Pieces

(Chronological index: Shortly after Peace)

"What do you know about Legos?" Denise asked.

"Lots," Ray said energetically. "What do you want to know?"

"Oh, God," Annie moaned. Pet looked up from her dinner. Annie didn't sound dismissive, which Pet would have understood. Annie vs. Ray's toys was a script that wrote itself. But she actually sounded resentful.

"Well," Denise said, "it's about Legos and sylphs."

"Ah. Well, a year after The Day," Ray said, leaning back from the table, "Lego came out with some sylph-scale playsets. They mostly just took their plans for other playsets and bumped up to sylph size."

"That sounds fun," Pet said.

"They blew," Annie said. She crouched over her plate, not looking up.

"Why's that?" Denise asked.

"Legos are designed to hold together," Ray said. He glanced down at Annie, shook his head and went on. "At least for most play. Until you make a solid effort to take the parts apart."

"Until GIANTS take the parts part," Annie said.

"Exactly," Ray nodded. "Sylphs could put the pieces on, most of the time, but in most cases they couldn't pull them back apart."

Annie snorted. "So if The Mom, say, bought you the Millennium Falcon, you sat and watched your Master play with your set. And then turn it over to you to sit in the cockpit as long as he lets you."

"You loved the Millennium Falcon."

"Because you promised to buy a Han Solo action figure."

"Oh."

"Where's my Action Figure, Master? Where's my chisel featured copilot?"

"I explained to you, that was the chase figure. Dad wouldn't give me the extra money I'd have needed-"

"Well, you certainly weren't spending you money on sylph clothes!"

"Besides, Han owned the Falcon, he'd be the pilot. You'd have been his copilot."

"Legos!" Denise said sharply.

"Yeah!" Pet agreed.

"Okay, yeah," Annie said. She put down her spoon. "The double-sized playsets weren't popular with sylphs. So they made micro-Legos. Tiny parts, tiny pins."

"Too tiny for-" Ray started to say.

"For the thick thumbs and fat fingers of the overmassed oppressors," Annie said. Pet and Denise smiled at the return of the recognizable Annitude.

Ray may have made a tiny smile, but he didn't take the bait.

"It seems to me," Denise said, "that they could sell a combined kit? A regular set and then also a micro-"

"The Death Star," Annie and Ray said together, one voice from two throats.

"But," Ray went on, "it wasn't a joint project. More of two projects in close proximity."

"Sylphs are faster," Annie said with a smug smile.

"Much faster," Ray nodded.

"And the overmassed were jealous."

"I was not. I BRAGGED about how quickly you did the playset."

"That sounds like Ray," Pet said to Annie.

"Oh, yeah. For an overmassed oppressor, he's damn near enlightened. But most of the rest of their miserable species were threatened by how fast sylph hands are at physical skills."

"Plus," Ray said, "a lot of Star Wars fans bought the combined or the micro sets and tried to build them without sylph help."

"Why would they do that?" Pet asked.

"He said," Annie said slowly, "Star Wars fans. You never saw the mania right after the first movie."

"The fourth movie," Pet and Denise said at the same time. Ray and Annie both blinked at the echo. Pet smiled. The two were always surprised to meet anyone that was nearly as close as they were. Denise and Pet bumped fists.

"Yeah," Ray said slowly. "The, uh, the nerds were competing to have the most memorabilia. Their frustration at the sets made them spread a lot of bad press. The micro line was canceled.

"So. Legos. Sylphs. What was the solution?"

"Pirates of the Moon," Annie and Ray said, slightly apart. Their schtick was off after the other two's display.

Annie continued. "For that series of Legos, they redesigned the pins on the bricks, and there's a teensy tiny lip for the bottom edge. And sylphs can use the lip to pry them apart."

"And how many Pirates of the Moon sets did you do?" Pet asked.

"One," Ray said.

"Almost," Annie said.

"Almost?" Pet asked.

"Almost," Annie nodded.

Ray stood and started gathering empty plates. "Mom got tired of hearing Annie scream 'I can't work under these conditions!' and forbade us to 'play with stupid Legos' any more."

