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Tallulah’s father had told her to wait and start classes in the Winter session, which was sound advice if ever was any. Besides, her return to Destiny City had happened after registration closed, so there was nothing she could do there to get a jump on things. Instead, she had to resign herself to feeling useless and trying to get her strength up, pushing herself with longer workouts each morning.

Today, she’d spent an hour in the DCU pool. pushing herself through lap after lap of front crawl and backstroke. She’d felt strong in the water, but then she’d always felt most comfortable there, and it was nice to relive her glory days in her head, of winning medals at swim meets, surrounded by cheering friends.

Now, though, as she crossed the sports complex lobby, she felt shaky. Her legs felt like rubber and her arms like jelly. Tallulah swayed in place for a moment. “Not good,” she said to herself, staggering towards a bench. She sat down and pressed her hands against her wet hair. The room spun a little bit. Maybe… maybe she should just sit for a while. Tallulah leaned over to hug her knees. Recovery was so much like learning to do the breaststroke: two steps forward, one step back.

Tallulah looked up when she noticed someone sit down beside her. Likely, it was because she was sitting with her head in her hands, a universal sign that something was probably wrong. It took her a moment to realize that she recognized the dark-haired boy because she’d seen him studying poolside almost every day. Normally, her instinct would be to insist that she was fine - but Tallulah felt a little too sick to pull that right now. “Um, not really,” she admitted.

Fighting the urge to look back down at her feet, she admitted, “I’ve been really sick. Lyme disease. The swimming is part of my rehab, but I think I might have pushed it too hard.” Her hope was that if she just sat here for a few minutes, she’d recover enough of her strength to go get a smoothie from the snack bar and take the bus back home. But an intervention was probably better. “You wouldn’t happen to have any water on you, would you? Or could you go get me some? It might help. I just feel sort of lightheaded and weak.”

Which was sort of business as usual lately, but recovering from Lyme disease probably implied that, she thought. “I hate to be creepy,” she added. “But I feel like I’ve seen you around here a lot. My name’s Tallulah.”

“Yeah, well,” Tallulah said, laughing through her teeth. Today had been supposed to be a rest day, but then she’d woken up and felt pumped up and look where that had gotten her. “I felt good this morning. I figured there wouldn’t be any harm. Looks like I was wrong.” Taking the water from Paul, she took a long, shaky gulp and then confessed, “I’m not used to being weak like this. I was always really athletic and fit before I got sick, so now I keep surprising myself with everything I can’t do instead of everything I can.”

She noticed the little catch in his voice when he mentioned his sister, the sudden switch of verbs, and she nodded. She understood how that worked. Sometimes she wondered if there was anyone left in Destiny City who didn’t, even civilians with no connection to the war, like she assumed Paul was. She’d gone through something similar with her cousin, Kat - although that might have been worse in a way, because there was still Leto walking around in her dark regalia and her stolen face. “Right, I understand,” she said, a little awkwardly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

She took another gulp of water, and thought she might be feeling a bit better. “I’m an only child,” she said. “What kind of internship? You’re a student at the university, I’m assuming. I mean, I am, but I’m on medical leave this semester. Pre-veterinary studies.”

“Oh. Right,” answered Tallulah, feeling stupid. Of course it was for sports medicine, if he was a medical student. She needed to get ahold of herself, get her thoughts in order and get her attention span under control. That should be easy, now that the lightheadedness was subsiding. No point in telling Paul that she was used to healing a lot faster than she had been lately - whatever poison she’d ingested had done a number on her senshi healing factor. For now, she was back to being who she’d been five years ago, before all this started: Tallulah Cowden, ordinary student of the ordinary.

So she tried to laugh at his joke about hospital bills, instead. “Yeah. Um. My parents have insurance, but I don’t think it’s that good.”

“It’s sort of embarrassing,” she continued, “But I finished the spring semester in 2012 and got sick over the summer, so at this point I’m a whole year and a half behind my class. Technically I’ll be starting my sophomore year during the winter session - I should probably review the freshman biology and anatomy fundamentals before then, I guess.” She forced a bit of a laugh, trying to be lighthearted about something that really clearly wasn’t. “If you wanted to help me, I’d really appreciate it. I mean, I’m kind of getting a really big second chance here. I don’t want to mess it up.”

Oops. Could Lyme disease bring you to death’s door? If Tallulah was going to be keeping regular company with a med student, she needed to brush up on her cover story.

