Partial

Jessica had hoped that Jordan had been using some strange metaphor when saying there was a giant bug monster. However, personal history and the fact it was Wabash Manor suggested anything was possible, even likely. Now she was standing in the Wabash Manor guest house and staring at a very large and very real bug monster.

“THE THIEF THAT IS TRYING TO STEAL MY NEPHEW’S AFFECTIONS, I WILL SLAY YOU!”

Bursa certainly was dramatic. Bursa also had ears, very ponylike ones. If the bug charged, Jessica could easily drop her. It wasn’t something she ever wanted to have to do and would avoid even in the most dangerous circumstances when facing a human or pony, but Bursa wasn’t likely to have courts on her side if Jessica used strange magic on her.

Jessica ignored the threat and looked at Charlotte and the vaguely familiar scarred unicorn mare. “So…how is this thing Mark’s aunt?”

“DO NOT IGNORE ME, HUMAN!”

“She used to be a partial, but some fanatical harmonist scientist got his hooves on her and tried to turn her into an alicorn,” Charlotte explained.

Jessica glanced at Bursa, who was standing with legs and wings spread in what she assumed was a threatening posture, then looked back at Charlotte.

“They didn’t do a very good job at that,” Jessica said flatly.

“HEY! DON’T IGNORE ME!!”

Charlotte shrugged. “She supposedly used to be in much worse shape, practically falling apart, but grandma came up with a cure that made her into this, although Princess Twilight applied it. Bursa isn’t grateful and hates Grandma for dreaming this solution up.”

“I don’t think anyone likes Auntie, so that’s nothing new,” Jessica replied. “I don’t think even the Blessingists would like her if they had to deal with her in person. She’s well-intentioned, has a lot of ingenious ideas, loves her family, and tries to do the right things, but she’s not likable at all. She is manipulative, controlling, can’t get her nose out of everyone’s affairs, and some of her ingenious ideas create giant bug monsters.”

“Can you take me seriously, please?” Bursa whined, interrupting the conversation. “What’s wrong with you people? I’m a giant bug threatening to kill you! I could slay you with one strike! That should terrify you.”

Jessica turned back and looked at her. “Sorry, I’m desensitized to a lot of things. I’ve been chased by monster crystal ponies, had a front-row seat to Wild Growth saving Riverview, been to a world where I could vanish forever if I ever left another person’s sight, met Triss, had an undead abomination within centimeters of my face while I slept, and nearly died and was on life support twice before I was seven. I’m just not that shocked by these kinds of things anymore. Plus, even though Tempest might criticize me for not keeping up with my self-defense training, I’m pretty sure I could disable you without lifting a finger—you’d be surprised what sound can do. I’m sure you’re very intimidating to anyone else.”

“World where you could vanish forever, and what was that about undead abomination?'' Adam hesitantly asked from behind her. He had stayed well behind her since seeing Bursa and hadn’t made a move to defend her. Sure, he’d be useless in that kind of role, and Bursa might eat his head if he tried, but it was still not making him more appealing. This date was going so badly. Then again, he could be seen as delicate and prissy in a particular light, which appealed to her on a certain level. Maybe she needed to view him in a different light. A change in her perspective could improve this dramatically.

Bursa stiffened. “You are friends with Wild Growth?” She had an odd choice to focus on out of all that. What Adam focused on made sense, but the bug monster didn’t seem to care about those things. Maybe Bursa was desensitized as well.

“Yes, she was my hero when I was a filly. She still is, to some extent, since she saved me from those crystal ponies I mentioned. She’s a good friend,” Jessica replied.

Bursa slumped. “Why do they always have to be Wild Growth’s friends and family? Why can't I just find someone who I can kill?”

“Got to love a bug monster with a code of honor,” the unfamiliar mare snickered.

“And who are you?” Jessica asked.

“You don’t remember me?” the scar-faced mare asked in shock. “I have a face people don’t normally forget.”

“Vaguely…but can’t place you,” Jessica confessed.

“That’s Ashley; she was at Rebecca’s wedding. She works for the OMMR now as a bodyguard and assistant to their director,” Jordan explained.

Jessica smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, I don’t remember that wedding well. I was still in a bit of a rebellious stage, and I snuck a few drinks at the reception since everyone assumed I was old enough. I have an extremely low tolerance for alcohol, so I passed out early that evening.”

Ashley shrugged. “You just missed Rebecca being Rebecca, which is never dull. Thanks for not recoiling at my scars.”

