed."
"Like you're one to talk." Sabrina muttered.
"You're worse." Puck retorted. "And I'm not in the mood to bicker with you. You need to work on this."
"If I promise, can we go home?" Sabrina asked wearily. She wasn't really in very good shape to argue, either.
"Yes." Puck said. "Let's get you to bed, idiot."
Sabrina decided to let that comment slide (a sure sign of how bad she truly felt), and they both rode the carpet home in silence. Sabrina glanced up at Puck a few times, but he was looking stonily ahead every single once. He was really angry about this, and she didn't like it. She could only think of one other time she'd gotten him mad for real, and then it was an explosive anger, not this... grudge.
When they got home, Bella opened the door for them, looking frazzled. "Oh, Sabrina, what did you do to yourself?" She wailed, seeing her best friend's state. "I can't take any more patients!"
"She'll be fine." Puck said. "She just needs to sleep and eat. A lot. But she can take care of herself."
"But what happened?" Daphne asked, appearing in the doorway, too. (What was she doing home? Shouldn't she be at the Fort?)
"I'll let Sabrina tell you that." Puck said, and he walked off with a smirk, leaving her to make a fool of herself.
It took Sabrina a week to recover enough to start doing simple magical things again. That was when she started full-out training again. She wanted to be ready to rescue the adults, whenever that happened (still no news). And since she was back on shuttle duty again, she had plenty of time to exercise both physically and magically, and a mostly empty space to do it in.
After she'd been doing that for almost another week, and the adults had been missing for three, they finally heard news.
"We found them." Mustardseed told Sabrina, bursting into the chicken house as soon as it got to the Golden Egg.
"Where?" Sabrina asked, bolting forward.
"The Little Mermaid has them."
"So when are we going in?" Sabrina asked.
"You're not." Mustardseed said. "You're staying right here and resting up. The rest of us are going in in three days."
"Oh, come on." Sabrina complained.
Mustardseed shook his head. "You haven't had enough time to rest, Sabrina. You need to heal more."
"Mustardseed." Sabrina said. "I'm going to go anyway. Unless you lock me up, I will be there. Maybe even if you do lock me up. So you may as well accept it. I'm good for more than just magic. And if you want to sneak in, I'm your girl."
Mustardseed sighed, hanging his head. He looked up at her and said, "Can't you sit this one out? Puck worries about you, and I'd hate for you to get hurt."
Sabrina shook her head. "Do you know what it's like to lose your parents twice, Mustardseed? I need to get them back. And that means Doing Something, not just sitting around."
"Fine." Mustardseed said. "But you have to be extremely careful. I don't want to have to face Puck if you die because I let you go."
Sabrina gave him a half smile. "Don't worry," she said, "Dying isn't in my plans at the moment."
"It isn't usually in anyone's." Mustardseed said gloomily, heading back out of the house.
They began planning that evening, and Puck, though he seemed extremely displeased that Sabrina was going, grudgingly admitted that the fact that she and Daphne had been to the Little Mermaid's stronghold was a huge bonus, and that maybe she'd do some good if she came with them.
Sabrina and Daphne both decided that their best course of action was to not mention how very little of the underwater castle they'd seen. It might backfire once they were there, but until then, they wanted to be positive they'd be included.
Two days later, they left for their parents, armed only with waterproof weapons (they'd tested Basil's wooden sword, figuring if it rusted, he'd need it the least, so Sabrina and Daphne had their swords, though no one else did), most of them wearing no armor. Sabrina felt a lot less prepared than last time. The loss of Tim had shaken her confidence a bit, and so had her mistake with the Barrier. But she was still determined to get her parents back.
"What happens if they expect us to know where we're going?" Daphne whispered to Sabrina.
"We play dumb." Sabrina whispered back. "Or fake it."
"Great plan." Daphne said sarcastically. "I never would have come up with that."
"Which is why I'm the brains of this operation." Sabrina retorted. "I'm so brilliant."
"Absolutely." Daphne rolled her eyes and sped up, walking faster until she was even with Art.
Sabrina scowled at the two of them. Art still hadn't told Daphne what he'd done, and the two of them hadn't spoken since the day of the battle. How he could just talk to her, when he'd killed one of her favorite people, without breaking down in guilt- It was disgusting.
"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Puck asked.
"Nothing." Sabrina said quickly. She wasn't going to ruin Art's life for him, no matter how angry she was Besides, if everyone treated him like some big shot hero, all the more guilt for him.
