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Sammay and Sarah manage to get to Tim's house without too much difficulty.

Sarah and Sammy walk up the sidewalk to the McFane's front door.  Sammy rings the doorbell, and fidgets nervously until someone opens the door.

Sarah looks at Sammy.  "Maybe they're normal folk with weekend activities.  Do you know if he does any sports or .. uh anything?"

"I really just know him from band.  Maybe he's sleeping in."

"I could yell?  I'm good at that," offers Sarah with a smile.  "Maybe that's not the approach we're going for?"

That gets a half-smile out of Sammy.  "Maybe his parents aren't home, and he's in the bathroom.  This house is like my friend Heather's.  I could fly you up so you could look in the bathroom window and see if he's there."

"Eww!" laughs Sarah.  She pushes Sammy half off the step.  "So gross."

Sammy is caught off balance and stumbles a little, but quickly steadies herself.  "Chicken.  Bwaaaak-buk-buk-buk!"

"Whatever a guy wants to do in a bathroom..or wherever and is too occupied to answer the door I DO NOT want to see."  She pauses and considers that.  "Well.. maybe..no..no."

She looks slyly at Sammy, "Is that what you do in your spare time?  Peeking through windows?  Ever peek in Elrod's?"

Sammy giggles.  "No.  Not yet anyhow.  I've thought about it, but... no."  She looks sideways at Sarah.  "You really wouldn't peek in on Colin?  If you could?  I flew up to his window once.  I could get you up there."

Sarah just keeps smiling.  "I'm more worried about the other way around.  He's the one who sees the future, the past and everything in between.  Who knows when he'll start seeing through walls or have a vision of my room at night?"

"He'd ask permission first, so you could have fun with it too, if you wanted.  Besides, its John who sees through walls and clothing, not Colin."  She rings the doorbell again.  "Maybe its broken?"  She knocks.

Tim answers the door, he's obviously just woken up and his face is red and his eyes are puffy.  "Oh, Hi Sammy."  he says, his voice a bit rough.

Some of the emotions she's been feeling bubble back up to the surface when she sees Tim.  To her, it looks like he's been crying a good part of the night.  "Hi, Timmy, Tim," she says, her voice breaking a little and her gold-flecked brown eyes welling with tears.  She moves in swiftly to give him a hug, not asking for permission first.  "I know what happened yesterday at the practice room.  It's not your fault.  Are you okay?" 

I'm going to feel really stupid if I find out he's been up all night partying and not crying...

Holy crap she sucker punched him!  Sarah always kind of admired Sammy's approach to things.  It was usually even more straight forward than her own.

While she was waiting for the shock to kick Tim awake she talked to the little voice in her head. 

Morpheus?  You out there?  Haven't bugged you in a while.  Hope I'm not waking you like we've been doing to everyone else this morning.  Quick question.  How do you feel about messing with other people's brains?  I didn't ask before I tried it... and now I'm wondering about it.  I came here to see how Tim was doing... and maybe to do something else.  I have been thinking of taking a hard memory away from him.  Something he did that wasn't his fault but that might be really messing him up.  I guess I wanted a second unbiased opinion on it.

When Sammy hugs him his emotions flood out and he starts to cry all over again.  He's saying he's sorry, or at least that's what it might be if he could form words.

There are experiences that shape us, and those that harm us.  I think you'd be doing a service by helping him forget what he's done.  Keep in mind that we need to know where he got that gas first though.  Before you make him forget.

Sammy hugs him tight and keeps up a running flow of reassuring noises between her own tears.  "It's okay, Timmy, I'm not angry, nobody's angry, nobody hates you, nobody thinks you're stupid.  This was done to you, it wasn't something you did on your own.  We know who did it to you, Timmy, and they're paying for it, I promise.   They can't hurt you or me or anybody else ever again.   We're all safe, okay?"

That's what I hoped you would say.  Thinking that he went all psycho on the girl he had a crush on, not to mention hurting one of his band friends must have him pretty scared.  Once Sammy helps him out I think I can fix it. 

"She's right Tim, it wasn't your fault, but you can help us out."

"Help you, how?"  his tears eventually run out, just too much emotion in too short  a time for him to keep it up any longer.

Sarah smiles gently at Tim.  She says, "You can help us a couple of ways.  The first way is to answer a couple of questions about what happened.  I know you probably don't want to talk about it... but it might really help us against the people responsible for this mess."  

