[A young hawk, an unfledged nestling taken from the nest for training.]

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

"Well, there are some activities that the staff have on rotation." Nick said, "Seasonal stuff. The, uh, theater stuff is more Doctor Widmark's thing. He's the patient events coordinator. I don't know much about it. I know there were some Halloween stuff that got canceled, because of all the damages. And, uh, everything that happened with Labyrinth."

He eyed Elle nervously, but Elle said nothing. I didn't think she was offended, "There was a play a while back, I think it was Our Town? I don't know much about theater."

"Have you been in any of the plays here?" I asked, looking from Nick to Heather.

Heather shook her head, "No, never really interested. I've heard they never go well..." She shrugged. Nick shook his head too.

The cafeteria was half empty- dinner was long over. The cafeteria staff was busy cleaning the food line and tables. One was occupied with a mop and mop bucket, cleaning up a spill that had gotten out of hand- by which I mean it got thrown all over the wall. Heather said it was nothing, I ought to see the next taco night.

"Well, Elle definitely wants to give it a try," I said.

Mimi smiled a little at that, patting Elle's shoulder tentatively.

"Eh." Heather made a sour face, "I thought that I didn't have to deal with stuff like school plays after I got powers. It was fun in the Wards, at least we got to do stuff," she sulked, "What for? Why're you so set on this?"

"Mimi and Elle need to get out of here," I said, and turned to include both of them, "It's not helping them, staying here. Not anymore. So we're working our way out."

I turned back to Heather, "I need you and Nick to help me."

Heather raised an eyebrow, and gave Mimi a side-eye, just a moment. "Yeah, okay, why do you want to be in some play though?"

"We need some victories, something we can say went well. This is something we can do now, and we can build on it."

"Come on Heather," Nick said. He wasn't glowing the way Elle was, but he was mildly interested, "Give it a try."

That was good, Nick being on board meant I had an ally in this. I would need every ally I could get.

Because I was going to get Elle, and Mimi, into that play. What they needed was a victory- a real victory, that would be a foundation. Impetus for Elle and Mimi to rally on. And it was going to be great.

Something small, something doable. Small things got done. Big things intimidated you.

I kept repeating the mantra. I would start somewhere smaller and move up.

After the breakdown in Mimi's power therepy session, morale had dipped to an all-time low. But moods had improved over the past few days now it felt like that fug was gone, and it was replaced with energy. I felt more awake than I had in days, more focused and present. I could sense it in everyone. It had to be a good sign.

"Oh, I'm going to be there," Heather said, "I'm betting it'll be a thirty car pileup. It's gonna be great!"

"We'll do fine, right Taylor?" Mimi asked, weakly. Her voice wavered, the self confidence of a kicked puppy left out in the rain. Her emotions were muddled. Fear, indecision, wistfulness, want.

Elle herself was also nervous. Eager, but nervous.

"Of course."

And just like that, the fear was gone.

Mimi was simple and uncomplicated, straightforward, and her faith in me was absolute. I was a little surprised, and... humbled. Did I really deserve all that?

"Thanks, Mimi," I said, "So we just find Doctor Widmark?" A quick look to Nick to confirm.

"Tomorrow, I think she's gone home today."

"Pfhssss." Heather laughed, "Fine. I'll be there. Hell, I'll even go though all the rehearsal shit. I want to be there the whole way. That way I'm right there when all hell breaks loose!"

"Hell... Loose." Elle said absently. Mimi frowned.

I leaned back, that was good. I took a deep breath. Getting through the play was doable, I was pretty sure. Victory would be everyone smiling at the end of it all. They'd all look back on it and see they'd come further. And then they'd keep moving forward.

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

Mimi's meds made her dizzy and sick today, she could hardly stand; and Elle fell asleep. They both turned in after breakfast, which left me feeling both far more level without the constant presence of their nausea and vertigo, but also a little disappointing. I had been hoping to make plans and talk to Doctor Widmark with them.

Heather and Nick left for a group session, but with Mimi and Elle gone that left me without much to do. There were some classes, but I couldn't find it in me to try cooking. I wandered.

I felt... Restless.

A couple patients had a potted garden in one room behind a big picture window. It was a new thing, another experiment by one of the doctors, shelves full of pots and bright lights for each. I stopped to look. Each patient had a large planter urn of their own, and a couple plants. Most of them were just tiny shoots right now. I'd never tried gardening, maybe I could ask to try gardening too...

