//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Changing World // Story: Partial // by Halira //------------------------------// Paul sat in the hospital room, watching old Tiny Toon Adventure cartoons. Mark was under the same bed he'd spent every other session and hadn't spoken or poked so much as a finger out.  He'd tried telling the boy stories like Jessie had, but that didn't interest Mark. The cartoons didn't affect him either. Offering him food didn't work; the boy only came out to eat when no one was in the room and never had any leftovers. At least he had a healthy appetite. Sitting in the bathroom out of sight didn't work either. Mark was aware he was still there and stayed hidden.  There were no more options for engaging Mark for the day. In a few minutes, he would leave and check on the grandmother again. Tomorrow he'd return with toys and drawing materials. Even if he couldn't get Mark to play with them while he was present, he could watch the room's video feed and see what the boy did when he thought no one was watching. Would he play with the toys? Which toys would he play with? He'd already watched the videos from the previous days. When no one was there, Mark moved around the room freely. It was hard to get a good look at Mark's face through the mass of blue hair, but you could see everything else. Mark had been wearing a pair of shorts when he'd been taken in, and he still wore those shorts. He wore no shirt or shoes. His feet looked almost like hooves, but not quite. He tended to walk around on all fours with his butt and tail raised high in the air, but he sat normally if hunched over. Orange fur covered his entire torso, legs, feet, and arms down to his wrists. It was hard to tell if the coat extended to his shoulders, neck, or face due to all the blue hair, but those who had taken him in and the hospital staff said it stopped at his lower neck.  Mark used the bathroom toilet when he needed to go but hadn't attempted to wash himself. The sink and tops of the beds were too high for him to jump up on because he was barely bigger than an infant. The doctors said he only weighed fifteen pounds, far below the average weight for a human child his age but not uncommon for a pony foal that age. They hadn't gotten exact measurements for his height since the boy refused to hold still long enough for anyone to measure him. Despite the beds being too high for him, he had demonstrated he could get up on the stools and frequently did so he could look out the window. His hands, though small, seemed to have full mobility and the ability to grip. Only Jessie had gotten him to speak. They may have been just single words and not sentences, but it was War and Peace compared to what everyone else got. The boy didn't grunt or sneeze. Even when someone physically grabbed him, he didn't cry out or yell, yet they now knew he wasn't mute. He was choosing not to make noise. Could that be something his grandmother had taught him to help keep him secret? That seemed likely. It was remarkable to see such self-control to stay silent from a four-year-old. Children that age, human or pony, tended to be loud and vocal.  Jessie should be arriving soon. Hopefully, she could get him to talk again and continue building a bond with the boy. Not to think disparagingly about his daughter, but it seemed odd that Mark would be more comfortable around Jessie. Yes, they were both partials, but she was far more human than Mark, and her height should have made her that much more intimidating to such a small child. Also, while Jessie did her best to be friendly, her disposition didn't always come off that way–a combination of her massive ego combined with paranoia and, at times, unrelenting focus on work. Jessie had her core circle of friends, but she wasn't very good at expanding it. By contrast to another high ego individual, Sunset Blessing was generally unlikable, but she at least was naturally motherly around children. Jessie didn't have that effortless maternal trait. If anything, Jessie became even more bristly around children. How she got through to Mark was a mystery.  "I'm leaving now," he said as he stood up. "I'm going to leave the cartoons on for you to watch. Jessie should be here to visit you soon. I'll be back tomorrow." He waited a few seconds for a response. No response came, and he walked to the door. There was still no response as he opened the door, exited, and closed the door behind him. He went over to the nurse's station. "Did he come out as soon as I closed the door?" he asked the unicorn nurse on duty, Rachael.   Rachael shook her head, pointing at the screen that showed Mark's room. "No, he usually stays under the bed for at least thirty minutes after someone leaves. He stays under even longer if the last person pulled him out of hiding. We're going to have to bathe him tonight and wash those shorts, and that means someone is going to have to grab him. I expect he'll hide the rest of the night after that. It might not be a good idea to come by tomorrow. We have someone coming to trim and detangle his mane and tail in the morning, and I'm not sure how receptive he'll be after that." Poor kid. "Do you think you could delay the bath and the haircut for a few days? Jessie got him to talk. Maybe in a few days, she can convince him to let her do it." "The haircut could be delayed, but he needs to be cleaned. This is a hospital; we need to keep things sanitary. If he and his clothes aren't washed, he could get sick. I know it will be difficult for him, but it's for his health," Rachael answered.  