Author's Note: So, I had a couple of the next chapters of this written, then my laptop decided to break and I needed a new hard drive. The first version of this chapter came out really quickly and easily, but it was harder to re-write and I still feel the old, lost version was better in a lot of ways!

It means I have about a chapter and a half still to re-write before I get back to where I was, so please bear with me- updates might not be coming as often as I was hoping!

Accelerating as quickly as she dared, Elsa pulled away from the lights, which had annoyingly gone red on her at just the wrong moment, and sped as fast as she could down the road to the community center.

"We're gonna be late again," Annie whined from the passenger seat.

"Hey, you don't know that," Elsa said, glancing at the clock in the car. "It's not started yet."

"It starts in one minute. So sure, if we can get there and get parked and in the room by then. That's not exactly gonna happen, is it, given we're still at least three minutes away."

"Very precise," Elsa grinned. She glanced over at Annie, who was giving her a stormy glare. Teenagers. "Oh, okay, I'm sorry," she sighed. Elsa herself was perfectly comfortable walking into anywhere late, and Annie would only miss a couple of minutes of the warm-up, which was practically early compared to Elsa's usual standards, but it did mean her sister would have to walk in and take her place when the rest of the choir was warming up, which she guessed was pretty embarrassing. Although everything seemed to embarrass Annie these days. "I'll do better next time."

Annie snorted. "I'll believe that when I see it."

Elsa pulled into the car park, making the turn as fast as she dared. "I'm sorry. On time isn't really my thing. We are earlier than last week."

Luckily, there was a space pretty near the building; Elsa pulled the car into it as fast as possible. It was at a bit of an angle and looked more abandoned than parked, but it was within the lines, so that'd have to do.

"I guess," Annie said, undoing her seatbelt before the car had even stopped. "We're still not on time, though. You used to manage it."

Elsa froze, her hands clenching tightly around the steering wheel. "No, I didn't."

"You did!" Annie had pulled open the door and was halfway out. "Back when you first learned to drive. You always got us everywhere early then."

Elsa forced her gritted teeth to separate long enough to say: "I didn't, Annie."

Her sister stopped in her tracks, her hand suddenly still against the car door she'd been about to push closed, and her eyes widening in horror.

"Elsa, I'm so sorry," she managed eventually.

"Don't worry about it." Elsa managed to let the steering wheel go, and began to undo her own seat belt.

"I'd take any amount of being late to have you back," Annie whispered, looking close to tears.

"Hey, now, you don't want to go giving me permission to be late, or we'll never get here."

Annie gave the ghost of a smile, but still looked troubled.

"Anyway," Elsa added, pushing her own door open, "we'd better get going. I don't know if you've noticed, but we are a little bit late."

This time Annie smiled properly and rolled her eyes at her sister. Elsa had been hoping for a laugh, but that was close enough.

When they entered the large, wood-floored room where choir was held, the other children were already in their places, singing a scale. Annie thrust her jacket at Elsa and hurried to join them, beginning to sing even before she slotted herself in between two of her friends.

Elsa scanned the side of the room, looking for somewhere to sit. People were dotted about on chairs: parents of children in the choir, mainly, possibly the odd sibling, like herself. There were a few places to sit, but Elsa's eyes were drawn to one beside a dark-haired, slight woman who was bent uncomfortably over a workbook. The woman was Jasmine, the voluntary Elsa had been exchanging a few words with at choir for nearly two months now.

Hesitating, Elsa debated whether to sit beside her or not. She hadn't done yet: their interactions had been brief, usually at the end as Jasmine was leaving with her daughter, but they'd been getting steadily longer each week, and Jasmine seemed more comfortable in her company. It was probably make-or-break time now, really, and if Elsa was going to ask her about helping with the campaign for the allergic Yeerks it was probably not best done in two minutes in front of an eight year-old.

Eventually Elsa made for the seat, holding back the urge to march briskly now her decision was made, and instead making her steps slower, more gentle. Striding up to someone as nervous as Jasmine was probably not the best idea.

"Hey," Elsa said, almost in a whisper; she didn't want to make the other woman jump.

Jasmine jerked a little anyway, looking up from a page covered in printed triangles and numbers. "Oh... hello." Her voice was quiet, and her eyes dropped towards the floor as soon as she'd identified Elsa.

"Do you mind if I sit here? You can say no," Elsa added quickly.