As I watched, a girl rose through the floor, flitted across the room, and through a wall.

Gretchen.

I still couldn't sense anything from her, but I knew the floor layout- even with the renovations. It was a construct of my prescience, and the gaps were only a little dimmer. But I could still sense a semblence of the changes- curious. I started walking to the fork in the hall, trying to catch up. Wait, what was in that direction anyway? The cafeteria, the gym...

I turned the corner and kept walking. Past the benches outside the gym, and then past the cafeteria.

Eyes closed, I could feel the people around me, in the rooms, and the spotlights of attention from the security cameras, but not Gretchen. There was nothing to sense. After a minute of fruitless walking I had almost given up, when I found her.

I saw Feral first, standing beside one of the vending machines. She was hovering, along with Gretchen, holding what looked like a one-sided conversation with Charnel, where she sat with her hands folded on her lap on one of the benches.

Gretchen was 'standing' on the floor, but I couldn't feel her. Her projection looked like any other patient now, blues scrubs and short brown hair.

Charnel didn't look concerned with the attention. Mostly, it was the strangeness of seeing someone talking to Charnel that caught my attention. It was rare to see Charnel talking, she never sought out anyone, not really. She looked... serene, blank. It had been so long since we'd spoken, out in the courtyard ruin under the basin of Labyrinth's crater, when she told me about power and losing humanity.

A spark of curiosity reeled me in, and Feral drew back a little, giving me some space in the huddle.

"Hey!" Feral said brightly. Gretchen floated a bit off the floor. Charnel blinked wordlessly.

"Floor, Gretchen." Feral said.

"Oh, yeah." Gretchen's feet met the floor again.

I swivled curiously from Charnel to Feral, "You know each other?"

"I, uh, kinda got called in to help with her when she first arrived." Feral said, "It's a long story."

Huh. Charnel tended to blend into the background, I actually didn't know why she was a resident at Alchemilla- beyond her having orange scrubs I didn't even know her powers. I guessed it was a dangerous power, since she seemed to be here willingly? She reminded me a little of Benny. She had that same strange, almost childlike aspect... Though, I wondered why Feral had been needed.

Charnel blinked languidly back at me.

I remembered the little doll-person, Marionette, with her arms around my throat. My power hinting at her nature, her construction. She had been similar to Charnel. I was positive that I hadn't imagined it, that strange intermix, blended polymer of organic and inorganic.

I am not a person. Not one of us are people, here.

Swords and knives...

"Where you headed?" Feral asked.

"I was... Actually, maybe you could help me? I had some questions about the Ward play, and I wanted to ask about the patient garden." I asked, "I don't know who to ask about getting a planter."

Feral looked thoughtful, "They have a garden now?"

"Just a bunch of pots in a room." Gretchen said, unimpressed. Well, she wasn't wrong. "It's a new thing."

Feral thought about that a moment, then shrugged, "I can ask. Wanna get on back to scaring people from the vents, girl?"

Gretchen grinned, "Nah, I gotta get back to work too. Got juicy gossip to pass on. See you later!" She stepped forward and vanished through the floor as easily as a swimmer stepping into a pool. I stared at the floor where she'd vanished, wondering.

"Does she just... Move around?" I made a vague gesture to the floor, still a little mystified.

"The docs haven't figured out a way to stop her yet." Feral said, "Anyway. Let's find the duty nurse. You mind if Charnel here tags along?"

"Uh, no. Sure, go ahead."

Charnel stood, obediently. Feral started walking and I had to trot to keep up with her long stride, she was so tall.

"They didn't have anything like that when I was here, you know? I think they had one, but it got destroyed or something." She said, "I guess they decided a big garden wouldn't work, so they're trying flowerpots." She said, and glanced back at me, "You like to garden before you ended up here?"

"Uh, no. I just wanted to try it."

"Yeah, you get antsy staring at the same four walls for days. I tried some new stuff when I got here too. Learned to read and stuff."

"... Really?" She had been illiterate?

"No joke." Feral flashed me a grin that was all teeth, "Learned to read, write, do math. All of that. Doc Selmy taught me."

Pride and respect shone from her like a beacon.

"... And you help out here?" I said, it was more a question.

"Yeah. I help out with some of the special cases." Feral nudged Charnel's shoulder gently, "Little stuff too. Like looking out for some of the rowdy ones. Give them an outlet if they need it, just a bit."