"So," Pet said, turning to look at Ray in the sink. "It was your fault." He smiled and nodded.

"Yep," Annie said. "Ray is just hell to work with. On Legos, anyway." All three women looked over at Ray. He smiled and indicated he was busy with the plates.

"Really," Denise said skeptically.

"Yeah! All the TIME! He asks you to find a red ten dot brick, sometimes it's a 2x5, sometimes it's 10 straight in a row. If it's not a brick, it's a flat or a stick. Except when it's some other word he makes up as he goes."

"That would definitely drive you crazy," Denise said. She reached over to stroke Annie's back.

"Yeah, duh!" Pet agreed.

"OH! And sometimes he said red when he meant scarlet or pumpkin or Martian Red Dust or Blood Red."

Denise caught Ray's eyes and mouthed the question, pumpkin? He nodded, verifying Annie's rant.

"And since he could read the instructions," Annie continued, "without having to walk over them, he was the one issuing orders and he did it differently! Every time!"

"And you couldn't work under these conditions," Pet nodded sagely. She turned towards Ray again. "She couldn't work under those conditions!"

"I know," Ray shrugged. "And we weren't having fun."

"But it still hurt when Mom grounded us," Annie added.

"Oh, well," Denise said, standing up and walking towards the living room. "That's too bad."

"Why is that too bad?" Pet shouted. Her owner paused in the doorway.

"Because I just got a Pirates of the Moon playset."

Annie popped to her feet and Ray stepped away from the sink. "What playset?" he asked.

"Tycho Base," she said, matter of factly. Pet's head snapped round a the way Annie and Ray both gasped.

"We only made the keel of the Dust Schooner," Annie said in reverential tones.

"Tycho Base… That's the…" Ray couldn't finish. "They haven't… The series… Not made since 1982."

"No?" Pet asked. "But they sounded perfect!"

"For the very tiny market of indulgent sylph owners that want to play with their sylphs and play with construction toys, yes," Ray said. He was stepping slowly towards his wife. "They closed it down about two months after they released… The, uh… The secret base all the Moon Pirate ships traded at and issued attacks from…"

"Well, my boss bought a set on sale, planning to give it to his grandson."

"Why didn't he?" Annie asked. Pet watched her pace slowly towards the end of the table nearest Denise.

"His daughter raises wolverines, no kids. He finally remembered this, said I have sylphs, asked if we were interested."

"And you said…?" Ray asked.

"Well, I said you guys were grounded from Legos, so…"

"Awwwww," Pet said.

"Wait," Annie said. "When did you find out we were grounded?"

-------

Pet sat on Denise's shoulder and smiled proudly. Denny rarely got one over on Ray and NEVER got one over on Annie.

But there the brunette was, stamping her feet and calling the redhead every (non-prohibited) name in the book. You'd think she was mad at Lur- Ray! And it was clear she'd successfully teased Ray, too, because he wasn't yanking Annie's leash.

Denise chalked up two checkmarks in the air and went out to her car. "You spun them up so bad I think when Annie relaxes she's going to fall down on her BEHIND!" Pet told Denny in the garage.

"I did, didn't I?" Denise asked. Bragged. The case was in her trunk, the size of… Pet didn't know. It was bigger than a dollhouse! Denise lifted the HUGE box with the pictures all over the front and carried it to the door.

Ray held it open for her. Annie was still on the counter but she could see the door as Denny walked inside and in mid-insult she stopped and her mouth made an O and she sounded like she was about to faint.

Denny carried it to the living room and leaned it on the front of the sofa and put Pet down on the floor and she stood there staring up at the huge, huge picture and just stared.

Ray put Annie down beside her and they both just stared.

Tycho Base was made of the spaceships that had first landed there, or crashed there, or were dragged back as spoils of pirates doing piracy and each ship had a purpose and Ray described them all. The tavern and the control tower and the hotel and the magazine which only had one word printed on it, 'Magazine,' but maybe there were pictures inside, Pet hoped, and the USS Explorer that was kind of a hotel and kind of gym, and the brig and the galley and the bubble of the crow's nest and so on.

"There have to be some ground rules," Denise said.

"Yeah," Annie said dreamily.