"It's okay," Jasmine murmured, her eyes back on her work.

Elsa slid into the seat quickly. She let her eyes stray across to the children for a while, glancing at Jasmine out of the corner of her eye. She could see that while Jasmine's eyes were fixed on her work, her pencil didn't move for the next few minutes, her shoulders taut with anxiety. Elsa felt slightly guilty, but getting up and leaving now would only make things worse.

Turning her eyes back to the choir, Elsa let them rest on Jasmine's daughter. As confident as her mother was shy, she was singing her heart out in the front row, her eyes fixed on the conductor.

"Maya looks like she's having fun," Elsa commented.

"Yes. She loves it," Jasmine said, her voice a little louder and quite a bit happier. "I'm really glad she's joined, she's already made some friends."

"That's great," Elsa smiled, letting her eyes turn back to Jasmine. "She looks like she's doing really well, too."

"Oh, she is."

"Does she have a favourite song that they're doing?"

Jasmine shrugged a little, finally meeting Elsa's eyes, although still only in snatches. "It changes every week. Right now it's the one from Wicked; she won't stop singing it at home."

Elsa grinned. "Great choice. I love musicals, wish we did them more in the adult choir. We did do some songs from West Side Story last year though, that was awesome. Hey, you ever think about joining?"

Jasmine tensed again immediately, dropping her eyes. "Me? Oh no, I can't sing."

"I've heard a lot more people say that than it's actually true of," Elsa said, choosing her words carefully. "Almost everyone can learn to sing pretty well, if they're given the teaching and stuff. And Maya's got a lovely voice, so you might have, too."

Jasmine shook her head, smiling slightly and seeming to relax a little at the mention of her daughter. "Thank you."

"Maybe you could give it a go one day, at least then you'll know if you'll like it or not."

Jasmine smiled. "You sound like Akhir, she's always saying I should-"

She stopped speaking abruptly, her eyes widening in unmistakeable fear. Her whole body went tight, one hand going to cover her mouth. Shit, Elsa thought to herself, scrabbling rapidly for something to say.

"It's okay," Elsa said as softly as she could.

Jasmine stayed frozen, staring at her.

"Is she your Yeerk?"

"Please... please don't hurt her," Jasmine pleaded, panicking now. "She doesn't deserve... please..."

"Hey, it's okay," Elsa repeated. "I'm not going to hurt her... besides, it's not like I know what she looks like or anything, is it?"

"Please... please..." Jasmine said again, almost as though she hadn't heard what Elsa had said.

"Jasmine, I promise I won't hurt her. I don't want to hurt anyone, least of all someone who's important to you. It's okay."

Jasmine seemed to register that a little better; she stopped pleading, and a little of the tension fell from her shoulders.

"Really? You promise?"

"Yes, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die and all that. I really really swear I won't hurt her." Elsa spoke with as much emphasis as she could, not that she really expected Jasmine to trust any promise she made.

Jasmine must have trusted it a little, though, as she let her eyes drop again, her face relaxing into a less terrified expression. "She... she says I can trust you," Jasmine whispered eventually.

It was Elsa's turn to freeze, shock flooding her. So this was a Yeerk she'd known then, had to be, but she'd never been infested by anyone called Akhir. She racked her brains for the name, and came up short for a while. Akhir... Akhir... oh. There'd been a pool guard called that, early in Elsa's infestation; it was her, then, it must be. Elsa bit back the desire to ask for confirmation: Jasmine was far too nervous to start quizzing her about her Yeerk. She also forced down an expression of annoyance: she'd felt rather pleased that Jasmine appeared to be beginning to trust her, and to suddenly have to attribute that to some Yeerk was irritating to say the least.

"That's good, then, right?" Elsa said gently.

Jasmine nodded slowly, without looking up.

Part of her wanted to ask more: Jasmine was clearly still in touch with her old Yeerk, and Elsa had to bite back her curiosity about how that worked. Instead, Elsa glanced at Jasmine's work.

"You at college?" she asked cheerfully, hoping to change the subject.

Jasmine shook her head. "It's just an evening class."

"Cool. In Math, huh? You must be pretty smart, I don't get Math at all."

Jasmine shifted slightly in her seat, and when she spoke her voice was very quiet. "I'm not. It's only high school level."