That sounded suspiciously like what she was trying to say was 'give them someone to punch', without actually saying it.

We started to pass more people. Feral threaded her way down the hall unerringly, to the nursing station. There was a short line, two doctors, with half a dozen Kudzu clones in tow. Some patients. It felt busier than usual, I'd never seen an actual line.

Feral waited behind the Kudzu clones, striking up a conversation with one.

Waiting while Feral talked- that felt familiar, like hanging around while Emma talked to new friends she'd just made. But Charnel was'nt even breathing, and perfectly, unnaturally, still; it gave me an itch, I wanted to do something. Say something, anything. And that curiosity that had niggled at the back of my mind ever since I'd used my power on her and felt that strange duality.

A doctor walked briskly past, clipboard in hand. A mote of brittle urgency. A boy was wheeled past in a chair, hands fisted in his hair, mumbling to himself. Confusion and anger, to my senses.

I sighed.

The line moved. One of the nurses present looked up at Feral and immediately brightened.

"Feral, what can I do for you?"

"Got a gardener here, what do we need to fill out to get her planting?"

The Nurse and Feral started chatting like old friends. Feral was completely in her element, it reminded me more and more of Emma- how easy it was for her to just talk. Emma. When was the last time I'd written Emma? I hadn't even checked my email in a couple days... I hadn't written Emma or Mom in a while, and the realization ached. An uncomfortable knot of guilt twisted in my gut, along with a sliver of some other emotion. Fear, maybe?

Of... Of what?

I was afraid. Just a little. Was it because I was pretty sure where the jealousy had come from? Emma had been such a constant in my life, it was so strange to find something like that.

"You know what you want to plant?"

"Hm?" I came back to myself with a jolt and found Feral and the nurse looking at me expectantly.

"I'm sorry," I felt my face heat, "I wasn't listening."

"That's all right." The nurse said. She was a bubbly girl of about twenty, with curly black hair, her name tag read 'Wrightly', "Did you know what you wanted to try planting? We have veggies and flowers."

I didn't really have a preference. It was just... Something to do in the mornings after Mimi and Elle got their medication, while they were still feeling off. Or, like now, when it made them sick.

"Just, anything really."

Feral tapped her chin, "You got lavender?"

"We have lavender. It's very relaxing and pleasent. And there's these pretty flowers Johnny-Jump-Ups, those are a kind of violet I think, and St John's Wort- the seeds were donated by a flower enthusiast. And we have marigolds."

I shrugged, but I also frowned. I had powers. Something I had always thought would mean a grand, glamorous change in my life. Instead, gardening. I was supposed to be excited about gardening. It left a sour taste in the back of my throat.

"I'll put you down for Lavender, the Jump-Ups." Wrightly said, blithely ignorant of my internal disappointment. "I'll see if there are any more planters in stock!"

"What about you, Char? Since we're here."

Charnel, almost forgotten in the bustle, slowly blinked back at Feral's wide grin, "I would like to plant some flowers too." She said very seriously.

While Wrightly leafed through a binder, Feral leaned back on the counter. I looked down at the floor, thinking. Thoughts of Alexandria, Chevalier, Revel, and other great Protectorate heroes were cut short when I felt her attention shift back to me like a spotlight.

"You think you can use your power on plants?"

I stared a moment, "I... I've never tried. I didn't have a chance to really use my power outside before." There had been Labyrinth's world, but it had resisted my power. Its plants had not been 'real'.

Or... Wait. Was that the right way to put it? I considered that. Labyrinth's worlds, and all they summoned evaded me initially, but why was it that I could read some things and not others? Was it that her worlds counted as far away, as... As something taken from somewhere else? I remembered the sensation, of overlay, of two places inhabiting the same space. Was that why her power was difficult to read, because it didn't count as 'nearby'? Was I able to sense it after touching her, because I was familiar with her power, or her and her power through her?

I followed the thought further, would that allow me to read Gretchen's power? Were there others that followed a similar mechanic? Mimi's power felt similar, but it seemed to be moving energy to and from her instead. Shunting it off or pouring it in, like a valve.

"You space out a lot, huh?"

I shrugged slightly, "You asked a good question, I was thinking about it. And some other stuff." I said, "My power interacts strangely with some stuff, but that's usually just powers. I've never tried plants."