"I'm not really sure.  I saw Megan that morning, and she was sooo beautiful.  It's like she was glowing.  and , I got betterflies in my stomach whenever I saw her.  And then I saw her go into the music room and I realized that if I could just spent some time alonge with her, maybe she'd like me.  Then it gets a little foggy.  I went to the storage closet because I'd heard a couple of guys talking about some sleep gas they were keeping there, I thought I'd take her somewhere that we could be alone but I didn't think she'd want to go, so I felt it might be better if she was asleep.  Anyway, then things get really foggy, she talked to me and I remember waking up in an ambulance coughing."

He remembers more than that.. or he wouldn't have broke down on Sammy so quick.  I want to know whats going on first.
"Do you know the guys that were talking about the sleeping gas?  Was it a closet near the music room?" asks Sarah. 

Why are they storing sleeping gas?  Are they dealing it out to kids or something?  Or knocking people out? 

Sammy kind of gets what Sarah is doing.  She doesn't hug Tim as tightly but eases off to a much looser grip so he can talk more easily, using her own red eyes and sniffley nose as an excuse to maintain some physical contact.

*sniffle*   Speak, Tim, and make Sammy's sad face go away...

"It was a couple of the science club guys.  I don't know their names.  It sounded like they were planning some kind of prank, maybe going to put a class to sleep or something like that.  The one guy is really into robots and the other one is a big Hong Kong action movie fan."  Time looks at Sammy, "You and her were there, weren't you?"  He says, looking at Sarah, "And you were in the hospital.  That's my fault, isn't it?"

"I was in the hospital, Tim," Sammy says.  "But it's not your fault.  They were worried about smoke inhalation, because I was having trouble catching my breath and I couldn't stop coughing.  Turns out all this horn blowing just gave me really big lung capacity, so I inhaled more than a normal person would.  If you feel like you need forgiveness, I'll give it to you, but there's really nothing to forgive.  You were a patsy.  Someone made you act weird, and its not your fault.  I wouldn't be here making sure you were okay if I thought you were a bad guy."

Sammy's words seem to calm him some.  "I'm still not sure what came over me.  I feel so stupid.  I know she's not interested in me, I just couldn't help myself."

Sammy looks down at the ground, obviously uncomfortable and not faking it.  "I know.  Something like that also happened to me a couple of weeks ago.  It's scary as hell.  There's a group of kids, maybe a couple of groups, all playing with hormones and making other people act crazy."  She squirms a little and says with embarrassment.  "It made me kiss the new quarterback, John Elliot.  I was all over him, and I couldn't stop myself, even knowing he wasn't into me.  It was horrible."

"Anything that steals your ability to make choices against your will like that is abuse.  It doesn't matter if someone is forcing you with a knife to do something or loading you up with a drug or affecting you through magic or manipulating your mind against your will...  It's wrong," says Sarah.

Well isn't that ironic.  Shut up brain.  I'm a teenager we're all about irony and perversity.  I'm supposed to do the opposite of what I say. 

"You didn't do anything wrong.  You were high on a magic charm and you lost control.  No one is mad at you or upset.  Not me, or Sammy or even Megan.  She felt terrible that you were effected the way you were.  You weren't the only one."

"Tim," Sammy says, "I want you to be able to forgive yourself.  Does anybody else know what happened?  If they don't, but even if they do, I'm willing to let this be the end of it, with me forgiving you and you forgiving you and you remembering me 25 years from now as the absolute coolest girl you knew in high school.  Sarah can only be second coolest, only 'cause she's not in the band.  Sorry, Sarah."  She tentatively laughs, hoping it'll get him to crack a smile too.

Tim laughs, and his mood seems a little easier.  "I don't think anyone else knows, I haven't been able to tell anyone, I just felt too bad."

"I can live with second coolest," replies Sarah. 

She looks back at Tim and adds, "You remember this... if you want to talk about this, or anything else, you can come see either of us.  We're good listeners, especially Sammy with those big ears.  Between the two of us and some friends I'm not sure if there is a problem we can't fix." 

Well Morpheus, it looks like my marvelous mind bending talents aren't required this day.  Probably just as well.  I might goof up and make him forget how to brush his teeth or something.

Sammy pretends to be affronted.  "BIG EARS!" she says, taking this opportunity to quit hugging Tim.  He might get the wrong idea if she keeps it up much longer.  "BIG EARS?  Harrumph!  My mama says my ears are perfect, and my mama is always right.  Just ask her.  She'll tell you!"

It will eventually become second nature to you.

Sarah holds up her hands in surrender to Sammy.  "I'm not even going near mamma jokes," she says. 