Elsa smiled slightly. "I spent most of my middle and high school years paying absolutely no attention to math and letting my Yeerks do it all. Regretted that when I got freed and had to study it all at once so I could pass. Don't think I'd remember any of it now, though."

"It's difficult," Jasmine acknowledged. "I can't work this out at all."

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be any help. Tell you what, though, I've got a load of college work in my bag that I really want to procrastinate from. How about we distract each other?"

A trace of a smile appeared on Jasmine's face. "I don't think I can distract you from your work. I'm sure you're capable of doing yours."

Elsa frowned. "Everyone gets stuck sometimes. Hell, on math I spend far more time stuck than unstuck. Is unstuck even a word? Anyway, have you seen me doing any work at all yet? You wouldn't be distracting me, I'd be distracting myself."

Jasmine's smile became a little stronger. "Okay." She slipped her workbook back into the large bag beside her, but kept the pencil, rubbing it between her fingers.

"So," Elsa began. "What else do you do, when you're not at evening class? Or, well, with Maya, which I guess is quite a lot of time."

"I work at Maya's school. I make the dinners and watch the children at lunchtime," Jasmine said. "It's perfect, really, it means I finish in time to collect her. And I take in sewing at home: repairs, mostly, but I've started to sell some of my own designs online."

"That's amazing!" Elsa said warmly. "I tried to learn to knit once, but I ended up with more holes than knitting." And wavy edges, too, but that was probably enough to give Jasmine the general idea.

"Not really. It's very simple work. Anyone could do it."

"Maybe anyone apart from me. I'd probably sew things together upside down or something."

Jasmine smiled slightly. "Did you say you're in college?"

"Yeah. Psychology major. It involves a lot more math than I thought when I picked it, but hey. It's interesting. I want to do a Masters next year, but I might actually have to start my essays earlier than the night before the deadline if I do that."

"You must be very clever," Jasmine said admiringly. "Do you do anything else outside studying? Apart from choir, of course."

"Horseback riding, when I get the chance. I make attempts at cooking, some of them are even edible," Elsa joked, partly to offset her own nerves. Now was probably the best opening she was going to have. "And... I'm part of a campaign group at the moment."

"That sounds interesting. What's it for?"

"Well..." No turning back now, so Elsa decided to just go straight for it. Besides, Jasmine was as communicative as she'd ever seen her. "You know there were some Yeerks who couldn't take the morphing power? Who were, like, allergic or whatever?"

Jasmine nodded. "Akhir's friend... his sibling is like that. It's very hard for them."

"Well, we're campaigning for them to be allowed to take hosts. Voluntary hosts, obviously."

Her mouth falling open, Jasmine stared at Elsa in shock. "You want them to have hosts? You?"

Elsa smiled slightly; Jasmine's expression was too funny to successfully keep a straight face. "I mean, obviously I'm not volunteering. Even if I wanted to, I'm pretty sure most of the Yeerks would be swimming as fast as they could in the other direction."

Jasmine frowned, but said nothing.

"No, I just want it to be legal for other people to offer them that, if and only if those other people want to. I was wondering... I know you don't have a lot of time, but would you consider helping with the campaign?"

"Of course I would," Jasmine said instantly. "It's a horrible situation for them to be in."

Well, that went better than expected. Her confidence growing, Elsa continued: "And... this is a big question, and it's obviously not a commitment now, so think about it as long as you need and you can change your mind anytime, but do you think you'd consider hosting one if it ever was legal?"

Jasmine frowned again, and she hesitated for a few moments before answering, glancing across at her daughter. "Would it be full time?"

"Whatever you wanted. I don't want there to be even a single second of infestation that isn't fully willing."

Jasmine nodded. There were a few seconds of silence.

"I'd need time to think about it," she said slowly. "I'd need to ask Akhir, and think about how it might affect Maya. But maybe."

Elsa almost bit her tongue in half to stop herself challenging the words 'ask Akhir': how in the hell was it any of her ex-Yeerk's business? But she managed to keep silent. "Sure," she said when she was a little more controlled. "No rush, and remember whatever answer you give isn't final, you can always change your mind. Do you still want to help the campaign in the meantime? I can give you a list of people to write to, and we're going to be putting out some flyers and posters soon."

"I'd like that. But my writing won't be good."