Feral nodded, she looked thoughtful, "Anything from mine?"

I hadn't had much contact with Feral, I stopped to concentrate. I was getting... something. Not a lot, I hadn't spent much time around her, but it did feel...

"It's like... A reservoir. You have a pool of resources, energy that make your cells divide more quickly. Makes your cells... Better? Makes you heal better?"

I could sense more than I expected, but that still wasn't much.

"It might help if I touch you. Uh, shake?" I held out my hand, and tried to smile.

Feral looked at my hand, a beat of hesitation- just a moment. I felt... I felt her anxiety? Consternation? I guessed that asking if I could use my power on her was a minor faux pas. Maybe like reading over someone's shoulder? Invading their personal space? But, I was pretty sure it was better than not asking at all. It was something anyway. Every time I'd used my power directly on someone before, it had been an emergency.

I wilted a little. Feral hesitated, and then she took my hand.

What I felt now... There was a potent element of energy. A... Current, through her body? Pooling and accumulating, infusing her. Her power altered the speed that cells replicated on, and... corrected mistakes? Streamlined and empowered the process? There might have been more. It was hard to tell.

I think her super senses might be tied to the same mechanic. It was, well, actually fascinating. I tried to imagine the mechanics involved. It kind of reminded me of Wine, but more concrete. The rules were less flexible.

I scratched my head, "It makes your cells better, but there's more to it? I don't know. They feel... Interchangeable, like their parts fit into each other, but I don't know what that means." I thought about that, "I think the pool I'm sensing is tied to your ability to enhance your healing? I know you can do that."

Feral blinked at me slowly, "Huh. That's pretty cool. It's like, a power sense limited by touch."

"Just touch and time." I replied, "The more familiar I am with someone or something, the more accurate I am, and the further away I can sense it." I shrugged.

To my right, Charnel stood silently, watching.

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

My planter was small and brown, and sitting in front of it with the dirt on my hands and a bag of soil sitting on the floor, I felt dissatisfied.

The soil was a new experience. Organic sediment, trace quantities of minerals, clay, sand, and tiny fragments of rock. It was an unfamiliar stimulus. Kind of like what I sensed from food, or the contents of my stomach after eating that one time when I was curious. I was more practiced tuning those sensations out, ignoring them.

But it didn't satisfy that nagging lack of fulfillment.

"Here are your seeds." Nurse Wrightly chirped, handing me two little packets of seeds.

I shook one out, into my palm, four little seeds, and I paused to feel them out. The husk surrounding the meat, and in it, the tiny germ that was the actual plant inside the shell. It was remarkably simple, I could feel my power open up and grasp it almost entirely. And yet, there was a complexity underlying the simple system.

I tried to push deeper, but my power remained vague, I glared down at the seeds. More frustration.

"Go on." Wrightly urged.

I tuck the seeds in my dirt, covered them over. Then I did the same with the second set. I toyed with the idea of maybe pulling the seeds out and inspecting them as they germinated, but that would kill them. It reminded me of the first time I'd tried raising seeds for some middle school project or another. The initial enthusiasm replaced by boredom, and then disinterest over two weeks of staring at inert dirt in a cup.

It was... Not satisfying.

"Kinda disappointed?" Feral asked.

"Yeah, I guess." the general sense of dissatisfaction simmered, and I didn't try to fool her. With her nose, I guessed it was probably pointless anyway.

"Never gardened myself. It might be more interesting once you've got something green above the surface?" She scratched her chin absently.

"...Maybe." I sighed.

Feral blew out her cheeks in a huff, "Well, it's not nothing."

There was a set of sinks along the wall by the door. Along with locked cabinets of gardening supplies. The was a security camera over the door, angled to cover all three. Standing under it was a little uncomfortable, like standing under a bright spotlight.

An electrical buzz in my ear warned me-

Alchemilla has a long and storied history of rehabilitating violent offenders within its maximum security confinement center, the equivalent of a supermax federal prison

The PA cheerily chimed overhead. Huh. That, the warning, that was new.

I washed my hands, and watered my pot of dirt. Then I watched as Charnel patted out her own planter, very solemnly and seriously. The segments of her hands caught dirt in the joints.

Feral stood between us along with nurse Wrightly.

