The bed was warm and the quilt pinned her to the mattress in a loving embrace that was impossible to break. It was even warmer to her right and she rolled into it, snuggling into Shades' now-familiar body. So warm, both physically and spiritually. She would spend the rest of her life here, warm, content, almost asleep.

Something a million miles away chimed. She slid her arm around Shades' chest and snuggled deeper into the duvet womb. It chimed again and she groaned, burying her head even further under the covers. Shades murmured, the words incomprehensible, and he pulled her arm tighter around him.

The chime forced its way through the clouds of cotton wool that surrounded her head, and then her phone joined in, the notes jangling in a discordant cacophony that became harder to ignore. Somewhere a recent memory of the phone ringing earlier tried to surface.

Shades muttered incomprehensible curses and slid out of the bed. Ess' arm trailed after him before retreating back into the warmth of the bed.

"Come back to bed," she muttered. He left a vacuum, a warm impression that was just a shadow of his real presence.

"Door," he mumbled. "Phone."

Ess squinted at his back. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before. Why hadn't he undressed? Come to that, why hadn't she undressed him? She had been up for it, she was sure. They'd been so cosy coming home. What was wrong with him? Was he going off her? As she curled into a ball she felt the unexpected resistance of the covers against her legs. She ran a hand over her chest and her fingers encountered buttons. A blouse? And slacks too. Why wasn't she undressed? Wait, there was something. A fight? No, no, they were fine. Everything was good with them. They were a wonderful couple. He'd said so. Not Shades, but someone else. Him. He'd said they should make the most of each other. Something else. A car. Yes, a car, that was it. A car taking Shades away. But he was back now, and there was something else. Paris! They were going to Paris for a few days. Not today, though. No, today was a lie-in day. A lazy day. A curling up into Shades day, when he came back.

The phone stopped, along with the doorbell.

"Shades?" she murmured. He'd better come back to bed. She hugged his missing body. Better be soon, or she'd be asleep again. He'd better wake her. She didn't want to fall asleep alone, she wanted to fall asleep nestled up against him.

Somewhere in a different world someone said something.

"Shades?" she said, in a voice that seemed to belong to someone else a long way away.

The duvet disappeared in an instant and hands grabbed her by the shoulders, whipping her into a sitting position and shaking her violently.

"Go 'way," she said, screwing her eyes shut. "Sleep. Shades. Cuddles."

The slap across her face woke her. She snapped her eyes open in shock. Dorothy's face filled her vision, a face full of anger.

"Wake up!" Dorothy shouted, far too loud, and she brought another stinging slap across Ess' face.

"Ow! Bitch!" Ess pushed her former mentor away and rubbed her face. "What the hell? What the actual hell?"

"You awake, girl? You want me to slap you again?"

"You want one back? What the hell?"

Dorothy stood back and stared at Ess, her mouth pinched tight and her eyes narrow. Finally she turned.

"Fluenced?"

Ess followed her gaze. An old woman, short and round, stood by the door, propping Shades up against the wall and forcing his eyelid open between finger and thumb. She turned and gave Ess a glance.

"Most likely. This one too. And bad, real bad. Not a casual contamination. A massive dose, especially if she's as wilful as you say."

Dorothy turned back to Ess.

"Detox, I said, didn't I? Detox, not overdose. You stupid girl. Why won't you ever listen?"

"Not a girl," said Ess. The duvet lay sprawled on the floor. How tempting would it be to show them the door and snuggle back down under it until everything sorted itself out?

"No, you're a daughter of Gaia. So bloody-well act like one, or as She's my witness I shall slap you again, and this time I won't hold back. You want I should try?" Dorothy pulled her arm back ready for the blow.

Ess leapt from the bed, making it on the third attempt and acutely aware it would have looked so much better if it had been on the first try.

"Try it," she snarled. "But I warn you, I've not had my tea yet, and you don't want to cross me before my tea."

Dorothy stared for a moment, dropped her hand and nodded. "Better." She turned to her companion. "Can you cure it?"

The old woman shrugged. "Cure it? Probably not. Tone it down? Sure, but in the end it's down to her. You sure she can do it?"

"This one?" Dorothy turned to Ess. "She's a stubborn and wilful one. Well, she's a sister, so that goes without saying. But yes, if she puts her mind to it. Well?"

"Well?" asked Ess, still trying to catch up.

"Yes, 'well'! By all the old goddesses, what have you got into? Fairies? Really? What on earth possessed you, girl?"

"You know?"

"No thanks to you, but yes, I worked it out in the end. The contamination, it was fairy dust, but this?" She waved a hand to encompass Ess and Shades. "How much of the stuff have you been exposed to?"

"None. Not much, anyway, but none, not recently."

Dorothy raised her eyebrows, like the traffic cop confronted by the drunk driver who insists he's been on lemonade all night. Then she sighed. "Okay, Flo, over to you. Detox one-oh-one. And start with her. Beefcake here can sleep it off till we're ready for him."