Charlotte pointed a wing at Adam. “Who’s the guy back there giving his best impression of my grandma?”

“Best impression of your grandma?” Jessica asked in confusion.

The angle of Charlotte’s wing dropped. “He wet himself. Be glad you don’t have a pony sense of smell anymore.”

“Hey! I didn’t-” Adam started to protest, the quiver in his voice betraying the truth.

“It’s fine, Adam,” Jessica assured him. “No one blames you for being terrified of Bursa or thinks any less of you. You haven’t had to go through the same kind of crud the rest of us have, and you would have been the most helpless if she had tried to pull something—well, you and my dad. You don’t have to pretend to be tough. I’m sure Jordan can help you find a place to clean up and feel safer.”

“He’s the only one of you crazy people with any sense,” Bursa grumbled.

There was a knock at the front door, and Jordan opened it. They all turned to see who it was.

Jessica’s dad stepped in. “Sorry, I’m running late. I was shocked when you said-” He looked at Bursa and jumped back. “What the hell is that!”

Bursa grinned. “Oh, good, another sane person.”

Jessica sighed. “This is the person who claims to be Mark’s aunt. She seems to want to take guardianship of him. Does she have that right?”

Her dad looked fearfully at Bursa. “That is a court decision. Courts normally favor the next of kin, but in this case, there could be some serious complications with that.”

Bursa growled. “Because I’m a giant bug?” She then laughed, and in a flash, she was suddenly a human woman with long black hair and a polka-dotted sundress. “I can be whatever I want to be. If they want a human, I can be a human.”

Jessica scowled. She hadn’t thought Bursa had any real chance of gaining custody of Mark, but if she could be human, that could change things.

“I hate to rain on your parade, Bursa, but you’ve been missing for years, and I’m pretty sure you’d fail a DNA test to prove you’re who you say you are. In fact, I think such a test would give your disguise away as soon as they saw the green blood,” Ashley said.

“Bursa, be reasonable. Do you think you’d be a good parent?” Charlotte asked. “You can barely take care of yourself. This isn’t about the kid getting a loving home for you; it is about getting some family member you feel is obligated to love you. Try to show some real love and think about what’s best for your nephew.”

Jessica’s father raised his hand. “If what Charlotte says is true, then it is even less likely the courts would decide to side with you, Miss…do you have a last name, Bursa?”

“It’s just Bursa,” Bursa grumbled.

“How did you get that name? It’s an odd name,” Jessica asked.

“It’s just what I remember the evil pony calling me,” Bursa hissed.

“I know,” Ashley interjected, and they all looked at her. “The Dreamwardens promised to do everything they could to uncover Bursa’s past, and one of the things they managed, via the OMMR, was to apprehend one of the ponies who had been working at the lab when Bursa was captured. Doctor Rossman identified an ETS partial transformation deformity to Bursa’s legs when he captured her. He couldn’t get her to tell him her name, so the name stuck when one of the lab techs started identifying her by what was deformed—in this case, some fluid-filled sacs near her knees, which are called bursae. Remember, these guys viewed her as broken.”

“Caught her?” Jessica asked, eyes narrowing. “Was he kidnapping people off the street?”

Ashley shook her head. “She had been snooping around the outsides of the lab, thinking she could expose testing on partials was still going on, not knowing she stumbled on one of Sunset Blessing’s secret facilities for magical research, one that had gone pretty much rogue. How she even found the place is a mystery. She must have been much smarter back then if she was able to uncover the lab-”

“HA!! I’m not stupid!” Bursa proclaimed.

“-but not smart enough not to walk into a criminal lab with a mad scientist that wanted to experiment on live people,” Ashley concluded.

“Pretty brave, though,” Jordan interjected.

“Bravery and stupidity are often mistaken for one another, so the jury’s still out,” Charlotte muttered.

“I will rend you all!” Bursa yelled. She then looked around and pouted. “At least act afraid!”

“I’m scared of you and wish my daughter would take the threat more seriously,” Jessica’s dad interjected. “I know she is very capable, but I don’t want to have her on life support for a third time because she was too cocky.”

“Okay, two of you have sense,” Bursa corrected.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’ve got this, and I’m sure Jordan is ready to shield us if Bursa moves to attack,” Jessica assured him.

“We don’t know how fast that thing can move. It may move too fast for Jordan to react,” her dad objected. “Can you please take a few steps back, if only to make me feel better?”

He might have a point. She took a few steps back.

“Thank you,” her dad said, still sounding nervous.