A couple patients occupied the gardening room with us, the boy in the wheelchair I had seen outside, off by the furthest wall with a staff member quietly reading to him from a book. In the corner, pulled tightly in on herself, Solace hugging her arms with gaze firmly locked on her knees and breathing slow and careful. A nurse was minding her, and I could hear them quietly talking.

"There's too many people out there." Solace said miserably, in a tone I would not have heard before I learned to pick out voices from echoes.

She was on the edge of a panic attack. Wrightly bustled off to Solace's side, to try and soothe the poor girl.

We were standing by the sinks. I was drying my hands, Charnel holding her hands in the water, watching the stream as it ran off the tap and over her fingers. A strange, sentimental, reflective emotion suffused her, but her expression was unreadable, like a stone pillar.

I tried to catalog what I knew of Charnel, Blake had said she'd been here longer than most... But he never actually said she'd been here longer than he had... So I guessed she must have come in around the time he had, maybe a year or two after.

"Hey, Charnel, how long have you been here?"

She blinked, turning to look at me, "Eight years." she said simply.

"A bit after I got out." Feral added.

Eight years. She had been here eight years, twice as long as Mimi. I peered closely at her, but Charnel was a sphinx, her face was blank and emotionless, and betrayed no emotion I could name. I probed with my power- and, having touched her before, I thought I could sense something of the strange dual structure of her flesh, interwoven. Flesh and that ceramic mesh...

I blinked, refocusing, looking back up at Charnel thoughtfully as she blinked placidly back at me. The water continued to run away inside the sink.

"How did you come to Alchemilla?" I asked without thinking. Oh, my big mouth. Immediately dozens of scenarios sprang to mind, of reasons she wouldn't want to talk about it. Each more horrible than the last.

Feral tensed a bit, and from the sharpening in the attention, a tight beam of intellect that jumped from me to Charnel, I guessed she... Did she know?

Did she not know?

Charnel blinked at me, and leaned away from me slightly, the closest to emoting I had ever seen from her.

"I came to Alchemilla when the Professor was captured." She said.

"The Professor?"

"Yes, I was still inert." Charnel continued. She reached out and turned of the tap. "I was still confined, and I was captured with the Professor's laboratory."

Charnel dried her hands slowly, then stood there silently. The moment drew on, silent except for the quiet whimpers of Solace, curled in the far corner of the garden room, hugging her knees- until I realized Charnel was waiting to leave. We filed out, Feral in front, Charnel and I following obediently. I hunched my shoulders, trying to rub out the goosebumps on my arms.

What happened to her?

It chilled me, thinking about the extensive, invasive changes. The alterations. What kinds of surgeries that would be needed to do something like that to someone. And then, it froze me, thinking about who must have done it. Charnel had said 'Professor'. She had also said he had been captured. Doctor Bonesaw was still free, last I'd heard her menagerie had been running loose close to the Michigan Crater. Speculation had it she was attempting to capture the next parahuman it claimed.

She was the only Tinker I'd imagine changing someone so profoundly. But if it wasn't her, then there had been someone else, someone equally depraved, someone as powerful. Was it someone new? Maybe someone caught before they could do much? Before they became famous? But Charnel didn't look like one of Doctor Bonesaw's earlier experiments, all cut apart and stitched back together wrong. She looked like something put together with more care than that. I tried to imagine another Tinker that could do that, and the only one that came to mind might have been Dragon, but she was a hero and she didn't do biological tech much. Maybe Blasto? Had he been captured? There was a hero called Hazmat that worked with microscopic life...

Feral was walking slowly, and I turned my power to her. She was pensive, reflective, thoughtful now. Did she know the whole story? Or was this something new for her as well?

There was a brief disturbance, a patient in blue, a woman I'd never met stopped me, patting my shoulder insistently and asking me over and over again.

"Please, do you think I'm pretty?"

I took her hands and stopped them from patting me down, "You look very pretty." I assured her several times.

The woman deflated, relived; her eyes went glassy and moist, "T-thank you."

Immediately, she questioned Feral. Charnel also answered her plea, but she was wooden enough it was almost funny. She wandered off down the hall, muttering to herself and sniffling.

There was... I could feel some kind of feedback loop from her. A mania. But she was gone before I could tease anything more out.

I wanted to be frustrated, but mostly I just felt tired by that point. Tired and a little confused.

