The tunnel stretched out in front of her, down and down into the fathomless darkness that Shara and Slade were both entirely too comfortable with. As she began making her way down through the tunnel that the siblings had both worked to extend down into the ground, Rachel found herself wondering if Shara wouldn't mind talking about something. Anything, really; at this point she just wanted to hear someone else's voice.

Even if she wasn't really hearing anything.

(Shara, do you think you could stand talking about why you feel so comfortable down here?)

(If you really want me to, Rachel,) the other girl said, though she seemed kind of uneasy about the whole thing.

(Or, well, we could talk about something else,) she said, shifting topics so she wouldn't make the other girl uncomfortable after all Shara had done for her. (School, or stuff like that.)

(I'm afraid I wouldn't have much input on that particular topic.)

Inwardly, Rachel winced; the closed spaces of the tunnel must have been getting to her more than she'd realized. (Sorry. I keep forgetting about that.)

Shara's gentle amusement was carried along with her laughter. (Actually, it's kind of nice. Being thought of as normal, after all of this.)

(I guess,) she said.

She'd personally never seen the appeal of being normal, never really had much use for the concept, but she supposed that when normality was in painfully short supply, someone might want to hold onto what they still had. Of course, maybe that all depended on your definition of normal. Normal, after all, was different for some people.

Actually, normal seemed to be different for everyone.

(So, what's a good topic? What would you like to talk about, while I while away my time trying to find the end of this tunnel you and your brother carved out? You know, the one that seems to go on forever?)

Just as she said that last part, however, Rachel found her sensitive nose bumping into the end of the tunnel. (You know? Never mind that last part,) she said, chuckling softly. (I just found the end of your guys' tunnel.)

But, as she started to examine the barrier in front of her more closely, Rachel found that it was as solid as anything she'd encountered. (Shara, were you and Slade having trouble getting deeper? Because if I didn't know better, I'd say we were blocked.)

(We'd seemed to be hitting more and more rocks late yesterday,) the other girl responded, the slightest sense of strain carried along with her words. (Still, we always managed to work our way around them.)

(Yeah,) she said, chuckling softly herself. (I kinda got that.) Taking as deep a breath as she could manage, since with Shara pretty much right here every step of the way, Rachel was fairly sure that she'd be able to stand this, she went back to work. (I'll see if I can do that, too.)

(Good luck, Rachel.)

She smiled inwardly. (Thanks.)

Digging carefully around the large rocks in front of her, Rachel began to feel a breeze coming up from between them. (All right; I think I just hit pay dirt,) she chuckled as her nose bumped into the rocks again. (So to speak.)

Shara seemed to laugh, too. (I'm glad to hear it, Rachel.)

Digging further into the seam between the rocks that she'd found, Rachel began to get a better scent of the breeze that was blowing up between them. And sure, it didn't really smell the best, but there were few enough options that she and the others were being presented with right here and now. Still, best to have everyone on the same page, here: (You might want to tell Slade that it doesn't exactly smell the best down there.)

(I'll pass that along.)

As satisfied as she could be, at least under the circumstances, Rachel continued working away.

(Rachel, Jake wanted me to tell you to come back up here and demorph.)

(He tell you why?) she asked, pausing briefly in her work to almost instinctively look back over the mole's right shoulder.

(He says that he wants to have all of us down there, just in case you really discovered something big.)

(Fair enough,) she allowed, stopping and turning back.

Heading back up the tunnel, knowing that all of the others would be waiting for her back there, Rachel breathed more deeply than she had since she'd gone down into these tunnels. Sure, it was great having Shara to distract her while she was working down here in these cramped, lightless tunnels, but that was the best it could be: a distraction.

She liked it much better when she wasn't down here, and she was sure that Shara would understand.