“But I suppose sniffing out one of grandma’s secret labs was pretty impressive,” Charlotte continued, ignoring what had just transpired. “Can we get her back to being that intelligent? No one deserves to be reduced to this.”

“I doubt it,” Ashley replied quietly. “Rossman did a real number on her. She's lucky to be alive or have any semblance of sanity left. I’ve been there, at the wrong end of a madpony. I know the fear, the terror. If I hadn’t had someone there for me, I’d have gone insane. She’s lucky she remembers so little, but she had no one there for her.” She looked at Bursa. “I know that in the end, bad as I got it, I didn’t get it half as bad as you, and I can’t even imagine what you went through, living like Gollum in a cave, forgotten and broken. I get some of what you feel, better than anyone else here. It is hard to move on from that kind of stuff. You want revenge against the ones who hurt you, but that is no way to live. It’s keeping you trapped in the past like you never left that damn nightmare lab.”

Bursa glared at her. “You’re right. You can’t imagine. I lost everything. Now, you fight me to stop me from trying to reclaim my nephew. Why tell me about him if you wish to keep me away?”

Jessica grimaced at the scarred unicorn. “She’s not that stupid because that’s a good question. I will be fighting an uphill battle to adopt, and you just introduced her into the mix.”

Ashley smiled. “Bursa needs some closure that there is family out there that may want to have her in their lives…even if she doesn’t end up raising the kid. She could get to know him if she can tone down the big scary monster bit. It also introduces an incentive for her to help the OMMR with a little mission we decided needed more heavy hitters to pull off.”

Charlotte spread her wings. “You are trying to rope her into one of your clandestine vigilante missions?! The government-”

Ashley levitated a folder marked classified from her saddlebag and passed it to Charlotte. “A mission the government knows about and will pretend they don’t. It is in the government's interest that we succeed. You are free to review the file, but I’ll need that back.”

Charlotte grabbed the folder with her wings and opened it, immediately getting to reading. Her ears quickly flattened.

“A lab in Mexico conducting illegal biological experiments on enslaved partials?” Charlotte asked in disbelief. She kept reading, and her eyes narrowed. “Possibly funded by the Chinese government? Are they developing biological weapons to use against us from right across our border?”

Ashley sighed. “We haven’t even confirmed the Chinese are funding it; we only suspect that, so that’s unsure. Someone with considerable financial power is backing it, and they are usually number one when we start laying out suspects. We recently obtained new information that points to something other than biological weapons, at least in the strictest sense. Doctor Rossman and Doctor Lair are there, and they usually only have the same goal whenever they pop up.”

Bursa returned to her normal form and slammed one of her legs on the floor, shattering the floorboards. “ROSSMAN!!”

“What happened to trying to stop her from focusing on revenge?” Jordan whimpered.

“This isn’t revenge; this is getting justice for others,” Ashley calmly stated. “Bursa knows what Rossman wants, and he has potentially hundreds of innocent partials to experiment on. Mark’s parents were both held there and escaped. They died, making sure he wasn’t born there, but there are still so many being held and experimented on. Bursa, what happened to you is now going on down there on a massive scale; your sister was a victim of it. I am not asking you to take revenge. I’m asking you to help us stop what happened to you and your sister from happening to others. Mark wouldn’t understand at his age, but maybe when Mark is older, you can tell him you’re his aunt, and you helped save all those people and avenged his parents. Then maybe he might want to get to know his Aunt Bursa. You might never be qualified to raise him, and deep down, you know that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of his life—his heroic aunt, who helped save so many people like him. I’m sure Doctor Middleton wouldn’t object to him getting to know that person rather than the big scary bug.”

Jessica crossed her arms. “If she isn’t going to fight to try to take custody of him, I have no objection to her getting to know him…when he’s older. Right now, he isn’t ready. She isn’t ready either.”

“But it is a goal to work towards, isn’t it?” Ashley asked Bursa. “It would be something good and wholesome to strive towards. A real future to try for. A chance to finally be free of the lab.”

Bursa relaxed, and the tension went out of her as she looked at the shattered floor and her hole-covered legs.

“A chance to be something other than a monster,” she whispered.

Charlotte cleared her throat. “I need some clearance to give her over to your care. I can’t take part in this mission. We can’t have a US Army officer involved in an unauthorized mission on foreign soil. But, before I check on that-” She looked at Bursa. “-are you ready to look at your sister’s grave? I think, under the circumstances, it takes on a whole new significance.”