"Yeah," Pet echoed.

"Number one, we don't tell my Mom we're playing with Legos," Ray said.

"Yeah," Annie said.

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

Ray had a chart. Ray liked charts, and he had something to chart, so he charted it.

"So here's my suggestion," he said when he announced the chart. "I've created some teams. Based on the number of parts being used, we split up the individual buildings of the base and each team owns one."

"And what does 'own' mean, Master?"

"It means that no one can construct, say, the brig unless the team that owns it is involved. They can invite others, but they don't have to."

"So," Denise said, "if I'm not here, or Pet isn't here, we won't come home to find that the brig has been finished without BOTH of us."

"If you own the brig," Ray added. Denise stuck out her tongue in an 'I know but just skipped that tiny detail for the purpose of discussion' expression.

"Right, well, what are the teams?" Annie asked.

"First, let's split up the buildings," Ray said. The biggest one was the USS Explorer. That was a team of its own. Then came Captain Airlock's Shanty. To make it even with the Explorer, Ray teamed it with the Dust Crawler unit. The bigger pieces were paired with the smaller ones.

"Why do pirates have a jail?" Pet asked when she finally asked what a brig was because up to then she was thinking it was a kind of dance though that turned out to be a jig but the thought of a dance studio for pirates set Denise to laughing so hard everything had to stop until she could explain her idea of a peg-legged pirate with a loose peg going into a fouette that never ended because of the low gravity.

"Help! Help!" she mimicked. "Some scurvy bast'rd has oiled me socket!" Then they all laughed until it was time to go eat something and Pet still giggled all through the meal and Annie growled 'Dance of The Sugar Plum Hearties, me hearties, arrrrrgh!' and Ray laughed Coke through his nose and Pet thought it was a wonderful day even if she did have to get wiped clean by Denise.

-----

Then Ray let the sylphs choose the buildings for the teams and Pet drew for the Pet and Annie and Ray and Denise team and they got the USS Explorer and everyone looked at Ray suspiciously because that was the best outcome possible and he claimed innocence.

And Annie drew for Her and Ray, and Pet drew for Her and Denise, and then Ray told Annie it was her turn to draw for Annie and Ruth and Annie gasped and ran and grabbed Ray's wrist and said she forgave him for whatever dickish thing he was going to do when he ordered her around.

And Denise asked if there was an all-sylph team and Ray said the whole POINT of the Pirates of the Moon set was for owners and sylphs to work together.

And Denise pointed out that there were times when little sylphs were left home alone and needed something to do and Ray said if he left Annie home she'd hide crucial pieces and Denny said no she wouldn't and Annie said yes, she would.

"But only if I have to get even with Lurch for mistreating Pet by getting her confused or feeling stressed or changing important terms." And Pet glanced up to see Denise looking thoughtful and finally nodded in agreement with Annie.

"That would be allowable," Denise said in a clear threat so Ray couldn't punish Annie for punishing Ray for confusing Pet and Ray looked ashamed and said he hadn't thought of that and maybe he should be on a leash and he picked Annie up and kissed her on the belly and she squealed.

And the Sylphs got the whole landscape of the crater to build all by themselves.

And then they sorted the bricks and Denise said that maybe Pet should decide how to refer to the pieces and everyone else could just use her words so no one would get confused.

Pet knew that by 'no one' they meant her because she could be a little silly but everyone nodded and decided they could ALL live by what she decided and that seemed a lovely gesture at first but the responsibility scared Pet.

Annie picked up a brick and asked Pet what to call it and she realized that they'd have to obey HER and she didn't like giving orders and she started to hyperventilate and dropped to her knees and people started to move but Annie held up her hands and everyone stopped reaching for Pet.

And Annie knelt down and hugged Pet and there were fingertips on either side of them because everyone wanted to finger-hug her for whatever was making her upset, which she noted and liked, and loved, but didn't quite make her feel better.

And Annie said, "This is fun, Pet. We're supposed to have fun. You can call this a 1x8 brick, or an 8-pin brick, or a pony."

"A pony?" she asked.

"If you want," Annie said. "And we'll learn to call this type of brick a pony."