"I'm not sure I believe that, but anyway anything that raises awareness would be great. It doesn't have to be perfect." Reaching into the leather satchel she'd brought with her, Elsa dug around for a bit of paper, eventually finding an old receipt. She unstuck a stray chocolate button from the back of it before rummaging further for a pen. The first one she tried didn't work, of course, but she managed to dig out a second one and scribble her number and email in purple ink onto the edge of the receipt. She passed it over to Jasmine.

"Email me and I'll send you over the list. Huan made it, not me, so it's actually organised. My number's on there, too; drop me a text or something from time to time, let me know how things are going. It'd be good to chat more."

Jasmine's eyebrows curved upwards in surprise, and she raised her eyes to meet Elsa's. "Would it?"

Elsa couldn't help but grin then. "Good for me. Maybe not good for you, I guess. I do tend to send very long rambly texts that no-one can make any sense of."

"No, I meant... you want to talk to me?"

The disbelief in Jasmine's voice tugged at Elsa's heart, and she hastened to reassure her. "Jasmine, I've been talking to you for weeks now. I've been talking to you all night today. Why would I do that if I didn't want to?"

"So you could ask me to help with your campaign." Jasmine's tone was matter-of-fact, as though her statement was the only sensible interpretation of the situation. It became more hesitant, however, when she added: "why... why else would someone like you want to talk to someone like me?"

"Jasmine, I like you. I want to be friends. And I now kind of feel like I sound like a seven year-old, so please stop doubting me before I start saying I want to be triple-best-friends-with-a-cherry-on-top or whatever it is elementary school kids say these days."

Jasmine smiled slightly, though she still looked a little disbelieving. "I'm sorry... I... I thought..."

"I know."

There was silence for a few moments, but it was a little more comfortable than the silences that had gone before. Elsa could see Jasmine's shoulders relaxing a little, and she let some of the tension drain from her own body as well.

"Do you have far to get home after?" Elsa asked.

"It's not too bad. About half an hour."

"Do you drive?"

Jasmine shook her head. "No. Although Akhir's learning, so that might make things easier when she passes."

"Yeerk chauffeuring services, huh? Nice."

There was silence as Jasmine watched her for a moment, searching her face. "She helps me a lot. Things have been much easier since she morphed."

"Well, I'm up for helping too, if you ever need me," Elsa replied. "I could drive you here, if you like."

"You need to stay afterwards, though," Jasmine said hastily, looking uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that's true."

They fell back into silence for a while, watching the children begin a plaintive pop song in which Annie had a short solo. Elsa felt herself glowing with pride as Annie's confident voice filled the room, before the others joined in.

"Your sister sings beautifully. She's so brave."

Elsa turned to Jasmine, giving her a soft smile. "Thanks."

They chatted about this and that for the rest of the children's choir session, until, far-too-soon, it was time for the adult one. Elsa got up from her chair as Annie and Maya came back towards them, stretching slightly.

"Well, thanks for the chat, Jasmine. It was about a thousand times better than doing my essay."

Jasmine smiled. "Likewise. I'd have spent the whole time stuck on my work. At least when I get home I can get some help."

A few wheels turned in Elsa's head. "From Akhir?"

Discomfort and fear crept onto Jasmine's face, but the expression was mild and short-lived. "Yes," she said eventually.

For the second time, Elsa had to force back her own curiosity about why on Earth... why in the galaxy, she quickly substituted, as more appropriate... why would anyone want to live with their Yeerk? "Well, that's good. If it was me I'd just get her to do it for me."

Jasmine smiled. "I don't think I'd learn much then."

"This is exactly why I'm so bad at Math."

Jasmine smiled again, more strongly. A few seconds later, her daughter ran up and squashed her mother's waist with her small arms. "Maya! You were amazing!" Jasmine said, giving her a squeeze back. "I'd better be going."

"See you," Elsa said, waving at the two of them. Maya smiled back, shyly. "Call me anytime, Jasmine, it'd be nice to chat. And at the very least email me, so I can send you that list."

As the two of them retreated, Annie came to stand at her side. "You've dumped my jacket on the floor."

"Hello to you, too," Elsa muttered, looking across to where she'd piled her coat and bag by the chair. "In fairness, my jacket is also on the floor."

Annie sighed long-sufferingly, and went to retrieve it, sliding into the seat Elsa had just vacated. "Who is that, anyway?" she asked, nodding in the direction in which Jasmine had just left. "You're always talking to her."

Elsa smiled. "Just a friend."