The following morning was Christmas, and almost everyone was up early due to the high excitement level. Mister and Misses West joined Seifer, Irvine, and Alex in opening gifts before breakfast. For Irvine was a hatband from Selphie, a cleaning kit for his shotgun from Alex, a Western novel from Seifer, a new pair of cowboy boots from Quistis, Squall, Rinoa, and Laguna, and some Western movies on DVD from Mister and Mrs. West. For Seifer was a cleaning kit for his gunblade from Alex, a couple of patches for his jacket from Irvine, a book of low level spells from Mister and Mrs. West, and a new pair of boots from the gang back on Terra. For Alex was some hair bands from Selphie, a new laptop from his parents, a couple of journals from Seifer and Irvine (both including pictures, quotes, and letters of love and devotion from each of them), a book of white magic from Rinoa, a cleaning kit for his glaive from Squall, a gift certificate for marital arts lessons from Zell, and a gift certificate for lessons in using a whip from Quistis. All three giggled and playfully smacked each other when they opened gifts, and Mister and Mrs. West took pictures and chuckled and smiled at all three of them.
     When almost everything was unwrapped Mrs. West went into the office and brought out a Fed Ex box, which she gave to Alex. “This came yesterday,” she said, smiling at her son, “But who lives in Sunnydale that you know?”
     “Buffy and the gang,” Alex replied, tearing into the box. On top of several brightly wrapped items was a letter from the Slayer and company.
     “Listen to this,” Alex said, reading the letter, “Hey all, what’s up? All is well here in Sunnydale for this time of year. Willow has been doing much better lately, so no worries in that department. She’s found a new girlfriend who’s a lot like Tara, only she’s a potential Slayer. Xander and Anya have patched things up and are back to square on again. The Magic Box is still a wreck, but we’re slowly rebuilding. Ok, scratch that last part. The Magic Box was a complete loss and we’ve just cleaned up without doing much else. Dawn has begun to patrol with us, even though Spike is keeping an eye on her at all times... when he’s around and not out with Celia, that is. Speaking of Spike, he sends his love and regards and whatnot. So do the others.
     “Enclosed are some really cool gifts. Mostly slaying gear since you’re a slayer of sorts, but in hell’s armpit instead of a hellmouth. The guys swore me to secrecy as to what they got for you. Well, all except for Spike, who wants you to open his first.
     “Lots of love: Buffy, Spike, Xander, Dawn, Will, Anya.”
     “So, which one is from Spike?” Irvine asked, looking into the package. “I see some shiny ones, and some with shiny black paper.”
     “That would be Spike’s,” Alex said, lifting it out of the box. He made a face when he felt the texture of the wrapping. “Eewwww.... what is this stuff?”
     “There’s a PS in the letter,” Mrs. West said, “PS. This is Spike taking pen in hand. The wrapping on your gift is 100% authentic gargoyle wing membrane...”
     In unison everyone in the room went, “GROSS!”
     “Well, I’m going in,” Alex said, opening the package. Something black and leathery with shiny silver buttons fell to the floor, as well as a small black envelope with silver writing.
     “He sent you a leather jacket,” Seifer said, holding up what the leathery heap was. “And it looks quite stylish.”
     “He also sent a letter,” Alex said, opening the envelope. “Dear Alex, this is a more personal letter. Saw this in a store and thought of you. Don’t worry, it’s not stolen or anything. Dawn and I pooled our money to buy it for you, but it’s mostly from me. We hope it fits all right, and may it protect you where ever you go and in whatever you do.
     -Will the Bloody, a.k.a. Spike.”
     “Well, put it on, put it on,” Irvine said excitedly as Alex slipped the jacket on.
     “Looks like it was made especially for you,” Mrs. West said as Alex admired himself.
     “It’s more of a sport coat than anything,” Alex said, “but it’s comfortable and very stylish, if I do say so myself.”
     “Muy stylish,” Irvine said, “bound to go with anything.”
     Alex giggled and unwrapped the rest of the gifts from the gang out in Sunnydale, oohing and aahing like a little kid who’s excited by anything and everything. From Willow and her girlfriend were a couple of crystal amulets and bracelets; from Anya, a book of quick and easy spells; from Buffy a bastard sword with sheath and shoulder strap; from Xander, a high quality crossbow; and finally, from Dawn, a journal with a pewter gryphon on the cover.