Jessica stood out in the yard of Wabash Manor beside Jordan, her dad, and Adam, watching as Charlotte, Ashley, and a disguised Bursa left the premises. As she watched, all she could do was ask why her life had to constantly keep throwing one bizarre thing after another into it. All she wanted was a semi-normal life.

“You know, if you adopt Mark, you’re going to be stuck dealing with that thing,” her dad said. “Are you prepared for that?”

She took a deep breath. “What’s life without a few challenges? If something is important enough, you deal with whatever inconveniences come with it. If you can’t, then it isn’t important enough. I’ll deal with it. It isn’t the most bizarre thing I’ve ever dealt with.”

“What was that about a zombie being a few centimeters from your face?” Jordan asked.

“I didn’t mention that when I got back?” Jessica replied.

“Nope. I would have remembered that one,” Jordan said, eyes still forward towards the gate.

Jessica blinked. “Oh, well…she was a nice zombie. She just wanted to play games and have fun. She was kind of adorable, as zombies go. I was told it’s the squirrel you must look out for.”

“Evil zombie squirrel?” Jordan asked without turning her head.

Jessica nodded. “Evil zombie squirrel.”

Jordan continued staring out towards the gate. “Life is strange.”

“Yep,” Jessica agreed.

“Is stuff like this an everyday occurrence?” Afam asked hesitantly.

Jessica shook her head. “Not really. The madness seems to come in batches. Everything will be calm and normal for a long time, then the universe decides it's bored. It’s been calm for years. I think it has been saving up for all this fudgery.”

“Why are you so dressed up?” her dad asked, apparently unwilling to even ask about everything else and going with the safe option.

Jessica pointed at Adam. “We were going to have a date. I suppose we still can. This seems to be settled, at least for now.”

Her dad turned and leveled a frown at Adam. “You are dating my daughter?”

“Dad!” Jessica protested. “I didn’t tell anyone in the family because I was scared Mom would make a big deal out of it. Don’t you go all stereotypical overprotective dad on me! You’re supposed to be the reasonable one.”

Jordan scrunched up her nose. “That date might need to be rescheduled. He needs to change his pants. I can see if one of the guards has a pair that fits. They keep extra clothes here.”

Her dad turned his gaze to Adam’s pants. “He shit himself?”

“Pissed,” Jessica corrected. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. Most people don’t have to face giant bug monsters. It’s an understandable reaction. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“You don’t normally face giant bug monsters,” her dad reminded her.

“With the week I’ve had, giant bug monsters barely qualify as interesting,” Jessica replied.

“Yeah, lay off him, Mister Middleton,” Jordan said supportively. She then looked at Adam. “Don’t worry. Auntie used to pee herself whenever she was afraid, and she was Sunset Blessing. Nobody here cares.”

“That’s good, but I wish people would stop mentioning it,” Adam said, looking down.

“Is he allowed in the house?” Jessica asked. “I know your security is strict.”

“Almost everyone is allowed on the first floor unless they are on the banned list, like Bursa. It’s everywhere else inside that’s off limits,” Jordan explained.

“You banned Bursa? What did she do?” Jessica asked, concerned. Had Bursa done something violent? She was still uncomfortable with the idea of Bursa getting near Mark, and that would only make her more.

“I didn’t. Auntie left a list before she took off to Equestria, and Bursa was on it. I was told Bursa might not like Auntie too much, given the whole secret lab thing,” Jordan clarified.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Jessica replied, mildly relieved. “If that’s the case, then let’s head inside.”

They headed to the house and found Andrea waiting at the door. The crystal pony took a sniff and gave Adam a dirty look.

“Who’s the dude that pissed his pants?” Andrea asked.

“I really wish people would stop bringing that up,” Adam muttered.

“He’s Jessie’s boyfriend,” Jordan giggled.

Andrea raised an eyebrow. “She has strange tastes.”

Jessica sighed. “He needs a change of pants, and we were hoping one of the guards might have something that fits.”

Andrea looked him over. “Tyrone might have something your size. The guards have a shower as well. You probably need that. Come on in and stay close.”

“Why weren’t you with us watching Bursa?” Jessica asked as they followed Andrea in.

Andrea shrugged. “Charlotte and Ashley were there. I’m familiar with both of them and know they could handle whatever. I’m unsure what use I’d be against a giant bug. If there was trouble, I’d have heard the yelling.”

“Bursa yelled a lot,” Jessica said flatly.

