"Wake up, sleepyhead!" A voice called cheerily.

Naomi's eyes opened slowly, warily- even though it had only been a week, she wasn't used to waking up without her alarm. Once she saw how she had woken, however, she smiled widely. "Gloria! Who let you in?"

"Well, let's see . . . I just woke you up, and neither Lucy nor Ryan can turn the knob on the front door . . ." Gloria teased.

"And you're both fine?" Naomi asked in mock shock. "No one got punched out or yelled at?"

"Everybody's okay!" Lucy said, poking her head out from her spot behind the arm of the couch Naomi had slept on last night.

"I was civil to your girlfriend, as promised," Gloria muttered.

"Hey, Lucy," Naomi said, running a finger down the girl's spine, causing her to shudder in pleasure. "Well, I'm glad that you two have finally gotten along," Naomi teased back.

"I wouldn't say we're getting along," Lorelei said from the other side of the living room, a large mug reading "I'm in charge, and don't you forget it" in her hand. "We've just declared a ceasefire, because you want us both to be a part of your life. Just because I don't like the bitch doesn't mean she's not your sister."

"Yeah," Gloria shot at Lorelei venomously, "and like any ceasefire, it's bound to end sometime."

"Here they go again," Naomi muttered. Turning her attention away from the argument to come, she looked at Lucy. "Did Lorelei care for you guys all right? How's Sammi?"

"We're all just great!" Lucy chirped, trying to climb over to Naomi's hand to be petted more. "Lorelei was in a good mood last night, so we got fried eggs this morning!"

"And she didn't have me shrink them for you?" Naomi asked, alarmed. With fried food, if they ate it at normal human scale it would get stuck in their digestive tracts, leaving them constipated for days- as Naomi had found out the hard way.

"They weren't burnt, we're fine! Promise!" Lucy said, walking in front of Naomi's face.

"And Sammi?"

"Sammi's fine," Lucy said quickly, trying to avoid more questions. 

"Lucy . . ." Naomi admonished, wincing at the fact that she sounded like she was scolding a puppy. 

"She told me she was fine," Lucy said defensively. 

"You can understand her?" Naomi said incredulously. 

"Well, yeah," Lucy said, before being picked up on a search for Sammi, starting with the cage- which was, interestingly, exactly where she was.

"Translate for me please, Lucy." Naomi needed to know what Sammi thought about all this, but because she hadn't personally shrunk the girl, which meant that Sammi sounded like a squirrel to Naomi's ears. "Sammi? Are you okay?"

A defeated-sounding chittering later, Lucy translated, "She says she's okay, she guesses, but it's hard to find much good about being the size of a bug."

"What do you remember about the person that did this to you?" Naomi asked bluntly. 

Sammi hesitated, then let out a small, sad sound. "She says she can't remember anything. She was shrunk from behind."

Anger boiled in the pit of Naomi's stomach. Yeah, Sammi wasn't exactly the nicest person in the world, but she still didn't deserve to have this happen to her against her will. "I'm so glad Lorelei found you. There's no telling what would've happened if you hadn't been brought to someone with experience dealing with tiny people."

Sammi let out a questioning chitter, and Lucy translated. "She wants to know if it would be alright if she slept with you. The cage scares her."

"That would be a terrible idea," Naomi laughed. "You remember how I toss and turn. Getting my foot in your face would be a lot more annoying if it happened at this scale. But, if you don't like the cage, I'm sure I can find something else."

"I'm scared of the cage, too," Lucy pouted. "Can I get a dog bed?"

"You were the one who asked for the cage in the first place, Lucy," Naomi sighed.

Lucy gave a cheeky grin, and nuzzled Naomi's neck. With that, she clambered down Naomi's arm, ran across the top of the cage, and climbed down it to the floor.

Naomi looked sadly at Sammi. "I'm so sorry you had to go through this. Just try not to get on Lorelei's bad side, because . . . she knows how our relationship ended. She doesn't really have much sympathy. Just stay out of trouble, and I promise I'll do my best to take good care of you." With that, she reached a finger in the opened cage, and immediately pulled it back when Sammi recoiled in horror and began chittering the universal signal for "don't hurt me".

Before Naomi could try to apologize, Gloria grabbed her by the arm and walked her out the door. "If I have to stay in the same room as that bitch for another moment I'm gonna stab her."

As they drove away, Gloria asked, "So . . . What did you need my help with, Naomi? Did you need Grant to draw you up some papers?" Grant was Gloria's husband, a divorce lawyer who specialized in extremely one-sided property divisions. 

"Lorelei and I aren't married, so why would I need Grant's help?" Naomi sighed. "I need some money. I had thought I could handle two jobs, but Lorelei and I haven't slept together in a week. I'm really frustrated, but once I get home I can't stay conscious long enough to even make an attempt."

"Why do you need two jobs?" Gloria asked, concerned. "I had told you that bookstores don't stay open in this economy, but you believed that Lorelei could keep the job. She's a loafer, isn't she?"

"No!" Naomi yelled. "Lorelei's store is doing just perfectly, thank you. I just wanted to propose, and-" the car stopping suddenly compacted her chest, leaving her unable to finish the sentence. 

"You're not getting a ring for that bitch on my dime," Gloria spat angrily. "She should be my patient, not my sister-in-law. She beats you! What the hell-"

Naomi glared at her older sister. "Look, I told you before that that black eye did not come from Lorelei, it was because I took a bad fall when we went ice-skating together. I learned that I just do not have the coordination to handle that kind of thing."

"And who suggested that you go?" Gloria asked pointedly. 

"That's beside the point, I thought it was romantic, and it was," Naomi said defensively. 

"Right up until the point where she went too fast for you to handle and you caught an elbow to the face," Gloria shot back.

"And besides," Naomi sighed, in disbelief that she had to use this card, "if we're married, and things go wrong, Grant can bankrupt her."

Gloria seemed to consider this. "And you promise that you won't defend her if she hurts you again?"

Naomi looked at the floor. "If she seriously hurts me-"

"In a physical or emotional sense-" Gloria added.

"I promise that I will call you immediately and ask Grant to file for divorce." Naomi felt numb. She couldn't believe she had just sold Lorelei out like this, just so she wouldn't have to wait a few weeks to save up extra money for an engagement ring. She felt terrible, and decided that Lorelei would get a get-out-of-jail-free pass on pretty much anything. It would only be fair.

"How short on cash are you?" Gloria asked gleefully, checking the driving directions Naomi had written down for her. "For the ring, I mean."

"Rings, plural," Naomi said hollowly. Internally, she hoped Lorelei would say no. She couldn't believe how bad a girlfriend she was being. "They're a set. Nine hundred and fifty dollars."

Gloria whistled. "Going all-out, aren't you?"

"Lorelei deserves the best," Naomi said, beginning to wonder if that meant someone besides herself.