     “Interesting gift choices,” Mr. West said, looking at each of the items that had come from Sunnydale. “More slaying gear than you can shake a stick at.”
     “Yeah, but it’ll come in handy for that after holiday rush,” a male voice said with a thick British accent. A moment later Celia and Spike materialized in the center of the room, Celia grinning from ear to ear, Spike smiling a little. “Happy holiday lady and gents.”
     “Hi all,” Celia said, putting a santa hat on. She turned to Spike and grinned. “Put your hat on Spike.”
     Spike gave her a look that could kill. “I don’t want to wear the bleedin’ hat,” he said through gritted teeth.
     “But Spikey,” Celia giggled, batting her eyes at him, “You promised.”
     Spike grumbled, reached into his coat, and took a green hat with a bell on it from an inside pocket. When he put it on the other people in the room chuckled before bursting into loud laughter.
     “This is bloody embarrassing,” Spike sighed, holding his hand to his forehead.
     “You’re Santa’s helper,” Alex said, trying to catch his breath. He gave in to the urge to laugh, though, and Spike went red in the face.
     “I think he looks rather handsome with the hat,” Mrs. West said.
     “Thank you Mrs. West,” Spike said, regaining some composure.
     “But where are his pointy shoes?” Seifer asked.
     “SEIFER!” Alex and Irvine exclaimed in unison as Spike colored again. Both mage and cowboy snagged pillows and smacked him, knocking him onto his back.
     “I’m like the wind,” Spike said, tossing the hat to Mr. West before blinking out in a cloud of dark smoke.
     Celia sighed, set her santa hat on Alex’s head, and closed her eyes to locate the vampire. She, too, blinked out, leaving a small cloud of crimson smoke in her wake.
     “Way to go Seifer,” Alex grumbled, “Now Spike’s probably lost in the stream of time because he left in a huff.”
     “That wasn’t very nice,” Irvine added, “when they return you’re going to apologize for what you said.”
     ‘Alex, can you hear me?’ an alarmed female voice said in his mind.
     “Yeah, I hear you,” he said aloud, “but who is this?”
     The voice grumbled a couple of times as a response. A moment later Celia reappeared, only she was about twelve years of age instead of twenty two. She looked at the alarmed faces of the five people in the room, sighed, and took a seat on the couch.
     “Celia?” everyone gasped in unison.
     “That’s me,” she sighed.
     “What in the nine hells happened?” Mrs. West asked.
     “I have no idea,” Celia sighed, “I went to find Spike... he had jumped to Terra. When I bamphed in I was like this.”
     “And Spike?” Alex asked.
     Celia shook her head. “No sign of him.”
     “So do we jump to Terra, or do we call Washu before doing anything else?” Mrs. West asked. “Poor William may be in trouble.”
     Alex sighed and looked at Celia, who sat back and hugged her knees. A second later he clicked open his wrist communicator. “This is Saturn calling the genius Washu. Come in professor Washu.”

     Across time and space, in Balamb Garden, people were barely waking up. Selphie and Zell bounced out of bed, finding their stocking stuffed with gifts, goodies, and things to keep them occupied and out of trouble for a little while.
     Half an hour after they had demolished the contents of their stockings and devoured enough sugar to keep them hyper for a couple of hours they bounced out into the hall in search of one another. They passed each other in the hall, stopped, turned around, backtracked, stopped again, and stared. Thirty seconds later both of them screamed loud enough to wake the rest of Balamb Garden.
     The screaming brought Squall, Rinoa, Quistis, and Laguna running from their rooms. All four stopped at the ends of the hall, looking at Selphie and Zell as well at each other.
     "What’s going on here?” Squall demanded, still shrugging into his jacket, “and who gave me Ward’s coat?”
     “We’re pre-teens again!” Selphie and Zell cried, clinging to each other. It was true, for they had retro aged to nine year olds.
     “And the rest of you are the same,” Laguna sighed, looking at Squall, Rinoa, and Quistis, all of whom were twelve year olds. “If this keeps up I’ll be changing diapers by the end of the week.”
     “How do you think *we* feel?!” Squall exclaimed, “My clothes don’t fit any more!”
     “But we’re tiny!” Selphie cried. “I don’t wanna be tiny any more!”
     Laguna and Quistis sighed. “What happened to us?” Quistis asked, looking up at Laguna.