He nodded. "I'll let her know. Is it too much to hope that your computer says Miss Hernandez's condition has changed and she's woken up since I arrived?" "Sorry, but no. I knew you'd ask, and I checked right before you came up to the desk," she replied with a sympathetic smile. "Her condition is stable, but no one knows if she'll ever wake up. She's being moved to hospice care on Monday. We've been waiting for a bed to open up there, and now it has. Even if she woke up today, she'd need a lengthy rehabilitation and might not ever get back to being able to care for the little guy." He already knew that but hoped the grandmother could at least give some lead on the parents' whereabouts. Even if she couldn't do that, they could at least have her tell Mark to trust them. Her doing that would go a long way to helping get him sorted out.  "Thanks for your help. I'll stay in touch," he said with a smile. "My daughter should be along in a while. She's just got to finish teaching her class for today." "Oh! Mister Middleton!" Rachael called out as he was turning to go. "I'm sorry, this has nothing to do with Mark, but you're the best person to ask. Is it true what they're saying on the news? Is Sunset Blessing going to Equestria and never coming back? She's a relative of yours, isn't she?" He frowned. Jessie had told the household about that last night, along with the news Jessie had turned Sunset down flat when the old mare-sometimes-human had offered Wabash Manor to her. That had dumbfounded the entire household. Who turns down a mansion? His daughter-in-law, that's who. Nightscape had seemed offended that Robby hadn't even been considered for it if the preacher was giving it away. Jessie said it came with too much baggage, and they wouldn't want it when they found out about it, but she hadn't elaborated on what that was. She might be right. Just being associated with Sunset Blessing had been enough to force Devon into early retirement and had almost cost him his job too. Jessie was famous enough to weather the stigma, and Robby managed to have avoided it thus far since he had been Phobia Remedy's ward, and nobody wanted the Queen of Nightmares mad at them. Taking that house as a gift from Sunset Blessing might invite enough stigma that even they couldn't avoid it.  Turning down getting a mansion still felt crazy. "It was on the news?" he asked. "I found out only last night. I figured she still needed to get her affairs in order before she left." "The news said she's leaving Saturday. It will be televised to prove she's gone," Rachael replied.  That was the day after tomorrow. Sunset Blessing really was getting the fuck out of Dodge as fast as she could. She must have found someone to take the mansion. It figured it wouldn't take too long. How many people, other than Jessie, would turn the old mare down on that offer? He smiled. "Seeing is believing. I know she intends to leave. You'll just have to watch her go. As for me, if tomorrow isn't a good day for Mark, I'll see you again Monday. Have a good rest of your day, Rachael." "You too, Mister Middleton." He pulled his phone out as he walked away and called his office. His call was answered on the second ring.  "Hi, Paul. Any progress with Mark?" Aubrey asked. "No progress," Paul said with a sigh. "His response to Jessie didn't carry over to me. I tried telling him stories, but he didn't seem to care. Either my daughter is a much better storyteller than me, or he is more comfortable with partials than humans or ponies. Any leads on that partial community she told me about?" "We decided it's best not to investigate that," Aubrey answered. "If we investigated that, it could get ICE involved. Those agents get far too enthusiastic about trying to deport people. Though he should be a US citizen no matter what if his father is Dennis Hernadez, even if he was born in Mexico, Mark has no birth certificate to prove that, and we don't have anyone to conduct a paternity test with. I wish we were back when you could DNA test a grandparent and be done with it, but ETS completely upended that. The only person we can get a DNA match with is one of his parents, and we don't know where they are, and we don't even know for sure Dennis Hernadez is the father." "That's the only lead I have on where they might be. The grandmother is getting moved to hospice care and still shows no sign of waking," Paul said in frustration.  "Could your daughter learn more from whatever source she learned about that partial community?" Aubrey asked.  