"That would be silly," she replied. She was curled up into a ball, on her knees and facing down at the table. And Ray and Denny were really quiet to hear what she said.

"Yep," Annie said. "But we won't judge you or argue with you or say you're in trouble. No matter what you call it."

The giants agreed with her, smiling and shaking their heads. Pet didn't look up, she could hear their neck muscles moving.

"Can I call it a cumquat?" Ray swallowed hard and Annie slapped his wrist and he explained he would accept cumquat but it would take a while to memorize it and he'd have to create a chart which he would do, he hurried to add, but that meant it would be a while before they could really start building the buildings.

That's when Denny leaned way way down to look at Pet where she crouched and asked, "Are you grinning young lady?" And Pet couldn't keep from smiling.

Annie stood up and spun and pointed at Ray's face and said, "She GOT you!" And everyone laughed some more and Pet got tickled and it was great and they hadn't even started building anything yet.

-----

When they got home from dinner, Denise took one look at the box and declared bedtime.

"I was thinking to at least sort out-" Ray started.

"Upstairs," Denise ordered. "Control freaks don't get a head start on freaking people out."

"I wasn't," he protested. Denise raised an eyebrow. Behind her, Annie rolled her head towards Denny, looked Ray in the eye and drew a finger across her throat. Pet giggled. Denise spun around to stare at her sylph while Ray's pet put on an innocent expression.

When she turned back around, Ray was looking contrite. "Bedtime. Yes'm. Time to heave to and trice up."

"Do you even know what that means?" Denise asked accusingly. She scooped up both sylphs and turned towards the stairs.

"Oh, yes. 'Trice up,' well, that means tying alongside. They'd start with single lines, meaning one line, or rope, across at strategic places, then double and triple the lines, holding the ships together not only for the current conditions, but for all expected, or reasonable expectable, conditions. Wind and tide, not hurricanes…"

Denise reached the stairs ahead of Ray and quickly slipped the sylphs behind the garbage can on the landing.

"Huh?" Annie started to ask. Pet yanked her deeper into the shadows and whispered, "Shush!"

Ray was still lecturing as he walked by their hiding place. They heard Denise open and shut the sylph drawer as if she was putting tiny pets to bed. Ray spoke a little louder, thinking she was helping the sylphs hide from his lecture.

The bedroom door shut and Pet reached for one of the ankle socks.

Annie was impressed that Pet didn't yelp in glee on the slide down to the first floor. By then they were far enough away from the soundproofed Masters' Bedroom that they didn't have to worry about detection.

"What is going on?"

"We have something to prove," Pet said. She stopped at the foot of the card table. "If we get the first layer of the crater built, Ray can't say that anything is too tough for sylphs to do."

"I like it!" Annie enthused. "Your idea?"

"Denny's," Pet admitted, a little embarrassed. She turned and started to climb up the table leg. A hand at her shoulder stopped her.

Annie turned her friend around. The made eye contact, barely, in the light from the digital clock on the VCR. Annie lifted Pet's chin to look straight across, eye to eye. "I'll bet she didn't have to explain it twice."

"Oh, no! I got it RIGHT away because Ray'll want to help and protect and guide us and he should know better but he's… Well."

"He's Ray," Annie nodded. "Well, lead on."

----------

The instructions were divided into little projects. Ray's division of labor followed the instructions.

The builders had also divided the bricks and specialty pieces up into numbered bags. The Crater was number 1.

That bag and all the big flat pieces had been 'coincidentally' left on the table when they left for dinner.

"Only one problem," Annie said. She leaned against Bag 1. "The pieces are protected in some sort of a forcefield."

"Oh. Denny must have forgotten how hard it is for us to open-"

"Hang on." Annie scratched her head. There was something… On the tip of her tongue. Something about the Pirates sets.

She kicked the bag of bricks in frustration. The plastic rattled. A floor away, Ray sat straight up in the bed. He wasn't sure what had woken him.

Then he realized that neither sylph had kissed any of the humans 'for g'dnight,' as Pet pronounced it. Annie might skip the ritual once in a while, but Pet? Pet would never miss Denny's good night kiss.