     “Who knows,” Laguna shrugged, “for the moment make the best of it and be kids again.”
     Rinoa began to say something, but stopped. Sure she had made a wish, but could even she, with her sorceress powers, cause something like this to happen?
     “C’mon Zell, dry your eyes,” Selphie was saying, “we can put our ski clothes on and go build snowmen or go sledding or something.”
     “I’ll come with you,” Squall said, zipping up his jacket. “C’mon Rinoa, let’s go and play in the snow.”
     Rinoa nodded and took Squall’s arm, and together they walked towards the entrance with Selphie and Zell catching up with them a moment later.

     “Ok, hold still and smile for the camera.”
     Celia fidgeted on the bed that fed into Washu’s scanner. She wore a simple hospital gown for the procedure, her hair spread out on the bed, framing her face.
     “You guys wanna hurry up this up?” the vampyress said plaintively, “the room’s freezing, not to mention I’m still damned bloody cold!”
     “It’ll be another couple of minutes,” Washu said, her face glowing green from the reflected light of the monitors. “We almost have enough data to know what’s wrong.”
     “We already know what’s wrong,” Seifer said, “Celia’s a kid again.”
     “But we need to know what caused it so that we can fix it,” Alex said, pouring over streams of readouts.
     “I think we should be thankful we took the early flight,” Irvine yawned, “Say Alex, mind if we make a dimension to dimension call?
     “Go ahead,” the mage replied, his attention still on the data.
     Irvine dialed the number he had for Balamb, and the image of a girl with curly red hair appeared. The cowboy blinked for a moment. “Sorry,” he said, scratching the back of his head, “wrong number.”
     He hung up, waited a moment, and called again. The same girl appeared on the screen, only she wasn’t smiling but scowling. Irvine turned to Alex and said, “Hey, either this number’s wrong or the system’s defective because I keep getting a kid whenever I call home.”
     Alex looked up at the girl, whose angry face now filled the screen, and face faulted. “Irvine, that’s Tiskili. You know, the girl that Tenal had a crush on.”
     Irvine turned his attention back to the screen, a sweat drop forming on his head when he saw the look on the girl’s face. “Kili?”
     “Irvine Logan Kinneas!” Kili snarled, using Irvine’s middle name, “If you *EVER* hang up on me again without so much as a hello, so help me I’ll feed you to my GF for a snack!”
     Irvine blinked before saying, “What happened to you? You look like a twelve year old.”
     “We figured around thirteen,” Laguna said, joining Kili on the camera, “but you were close.”
     “Any idea of what caused this?” Alex asked, stepping closer to the screen.
     “Your guess is as good as mine. Temporal abnormality. Warp in time and space, or just time. Some spell gone wrong.”
     “Or the powers that be having a field day,” Washu said, approaching the screen holding a stack of printouts. “According to my preliminary scans of our resident realm dancing vampyress, the greater powers of our two worlds decided to grant some Yuletide wishes in a rather awkward way.”
     “In plain English please,” Seifer said, scratching his head.
     “Some god or goddess turned our friends on Terra young and set up something so that anyone phasing there would experience the same thing,” Alex said, translating.
     “Very good,” Washu said, patting Alex on the head and giving him a cookie. “You speak fluent scienceese.”
     “So if we hop to Terra to find Spike we’ll wind up the same way,” Irvine observed.
     “Good boy,” Washu said, giving Irvine a cookie as well. “Now, for two cookies, will Celia have another age jump back to infancy if she makes the jump again?”
     There was silence for a few moments before Seifer said, “No, she’ll remain like this since the retro aging has already happened.”
     “That is absolutely.... correct!” Washu said, patting Seifer on the head and giving him two cookies.
     “You guys are an embarrassment to be around,” Celia said, tugging her jacket back on. “But we still have to find Spike before he gets into too much trouble.”
     “Spike get into trouble?” Alex chuckled, “He just barely learned realm dancing. I’m sure he’s fine.”

     Across the ocean of time and space, on Terra, quite a distance from Balamb or any real civilization for that matter, a younger looking Spike was just regaining consciousness after a few blind jumps through time and space.
     “Bloody hell,” he grumbled as he sat up. He went silent, since the voice that came out of his mouth didn’t sound like him. “Knickers,” he said, falling silent. “Shag, bloke, cripes, bloody shagging hell!” he shouted before leaning back against a nearby tree. That was when he noticed that his clothes were a lot looser on his body, and his hands were a lot smaller. “What in the nine bloody hells happened to me?”
