Annie XLIII Trips

(Chronological index: New World Order #3)

Denise grabbed the side of the donut box as Ray merged into traffic. Annie and Pet rode through the motion with simple flexing of their legs.

"What do you want a piece of?" Annie asked Denise. She had a knife poised over the glazed in the corner.

Denise nodded her head towards a coconut covered one. Annie walked easily across the box and took a big slice out. She looked down at the figure grasping the cardboard.

"Do you want to eat here or up in the carrier?" she asked.

"Where won't I puke?" Denise asked the older woman. Annie smiled and nodded upwards.

"You're going to be more comfortable in the carrier. As long as," and she raised her voice, "Revered Master is more careful about lane changes."

"Sorry," he said.

Pet jumped up to the carrier and waited on the little running board by the door. She caught Denise at the waist and swung her inside. Then Annie jumped up with her and Denise's bowls.

The spread out in what Pet called the parlor and ate. Annie was right, the more time she spent in small spaces, or without giant surroundings, the more comfortable she was. This was about like sitting in a cabin cruiser as it left the mouth of the river.

Denise wasn't fond of what shrinking had done to the texture of coconut, though the taste was mostly what she remembered.

Annie wordlessly passed over her untouched slice of Boston Crème. It was stickier, and more difficult to eat, but a much better experience.

"Thanks," she said. Annie nodded and dug into the coconut. Pet sighed. She was doing a lot of that, as Denise acclimated and Annie helped.

"So, I hope we see Amelia at the Centre," Pet said.

"That's what we're counting on," Denise said.

"And Samantha," Pet continued. The other two nodded. "And Still Cassie, and Still Renee. Oh! And maybe we can get in to see Deliah! When she's cooking, maybe, huh, you think?"

"Everyone that feeds you is a celebrity, aren't they?" Annie asked with a smile. Pet smiled and nodded. Neither sylph noticed Denise's expression.

"Deliah?" she asked.

"Yeah," Pet said. "The chef at Portion Control! She said that representatives of the Mower Brush Company could find food at the chef's table any time! And that’s US!"

"Mour brush," Annie said.

"Didn't Ray used to sleep with Deliah?" Denise went on.

"Used to date him," Annie agreed carefully. "But she left him for the Sylph Centre. For her career."

"So, he's lost his wife," she mused, "and we're headed towards an old girlfriend who now has the career she abandoned him to establish."

"Yeah," Pet said. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Denise growled. "Not a damned thing. Why would there be any THING to such a situation?"

"Oh, come on!" Annie said. "This is part of his quest to get you back to normal. To get his wife back. Not to hook up with an ex."

"Another ex," Denise said roughly.

Pet started to scoot over closer. "What?"

"I'm an ex-wife. Annie said it. He wants me BACK. And if it fails, when he realizes he won't get me back, look, wow, there's an ex he CAN get back. Very handy."

"No," Pet said quietly. She looked at Annie. "No?" she pleaded.

"Look, Denny," Annie started to say.

Denise's head whipped around. "What? Denny? You don't call me DENNY!"

"What? Sure I do!" Annie replied.

"No. Pet does, Carla does. You never have. Why, now?"

"Denise, I..."

"It's a diminutive," Pet said.

"And I'm diminished," Denise growled. She stood and stormed towards the bathroom in the carrier's rear. She entered and slammed the cardboard shut.

"Denise!" Annie shouted. "I didn't mean anything!" She turned to Pet. "I didn't."

"No," Pet agreed. "When you're meaning to be mean, it's much meaner."

Annie stared at her friend. The other sylph looked back calmly. "What? You are."

-----

The staff did their usual Centre magic. Ray had barely come to a full stop before a valet had the keys. Before he was at the back of the car, they had the luggage on one of the balloon-tired carts. The carrier went onto a special shelf.

The sylphs watched out the carrier door as they drifted through the hallways. The ride was so smooth that it felt like flying.

No, Denise thought. It was like a dream of flying. It might have been different if it wasn't two in the morning. The place had the dream-like, hushed, slumbering feeling, as if the very building was asleep.

Now the only sound was the whispering tires on the amazingly thick carpet and the footsteps of the humans. Ray's dragged and thudded, the bellhops' hardly whished.

She kind of recognized the place. She didn't recognize any of the people that went by, but that might be staff turnover. Or it might be that she had to relearn what faces looked like from down here.

Someone opened a door and the cart was wheeled into a room. She saw a bed, the standard aircraft carrier surface covered with a quilted cloud.

Then the cart was parked, at a slight angle. Samantha lifted her head off of her arms and smiled a welcome.

Annie waved and Pet cheered. Ray slung his shoulder bag onto the bed and picked up the carrier.

The sylphs held the rail as he put it on the table, then rushed out. Amelia stood up from a folded napkin and welcomed Annie with a hug.

"Welcome back, Ray," Samantha was saying. "What's this momentous information you have that will rock the world but is too sensitive for a telephone call?"

She glanced down as Amelia moved on to hug Pet, then turned to offer her arms to Denise.

"Hi, Sam!" Annie said.

"Hi, Annie!" Samantha replied. "And, don't tell me, hello Pet and salutations, Buttercup!"

Denise made eye contact with the older sylph. Who froze. Her eyes got wide. "Oh...my...God..."

"What is it?" Samantha asked.

"Samantha? Amelia? You remember my wife, Denise?" They stared. "And that's also the information," he finished.

"Hi?" Denise said.

-------

"Fascinating," Samantha said after the retelling.

"No shit," Amelia agreed.

Samantha took another sip of her coffee and pushed the remains of a muffin around on her plate. "So, what do you want from us?"

Annie stood up from her chair, then bent over and twisted. "Thanxuary," she lisped.