“Bursa seemed full of hot air. I’m pretty sure that bug is mostly buzz and little bite. It would have been others yelling if there was trouble. I personally wondered if you would try to pull something. She did present an obstacle to your goals,” Andrea said dismissively.

“You’ve known me for years. Do you really think I would be that petty and short-tempered?” Jessica asked in dismay.

“You can get short-tempered. Not as bad as my sister, but you do,” Andrea replied.

Jessica looked at her dad and Jordan for support, but both looked away. Really? No backup at all? She grimaced at the betrayal.

They continued to the guards station. A few guards on duty gave them looks as they entered, but didn’t say anything, probably because Andrea and Jordan were present. Andrea showed Adam to the locker room and shower.

“How do you know Ashley?” Jordan asked Andrea as the old crystal pony returned.

“She was here overseeing some of remodeling down below when it was going on,” Andrea answered. “She sparred with some of the guards while she was here, just to test their mettle, and kicked their asses. She’s one of those Dreamwarden elite guards, personally trained by Tempest Shadow. Those guys aren’t a joke. It still pissed me off. It wasn’t just the injuries, it was the fact they were so soundly beaten by one unicorn. I had to invest in a heightened training regimine for them after that. They weren’t happy about it, but they have a job to do, and they aren’t doing it if one unicorn, even a highly combat trained one, could wipe the floor with them like that. This many guards shouldn’t struggle against one unicorn unless it is someone like Starlight Glimmer—if someone like that showed up back then we’d have just been fucked no matter what.”

“Can’t you just counter a unicorn?” Jessica’s dad asked. “I thought it was like a paper rock scissors thing, and crystal ponies were the natural counters to unicorns.”

Andrea chuckled. “Thanks, but you give me too much credit. I can’t down most unicorns on my own. It is normally a group effort with crystal ponies, unless the crystal pony is particularly strong, which I’m not. Ashley isn’t anything special in terms of power, but she’s still outside my range if she poured enough of her magic into a spell. The best I could do is detect it and weaken it, not stop it. That wouldn’t have boded well if someone moderately powerful showed up, like the creep that captured my sister and my grandniece.”

“I thought complex magic didn’t work here,” Jordan said in confusion.

Andrea frowned. “Those defenses weren’t fully up at the time, since they were part of the remodeling she was overseeing, and technically, the one controlling the defenses can take them down for selected areas. That would be you. I have my disagreements with my sister, but I give her credit for not repeating costly errors. Sunset learned her lesson after Riverview about inadvertently locking out anyone who was trying to aid her, and she didn’t want to make the same mistake again. There’s a manual somewhere in Ami’s study explaining how to work them with your jewelry. She’ll give it to you when you learn enough to make decisions about that kind of stuff. You don’t have the experience to make those kind of calls, as you’ve recently proven, and a bad decision involving that can lead to a successful invasion of the property.”

“How did you do large scale building under the house without tearing up the house and yard?” Jessica’s dad asked in confusion. “I don’t know what’s below, but Sunset never did anything small. I never saw what was below, but my sister told me that the Bastion was far more extensive underground than it was above ground. I can only imagine Sunset pulled the same thing again. How’d she do it?”

Andrea smirked. “She was nothing but clever, and realized early on she needed a new stronghold to guard her collection of knowledge and a place to retreat to if the invaders got too tough. She came in from the neighboring properties. She drove our neighbors away and drove down property values, our allies at the OMMR, using shell companies, bought all neighboring property at extremely discounted prices. Sunset is a conniving plotter who is willing to play the long game to get what she wants. This is the same pony who built South Carolina’s biggest city in just a few years from a collection of run down towns. Figuring out how to secure a new stronghold was nothing compared to that. It took a few years and a lot of underhanded tricks to get to the last holdouts to give up and move, but she was patient and pulled it off. The fact there were always so many drones from curious onlookers invading everyone in the area’s privacy probably helped as well.”

“She could have forgone protecting her knowledge if she just destroyed all the records,” Jessica’s dad replied, then sighed. “But then again, that was never her way. She always preserved everything, even when all sense said it should be gotten rid of.”

“I agree with you on that,” Andrea said, flicking her tail. “Still, here we are, standing but a few meters above the largest cache of forbidden and dangerous magical knowledge in the world, possibly in existence. That’s why I have to be hard on Jordan. It is too big a responsibility to make mistakes with—not to mention Ami, her husband, me, and Sinker—when he comes back from rehab, all live here, and we’d like to feel safe and not have our home invaded.”