     “William,” an eerie voice said on the wind, “William the Bloody.”
     Spike looked around, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. “What the hell ya want?” he asked the wind, which began to increase in strength.
     “We want you William. We want all the powers that you possess.”
     “Powers? What bleedin’ powers you talking about?! I’m me... I got no special powers.”
     “You lie William. You have untold powers that you still have yet to realize.”
     Spike struggled to his feet, shielding his face with one arm as he squinted into the wind and sun. ‘Thank the gods and goddesses for that gem Celia gave me,’ he thought, drawing a short sword from inside his coat, ‘And thank Alex for his gift to me.’ “Come out and face me! FACE ME!!”
     The breeze increased in intensity, forming a cone of high velocity wind around him. “Come with us. Be with us. Give your powers to us.”
     Spike began to slash wildly, striking nothing but thin air. The funnel began to spin in a counter clockwise direction, sucking the air out and leaving a vacuum in its wake.
     “Air... running out,” Spike gasped, “I may be bloody dead, but even I need some air.”
     “Soon you’ll be with us,” the voice said as Spike neared a pond. “Then you’ll see just how happy you can be with us.”
     Spike collapsed to his knees, releasing the sword as his hands fell into mud to support him. He looked into the pond, a little shocked to see a reflection, even more shocked that the reflection was so young looking.
     “Bleeding hell, what happened... to... me?” he asked, his vision going black as unconsciousness washed over him again.
     Childish giggling echoed on the breeze as the winds died away, leaving the glade virtually undisturbed.

     “We ready to go yet?” Seifer asked, pacing around the lab.
     “Almost,” Alex replied, tightening the straps on a bag of Washu’s equipment. “You sure you want to do this Washu?”
     “I doubt it will really affect me much,” Washu replied, adjusting her goggles, “I am several thousand years old, after all, and this is how I’ve looked for most of that time. Plus I have my personal shield, so there won’t be much chance to change.”
     “Can we just hurry up and go?” Celia asked impatiently. “The sooner we hook up with the others and Washu gathers her data the sooner we can get things back to normal.”
     “Are all preparations made?” Washu asked, taking out a clipboard. “Equipment?”
     “Check,” Alex replied, hefting one of the bags onto his back, “I think we have everything including a kitchen sink.”
     “Hah hah,” Washu chuckled sarcastically, “weapons?”
     “Check,” Seifer and Irvine said, checking their weapons. They looked at each other before saying, “Just in case.”
     “Teleporter / Realm Dancer?”
     Celia downed an energy shake, belching up a couple of bubbles before giving a thumbs up to everyone else. “Check.”
     “Twisted genius. Ok... wait, that’s me, so that’s a big check.”
     “I guess that’s everything,” Celia said, moving towards the large collection of equipment in the center of the lab.
     “Have a safe trip,” Mrs. West said as Celia began her teleport. “Hurry back.”
     “We’ll try,” Washu said, bowing formally to Alex’s parents.
     “Love you mom, dad,” Alex said as a column of blue light engulfed them. A second later the column vanished, leaving a relatively empty lab behind.
     “I just hope they’ll be all right,” Mrs. West said, watching the last few sparkles from the teleport dissipate.
     “They’ll be fine,” Mr. West said, holding his wife. “They’re trained professionals after all.”

     “Countdown to Terra barrier,” Celia said as they slid through time and space, “Five.... four.... three... two.... one. Terra barrier has been reached.”
     “Brace yourselves for whatever happens,” Alex said, his body beginning to glow.
     “Amazing,” Washu said, her goggles beginning to glow as screen after screen of data scrolled over the lenses. “The change has begun.”
     “This doesn’t hurt at all,” Irvine said as his body began to glow as well. “Actually, it tickles a little bit.”
     “We’ll be phasing out in ten seconds,” Celia announced, “so hold on to whatever you value.”
     “And the change is almost complete,” Washu observed as Alex, Seifer, and Irvine, all three now glowing a brilliant gold, began to physically retro age from twenty three years of age to thirteen years of age.
     “Phase out in three... two... one...”
     Blinding sunlight reflecting off of fresh snow greeted them as they appeared on Terra. Below them people played in the snow or skied or slid on make - shift toboggans or build snowmen or snow people.