"We need to register Denise," Ray explained. "So I can't loose her or Pet. Which will cause a public frenzy to match...The Day, probably."

"Probably," Amelia nodded. "You want to do it here?"

"If you're willing," Denise said. "I don't know if you want the Centre associated with the first....sylphing in all this time." Why couldn't she say the word more easily? It was what had happened. It was what she was.

"I can see the concern," Amelia said. "Some of the sylphobic will think it's a plot. Some of the religious will think it's a sign."

"Some of the politicians will think it's an opportunity," Sam said. Then she looked down at her sylph and offered a fingertip. They nodded in silent unity.

"Of course we have to," Sam said. "It's that or betray everything the Centre was created for."

"IF we go public," Amelia pointed out.

Ray, bloodshot and short on sleep, tried to track the conversation. He eyes flicked up and down as they spoke.

The sylphs had been able to grab a few naps on the drive. Annie walked over to pat him on the wrist. "It's okay, Ray. They're not going to throw us to the wolves."

Pet threw her arms around Denise's shoulders. A weight she'd been ignoring melted out of Denise's gut. She hadn't really thought the SC was necessary for this.

Better, sure, but she didn't want to impose. She'd respected the goals of the Centre and would understand if they wanted to keep a distance. But they weren't. She tried not to sniffle.

"Okay," Amelia said, clapping her hands. "Hard part's over with. You're here. You're going to stay here. Everything else is a detail.

"We'll make some calls. You guys get some sleep." She took Denise by the hand. "Or, spend some time in environments that are entirely your scale. You could probably use some relief from the constant, overwhelming need to acclimate."

"I...that'd be great," Denise said.

"So," Sam said. "The sylphs are going to go some places you can't, Ray. That means you're not going to let anyone down if you try to deal with your exhaustion."

"Huh?"

"She says," Annie started.

"Annie?" Denise interrupted. The sylph smiled and took a step back. She swept her hands to let Denise do the talking.

Ray looked down at her face. She smiled. "Ray? She says go to bed. WE say go to bed. It's okay. We'll be here when you wake up."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Cause I can-"

"SLEEP!" Pet shouted with authority. "You say stupid things when you're tired. We don't NEED any more STUPID! ALRIGHT? Go to BED and get SMART again! Be RAY again!"

Everyone stared at the outburst. Ray smiled then offered a very respectful salute to Pet. He stood to escort Samantha out of the room. She paused until Amelia had handed out some access cards, then they left.

Ray closed the door, kicked his shoes off and aimed for the bed. He started to say something.

"Ahem!" Pet said, arms crossed and glaring. He nodded and stripped.

"Good call," Denise whispered to Pet. "Good shouting," Annie added.. Pet beamed at the approval. Then they all watched over their man until he was snoring.

------

Pet and Annie had offered guided tours of their favorite spots in the SC. But they'd both accepted her request to just be left alone.

She got a goodbye hug from Pet and instructions on how to get back to Ray from Annie. Then they were gone.

She drifted through some halls and read the directories, the bulletin boards and some menus. People nodded pleasantly as they passed. It was all so...normal. Except for the clothes, she could be on a university campus or inside a museum.

It was weird getting used to sylph attire, though. They were almost all barefoot. And the clothing ranged from suits with ties to full nudity.

In the end, Denise did little more than audit the choices the SC offered. She was sure they'd have time to investigate everything once the media siege started.

She found herself back at the sylph-door to the room before she knew it. Inside, Ray was still snoring. Annie was nowhere to be seen, but Pet was working diligently at a table in the corner.

Denise looked over her shoulder. There were diagrams on several sheets. Some where squares, some were triangles, one showed a big dot with three lines coming down to little dots.

"What's up, Pet?"

"Denny- I mean, Denise? Do you want me to go live with Buttercup? Would that make things better?"

"What?! What are you talking about?" The fear of losing Pet, that she'd already lost Pet, drove her reaction. It overdrove it. Pet flinched from her shout and looked down.

Denise pulled out a chair and sat down beside her. "I'm sorry, Pet. I shouldn't have shouted. I know you're trying to help.... I just don't understand why losing my bestest friend in the whole wide world would make things better?"

"Bestest?" Pet asked without lifting her head.

"Absolutely!" Denise swore, "My hand to God Above!"

"I like God," Pet said softly. "But Annie doesn't."

"That's between Annie and God," Denise said. "But you know how she growls at you but still comes to you rescue?" Pet nodded. "Well, I like to think that Annie's only outwardly angry at the Big Guy." Pet looked thoughtful.

"But aside from that," Denise went on, tapping the paper. "What's this?"

"Oh. That's me trying to figure out what's wrong!" Pet said. She took a clean sheet of paper and drew a vertical line. The big dot at the top got a shaky D next to it. The little dot was labeled P.

"This is us. For ever and ever and ever, it's been you and me. See, you're the D for Denise. And I'm the P for Pet."

"And the line is ownership?" Denise asked.

"No, silly. The line is for love!"

Denise blinked. She felt guilty that she'd assumed it was a property line. But she was also deeply gratified that Pet assumed love was the most important part of their relationship.

"Well," she said after a moment, reaching for the piece of pencil lead. "Maybe you should draw it like this." She added directional arrows to both ends of the line.

"Yeah!" Pet said cheerfully. "So anyway, forever and ever and ever, there's been THIS line." She drew Annie and Ray, and their relationship, giggling as she added the arrows.

"Okay," Denise said.

"Then," Pet drew a line from Ray to Denise. "Then you two fell in love."

"Right."

"And you love Annie," as she added a diagonal. "And I love Ray. And Ray to me, and Annie to you and Annie and me to me and Annie." She diligently added the lines and arrows until the big happy family was mapped out.