And no bedtime kiss meant at least one sylph hadn't gone to bedtime yet. He remembered the table as they'd left it.

He could go downstairs and open one of the plastic inventories. Just then, Denise's hands lightly grazed his forearm, outlining his wristbone, sliding down to intertwine with his fingers.

Well, he thought, Annie did know about the sylph-sized pull tab on the seam of each bag. He lowered his head to kiss his wife.

Annie's head rose with the memory. "There's a sylph-sized pull tab on the seam. Help me drag this around."

-----------

"I think," Annie grunted, dragging a huge flat over to press it against another, "Denise wanted you to get some hands-on with the parts before you try to name them."

"Yeah, probably. We never had Legos growing up."

"Why not?" They both walked to one edge to push it into alignment.

"Mom didn't want me playing with boy toys." Out of the corner of her eye, Pet noticed Annie forcibly refrain from making a comment about boyfriends and girlfriends.

"Huh," she said instead. "Carolyn always seemed more open about that sort of thinking."

She stood, hands on hips, looking to see where the impact points were, to staple the two flats together.

"Not Denny's Mom," Pet said. Her voice dropped to a whisper. "My mom."

"Oh." Annie stared for a moment. Then she sniffed. "The little diamond shapes over here go along the edge," she said. She started walking. She was going to ignore that terribly out-of-character and probably embarrassing topic.

"Mom always told me," Pet said. Annie stopped and listened. "She told me I had to fit in. I had to be Denny's little living dolly. I had to enjoy my dollhouse and enjoy playing dress-up and enjoy the world I lived in."

"Oh, sweetheart," Annie said. She walked forward, closer to Pet.

"It was an evil world and I could be taken away at any moment," Pet sniffled. "I shouldn't read because dollies can't. I had to be dependent on Denise. Always. And happy with whatever Denise wanted to do with me, even if it was to shut up and wait for her to want play with me. And I couldn't ask for toys that weren't her idea. Carolyn didn't want a tom-boy daughter so Buttercup made sure I wasn't a tom-boy sylph.

"My… My life might depend on it. Or if she got bored with me, or jealous of me, she could sell me. And Buttercup would never see me again."

Annie took Pet into a hug, guiding the woman's head to her shoulder. "Oh, Lord, Pet. I never… I never imagined anyone would… I mean, to consciously choose…"

"It's crazy, huh?" Pet forced a laugh. Annie hugged her tight, Pet returned the pressure almost desperately.

Upstairs, Denny rolled over in her sleep and grabbed Ray. Desperately. Ray pat her back reassuringly, also in his sleep.

"No," Annie said softly. "No, your Mom was just trying to deal with a big, scary world of big, scary giants. And she cared about you so much…" They stood there for a long moment.

"I'll bet, though," Annie finally said, "Buttercup hasn't reminded you of those rules in a while."

"No, not for…" She paused. "Not for years, I guess," she finally said.

"A little reminder when you went away to college?"

"No. No, not at all! She… Buttercup hasn't mentioned this since Denny was in fifth grade!"

"Because you didn't need it," Annie said. Pet smiled. "Yeah, that year the bottom dropped out of the sylph market for blondes so there was no real point in selling you off when-"

"Nuh-UH!" Pet stomped her foot. Plastic rattled. "I've always been worth a million bazillion chocolate Kisses! EVERY year!"

"That's true, Pet," Annie said. "Annnnnd…."

"And?"

"And you do love playing in the dollhouse."

"Yeah."

"And you do love being with Denny even if you're just sitting in her pocket waiting for her job to be over."

"Yeah."

"And Denise loves it when you read to her."

"Yeah," Pet giggled.

"You hate playing dress up, but it is a compromise, a sacrifice you're willing to make so that you and aw look I can't even keep a straight face for that one."

They hugged again, much more enthusiastically. Their owners' hug relaxed, too. Until Ray snored in Denise's ear and she wriggled away.

"So," Annie said as they finally stepped away from each other. "We can't tell my mom we're playing with Legos, we can't tell YOUR mom we're playing with Legos. Good thing she's in Arizona."

"Oh! But she's coming BACK!"

"And we'll be ready for her," Annie said.