     “This is Balamb?” Seifer asked, gazing out the warp bubble at the countryside below.
     “Never saw snow here before,” Irvine commented, “wonder who wished for it.”
     “We’re heading in for a landing,” Celia said as the bubble dipped towards the countryside. They skimmed over the ground for a short distance, coming to a stop outside of Balamb Garden. The bubble vanished, setting them in calf deep snow.
     “Miss Washu, Mister Alex, Miss Celia, and Seifer and Irvine,” Headmaster Cid greeted as he, Laguna, and Xu approached the group.
     “Mister Cid,” Washu said, bowing formally to the group, “It’s a pleasure to be here.”
     “We only wish it could be more of a social visit and not an emergency call,” Laguna said, shaking Washu’s hand.
     “It’s a double emergency,” Celia said, “Spike’s missing, and could be in trouble since he’s still learning how to ‘port.”
     “Where are the others?” Alex asked, looking around in search of Squall and company. A snowball pasted him in the back of the head, knocking his hat off. Snow slid down the back of his shirt as he formed a fist. “Grrrrr.”
     He turned around in time to see some spiky blond hair duck behind a snowbank. “Never mind,” he said, smiling evilly while walking towards the snowbank. “I think I found one of them.”
     “We’ll cover you from the sides,” Irvine said as he and Seifer circled around the snowbank on either side. Both scooped up snow and rolled it into snowballs so that they’d be properly armed for winter combat.
     “I’ll cover the back,” Celia said, teleporting.
     “Looks like there may be bloodshed,” Xu commented as the four crept up on their prey.
     “Or a white washing,” Washu said as four people pounced on the snowbank. Screaming ensued as Zell and Selphie leapt over the snowbank and retreated towards those standing in the courtyard.
     “Outta the way!” Zell cried as a hail of snowballs assaulted them, “Move it! Move it! MOVE IT!”
     “Come back here, Chicken Wuss!” Seifer cried, lobbing snowball after snowball at Zell. “Come here and face your punishment!”
     “I don’t wanna!” Zell wailed, ducking behind Cid, who blinked before getting a face full of snowball.
     The area fell silent almost immediately, and continued that way as Cid wiped off his face and glasses. He burst into hearty laughter, which was a good sign that he wasn’t angry with them.
     “Prepare for total annihilation,” Alex and Celia said, leaping over the snowbank, their hands glowing blue with magical power. “Blizzard...”
     “Don’t do it,” Laguna and Xu said, waving their hands at the pair in a vain attempt to get them to stop.
     “Barrage!!”
     The air was filled with snowballs almost immediately, and everyone in their path wound up as an instant snow person. Several seconds later Alex and Celia laid off to see their work, and both grinned happily.
     “Gotcha!” they said in unison, pointing at the bunch of blinking snow people.
     “I think you need a lesson in snowball fights,” Cid smirked, shaking the snow off. He took a stone of summoning from his coat and held it aloft. “Goddess of ice, in you we trust. Teach these students a lesson with your gem dust.”
     Celia and Alex looked at each other before wincing. They had an idea of what was coming, but neither had ever seen Cid in combat before.
     “Shiva!!”
     A blizzard tore through the area, centering on a single point. At this point a portal opened, releasing a woman with pale blue skin and silvery hair, dressed in blue and white clothes. In her hand formed a gem of ice blue, and this began to shimmer.
     “Did he say something about gem dust?” Alex asked, growing pale.
     ‘Shiva’s attack is Diamond Dust,’ Alexander said in his mind, ‘It’s a powerful blizzard attack.’
     “What’s going to happen?” Celia asked.
     Her answer came in the form of a concentrated blizzard that covered her and Alex in three inches of snow in a matter of seconds. Shiva blew a kiss before vanishing in a could of snowflakes, leaving several stunned students and staff members to blink in awe.
     “I think that answers our question all too well,” Washu giggled, brushing off their heads. “What did you learn from this?”
     “Never snowball the headmaster,” Celia replied through chattering teeth.
     “And what else?”
     “That Cid has a few tricks up his sleeve that he never revealed to us,” Alex replied, his teeth also chattering.
     “Very good. Now let’s go inside and get warmed up,” the pink haired genius proclaimed, using a high powered hair dryer to melt the mage and vampyress out of their snowy cocoons.