Denise was reminded of a tire-rotation plan and was tempted to add those arrows but resisted.

"I think, I hope to think, you're right, Pet. Now, where do you see the problem?"

"It's not a box any more," Pet said sadly. Denise waited patiently.

Pet got another sheet of paper. "See, you fell down here, where the sylphs are." She drew a big dot for Ray. Then she put three small dots in a row below him, A, P and D.

She drew a line from each sylph to Ray, then stopped. "That part's the easy part. But down here? I wonder if it's just too crowded."

"Pet, no, it's-"

"I mean, I mean, if you have one yo-yo, you can play yo-yo. If you have three yo-yo's, they're all going to get messed up. There's barely enough room down here to draw three lines, from you to me to Annie to you. And if we add the arrows..." She did, scratching the arrows in, overlapping and blocking each other.

"It's a mess, see?" There was a sniffle in there somewhere, Denise heard. She scooted closer and took Pet into a hug. "I was thinking, if I wasn't here, maybe there'd be more room. Maybe enough room, you guys could make it."

"Oh, Pet..." Denise moaned. "Making it without you isn't making it."

"Well, but you and Annie-"

"All three of us, Pet. I swear to you, you're the only one none of us has a problem with."

"Really? But crowded like we are, now..."

"Pet! Do you love me?"

"Of course, Denny- Denise."

Denise stood and walked around the table. "Do you love me?"

"Yeah! Why are you-"

Denise turned and jogged along the wall to the corner. She turned and cupped her hands at her mouth. "Still love me?" Pet nodded. Denise jogged back.

"And when you were at Ray's place and I was at Carla's, eighty miles away, did you love me any less?"

"No, Denise. I didn't. You know that!"

"Of course I do, Pet." She tapped the triangle diagram. "And distance isn't part of this. You can draw this triangle the size of Jacksonville, the lines are the same. Okay? You leaving is not a solution."

Then she dropped to her knees and hugged Pet around the waist. "But I'm very, very proud that you're willing to sacrifice for the rest of us."

"I just want to help, Denise!"

"You are. You're here. That helps. Oh, and you can still call me Denny. I like it when you call me Denny."

"Really? But you got so mad."

"I was stupid. Okay? Annie didn't do anything wrong. I was just..."

"Itching for a fight?" Pet suggested.

"Yeah. I think maybe I was. I'll apologize to Annie later.

Both of them stopped and looked around the room. Years of watching sitcoms, they expected Annie to be nearby after being invoked that way.

When they realized what they were doing, they both giggled.

"Okay, tell you what," Denise said. "You go find Annie, see if we should go find Deliah and have some food."

"Really!? It'll be okay?"

"It'll be great," Denise promised. If I have to bite my own tongue off and call it garnish, I won't say anything stupid, she promised herself.

Pet giggled and ran towards the door. Denise collected the drawings and slid them into a drawer, out of sight.

Then she looked up at the form of her drowsing husband.

---------

Ray and Denise were making love in a hotel room. The sylphs stood on the nightstand. A few shadowy figures were against the window, outlined by the setting sun.

Denise straddled him, rubbing his chest lovingly. He reached up to stroke her breasts.

Buddy Bizarre, the director of the French Mistake, came out of the shadows. He was shouting through a bullhorn. "WrrrrrONG!"

"What?" Denise asked.

"You're doing it WRONG!" he said, stamping his feet. "You should be over there!" he pointed at the sylphs.

"HEY!" Annie protested. "This is a closed set!"

"Boo!" Pet protested. "Boo! Hiss!"

"I hear nothing!" Buddy replied. "Just steam escaping. Get off him! Get off him!"

Denise rolled off of Ray and stepped down onto the table. She shrank to fit, glaring at the director.

"Now we need a real lover," Buddy went on. "It's so simple! Watch me!" He started to step onto the bed.

Ray raised a hand. "It's not that sort of picture, fellow!"

"Right, right," Buddy said. "You! You!" He waved one of the shadowy figures out into the light. "Come here, you do it!"

Deliah stepped out, smiled at Annie and climbed onto Ray. They started making love.

"Action!" Buddy shouted. Then he turned to scurry back to the shadows. "Oh, wait till I get out! Wait till I get out!"

"Wait a minute!" Denise complained. "That should be me! I'm not the one that passed on the role!"

"And I wanna be where you are!" Deliah replied. She reached out and took Denise by the hand. Deliah shrank as Denise swelled up.

When the little chef was dangling in her grip, Denise lowered her to the sylph spot and climbed onto Ray.

They continued to make love, while Ray was watching the pets.

"This is great!" Deliah said.

"But it's not a box anymore!" Pet protested.

"You're welcome to it," Annie said. "A little help!?" Ruth stepped over and took Annie's hand. They swapped sizes. Ruth didn't look quite as happy when she ended up pocket sized.

"Now you're my little sister!" Annie crowed. She pet Ruth's hair and started to back away. "Bye bye!"

"WAIT!!" Pet screeched. "I want to go with Annie!" Annie reached down. "WAIT!" Pet screeched. "I want to go with Denise!"

Ray reached over and picked up the blonde. He turned her over and found the button on the back and pressed it. Pet popped into two pieces. He presented each half to the two women.

The little figures stuttered as they complained. Ray couldn't make out what she, what the shes said.

"I agree," Denise said. "That was rather high-handed, Ray."

"Yeah," Annie said. "Who says you get to make all the grown-up decisions?" She leaned over and kissed Denise, long slow and deep. Then she sneered at Ray. "We'd have figured it out, eventually."

Denise stood and the three of them, the two and two halves of them, walked out into the shadows.

"Hmph!" Deliah snorted from the table.

Ray rolled to his side and closed his eyes. Buddy was in the back, somewhere, saying he just wanted to help, Denise.