"Then why'd you look like someone just called you a big-eared lumpy squash?" Puck asked. "Don't be offended if someone did, of course. It's not like you can help it."
"Oh, thanks." Sabrina rolled her eyes. "And it's nothing, really. Just remembering-"
"The last time you looked in the mirror?" Puck cut in. "I don't blame you. If I had that face, I would, too."
"I give up." Sabrina said. "I was maybe going to tell you what I was thinking about, but you're just so determined to insult me you ruined it."
"Aw, come on." Puck said.
Sabrina shook her head silently, grateful for the excuse.
"What if I apologized?" Puck suggested, when it became clear that Sabrina wasn't going to say anything else.
Sabrina shook her head again. "Too late. You lost your chance."
"Why you gotta be like that?" Puck complained.
"Why do you have to insult me all the time?" Sabrina shot back. "I know I'm not hideous. And 'teasing' like that is what makes normal kids get anorexic or have plastic surgery or kill themselves or something."
"I don't mean it!" Puck protested. "It's not like I'm being serious! It's just like more pranks."
"Yeah, well, I hate those, too." Sabrina muttered.
"You call me names all the time, too!" Puck said, looking like he'd suddenly found something that would let him win.
"That's different." Sabrina said. "That starts with an argument. You just take every single opportunity to call me ugly or gross or smelly or nasty. I'm tired of it."
"Fine." Puck muttered, glaring at the ground as he walked. "Sorry."
"Just try to stop." Sabrina said back.
Puck nodded and didn't say anything, which was the best thing to say, so Sabrina didn't mind. They walked together in silence for a few minutes before Puck said, "You sure you're up for this?"
"Yeah." Sabrina said. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I remember how bad I was." Puck said. "It took me ages to feel normal again. You can't tell me you're at a hundred percent right now."
"I'm good enough." Sabrina said, though it was true that she still felt weak and jiggly, and if she tried to do more than a few things gravity-wise, she'd be weak as a two weeks old cut flower.
"I think you should sit this out." Puck said. "There's still time for you to head back."
Sabrina shook her head. "I'm not going home 'til my family is coming with me."
"Fine." Puck said. "But if you die, don't say I didn't warn you."
Sabrina laughed grimly. "I'll remember that. Try not to gloat too much over my grave."
"Come on." Puck complained. "Do I get one 'I told you so'?"
"Maybe if you're very nice to me." Sabrina said. "I don't think you can be."
"I'll try." Puck promised. "But I think it'll be easier if I'm not around you, so I'm going to head this way." He pointed to the left and wandered away from Sabrina.
"That's not being nice!" Sabrina called after him, but she didn't mind, really.
Behind her, there was a quiet snicker.
She turned around and saw Red, walking alone in the crowd, and grinned. "Hey."
"Hi." Red said, walking a bit faster to catch up to Sabrina.
"Listen, Red, I... um... I owe you an apology." Sabrina said, rubbing the back of her neck with her hand.
"For what?" Red asked, brow furrowing.
"For what I called you." Sabrina said. "I was overreacting, and you weren't really being even that rude, I was just... I wasn't thinking straight. And I'm sorry."
"No, I deserved it." Red said. "I wasn't thinking right, either. And it set me back."
"Well, I'm glad you're normal again, but I was still a jerk." Sabrina shrugged. "Accept my apology?"
Red nodded, and Sabrina wrapped one arm around the smaller girl in an awkward leaning down walking hug that didn't last very long, but it was the thought that counted. Then they separated, and walked together without speaking, both just listening to the chatter of the other kids. They hadn't put an age limit on who could come, though Mustardseed had devised a test to determine who wasn't going to be jumping to their death.
"We're here." A voice called from the front. Sabrina didn't know whose it was, but she headed to the front of the group anyway, as everyone else stopped walking.
"Now what?" Puck asked.
Daphne and Sabrina looked at each other and grinned, and Daphne said, "Now we go fishing."
"Fishing for what?" Kaytee asked. "Mermaids?"
Daphne shook her head. "We're fishing for wish-fish."
While Daphne was talking, Sabrina had pulled out a collapsible fishing rod found in the part of the basement Puck wasn't occupying and was now stringing a piece of bait- old pizza- on the hook. She sat down on the bank and looked at the others with raised eyebrows. "You might want to sit down." She said. "This could take a while.
Take a while it did, and Sabrina was grateful they'd left early (and also that Daphne had brought food). Some of the younger kids had drifted off to sleep when Sabrina sat upright, staring at the pole. Daphne joined her, and soon all the others had gathered around, too.
There had been a tug on the line.