Paul shook his head as he answered, "No, that source is going away in two days. I doubt they'd have time to find out more before then. I'm sure they will be busy getting their affairs in order and won't have time for much else." "Oh…it was her," Aubrey said slowly. "Her leaving might be unfortunate for Mark, but I'm not sure I could protect your job again if you got directly involved with her. I had to put my job on the line to protect you last time, and it was only because I convinced people you weren't close enough to her that you could be a danger. Then there was the matter of your sister-" "I know, I know, and I thank you for putting yourself on the line for me. I don't know what we would have done if I had lost my job right after the school board canned Devon. We'd probably have had to beg my daughter to do speaking tours or something, and she doesn't do well with big crowds. It would have been unfair to her and ultimately a disaster. Anyway, what do we do next with Mark?" "For today, nothing," Aubrey replied. "Hopefully, your daughter can make some progress. I don't see us putting any families back together with this one. Once we get him to where he doesn't run and hide at the sight of a person, we can start discussing foster homes." Jessica sat bored in her car, staring at the traffic ahead. Her car's route tracker said the traffic was backed up for miles. The reason for this backup? The accompanying newsfeed said there was a flock of geese out on the road, and they weren't intimidated by the cars. Animal control had been called. This took extra time because they needed to find exclusively human animal control agents–geese not only weren't intimidated by ponies, they were more than willing to attack ponies aggressively. It was a silly reason to have a traffic jam, but it was what it was. Her car hadn't moved in the last ten minutes.  Incidents like this had been increasing in frequency. For reasons no one understood, bird populations had been growing at unprecedented rates since ETS, especially the larger birds. Birds' nests were filled with more eggs than before, and birds seemed to have given up seasonal breeding in favor of breeding all year long. Some even claimed that the birds were getting more intelligent, with some people going so far as to claim they'd heard crows talking–not simply mimicking human voices, but using short sentences with a moderately-sized vocabulary. However, there was yet to be any documented evidence of this, just hearsay. Migration patterns seemed to have drastically changed as well, with birds being seen flying in flocks in areas they'd never been seen before. Many species that had previously been endangered become frequent sights. There'd been studies about why this was, and even she had been consulted, with people asking her if the change in thaumic activity was impacting the birds. She had no clue. She understood math and physics, not ornithology. Many states had instituted laws opening the free hunting of many species of birds in the hopes of curbing the bird population. Even some ponies joined in the hunts, eager to cut into the avian menace.  At least the price of bird meat, any bird species, had plummeted, along with egg prices.  After yawning and covering her mouth, she shook her head. She had not gotten nearly enough sleep last night. It wasn't often that she got to spend so much time with her brother. They, along with their mother and Nightscape, had stayed awake long after everyone else had gone to bed. They'd talked, played games, laughed, and generally had a good time. By the time she went to bed, it had been a little after four, and she'd been back up right before seven.  Despite the lack of sleep, her class had gone well today, the master-level course. The class discussion had been lively, and she was impressed with many of the questions asked and the speculation she heard. All of them seemed to be highly adept at math. It was likely she could utilize all of them eventually. Even though she was technically taking a break, her thoughts were still turned toward finding the help she needed. Perhaps stepping back from her research to focus on her students would be the most advantageous thing she could do.  Her phone started ringing, and she clicked the button to answer it and put it on speaker.  "Hello, Doctor Middleton speaking." "Hi, Jessie!" She smiled. "How're you doing, Jor?" "I'm doing great. How're you doing?"  Jessie sighed. "Stuck in traffic. We have geese blocking the road." "Yikes! I hate geese!" Jordan exclaimed. "At least it isn't swans. Did you know that the swans are even more aggressive and intelligent in Equestria? The princesses have to regularly bribe them to keep them from terrorizing Canterlot." Jessica laughed. "The mighty alicorns, brought to their knees by swans." "Yeah, don't mess with swans. They're like winged snakes! I also hear terrible things about emus in Australia, and those cassowary birds seem like some nightmare that sis made for people she really has a grudge against." "So, are you out of class for today?" Jessica asked.  "Um, I didn't go to class today. I'm on a bus heading back to my parents' house," Jordan replied sheepishly.  Jessica's smile disappeared in worry. "Is something wrong? Did something happen with your parents or Jackie?" "Oh! No, nothing's wrong with my sister or parents; they're fine," Jordan replied. "I was told I need to be at my parents' house tonight to meet with my lawyer. I got a bus ticket this morning and am on my way there now." "Lawyer? Why do you need a lawyer, and why do you need to go across the state to meet them? Shouldn't there be someone local?" Jessica asked. "My lawyer is a fifteen-minute drive from me…if there are no geese." "Why do you have a lawyer?" Jordan asked.  "She's more of an on-call if I need one lawyer. I need someone just in case someone accuses me of intellectual fraud or if I need to sue for discrimination. It wasn't my idea, my parents insisted. I've only spoken to her once, and that was when agreeing to have her as my on-call lawyer," Jessica explained. "Oh, I guess that makes sense, I guess," Jordan replied. "The lawyer is technically Auntie's lawyer, but she said she'll represent me after Auntie leaves. She's going to negotiate giving me Wabash Manor and how I will afford to live there." Jessica's mouth dropped. "She gave Wabash Manor to you?!" "Yeah, she did! Can you believe it?!" Jordan said excitedly. "I would never have thought she would give anything to me when she left Earth. I'm not even technically part of her family. I mean, it would have made more sense for her to give it to one of the demons. I heard she has a little brother. Even you make more sense than me." Her mouth soundlessly worked as she tried to figure out what to say. The car in front of her moved forward a car length, and she advanced as well. Should she tell her friend that Auntie Sunset had spoken to others first to try to pawn her manor and secrets off on? Jordan had to have already verbally accepted; the lawyer wouldn't be there if Jordan hadn't.  She took a deep breath. "You do know what comes with that, right? There's stuff Auntie has at the manor that she can't take with her. Did she talk to you about that?" "Yeah, she told me. She says she has already set up a complicated set of security measures with timers to keep people away from that stuff. Even I won't know how to access it. I just have to keep the manor closed to the public. That way, they won't have time to open the vaults. You know Auntie goes all Legend of Zelda with security." "What about attending Winthrop like your mom?" Jessica asked. "You'd been talking about that forever before this year. You can't attend college there if you have to live in Wabash Manor." "Jessie, it's a mansion! I can't turn that down," Jordan answered. Her voice then fell. "Things haven't been what I expected at Winthrop anyway. I guess that's dream versus reality. Now, I can transfer to a school up there, be around a lot of ponies again, and get to hang out with you. I thought you would be more happy about this." Traffic moved again, this time three car lengths before stopping. She didn't know if that was because the geese were moving or if people were getting frustrated and taking detours. She might take a detour soon, even though going down unfamiliar streets typically made her nervous.  "I'm happy that you'll be close to me; I just don't want you to regret leaving your big college and getting saddled with a responsibility that might make you miserable," she replied.  "Jessie, I'm adaptable. I wanted to reinvent myself coming into this school year; it turns out I will end up doing that, just not the way I originally intended. Speaking of changing plans, how's the education department at your university?" "I'm not sure," she answered with total honesty. "I know there is one, and I believe the English department is fairly good." Jordan giggled. "A good English department and a teaching program are all I need. The bus is getting ready to move again. We were taking a short break to stretch our legs. I'll talk to you later!" "Talk to you-" Jessica began, but the line went dead first.  She'd forgotten to mention her mom had found the letter about the movie screening. She wondered if that would still be important to Jordan if Jordan was coming to Denver. Yeah, it was not for just spending time together but for reliving one of the biggest moments of their lives together.  She still couldn't believe Auntie Sunset had convinced Jordan to take Wabash Manor. Jordan probably could defend it. Other than Auntie's eldest son, Jordan was the only unicorn that Sunset Blessing had ever given personal magic lessons to, and Jordan wasn't wrong about how tough Tempest's self-defense lessons were. Even with sound powers and heightened strength at her disposal, she was not realistically a match for Jordan when it came to defending herself–something that was sadly not out of the question at Wabash Manor if anyone found out Sunset Blessing's research still resided there or suspected it did. They'd be in for a shock if they thought Jordan would be easy to subdue. She wasn't the scared little filly holding onto a tree branch for dear life anymore. All the cars started to move. At last! She could finally move and get to the hospital.  After getting briefed by the nurse and dealing with a bunch of questions about Auntie Sunset's departure that she had no clue how to answer, Jessica made her way to Mark's room. She stopped at the door and listened. Cartoons were playing. There was only one person present based on the heartbeat and breathing. They were in the middle of the room, and they were currently calm.  The nurse hadn't locked the door because Mark seemed to have given up on escape attempts. The handle for the door was well out of his reach anyway. However, he might try to make a break for it when the door opened. She put her hand on the handle and opened the door. His heartbeat and breathing immediately intensified, and she heard him scuttle under the bed.  "Hello, Mark," she said as she slid through the narrow opening she'd given herself through the door to ensure the way was blocked. "Remember me? I'm Jessie. I told you the racing story yesterday." His vitals still hadn't changed; both his breathing and heartbeat were going fast. Maybe he didn't remember her.  Guess I'm starting from scratch. She thought to herself.  