The hotel room faded. The bed got warm. He blinked. The hotel room was back, but the décor was different. The bed table had a safety rail around it and a spiral staircase over the side.

And Denise. Denise stood there, staring at him. Her arms were crossed and she glared at him.

But when she spoke, there was an undeniable thread of humor in her voice.

"Sounds like some kinda dream," she said.

"I took Pet apart so you and Annie could share her," he admitted. "Then all three of you got mad at me for being high-handed and making all the decisions. And you left me."

"Left you with Deliah?" she asked. Yes. She was definitely more amused than she was mad. He must have said Deliah's name out loud.

"After you took her height, so you and Annie could both be tall. Yeah, you left me alone with a sylphed Deliah."

"Sounds complicated," she giggled.

Ray sat up, pulled back the covers a tiny bit. "Come here, I'll tell you all about it." She paused. Then she nodded and held out her hands.

He reached over to pick her up and settle her against the pillow. He tucked a flap of the sheet over her and cuddled as close as he dared.

"Well, it all started when we were making love."

"We, who?" she said. "Choreograph it for me."

"You and I, of course," he said. "Then Buddy Bizarre came in, screaming-"

"You dream about Blazing Saddles characters?" she asked.

"Doesn't everyone?" he replied. She laughed out loud. He placed a finger over her thighs and chuckled.

---------

Ray finished describing his dream, then sat silently, waiting for comment.

"Scoot over," Denise said.

"What? Oh, yeah." He started to get out of bed.

"NO!" she shouted. "Just scoot over. This part of the bed has cooled." He lay back down, lifting her to the spot he'd just moved from.

"Ahhhhh," she sighed. "Husband warm, husband scented..." She crooked a finger. He cuddled close again. She ran a finger in circles on his skin. "Husband," she said happily.

"I miss you," he said.

"I know," she replied. "I miss you, too. It's just so...different."

"I understand."

"I don't think you do," she said. "Nothing wrong with that, I don't think you can. Even with the remotes, there was always the knowledge that you could stand back up and be human, any time you wanted.

"Uh huh."

"This...this is for real." She snuggled against him. "This is still going to take a bit."

"Okay, that I understand."

"Yeah. And, yes, you were being high-handed."

"I came up with suggestions," he protested. "Then no one wanted to talk to me!"

"Annie talked to you," she said.

"Annie stopped! She doesn't want anything to do with me! At least, not with any plans, not until I get your input on them."

"Sounds like she's trying to force the kids to work together, so mommy doesn't have to intervene every few minutes."

"Really?" he asked. "I never had a sister, so I don't know."

"I don't KNOW," Denise admitted. "But it certainly seems like... Well. Possible, anyway."

"Hmm. So, if Annie's the den mother, who's Pet?" He reached out a finger and held it over her head. She pulled it down to kiss it.

"She's the chaplain, I guess."

"Morale officer?"

"Could be. Right now, she's trying to score us a reservation with Deliah."

"Really?" She glared at his sudden smile. "Denise, I'm excited about her food, nothing else."

"I know," she said, relaxing. She pulled the finger closer and hugged it tight. "I've never, ever really thought you were going to run around on me."

"I couldn't," he said. "Annie would lasso it, and Pet would help pull it out straight so you could cut it off."

"Vigilante justice," she crowed. "The basis of a sound marriage."

They smiled at each other for a moment. He sighed and started to kick his legs free. "Well, I should probably get ready for dinner." He moved her into his abandoned spot and tucked her in. She wriggled gleefully into the warmth.

"I, uh..."

"What?" she asked.

"I think. I mean. I, uh, feel a need to molest you."

"Oh." She frowned. "Well, I can't stop you."

"I know," he said. He reached out carefully and stroked her hair. The fingertip started at her brow and slid gently over her skull.

She was once again amazed at just how gentle the looming giant could be. The touch rounded her ear and followed her hair down to a shoulder.

He let it trail down her arm and off of her elbow. There was a deep sigh that seemed to take all the air from the room. She gasped as he stood and she could breathe again.

The luggage was on a suitcase stand. He fished out a full change and tossed it onto the foot of the bed. Then he stripped before her.

She remembered him. She remembered loving to stroke him there, to tickle along that. Now instead of grabbing with her hand, she imagined laying her entire body across certain muscles, or on the tastier stretches of skin.

As he reached for the clean underwear, he nodded towards her.

She sat up quickly and, before she could chicken out, asked if he needed a lifeguard in the shower.

--------

Annie and Pet stopped at the little door and listened carefully.

"No fighting," Pet said happily.

"No anything," Annie pointed out.

"Do you think they already went out?" Pet asked. "I thought they were going to wait for me to get you to come back."

"Maybe..." There was the unmistakable water-hammer of the water valve in the tub coming shut. "Well, he's clean," Annie said.

"Wait!" Pet whispered. "Do you...do you think...THEY got clean?"

"We can only HOPE," Annie said with a smile. She swiped her card and they entered the room. Ray's clothes were on the floor under the suitcase. "Neanderthal," Annie muttered.

Pet ran for the bed. Too excited to run up the stairs, she jumped up to grab the overstuffed cover. Three hand-over-hand grabs and she was on top.

She whistled. Annie ran away from the bed, trying to get an angle to see her better.

Pet saw her and waved. She held a shirt and a pair of panties in her hands and waved them happily.

Annie offered a thumbs up. Then the bathroom door started to open. She turned and ran further from the bed, drawing his attention.

"Watch your step! WATCH YOUR STEP!"

"Oh! Annie. Hi!" he said. "I was just... Getting ready for dinner. Did we get a table?"

