Lilly stared at Muriel. "Wh-why'd you tell?" she asked, her lip trembling slightly. "It...it was a secret!"
Muriel nodded. "I know," she said. "And I'd still like to keep it between us, if we can. But your mom and dad have a right to know about something like this, kiddo. Your dad's right, this could be dangerous for you."
The squirrel-girl frowned and stamped her foot. "Nuh-uh! Jenny'll pr'tect me!"
Muriel smiled slightly at that, but this was a point deserving of clarification. She gently gripped Lilly's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "I'm sure she'll do everything she can to look out for you," she said. "But you have to remember, she might have a lot of other things to take care of, and she's still learning how to do all this stuff. So you can't go getting into dangerous situations and just expect her to look after you. You have to look after yourself first, okay?"
Lilly hesitated. She...she didn't like the idea that she might be a bother for Jenny...much less the idea that her friend might find herself with too much to handle. But...she didn't want to cause trouble, she just wanted to be with her friend...and she did feel a little encouraged that Muriel thought she could handle keeping herself safe, sorta. She nodded.
Muriel smiled. "Good girl." She looked over at Melanie, who was toying around with one of the coffee cups, looking it over in the same methodically curious way she did with her own arms. "Hey, put that down, Melanie, it's fragile," she said. The insect-girl hesitated, then complied, letting it drop gently back to the table. Arms hanging loosely at her sides, she walked over to Muriel, staring curiously at the plating covering the one half of her face. "Why is it incomplete?" she asked.
Muriel took a moment to process the question, then frowned slightly. The patchwork nature of her change was the one thing that she was a little bothered by in all this; it just looked...odd. But Melanie didn't mean anything by it, she just...didn't exactly have any kind of tact. "It's just how it changed," she said.
"Oh."
A moment later, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon came back into the room. Lilly rushed over to her father and clung to his leg, staring up at him with pleading eyes. "C-can me an' Jenny still be f-friends!?" she asked.
He sighed, smiling as he gently ruffled her hair. He felt a little odd for doing that...even he seemed to be reacting to his son's change, treating her like the age she actually was, now... "You can," he said, sitting back down. "Your mom and I talked about it, and we don't want you to have to lose your friends because of this."
Abigail nodded. "But Lilly, honey," she said, "we need you to promise us that you'll be careful, okay? We don't want you to get hurt, that's the only reason we even thought about this in the first place."
The squirrel-girl bit her lip and nodded. "M-Muriel said so too...I'll be careful, promise!"
Mr. Gordon exhaled slowly; his wife might be right that this was for the best, but it didn't do much to alleviate the tension he felt at the idea that his child might be on the sidelines in some kind of war. He looked curiously at the insect-girl; he still wasn't sure he really believed any of this, but...well, if some outside force was involved, it would explain why a normally competent operator would make such obviously drastic mistakes...
"So..." he said, "this...Melanie...if she no longer even has the component of this 'enemy' you refer to as part of her makeup, is she even...?" The whole idea of a part of her genetic makeup being removed and that causing spontaneous, real-time decay...it was ridiculous, but try as he might, he couldn't come up with any reason Muriel would lie to them, let alone with such a far-fetched story; nor did she seem the type.
Melanie looked up at him, and he was startled; it was the first time he'd seen emotion on her face. The girl looked like she was about to cry... "I...I am no l-longer one..." she said. "Dis...connected..."
Muriel held her; Melanie found herself pressing into the woman's embrace. She didn't understand why physical contact should help alleviate emotional distress, but then, she didn't really understand the emotional system at present anyway. And it did feel better this way...
Muriel stroked her hair, fingers gently rubbing at the base of her antennae. "It seems they abandoned her," she said. "Probably decided they had no more use for her once she decided not to destroy herself for them."
Mr. Gordon nodded. Part of him wondered what might happen if this "enemy" should ever come back for her, if she was really so separated from them as all that, but...as a father, he couldn't look at that face and not see a scared, hurt little girl...even if she was curiously lacking in some areas of her personality...
"Look," he said, trying to speak softly so as not to disturb the girl, "I'm still not sure I buy the story about her having been created at the lab, at least not until I can check things out myself and see whether the sample from Jenny is accounted for. But...if you do need...assistance...with her...I know even having one child must be a bit tough in your position..."
Muriel smirked. "I'm not asking for child-support," she said. "I just wanted to get this sorted out. I've got those folks I mentioned backing me, if it comes to it I'm sure they can help. But...thanks." She looked down at Melanie, to find she had fallen asleep. "I guess we'd better be going," she said. "She's been through a lot, she probably needs a rest."