Jessica found herself agreeing with Sunset Blessing on this one. Knowledge, no matter how problematic, should always be preserved. Still, she was glad it was Jordan’s problem and not hers.

“So, are you going to tell me about the zombie thing?” her dad asked.

“I probably shouldn’t, but we can talk more about my travel to that other world once I get a Dreamwarden to approve it,” Jessica replied. “Andrea, are you able to call Phobia from here? I figure you have her number saved.”

“I can, but you know that our calls are monitored. So it is kind of hard to ask her to do something that might be classified, and this sounds classified,” Andrea replied. “I suggest calling her yourself, once you’re off the property.”

Jessica frowned and looked around. Time to take a stab in the dark. “Marshmallow, are you there, watching?”

There was no response.

“The Marshmallow isn’t everywhere all at once, and if they have no reason to be here, they won’t be,” Jordan reminded her.

Jessica shrugged. “It was worth a shot. I guess I’m just being impatient. Sorry, Dad, but it will have to wait.”

The door to the locker room opened and Adam stepped out, still dripping water from the shower. The pants looked a little too lose, and his shirt was wrinkled from having been taken off and put back on over wet skin.

“Jessica, I’m sorry, but I think I’m out of my depth with you,” Adam said quietly. “I don’t think we can date, but I hope we can still be good friends.”

They hadn’t even gone on their date and he was breaking up with her? What the actual fudge?!

Adam stepped back in fear. “I see you aren’t taking this well.”

“Does any girl ever take something like that well?” Andrea asked him, sounding somehow both annoyed and amused. “You even added in the let’s be friends line. How cliche can you be?”

Jessica balled her fist and forced herself to take a deep breath. This was fine. She had already realized that this wasn’t working out. Adam was just too damn nervous around her, putting her on a pedestal that he always had to look up to view. Relationships were supposed to be a partnership, or at least, that was how she understood them. She couldn’t have that kind of partnership with someone who basically set themselves up to be looked down on. This was for the best. Still…she’d have liked to have at least gotten her first date.

Her ears twitched as she heard the unmistakable sound of a fist colliding with a face—a sound she would never forget after a number of training sessions with Tempest at a young age. It was quickly followed by the equally unmistakable sound of someone getting knocked to the ground.

“HOW DARE YOU HURT MY DAUGHTER LIKE THAT!”

“Dad!” she yelled as she came running to Adam’s defense, placing herself between him and her father. “That was completely unnecessary and barbaric!”

“Better me doing it than you. You’d have sent him to the hospital if you socked him,” her dad responded calmly, not even looking at Adam.

“I wasn’t going to strike him!” Jessica fussed. She then bent down and checked on Adam. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. My dad is on this weird overprotective binge. He isn’t normally like this.”

“She’s my little filly. I need to protect her,” her dad insisted.

“I’m a grown woman. I haven’t been a little filly since I was six. I don’t need protection.” she said firmly. If he was lucky, Adam might not press charges.

Adam started to sit up, and she saw a gash under his eye. That might have been the result of her dad’s wedding ring. The area around the eye was already starting to swell, and she was sure it was going to bruise. This was definitely going to make it harder to maintain a friendship with him through this. She could kick her dad for this.

“Your eye looks rough. We should get you to a doctor,” she said, trying to sound soothing, despite the rage she was trying to hold back towards her dad.

He touched his fingers to the area under his eye and winced. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t try to act tough. You have a gash under your eye and severe swelling. You need to see a doctor.”

“Don’t baby the man. He just needs to put some ice and a damp cloth over it,” Andrea said. “You young people act so fragile. In my day, nobody went to the doctor for a black eye.”

“I don’t like hospitals. They make me extremely nervous and anxious, so I wouldn’t be insisting if it wasn’t important. We need to make sure no bone was damaged, and that requires a medical doctor,” Jessica insisted.

“Okay, I’ll go,” Adam relented.

She held out her hand. “Let me have your keys. Your vision is impaired for the moment, you shouldn’t be driving.”

“No, I’m- urrmm,” Adam groaned. He winced, touched his hand to his face again, which also made him gasp and wince again. “Okay, okay, maybe you’re right.”

“I’ll see if I can get you an ice pack really fast,” Jordan said as she took off towards the kitchen.

This was not how she pictured her first ever date going. A breakup before the date started in earnest. Her now ex-boyfriend (did he count as an ex?) with a black eye l, courtesy of her father, and them on to one of their least favorite places, the hospital. That wasn’t mentioning the giant bug monster. Hopefully, the universe had used up most of its craziness for a while.