"We got a private room!" Pet reported. She was over by Annie before he noticed she was in the room. They both smiled stupidly up at him. And at the wash-cloth cocoon he held close to his chest.

"Uh, great," he said. "I guess we- I need to get dressed."

"We'll go find Denise," Annie said. "I think she was in the art gallery."

"No, no," Pet said, still showing all her teeth. "I think she wanted to go to the gym. Learn how to jump safely."

"Actually," he said slowly. "She's, uh... She's right here."

"Did you make her scrub your back!?" Annie shouted accusingly. "You can't just order your new pet around like that, you bastard. It takes training and safety equipment!"

He just turned and stepped to the suitcases. The second one was dedicated to the sylphs.

He put Denise down inside it, then bent to offer his hands to the other two. They ran up and jumped aboard. Denise was curled up in the towel with a happy smile when he lowered them beside her.

Pet giggled and knelt to kiss and hug at Denise. "Ack! Stop! Lemmee go!" she protested.

"Yes, Denise," Annie said. "Come to the dark side. Together we can get the blonde one to stop physical displays of affection. Jusssst asssss it wasssss promisssssed."

"Shut up," Pet said as an aside. "You did it with him? Tell me you did it with him! Tell me! Tell me!"

"Pet. Pet, it's not what you think," Denise said. She started to crawl out of the towel. Pet gasped.

Annie pointed and said, "Yes it is." Denise looked. There was a huge hickey covering one of her ass cheeks.

----

Five minutes later, Pat and Annie carefully scrutinized their room mate's ass. The shorts they'd carefully selected covered it, though Annie was still worried.

"We're going to want to see it in strong light," she said. "You'd be amazed how sylph clothes go transparent, in the oddest conditions.

"It's fine," Pet said. "Back to the shower. How was it?"

"Pet, this wasn't the solution to all our problems," Denise insisted.

"But...?" Annie said with a smile.

"But it was fun," Denise admitted. She stepped over and gave Annie a hug. "You have trained him well."

Annie hugged her back. "Well, I never got a hickey. You'll have to teach me how you did that."

"Okay," Denise promised.

"You guys are okay with sharing Ray, then?" Pet asked. She wrung her hands as she looked back and forth.

Denise and Annie looked at each other, nodded, then held their arms out to invite Pet into the hug. "There's enough of him to go around," Denise said.

"Even if it's not a square any more," Annie added. Pet sighed and sagged into their arms.

------

The maitre de recognized Ray on sight and summoned a waiter. A sylph rode up on a sort of all-terrain vehicle. He led and cleared the way with tastefully subdued, but clearly recognizable flashing lights.

Ray walked past all the diners, carefully not reacting to the famous faces he noticed. The girls were a bit less subdued, for various reasons. Still, they weren't so gauche as to actually riot. It would disrespect the Center, Portion Control and a whole bunch of people that worked to make it the dining experience that it was.

There were closed off rooms in the back that Ray had never even suspected existed. They were brought to one and left within.

"Pooooosh," Annie breathed. The room was done in woods, heavy on the dark ones. The table was a horseshoe, with places for six humans to sit.

Facing them was another horseshoe, sized for sylphs. The arrangements of the openings allowed sylphs to dine in the middle of the human table. This was a standard in dual-scale dining, but usually it was a circle within a circle. That meant that the sylphs ate with their backs to the rest of humanity.

That's an Important Point, the 'rest' of humanity. Not 'the humans.' Amelia and Sam would not hurt someone for drawing a distinction between the two populations. But they would be disappointed.

Here, there were two groups, but interaction was promoted. Ray stepped to the table and lowered his sylphs to the surface. As they walked towards their table, they noticed an odd pair of grooves in the wood's surface.

"What's that?" Denise asked.

"Never seen anything like it," Pet admitted. Ray started to duck his head under the table to see what it was.

"AHEM!" Annie coughed. "Manners?"

"I never really noticed how much he needs a keeper, Annie," Denise said.

"I'm usually more SUBTLE," Annie replied, stepping over the crease, "because he's usually not a VULGAR guest."

They all found menus at the seats. Pet made a few suggestions for Denise. She recognized some of the dishes, but the adjectives threw her.

"It's different at this size," Annie told her. "You probably never noticed your lettuce being 'pasty' before. But some sylphs like it that way. The other preparation makes it wonderfully 'woody,' instead."

"I've never heard of that," Denise said.

"Mostly, we get tired of trying to describe it," Pet said.

"Oh, right," Denise said. "I remember you liked the outer skin of raw green peppers, but only the tops of the slices if they were steamed. I never got it when you tried to explain."

"Mmm, nutty," Annie agreed. "The good news? Chocolate actually tastes like chocolate all the time."

"Yeah, I noticed," Denise agreed.

After a few moments, the strange grooves on the table started to flash. Denise was on ray's side of the table, looking to see what was different about the menus.

She froze in indecision, then decided to wait. Then a rail rose up out of the table where the grooves were.

"Looks like a monorail," Ray said. Sure enough, not five seconds later, a pair of sylphs rode out on a little rail car.

The waitresses spread out to either side, one taking the human's drink and dinner order, the other the sylphs'. She waited patiently as Denise climbed up onto the car to make it across.

Denise let Pet order for her. The young sylph gushed at the trust and made extra careful selections. Her guest looked over her head towards Annie.

The brunette gave small, reassuring nods at everything Pet selected. Denise would still have taken what Pet chose, but it was nice to see her choices confirmed.

Samantha and Amelia showed up just after the drinks arrived. Little rail cars had brought out Ray's Coke and a tea. He put it on the seat beside him. Annie had similarly assumed the extra pomegranate cocktail was for expected guests and put it at an empty place.

"We've already ordered," Ray said. "But if you want to summon the waitress, they said-"

"Ray!" Annie called. "You're explaining the room to someone who probably had a hand in designing it!"