---------



Denise was dressed and downstairs while Ray was still in the shower, complaining about his alarm not going off.

She tiptoed to the card table. Her little Pet was curled up on a nest made of space buggy rubber tires. Annie was beside her, an empty plastic bag folded up into a futon.

Beside them, the base of Tycho Base was fully assembled. Denise could see where each of the remaining buildings would go by the little truncated moon-buggy trails they'd laid out.

"Good WORK, guys!" she said softly. Annie mumbled 'damn right,' and rolled over. Pet sat bolt upright, eyes wide if bleary.

"Hanh? Hooh? Hwabba?"

Denise scooped the sylph up in her hands and gently laid kisses on the tiny head. "This is a late good-night kiss, and a good-morning kiss, and a good job kiss, and, um…"

"And," Annie growled, "a taking the day off and going back to bed kiss, maybe?"

"Nmm hmm!" Pet agreed, rubbing her eyes. Denise smuggled them both upstairs and installed them in the bedroom drawer before Ray came out of the bathroom.

They cuddled in the bed and went back to sleep as he dressed and wondered where little sylphs were. Then he tiptoed down the stairs, thinking he was the first. Denise yawned and followed.

---------

Pet kinda started to understand Annie's frustration with Ray. Denise put everything from the bag into a cookie tray and Denny and Pet and Annie wandered back and forth, scanning for the next part.

She kept the instructions handy and visible and whoever found the part got to install it.

Ray tried to be fair. Ray showed them the list of parts for this step and wouldn't let anyone be installed until the found them all. His parts were in three bowls and he would painstakingly sort each bowl until all the parts were found and lined up.

Then he'd try to evenly divide the labor between himself and anyone else that was still talking to him, or at least still building with him.

For the 'all four of us' project he sort of got sidelined by Denise. Pet watched with amazement as Denise sort of created the job of part sorterer and talked Ray into finding ALLLLLLLL the parts for the building and lining them up step by step by step by step. So little sylphs and Denny's fingers could run over and find a part quickly and run back and constructify it.

He didn't boss anyone around and he was strangely as happy sorting parts as he was building parts together.

And he cheered as much as anyone when a course or a level was finished.

Even Annie was impressed. Once, when Ray was making a drinks run to the kitchen, she stood up and walked to right in front of Denise where she sat in the chair and put her hands together and bowed and said, quietly, teach me oh sensay and Denise bowed back and said, don't be modest, honored colleague our powers are equal, if separate and Pet wasn't sure what was happening but the two smiled so she smiled and then Ray was coming back and looking at the table from a distance and commenting on just how fast it was all going.

"And it's all because of you, Ray!" Pet shouted because it really did go faster with all the assorted parts all presorted and Annie and Denny winked as if she was in on some sort of trick or joke and she didn't get it but everyone was smiling so that was fine. And Annie would explain it later.

But right now with Denny at a baby shower and Ray trying to get the rubber tubing of the Lunar Moon Shine Still lined up, he was starting to grate. Annie had already decided she was going to save her constructive energies for later and not quite stomped off so Pet was alone with Ray which was almost as good as working alone with Annie which was only second to working with Denny and Annie and Ray which was almost as good as Pet and Annie being with Denny. But if he 'no, no, your other right,' once more, just once more, she'd scream.

And just, I mean exactly JUST as he was saying, 'No, no, Pet,' there was a knock on the door and Ruth was there and Ray smiled and picked Pet up and they left the table to sisters-alone-time.

Annie made an obviously fake invitation for Master to stay and help and he declined and Ruth and Annie both invited Pet to join but she saw Ray picking up a book and headed for the easy chair and she decided she'd take a nap on his shoulder because once he opened the book he'd just sit there, radiating heat, without moving much for an hour or so and it was like being a cat and finding the spot of sunlight.

Annie nodded and called Lurch over to make sure Pet was hydrated before she curled up in the hollow of his throat and baked.

And she did.

Pet dozed through Ruth's visit, just laying on Ray's skin, feeling like she was being hugged in his soul. She never described it that way because Ray scoffed and Annie sneered because they were atheists which bothered Pet more than a bit but Buttercup said they were Good People and not just because they listened when sylphs had questions so that was okay.