She didn’t completely miss his look of surprise. Tallulah decided she’d need to sure up her story before any kind of study session could happen - while she knew it was clear she’d been sick, anyone splitting hairs over her actual diagnosis would know something odd was going on. “Well, I was doing in-patient physical therapy for a long time before I got back to town,” she explained. “And I don’t want to lose any momentum. I’m already a year and a half behind, and after this I’ll still have to do vet school and a residency - so I don’t have any time to waste.”

After finishing off the bottle of water with a few more gulps, Tallulah explained, “I kind of waffled back and forth between Political Science and Pre-vet my whole last year of high school, but then when I couldn’t really articulate what I would want to do with the poly sci degree, I decided pre-vet was the way to go. I mean, I’ve always loved science and I’ve always known I wanted to work with animals, so it just makes sense. And, um, okay.” It didn’t seem like it would hurt to go get breakfast.

“Hammerspace, maybe?” she suggested, getting slowly to her feet. “Like a cartoon character? Just let me go change and I’ll meet you back here.”

A few minutes later and towel-drying her hair, Tallulah waved to Paul. “Hey,” she called. “Thanks, again, for your help. I’m feeling a lot better.” Because it was true - her legs were hardly shaking at all. “What did you have in mind?”

“Sure, that would be great,” Tallulah agreed. She knew the cafe, although the last time she’d actually been there had been during her freshman year. She felt up to the walk, and she’d meant to go pick up some books anyway. After tucking her towel away, she shouldered her gym bag and pulled a hat over her still-damp hair. “And, I mean, if you want to buy me breakfast it’s not like I’m going to complain. My meal plan doesn’t start back up until I’m enrolled in classes again.”

So she followed him, doing her best to match his long strides and admiring the glossy ponytail that flapped against his back. Almost pass out, meet a cute med student… it was a surprisingly even-keeled morning, all things considered.

“I can call my dad,” she said, after giving the problem some thought. “He works downtown.” While it wouldn’t be convenient, she knew that Angus could be trusted to drop everything and come pick her up. “Best to not mention that I almost fainted to him, though. He’ll probably make me go to the hospital. Here we are - oh, they’ve redecorated.”

She followed Paul into the cafe queue and glanced at the signboard. “I finally shook my caffeine dependency,” she mentioned. “Only took a lengthy hospital stay. Hmm. I remember the muffins being sort of hit or miss. You’ve been here more recently than I have - what do you think?”

While they waited for their turn to order, Tallulah dug her phone out of the pocket of her coat and fired off a text to her father - Can you pick me up at DCU in an hour? “Herbal tea sounds good, yeah,” she nodded, putting her phone away. “And maybe… pecan and maple?” Either flavor sounded significantly more complex than the usual cheese or raspberry preserves she would have expected. “I’ll be adventurous, I guess,” she said with a shrug, and once Paul ordered she went to stand at the pickup counter.

Her phone buzzed. Tallulah checked it and then shot Paul a small smile. “He says he can get me,” she said, picking up her tea and her warmed pastry and scouted out a table. “So, have you got class soon?” she asked. “If you’ve got to go, it’s fine. It’s not like you’re totally abandoning me. You’ve already done way more than you had to and I’m seriously thankful for that.”

He was right - she could put a dropped off sentence and an implied tragedy together. Tallulah nodded, wondering how recently his sister had passed away. It couldn’t have been that long, if he was still mixing up his verb tenses. That spoke to a certain rawness of experience, but she didn’t suppose that it was any of her business. If Paul wanted her to know, then she’d let him get around to it in his own time - if their plan to study together actually panned out, there’d be more time than just today to talk.

Following his example, she added sugar to her tea and then took a bit of the danish. It was, well, certainly the most interesting danish she’d ever eaten. It was a bit sweet for her tastes but right now that was sort of the point. “Honestly, I usually prefer less sugary pastries,” she confessed, reaching for her tea. “Bagels. Croissants. But this is good, and like you said, I should get my blood sugar up.” That said, her mouth felt sort of uncomfortably sticky. She took a slow sip from her cup.

“This is good, too,” she added, clearing her throat. “And if you’re really not busy then I appreciate the company. I feel like I’ve been a total hermit for months, and it’s not all my fault but it’s also really nice to talk to someone who isn’t just there because they’re trying to stick a needle in my arm or make me take my medicine.” Which might have been an overly dramatic way of putting things, but it was also true. “Anyway,” Tallulah shrugged, “Changing the subject, I guess, do you play any sports? Since you’re studying sports medicine? Or how did you wind up there?”