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"It's alright," Sam said. "We have a standing order in with Deliah. Whatever she's the least confident about, we're her test subjects."

Amelia crossed over to sit by Denise. "How are you feeling?"

"Overwhelmed and under-prepared," she admitted. Annie handed Amelia's drink down the table.

"Well, the good news," Amelia said, "the FBI runs all sylph registration, now. These days, registration is almost exclusively foreign sylphs entering the country. They wrangled it away from the sylph bureau after the Flyswatter Riot."

"Foreign or ferals," Annie said.

"We prefer to say, unregistered sylphs entering the system," Amelia said. She laughed at Annie's blush.

"The FBI? That's good news?" Ray asked. His redirect got a nod of thanks from his shamed sylph.

"For you it is," Sam said. "The FBI records are more secure than the Registry's used to be." The grooves flashed again and rose. "Dinner!"

Plates were collected from the cars and they ate for a bit. Denise had never had anything like it. The roasted sesame seeds had flavors that competed, complemented and, she could only say, were stacked over each other.

Deliah, or someone in her kitchen, had truly mastered cooking for sylphs. This wasn't just big food made tiny, it was looking at the edible biosphere in a whole new way.

"Love that expression," Amelia said, smiling at the novice sylph. "Every time I see it, I remember the dinners our girl cooked when we met."

"And you let her get away?" Denise taunted Ray. "Idiot!"

"I made out okay in the end," he assured her. "No regrets." He took another bite of his steak. "Well," he said. "No real big regrets..."

"Okay," Sam finally said. "FBI. Good for you. Really. They're interested in finding out all they can about what happened to Denise, but they're just as happy to keep it a state secret."

"Panic?" Annie suggested.

"Partly," Amelia said. "But everyone feels that they've got a handle on what sylphs are. Civil rights movements are becoming coherent. The doom and gloom predictions are failing. People are willing to look at the whole situation wit some sanity."

"And no one wants a reset," Sam added. "Pro or Con, the Sylph Act needs to be amended in rational discourse. Not boilerplated in panic response."

"But the FBI," Ray moaned. He shook his head. "Those people... We've got a story off of a late-night movie. They're going to think we're crazy. They want facts, verification, substantiation..."

There was something about the way Samantha was smiling at him that reminded him of Annie.

He looked across the table. All the sylphs were giving him a similar expression. "Okay," he shrugged. "What did I do now?"

"You wanna take this one, Denise?" Annie said.

"Ray, my love, these people know all about gun-carrying federal agents. They see the Secret Service every day."

"Doh!" he coughed.

"Doh, indeed," Amelia agreed.

Denise pitched her voice soft, to make it a sylphs-only conversation while Ray apologized. "Annie, I never fully appreciated how much you do for him. And how much that did for me."

"It's alright, Denise," Annie said in the same whispery tone.

"No. No, I was selfish and jealous and stupid, and I'm sorry."

"Jealous is easy," Annie replied. "Any time Ray does something that isn't Annie Time, I get jealous. I forgive jealous. The stupid? That would be harder. Except in the circumstances. So I forgive that, too." They reached across Pet's lap to shake hands.

Ray finished apologizing to Sam and to Amelia, then looked at the other girls. "Guys? Why is Pet crying again?"

-------------

"So, if all goes well, how do you guys see this coming out?" Amelia asked.

Everyone turned to Ray. "He's got a plan," Denise said.

"Well... Well. Um. If possible, we register Denise without having to notify more than the bare minimum number of people.

"I know, they're going to want to investigate. But we need to be able to move around, without drawing outrageous attention."

"Move around? For your magic quest?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. I want to start investigating magic. Real magic. I think that the magic story lady makes convincing evidence that this can be controlled. Maybe restored. I want to find her, or someone like her, to do it. Or learn enough myself to fix it."

"How long can you afford to take this journey?" Sam asked.

"I don't think there's a limit," Ray said.

"Car, gas, motel," Annie listed. He waved those away.

"They cancelled 'Living With The Weirdo, but we still get residuals from the reruns."

"That’s not enough to live on, Ray," Denise pointed out. "Even with the severe reductions in my food bill."

"Well, I only mention that because I've been sinking all the money we got from the series into buying stock in my company."

"Oh, my God," Sam said. Ray didn't think it was entirely apropos, but he didn't question it.

"How much is that?" Denise asked. She'd never really concerned herself with the money, as long as she knew that Ray wasn't just buying toys with it.

"I own...about 76% of First Coast Animatronics. Tully had some gambling debts and the rest of the board took the failure of the remotes hard, so...it was easy."

"And what's that worth, Ray?" Annie asked.

"OH!" Amelia gasped. "Oh, my God, indeed!"

"What the hell is going on?" Denise asked.

"They fixed that remote problem," Sam said.

"No psychoses from their use," Amelia added.

Now Ray was looking back and forth in confusion. "How the hell do you know that?"

"Sweetheart," Amelia said, "they announced that yesterday."

"You're the guy our broker has been trying to contact for 26 hours," Sam said. "FCA's stock is skyrocketing. And the Center would really, really like to have some of that."

"And it wouldn't be insider trading to sell it to you," Ray mused. "Not now that the story's broken."

"We're rich?" Pet asked.

"Can't tell why people on TV care about a coffee brand," Annie muttered, "but you sure followed THAT discussion pretty well."

"Shut up," Pet said distractedly. "We're really rich?"

"Effectively," Sam said. "So. Can we make you an offer for about 30% of the company's stock? We figured that would be the right amount. A decent profit for the center and showing support for technology that improves sylph perceptions in the community."

"Hell, you can have it," Ray said, "just for being-"

"AHEM!" Denise, Annie and Amelia said in unrehearsed chorus. He froze.