Ruth was in a hurry because she had to attend something choir related and she hadn't told Mama yet that she'd found her sister so they tried to finish their project in one fast marathon session and kept giggling and screaming in frustration and threatening to set pieces on fire and having a wonderful bonding experience and Pet didn't even feel jealous anymore because Annie didn't love Pet any less when Ruth left.

No, when Ruth left, Ray walked her to the driveway and watched Gerald pick her up and came back and physically restrained his sylph.

Annie just got so very excited about being with Ruth, and wanting so desperately to cram living their lives into the few minutes they could steal from other people that she was kind of blitzo gobangi when the visit was over, spending an hour regretting things they didn't do or jokes she didn't remember to share or questions she hadn't asked and all sort of other things.

Pet had a hard time not giggling at times like this because Annie ACTED like Pet spoke and Annie never laughed at Pet for trying to cram her whole day into a few sentences to get across as long as people were paying attention.

And her Master never laughed. If anything he seemed to be sorry that he couldn't just let Ruth live there until Annie got her feel or got over her guilt at the 16 years they hadn't known each other.

She sat on top of the back of the easy chair and watched. Ray wouldn't let her get close because he feared Annie would react violently and he kinda had a point because Annie had bit him more than once as he tried to calm her down but he also didn't because Annie never ever ever hit Pet because she was still there, inside there somewhere, but angry. Very very angry.

But not at Pet.

Ray just said, "Old College Trick," and got two washrags and two sandwich baggies and made two heating pads at the sink and brought them out and stood by the card table and pointed at something over Annie's shoulder and said 'Look! Ruth forgot her-' and then grabbed his sylph from behind as she turned.

She kicked and gnashed her teeth and Pet just HAD to laugh at that because she fell for the same trick EVERY TIME and then Ray carried her in a safe hold back to the chair and tilted it back and Pet slipped down to his shoulder.

Ray stripped Annie naked and laid her down between the two heating pads and pushed her flat and started to give her a backrub. Pet sighed because Ray gave really good sylph backrubs and he was also moving his foot back and forth so the leg muscles flexed and twisted and it was like riding a roller coaster on a waterbed filled with Jello, Annie said.

Pet never got this treatment so she didn't know. Maybe she should throw a tantrum, too, she wondered.

Then she realized that just like her and Ray giving Annie special sister time, this was special Annie and Ray time and that made her feel all warm and gooshy inside just like when Buttercup did Pet's hair, or when Denny took Pet to the Mall and they shared a bowl of Dippin Dots ice cream and giggled at each other and Pet got brain freeze and Denny held her tightly until she was warm again and Pet suspected that Denny knew she was exaggerating a little bit every time she said 'nearly' when Denise asked 'are you all better YET?' and Pet just liked to snuggle in Denny's pocket so she put off reporting how good she felt.

And before she knew it Annie was feeling all better and Ray gave them their baths and tucked them into their jammies and they watched a movie until Denny came back and everyone went to bed.

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

Ray could tell that Carla was surprised that he was the one who picked them up at the airport. He could also tell that Buttercup was miffed that Pet wasn't there.

At least, he suspected Buttercup was miffed. There was absolutely no way she'd swear or make accusations or do anything so uncouth as to complain. But she was just a teensy bit terse.

"Where is," she paused significantly, "everyone?"

"They're at home," he said. Carla kissed his cheek and held Buttercup up for a finger hug. He grabbed Carla's suitcases and headed for the parking lot.

"I suppose Annie's found some movie they simply HAD to watch," Buttercup said.

"No. They have a surprise. But you have to wait for us to get home to see it."

"Pet's been drinking food coloring and she'd green," Carla guessed.

"No, no, no," he assured them.

"Then if the surprise is at home, why isn't Pet here?" Buttercup asked.

"Because she was trying really, really hard practice keeping a secret and she bit her cheeks until she bled."

"Oh, dear!" Buttercup replied.

"She's fine," Ray promised to her. If anyone didn't need to be reminded of how fast sylphs recovered, it was the woman who'd raised a baby sylph. "But if she tried to come out here, she'd be full up to bursting with the secret. Annie's afraid she'd bite her own head off."