She got back up on the same bed and assumed the same position she had yesterday. She looked up at the cartoons playing. There were a pair of cartoon rabbits harassing some cartoon boy. The boy's temperament indicated he probably deserved it. She could appreciate it and chuckle. This was a massive improvement over Sesame Street. The comedy worked for all ages. The 'educational' show was a waste of time. If he relied on that to learn to read, he wouldn't read books until he was eight or nine.  "We can let this episode finish before I start with the story," she said.  His vitals were still a bit fast, but they were starting to slow. She just needed to take her time with him. Relaxing on a bed for a few minutes after being stuck in traffic for over an hour wasn't the worst thing.  She closed her eyes and listened. There were at least four other televisions in this hall. On the floor below, she heard people checking in at a desk. On the floor above…she shivered…best not to focus on what was happening on the floor above. All throughout, there were heartbeats, breathing, the sounds of medical equipment, and the rustle of wheels as hospital beds were pushed down halls. So much was happening within thirty meters. All of it reminded her of things she preferred to forget.  No! She was not going to have an anxiety attack! She put up a sound barrier around the room. This was the only place she needed to hear.  Mark gasped. Why did he do that? Nothing on the cartoon should have elicited that kind of reaction. She hadn't moved either. The only thing had been the barrier against the sound. He was no crystal pony. He shouldn't be able to detect that. The only thing it could be was what he wasn't noticing anymore.  "You hear it all too, don't you?" she said quietly. His heart skipped a beat. "I don't think you hear all that I hear, but maybe you hear more than they think. Spending all those years hiding, you must have learned to hone your hearing. Every little sound could mean discovery." His heartrate slowed as did his breathing, and she nodded, accepting that as his affirmation that she was right.  "I hate hospitals," she continued. "They're filled with sounds of misery. Hospitals are scary. I don't like being in a hospital. It brings back bad memories. For you, it must seem so strange—all these weird and unfamiliar sounds. Don't worry. I can hold the sounds back, at least for a while, and we can both be a little less scared." The cartoon was rolling credits, so she turned the program off. His heartrate didn't change. He was calm. She smiled.  "I promised you a story. I've got a better one for you today. It's the story about a purple unicorn and her friends who saved Equestria from an evil alicorn who wanted to be night forever…." This time around, she used her powers to enhance the story. Her friend Jenny might be the best storyteller in the world, but with the power of sound, she could imitate the voices. Twilight she had spoken to many times, so her voice was easy. What Celestia sounded like was more challenging since she'd only heard Celestia on prerecorded messages that Equestria had given Earth. How Luna sounded as Nightmare Moon was a complete mystery. She was confident about the voices of Twilight's friends since she had spoken to each of them at least once. They'd all been there for the relief efforts after the Cataclysm of Riverview. Rarity, in particular, was easy since she had been in Riverview before the disaster.  Her tail started to rise, and she forced it down–stupid sexy Rarity. Stupid tail.  The different voices caught Mark off guard at first, and his vitals sped up, but he got used to it as she continued and slowly moved forward to where she could spot his tiny little hands and a bit of his hair.  "-and the purple unicorn stayed in Ponyville with her friends, having many more adventures, but those adventures are stories for another day," she concluded.  He didn't come any further out of his hiding place. In fact, after listening to his breathing and heart, she was confident he was asleep. Was she supposed to be happy that he was that much at ease or insulted that her story came off as that boring? She thought she did an excellent job telling the story. Mark being relaxed enough to sleep was likely the better way to look at it. Still, she wasn't going to tell Jenny that her attempts to go all out telling a story had ended with her audience asleep.  Now what to do? If she got up, she might wake him, and she didn't want to do that. Masking the sounds of her getting up might be a possibility. She wasn't that eager to go yet, since it was rush hour and she'd spent enough time in traffic today already, and the nurse had said that if she could gain enough of Mark's trust to give him a bath, it would be best for everyone.  A stifled yawn escaping her mouth told her she'd wait a while longer. Taking a nap wouldn't be a horrible idea. She hadn't slept enough, and driving home while overtired was a safety hazard. Nap it was then. She laid back, let her head sink into the pillow, and closed her eyes. She kept the sound blocked off and had long ago learned how to keep her sound barrier up while sleeping. It wasn't just a helpful thing to be able to do; it was a necessity. Getting suddenly hit with sound when she was trying to sleep resulted in not getting much sleep. If she hadn't mastered the skill as a child, she'd have gone insane before even setting foot in a college.  