Then she turns to Tim and puts her hands on the sides of her ears and flaps them mouthing, "Her momma"

"Aarr!  You!  At least there's something on me big enough to grab!  Colin says he keeps reaching for you and finding nothing but air where a girl should be."   

She mock punches Sarah in the arm, then steps back a step.  "You look like you need to go back to bed and sleep for real, Tim Tim, so I'm going to leave now.  See you at band practice?"  Glancing over at Sarah she adds, "Are you ready to go?  I gotta fly."

Sarah puts her hand on Tim's shoulder, "Watch out Tim.  Once those ears start flapping for take off the wind can knock you right off your feet.  You'd better head back inside."

She grins one more time and waves at him.  "Remember.  You need someone to talk to or anything you give us a buzz."

She looks at Sammy and nods, "Yeah I should go do some homework or something."

Sammy starts to make a smartass remark about not being able to do homework when all of your belongings are locked up in a practice room at school, then realizes that Tim might take it personally. 

She waves goodbye to Tim and heads off down the sidewalk.  When she knows he is back in his house, she says "I'm not sure where El got to, but he'll find me when he wants to find me.  Want to fly around Fenwick and peek in windows?  Its not fair that we get all the paranormal high school action.  We should share."

"Sweet!  If we had some paint or something we could make a big smiley face over a whole bunch of houses in the neighborhood or make foot prints up the side or... I can't wait until Christmas!  You totally have to pull a Santa Claus!  We just have to rope Sylvia into creating the reindeer!"  Sarah loves the idea of delivering a little magical Christmas spirit to the town.  "Only problem is getting down the chimneys.  Maybe we'll think of something by then.  But for now.. gosh.  You've seen this city from the best view for a while... where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere.  Up."  Sammy smiles.  "I just want to fly."

She and Sarah fly over Oak Park and River Forest.  They buzz Fenwick High and peek in upper floor windows, waving and smiling at anybody who happens to be looking out instead of paying attention to their classwork.

After their adventure Sarah hugs Sammy and says simply, "You have the best power ever."

"Anytime.  You should ask Donnie to let one of the dragons give you a ride sometime.  Althea is a sweetheart.  You'd have real fun with her."   Sammy doesn't explain how she knows this, but nobody other than Donnie and the dragons has ever seen her and Althea together.

"Hey... tell Colin I'm not mad at him.  I'm frustrated and disappointed and kind of sad about a bunch of things, and his revelation about the kid who died was just the last straw for me at that particular moment.  I'm not angry though, and I'll get over the rest.  OK?"

Sarah nods, "I think he knows...I hope he knows you aren't mad at him.  He doesn't want to keep secrets from people but the boy, the rapist.. the demon, I'm not sure what to call him, it.. hell..  He was just being a dumb boy about that.  He didn't want any of us delicate females having to encounter something like that."  She tries to make light of the event but her heart isn't in it. 

"He didn't want to risk any of us to it.  It makes sense in a dumb boy kind of way.  It's sweet and he did bring Kel and Donnie along so they were covered combat wise.  I think Kel's got things the right way.  We all know he doesn't tell us half of what's going on with him and we all just accept it.  Must be part of the ninja mystique that surrounds him.  With everybody besides us Colin is like that.  He's a ghost but with our group everything he does gets analyzed.  I'm not sure if we're all going to be able to work as a team.  They boys play nice together on their own.  I think the girls would work together pretty well.  Maybe. "  She looks at Sammy for support, "We get along okay right?"

She looks at Sammy, "Is the frustrated, sad stuff anything you want to talk about with me?  You get the same offer as Tim about the listening thing.  I'll even treat you to a milkshake or whatever while we're at it."

"Don't worry, you and I get along just fine," Sammy replies.  "If you need me, I've got your back.  But I'm not ready to talk a lot about the other stuff yet.  I need to settle some things in my own mind first, make some decisions about what I want to do.  Maybe after that."  She realizes that what she said could be badly misunderstood.  "I'm not going to do anything to hurt myself, its nothing like that.  I'm just wondering where I really belong, what I should really be doing, that's all."

Sarah trusts Sammy's word, she's never had reason to doubt it.  "That's cool.  I've no clue what I should be doing either.  If you come up with any good answer IM me with them.  Mostly for now I'm just watching Colin's back.. and anyone else's that needs it.  I mean, I can run around thumping people... how is that supposed to make a better world?  Gah!  Nevermind.  I don't even want to think about it.  I'll head back home and do homework or something."

She gives Sammy a hug.  "Good luck with the sorting things out stuff, and thanks again for the ride it was a blast."