"Well," Buttercup said. She paced a bit on the carrier roof. "Well, that's alright then." She gave a small laugh. "It must be some outrageous secret."

"I can't wait!" Carla said.

-----------

At the house, Carla pointed out which suitcase had the presents from her parents out in Yuma. That one went inside, the other went into her trunk.

Ray could hear the squeals of anticipation from outside the kitchen door. He put Buttercup down on the table and kisses and hugs went around and around.

"Now, there's rumor of a surprise?" Buttercup asked. It sounded pleasant enough to Ray. Denise and Carla both flinched, though.

"Mommy, there's something in the other room and I need… WE need your help to finish it."

"Really?"

"Really!" Pet gestured and Denise picked up mother and daughter. Ray picked up Annie and offered an elbow to escort Carla.

Buttercup was speechless. She wandered through the Base for a few minutes. She stumbled and Pet caught her elbow. Then she showed her mom how to walk on the buggy runs. Or to carefully place the ball of the foot on the pins.

With that, the floodgates lifted and Pet wouldn't stop talking. She talked about how the set came to be in the house. Then she explained a bit of Lego history, interspersed with the names of the buildings and the personalities behind each one. She also threw in a credible impression of Annie saying 'they blew,' and a damned good version of Ray's own mother forbidding Annie and Raymond to play with stupid Legos forever more.

"I think I said something like that," Buttercup said dreamily.

"Yeah," Pet said, twisting her feet and looking away. "But it'sokaybecauseitbondedusalltogether!"

"I can see that," Buttercup said with a smile. "I'm very proud of what you've done."

"She did the base with me," Annie said. "And that building with me and Denise and Lurch and that ship with Denise, and that building."

"What building?" Buttercup asked. Annie pointed. Pet clapped both hands to her face and stifled a scream. "Annie, there's no building there."

"Not yet," Denise said, picking up a bag. Number 13 was unopened. Captain Chandrasekhar's Diamond Mine was inside.

The only names on the tag are Buttercup's and Pet's.

"Fan-damn-TAS-tic!" Carla said. "This set is wonderful. And I hate construction toys!"

"The Lurch would be willing to sort the bricks for you," Annie offered.

"Thank you, dear," Buttercup said. For the first time since he picked them up, Ray thought she sounded normal. She looked up at the giant. "And thank you, Ray, but I was thinking, I probably could use the time to bond with my daughter."

"Yeah," Ray snorted. "There's so much distance-OW!"

Denise lowered her hand from the back of his head. "You two own the building, Buttercup. It's all up to you who plays with this one."

Buttercup turned to face Pet. "Show me what to do!" Pet squealed. Annie signaled Lurch for a pick-up. Denise announced impending pizza before her sister drove home. They walked out to the kitchen as Pet let Buttercup pull the bag open.

-------

Two nights later, they were shifting their sleeping bags to the Oxygen Farm. On the top level, the clear blue plastic windows made it look like the base really was on the Moon.

Pet stared for ten minutes. Annie and Buttercup set up the two sleeping bags. They were zipped together for one big pile of sleeping sylphs.

"They'll have to take it apart, won't they?" Pet said softly.

"Not until you're done with it," Buttercup said. "It's like the tent fort." She stood beside her daughter and gazed across the landscape. "Wow. It's too bad the giants can't see the Base from here, isn't it?"

"Well, maybe Denise will shrink some day and we can show this to her then," Annie quipped.

"NO!" Pet said. "No, Denny should be big because that's her part of the deal. She's big and takes care of me and I'm small and I make sure she knows she's loved."

"Aw, that's sweet, Pet," Buttercup said.

"Well, that's the deal," Pet replied.

"And it's a great deal," Annie said. "Lurch lurches and I get out of his way. That's our deal," she snarled.

"Uh huh," Buttercup said. "Hey, did we bring the snacks inside?"

"Oh! I'll get them!" Annie said, running down the stairs for the baggie Ray had packed for the overnight.

She didn't look back and she didn't see Pet and Buttercup's ironic smiles so she didn't have to react to them. And that was THAT deal…



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