     “We have hot chocolate,” Xu said cheerily, “with cinnamon or marshmallows or whatever else you want.”
     “Cookies?” Selphie asked, tugging on Xu’s sleeve.
     “I’m sure Lunch lady Doris and her crew could whip some up if we don’t have any,” Cid said. He whistled loudly, and Meltdown drove up on a forklift. “Meltdown here will see to all the equipment.”
     “All right,” Washu said, hopping onto the seat next to the mechanic. “I’ll just tag a ride and have cocoa in the lab.”
     “See you later Washu,” Alex waved as he ran off to the cafeteria. As he passed Seifer he smacked him on the back. “Tag!” he called, running past everyone, “You’re it!”
     “Come back here Alex!” Seifer called as everyone scrambled and scattered. “I hate being it!”

     Twenty minutes later the cafeteria was filled with the bustling of the lunch ladies and hyperactive activity of pre-teens. On top of hot cocoa being served there were cookies, cakes, and sweets galore, all home made.
     “Eat hearty kids,” Doris said, setting another tray of cookies on the table, “you’ll need to keep your strength up.”
     “I’m amazed at just how quickly you were able to set all of this up,” Irvine commented between bites of cookie, “what were you before you became a lunch lady? A field general?”
     “Close,” Doris chuckled. “To be quite honest I was a samurai.”
     The silence that followed was tangible. Selphie finally piped up with, “You were samurai Lunch lady?”
     Doris chuckled again. “I was kidding about that. I worked as a short order cook for a while before Cid and Edea hired me. Since then I’ve been giving the orders and keeping this place running like a well oiled machine.”
     “You gotta admit that having a samurai lunch lady would be interesting,” Zell commented.
     “Not to mention amusing,” Celia said, taking a long drink from her mug of cocoa, “she could use a ladle as a deadly weapon.”
     “Well, at least I don’t have to fend off the students on a daily basis,” Doris smiled.
     “Except for Zell,” Seifer said, “he’s always causing trouble.”
     “Take that back Almasy,” Zell hissed, hopping off of his chair.
     “Bring it on, chicken wuss,” Seifer replied, hopping off of his own chair to meet the challenge.
     “Here we go again,” Rinoa sighed, brushing her hair back from her face, “just once I’d like to get through a meal without all the macho posing or world war three.”
     Alex looked over at Selphie, who motioned for him to tag Seifer and run. He nodded and gave a countdown. When he reached one he smacked Seifer at the same time that Selphie smacked Zell. “Tag!” they echoed, dashing towards the exit, “you’re both it!”
     Seifer colored, since he had yet to get Alex back for the first game of tag. Zell simply began running after the two, narrowly avoiding Washu and Meltdown as they walked in.
     “We miss much?” Washu asked as Seifer dashed past her.
     “Not really,” Rinoa replied, sliding off of her chair, “just the second game of tag of the day.”
     “So that was why Alex and Selphie nearly ran us down,” Washu said as she took a seat. Doris set a cup of cocoa in front of her, and the pink haired genius took a long drink before setting the cup down. “Ahhhh... perfection.”
     “I hope they don’t cause too much trouble,” Meltdown said, “we have all of Washu’s equipment set up, but we’ll need...”
     “Guinea pigs,” Washu said, acting as cute as possible, “Who wants to be one?”
     The table was empty in under five seconds as everyone took off running. The swinging doors threatened to come unhinged as a large group of hyperactive youths crashed through to escape a fate worse than the dentist - being one of Washu’s test subjects.
     “I think that could have gone better,” Meltdown said as the doors came to a rest, one slightly askew.
     “How so?” Washu asked, snatching a couple of cookies from a plate and munching on them.
     “Well, for starters, you never call a test subject a guinea pig.”
     “And what do you suggest?” a sexy female voice said from beside him. The mechanic turned his head, expecting to find little Washu next to him. What he found was Washu all right, but a very grown up version. Washu batted her eyes at him. “You can call me Washu now,” she purred, leaning closer to Meltdown, whose face was turning crimson as his temperature shot through the roof.
     The doors came off of their hinges as Meltdown exited running, leaving Washu to wonder if her visual psychological tactics (a.k.a. her sex appeal) needed some work.
     “Doris,” she called, setting her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her propped up hands. “Bring me a double chocolate cocoa please. It’s going to be one of those days.”

go to next?
return to the insanity?