"It's the Center's money, Ray," Sam said. "Not mine or hers. It's not a personal request, it's business. We like you and you should get fair market value."

"Maybe a leeeeetle discount," Amelia said. "On account of how much we just love each other."

"No, no. We don't want him to have any reason to come back here and sue us for undue influence," Sam said.

"I haven't checked the stock in, um, three days," he admitted. "Make me an offer, I'll assume it's just and fair."

Sam's phone appeared in her hand. "Calling Casey," she said.

------

At a quarter to 8:00 in the morning, all four of them were waiting in a conference room. Samantha had an appointment of her own, but she had stopped by to give Denise some reassurance.

"Don't worry," she said quietly but forcefully. "It will be okay."

"From your lips to God's ears," Denise replied.

"Amen," Pet added.

Ray and Annie, the atheists, looked a little uncomfortable. Amelia glared at them.

"Amen," Ray responded.

"A-a-amen," Annie finally said. Sam rolled her eyes then walked out. "I'm sorry," Annie said. "But sylphing sucked the faith right out of me."

"It's okay," Denise said. "I'd rather you were candid than dishonestly supportive."

"Okay, then!" Annie glared at Amelia. The older sylph stuck out her tongue and made a face. Pet laughed. And laughed. The stress relief had her bowled over and rolling on the ground for two full minutes.

Ray picked her up and held her. She eventually stopped and lay across his palm, gasping. Amelia and Annie held her hands, Denise stroked her hair.

"Sorry," Pet said quietly.

"It's okay," Denise assured her. When she was ready, Ray stood her up on her feet. The waiting went on.

When the door opened, Ray was holding both of his wife's hands, gently pinched between finger and thumb. She stared up at him, looking into his eyes, willing herself to be brave.

He smiled supportively, eyes only for her. So much depended on this interview... All their futures, with or without any sort of freedoms, or would the government lock them up for study.

She hadn't let herself even imagine the possibilities, but they were clamoring in her head right now.

Annie looked up at the FBI agent that entered. "Wha-! Well, look at you! All alive and shit!"

"What the-?" Denise started to ask. Ray sighed as she turned. She didn't recognize the woman she saw at first. That wasn't new, her perspective was shot to hell and back.

But that gentle smile tugged at her memory. The face it was set in was wrong, but... "Dionne," she said softly.

"Special Agent Dionne Trace," she said, flashing her badge. "Federal Bureau of Investigations, Sylph Detachment, at your service."

Amelia giggled as the others stared. "You know," Dee went on as she sat down. "With all the talk of cancer and death and my worthless brother Nigel, no one ever asked what I did for a living."

"When you weren't dying," Annie added.

"Right, cousin," Dee smiled. "So. Let me assure you, Denise, I'm going to do everything I legally can to make this work out okay."

"Oh, my," Denise whispered. "God is watching out for me."

"I think maybe so," Amelia said.

Denise lowered herself to her knees and said a short but very sincere prayer of thanks to the Lord. Pet's hand stole into her grip and she squeezed it. She felt Amelia's hands on her shoulders.

She felt humbled and ashamed. There was a plan and she had let herself forget that fact. All the grief over 'what happened to me' and no concern for 'what I can do, now.'

But that was over, she promised herself and God. She knew there'd be stumbling blocks, but she was open to the possibilities, now.

"Amen," she said. Everyone in the room echoed it.

She raised her head to share a smile with Pet, then turned to smile at Amelia.

To her surprise, Amelia was only touching her with one hand. The other hand was Annie's. And over her head she saw Ray and Dee holding hands.

She started to cry. Ray waited until all three sylphs had moved in to hug her before cupping the whole mass in his hands. Dee lowered a finger to touch Denise's shoulders. They waited patiently.

-------

When Dionne had returned to active work, she had made no secret about sylph involvement in her recovery. So the Bureau had transferred her to the Sylph Detachment.

They routinely did this for anyone suspected of having sympathy for one or more sylphs. It wasn't a punishment. No more than they punished Native American agents by having them investigate crimes on reservations, or sending oriental agents to a Chinatown case.

The bureau called it optimized manpower utilization.

Of course, this meant that they had Iroquois-descended agents poking around Navajo reservations and Japanese heritage agents seeking Chinese interpreters.

And they had people whose third cousin caught a sylph in the wild seven years ago trying to see if tiny bombs had tiny fingerprints. Or people whose grandfather had sylphed thirty years ago establishing the security risks of Senators' pets.

Pet laughed at that part of the story. It was because Amelia made a very ugly face at the subject of institutional paranoia and bias.

"And then she came here," Amelia said. "We run a sylph orientation course for federal agencies. They all have a story about how they ended up on whichever sylph unit.

"Usually, it's a relative that owns one or became one. A couple get a warning from one that saves a life. Maybe one a year got lead out of a fire by someone who was low and close to the floor.

"But Dionne! Wow. She had this amazing story of a two sister identical bone marrow salvation team, and a sylph robot and other sylphs..."

"That was US!" Pet said happily.

"We know, blondie, we were there," Annie pointed out.

"And I said it reminded me of Annie and Ruth," Amelia said.

"And I said, 'You know them?!'" Dionne replied.

"And when you told me YOUR story," Amelia finished, "I asked the director if Dionne could take the lead on this investigation."

"Amen," Denise said quietly.

"Fuggin' A," Annie replied.

"How did you not know this?" Ray asked Annie. "Your own cousin, an FBI agent? Assigned to sylph issues?"

"Step off, Master," Annie growled. "Trace families don't live in each other's pockets like the Fosters do."

"I hear it, I understand each word," Ray muttered. "But the whole concept is foreign to me."

