Jenny felt a sudden chill run up her spine for some reason. It vanished as quickly as it had come, but she still huddled up against Melanie for comfort. The strange insect-girl eyed her curiously, not really understanding the meaning of her actions, but didn't protest or seem uncomfortable. In fact, there was a part of her that found the contact...comforting, for some reason. The feeling...it reminded her of the uniformity of Before. Yet she and Jenny were distinct entities, and even their physical distinction was maintained in this contact. Was it possible for things to be distinct and yet unified? To be separate, but not...not alone?
Muriel turned to glance back at them from the driver's seat. "Okay, Melanie," she said, returning her attention to the road, "I just want to make sure you understand this. We're going to visit my parents; I want to ask them about helping to take care of you. Jenny's met them before, so she can tell you a bit about them."
Melanie frowned. "Parents?" she asked. Muriel nodded. "My mother and father."
That cleared things up a little. "Mother...does a thing with father to create life," she said. "Jenny said so. They created Muriel?"
The insect-woman cringed a bit at that, though the driver's seat hid that from the girls' view. What a way to put it...but then, as she kept reminding herself, Melanie was hardly more than a day old... "That's right," she said. "And if you're going to be part of our family now, that makes them your grandparents."
"Grandparents...are parents of parents?" Melanie still didn't quite understand how she could be Muriel's daughter when Muriel hadn't borne her (there wasn't even a father around...wasn't that necessary?) But she thought it might have something to do with the way Muriel had saved her life. Since she was now partly Muriel...was that essentially the same thing?
Muriel nodded. "That's right. They'll be very glad to meet you, but it's going to take a while for me to explain about you to them. Jenny can help you find something to do in the meantime."
"Yeah!" Jenny said, perking up again. "They've got such a neat house, an' they've got a little dollhouse and a cool old gun an' lots of neat stuff!"
"Oh." Melanie didn't know what any of that meant; she could ask for clarification, but if she was going to find out soon anyway, perhaps she could wait? ...that was another curious thought. Shouldn't she obtain the necessary information as fast as possible? But there was a feeling she got thinking about the possibility of waiting...a kind of tingling, a rush of adrenaline but not of fear...anticipation. She felt as though it would be more satisfying to save the revelation for the time when she could directly experience it...all these feelings were so strange!
Muriel sighed as she turned her attention back to the trip. So many things she'd have to explain...what could she say? "Mom, Dad, my daughter is a magical soldier battling enemies from another dimension, this is a former arch-enemy of hers who's going to be her new sister, I'm wondering if you could watch her while I'm at work because you have more understanding of what a former combatant might be going through than ordinary daycare providers, and also she's only just beginning to acclimate to human social norms?" It sounded crazy in her head, but...well, she'd managed to explain it to the Gordons coherently, hadn't she? And she knew her parents weren't just going to write her off completely if she said something a little weird, not without giving her words some thought...she just hoped that...that they would understand that she wasn't putting Jenny through this on a whim, that it had to be this way...