We started walking again, back towards the common rooms, the cafeteria and the gym. The sun room was empty, Feral sat us down at the couches and told me to stay put. She stepped away to talk to a nurse, I caught a whispered 'Narcissa' before they moved too far away for even my hearing to pick anything out. Which left me feeling awkward and antsy. I was still intimidated by Charnel, but I was also curious. And, maybe a bit bored. It itched.

"So, um." I started awkwardly, lost my voice. I coughed and tried again, "Do you know why, he, that Professor, um... did all that to you?"

"The Professor did not tell me what he intended. I was brought here because I am like most of these here." Charnel had turned her head to study me, her face as expressionless as a statue. She spoke quietly, evenly. "We are discarded."

I drew in a deep breath, a steadying breath, and imagined Doctor Yamada was here, or Doctor Selmy.

"That... That thinking seems counter-intuitive. How can you- any of us- get better unless we learn to live with our powers? People are born with talents, and weaknesses, but what they do with them is up to them, not the talent. Powers change what we have, not what we are."

She blinked, long and slowly, "It is strange. It is a strange thing to want to do, to come here. To learn here. To think that." She said at last, "The doctor that talks to me, he tells me that this is a place to heal, in body and in mind. Does it... Sadden you?"

"What?"

"Does it sadden you, to see them? To see them working, at this endless task? They are meant to fail. Their enemy is known only by the wounds it leaves behind, and the perversion of what was before it. A shadow lacking the substance but holding the shape that casts it. They are ignorant, they will fail."

I took a deep breath, parsing what I could from the riddles. Why did she have to talk in circles like that? Was it part of some condition? I tried to remember if I'd ever heard of anything like it- before shaking my head and concentrating on what was important in all that mess, "I can't believe that."

Charnel tilts her head, "You are like them, the kind people that seek to heal the ones that are hurt, and us. They do not understand what causes it- the things that are precious, and the things that are not; things that must not break, and things that may. You ask questions, but do not understand the answers. Or, maybe you do not like the answers."

I stared a moment longer, before I found my voice, "What did you mean, that we were all swords and knives?"

"Power makes us, and we in turn make our power; power shapes us, as we shape power. Even now, strong purpose is imprinted upon my husk. Might echoes the holder. You are someone who is very bold, your might is bold as well."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I pointed to myself, repeating, "Me, bold?"

"You are bolder than you realize."

(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ

Lunch was rolling around. I left Charnel in the sun room, and wandered out into the cafeteria.

I didn't think Charnel had the same meal schedule I did... Come to think of it, I didn't think I'd ever seen Charnel actually eating. I wondered if she needed to, or if the extensive alterations to her body made that unnecessary.

I wondered what substituted as fuel. Some kind of Tinkertech generator? A fuel cell or something, in her chest? I'd never really tried to push past my initial, shallow surface impressions. There was just too much of it, just in her skin and muscles, and the parts that were shell...

What about the rest of her? What actually was she, exactly?

And the riddles. Who was the 'Professor'? And what did that have to do with... All the rest of that. My head buzzed with that strange, strange conversation. While I couldn't say she was the strangest, out of all my friends at Alchemilla Charnel might have to be the most obtuse.

I... Yes, Charnel was probably someone I considered my friend.

Feral's conversation with the nurse had ended at some point, and now she was sitting at one of the tables, leaning back on the bench, her elbows on the table. As I walked towards her, her face lit up in a bright smile. "You know? That was incredible, Auspice."

"Incredible?"

"Yeah. Most people really don't like talking to Charnel. She's... you know..." Feral waggled a hand, "Thanks for talking to her and not wigging out."

"I was just being nice," I mumbled, "Is she always so..." I asked, searching for a word that fit. Charnel definitely was something, but I wasn't sure what it was or what to call it.

"Strange?" Feral said, she shrugged one shoulder, "Yeah."

I sat next to Feral, "Do you know what she was talking about?"

"Not all of it." She said, "There's a lot of red tape tying up her file. I tried asking, back when I'd just started working with her, couldn't get a straight answer. And, it might not really matter."

"Hm?" I blinked.

"It's something dad says. We all have a cross to bear. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle."

I nodded, that sounded like Doctor Selmy all right. I'd seen the face of those battles in Mimi and Heather and Elle. "Mimi and I were going to take Elle down to talk to Doctor Widmark about getting into the ward play, but they're both sick today." I said, "Do you know if I can sign them up if they aren't present?"

Feral tilted her head, "We can find out. Come on."