Dionne took out her PDA as they laughed at the poor guy.

"Okay, so, to work. We want to register Denise without the world knowing?"

"Yes, please," Denise said.

"That's probably within the nation's best interests," she nodded.

"But what about me?" Pet said.

"We can transfer ownership to Ray in the registry, without setting off the bells or whistles.," Dionne assured her.

"Thank you," Pet said happily.

'And the Registration?"

"Chip, tag or tattoo?"

"We have chips," Annie said. "I hear they’ve gotten even smaller since we were tagged."

"That sounds fine," Denise said.

"Wait," Pet said. She walked over and took Denise by the hands. "You know I like it when we dress alike."

"You gush when we dress alike," Annie said. Amelia ordered her to hush.

"But you... You aren't going to get a chip just because I have a chip and you think I want us to be chip sisters, are you? 'Cause if you really want the tag or the tattoo, that can be your thing and it won't matter to me as much as if-"

Denise put one finger on Pet's lips. "Hush. I want a chip because I want a chip. If that does make us chip sisters, I guess I'll have to live with it." She lowered her finger. "Is that going to be okay with you?"

"Yay," Pet said very, very softly. Her grin was very wide, though.

Ray leaned down to look at her face. "I think I see four previously undiscovered teeth," he said.

"Don't tease her," Amelia said.

"Oh, it's okay," Pet assured her. "I live with Annie. I'm, like, armored against anything Ray's willing to do."

"Okay," Dionne went on. "That's settled. Now, who all have you told about your sylphing?"

"No one," Ray said. "No one outside this room, except Samantha."

"No one?" Dionne asked. "No pocket-sharing Fosters know? Her mother doesn't know? Ruth doesn't know?"

"No one," Ray said. "I didn't want... I didn't know what your guys' reaction would be. I didn’t want to risk spoiling a good deal because too many people knew."

"Huh," Dionne said with a shake of her head. "Okay. So we can use a cover story that answers jobs and family both."

"Job," Denise said. "I quit mine." She turned to face Ray. "Whatever happens, it won't be overnight. And it's not fair to Pamela, or Steve, to have them hold my spot indefinitely." He nodded after a moment. She reached out and he took her hand in his.

"So, Ray has a security clearance. And a background check. And the check included wife and three sylphs and the little sylph colony behind your back yard and one night you rescued two sylphs off public land as a misdemeanor. But they work here now, so if I make a big deal of that, Amelia won't let me eat Deliah's cooking ever again." She ticked off the screen and paged down. She ignored the jaw-dropped stares across and around the table.

"So, we can say that all four of you were invited to work with the Center for the State Department on a sensitive issue. You send some emails and make some calls. No details. Which will be easy since I won't give you any." She lifted her head and smiled at the group. They still stared.

"Tough room," she muttered. "Alright. Some people will want to look you over, Denise. Take your statement, take some samples, so on. I can't stop it. Be we can make them come here, come to you. Less travel, less risk, more time in the sylph-only rooms."

"That sounds...wonderful," Denise said. "I can't thank you enough."

"Buy me dinner some time," she replied. "Annie has my number."

"You DO?" Ray asked. "And you haven't called her?"

"Leave her alone," Dionne said. For a second, her face changed. She wasn't a cancer patient, she wasn't a friend. The mask fell and it was clear to everyone that this was a real, experienced, deadly serious agent for the FBI.

Ray gulped and agreed. She nodded. Then she put the agent away and smiled. Then she stood, waving her PDA. "Gotta get started on all this. See you guys in a day or two." And she was gone.

Denise turned to her family, holding a hand out to include Amelia. "Would anyone take it wrong if I asked for a prayer of thanks right now?"

"I'd attend Vespers if you asked right now," Annie said.

When the prayer was over, Amelia kept her hold on Denise and Annie's hands.

"I have something I have to ask Ray, and I think you should be here, too, Denise." Pet shrugged and started to walk towards the end of the table. Amelia raised her voice. "Pet? Normally, I'd say that this was just for the couple? But you guys are closer than the X-men. I think I need to ask all four of you."

"What is it?" Denise asked. Ray still held her hand. He took Pet's as she returned to the circle and to Annie's side.

"We need Ray," Amelia said. "There's been a chance of government in Sanc Dembuka."

"The who?" Annie asked.

"Small African country. No reason you'd have heard of it. The new leader is intolerant of sylphs. So there are about five hundred refugees in the American Embassy."

"Poor things," Pet said.

"Yes. And Sam and I are scrambling to find people to bring them out. The President of Sanc Dembuka lets people take their sylphs out of the country, but no more than ten on a trip. I think he's angling for bribes.

"Anyway, Ray has a security clearance, a State Department record, experience with sylphs, and I trust him."

"Thanks," he replied.

"Your line is 'aw, shucks, ma'am,'" Annie said. She smiled but her eyes were on Denise. The other woman looked a little scared.

"What I propose," Amelia said, watching the same face for the same reason, "is that Ray takes the next two weeks acting as a courier for me. There and back, two times, bringing twenty sylphs to freedom, safety, the Playboy channel, whatever.

"This will be while you're getting measured and tested, Denise. But it'll also be while you're spending time in the gym, learning how to use your new muscle to mass ratio.

"And in the kitchen, learning how your nutritional needs have changed. And helping Deliah create new dishes."

"Or not," Pet said.

"Oh, Deliah's not a problem," Denise said.

"Good. And you can spend as long as you want in the sylph-scaled rooms. It'll give you both some room, some time to acclimate, some time to get used to the idea of your new lives."

"That...might be useful," Denise said. She made a fist in her husband's fingers. He gently squeezed back. Annie and Pet smiled and nodded, too.

"And," Amelia said, "it'll give that hickey a chance to heal."

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