She let herself relax and drift to sleep. She awoke and instantly froze before she could stretch. Did she have two heartbeats? No, an extra set was just very close, and something was gripping her shirt.  Mark was curled up close to her. She felt his horn lying against her. It poking her might have been what woke her up. She must have turned onto her side when she was asleep, and he had somehow gotten on the bed, nestled between her belly and her breasts, sleeping. He was so small, and she was sure he was grabbing her shirt as he slept.  Now she was definitely not getting up. What was she supposed to do??  Deep breaths– second thought, no deep breaths; those might wake Mark.  She needed advice, but she didn't dare reach for her phone. No problem. She could still get help. While still keeping the sound barrier up, she listened for the nurse's desk. There were four people there. She didn't know how typical that was, but she could tell by their voices they were watching the feed for this room. Her powers were complete control of sound, and they were in her range.  "Hey, this is Jessica, the lady in the room with Mark. What am I supposed to do?"  "Miss Middleton? How are you working the intercom without touching the button?" She was pretty sure that was the same nurse as earlier. She wasn't going to argue that she was Doctor Middleton instead of Miss Middleton. That would be pointless and could get confusing in a hospital. She needed to focus on getting advice.  "I'm not on the intercom. My magic gives me full control of sound within thirty meters of where I am. I don't need the intercom or to open my mouth to talk to you," she replied.  "Like a ventriloquist?" someone else asked.  "More involved than that, but if that helps you understand, then yeah." "You should do parties. You're really good at this." She rolled her eyes. "What am I supposed to do about Mark? He has his hands gripped to my shirt, and he's asleep." "He is gripping your shirt? That's so cute! We can't tell that from the stream." There were days she wanted to strangle humans for being humans; there were also days she wanted to strangle ponies for being ponies. Today was the latter.  "What…do…I…do…a-bout…it?" she asked slowly. "Oh, I'd let him just stay there and sleep. He trusts you. Don't disrupt that. When he wakes up, can you try to convince him to let you give him a bath?" She didn't even know what time it was. It must not be too late if the same nurse was on shift. Her classes were only Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so she didn't need to get up early. Having Mark cuddled up close to her wasn't the worst thing.  "Can you call my dad and tell him I will be home late? I can give you the phone number if you don't have it." "Sure, we can do that. I think we have his number already. Let me look."  There were several seconds of silence and the rustling of papers. They must have it written down instead of in the system. Well, her dad wasn't a patient. He was someone who got called about social work issues. How often did he come by the hospital for them to need to keep his number handy?  "Found it! Paul Middleton, Social Services, personal number! We'll give him a call. He'll be so happy to hear what you're doing for Mark. Don't forget the bath!" "Thanks. Give him a call. I'm going to stop listening in on you guys now," she replied. She actually did keep listening for another few moments, but only to be sure they were indeed calling her dad and letting him know about her delay. Once he picked up the call, she stopped listening.  Her gaze drifted back to the small child curled up against her. It was still hard to see his face since he'd practically buried it against her. It would be nice if that stubby horn weren't poking her, but it was only uncomfortable, not painful; she could live with that. Overall, it was kind of nice having him right there against her. No one did that. Her little brother had when he was very young. He'd long since outgrown that. Since he was entering his teen years, it would embarrass him to be caught cuddling with his big sister. She missed him being small and eager to spend time with her–not that he never wanted to spend time with her now, just now it was doing activities, not spending time for the sake of it. It was humbling, having this cute little kid feeling safe nestled against her. In some strange way, it made her feel safer, even if there was no logical reason it should.  She must have been exhausted if she hadn't realized he'd crawled beside her until his horn poked her. The only way he could have gotten up on the bed was if he pushed one of the stools over to give himself a stair to reach the bed. That wasn't something he would have done at the spur of the moment. He had to make a conscious choice that he wanted to be beside her and make a plan on how to do it. The other bed had looked unslept in, and its covers had been pulled down to the floor into a little nest in the corner.  Then and there, she decided that helping out with Mark wouldn't just be some side task she was doing for her dad. This kid wanted her to protect him and make things better. She might not be the big hero that the movie made her out to be, but she would do all she could for him. Doomsday was on its way, but for Mark, it must seem like it had already come.  She closed her eyes, letting herself doze as she listened to his heart beat close to hers.