F.E.A.R.

A Funeral, A Secret

Sorry about the wait, and the slow chapter, but the next will be actiony. the banner for Phoenix was done by ME!

The day after I had exploded brought me no answers. Dr. Darvez said my blood had come back normal. Well, as normal as Changeling blood can be. You see, since everyone's DNA is scrambled it's rare to find a Changeling with the forty-six chromosomes that a regular human is suppose to have and, unless two Changelings are the same Type they probably won't have the same number of chromosomes. It's the reason Changeling children are so rare, only about one in twenty Changeling couples can produce, because the DNA sequences have to be just right for a viable fetus to be created; with all the different chromosomes that any two Changelings can have, it's a difficult process.

So, anyway, my fifty chromosomes were normal, so was my blood sugar, she said. Although I'm sure that low blood sugar didn't cause people to light up like a Christmas tree. It was pretty early when I left the infirmary, and not many were up and running around the campus. I decided to go back to my room after grabbing some breakfast for the girls and Marshall; I had a few hours before Michael's funeral and I wanted time to get ready and look semi-decent.

I crossed the lawn to the Dorms in the early morning sunlight. It was November, and cold here in New York, the snow hadn't started falling yet but the dew that had settled on the grass the night before had become a crystalline frost, looking like rock sugar clinging to the freezing blades of grass. I felt the cold, but it didn't bite my skin the way it had in winters past. 'The awaking of my Phoenix has changed even the way my environment feels,' I thought. I didn't mind though, I had hated the cold pricks of December air and now it seems to be behind me, November's air hissing against my skin; cool, but in a refreshing way. The air steamed around me, as if my body was a constant exhaling of breath, I was shrouded in a thin mist, the tendrils of cold fanning out from me and dissipating into the air.

The hallway of the Singles Dormitory was cold too, but not in the way it had been outside, just in the way a tiled floor is cold on your bare feet. I crept silently up the flights of stairs, my heart heavy with the thought of what the day would be. When I entered my dorm the girls were still sleeping, curled together in my mother's bed; the blankets pulled up so high I could see only the tops of their blonde and raven heads. As for how Marshall was sleeping, I didn't know. He had moved to the room next door to mine after I had left the infirmary yesterday. We had all gone back to my room and the girls had been telling us about their trip to the pool when Jax came in.

He didn't knock, of course, but with the way he looked I couldn't even be mad about it. It wasn't that he looked bad. God knows that couldn't happen. He just looked... less Alpha than he use to; I figured I just thought so because Marshall had put the idea in my head the night before. Jax told us that he was going to move Marshall in next door and that Irbis said the girls had to go to a different dorm, most likely on one of the lower levels. Delilah instantly burst into tears.

"Why can't they all stay together?" I asked. "They're a family, Jax." He said Irbis didn't want boys and girls boarding together, especially since they're ages were so different. I decided Irbis probably just wanted to assert her dominance over our new Family members right off the bat because there were plenty of couples living together in the Singles Dorms. "Can't the girls live with me?" I asked Jax, trying hard to make big puppy dog eyes. Which doesn't really work for me. Jax gave in though after putting up a puny argument. I thought he really wouldn't allow it until Delilah asked him. She seems to have the puppy dog eyes down to an art. Jax said yes to her and even had a door installed between my and Marshall's room; so the girls could go back and forth easier.

Personally, I think Marshall was relieved to be getting his own space, he seemed like the kind of guy that needed it. I was also glad to have the company, I had painted Kali and Delilah's toenails after Marshall had moved in next door and then we'd settled in for a movie, some romantic comedy only the girliest of girls could stomach. It was like having a family again, and, although I had to share them with Marshall, it was nice to have the girls to take care of. It was nice to have a friendly neighbor too. I knocked on the door between our rooms. It had a deadbolt on either side so we could lock each other out, but Marshall and I had agreed to leave it unlocked. Marshall had suggested it, and while I wanted to view it as an act of trust, I also felt like it was because he was afraid I'd go up in flames again. I was afraid of it too.